The journey down to Fort Pierce is easy, the sea is calm the wind is good and the sun is bright up in the sky, we can even take our jacket of and enjoy the warm weather. Dolphins play in our wake again, this time even I can enjoy this… I even manage to make us all some lunch…… things are brightening up for me….Just before sunset we are arrive at Fort Pierce. We check in and having an early night again… we might stay two nights here.
9th February 2010 we get up early and there is no wind, the sun shines again but the air is cold, we have enough of cold weather and are now getting itchy to make our way to Fort Lauderdale. We are set and all ready to go at 9.15. We don’t want to hang around Fort Pierce for another day and decide to motor the ICW down to Palm Beach. As we moto
r down the ICE we pass one beautiful property after the other. They are all well maintained and as we hear later, here is the area where Tiger Woods has bought is property for 44 million, bulldozed the house down to rebuild a new one. This is the area where rich people hang around, to enjoy their hard earned money Again the ICW is planted with lots of bridges, they are either draw bridges or fixed bridges, we have to monitor the tide and water line each time we come across a fixed bridge. Everything goes smoothly until we come across the last bridge before we enter the harbor of West Palm Beach ….. bang…. A big crash and pieces fall down…. We have hit the bridge….. oh no…. luckily we did not hit with the mast, all we lose is our tri colour light and our windex… however very annoying and a usense… another $ 1000 to be spend to fix something… but could have been a disaster….. We do settle in on the fuel dock for the night and have a very early night again… still in disbelief that we had to hit the last bridge before we arrive at our destinatio
n……
10th February 2010 Again we are ready early; and leave West Palm Beach at 9.15. Today we want to make it down to Fort Lauderdale. We have enough of the ICW and as the weather is good and the wind in our favour we decided to sail down to Fort Lauderdale. The weather condition is perfect this morning; 15-20 knots wind, the wind comes from North West and the sun shines. We calculated that it would take us no more than 5 hours to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, that meant we would arrive in day light, what a treat. Once we came out of the harbor we set the sails and went down the coast. We made between 8-10 knots over the ground. We had to keep close to the shore, so that we would not get into the Gulf Stream. If we would have come into the Gulf Stream, that would have stopped us by 4 knots. It was an easy trip, probably the best trip we had since we had left Norfolk. We had no major incidents during this leg apart from the happy faces of everybody as we approached Fort Lauderdale fast. We saw lots of flying fish and the dolphins played again around our boat, which was a lot of fun to watch. Full of excitement I took too many pictures to get the right one. Sven had spotted a sail in the far distance and tried to catch up to it. He turned the Autopilot off and every wake is taken to our advantage to maintain the speed of nearly 10 knots. Just before Fort Lauderdale we got him and passed him as we enter the harbour. Yeah; we have finally made it to Fort Lauderdale; its 2 pm, it’s still daylight. It has taken us nearly 4 weeks; 800 nautical miles south, lots of challenges in regards of weather, running the sailing boat and settling into a new life and a new routine on our sailing boat JUCA.
The sun still shines, but the wind is very cold. The harbor is busy and we have to find our way to the River Bend Marina. Ford Lauderdale is amongst water channels and surrounded with beautiful houses and gardens. It is absolute fantastic to move around, but very stressful and took all of Sven’s concentration to navigate the boat around those channels, which I didn’t even know they existed. It reminds me a bit of Venice; lots of houses seam the edges of the water channels. The water channels are deep, but some areas are not wider than 50 meters. We had to pass a lot of draw bridges and we thought that we probably been the biggest boat that has come through there, but once we went around the corner we saw that we were mistaken We have to pass a lot of draw bridges and everything runs smoothly until we get to the Davies Street Draw Bridge. We have been warned that the bridge master is one of a kind sure enough he lets us sit in front of the bridge for at least 15 minutes.
The wind is pushing us to the side and it’s hard for Sven to hold the boat steady as we wait. We turn from side to side and around in a circle, the energy on the boat is tight and then the bridge finally opens up. I am sure that we are the biggest boat every entering those channels, but get proven wrong. As we move through the channels, big buildings line the sides of the channels and we pass big… no huge motor yachts, we are one of the smaller boats around Amazing. Then we finally arrive at the River bend Marina where Frank and Sabine wait for us. A big hallo and once we secured the boat to the dock, we exchange news and stories. Frank and Sabine are two Germans that had been living in New Zealand for a year. They have bought there boat “Sea Dreams” at the same time when we bought our boat “JUCA”.
