Thursday, December 21, 2017
29 miles 6.6 Engine Hours
9:55 AM Underway
4:35PM Docked Port side slip B5 Bill Bird Marina

Today we started out anxious to get to our Christmas vacation dock in Miami. We are staying there until January 2, 2018 to have Christmas with our son. It was slow going the entire day as the waterway is slow with minimum wake to idle speed no wake signs the entire way down. We did have some anxious moments passing through Port Everglade, Ft. Lauderdale inlet, with tugs, cruise ships, container ships, yachts and all types of marine activity. Lots to pay attention to. Radio, and AIS help lots. But your eyes better be looking through binoculars to stay ahead of large things moving about. Moving ships don’t look like they are moving at a distance. I always look for lines to the dock to eliminate possible problems. If the lines are not in sight then the ship is either getting underway or docking. Either way it is prudent to stay out of the way. I maneuvered around a stopped tug pushing a barge only to find a ship headed towards both of us. I didn’t like what I did as cut in front of the barge to give more room to the ship headed toward both of us. The ship had current pushing it as well as having to move forward to maintain control. So, that ship was moving faster than it appeared. I certainly didn’t want to cross the ships bow to go down the other side, so I cut in front of the barge which was sitting still. But still, if Murphy’s law cuts the motor off of Liquid Therapy I would be in a real mess.
After getting past the port we entered the Hollywood, FL area and we knew there was a restaurant ahead with a tie up.

We pulled along the pilings of Jimbo’s Restaurant in the strong current. The bartender came down and secured our bow line and Susan got the stern and spring line adjusted. The current was running pretty hard so I didn’t put the second spring line on and we sat at the bar for lunch.

I had wings and Susan a salad with tuna on it. Both were good and we enjoyed taking a break from the neck twisting of all the Port Everglade part of our trip.

Getting underway from Jimbo’s we entered the Hollywood, FL area of the ICW and it was slow going against the outflowing current of the Ft. Lauderdale inlet. I realized that somewhere ahead the current will switch as the outflow to Bakers Haulover Inlet would slide us down toward our destination marina. Bill Bird Marina is adjacent to the inlet.

Lots of boat traffic in an out of Baker Haulover inlet at our destination marina and no dock master contact on the VHF radio caused concern. Bill Bird Marina is a Miami parks and recreation facility. Sometimes the park systems do not answer the VHF radio. I call the phone and it goes to voice mail. We try to figure how to enter the marina and where we might temporarily dock to contact the dock master. I find an empty slip and tie up. I send Susan to the office as I will have to open the electric lock door to the dock when she comes back. She finds the dock master and we move to our assigned slip and tie ourselves up. No dock help from the dock master. But Susan and I are pros at tying up and get Liquid Therapy tied to where she will stay until January 2, 2018.

Jonathan comes to our boat about 7:30 to take us to Indian dinner. We hadn’t seen him since February and it was a great reunion. We will be staying at Jonathan and Eric’s house through Christmas. After that we will be preparing Liquid Therapy for the Bahamas. Oil changes etc and provisioning for the Bahamas will be our main focus after New Years. For now we are going ashore for a few days on terra firma.

Today’s picture is one of the spectacular sights from yesterday. This a ship that ships your yacht or sports fisher to other parts of the world. http://www.yacht-transport.com/pacific-west-coast.html The ships sinks itself down. You drive your boat into the ship. The ship pumps the water out and your boat is dry-docked for its trip to the Mediterranean, Panama Canal or somewhere. So, maybe our next trip on Liquid Therapy we will start in Costa Rica.