October 15 - 31

Fort Lauderdale

A few days after returning from the Annapolis boat show, we received the new anchor windlass that we bought there (a 1200 watt Lofrans Tigres). Ever since the old one broke in the Abacos, I had been manually raising 50 feet of chain and the 65 pound anchor every time we left from an anchorage and my back was beginning to complain. Even though it took me over three days to install the new unit (mostly waiting for fiberglass to cure), it works great. It has much more power than the old one and the new, shiny aluminum case looks great on the front deck. Once that was done, we were ready to go south to Fort Lauderdale where our new watermaker would be delivered and installed.

After taking three weeks to sail up the East Coast from Florida, the return trip took a quick 5 days. On Sunday, October 15, we took a short hop down the Cape Fear River and spent the night at the Southport Marina, the last place we stayed before our extended stay in Wilmington. The next day we left at daybreak for a 30 hour trip to Hilton Head Island where we spent the night. On Wednesday, we were back on the water for another overnight crossing to Smyrna Beach. From there we were able to slow things down a bit, taking two daylight sails from Smyrna to Cape Canaveral and then on to West Palm Beach where we spent two nights at anchor. Coming from offshore, we followed a 208 foot motor yacht, Polar Star, down the Lake Worth Inlet to West Palm Beach as it slowly maneuvered (with the help of three small tugs) through the anchorage towards the Rybovich yard. This stunning ship had just crossed the Atlantic from the Canary Islands and as we watched it glide silently through the small boats in the anchorage, I could only think "Now that's cruising"!

Finally, on Tuesday, October 23 we arrived in Fort Lauderdale. From the beach, we could see all the mega-yachts tied up at Bahia Marina for the weekend's Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show along the ICW. Since our marina was up the New River, we didn't have to get through the mad house surrounding the show. After motoring through downtown Fort Lauderdale and passing through five different drawbridges, we were at our new home, the River Bend Marine Center. After we tied up, we found our first new neighbor, a 3 foot long Iguana napping on the dock. We found out later that the marina has very strict rules about not disturbing the lizards, and they mentioned that the large one likes to get on the boats to sun himself on the deck. So far, we have not been blessed with a real "deck lizard" on Kiva.

Even though we had just gone to the Annapolis show a few weeks before, we decided to check out the Fort Lauderdale show on Thursday. Despite it is oriented towards motor yachts, the hundreds of boats in different sizes and styles piqued our interest. Allegedly, the show is the largest in the US.

It is hard to put in writing how impressive the yachts were. During our cruising, we have seen a number of big yachts, but when you have almost a mile of mega-yachts in front of you, the mind boggles. Rather than trying to record my impressions, just view the pictures.

After spending a week in Houston for my appointments at M.D. Anderson (all results were good) and catching up with our friends and family, we are now waiting to have our watermaker installed. Also, we decided get certified for scuba diving before we leave the States. Terri already had her diving certification, but it had been 20 years since she has been diving, so we decided the both of us would do the training together. Once all this is done, our next step is to return to the Bahamas in time for Thanksgiving.

This boat next to us in the marina needs a little more work.

This galley would look great in KIVA.....