FEBRUARY 15, 2012 A SAD DAY

February 17, 2012  Dateline:  Ft Lauderdale, FL USA

This morning I left Key Largo around 7:15.  Rich wanted to make sure that I could get through the shallow part of the channel as the tide was falling.  I made it out of the channel without any issues and started to head north toward Ft. Lauderdale.  As I past the northern tip of Key Largo, a boat named ZIGGY came out and I followed her all the way to Miami where she turned off.  The seas were flat and I zipped along at 21 mph.  I got to Ft. Lauderdale before noon and stopped at the Peterson Fuel barge to take on some diesel.  Peterson has a barge on the Intercoastal Waterway by the Swimming Hall of Fame which sells diesel solely to boats; it is like a floating gas station with a 10,000 gallon tank.  It was a short distance from Peterson’s to the Las Olas Marina where I finished my 72 mile day.

As I got to the channel that leads into Port Everglades I saw this cargo ship heading for the channel as well, she had a Coast Guard escort with a large machine gun on the escort’s bow.  Rich told me to slow down so that she could enter the channel first and not make the Coasties nervous.

Port Everglades is a major cruise ship report.  There were at least 6 of them in port as I passed through the channel.  Here is a picture of some of them.

Rich and Carol told me that they had been to Ft Lauderdale many times before but never came in from the ocean or traveled up the Intracoastal Waterway with me.  They took pictures of these mega yachts that were docked along the waterway.  These were just a few of the many that they saw.

On the main road through downtown Ft Lauderdale a dead palm tree was carved to look like an Indian chief wearing full head dress.

Why was February 15^th a sad day?  At latitude 24° 27”, I turned north.  When I go to the Bahamas I may go further south but this particular turn was the start of the trip north and home, the end of my great adventure is getting closer.  Up to February 14^th I have traveled largely west and south, except for the first two days when I went up the New Jersey coast and the Hudson River.

I will stay in Ft Lauderdale for a few days waiting for the weather to clear.