Back in Ft. Lauderdale

Tuesday, March 15th

Mike here at the boatyard gave us a going away present yesterday, so I guess that means we should leave. It was a new fire extinquisher. We had to use our previous one to extinquish a fire created when we overfilled the alcohol stove. No harm done, but it was a mess to clean up the chemical.

We were given guest passes to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, and took the trip out there yesterday. We have gotten pretty good on the metrorail and with the bus system. The gardens are huge. We took the trolley tour and then a walking tour.

Ken and Francie called us from Cat Island in the Bahamas. We never made it there last year, but they say we must put it on the itinerary. Beautiful beaches, snokeling and shelling. They are planning to cross the first or second week in April from Abacos probably into Stuart, Florida. We hope to be able to see them there.

Friday, March 18th

We left Anchor Marine and made our way outbound down the Miami River thru the seven bridges behind Osprey, a motor yacht, on Tuesday. It was more than two hours on our newly re-repowered engine and the engine just hummed along like a finely tuned machine. We have anchored back in Sunset Lake. We need to save some money to offset our re-repower expenses and anchoring here is free. We are working some more on the bright work, sanding and urethaning. It really needed it and it looks so much better once done. Bill's hearing aid went out so we have sent it on to his audiologist and Greg will send it on to Ft. Lauderdale where we intent to go on Monday. We need showers and haircuts! We want to connect with Release when they come back across from the Bahamas, probably in Stuart. We are feeling so much better these days with confidence our new engine is installed correctly.

March 22nd

We had a lot of wind, choppy waters and ten bridges along the ICW to Ft. Lauderdale. But we arrived safely and Snow Goose just traveled along smoothly with no problems.

We secured the boat and then headed for a hot shower! Incredible how wonderful it can make you feel after two months of sun showers. Hair cuts happened today and now we look like civilized humans again.

This place is alive with people. However, unlike Miami, we do hear the English language being spoken. I am still blown away by the number of Cubans and the Latin influence in Miami.