April 18, 2009: Lake Sylvia, FL

Twenty knot winds from the east have discouraged us from leaving for the Bahamas today. This morning we took our dinghy back to the city marina to visit the beach again. We saw the bascule bridge with its huge swordfish mural open for a tall boat. It was a short walk to the beach from the marina and struck up a conversation with another couple on the way to the beach who had also done the loop. It was fun to share a few stories. They were very familiar with the trip to the Bahamas and gave us confidence about the trip.

Stretching out our towels on the beach, we were entertained watching the wind surfers with their high flying kites powering their boards. The kite is controlled by a bar held by the surfer, and at times pulls them entirely out of the water. They surf at high speed, and the guys we saw seemed very good at it. The beach was packed with lots of swimmers in the water, even though the high winds made the surf really rough today. We took a walk along the soft sand and saw the freighter traffic coming and going from Port Everglades. We then had a fresh hand tossed pizza at a restaurant across the street from the beautiful beach before returning to the dinghy.

On Saturday night, the lake filled up with weekend partiers. On one side of us there were 17 sailboats rafted together and on the other there were 7 cabin cruisers with families and kids. They were singing “All Night Long” late into the night Saturday night... and we hoped that they didn’t mean that for real.

April 17, 2009: Lake Sylvia, Fl

We are now moving the boat closer to the Atlantic to be ready for our crossing to the Bahamas; still waiting for great weather. We moved the boat to where we could refuel from a tanker truck that Tom had arranged. It was just across the river from the Stranahan museum which is the oldest house in Fort Lauderdale. Built as a trading post for settlers and the Seminole Indians in 1901, it quickly evolved into the post office, community center and town hall as Frank Stanahan became Fort Lauderdale's first postmaster, a banker and businessman. He married another pioneer, Ivy Julia Cromartie, the area's first school teacher and the house has been preserved as a museum.

We cruised down the beautiful water streets along the villas and pools and palm trees. Fort Lauderdale is home to some amazing yatchs - long sleek multistory cruisers everywhere you look.

We decided to anchor out until we are ready to leave for the Bahamas in a lake Tom had found – Lake Sylvia. It was an experience in and of itself. There were lots of boats anchored out, and in the afternoon, there were boats touring through and some pulling kids on rubber floats. We watched the sun set behind the palm trees in the green yards on the shore.

April 15-16, 2009: Fort Lauderdale, FL

So two weeks later we are back in Florida. Florida is beautiful, but it was so nice to be home for the North Carolina Spring. Our yard was filled with bouquets of dazzling white and fuschia azaleas. Dogwoods trees with their white and pink petals were everywhere. Our Easter included dear Christian and family traditions as well as a few days at Emerald Isle, NC. On Wednesday, we flew back to Florida to continue the adventure. Our immediate need included a bike ride down the River Walk to purchase 2 weeks worth of groceries and schlep them back to the boat. You need our galley full to head to the Bahamas which is our next destination.

We are now waiting for a southerly wind to give us a calm passage across the Gulf Stream. On Thursday we took our bikes across the Intercoastal waterway to the barrier island. Fort Lauderdale has a truly beautiful beach edged with a brick boardwalk, palm trees and an undulating snow white seat border. The view included lots of coral sand, brightly colored beach umbrellas and the green ocean. Off shore, there were four freighters in sight, with one navigating into Port Everglades just south of us. There were swimmers in the water, parasailers in the sky and even kids on a surf board paddling with an oar in the calm seas.

We had our picnic of peanut and jelly sandwiches and lemonade on our beach towels on the sand and then went for a swim. Diamond ribbons of light dance in the crystal clear water as we splash into the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is covered with folks playing and enjoying the bright sunshine and 85 degree weather.

Fort Lauderdale is the American Venice with its rivers, Intercoastal water way and various man made canals. The New River is like a highway full of water taxis, tour boats and cruisers along with an occasional kayak.

Later we rode our bikes across the bridge to a river front restaurant for dinner for some grilled mahi mahi and live guitar playing. On the way we passed the Fort Lauderdale Art museum with its large fountain. The streams of water flashing with colored lights were synchronized with music playing from somewhere. We stopped to see it on the way to dinner and the way home when the effect in the darkness was really dramatic and entrancing to see the water dancing so.

April 1, 2009: Miami to Fort Lauderdale, Fl

Well it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, but we woke this morning to discover that our anchor was dragging and that we were almost to the edge of someone’s dock. It was an abrupt “good morning”, but after we safely moved the boat to anchor again, we had breakfast overlooking North Miami Beach with the palm trees and the sky scrapers on one side and the memorial to Henry Flagler on the other. The Flagler Monument was a white tower similar to the Washington monument and was surrounded by tall marble figures.

