A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. High 64F. Winds W at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.
January 24, 2016
Coordinates 26.10416N, 80.11127W
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Mile 1062
Challenge of the day, leak in the fresh water system. We have three tanks each one is lasting a day and a half, not right.
We arrived safely in Fort Lauderdale on January 21st after dealing with 19 draw bridges over forty miles of the ICW. I haven’t talked about bridges for a long time for a couple of reasons, there weren’t many and after awhile what can one say about a bridge. A bridge opening is one thing but 19 bridge openings! Some of the bridges open at fifteen and forty five after the hour, on the hour, on the hour and half hour, some on demand and some on the 13th hour. I tried to get us through one bridge with lots of boats around, trying to slow down until the bridge opened, not backing into anyone, keeping the boat on course while the fast boats went by all while Rob was in the cabin making lunch. I called for reinforcement.
Just an aside we heard today that all the bridges and tunnels are closed in NYC because of the horrible weather. We passed under all the bridges in the East River on the way down, one of my favorite days of the trip. I am not sure why I am telling you this except that it is a very impressive trip down the East River looking up at all the bridges and all the buildings that represent so much to so many people. The bridges will be empty today
Back to our trip to Fort Lauderdale. Most everyone announces their boat name to the bridge tender for instance, “ 17th Street Bridge this is trawler Linda Jean requesting bridge opening”. I am not sure why we all had to announce our intentions but if we didn’t it certainly would be dull for me. There is social networking that happens while waiting for bridges. Of course you see the most of same boats for all 40 miles and in very close quarters. Think about roll call. When we didn’t hear a boat announce their boat name we wondered why. We would learn the voice with the. Lots of days we saw boats with a home port from Maine and when we did we hailed them as if they were old friends and they did the same, always nice to see someone from “home”. We have met retired Maine Guides, retired school teachers and many others, common folk living a dream.
Thursday we stayed on the boat all day because of high winds and down pour. Friday we went for an eight mile walk two miles of it because someone, not me, sent us in the wrong direction. We fought 30-40 mile an hour winds that gusted up to 50 in Fort Lauderdale, all in a days work. We had errands to do for the boat so found the “largest West Marine in the country”. I always wonder who decides that. I bought something for Fort Lauderdale weather, check it out.
Here is why I bought a new jacket
When I look at the big homes and the big boats I wonder how lonely it is to roam around in the massive room by themselves, maybe that is how I would feel if I had one of the homes or boats.
The flavor of Fort Lauderdale
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| You can leave your dinghy at this restaurant all day for $10.00 that can be traded in for food if you eat here. |
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| We took the dinghy from our boat down this canal to the restaurant. We passed a police officer and he motioned for us to slow down. |
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| I love this little boat |
Oh! I thought you'd bought a glass of wine to deal with the weather!
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ReplyDeleteOf course, the jacket was an after thought.
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