Tedious Bridges

A few days ago we had a phone conversation with the guy who sold us our boat and mentioned we were headed to the Florida Keys. He told us he though the trip down there was frustrating and slow because of the many bridges, and he urged us to go “outside”, meaning in the Atlantic Ocean instead of on the Intracoastal Waterway. We scoffed.

Now we understand. After our uneventful and very pleasant night anchored at Lantana last night, we pulled up the anchor and headed south at 8:30 a.m. today.  We had only 37 miles to go to get to Fort Lauderdale, so traveling at 8 knots we should be there in about 4 hours, right? Wrong! How about 6 1/2 hours??? We encountered thirteen bridges that were too low for us to get under with our 20-foot air clearance, so had to wait for scheduled openings. Most open every 30 minutes, a few every 20 minutes.

Many are only a mile apart, so as soon as you clear one, you have to “hold” while you wait for the next. Most bridge tenders are polite, cheerful and helpful.  One was downright surly and mean. We often waited in lines of 3-5 boats for openings, sometimes for as long as 40 minutes.  It was tedious and made us think we’ll consider the ocean route going northbound after the Keys, IF we get lucky enough to have a calm, windless day.

On the other hand, the landscape was pretty interesting, mostly for its’ endless opulence. At least 25 miles of the territory we covered was one mansion after another, with one enormous multi-million dollar boat after another parked in front of the mansion.  There is a LOT of money here in Florida!   (We picked this house to include because we thought Ryan would like it.)

So we’re happy to have this day behind us, and there are only two bridges tomorrow that will require opening for us. So . . .  on to the Keys!