Fort Lauderdale to Riviera Beach City Marina

(Friday Feb 25 - Dist: 51.7 mi; Avg Speed: 6.8 mph; TTT: 8:15 hrs)

We were actually sad to leave Fort Lauderdale after our week stay there.   We left behind beautiful and unique yachts and mega-yachts and the mansions which lined the canals.  As you can tell there is no shortage of photo opportunities and trust me the photos that were
taken are only a fraction of what we saw....and what we saw was only a fraction of what is there.

The trip to Riviera Beach near West Palm was slow; numerous Manatee zones, no wake zones and bridges.  Even though we were able to clear 75% of the bridges, we still had to have 6-7 opened for us.  Most of the bridges opened on a schedule so that once you cleared a bridge, the timing was such that the others would be near ready to open when you arrived. 
As we neared West Palm on Lake Worth we again saw numerous condo buildings and a marina full of yachts.  Riviera Beach City Marina on the other hand was a rather dumpy looking working marina with a number of fishing charters, dive boats, excursion boats and tugs.  The redeeming factors were its reasonable price, good Tiki bar and restaurant and proximity to the Lake Worth Inlet which would get us to the ocean.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, I discovered that we did not take any photos. 

We ended up stating here for four days and completed our provisioning for the trip to the Bahamas.  The highlight of our stay was visiting with Rick and Lynne, friends from our Ottawa days.

I will add a few more photos from the day's trip along the ICW.

 

Experiencing High Class Life in Ft. Lauderdale

Feb 18 to Feb 25, 2011

This is the New River in Fort Lauderdale where we stayed for almost a week.

It is a fast moving river especially during a receding tide.  Guess when Finally and Q's End arrived at the marina....4.5 knot current and we had to back into our slips.  We stayed at Cooley's Landing, a city run marina, that is in a perfect spot for experiencing Fort Lauderdale.  We backed onto a park and were right on the Riverwalk which allowed one to walk along the river to the numerous bars and restaurants in the area.

Right next door was the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.  It had beautiful gardens and seating areas and was quite pleasant to just stroll along.

It was very special to just sit on the boat and watch the mega yachts go by. 

Most go under their own power but quite a few need tow boats in front and back to help them maneouver through the tight and narrow bends in the river.  Quite a way up the south fork of the river is a mega yacht boat yard.  Ron you would love this place; the toys are much, much bigger.  The yard has a 300 ton travel lift.

 



Key Biscayne to Fort Lauderdale

(Friday Feb. 18 - Dist: 33.9 mi; Avg Speed:7.7 mph; TTT: 4:30 hrs)

This is the City of Miami skyline and waterfront.  We never did go into the city and our only regret is that we did not get to South Beach.  We will just have to save that for another trip.

While waiting for a bridge near the downtown, Linda and I, with the encouragement of our travelling partners on Finally, decided to have a closer look at the cruise ships which were docked along Government Cut.  Well the Coast Guard took exception to that and chased us out.  Evidently when cruise ships are docked, pleasure craft are forbidden
from entering the area.  Linda did manage to get a couple of photos on our way back to the ICW.

Here is a photo of our travelling companions on "Finally", Richard and Jill from Georgia.

Once past Miami we started seeing lots of condos and canals along both sides of the ICW but particularly on the ocean side.  As we neared Fort Lauderdale we started coming across more private homes or shall I say mansions.  All in all this was the neatest part thus far of all of our travels on the ICW.










I'll just post a few more photos and call it a day.

 

Our journey this day also took us through the port of Port Everglades.  It is a working port for both cargo and cruise ships.  Notice in the one photo where yachts are loaded on a bigger ship likely headed across the ocean.  (Aside:  Maybe our next adventure should be in Europe??)

 I am going to stop here as the update is getting rather large.  I'll create another entry for Fort Lauderdale itself.

Key Largo to Key Biscayne

(Thursday Feb. 17 - Dist: 44.6 mi; Avg Speed: 13.7 mph; TTT: 4:00 hrs.)

Biscayne Bay is a rather large body of water so we were able to go up on plane and make some good time.  In one part of the Bay well out from shore there are a number of houses on stilts.  I cannot see living there but evidently people do.  Our travelling partners on Finally said that the number of houses is drastically reduced from what was there 5 years ago.  I am sure that the weather, especially a storm or two, took care of the other places.

We spent the night at Crandon's Marina, a Dade County Municipal Marina, located at the north end of Key Biscayne.  It had new floating docks but was in the middle of nowhere.  We ended up staying on board and having a pleasant relaxing evening. 

We had planned on staying at the South Beach Marina in Miami for 3 nights at $2.00 per foot BUT....the Miami International Boat Show was on and the dockage rates were increased dramatically to $8.00 per foot with a 50 foot minimum length charge and a minimum stay of 5 nights.  $400 per night - no way.  Thus Crandon's in the middle of nowhere.

The Healing Begins

It has been a long, hard struggle but I think that I am finally starting to shake the last of that terrible disease that has affected my blog and the updates about our trip.  I have learned that I had "Keys" disease.  It is a terrible affliction that over powers most people who stay too long in the Florida Keys.  It affects the mind mostly, but also the body.  With "Keys" disease, one chooses fun over work.  Little things like strolling along the beach, taking dinghy rides, visiting other boaters and attending Happy Hours is more important than washing the boat or keeping a blog current.  There just was not enough time and no rainy days.  Well it has taken 2 weeks but I am starting to feel better.  I will start reporting on the journey since we left Marathon and with any luck will go back and update the entry for the time in Marathon at a later date.

Marathon to Key Largo

(Wed. Feb. 16 - Dist: 64.5 mi;  Avg Speed: 9.6 mph; TTT: 7:00 hrs)

The next leg of our adventure is taking us up to Riviera Beach where we will meet up with a number of other boats that will be going to the Bahamas with us.  We left Boot Key Harbor via Sisters Creek with 2 other boats but before even reaching the Atlantic Ocean one of the boats had to return to port because of an engine problem.  The boat, 'Finally' from Jekyll Island, and Q's End continued along the Hawk Channel inside the Florida Reefs to Islamorada where we crossed back into Florida Bay so that we could catch the IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW) once again.  Everything was fine until we were north of Upper Matecumbe Island and south of the Everglades National Park.  We got into some real, REAL skinny water.  For about 5 miles we kicked up silt because the water was so shallow, less than 5 feet.  We knew that we were at low tide but what we did not know was that this day the tide had reached the lowest that it had been in the past 17 years.  It was almost a foot lower than what the charts indicated. 

We did make it through and after a very tiring journey reached Key Largo where we stayed at Glibert's Resort.  It was a welcome sight; right on the ICW and a Tiki Bar and Restaurant right at our boat side.  The food was excellent.