As our friends from Nashville – Raymond and Judy, who have a place here, have shared, “we have truly entered the land of the 1%”. We continue to be amazed by the buildings, the homes, the boats……
The variety and scale of both commercial and private boats was fascinating as we moved up the Intracoastal Waterway.
Early on we encountered the devil, waiting on his table at a local restaurant. Just one of the many scenes along the water’s edge. There were sunken boats, lots of boat traffic at points, the “Po Po”, boats being towed….
….even the big boats aren’t immune to breaking down!
……and tiki bars, and bakeries……..
and condos and people……lots of people…….
Ft. Lauderdale is a departure port for many large cruise lines heading for the Caribbean, Cuba, Mexico…….and cargo ships connecting with the Atlantic as well…..
We encountered five bridges today and several were lower than we could get under. Most bridges in this area open on the hour and half hour to allow for your passing. Around Miami and Ft. Lauderdale this was a routine occurrence throughout the day and often required us to be in a holding pattern until time for the bridge to lift or open. Make note of our little yellow tracking line on the map, we go up, back, around, and back again while waiting……(more useless information – but part of our daily routine……). Just showing how our electronics record every move we make.
As we were approaching Bahia Mar, these little sail boats were heading out into the Atlantic Ocean through Port Everglades cut – the same route as the big cruise and cargo ships – you really want to do that?
We pulled into Bahia Mar Yachting Center and Marina – a welcome stop after the concrete wall and wind the night before.
Shortly after we docked our friends from Nashville, Joe and Reba, joined us. They were in route to Nashville from their winter excursion in Islamorada. We toasted to friendship before a short walk to dinner at Coconuts Waterside Dining.
The girls had seafood tacos and the guys had jambalaya…..all was good.
Next morning we were awakened to the sound of a megaphone in the not so far distance. Daylight savings time had just arrived as well and our bodies and minds were still at 4:30 a.m. Just across A1A (merely 100 yards away on the beach) we were surprised to find 3,200 people! It was Ft. Lauderdale’s sixth annual International Triathlon with over 1,200 participants (including Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, cheered on by Eric Trump) and over 2,000 spectators from all over the world. We grabbed a cup of coffee and walked across A1A to experience a beautiful sunrise along with busy triathlon activities …….bikers, swimmers, runners, music………a lot of unexpected entertainment before sunrise! The dots on the horizon were freighters waiting to pull into port.
twelve hundred participants – swimming in the Atlantic Ocean – before sunrise – is that CRAZY?
Not to be missed today was the men’s SEC Championship game. We watched from the marina restaurant. Note the score – at one point Tennessee was ahead but finally succumbed to a 77-72 loss to Kentucky.
An early evening walk found us touring the docks of the really big 200+ foot yachts. There we found the mega-yacht named “Glaze”. Most of you don’t know that Karen was a “Glaze” before becoming an “Atkisson”, and she is just sure this is a long lost relative……we are still researching that!
We wondered, as a small boat, how the one hundred foot boats felt among the two hundred foot boats……..
We watched the sunset trying to sneak it’s way between the large yachts….. 
Next morning Joe and Reba headed on to Nashville and we hung around the boat through a rather heavy thunderstorm or two……later the clouds cleared and we had a nice stroll on the beach and our last (and ever changing) sunset in Ft. Lauderdale……
…….tomorrow we plan a short lay-over at Delray Beach before continuing on to Palm Beach………