Ft. Lauderdale, FL

April 24-26, 2010

We left Lake Worth Inlet at 8:25 a.m. slowed down a bit by a huge ship coming in to dock. The winds were forecast to be SW 5-10, but were SE at 19-20 kts for the first 3 hours right on our nose. We had put up our mainsail just after clearing the entry. This helped keep us from rolling back and forth. Our heading was 186-198 degrees and the wind direction was 196-215 degrees for 8 hours. The waves built from 2-3 ft to 4-6 ft and then backed down to 2-3 ft. as we approached Ft. Lauderdale. We had an adverse current against us of 1.4 until an hour before reaching Ft. Lauderdale when it finally became +1 kt. Another problem we had was the number of small and larger fishing boats out fishing! I constantly shifted from port to starboard all day watching for these boats so we would not collide with them! Due to the large waves and sea spray we had much of our enclosure down, but we still got wet. We also had on our SOS suspenders and tethers hooked in the cockpit.

As we approached Ft. Lauderdale,just before 5 p.m., a huge cruise ship came out. As we were going in the

inlet another cruise ship departed. As we turned north to go to the bridge, a third, even bigger cruise ship was beginning to leave. We were able to make the 5:30 (1730) opening of the 17th St. (Brooks) Bridge. We proceeded north to the Bahia Mar Marina. We could have ten a mooring ball at the anchorage just before the next bridge, but I wanted to be able to wash all the salt off the boat. We washed down the boat and then ate on board.

The next day was a beautiful day and we were tired from fighting the wind and waves so we relaxed. I did laundry and we enjoyed the pool for a couple of hours. We ate lunch at the pool and ate aboard again.

The Marina is just across the street from the beach. One bad aspect of this marina is the constant loud music broadcast from the beach all day and into the night! The Jungle Queen boat and Spirit Ft. Lauderdale boat are adjacent to the Marina as well. Charlie was checking the weather for our trip to Miami/ Biscayne Bay. Storms were forecast so we were not sure if we would leave on Monday.

Monday came and the storms with it with tornado and water spout warnings. The winds were forecast to be 30 kts at Miami about the time we would arrive if we left today. So we have postponed our travel to Miami for another day. We hope to visit with long time friends who live in Coconut Grove while there.