Fort Lauderdale, last week of March
We had a family from Indianapolis visit and take a ride out to the ocean. We caught them cruising by us on the Jungle Queen one afternoon.
The ocean was a little choppy but everyone had a great time.
On our way out, we cruised by this 200+ foot schooner. Pretty neat old boat! We stopped by later, via land, and checked it out. There was a private party going on, with ladies in cocktail dresses and guys in tuxes. What a fun place for a party, eh!
The yacht that was supposed to be at our dock finally returned on Wednesday. The crews were hard at work, finishing up the interior. We managed to squeeze in so we could stay a little longer, but kinda felt like we were sticking out in the river, so we knew we had to go soon. When complete, this yacht will be loaded on a barge and shipped to Europe by the guy who lives in the house, Mike, from Sweden. We became friends with him and had a lot of dinners on his patio.
We (finally!!) left the New River on Friday morning, before dawn. They lock down the drawbridges in downtown Ft. Lauderdale for rush hour, so we had to get through before 7:30 AM or wait until after 9:00.
This beauty was sitting by the 17th street bridge. It's a brand new schooner. Pretty cool. Can't even imagine what it cost to build!
We found a new job for Bobby when he returns from the desert. This little thing was parked on a barge, right by the big cruise ship docks in Miami harbor.
So the sea was a little rough and the wind was coming out of the south, so it would be right on our nose. We decided to stay in the intracoastal and motored into Biscayne Bay.
We had already checked out the charts and had decided to stop at Angelfish Creek for the night, about 8 or 9 hours away. That is one of the few routes through the Keys from the Bay into the Atlantic where there are no bridges. We were hoping the wind was going to cooperate and were planning to head outside for the rest of our trip south.
It was a very uneventful trip. We anchored in a little creek in the middle of some mangroves, about 8 foot of water. There were couple of little keys around us without names, but basically we were at the northernmost tip of Key Largo. It's a really pretty little spot to spend the night! We will definitely come back here.
Not a single boat went by all night. (I sure don't miss Ft Lauderdale!) The mosquitos got a little thick late in the night, but even though we had the windows wide open, they didn't seem to come down into the boat. You couldn't stay out on deck for long though!
Finally got to jump off the boat and swim!!! It felt great! The current was really strong since tide was going out.
Pulled up the anchor and headed out to Hawk's Channel, the passageway south between the Keys and the reefs. Pretty amazing that you can be 2 miles off shore and only be in 10 feet of water! We had decided to stop in Key Largo for the night and pulled in to Largo Sound about 3 PM. Another beautiful little spot to spend the night. It's part of John Pennekamp State Park. There's a nice marina and beach, but that's about all that's around. Once again, we found ourselves in less than 10 feet of water in this huge lake! Crystal clear, too.
So, now it's Sunday morning. We're going to take a dingy ride up to the shore and either walk or maybe rent some bikes at the park and take off to check out 'downtown' Key Largo. The wind is supposed to shift tonight/tomorrow and we'd really like to put the sails up on the way down, so we're heading out early tomorrow for Marathon.