Hello Ft. Lauderdale

Doing the bridge dance. Timing is everything.

We had been planning to go on to Miami this morning but late yesterday the folks at NOAA changed their mind about the series of cold fronts passing over the Florida peninsula, and closed our weather window. Since we have no schedule to keep, 4-6 ft waves and 5 second period didn't sound too appealing, so we decided to pick up the anchor and head north to the city of Ft. Lauderdale proper and visit for awhile. This plan would also give us some time to visit with some friends scattered around the area and the possibility of letting Florida redeem itself on the dinghy issue. When we woke up this morning, the forecast had changed once again for the better, but we decided to stick to our plan and head north to the city anyway.

Fisherman giving the pelicans his leftover bait.

Coming into Ft. Lauderdale via boat is a pretty amazing thing to do. It is a busy place for sure, with water taxis, cruise ships, barges, tug boats, and recreational boats of all sizes, but the most amazing thing is the ostentatious display of mega yachts parked alongside equally ostentatious homes lining the canals. It is capitalism at its best. In the winding curve of one of these canals lies our current anchorage, and it's reassuring that the 22 foot sailboat with a single-hander next to us is sitting in the water 100 feet from the plate glass walls of one of these homes and that modest boat has the same view.

More cruise ships

We're told that this anchorage has a dinghy dock not too far from here with access to stores and a post office so tomorrow we'll give Florida the opportunity to redeem itself on the dinghy issue. For the moment, it's a nice quiet anchorage (although very crowded), and we have absolutely no place we have to be. Isn't retirement wonderful?