East coast "Venice"
26 April 2013 | Fort Lauderdale
Cynthia - sunny, light breeze
Met some new people during cocktail hour on Chardonnay – a couple from Newfoundland, on their way back home after spending 3 ½ months in Cuba – said the people were wonderful and the living was cheap! Another couple and their son from New Zealand, a man named Tom from Night Moves – single hands his 39’ Beneteau – he’s from CA – It was a good time exchanging cruising stories and learning about anchorages near Miami.
Thursday saw us on another exploratory day. We left around 1100, stopped by Tom’s boat – Night Moves to chat for awhile, and then explored some canals to the southeast. We then headed across the ICW to the Lauderdale Yacht club (LYC). We tied up at the dinghy dock to have lunch when Tom realized he didn’t have his wallet. So back to the boat and then back to the LYC.
We went to the marina office and met the dock master – Brandon – a very pleasant young man who escorted us to the main entrance of the club where we secured a guest pass – good for a few days. He told us that they do offer complimentary dockage for visiting members of other clubs – we may take advantage of this on our return trip. We had a delicious lunch on the outside patio overlooking the ICW. When finished we strolled around the grounds (see pictures) and then back to the dinghy.
We headed up the New River which basically follows Las Olas Blvd., and found ourselves in the middle of the city. One spectacular house after another along the waterways, 3 lift bridges, a railroad bridge which operates electronically and lowers automatically when a train is approaching.
After our tour we headed back to the anchorage. As we came into Lake Sylvia we noticed a Cabo Rico boat, just like our friend John & Julie in Toronto – and then further noticed this boat also was from Toronto. We circled back and said hello and they invited us on board. We had a lovely visit with them. They are originally from England and in fact are on their way to West Palm to have their boat put on a freighter and shipped to England. They plan on cruising the canals over in Europe for the next few years. They also gave us some places to anchor in and around Miami – so we’ll check those out as well.
Back to the boat for a quiet evening on board and enjoying the full moon!