Day 101, Year 10: Lake Worth Inlet to Fort Lauderdale
Date: Monday, January 19, 2015
Weather: Beautiful Day, Wind NW 8-12, Turning N 10-20
Latitude: 26 06.221 N
Longitude: 080 06.703 W
Location: Anchored in Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Miles Traveled: 46.9 nautical miles
It took us 21 days, but we are finally here in Fort Lauderdale. And it feels great to be here. We motored out of the Lake Worth Inlet just as the sun came up this morning and we had a beautiful day on the water. After we exited the inlet and headed south, I started looking for the house in Palm Beach that JFK used as his winter White House. I looked it up on Google Maps last night and I think I got photos of the right house this morning. We enjoyed seeing Palm Beach from the ocean side, but after Palm Beach, the scenery along the shore was not as interesting. The wind was light as we started out, but it built as the day progressed. Unfortunately we didn’t get to sail. The wind was once again directly behind us and we didn’t have the time to just go with the wind. Mark and I tried this in the early afternoon, but with a current against us, we were afraid we wouldn’t make to the anchorage in Fort Lauderdale until after dark. So we pulled in the headsail and motor sailed on. It was a nice, calm ride so Mark was able to go out on deck and check for missing cotter pins, loose fittings, or anything that seems out of sort. He also makes sure things on deck are securely attached. He does this deck check every day when we are cruising unless the seas are just too rough. Today he found that the headsail halyard needed to be tightened, so he did that. My deck check alerted me to the fact that the stainless REALLY needs to be cleaned. Hopefully we’ll have more days like today while we are here at anchor and I can work on that project.
Our little attempt at sailing put us behind Sea Turtle, so Lee and Lynda entered Port Everglades before us and made it through the 3 pm 17th Street Bridge opening. We were just minutes behind, so we had to wait until the 3:30 opening. There is a lot of boat traffic here and lots and lots of mega-yachts lining the waterway. I think Fort Lauderdale could form its own Navy of mega-yachts. But we only had to travel about a mile to make our right-hand turn into Lake Sylvia. I wouldn’t really call this a lake. It is a small basin surrounded by beautiful homes on one side and more beautiful homes on canals leading out to the waterway on the other side. You enter the basin from the waterway near the huge Bahia Mar Yachting Center, follow Active Captain’s directions (spot on) for negotiating the narrow and shallow entry canal, and then weave your way carefully through the anchored boats to find a spot. There are lots of boats, but still room for more. The basin is Fort Lauderdale’s only designated spot for water skiing, so there are always some crazies out there trying to ski in a very confined space. Otherwise it seems to be a nice, quiet anchorage. The downside of this anchorage is that there is no place to land a dinghy. You either have to travel back out through one of the canals, cross the waterway at the 17th Street Bridge, enter another canal, and find the Southport Raw Bar. They charge $10 a day to keep your dinghy there, but at least you can apply the money toward food or drinks at the end of the day. The only other option we know about so far is to go to Las Olas Marina and pay them $20 to land your dinghy for the day and you get nothing in return. We’ll be patronizing the Raw Bar unless we find there are other alternatives. As we searched for the ‘just right’ place to anchor in Lake Sylvia, we passed one trawler that yelled over to tell us they were from Seabrook, New Hampshire. Then we passed the next boat and two young guys called out saying, “We know Concord, New Hampshire.” Tomorrow when we launch the dinghy we’ll go visit some of these neighbors.
Lee and Lynda made it safely into a slip at Las Olas Marina and tomorrow they will start working on their two big projects—installing solar panels and cleaning out their water tank. We will have the use of Ed and Lynne Kirwin’s car while we are here, so our project tomorrow will be getting the car and helping Lee pick up those solar panels.
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| 150119 Day 101 Florida, USA–Lake Worth Inlet to Fort Lauderdale |
