Sunday, March 10, 2013

Fort Lauderdale

Days on cruise:  302

Distance traveled:  9.4 miles

Travel time:  1 hour, 21 minutes

Total trip odometer: 6,177 statute miles

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Daylight Savings Time last night meant we got up late, and we hadn’t jogged for a few days, so took time for that too. It was after noon before we slipped our lines at Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood, then pulled into the ICW to continue north. Being a sunny Sunday, boat traffic was extremely busy again.

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This stretch of the ICW was frequently lined with outdoor cafes and restaurants on the wall. Frequent “Idle Speed, No Wake” and “Slow Speed, Minimum Wake” Zones to protect manatees, plus bridges that open only on the half hour, meant we made slow progress.

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Entering Fort Lauderdale, we traveled through the Cruise Ship port where a crowd of behemoth cruise ships was berthed. Security was tight with Coast Guard and Sherriff’s Office boats cruising back and forth.

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Even 100-foot long boats look small compared to the one above, and dozens of those we saw of this size were registered in Georgetown, Cayman Islands.

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Mid-afternoon we turned north up the New River and traveled 1.5 miles on its’ beautiful winding, narrow, densely developed route to a Fort Lauderdale municipal marina with side-ties on the River Walk wall.

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It’s an extremely busy location with slips lining the wall on both sides of the river between two bridges, each of which has 19-foot clearance at high tide. We were just able to sneak under without having to ask for an opening.  This view below looks north at the second of the two pink bridges in this quarter mile marina stretch.

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Water taxis and zillions of recreational boats plied the waterway all afternoon.

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At 5:00 our niece Laura (daughter of Bob’s sister Lynn) who lives in Fort Lauderdale arrived at our boat. We last saw her here a year ago when we stopped for a visit on our shake-down cruise to the Keys just before we began our Loop. Laura took us to a favorite place for locals, The Floridian, for dinner on Las Olas. We had a great time catching up with  her and were happy she had time to see us.

1 comment:

Captain Mer said...

Stop. Can't you hear it. It's the Bahamas calling you to a new adventure. Just 60 miles to the east lie beautiful turquoise waters, sandy beaches and friendly people. You may never be this close again.