March 12, Day 260 – North Miami Beach to Fort Lauderdale

We raised anchor and were underway by 9:15 this morning. We only had a short distance to travel today – to Fort Lauderdale – but the weather forecast predicted rain and high winds. We were hoping to arrive at our destination, the Las Olas Marina, before the worst of the storm hit. It was pretty slow going through this area, commonly known as the Miracle Mile, because of bridges and boat congestion. Part of the congestion is caused by the fact that Port Everglades is a major cruise ship port. Unfortunately, the rain came long before we arrived and we estimated wind gusts at 40+. In addition, there were tornado watches and warnings. Today was definitely not one of those laid-back relaxing cruising days.

We arrived at the marina around 11:45 and called them on the VHF for docking instructions. They told us to pick any open slips we wanted, so we took a couple that were straight in and easy to dock at. However, after the weather settled down, we decided to move to larger docks away from the bridge. They were also in a more protected area.

The rest of the afternoon was spent drying out and resting up from the morning’s ordeal. We, along with Michael and Jana, met our friends, Gene and Diane for dinner (they live in Fort Lauderdale and had visited us in Fort Myers when we were there). We ate at a local place not far from the marina, The Quarterdeck. The food was very good, but the company was better. It was a fun evening.

Many of the huge homes along the way are so close together you can hardly see any space between them. In this picture there are 6 homes, not to mention several highrise condos behind them. Way too many people in one spot for our taste.

This house was pretty nice .... but it's located almost underneath this noisy bridge.

This highrise condo had palm trees both at the bottom and on the top

Another nice house on one of the canals

Second Star approaching Hollywood Beach Boulevard

Even in this land of glitz, you'll find a few derelict boats here and there

As we approached Port Everglades we saw many cruise ships. This is the Carnival Miracle.

... and another cruise ship. Notice how small the sailboat is by comparison.

Looking out the Port Everglades Inlet. You can see the "dark and stormy" sky. The seas were obviously very rough out in the ocean as we heard lots of chatter on the VHF about sick crew members throwing up everywhere. At least that didn't happen to us in the Intercoastal.

A couple of more cruise ships at dock

Looking back through the 17th Street Causeway Bridge. The little yellow boat is a water taxi. The big boat is .... well ... a cruise ship.

The seawall was lined with very impressive yachts

A shot taken just a short while before arriving at the marina. It had been raining hard, but let up a bit. Of course, as we arrived at the dock, the rain started again. The forecast said it would rain the rest of the day, but be beautiful for the weekend. We'll see!