miami - marine stadium

Our slog down the ICW to Fort Lauderdale was long and for those of you that have not done it before, there are lots (23 to be exact!) bridges from Lake Worth to Lauderdale!  We did well and only had to wait for 2 openings.  Waiting means going around in circles fighting big boat wakes for 30 minutes and is not fun to say the least.  Nine and half  hours later we completed the 55 mile trip to Lauderdale (for you non boaters, remember we only travel at 5-7 miles an hour!).


After watching a beautiful sunrise on the beach it was time to move on to boat chores.  Today we needed to transfer fuel into the primary tanks, get fresh water and of course get a pump out (dump our nasty waste - if you need to know more, google "marine holding tanks").

To get to the pump out dock I simply needed to back out of our slip 50' to the  'T' head of another dock (note here, this 'other' dock is cement & one dock over there was a 170', $28 million boat).  All was going well, fighting the tide and then it happened, we got hit on our beam (side) with a gust of wind... let's just say Mary got very up close to a HUGE, shiny, stainless steel anchor on another boat as she fended off our boat.  Did I say the anchor was large.... at the time it looked like the size of a VW micro bus!  Disaster was avoided.  To add insult to injury, the pump did not work and now the winds had picked up too much (we saw 27 knots)  to sail off shore, meaning more bridges on our way south.

Tonight we're enjoying a view of the city lights of Miami.  Tomorrow we're planning on moving to No Name Harbor to get in place for a possible hop to Bimini on Tuesday.

CHeeRS!
m & d

Sunrise at Fort Lauderdale.

One of 23 yesterday and hey look, another bridge is in sight!