Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Biscayne Bay
Well, I should have written this back when everything was happening, but I didn’t. Partly, I was ‘enjoying the moment’, but mostly, I was overwhelmed with everything and just didn’t have the figurative or literal bandwidth to blog.
Here’s the gist:
Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Biscayne Bay
We picked the boat up in the “Citrus Isles” of downtown Fort Lauderdale. I showed up several weeks before Grete and the kids and spent every day cleaning and repairing small things on the boat. Also during that time, I did a few days under sail and at anchor with Tony Wall of the Biscayne Bay Sailing Academy. I got my ASA 103/104 certification and generally was able to get some baseline level of confidence in handling our huge (to me, anyway), new (to me, anyway) boat.
When Grete and the kids showed up, we loaded everything onto the boat and moved to Lake Sylvia (still in the heart of Fort Lauderdale. We spent a few nights at anchor and learned a few things: 1) Not having gauges on the holding tanks for the heads is a bit frightening, 2) No solar and a small battery bank will not work for us, and 3) No shade topside won’t cut it in south Florida. I had already gotten the shade solution started with a local canvas shop, but it wasn’t done yet. The other two things will need to be fixed before we take off for the long trip.
After just under a week in Lake Sylvia we moved to Las Olas Marina (now closed) where we spent the next few weeks. Las Olas was close to A1A and the beaches of Fort Lauderdale and also to some amenities, so it was a very comfortable stay. We got the cockpit shade all set and started heading south to the keys.
First, we stopped in Stadium Marina across from Miami and spent the next couple of days in Biscayne Bay. A bit loud with the party-goers from Miami, but beautiful views of the city and decent food right there in the anchorage.