9th February 2010 we get up early and there is no wind, the sun shines again but the air is cold, we have enough of cold weather and are now getting itchy to make our way to Fort Lauderdale. We are set and all ready to go at 9.15. We don’t want to hang around Fort Pierce for another day and decide to motor the ICW down to Palm Beach. As we moto
r down the ICE we pass one beautiful property after the other. They are all well maintained and as we hear later, here is the area where Tiger Woods has bought is property for 44 million, bulldozed the house down to rebuild a new one. This is the area where rich people hang around, to enjoy their hard earned money Again the ICW is planted with lots of bridges, they are either draw bridges or fixed bridges, we have to monitor the tide and water line each time we come across a fixed bridge. Everything goes smoothly until we come across the last bridge before we enter the harbor of West Palm Beach ….. bang…. A big crash and pieces fall down…. We have hit the bridge….. oh no…. luckily we did not hit with the mast, all we lose is our tri colour light and our windex… however very annoying and a usense… another $ 1000 to be spend to fix something… but could have been a disaster….. We do settle in on the fuel dock for the night and have a very early night again… still in disbelief that we had to hit the last bridge before we arrive at our destinatio
n……10th February 2010 Again we are ready early; and leave West Palm Beach at 9.15. Today we want to make it down to Fort Lauderdale. We have enough of the ICW and as the weather is good and the wind in our favour we decided to sail down to Fort Lauderdale. The weather condition is perfect this morning; 15-20 knots wind, the wind comes from North West and the sun shines. We calculated that it would take us no more than 5 hours to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, that meant we would arrive in day light, what a treat. Once we came out of the harbor we set the sails and went down the coast. We made between 8-10 knots over the ground. We had to keep close to the shore, so that we would not get into the Gulf Stream. If we would have come into the Gulf Stream, that would have stopped us by 4 knots. It was an easy trip, probably the best trip we had since we had left Norfolk. We had no major incidents during this leg apart from the happy faces of everybody as we approached Fort Lauderdale fast. We saw lots of flying fish and the dolphins played again around our boat, which was a lot of fun to watch. Full of excitement I took too many pictures to get the right one. Sven had spotted a sail in the far distance and tried to catch up to it. He turned the Autopilot off and every wake is taken to our advantage to maintain the speed of nearly 10 knots. Just before Fort Lauderdale we got him and passed him as we enter the harbour. Yeah; we have finally made it to Fort Lauderdale; its 2 pm, it’s still daylight. It has taken us nearly 4 weeks; 800 nautical miles south, lots of challenges in regards of weather, running the sailing boat and settling into a new life and a new routine on our sailing boat JUCA.
The sun still shines, but the wind is very cold. The harbor is busy and we have to find our way to the River Bend Marina. Ford Lauderdale is amongst water channels and surrounded with beautiful houses and gardens. It is absolute fantastic to move around, but very stressful and took all of Sven’s concentration to navigate the boat around those channels, which I didn’t even know they existed. It reminds me a bit of Venice; lots of houses seam the edges of the water channels. The water channels are deep, but some areas are not wider than 50 meters. We had to pass a lot of draw bridges and we thought that we probably been the biggest boat that has come through there, but once we went around the corner we saw that we were mistaken We have to pass a lot of draw bridges and everything runs smoothly until we get to the Davies Street Draw Bridge. We have been warned that the bridge master is one of a kind sure enough he lets us sit in front of the bridge for at least 15 minutes.
The wind is pushing us to the side and it’s hard for Sven to hold the boat steady as we wait. We turn from side to side and around in a circle, the energy on the boat is tight and then the bridge finally opens up. I am sure that we are the biggest boat every entering those channels, but get proven wrong. As we move through the channels, big buildings line the sides of the channels and we pass big… no huge motor yachts, we are one of the smaller boats around Amazing. Then we finally arrive at the River bend Marina where Frank and Sabine wait for us. A big hallo and once we secured the boat to the dock, we exchange news and stories. Frank and Sabine are two Germans that had been living in New Zealand for a year. They have bought there boat “Sea Dreams” at the same time when we bought our boat “JUCA”.
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