On Tuesday, our friend Mike Efford taxied us around for some final provisioning. Everything in the Bahamas is very expensive (except for Spam and mac-n-cheese, they are subsidized by the government), so we’re trying to take as much as possible with us. Last year, we purchased a sleeper sofa, and Scott took the bed out of it. The space left allows for tons of storage. We can even stuff things up into the back of the couch. Worth the extraction!

The boat is now packed and ready for the Bahamas!

Mike then drove us to dinner. His cousins joined us, and we had a great Italian meal while listening to some karaoke. Mike is a regular with the mic. He has developed quite a repertoire, and is really good! We closed both the karaoke and the restaurant, and were dropped off at the boat to rest up for our morning departure.

Yesterday morning, we untied the lines from our slip at Las Olas, and continued south, along the last stretch of the Intracoastal that we will see for the next few years. Our twelve days in Fort Lauderdale were so busy, we only had our feet in the sand for all of twelve minutes! More time for that later I guess.

Traveling this route on a Wednesday was very enjoyable. Much better than the last time we were along this stretch. It was a Saturday, and the boat traffic made it miserable. We went under eighteen bridges, but thankfully only had to have six of them opened for us.

Coming through Miami, we found that the last bridge that we needed to have opened for us is being torn down. A new, higher bridge has been built, and the old one is permanently open while they dismantle it. What a treat for our last bridge opening…no timing or calling the bridge tender! From now on, we won’t have to deal with bridges for quite a long time…yahoo! After an easy, stress free trip, we made it to our anchorage in five hours…a blink of an eye for us!

We are now anchored in Biscane Bay. Key Biscayne is off of our starboard (right) side

The Miami skyline is off of our port (left) side

We have mangroves off of the bow

And Biscayne Bay opens up behind our stern

We’ll be here until mid week next week, while we wait for winds in the ocean and gulf stream to subside a bit. Being at anchor is a nice change from 12 days at the marina. We’ll use the time to do some various painting and varnishing jobs. The internet is really good here, so we’ll do as much as we can while we have access to it.

The weather is warm, with sun and clouds. It is currently 87 degrees, and we are enjoying a “Florida” fall! A few photos during our trip south yesterday.

“Shells Sink, Dreams Float. Life’s Good On Our Boat!”