Well it was nice to be back on the water again. Last night we had some thunderstorms that rolled thru the Keys and it was pretty gusty and a big light show for awhile. Today started out cloudy with a chance of a morning shower and then clearing for sunshine.
The wind was up a little but being on the ICW in the Bay, the water was a little choppy but not the six foot waves in Hawk’s Channel in the Atlantic. Traffic was light on the ICW until we got to Miami. I think everyone was sleeping in this fine Sunday morning.
The boat traffic in and around Miami was crazy but with the sun out so were the boats. The water looked like Lake St. Clair with the waves coming in all directions and the same with the boats. It was hard staying in the channel sometimes when boats are coming right at you from the other direction. There were a couple of times I had to slow down (from 8 mph) to avoid some nut crossing the channel.
We saw a couple of places that were a lot like Gull Island or the sand bar in St. Clair. The boats were parked all over the place and it looked like a real party going on. As we got further north the traffic thinned out. Just South of the Fort Lauderdale inlet we had to wait while 2 tugs jockeyed a freighter up the ICW and turned him into the inlet to take him out to the Atlantic. Pretty interesting to watch and beside we had no choice because they pretty much blocked the ICW.
The houses along most of the ICW was pretty nice. There are some really large “estate” style homes and some that are under construction. A lot more homes being built this year than I remember from last year.
Lot of bridges that we are able to get under while the other traffic has to wait. We only had one bridge in the Downtown Miami area that was only 12′ clearance, Venetian Way, and we were within a couple of minutes of their opening. I did put the VHF antenna down to make sure we did not damage it.
The Fort Lauderdale area is really busy. It is spring break time down here an every body wants to go to the beach. We are 2 blocks from the beach and right next to one of the large Beach Parking Lots. We did carry out from one of the beach side restaurants and it was doing a booming business when I went up to get the food.