Hypoluxo - at Palm BeachYacht Center

Like miniature castles

The towns along the ICW take their bridges seriously and many have unique architecture - like in the photo above.  The bridge operators will ask the name of each boat asking for an opening and usually the state the boat is from. After a few trips you get to know them by name.

Palm Beach Yacht Center is the closest marina to Joe Mastri's condo and is also close to the Pulmonary doctor Ann will see tomorrow - so we are here for a few days. Joe's condo is right on the ICW and is very well kept. He invited us over for dinner tonight and for catching up on things happening back home (he keeps in touch better than we do).

Joe's condo is at the bottom right, has his own palm tree!

On the way we passed under 15 bridges and made every one without a delay. The Florida bridges stagger their opening times tuned to a boat doing 7 kts. So one bridge may open only on the hour and 1/2 hour and depending how far away the next bridge is, it may open on 15 min after and before the hour or repeat the hour and 1/2 hour opening. So you can go from bridge to bridge without having to stop and idle to wait for the opening. There's even one bridge that opens every 20 minutes because it didn't fit into the twice an hour schedule. However, if you can't do 7 kts, you'll have long waits for openings.

We'll take Joe to one of his doctors and then provision for the rest of the trip before heading north again on Thursday.

Ft Lauderdale - Last day

Some good surf from the northern storms - thanks for the waves you northerners...

We took a walk out to the beach this afternoon to see if the surf met the forecasts. Now, the surf was high but it didn't look like 9 ft waves coming in. On the other hand, there are shallows further out that we could see the surf breaking on so some of the power was undoubtedly taken from the incoming waves by the sand bank. Nevertheless, the waves were still imposing and the beach was only one step away from being closed according to the flags displayed at the lifeguard station. I'm sure that farther out, the waves were every bit as big as predicted - so sailing would not have been a pleasant experience.

Ann was inspired to paint a coastline - in pastels - although it was Maine, not Florida

On our way to the beach, there are several parking garages. On Friday the cost was $10/day. On Saturday it rose to $20/day and today, on Sunday, it was $30/day! I guess they just charge whatever the market will bear. At the $20/day rate, several of the garages were full on Saturday so I guess that led to the $30/day rate for Sunday. As usual, the beach was packed, wall to wall people.

Monday is moving day. We're headed north to see Joe Mastri and for Ann's doctor appointment with a pulmonary specialist for her cough - which by now has gone away but we still want it looked into. It's 15 bridges to Joe's!!

Ft Lauderdale - Meeting of PYC South

Humm, where to sit?

The waves continued build and supposed to reach 9 feet by Sunday afternoon. We took a walk by the beach and it was packed with spring breakers! I can understand the attraction of coming to Ft Lauderdale this time of the year with the warm weather, sunshine and, of course, the parties and so on. But the beach is wall to wall people with very few actually in the water. You can see from the photo the current fashions: long trunks for the boys and the briefest of bikinis for the girls.

Ernie Klopping, Pat, Michele, John Kwak and Ann

John's crew came in today, Ernie Klopping and Pat. Ann invited everyone over for dinner and we all got together on the back of the boat for a good time. The Poughkeepsie Yacht Club is turning into quite a cruising club. In addition to ourselves and Kwak, there's also Marty Silverstein up at Vero Beach in Florida. It was a very enjoyable evening.

I'm due to get a call back from Sadler Point marina early next week on their genset offer. John Kwak said he was looking into a new anchor and I offered my old Panda genset but he didn't take me up on the offer. Weighing in a 300 lbs, I think it would make an excellent anchor! I just don't want it anywhere near my boat.

Ft Lauderdale - genset died today!

Looking down main street - notice the sign about the turtles! 

I went in to walk Hoolie and when I returned to the boat I noticed that the genset was not running?! Going down below, Ann said she heard a loud "bang" and then the high voltage alarm went off on the Prosine, the charger. This is not good, I thought. Starting the genset, I heard a rattle and white smoke came out the exhaust so I shut it down immediately. It's supposed to output 120v and anything higher means the rpms are too high, it running too fast. So I started the genset again and measured the output voltage, it was 170v! No wonder the Prosine charger cut out, the voltage was much too high and indicative of a higher than spec rpm. 

They do not allow alcohol of any kind on the beach! The police patrol to be sure the law is followed. 

With that I called Panda technical support and in going over the happenings, we agreed that it was most probably the governor once again going bad and not controlling the engine rpm. I had it replaced two years ago and they are designed to last the life of the engine - not so in this case! By the way, replacing the governor involves lifting the genset out of the starboard locked with a crane since the engine governor is so deep inside the engine that it's impossible to replace it while in the confines of the locker.   

