Fort Lauderdale

Wednesday, December 28.
Brrrrrr! It’s time to move on. Woke up yesterday to 51 degree temps. OK, so it wasn’t snowing! Big deal, it was COLD. It warmed up nicely under cloudless Florida skies. The Northeast wind was a bit chilly, but the sunshine felt great. We did some provisioning. We had planned to do this in Fort Lauderdale, but with a car it was so easy in Ft Pierce. One of our stops was at Papa’s Meat Market. This store could easily become a favorite! The clientele is purely island and Latin American. The inventory is what they come there for. Sure, you can get taro root and papaya and all kinds of exotic veggies at Publix or Kroger’s. But, can you get chicken feet? How about lamb shanks? Then, what about smoked goat heads? How about a whole suckling pig for Xmas dinner? Spices? Anything needed for Caribbean cuisine. Prices? 5 huge, juicy limes for 99 cents. A big bag of shallots, 99 cents.

Since we had the use of a car, that of our friends on s/v Dream Chaser, Don and Ann, we drove down to Stuart to pick up our headsail from Mack Sails who had replaced the sacrificial cover. We had a good lunch at New England Fish Market and returned to the boat in an unexpected rain shower. Thank goodness we had closed our hatches!

Friday, December 30
Headed South! Finally. Ft Lauderdale, get ready! We left Harbortown with hardly a breath of air stirring. By the time we got out of the inlet, a light breeze had developed so we raised the sails, as much for stabilizing the boat as for a bit of extra power. Within a short time, the breeze strengthened and we were making better than 6 knots motorsailing. So, we weren’t in a big hurry and we shut down the Iron Genny and proceeded under sail alone, still at about 5 knots. Finally, sometime in the afternoon, the wind died and we had to furl the sails and turn on the motor. During the night, there was again enough wind to unroll the jib. How sweet! Thanks to the new furler, the jib unrolls itself!

It was a bit chilly overnight, what with a light breeze, no sun and temps in the lower sixties. Hot chocolate time. Morning brought one of those crystal clear sunrises and a few hours later we were approaching the inlet at Ft Lauderdale. The peppermint stick smokestacks welcomed us and the sunrise reflecting off the high rises was a beautiful sight to see. It was made more beautiful by the knowledge that within a short time we would be dockside and in the company of friends who were already there.


The beauty of the morning was briefly shattered by the insistent sounds of a ship’s horns. We looked behind us and a huge container ship had materialized out of thin air! Believe me, nothing compares to the sight of a huge bow rising 30 feet above you and barreling down upon you.



Now or Never! on approach to Las Olas





Docking at Las Olas


New Year’s Eve
Jesse and Ginny on s/v Wind Dust and Jim and Ellie on s/v FinniRish met us and caught our lines. Ginny documented our arrival with pix from the Las Olas bridge. It was good to see familiar faces! We invited them and another couple on the dock, Don and Betty on m/v Ram-Sea, to the boat that evening, New Year’s Eve, for drinks and a few of Claudia’s famous pizzas. New year’s found us aboard Wind Dust.