Gotta love Ft. Lauderdale!!!

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Geo: 26.1045, -80.1113

There's so much to love about Ft. Lauderdale. It's the self-proclaimed "Yachting Capital of the World"; AKA the "Venice of America"; it's warm, it's sunny, it's happenin'! It sounds glorious doesn't it?!? It is. 😊

This time, we were there by boat, and we weren't only passing through like we did last year. This time we anchored in Lake Sylvia. Right in the heart of Ft. Lauderdale. Right by our favourite hangout: Bahia Cabana. Right by my old hotel and the Ft. Lauderdale Marina. We were close to all the amenities. Ft. Lauderdale is as wonderful as I remember it! As we arrived it didn't even bother me that we had to make it past TEN more lift bridges to get there!

John and Joanne, our EYC dock mates were already there. It was great to meet up with them again. We had visited with them one afternoon while we were in West Palm Beach with Jimmy.

Fort Lauderdale lives up to it's name. We are surrounded by mega-yachts, tour boats, day charters, mega-yachts, scuba diving boats, fishing charters and more mega-yachts. And then there are all those luxurious waterfront mansions to capture your attention. There's a lot to look at in Fort Lauderdale. But eyes on the road, err, waterway!!! To make a left hand turn out from Lake Sylvia we had to dodge boats in all directions. And unfortunately, there are a number of captains who believe in the saying "Might has Right"...even if the size of their boat is NOT extraordinary. It's all in their heads.

We are certainly the little fish in the big pond. But there's lots of similar sailboats passing through on the Inter-Coastal Waterway and once in Lake Sylvia, we are surrounded by boats our size again.

Suddenly our rainy day up at Lake Worth was a topic to have a good laugh at! We were in Ft. Lauderdale and a weather window had appeared. It was small, but it was there. And we didn't want to be 'stuck' in Florida for the next few weeks.

Lunch at Bahia Cabana was in order on both days, and dinner at Southport Raw Bar. Both Simunye and Inspiration readied ourselves for the crossing on Sunday after John and Joanne had decided to leave at 6am on Sunday morning. Logically, this made sense, since they expected to travel around 8 knots and we only expected to travel around 5 knots.

We weighed anchor at 5:30pm and were heading out Port Everglades at 6pm. At sunrise, we would be just off the North Bimini channel. Bahamas, here we come! 😊

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