March 13, Day 261 – In Fort Lauderdale

We woke up this morning and decided to stay … for a week. There is a lot to do here, we are not in a hurry to get anywhere and the weather’s gorgeous. We made arrangements for a rental car for the week. As luck would have it, fellow loopers, Ted and Nancy on Aloha Friday, dropped by (they were on a mooring ball just across from us) and they were going to return a rental car. Michael and Gerry were able to ride with them and we got the car without the usual delays that occur when Enterprise picks you up.

About the same time, a guy on the dock wandered by and asked Michael if he’d like him to repair some of the fiberglass “dings” on Second Star. He quoted Michael a price that seemed very reasonable and since Michael was sick and tired of working on his boat plus the fact we’d just decided to stay for a week …. Michael said okay.

Once the guys got back with the rental car we, along with Jana, went for a walk on the beach. Michael stayed on the boat to “supervise” the repair work and do tax stuff. The beach was pretty packed and provided a great people watching opportunity. It is spring break here in Fort Lauderdale and the weather turned beautiful today. Lots of mostly naked bodies everywhere – some that looked pretty good and some that should have been a bit more covered. We walked a mile or so up the beach and finally crossed the street to the shops and restaurants where we stopped at a little German place off the beaten path. We had a drink and checked out the menu and decided this would be a good place to come for dinner later on.

Back at the boat we did a few chores – Gerry worked on routes to take us up the east coast of Florida. It ‘s looking more and more like we won’t make it to the Bahamas this spring, so we’ll use that time to really explore more of Florida.

Later in the evening we walked back down to the beach and ended up eating at the German restaurant we had seen earlier. Good food! We walked the streets and browsed in the shops awhile, then back to the boat and off to bed.

Here's a shot of the ongoing repair work on Second Star. The guy is sitting on his float (a huge piece of styrofoam) and since the tide was low, he is way under the dock

Here's the beach. It's only a couple of blocks from the marina

It was a very nice day, especially compared with yesterday.

Although it doesn't show up well in this picture, you can see the dark blue color farther out -- that's the gulf stream

This little cutie was having a great time at the beach

.... and so were all of these people. Mostly college kids on spring break. We joked that we had to wait for retirement before making it to spring break!

The Spirit of Lauderdale out for a sail

There were about a dozen volleyball courts marked out in the sand

Beach, hobie cats and water

Looking through the palm trees

Gerry being silly -- we were in a pirate shop