New River, FT Lauderdale (March 12 - March 15)

Tuesday March 12, 2013
26 07.010 N
80 08.358 W

Today is our first anniversary of owning the boat.

The forecast this morning was not great - "Small Craft Advisory" and seas 4' to 6' with surf and rip warnings to beach-goers. But the wind was only 10 - 15 mph and basically on our stern. The forecast for the next 3 days was worse, and we need to get North, and we would only be out for about 25 miles, so we headed out.

There seemed to be a few boats heading offshore and some radio chatter and we joined in. The sailing boats seemed to think that they would be OK but a trawler???? It turned out to be pretty rough and a bit awkward as the seas were mostly on our stern quarter so Tide Hider wanted to squirm around which really spooked the Admiral. We seemed to be in a pattern of 3 or 4 minutes of 3' to 6' waves and then 4 or 5 really large and steep swells. A few things broke free in the boat - including all the bottles in the booze cabinet. But we had learned a few tricks including a chair jamming the frig in place. Overall I think Tide Hiker performed really well

I was more concerned about the entrance into Port Everglades. It is a big ship entrance - so reasonably  wide and deep - but the seas were traveling diagonally across it and I assumed we could expect a strong shore current. These assumptions were both accurate and to make matters a bit worse two US Coast Guard boats were exiting, abreast of each other (rather than in line - selfish thoughtless bastards). So I called them on the radio and told them what I planned to do and they said "OK". Behind them were two tugs (there was a ship on the horizon) followed by dredge. But then we were in.

The "marina" we had chosen was the "City Docks on New River" - not really a marina but fixed docks along side the river all the way west in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. We have a great spot, right in front of a classy hotel.

Great location!

We were tied up and connected by about 3 PM. I hosed down the boat and then took a long shower, as we have city water and electricity from the grid. There is also a pump out facility close.This is the first marina we have been in since Naples, back on February 9th, 31 days ago. So the batteries and the generator and the water tank and the holding tank can take a well earned rest.

We went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary.




Wednesday March 13, 2013

We have enjoyed a lazy morning. I have ordered a new starting battery for the port side and it will be installed tomorrow. I have sorted out our USCG documentation renewal and called a couple of friends for a chat. Next excitement is supermarket shopping without the dinghy. There is an enormous amount of traffic on the river. A good morning.

Exploring

Easy walk to the supermarket. We were back by about 1PM and after some lunch launched the ding and went exploring until we got too cold. There are a lot of super-yachts around here.









Thursday March 14, 2013

Quite day.  Breakfast and the paper at a French crepe restaurant. The new starting battery was delivered and installed. As expected it is a windy day and we have decided to delay our departure till Saturday. Read a book in the sun. Watched the big boats go by. Went for a walk. Dinner on the boat.

Friday March 15th, 2013

Its a long while since Deidre has been to a mall so we went looking for the beach and then a mall. We tried to use the local "Lolly The Trolly" but it never appeared so we ended up getting a taxi and doing a lot of walking. We were back by 3 PM and spent a couple of hours washing the boat, pumping out and filling with water.

Boats in Ft. Lauderdale.

Ft. Lauderdale is probably the "boating capital" of the USA. There is miles of river and canal frontage, and enormous marinas.There must be thousands of 100' plus private yachts and a lot of them have slipped past us at this dock. They still impress me and so I have taken a few photos.