continued
We had another early start getting off the hook at 7:00 a.m. in order to time the bridges well. We had 13 bridges to get through to make our goal of the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Boca Raton. That’s allot of bridges!
Lake Worth borders the Palm Beach area, so we continued through this area, still astounded by the beautiful real estate around us. We passed through the towns of Lake Worth, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and entered Boca Raton. Each town with its own beauty and charm from the ICW. The homes are spectacular and the towns and shops around catering to this clientele. The most noticeable difference in this area is the lack of wide open spaces. Every available inch of waterfront is built on with little space in between properties.
We finally got off and arrived at the yacht club just before 5:00 p.m. The club was beautiful, with a fitness center, golf course, tennis, pool, and several restaurants. Of course we arrived too late to take advantage of most of it, but we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out, so after showers, we proceeded to the lovely Commodore Room for dinner. We enjoyed a great meal together and then headed back to the boat as we were all exhausted.
We left the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Boca Raton at almost high tide. We had no problem getting out for which we were thankful. We proceeded on the ICW about 13 miles and passed by Lauderdale-by-the-Sea before entering into Ft. Lauderdale. The most striking change was the presence of high rise condo and apartment buildings that distinguish Ft. Lauderdale from the other sea side towns. A manufactured landscape of high rise hotels, condos and commercial buildings adorn miles of waterways and canals that are criss-crossed by luxury yachts, fishing boats and pleasure craft of all kinds.
We discovered there was a mall just a few blocks from the club, and Monica, anxious to spend some of her Christmas dough, was all ready to head out for an afternoon of shopping. She finished her lessons and we went to the mall. In the mean time, Tony was off running errands with one of the club members, who offered to drive him around. (Boaters are such friendly people). We all met back at the boat around 6:00 p.m. and had dinner on board.
We had only two miles to go to the next yacht club in Ft. Lauderdale. The wind was still blowing strong so we made our way out of the Coral Ridge YC and headed for the Lauderdale Yacht Club. We arrived at the club around 10:00 a.m. and were greeted by one of the friendliest dock masters yet, Caitlin Sullivan, (a good name!) Monica and I commented she reminded us of my niece, (Monica’s cousin), Maureen. We had time to run some additional errands, (there’s always something else to buy!), so we headed out for West Marine and the grocery store. Monica stayed on board to work on her lessons. We arrived back at the boat in time to meet a rigger who was doing some work on the boat. After all the chores were done for the day, we all walked up to the club and enjoyed a lovely dinner together at the club then headed back to the boat for ‘lights out’
We left the Lauderdale Yacht Club just after 7:30 a.m. and headed to the Port Everglades Inlet, the inlet from Ft. Lauderdale that goes into the Atlantic Ocean. We decided to go outside for the final stretch and avoid the numerous bridges between the two busy cities of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami.
The front had passed and the weather was perfect. We had winds out of the south on our beam, perfect for sailing south. We unfurled the sails for the first time in weeks. These are the days when you remember why you selected a sail boat over a trawler! The color of the water is noticeably different here. It is clearer and more blue in color with white sand at the bottom. It made us all anxious to get over to the Bahamas.
Ocean Color
