Integrity Cruise

Day 317 - Miami Beach to Fort Lauderdale, FL

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Day 317 - Thursday, March 9th: The wind blew pretty hard all last night and the dinghy, which was still in the water, kept bumping into the boat. It made it a little hard to sleep well.

However, Bill stowed the dinghy this morning and we got underway under a cloudy sky. We swung around the basin we were in and got a couple of pictures.

First, this is Julio Inglesias' house and "go-fast" boat:

And this house belongs to Madonna, we were told:

Next, we cruised back to the Intracoastal Waterway and started north. We immediately encountered the first of many, many drawbridges in this part of the coast. This is the West Venetian Causeway Bridge just opening:

We soon began encountering huge yachts moving on the waterway. This one was from Kingston somewhere-or-other. Impressive!

A little later, this boat, Khakiblue, hailed us on the radio. It turned out the skipper had been aboard Freedom, a 100-foot Hatteras yacht when we were both plying the Tennessee River last October. We had passed Freedom several times and got to be friends. This skipper remembered Integrity and gave us a call. He is delivering this boat to Chicago. Small world!

We next approached "The Canyon." This is a section of the waterway that is lined with concrete and high-rise condominiums. It runs from near Miami to about Deerfield Beach:

As we approached Port Everglades we passed this ship. It is a very unusually designed ship that carries yachts back and forth to Europe. It is designed like a "dry dock" which can flood special tanks and partially sink the ship. The boats are then driven into the well and divers secure them. It was fully loaded and appeared to be ready to get underway when we passed:

These four red and white striped stacks are a familiar mark for the landfall at Port Everglades. They can be seen for many miles to sea:

We were surprised to pass by this cruise ship, Enchantment of the Seas. It is the same ship we passed in Key West. Note the climbing wall on the top deck:

This bridge in Port Everglades was of a unique and sort of dramatic design. We had to get a picture of it:

Nearing Fort Lauderdale we began to see more and more mega-yachts. They lined the waterway:

We passed this unique paddlewheel tour boat. Actually, the wheel was a fake:

We turned into the New River which meanders through downtown Fort Lauderdale. It is narrow and FULL of boats! We have never experienced so many boats and so much traffic in such a small space!

We went past the downtown high-rises, which were also impressive:

We turned into the South Fork of the New River and in a few miles, arrived at Marina Bay Resort and Marina, our home for the next few days. We'll get some pictures tomorrow.

We had gotten to Fort Lauderdale now because there was a lecture/workshop series Ruth wanted to attend here that runs through Saturday. Then we'll re-provision and head north again.

Position tonight: N26 05.507 W080 10.253

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