Saturday, March 8, 2014
This post covers Cooley's Landing on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale to Palm Beach area in Florida.
Dream Chaser docked at Cooley's Landing in Ft. Lauderdale.
Dream Chaser slipped from her dockage and made her way down New River and back to the ICW.
She shared the narrow channel with docked boats and a lot of traffic: two large yachts and sailboat ahead and two boats behind. Captain Steve brought Dream Chaser through without incident.
Also, there were waits at the low bridges for the lifts. If you look to the bridge base, on the side of the bridges are beautiful mosaics. Below, is just one.
Today was a travel day from our dockage at Cooley’s Landing in Ft. Lauderdale to Rybovich Marine Center in Riviera, FL (near Palm Beach). We are continuing to travel the Intracoastal Waterway, so we are protected by barrier islands that separate the ICW from the Atlantic Ocean. Just a reminder: the ICW connects rivers and lakes by man-made canals. The ICW is continuous from Key West to Chesapeake Bay. Some people travel "outside", but we like the calmer water in the ICW.
Today's forty miles on the ICW included views of condominiums and endless homes in the millions of $$. We have seen every conceivable size and design (many are Mediterranean style), but this home (pictured above) took our attention due to its huge size and modern architecture.
We have been looking for "these guys", but only found this pretend one in a yard along the ICW.
Aren't there safer and more enjoyable places to kayak other than in the ICW during rush hour!
In this area, the ICW became very busy with lots of water activity- work and fun.
Well, it is Saturday!
As we motored along, we saw a lot of ships being loaded with layers of containers. Did you hear about the Svendborg Maersk Line (on Feb. 14, 2014) that lost 520 shipping containers overboard due to hurricane force winds and 30 ft. waves in the Bay of Biscayne. The good news was that most were supposedly empty... all the rest was bad news! Does the Captain just say, "Ooops!"?
There were an amazing number of big and bigger and biggest boats like this-everywhere!
There were many eye catching speed boats with "bikini babes", and then there were other watercraft!
Working marine facilities line the west shore of the ICW in Lake Worth. Rybovich Marine Center, a working boat marina, is our choice for dockage for the next three nights, and we secured Dream Chaser to nice floating cement docks. The picture below is off our port side.
The picture below, off the stern, is our path back to the shore via docks.
Heavy drinkers will have a problem!
Dream Chaser is little compared to these yachts. Rybovich Marine has another facility just south of here where they keep the "Big Boats"-Dream Chaser would look like their dinghy!
After some docktails and a nice visit on Dream Chaser...
Sunday, March 9, 2014
We drove back to the Ft. Lauderdale area to attend the 10:15 am church service at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale. Pastor Tullian Tchividjian replaced Rev. D. James Kennedy who was a pioneering megachurch pastor and a prominent Christian broadcaster. Tchividjian is the grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham. He is a writer, speaker, teacher, and produces a daily radio program. We were glad that we made the extra effort to hear Pastor Tchividjian; he had a very inspiring message!
We're loving it with temps in high 70‘s and more gorgeous sunshine. Lunchtime found us at Sweet Tomatoes and a nice nap in Dream Chaser followed.
The hoppin' place to be is in the area of Peanut Island with 79 acres just across Lake Worth from our dockage. It is busy during the week, but watch out on the weekends and during Spring Break! It's rocking! Drinking is not allowed on the island, so boaters raft up on the north side of the island, and the island is virtually surrounded with partying, swimming, and general "hell raising". If your kid is on Spring Break in Florida, you might find him/her here where the party rages on in the water, on shore, on the sandbar, and in the boats.
In 1961 during the Cold War Hysteria, Seabees built a nuclear fallout shelter for President Kennedy on the southside of Peanut Island. Kennedy often spent winters in Palm Beach, so the presidential bunker was located close by. The bunker is now part of a museum, and the tour is very interesting.
Our walk on the beach was along the peaceful Atlantic far away from the Peanut Island crowd.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Anticipation is growing as we prepare for the crossing to the Bahamas. The diesel tanks are being topped off, last minute provisions are being gathered, laundry is being done, boat parts are purchased, and we are going for a walk on the beach before the rental car is returned this afternoon.
We enjoyed our walk on the beach....
and worked very hard at finding just the right shells....
For lunch, it was Pad Thai, crab fried rice, and salad...Mmmmmm!
We know about and use Bonine tablets, motion sickness bands, ginger chews, etc., but our true friends are Dream Chaser's stabilizers! They were on our "What Does Our Looper Boat Have to Have?" List. A wonderful boat broker we met in the San Diego, CA area clued us into what a difference stabilizers can make on a trawler. So far, they have made the captain and admiral very happy while fishing off shore and while crossing large bodies of open water- like the Gulf of Mexico!!! There is a fin on each side of Dream Chaser's hull (half way down), and they work to keep the boat from rocking. The stabilizers will definitely be turned on as we cross to the Bahamas!
Posting to this blog will, most likely, be delayed for two weeks or more, due to limited internet service. Posting will resume upon our return to Florida.
This map, below, shows where the Bahamas are in relation to Florida and the Caribbean.
Here is a more detailed map of the Bahamas. We are heading to Great and Little Abaco. (see below)
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