We saw the Miami Herald Building on the edge of the water way with its gigantic red, white and blue Pepsi logo banner covering one end of the building. Our first bridge for today was the beautiful old white Venetian Bridge which was the first bridge built to link Miami to Miami beach – it was too low to go under so we had to wait for the 10 AM opening to really get underway. This morning we meandered up the Intercoastal waterway at slow speeds under I195 headed north. There were 12 bridges along the way connecting the mainland to the barrier islands and the Florida beaches. It was like a highway passing other boats and a variety of shore side scenery. We went under the bridge over to Sunny Isles beach and later also the Hallandale Beach bridges. The barrier islands were occasionally thin enough that we could see from the boat in the ICW though a cross street all the way to the blue ocean beyond.

The bridges had their own personalities like the bridge to Hollywood Beach with its cream colored balcony railing and octagonal domed towers. Along the way there was an interesting building pattern where there were beautiful two storied mansions built on the water way, with high rise resorts on the beach behind them. It was a beautiful cruise along the way. At one point, the sand bars had shifted out into the ICW, and new floating buoys had been set out along the edge of the shallow water as a warning.

While the population was very dense along the way with no undeveloped land between towns, we did pass an occasional park, manatee zone or golf course. We saw boats of all sizes ranging from a tiny kayak to luxury motor yachts over a 100 feet to huge cruise ships loading passengers for the Caribbean. Almost to Fort Lauderdale there was Port Everglades where the Stanahan River cuts to the ocean and the cruise ships come into harbor. It was also a commercial port where they were loading huge containers onto ocean going freighters. It was there we saw the amazing “no wake” sign. While we have seen thousands of no wake signs along the way, this one threatened up to 6 years imprisonment for breaking the speed limit – they were pretty serious!

Nearing Fort Lauderdale, we saw immaculate water front gardens skirting ornate houses with reflecting pools and even a carillon tower. We saw several places with For Sale signs in the yard, but we were not sure who the buyers could be. We had a reservation at the New River Marina which required us to turn out of the ICW into the New River that wanders under pink bridges and up to the small old historic Fort Lauderdale. We discovered that this marina basically offers tie ups along the water side, so we are now docked at 100 North New River Drive. We are docked near the oldest bascule bridge in the state of Florida. The waterway by us is a constant throughway of tour boats and water taxis along with expensive cruisers on the way to the Allied Marine Yacht Facility for rework.

This afternoon we took our bikes to ride along the River Walk bricked trail and enjoyed the lush greenery along the way, including a yucca plant with an 8 foot tall yellow blossom. We found the historical marker for the New River Inn, built in 1905 at the crossing of the New River with the Overseas Railroad, one of the first buildings built in the area. We also discovered the Ft Lauderdale Science Museum with its three story gravity clock and acre sized grassy geometric circle. Tonight we returned to take in the 3D IMAX movie playing: Monsters versus Aliens.

March 31, 2009: Boca Chita to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

This morning we walked around the tiny 32 acre key named Boca Chita. The island was once a pineapple farm, but was purchased in 1937 by Mark Honeywell, the founder of Honeywell Heating Controls. Honeywell had all the coral stone structures built on the island which included the 65 foot lighthouse and a small peaked roof chapel. It is said that Honeywell had the lighthouse built to help his boat captain find the mouth of the boat basin, but the first time it was lit the Coast Guard ordered it to be turned off because it was not charted as an aid to navigation in the area. In 1945 this island which is accessible only by boat became part of the Biscayne Bay National Park. Most of the vegetation on the island was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 but the few old trees were severely “leaning”.

Today we moved on across Biscayne Bay to No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. The harbor was totally sheltered and gave easy access to docking and a little café. This is part of the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, a beautiful park just 15 miles from Miami and filled with biking trails and white sandy beaches. We took our bikes after lunch for a ride down the water front and we visited the 95 foot Cape Florida Lighthouse which was built in 1825. It was built to help protect shipping from the treacherous reefs of the Florida waters and is the oldest standing structure in Miami Dade County. The walls are about 20 inches thick, and they had a example of the brick lacing pattern on display by the long palm lined entrance walk. The island served as a secret meeting place for runaway slaves looking for safe passage to the British Bahamas. Cape Florida was designated in 2004 as a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site.

I loved the long weathered gray wooden boardwalk past the sea grape trees and sea oats down to the hot sand. It was a nice afternoon in the sun on the narrow beach. A sting ray leaped out of the crystal water very near where we were sitting; something we had never seen before. We said hello to a man walking by wearing an ACC tee shirt, and he stopped and had a long conversation with Tom about NCAA basketball. There was a hazy view of Miami across the water in the distance and the park information said this is a beach where loggerhead sea turtles lay their eggs, just like Emerald Isle, NC.

After a sweet afternoon, we cast off to find our way to Miami into the Intercoastal water way. We passed under Rickenbacker Bridge that connects the mainland to Key Biscayne and past the Government cut which is the deep channel that the cruise liners use to come into the port from the Atlantic. The Miami Port is a busy place full of massive loading docks with several freighters and acres of train car containers. After passing under MacArthur Bridge, we found an anchorage near Hibiscus Island, a small island filled with elegant mansions just off Miami Beach where we watched a beautiful sunset over the sky scrapers in the distance.