Going down through Florida.

After we left Canaveral, we went down the ICW to Vero Beach.  It was a long day and required a constant watch on the chartplotter and depth gauge.  The channel is very narrow and if you stray, you may very well run aground.  Not pleasant!

We got to Vero on Thanksgiving Day.  We were too late to join in on the cruiser’s dinner on shore.  Therefore, our Thanksgiving dinner was a steak dinner with baked potatoes, green beans, and brown and serve rolls.  Not bad.

It’s easy to see why they call Vero Beach “Velcro Beach”.  The moorings are $11.33 per night with laundry, showers, Wifi, and free bus service right at the marina.  Life is good in Vero.  We stayed a couple of days and ended up having the best Mussels ever at the Riverside Café…a short dinghy ride from our mooring.

We left Vero for a potential stay a little north of West Palm.  We had good current helping us along and we actually made Lake Worth.  LW is very near the inlet for the Port of Palm Beach.  This is a very popular spot for cruisers to anchor in preparation for departure to the northern Bahamas.  There is a “dinghy beach” near a mall with a Publix, West Marine, and some bars and restaurants.  However, since this is Lake Worth, prices are out of sight.  There were over 40 boats in the anchorage waiting for a “weather window”.  We weren’t that concerned since we were going to Fort Lauderdale from there. 

We stayed a coupe of days for decent weather to go to Fort Lauderdale as we were going outside. Just way too many bridges for an ICW trip.  We caught a couple of Mackerel on our trip down.  It was fun going into Port Everglades…lots of big traffic.  We went up the New River into the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale.  We tied up one block off of Las Olas Blvd.; easy access to all sorts of stores and shops.  That is the restaurant and bar center.  The day we arrived was the massive Christmas celebration for Las Olas.  The area was closed to vehicular traffic and stages were set up for entertainers.  It was a big night.

We celebrated Steve’s birthday there with a dinner at Johnny V’s all as a birthday gift from Scott.  It was great…thanks Scott!

There is a lot of boat traffic on the New River so we were glad to get out and go to Miami.  We got a slip at Miamarina, right in the heart of downtown Miami.  Since we don’t have a weather window right now to make a crossing, Kim flew out to Colorado for a visit before we cross to the Bahamas.

Kim returns on 12/6 and we will probably move to Key Biscayne to wait for weather.  Stay tuned for a report on getting to the Bahamas…

Steve and Kim