Ft. Lauderdale – Thursday, February 10 2011

Well, here we are!  We cruised to Ft. Lauderdale on the outside today and realized quickly that we were already fighting the Gulf Stream for most of our way down.  We had almost 2 knots of current against us the entire way!  This made for a choppy ride, but we were fine.  We started to see some big tankers and freighters coming into Port Everglades, which is the official name for the Ft. Lauderdale Inlet. 

The Rachel B. Jackson at Palm Beach...we have her picture in our blog on her way down last year!

We anchored in a lovely lagoon called Lake Sylvia, away from the hustle and bustle of the marinas and the activity on the river.  Ft. Lauderdale is a very busy place, with more boats per capita than houses for sure!!  Boats are parked everywhere!  We went down some canals with our dinghy, where the giant 70 and 80 foot “mega yachts” were parked within inches of each other!  Wow, what a place!

Rafting party at Lake Sylvia

MI-T-MO steel tug at the center of the rafting party!!

Once we got anchored and settled, we had a call from the son of our very good friend Roger (another British Sailor!), Rolf.  Rolf has been living and working in Ft. Lauderdale for a number of years now, and is the captain of a lovely (and very big) Sportfish.  He also recently bought a house.  We picked him up off one of the docks near to the boat, and he came over for a couple of drinks!  We got lots of great advice from him for the next leg of our journey to the Bahamas, and we found out all about his boat. He even taught us a few new tricks with our radar!!  It was great to catch up with him after not having seen him for a long time!  We also got a great photo of Rolf in front of his new house… just kidding!!

Rolf living the good life!!

We spent the next couple of days getting organized:  laundry, chores, getting our taxes done, and a variety of other stuff.  We also got to shore a couple of times for dinner and to do some shopping.  Everything you could want is within a half mile radius so it’s a very convenient spot for us to hang out for a few days.

On Saturday, Jamie and her best friend Rachel came to visit us for drinks.  Jamie worked for me at EMC for many years, and she and Rachel were in Ft. Lauderdale for a quick mid-winter vacation.  Rachel was actually here on business, and Jamie came along for a much needed break from the winter back home.  We had a great time!!  I ferried them back and forth in our dinghy, so they got a boat ride thrown in as well!  On their way back, I dropped them at the Fire Station dock, and they had to walk through the station to get out… so they got to meet some of the cute firemen!! 

Jamie, Irina & Rachel with Ft. Lauderdale sunset behind us!

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We have been watching the weather closely, as we are “in the zone” now to make our crossing to the Bahamas!!!  Sounds like we are stuck here for a few days, not because the weather is bad, just that the wind is from the North…to do a crossing to the Bahamas, we must cross the Gulf Stream.  This is a 45 mile wide “river” running south to north in the Atlantic Ocean, and it starts about 10 miles offshore from where we are.  The general wisdom is that you don’t want to cross this river in anything but a gentle southerly wind pattern.  Otherwise, the crossing can be tough with big waves!!  The current forecast sounds like we might get our window towards the end of this week.    

Stay tuned, we will have another update before heading out.