It's Saturday night. We've been a long way since my post on Monday. I could swear I posted since then but that's just my wishful imagination. How does this happen anyway?!
Regardless, it's been a busy and eventful week although without a lot to really report on. We had a great ride down the intracoastal waterway on Tuesday and Wednesday. With our enclosed cockpit and the calmer waters of the ICW, it was pretty easy going both days. The first night we stopped in Fort Pierce at a different anchorage than we were at in the spring. We traveled with a friend we made in Melbourne, Rick, who owns a CSY 44 like ours but it's decked out with all kinds of amazing systems and gadgets - ah, a single guy on a boat!
We anchored safely and securely right next to a THIRD CSY 44! We put the dinghy down and went for a row around the anchorage. It's always fun to see how quickly you make friends when you're making your way in a dinghy. A couple we met ended up coming back to Moonshadow with us as did Rick and we all had a glass of wine and dinner aboard. More entries in the address book!
Wednesday was again uneventful as we motored the ICW once again heading for a destination of West Palm and Lake Worth. Rick pulled off in St. Lucie to visit his son and family for Christmas and we continued our ICW trek through the building number of bridges along the way. It was interesting to see the dynamics of the bridge operators. Some were gracious and fun while others seemed to have some kind of power "trip". Oh well, so it goes! We definitely got good at maneuvering our approaches!
In making our way on Wednesday, we started up a conversation on the VHF with a nearby boat and were friends by the end of the day. We both anchored together just outside of the Lake Worth Inlet and shared a sundown cocktail hour, getting to know each other. Plans were made to sail outside the following morning and we shared our secret of the Lake Sylvia anchorage in Fort Lauderdale where we all ended up on Thursday eve.
Thursday dawned without a huge forecast contradiction and we did head offshore. It started out as a beautiful day and we put up all the sails and were making a comfortable 5 knots until the clouds rolled in with an unpredicted front and we started the motor, took down most of the sail and closed up the cockpit for the rain. No matter, we made decent time and were anchored in Lake Sylvia, our favorite little spot here, by 3:30 that afternoon.
Since then we've been enjoying the company of the folks in the anchorage as well as Justin, our friend of several years who brought his boat here for the weekend. We've been to West Marine and of course the Southport Raw Bar and we're enjoying meeting our neighbors in the anchorage. We're doing a few projects getting ready for the next leg - the big one - of crossing the gulf stream and entering the Bahamas. Rob's double checking all systems while I'm recording all of our provisions and making lists of any last minute additions needed.
Tonight we were treated to the Fort Lauderdale Winterfest boat parade. It lasted over 2 hours and was quite spectacular. Seven dinghies from our anchorage rafted up on a couple anchors and enjoyed the show of the stream of mega-yachts all dressed up for the holidays. The diversity was pretty amazing - everything from a few lights on the rails to the EXTREME. Some had huge sound systems, bands and lighting that had to take several generators to keep lit! It was a fun night leaving us with that Christmas glow.
I'm really sorry about the picture situation right now. Today I've got one broken camera, a new phone with nice camera being charged, my favorite CANON's battery is dead and my photo memory on the blog is full. I can't find anywhere how to upgrade my photo allowance in several days of trying so I'm as frustrated as you but promise that pics are soon to come. I miss them myself! Great opportunity to be in touch to give me some clues if you've got any ideas . . .
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