Manatees, Obulence and Cruise Ships

A little cloudy but there is a 10 foot manatee there in the water.

After our exciting night in the bay off Canaveral, we thought we should push it to get down to the Miami area for our jump off spot to the Bahamas. We made it to Fort Pierce which turned out to be a beautiful spot and we ended up staying 2 nights in a nice marina. We saw our first manatee and many big, beautiful fish swimming near our boat.
We ate at the Tiki Bar next to the marina and had yellow snapper. Wow, absolutely delicious! So different from the seafood we get in Maine. Saturday morning we went to great farmer's market which they claim is the second best in the state. I am not arguing that claim. It was wonderful. Here we began our provisioning for the Bahamas, which is infamous for having less than fresh food in the markets.

Trump's Del Mar Club from a distance.

One of many such houses on the ICW.

The next morning we headed out, trying to get at least to Fort Lauderdale. The ICW, starting in Palm Beach is narrow and fully developed with a little of everything, but mostly the biggest and most ostentatious places we have ever seen.  We went by Trump's Mar-a-Lago but we didn't see any Secret Service boats as the president-elect was not in residence.

The personal yachts are big like the houses.

In some areas, any older houses that are not in perfect shape are being torn down and replaced by new ones, either modern with lots of glass, or Spanish villa style. These places are huge and built right next to each other.  Often, there is a mega-yacht right next to the house.

There are signs for boaters all along the way which tell us how fast we can go and if we are in a manatee zone. In more open areas, boats can go 25 miles an hour. In manatee zones and highly developed areas, the speed signs say either No Wake, which for us is 6 miles an hour, or Slow Wake, 9 miles an hour. Much of this stretch was no or slow wake, so we made much slower progress than we had hoped. This stretch also has multiple bridges, most of which are low and open every half hour. Fortunately, we are low enough so that we can pass under safely without waiting for an opening. The weather was cloudy and windy so we kept going all day and ended up staying in an anchorage about 20 miles north of Fort Lauderdale.

A cruise ship in Ft Lauderdale.

Cruise ships lined up in Miami,.

Yesterday, we did the same slow trip  through Fort Lauderdale to Miami.  We saw large cruise ships and hundreds of massive private yachts.



 Miami is made up of several cities surrounding Biscayne Bay. The Bay is shallow and was the first light water we have seen.

After docking and paying in the first marina, which was located right downtown, we were told no gas, coming tomorrow, maybe. Not good as we needed to be able to be off early on Tuesday morning. It slowly came out that they also didn't have laundry, bathrooms or shower facilities. We were able to get our money back and head over to another marina in Coconut Grove. We were looking forward to exploring this famous town, but we can't. It's too hot!



I know. No one is feeling sorry for us. We are closed up in the boat today with the air conditioner going full blast. Who knew you would need air conditioning in a boat?! We have had plenty to do, though, getting all systems checked out, planning our routes in the Bahamas and getting our provisioning done.

Weather reports look good for our 65 mile morning passage across the Gulf Stream. Our plan, subject to change, is to spend a day or two in the Bimini Islands, 3-5 days in the Berries, 3-5 days in the Exumas and then Christmas in Paradise Island where family will be flying in for the holiday.  Who knows after that.  We are not sure what our ability to communicate with the States will be while we are there, so it may be a while before you hear from us again. We wish all of you a happy holidays and merry Christmas.