Mike wasted no time relinquishing his blogging duties once I got back to the boat! I got in very late the night of Feb 5. The next day, we utilized the rental car Mike got to pick me up and ran a bunch of errands and provisioned. Although I miss my family, it was nice to get back to warm weather; So Cal was rainy and cold!

Thursday, we, along with Jay and Barbara from The Blessing, took a long dinghy cruise through the New River area of Fort Lauderdale. The homes along here were beautiful.

Some architectural marvels, I thought.

It was fascinating to boat through skyscrapers and a pretty skinny river with big boats.

Mike and I did a lot of walking, and he showed me some of his haunts. We found a great local Argentinian restaurant off the main Atlantic drag that was very cool. Killer empanadas.

Mike’s childhood friend Jim and his wife Darcy were coming to Ft Lauderdale Saturday to take a Caribbean cruise. We walked the 4 miles to the cruise terminal to see if we could meet up with them. We couldn’t, but had a great walk and dug walking across the big bridge. We stood near the top when it opened.

Walked all around Pier 66. Had a beer and appi at a cool hotel pool bar. Ventured to the end of the pier where a fishing tournament was going on. South Floridians take their fishing seriously!

So many places to walk, and dinghy here. The iguanas are as plentiful as the water.

Monday night, had Happy Hour and dinner with Henry and Jayne from Britain. They are refitting a huge Lagoon catamaran to prepare her for charter. They had us over for champers and appies and gave us a tour. Incredible boat, and I’m sorry I didn’t get pictures. Super charming couple with whom we’re hoping to reconnect once they get underway.

Tuesday, we worked on taxes which always sucks. Ubered what seemed like 20 miles to the only open post office, then Ubered to Las Olas. Las Olas is a super cool area just West of the ICW and Las Olas bridge (under which was our marina) with tons of cool restaurants, shops and bars. As we were walking along the street, the flat street became a curb that I didn’t see and I totally went down! Did a nice job on my knees, forearms and left palm. Thankfully, my forehead and nose just got a little graze. Scared the hell out of my husband, and two guys walking toward us. Hit a nearby restroom and got cleaned up. Did I mention I was totally sober? Needless to say, I needed a glass, or 3, of wine. We hit a great Italian restaurant. Chicken Piccatta, chardonnay and tiramisu made me feel better.

Wednesday morning, it was time to shove off from Las Olas Marina after a day shy of a month there! I walked to the local French bakery and got us a couple egg sandwiches on fresh baked croissants. After I placed my order, decided to get a piece of Quiche Lorraine and a baguette. Glad I hadn’t eaten at this place prior; I would have gone there every day. It began to rain as I was walking back to the boat. By the time we dropped the lines, it was pouring! The clouds were so dark, it looked like nighttime. –

We had about a 60 mile day as we wanted to get south of Biscayne Bay prior to Thursday during which the weather was supposed to be worse. Although the winds were howling and the rain was coming down in sheets, we were pretty well protected from Ft Lauderdale to Miami. The Miami International Boat Show is this weekend, so there was no shortage of mega yachts all around. The good news about the awful weather was that there was not a lot of traffic on the water!

Once we got into Biscayne Bay, the seas got bigger and the wind increased. Thankfully, the wind was mostly at our back and the seas were following or quartering. We left at 8:50am, sunset was at 6:00 and we had about 60 miles total toward our destination. We wanted to fuel up as close as possible to Key Largo, so stopped at Herbert Hoover Marina at Homestead Bayfront Park. We had to go abeam of the seas for a while which sucked. Fuel up was super easy. Heading out we were heading into the seas and wind, which was about 28 knots at this point. Not as bad as being abeam, but sadly washed our boat in salt water after she had such a nice bath in rainwater!

Alas, made it to our anchorage at Arsenicker Key just before 6:00 and the rain abated a bit for Mike to go drop the hook. We were nicely protected from the Northeast winds and seas, and were all alone. Made a pizza for dinner and got to bed early thinking we would sleep 10 hours only to be awoken at 2:30 by a loud noise. Mike had read an article about affixing your snubber on the bottom side of the anchor chain instead of the top side. It had come undone and banged on our hull. Mike donned his foulie, PFD and head lamp, went onto the bow and fixed it while I yawned at the bridge making sure he didn’t fall in. It was cold, rainy and blustery outside, and I was very thankful that Mike does the deck work. Mike re-did the snubber and all was well with the ground tackle.

Thursday we again obsessed about the weather forecasts, and did chores on the boat. Charlie and Robin of The Lower Place sailed to our anchorage from the Atlantic side about 20 miles south. They had us over for Charlie’s famous Bushwackers and appies. Beautiful sunset and the weather calmed. Very nice night at anchor.

This morning, the weather is stunning! There is a light Northerly wind and the sun is out.

Mike and Charlie grabbed a few beers and their fishing poles and took off in the dinghy.

Alas, the boys caught no fish of any keepable size. Instead, they asked if Robin and I wanted to hop in Robin and Charlie’s dinghy and meet them at a place a local told them about called Alabama Jacks. They were told it was about a 20 minute ride from Ocean Reef south off the ICW near the bridge. Robin came and picked me up and we traveled under the bridge and around and via Google maps found a little place tucked into the mangroves. There is no way you’d find this place if somebody didn’t tell you it was there. It was also much further than 20 minutes away. (Mike mapped it when we got back; 8.5 miles one way.)

The boys came up about 10 minutes later. Really cool joint.

Had great burgers and beer with live music. Beautiful dinghy ride back.

Got back to the boat just in time for sunset.

Tomorrow’s forecast looks good for crossing to Bimini, so we are praying and crossing our fingers we get over there! Hoping the next post is from the Bahamas!

M&M

[Thank you to those who have asked about my mom. She had a pretty bad stroke and is currently in a rehab facility where she will likely be for another couple months. Although painfully slow, she is making improvements and showing signs of recovery. It was wonderful hugging her, seeing my dad, Marla, Chuck, Mark and Cynthia who have been amazing and picking up my slack (Cynthia flew down from No Cal to spend 2 nights at the hospital with my mom). A particularly special shout out to my Aunt Jan who has spent almost every night at the hospital with my mom for the past 6 weeks. She is an absolute saint. My awesome niece and her equally awesome husband put me up for 3 weeks! They super rock. Plan to head back West in 2 months to spend time with mom, and meet my Grand Niece, Taylor Elizabeth Rigsbee!]