Day 102, Year 10: Falling in Love
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Weather: Overcast but Temps in the mid-70’s—No Complaints, Mate
Location: Anchored in Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale, FL
I debated on whether to name tonight’s log ‘Falling in Love’ or ‘High Water Alarm . . . Again’. I opted for the more positive subject line as it does over-shadow the negative. Albeit, we did return to Windbird at dusk to hear the high water alarm screaming once again. Same problem as last week—the packing gland around the prop shaft was leaking and the automatic bilge pump was not working. Mark tightened the packing gland once again and put a piece of tape on the bilge pump switch to keep it in the automatic position. This problem needs more attention, but it is temporarily solved. Thus, I can focus on the more positive aspect of our arrival in Fort Lauderdale. We were dreading our arrival here as there were so many warnings about the unfriendliness to cruisers. We have made it through the first 24 hours with no problems, so we have fallen in love again. No matter where we have traveled in the world, we seemed to fall in love with every port. I guess we are just easy. But every port has different things to offer and they are all fascinating in their own special way. The word on the street here is that we will only be given a couple of days here in Lake Sylvia before the local marine police come and kick us out. But this morning we met Nathan on a neighboring boat and he has been here for two weeks with no problems. So we’ll just hold our breath and hope we are given the same. Nathan grew up in Brattleboro, NH, but is now from Denver. He said he had one heck of a sail here from Colorado! After saying hello to our neighbor, we motored slowly down one of the canals leading out of this ‘lake’ to the Intracoastal. We crossed the ICW and then went down another very long canal to the Southport Raw Bar. This is a local establishment that allows cruisers to park their dinghy for the day for $10. At the end of the day you can cash in your receipt for $10 for food or drink—which we did, but more on that later. From the Raw Bar, we walked two blocks to a bus stop and took the bus to SW 7th Street and Andrews Avenue. This was a short walking distance to Ed Kirwin’s son’s property on the New River where we picked up Ed and Lynne’s car. Thank you, thank you, Ed and Lynne. We drove the car back to Las Olas Marina, picked up Lee and Lynda and headed to West Marine. Now where else do you think we would have headed as our first stop in this town? The West Marine here boasts about being the largest in the world, so we enjoyed our little shopping tour. Actually, even though the store is so huge, it does not have a lot of basics that our small store in Falmouth, Massachusetts has. Not sure big is better, but it was fun to look around. We took the advice of an associate there and walked a couple of blocks to a place called Lester’s for lunch. This is an authentic 50’s style restaurant with big meals at a moderate price. After lunch, we walked back to West Marine and traveled next door to Sailorman. This is supposed to be a sailor’s paradise with new and used equipment. Mark and I visited there once before with Mark’s brother Steve and we weren’t as impressed as many. But it was a good stop and we all found something else that we needed. We then drove back to Las Olas Marina. Ed and Lynne’s car will ‘live’ there for the next few days while Lee and Lynda are docked there. Tomorrow Mark and Lee will take the car to pick up the new solar panels for Sea Turtle and on Thursday I will take the car, hopefully with Lynda, to check out the food shopping options in the area.
Mark and I left the car at Las Olas and took the $1 shuttle back to our part of town. It is a very short ride from Las Olas Marina to the bus stop close to the Southport Raw Bar. It probably takes us longer to dinghy through the long canals to get to the Raw Bar than it does to take the bus from there to Las Olas. There is a $1 trolley or an $ .85 public bus—take whichever comes first. We continue to be really impressed with the ease of public transportation in southern Florida. We got to the Southport Raw Bar about 5:10 pm. Sundown was just before 6 pm, so we knew we needed to move quickly. But we wanted to turn that $10 dinghy dock fee into food and drink. We ordered a pitcher of beer for $8 and one fish taco dinner for $9 (2 tacos for that price). We split the blackened mahi-mahi fish tacos which were absolutely delicious. Each taco had a sizeable filet of blackened mahi, cole slaw, and slices of avocado. So with tax and tip, we spent $20 to have our dinghy in a safe spot for the day and to have dinner and drinks. It’s not as cheap as Thailand, but almost. So we were happy cruisers as headed back to Lake Sylvia just after the sun had set. So far, Fort Lauderdale gets a thumbs-up from us. All a cruiser can ask for is a safe place to land a dinghy, cheap food and drinks, and easy transportation to essentials. (I forgot to mention that the Winn-Dixie supermarket is just across the street from the Raw Bar and that two major shopping centers are just two blocks away). So life is good and we are loving Fort Lauderdale. Let’s just hope the love affair can last until Thursday of next week after Mark’s next cancer treatment. Then we can move further south to Key Biscayne. But for now, we are happy cruisers here as long as Fort Lauderdale is happy with us.
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| 150120 Day 102 Florida, USA–West Marine and Sailorman |
