Ft Lauderdale to West Palm Beach


Yes, that's Mar-a-lago.  President Trump arrived just before we did as the draw bridge was closed for the motorcade to cross when we arrived.  We got there just as the motorcade cleared and the bridge opened again for traffic.   

.... But I get ahead of myself ....

We started our day at anchor in Sunrise Bay at Ft Lauderdale.   We anchored with about 10 other boats in what is a tiny anchorage.  

The traffic on the ICW here is a bit crazy.   Fast drivers who think 10ft off your port or starboard is enough at 30-50mph in a channel 150ft wide.    When they pass it's very much like a washing machine.  



It's amazing how many people here have between 1000 and 2000 horsepower strapped to the back of a boat.   Insane power.  

And usually it's a 40ft center console of some type.  

Of course they all slow down for the people crewing in the middle of the river ...


We must have driven by 10,000+ millionaire estates today and maybe a hundred billionaires.   I don't know how many billionaires there are but a disproportionate number of them have a house and a boat in South Florida.    Im pretty sure all of the Michigan based ones do....  It's evident here that the money comes from all over the world as the flags are from all over on the houses. 

And beautiful houses there are...


Some of the prettiest houses were also in areas with lots of traffic and - it's best to drive the boat rather than sight see and take pictures.  Some of the estates today were on the ocean front and the back of the property had huge docks for the boats with short trips to the ocean through cuts in the islands.  Gorgeous estates. 

I grabbed two of them off Google to show what they look like from above.  The last one is, of course, the former (and perhaps next) presidents house.  


I saw several pools today that are designed like I've never seen before.  Instead of an infinity pool the water facing side of the pool is entirely clear and sometimes the pool is on the 2nd floor balcony.  Pretty cool looking.  


And yes, there were bridges.  More bridges than I care to count.  Some we could limbo under, others we waited for 30 minutes (or less) to get them to open.   



The wind was so strong that it was dangerous in some of the holding areas pushing the boat to the bridge or to the shore and I had to use quite a bit of throttle just to keep us off boats, bridges and cement walls.  Things are often tight on the icw.  

And there are boats.   Lots of boats.  Yachts that make yachts look tiny...

44 miles today.   Just about right.  Not too tired or worn out.  It's really windy and wavy right now in our anchorage in West Palm Beach.  Perhaps 25-35mph winds.  



Not a bad view though.  Mega yachts, a golf course and about 500 boats at anchor.  This is a popular staging point for boats to go to West End Bahamas.  Alas that's not for our boat this year.   Maybe next year.  

The winds should die down about 7pm...

Our journey today was mostly northerly.  It has way more little twists in the channel than can be seen from the log.   It's anything but a straight line.....
Tomorrow we continue north after watching church online....   More as it happens....  😉

We are definitely enjoying our time in SE Florida though.  (Me especially because boating all day long is my happy place...)

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