S/V Stella Blue: Southern Progress

After having almost a week of nonstop high winds in Lake Worth, we finally got a break. The problem was the seas didn’t lay down as much as we hoped. Since our window for sailing offshore would not be “open” very long and the waves were still 5-7 ft high, we decided to just suck it up and motor down the ICW just to make southern progress. We knew we would have lots of draw (bascule) bridges to contend with but that’s not really hard – just annoying (calling the bridge, waiting for them to open, “treading” water until they open, losing time, etc…). We arrived in Lake Sylvia anchorage in Ft Lauderdale around 3:45 pm after going through 20 bridges within 45 miles!! It was a long day but we made significant progress on our southern journey.

Lake Sylvia was a bit crowded when we arrived with a mixture of sailboats (one of which happened to be our friends Hutch and Linda on S/V Sandcastle), trawlers and fishing boats but it had fair protection from winds and we didn’t plan to stay a long time. Thursday morning we went over to Las Olas Marina in the dinghy and took showers, used the wi-fi and did some laundry. On a whim, we decided to walk to the grand opening of the new West Marine super store that was about 4 miles (each way). With Kala in tow, we explored most of downtown Ft Lauderdale. When we arrived, there was a forum with Brad Van Liew that was going to start in 20 min. and we couldn’t believe our timing. We have followed his races and have so much respect for his skills and adventurous attitude. It was great to hear his story first hand and understand that he is just a normal, straight forward guy who happens to have sailed solo races around the world three times, and won.

Before leaving Ft. Lauderdale, we also had the great opportunity to see my sister Katy and her husband, Asif again. We met up at Southport Raw Bar. Katy and Asif drove, we dinghies. Baxter and I talked about the new West Marine so much, they needed to have a look for themselves so we all went back together. I think it might be bad if we lived close to Ft Lauderdale – West Marine makes spending money way too easy. We really enjoyed the time that we got to talk and laugh with Katy and Asif. We are so thankful that we have been able to see relatives and friends on this trip, sometimes by pure coincidence, that we haven’t seen in years.