Moving south to Miami, FL

Thursday's weather forecast was perfect for traveling south down the ocean coast from Lake Worth/Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale - clear skies and building north/northeast winds during the day. We had to pause exiting the Lake Worth Inlet in early morning to allow this Tropical freighter to come in the Inlet and dock.  The pilot boat is making sure we stay out of the way.

It was refreshing to be out in the ocean and feel the ocean swells as the waves and winds moved us southward.  The view of resorts and condo plazas was an interesting change from the ICW views of individual homes with their yachts docked in front. We sailed wing and wing (genoa sail on one side and the mainsail on the other side of the boat) until mid afternoon.  Increasing winds caused us to shorten sail and take down the mainsail.

You could see the four red and white stacks of the Port Everglades Inlet long before you could see the actual inlet entrance.  We sailed in the Inlet to Ft. Lauderdale and then motored north to anchor in the Middle River just before dark.  Getting into the anchorage late in the day meant that we had to snuggle on the edge of about 10 cruising boats already anchored but there is always room for one more!  Norma is again glad Jay insisted that we change from using rode (line or rope) to using chain to anchor.  It allows us to anchor in a smaller area and not need as much room to swing at anchor.  

Friday's forecast of 20-25kt winds made us decide to travel the more protected ICW from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami.  It turned out to be a very pleasant passage even with all of the bridges since fewer boats travel it.  There is a fixed bridge with a 56' vertical clearance so many of the larger cruising boats can not fit under and must travel the ocean path to go south.  Priority's mast is only 51' tall so we were able to fit under. The famous blimp that homebases tethered near Ft. Lauderdale was flying low along the ocean coastline as we motored south.

We carefully sounded a path for Priority turning east after coming through the West Venetian Causeway bascule bridge in Miami. We explored the Venetian Causeway islands inhabited by beautiful homes and decided to anchor at the far east end since we would be taking the dinghy ashore and the winds were blowing.  Using the tall high rise buildings as wind blocks sounded like a good idea to us traveling ashore in our small dinghy. Our anchorage currently holds about ten cruisers like the one above, some boats that look more permanently anchored here and a few derelict boats that need some loving care.