So that just about killed the day. A walk along the beach road confirmed that the spring breakers are arriving  en masse. They should peak next week according to the list of schools giving schedules of breaks. The waves from the winter storm up north should also peak over the weekend with surf up to 9 ft, I'll take photos if the surf really gets that high!

So now we're consumed with arranging a genset replacement, making plans, comparing models, etc. As Marty so often said, "It's a boat"! 

Ft Lauderdale - Publix and a bus ride

Here's another view of New River in Ft Lauderdale - note how narrow it is and the concrete bulwarks 

Another of the mundane tasks for those cruising is to provision. A favorite stop is Walmart due to the store having both groceries and other things needed on a boat. However, the best grocery store down south is Publix followed by Harris Teter, neither of which are common up north. So today we found the nearest Publix and headed to the bus stop to try out the public transit of Ft Lauderdale. We were vastly disappointed in the city transportation. The bus was 20 min late going out and 25 min late coming back, ugh!

I think the palm trees are rather pretty, the tops look like a spray from fireworks

At any rate, we are now provisioned for the trip to Mastri's place on Monday. The waves generated from the winter storm up north are due down here starting Friday late through Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday with peak waves of 9 ft or so. We'll take a walk out to the beach to look. I think John Kwak's crew arrived today but sailing out in the ocean is not recommended for the next few days!

The mooring here by the  bridge is remarkably calm, given all the boat traffic on the ICW. All the boats have to slow down to idle speed while going through the bridge and since we're right by it, we get the benefit of the slow passages, not bad. Plus, it's interesting watching all the boats go by and the goings and comings on the bridge.

Ft Lauderdale - we visit the Kwaks

On New River in Ft Lauderdale

More boat projects today, mainly doing laundry. At least the marina has the best laundry facilities on the ICW (6 washers, 6 dryers, big folding table and A/C - how exciting it that!!) Oh well, necessary. If you ever travel the ICW you'll come to appreciate it. We are sure glad we're inside now. The weatherman is predicting 7 to 9 ft seas for the next four days! It's the backside of the storm up north that's dumping snow in Washington and NYC. We thought we'd take a walk over to the beach on Sunday to see if the waves really are that big.

Standard towing procedure in New River (narrow, lots of current) Notice the opposite directions of pull by the tugs. The one in back is a "drag" so the big boat can be maneuvered around bends

With temps in the 70's, we took a dinghy ride over to see the Kwaks on New River in Ft Lauderdale. It winds its way through the heart of the downtown section of the city. It was quite a bit rougher than we expected. The sides of the "river" are concrete bulwarks and they reflect the waves from passing boats to create a very confused wave pattern. On top of that, the river which is more like a canal is very narrow and yet huge yachts navigate along its length. There are three bridges that have to open for John Kwak's boat which involves treading water in 1 to 2 kts of current with other boats doing the same nearby. I don't think I want to take Fleetwing down that river. John said he had some exciting moments coming into his dock which is at right angles to the current which was flowing pretty good at the time. He's expecting crew to arrive Thursday evening but with the prediction of 7 to 9 ft seas, they're probably not going outside anytime soon.

We're biding our time here, just resting up and enjoying the warm weather  before heading north again on Monday to see Joe Mastri. 

Ft Lauderdale - at a mooring

The beach - full of spring breakers!

Once again we lucked out, the forecast actually reflected reality!? The seas were relatively calm and the winds were behind us, we made 7.9 kts with a following current - for some reason - we didn't expect that. As we left Miami we heard the Coast Guard once again close Government Cut, the main shipping channel into Miami. We got out just minutes before the closure. I don't understand the reasoning since we didn't see any big ships approaching or leaving. They seem too eager to close the port. The other entrance is on the other side of the island by the entrance, a long trip south, very inconvenient. I've never heard of the Ft Lauderdale entrance being closed. It's a mystery.

Michele and John Kwak from the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club stopped by for a visit

We picked up a mooring just below the Las Olas Marina, south of the bridge.There are only eight moorings available and they are usually full but when we arrived only three were taken. It was a Tuesday, slow day I guess.  So we were on the back of the boat after walking Hoolie and hear us being hailed, it was Michele and John Kwak waving at us from shore. I fired up the dinghy and motored over to pick them up. We talked for almost two hours. John has quite a list of adventures to relate. The next time you see him, be sure to ask.

We will probably be here until Monday morning when we'll head north again to meet up with Joe Mastri. For now it's time to explore Ft Lauderdale.