We enjoyed a beautiful run from Lake Worth to Ft.Lauderdale. We started off after an extra day at anchor in Lake Worth to wait out the storm front to pass. After the high winds of the previous day, we enjoyed a peaceful time at anchor this second night. When we headed out Tuesday morning the skies were very overcast and a cool wind was directly on our bow. We were wearing jackets most of the day as we observed local boaters in shorts and bathing suits. It looked like what you were wearing all depended on wind direction and travel direction. We passed through quite a few bridges that had restricted opening schedules. They opened either on the hour and half hour or on the quarter and three quarter hour. As you might imagine, we waited for several of these to open, sometimes 10 to 25 minutes. Wayne had anticipated this from the many publications that he had studied and he had set our predicted distance of daily travel downward to compensate.
Our travel throughout the day on Tuesday took us through even more extravagent homes than we described earlier, huge estates really. The biggest homes on our own Lake Norman pale in comparison to those along this stretch of the ICW. When we thought we had seen the most beautiful home of all, we found another to preempt the crown. If the homes weren't built from scratch, then older homes had been demolished only to be replaced with a palace. It was amazing to see flat roofed 1960s homes sitting next to 3 story mansions which had replaced two or more of 1960s versions.
THE BOATS!! We do not have words to describe the boats that we saw! Think multiple millions here! Our boat would not be allowed in the same marina as these giants. Boats $$$$$$ Homes $$$$$. This area has the $$$$$.
The day gradually warmed as it went on and our travel slowed for more marinas and homes "NO WAKE" and "MANATEE NO WAKE" areas. And we did see manatees on a regular basis. We saw their backs rise from the river and sometimes their tails. At 4:30 Tuesday we were rewarded for the slow travel with the anchorage that we had decided on. We anchored in Lk. Sylvia, just 1/2 mile north of the Ft. Lauderdale inlet, Port Everglades. The lake is about 1500 feet in diameter. The entry to the lake was discussed in "Skipper Bob's Anchorages on the ICW" and looked appealing to us for its location. What Bob left out was the sheer beauty and weather protection of this anchorage. Lake Sylvia is a pond among magnificent homes right in the heart of Ft. Lauderdale Beach. The anchorage was totally protected and the gentle breezes of the evening made for a wonderful dinner setting for us. We opened all of the windows and enjoyed the 70 degree weather. Until 2AM when the bottom fell out of the sky and a deluge fell upon us. I did not awaken before the the rain had drenched the front berth area. In all the commotion, Colleen did not wake up to my call for assistance so I just let her sleep and quickly dried up the water wherever it came in. (Isn't he a special husband? This from Colleen.)
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| Lake Sylvia |
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| A Lake Sylvia home and attached yacht. |
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| Cruise ship in Ft Lauderdale harbor - A TSA patrol boat keeps boats 500 feet away - and they have a machine gun on the bow! |
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| The Ft Lauderdale commercial channel headg south from the harbor entrance |
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| One of the Condo Canyons of Miami |
We entered Florida Bay about 11:30 and were finally in the Keys. We would travel the inside channel between the mainland and the Keys. Wayne had planned a very aggressive travel distance for this day so that we could get to Marathon in two days. To make our planned anchorage we needed to increase our speed to 17mph and 2000 rpms. We do not plan to check our mpg for this leg of the trip. We don't want to know how bad it is! We ran at this speed for one hour in one passage and 30 minute in another. By doubling our speed for 90 minutes, we cut our travel time to our anchorage by 90 minutes and were able to get to Tarpon Basin by 4:30. Tarpon Basin was our chosen anchorage because it would provide protection from the high winds that we had experienced all day. We would be able to pick the side of the basin that afforded the right protection. The basin did its job and afforded us the wind protection that we sought.
The protection was too great! We awakened the next morning with 30 foot visibility in the thickest fog that I ever experienced in my previous 50 years of living and boating in Florida. We waited 30 minutes and the fog lifted enough to see our frist channel marker 500 yards away. We headed out and within 20 minutes the fog settled on us and we could only see 30 feet again. We anchored out of the channel and waited another two hours and the fog began to lift.
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| 30 foot visibility! |
We sped up and slowed as the visibility permitted all morning until finally seeing open skies around 11AM. At this point we were 2 hours behind our planned schedule and would need to seek a nighttime anchorage. At 1 PM the fog settled over us again - how crazy - fog in the mkiddle of the day. When this fog bank lifted we decided to make up time and sped up at the sacrifice of fuel economy. We ran at 2000 to 2100 rpm and 17 to 18 mph and we reached Marathon about 3:30. (Colleen's comment - after weeks of traveling at 8-10 miles per hour, 18 MPH was really weird!) Our aim was to take a mooring ball within the Boot Key Harbor Marina managed by the City of Marathon.
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| 7 Mile Bridge - turn-in for Marathon from the bayside channel |
By the time that we contacted the marina, received our mooring assignment, Colleen had snared the mooring line and we were secure it was 4PM. We got the dinghy set up with its motor and safety gear by 4:30 and motored in to register. We also wanted to eat a meal ashore after 5 days without stepping on dry land. We walked about a mile to the first restaurant that we came to on our side of busy highway US1 and enjoyed an expensive, mediocre seafood dinner. We were not impressed. Then we walked a couple more blocks to Publix to get a Key lime pie and a few other items that we wanted. Cheetos for Wayne and Sweet Sixteen powdered doughnuts for Colleen have become our junk food of choice over the past two months. We wanted a lay of the land for future excursions also. When we returned to our dinghy it was dark and we had neglected to put our required navigation lights aboard. Thankfully the marine patrol was not around. I do vessel safety inspections for the US Power Squadron and would have been very embarassed to get a ticket for not having the proper required safety gear aboard. I will be correctly prepared in the future.
When we got to our boat the full moon was rising and the skies were crystal clear. What a beautiful sight. We sat on the front lounge seat on the flybridge and enjoyed the view. We opened the cabin windows and drank in the thick cool tropical breezes. Colleen went to bed before me.
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| Full moon over Marathon |
When I turned in, an unexpected rain started about 5 minutes later. I hopped out of bed and closed all openings. Again, I allowed Colleen to sleep. I owe her lots of trips to the bridge with food or snack in hand. Though this is nowhere near a payback for all the catering.
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| Our mooring field at Marathon |
Anyway, we are IN THE KEYS. Colleen did the laundry this morning and chatted up the locals to find a decent place to get our next restaurant meal here. I am merely the packhorse and dinghy driver. It should be noted here that Colleen can also start the 6hp dinghy motor and handle it with competence. I feel confident that she
Wayne
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