A USCG Welcome to Fort Lauderdale

On Sunday we went with my Aunt and Uncle Anita and Wilfred to their golf club for a delicious Sunday brunch in Palm Beach. It is always nice to visit with them and catch up with the long lost family gossip.

Aunt Anita, Uncle Wilfred, Wife(aka Mid-)Chris, cousin John, and his girlfriend, Ellen

Proof I was there too – sans feet.

Early Monday we left to head to Ft Lauderdale. We got about 1 1/2 hrs south of the Lake Worth port entrance (Palm Beach) and looked at our speed over ground (SOG). We were beating into SE winds and sitting in a strong north going current. The net was that we were making about 2.5kts southward. That would put us into Ft Lauderdale late in the night. After a discussion with the upper ranks, we decided to turn back and spend another day in Palm Beach.

Next day the winds were much more easterly and we had a great sail south. By staying close into shore in about 50-75 feet of water we could stay out of the 2-3.5kts north going current. There were 4 or 5 boats also sailing down the coast along with us. Most of them didn’t know they were in a race—but we won anyway. This is probably the fastest continuous sailing we’ve done on the Outbound. Lots of 8.5kts with some 9.5kts. Nice to see that we can get the boat perform.

As soon as we entered the Port Everglades (the port in Ft Lauderdale)  breakwater entrance, before we even had the sails down, the Coast Guard boat in the pic at the top came past us, checked the Seattle hailing port on the stern and promptly turned around and pulled up along side of us. Time for a ‘safety inspection boarding’ and anti-smuggling check. First the check to see if we had arms on board. The young Coasties were polite and went through the life jacket, flares and fire extinguisher checks. Fortunately for us, they didn’t check that the head (aka toilet) was wired shut to prevent pumping overboard.

We went under the 17st bridge and headed up the Intracoastal Waterway for a 1/2 mile to the junction with the New River. We took the New River right on up to the downtown Ft Lauderdale City Marina- literally downtown. (Good prices-$1.06/ft, lots of room, pretty decent deal for big city south Florida.) We’ll visit my Dad and sister while here. Plus, we  have another list of boat projects to finish up before we leave for the Bahamas: rebuild the boom vang, make the water maker make water… And Chris still has some work to finish up and send off before we lose our good internet, developing a training curriculum for a project in Zambia.

The New River is this relatively small winding river, about 110’ across, that runs along some beautiful backyards and into the center of Ft Lauderdale. Upstream are a number of boat yards that cater to super yachts.

Here’s a big one headed downstream using a boat on the bow and a boat tied to the stern to control it as it passes by us on the river – hopefully not playing bumper cards with the boats lining the river.
Paul