Wow I can’t believe it’s been 3 days since I’ve written in the blog. We are still in Lake Sylvia – the weather has turned rainy with thunderstorms and it’s supposed to continue through Sunday. We have aborted our journey further south due to the weather and our time frame. We will stay here a few more days and then hope to get a weather window to sail back to Palm Beach.
We have enjoyed being here and we have met many of the other boats in the anchorage and have done things with a few. After the rain on Tuesday ended late afternoon we decided to go for a dinghy ride. We stopped by Joe and Mary Ellen’s boat and they were getting ready to go to happy hour at Coconuts – a restaurant just southeast of the Las Olas bridge. The family on the ‘cat’ next to them were joining them – Matt and Jen and their two boys Conrad (6) and Mark (5) – so they invited us too.
It was half price appetizers from 4 to 6 each day, on Mondays and Tuesdays they offer half price full bottles of wine. We had our usual clams on the half shell, coconut shrimp and some conch fritters – this ended up being our dinner as well. We had a good time – as it turns out our waiter was from South Buffalo! Back to the boat, Joe had trouble getting his motor started so we towed him back to the boat.
Wednesday Tom was soldering connections for his new GPS so it talks to his computer and up at the helm. He needed another connector to complete the job so we took off for Radio shack. We stopped at the launch ramp just past the Marine Police station on the 15th st. canal to dump our garbage and fill up 4 jugs of water. This is there for the cruisers and boaters and a very nice find! We will buy some 5 gallon water gerry cans next season to take to the Bahamas. While there Joe and Mary Ellen came by to do the same thing, followed by Matt and Conrad. We all tied up at the Southport Raw Bar (again) and walked to Publix and Radio Shack. Found a great second hand bookstore in the strip mall where Radio shack is and purchased ‘Cutting for Stone’ a book I’ve been longing to read (can’t put it down).
On our way back to the raw bar we checked out a couple of restaurants and a lauder mat which is right behind Winn Dixie – very convenient and looked pretty clean. Back to the raw bar for clams and peel and eat shrimp. While there we saw Julie (from another ‘cat’ and Heny from Joy – he’s from Denmark). He was having difficulty with his dinghy motor, couldn’t get it started and when they realized we were there, we offered to tow them back to the anchorage (who needs Tow Boat US when you have Leising’s towing service). They had already called Julie’s husband, Terry and before she could tell him not to come, he was there. Heny got the motor running but before leaving decided to come up and have a beer, as did Julie and Terry. We had another nice conversation and as we were finishing it began to rain- again! We had already spent enough time there so we all decided to just go – got a little wet but we’ll dry! Before leaving the restaurant Heny invited us over to Julie and Terry’s boat for dinner – he was cooking a traditional Danish meal – how delightful – of course we said yes.
Back to the boat, got cleaned up and headed over to the ‘cat’ around 7:00. As it turns out Sandy, from a boat that left our anchorage the day before joined us. She had just been towed back from Lake Boca where she was having engine trouble. She decided that she would come back to this anchorage since she knew it well and also had land friends in the area. So it was good to have her with us – we had Danish snapps (like schnapps but different) and a delicious Danish meal. We got back to our boat at midnight after exchanging many boat stories.
It rained on and off during the night and today – Thursday it has rained on and off. I did manage to clean and wax the stern – it has gotten sooty with the generator running, etc. It looks much better now. Well we are trying to get to a drug store to get some medicine - Tom’s tooth has been bothering him so we want to get something to hopefully ease the soreness. That’s all for today!