Our second week started to warm up weatherwise - so glad of the air conditioning so far from the sea breezes.

We got our engines fully serviced (which had not been done satisfactorily at the yard in St Augustine) and a few other jobs sorted out including fitting a new toilet in our heads. The West Marine chandlery store (for which we have a loyalty card!) has its flagship store in Fort Lauderdale and now that we had wheels we were able to get to spend lots of money there!
We also treated ourselves to some new clothes and in Gerry's case to a new suit and all the trimmings ready for the big family wedding this summer.

We did loads of walking in Fort Lauderdale mainly because at nights you could reach all the good restaurants in the downtown area by crossing over to the dinghy dock and walking along the Riverwalk so no driving was needed meaning we got to try some very fancy cocktails (see gallery)

During our time in Fort Lauderdale it was St Patricks Day - the city had their parade on the previous Saturday which included a wonderful free concert in the park featuring a very good U2 tribute band called U2byUV which we managed to see the last half of on our way back from and early meal ashore.

There are some amazing apartment blocks along the river which have sprung up in the last 10 years or so - they must have amazing views and hopefully some pretty good insulation from the train noise which happens mostly at nights and early mornings.

More and more large motor yachts appeared under tow going to the Palm Beach Boat Show - Logica appeared again but this time being towed backwards. We dinghied up the New River on our last afternoon to see what was up there and we were astonished at how narrow it is with some huge yards working on megayachts which is where the towboats must fetch and take them to.

On Friday 18 we got up early to get through the 2 lifting bridges just downstream of us before the 0730 commuter shutdown and pulled onto the Lauderdale Marine Fuel Dock to top up our diesel tank as we knew we would be motoring today.
The elegant 55foot clearance SE 17th Street Causeway Bridge opened for us alone at 0730 and we said goodbye to Fort Lauderdale for the time being and motored out into the very flat Atlantic Ocean heading south.

Our first idea was to anchor on the west side of Key Biscayne but as it was a very warm day we pushed on and cut through into the inside of Key Largo and anchored in the lake like conditions for a cooling swim.
Next morning we didn't realise how much wind had picked up on the oceanside until we cut back through and as we are limited from here south as to where we can now cut through onto the inside of the Keys we beat into some pretty windy but not too bumpy conditions until the wind finally died and we motorsailed into a spot called Long Key Bight. But bite our anchor would not do and at nearly 7pm we had to anchor twice to cut through the dense grass below to get a hold. Good job we persevered as during the night a squall blew up to 25 knots for a good hour but we held fast.

The following day we got going earlier and as conditions outside were bumpy and on the nose we decided to cut under the 65 foot clearance Channel 5 bridge and run the Intracoastal Waterway marked channel which although just as windy had flat seas. We managed a little sail on one section and at lunchtime on Sunday with darkening skies we pulled under the Moser Channel bridge and into the harbour area of Marathon.

The anchorage area was packed and we managed to shoehorn ourselves into a spot on the edge of the channel. Our boat was covered in salt from the day before and we hoped the dark stormy skies would bring rain, waiting patiently with brushes and mops but when it finally came we were tucked up in bed. It has however cleaned us down nicely.

Marathon is not the most appealing of places to visit by boat, we went to see the harbour master but were told that we needed photo id and to bring in our boat registration if we wanted a dinghy dock pass $22 per day - which enabled us to use the facilities ashore and park the dinghy. It is an almost 15 minute dinghy ride to the dock so we decided we wouldn't bother as we are hoping to leave tomorrow so opted to take the dinghy to a marina opposite, have lunch and use their dinghy dock to get to the supermarket to top up supplies.

There are a lot of boats in the anchorage just left here, despite the regulations forbidding it and this morning with 25 knots of wind from the north fortunately we were at the front of the anchorage so any problems were all behind us! The temperature has plummeted as forecast and I am sitting inside to keep out of the cool wind filing this blog.

Plan to pull out tomorrow, top up the diesel again and anchor off one of the smaller Keys north of the Moser Bridge Channel ready to leave Wednesday for our 22 hour sail up to Fort Myers Beach where we have booked a marina for a couple of nights.