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| Talaria next to her mega rich neighbors |
It is a "short" 25 miles from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. We set out before 0700 with the intention of using the tide to get us across Biscayne Flats and through the Biscayne Channel. It didn't help - we still ran aground!! Damn this is a rough area. There are not alot of places to anchor a boat with our draft in this area but I would really have to think twice before heading to No Name Harbor again. Plenty deep in the anchorage IF you can manage to get there without getting seriously stuck. The seas were rough with the wind out of the north at 15 to 20 knots. Precisely the direction we needed to go and of course you can't sail into the wind. Of course, we were still having engine trouble and were hoping to just sail up there without the engine. That did not work out! We ran the engine and although it kept idling back it was still running. So we tried talking nice to her and as luck would have it she kept going until we reached the Port Everglades Inlet leading to Ft. Lauderdale. And then she died. Naturally, we were in the shipping channel and there were big, big ships heading into the inlet as well.
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| Typical size of all the yachts in the marina (except Talaria of course) |
So... we put up the staysail and headed back out to sea. Once we had a little "safe space" Michael got the engine running again and we then headed back to the inlet. Now earlier I had been calling every marina in Ft. Lauderdale that was listed and there were no available slips. Apparently, there was a concert in town and all the transient slips were occupied. We were worried since our engine was seriously giving us trouble and we would have to motor quite a distance to find an anchorage. As luck would have it just as we were going thru the very rough inlet I found one more marina that I had not called - Pier 66. A phone call to the marina rewarded us with a slip for the night. And better yet they were located right past the inlet. Yay!!! The downside was the price - the reason for the high price became apparent as soon as we reached the marina and saw our mega rich neighbors! There is a lot of money in a few hands down in Florida - and those hands have mega yachts. No matter - we were happy to pay the price, especially when the storm hit later that night. Now if that tale does not seem too "lucky" consider this - if the engine had flat died anywhere else on the journey that day we would likely not have made it to Ft. Lauderdale. While we were not happy that the engine died at least it got us all the way to Ft. Lauderdale before it died. And even though the marina was high priced - at least we found a marina right at the inlet. If we had been forced to go find an anchorage the engine may have given out and we would have been in trouble with the approaching storm. I suppose its all a matter of perspective. From our perspective Lady Luck had shown us some favor - if only for a day!
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| We looked like a toy next to this big guy!!! |
