M/V MAERIN

We have had a busy week here in Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived on Sunday afternoon of the 21st, to a beautiful sunny day, temps in the 70’s! What a welcome respite from the cold and wind! I’m sure that everyone in south Florida who owns a boat had it out on the water that day! Our entrance into Port Everglade was accompanied by a huge amount of traffic, and lots of jostling at the bridges! It was interesting to see all the activity, and all the mega-yachts both dockside and on the water.

We made our way to Coral Ridge Yacht Club, a few miles north of the inlet just adjacent to the ICW. As guests of members, we benefit from a very reasonable slip fee, and a great location! Maerin got her first full washdown in over a month, and with the availability of power and water we’re able to catch up on laundry and cleaning. Plus, we ordered a brand new vacuum cleaner that is actually doing a better job than the old one, which was retired due to a failed brush drive belt. No replacement parts available, so the old one hit the dumpster for want of a three-dollar part. With two dogs on board, our vacuum cleaner is more of a necessity than a useful appliance! It gets a workout!

Our hosts treated us to dinner in the dining room at the Yacht Club. Proper attire is required, J/T for men. Uh, I don’t have a tie. They’re all at home. Same with the jacket, um, dress shirts- ditto. There’s a mall just a few blocks away, and in today’s economy, a nice dress shirt and tie – on sale- can be snagged for less than the cost of a large pizza. So we dressed up. The jacket, a loaner from the Yacht Club. Dinner was excellent, live music, good company! I passed on the ballroom dancing.

There’s plenty to see here in Lauderdale, and we took advantage of the use of our hosts’ car to reprovision propane, the heavy stuff like drinks and dog food, and were able to locate a replacement anchor roller that handles our Rocna. It is a key piece of gear as most of our time is spent “on the hook”. As the yachting capital of the world, Ft. Lauderdale has just about anything a boater could want or need. So our anchor roller has been reconditioned and re-assembled, ready for duty.

Saturday we hiked across Sunrise bridge and walked along the beach on the sidewalk for a bit (no dogs allowed on the sand), then headed into the Hugh Taylor Birch park where dogs are allowed. The 180 acre park was donated to the state by Birch, a Chicago lawyer in 1941 when he was 90. It includes a three mile stretch of beach and the original home, very modest by today’s standards! It’s a great park, well-used by many!

We’ll be leaving Coral Ridge over the weekend, heading south, at this point, we’re considering a stay at Miami Beach since we enjoyed our time there last year, and we may be able to convince some friends from home who are visiting in Florida to shoot down from Orlando to spend a few days with us.