Leaving the dock in N. Palm Beach, AQUILA in background -- another Tayana 37
Christmas Key Biscayne-style
Dec. 27 Cell phones are wonderful and are worth every penny of that monthly bill as we travel. We may not be as connected when we get to the Bahamas so we are appreciating our contacts we can make now. For those of you we have been in touch with lately, we want to reiterate how nice it has been to hear your voices. Hopefully we’ll get to some additional calls this next week. We also use our phones to call ahead to marinas and other resources in new places. We are still feeling our way around -- almost like a blind person -- in all these new places, so extra contact information from shore side locations in helpful.
In Pompano Beach this week we met up with an old friend of mine from Boston University. Digna, who now works at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, drove with her sister to a bridge in Pompano Beach that neither of us was familiar with and by using our phones we got connected and then took our dinghy about ¼ mile to where RISING TIDE was anchored. Digna did play around with me for a bit at the bridge, telling me she could see me in the channel but not telling me exactly which bank she was on or which side of the bridge. She had me going in circles! We had a great visit.
Dec. 28 After spending one night on anchor in a channel on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale we then spent two nights in Lake Sylvia (my sister’s family, the Sylvias in Rochester, should go there) in a more central Fort Lauderdale location. We took other channels to get to restaurants and grocery stores by boat. We did some walking too, but the trips down channels and under low bridges was different. Ken collected some trash in one channel since we knew there was a dumpster at the end we could put it in. We were told later that there is a regular cleaning schedule for the city waters and a special boat with a paddle-wheel-type arrangement to collect debris.
The coconuts fall in the channels and fool us as they look like balls or floating trap buoys. We had fun watching large iguanas that hang out on many of the docks and lawns close to the channels. Some are green and some are orange or grey. There were different sizes but some were more than 2 feet long. There are also parrots here -- noisy especially when many of them are in the same tree.
Fort Lauderdale is not just a place for wildlife; we saw so many private yachts, of the size that they would need crew, and also many businesses that cater to private yachts, selling uniforms, food, equipment, arranging employment, etc. A monthly newspaper with about 60 pages reports on news for captains and crews.
Dec. 30 We are enjoying wonderful weather, warmer than usual for this time of year, and almost no rain. Although we haven’t been to any beaches yet or been swimming, we are loving it. We left Lake Sylvia and sailed outside in the ocean to Miami, in pretty decent wind and very little chop. It took most of the day and we ended up in an area called Marine Stadium, facing the Miami skyline. This area has been used for waterskiing shows; there is a large grandstand and a long oval-shaped stadium. Jet skis and waterskiers still use the outside perimeter leaving plenty of room for anchoring in the middle. SWAN with Barry and Susan are here too and for New Year’s Eve we enjoyed dinner together and then watched fireworks at midnight over Miami!
The water is a turquoise color here and I went swimming to check the hull of RISING TIDE (we hit something coming in to Miami in the entrance channel). The hull looked OK and I enjoyed the clear, warm water. We also picked up mail here, at Key Biscayne, a bike-ride away over a bridge.
Our next few days will be spent in Hurricane Harbor, Key Biscayne. There are two large parks to explore and it is a good spot for getting more information about the Bahamas trip since we are now less than 50 miles from Bimini or Cat Cay.
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