We had a beautiful evening at anchor in Lantana. It was calm, quiet, warmer, and we were the only boat there. We did keep the heater on during the night though. It was predicted to be in the high 30's but never made it that far.
Tuesday morning we pulled anchor by 8:15 and were on our way. The ICW trip to Ft Lauderdale only had about 12 lift bridges to go through. We actually timed them well and only got stuck at one bridge for a half hour waiting for the next opening. We seemed to be ahead of the crowd of boats heading south. We thought we had seen large houses so far but travelling through Boca Raton and Ft Lauderdale all we could say was WOW!!!! Houses and mega yachts just got bigger and bigger as we moved further south. Kinvara pulled into Las Olas Municipal marina (no anchorages in Ft Lauderdale) by 1PM. Liz and Jane quickly got the water taxi for a 2 mile ride down river to hit the Bluewater Book Store to get a cruising guide for the Bahamas and one last trip to Publix grocery store. peter was busy on the phone with customs & Immigration to make an appt in Miami to apply for a Local Boater registration card. This allows us to phone in when we return to the US for clearance instead of appearing at the office. Our appointment was made for 1PM Wednesday so it was an early night to get up and head to Miami the next morning.
Kinvara was underway by 7AM to make the first lift bridge opening at 7:15. We then motored 2 miles downriver for the next bridge opening at 7:30AM. As we passed through and began to head out the ocean channel a large Bahamas cruise ship was docking. Talk about Karma. We started to get excited about the reality of finally getting there!!! Today we had to go the ocean route for 20NM because there is a 56' fixed bridge in the ICW which we can't get under. Conditions were good. North winds 10-15k and following seas of 3-5 feet. It was a little rolly after doing the ICW for so long but we needed to get our sea legs back. We pulled into Miami Beach Marina (think South Beach) by 11AM. peter and Jane left at 12:30 in a taxi to get their customs card and Liz left to do laundry and walk around. Little Pretzel stayed at home and slept the afternoon away. So now it's after dinner and Peter is copying some of our important documents for back up, we have the quarantine flag ready to fly (Bahamas courtesy flag waiting also), fueled & watered up. Every inch of space is full of food supplies, chips, crackers, beer, Coke, and anything else people told us to bring. The freezer is full to the top with meats for about 70 meals for 2 people. We will hit the bed early, be up at 6AM, and head out of Miami Harbor toward Bimini Island. the wind is switching east (On our nose) but the waves are calming down and it's our best weather window until next week. We will be able to blog only when we can get a wireless connection (no wireless air cards there!) but you can always check the blog for our GPS location under "Where is Kinvara". Hopefully our next blog will be from the Bahamas.
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