Thursday, March 16, 1995 - Fort Lauderdale, FL

We had wanted to go outside to Fort Lauderdale, but the weather news said the Gulf Stream was only two miles offshore and the wind was 15 to 20 knots out of the southeast. Having to buck both the 2 1/2 knot current of the Gulf Stream and the headwind was a bit much, so we decided to go down the ICW, bridges or no bridges.
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The bridges were a nuisance, but we reached Fort Lauderdale by 3:30 and went immediately to a fuel dock to top off the tank and fill our water tank, which we'd forgotten to do yesterday. We also got rid of our trash.
Then we went over to the Las Olas anchorage to anchor for the night. I got the anchor ready, but when we got there, there wasn't any room, so Roy decided to go up New River and tie to the wall, so I got the fenders and lines ready. We went up the river but didn't find a big enough space to tie to, so we decided to go to Port Everglades and drop anchor. I was getting rather tired and irritated by then.
When we exited New River, we were confronted by a very confusing array of channel markers. Roy tried to go between a red and a green, which is what one normally does, but in this case that was wrong. We went hard aground. Just what we needed. I wanted to drop the anchor and spend the night right where we were, but Roy kept gunning the engine and the tide was coming in, so after half an hour or so, we got free.
By then it was getting dark. We reached Port Everglades, but it was full of huge ships and deep water. There was no place for a sailboat to anchor, so we continued down the ICW a mile or two, wondering where we were going to spend the night. Finally, we turned into a little creek and anchored in nine feet of water. When the tide goes out, we'll probably be aground again. And we're right in the flight path of the Fort Lauderdale Airport. Every few minutes, a jumbo jet flies directly overhead. Yippee.
Just to make everything perfect, the radar conked out again. Now we can't leave for the Bahamas until we get a new radar for $2000 or so.