25. To Fort Lauderdale and Miami

We had planned to leave Vero Beach bright and early but we got up to a dense fog so we had to wait until after 9:00 to get going. Viking Angel left with us. We filled up at Port Petroleum which was over 50 cents cheaper than at all marinas in the area. Below is a picture of the Vero Beach Marina as we left if just as the fog was lifting.

We anchored at Peck Lake where, during the night, our anchor dragged. We were up for a couple of hours at night so we were tired the next day when we made it to Lake Worth. This section of the ICW can be called Millionaire’s Row.

Each house was unique and luxurious. Just when we thought we saw the most lavish, we would pass yet another opulent one. Many of the homes had a huge cruiser as well as a smaller boat to get to and fro. It seems that there are many, many wealthy folks in Florida.

We had thought that this section of the ICW had a lot of bridges but the trip between Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale was literally one bridge after another. We understood why many sailors would sail on the Atlantic for this leg of the trip rather than wait around for one bridge after another.

Viking Angel waiting for a bridge to open.

Some bridges open on the hour and half hour; others a quarter to and quarter past the hour and still others opened on demand. We were underway by 7:30 in the morning but it was close to 6:00 when we dropped anchor in Middle River, Fort Lauderdale, a wonderful spot surrounded by luxurious homes and mega cruisers. We got together with Viking Angel for a great pasta dinner.

Here we are anchored in Middle River.

Fort Lauderdale is a phenomenal mecca for sailors. In the next few days we visited West Marine several times, went to Sailorman a huge storehouse of sailing equipment and gear, both new and used, went to Boater’s World, Boat Inc., an electrical store, Bass Pro Shop, a Divers Shop and I’m sure some more that I have forgotten. We also topped up our groceries. We were ready to go! We ended renting an economy car from Enterprise for $26.00/24 hours with Morris and
We had planned to leave early bright and early but we got up to a dense fog so we had to wait until after 9:00 to get going. Viking Angel left with us. Elizabeth and the four of us ran around trying to get everything that we needed. Roman finally got the female end connector he had been looking for since Vero Beach. Below Morris and Roman check out a Perkins engine, almost the same model as ours.

There is always something that does not go as planned. Roman was looking at the antennae we have for WIFI and placed it on the bimini cover and watched in horror as it rolled over and into the water. He said he almost cried. He was going to jump in after it right away but he was fully dressed with his wallet, car keys etc. in his pockets and by the time he got all that out of his pockets, the antenna was long gone in the dark murky water. There is always a silver lining when things go wrong. Morris is a diver and had his gear on board and went down and not only got the antennae but also checked both his and our anodes. The salt water is very hard on them and it is VERY advisable to have several spares with you. In fact we have heard that not only is everything more expensive in the Bahamas, more often than not, the part you need is not available and has to be shipped in from the States so we have stocked up on oil filters and spare parts.

We have been listening to Chris Parker on our SSB Radio and he confirmed that there would be a window this Wed. on Jan. 29 to get across. After some deliberation we decided to on to Miami and cross from there taking advantage of the Gulf Stream which would be pushing us north.

So on Wednesday we sailed to Miami and stayed right opposite South Beach, just east of the Miami Yacht Club. Roman and I went by dinghy into South Beach and walked along the main drag, did our laundry, got WIFI at the laundry and talked to everyone at home that we could reach.
Tomorrow we would cross!