Moving day !! Ft Lauderdale to Boynton Beach

November 10, 2015

We awoke at 4 a.m. when the alarm went off.  By the time we took showers, walked Sasha, and loaded the car, it was almost 5 a.m.  We picked up Captain Ray at Moss Marina in Ft Myers Beach, and made it to Ft Lauderdale in about 2.5 hrs.  Jim & I followed Linda, the broker, to the Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood airport to return the rental car while Rob and Ray went through the boat systems.  There was a bit of morning traffic on the way to the airport, so by the time Jim & I got back to the boat, Rob & Ray had the engines fired up and were ready to cast off.

The New River - we started from Lauderdale Isles (bottom left) and snaked up and over to the ICW (the wider north/south channel on the right - mid right is where the New River comes into the ICW)

Some people may wonder why, after the 1500+ mile trip from St Charles to Ft Myers, Rob & I didn’t feel comfortable helping Jim to pilot Tamure ourselves.  There are several reasons.  First, Tamure was docked in a fairly narrow canal off of the New River and had to be backed out.  Near the entrance to the canal, there were 2 fairly large boats docked on either side right across from each other that we would have to pass between with little room to spare.  Second, parts of the New River itself are fairly narrow given the number of boats docked along the banks and the potential for heavy boat traffic.  Third, there were at least 38 bridges that we would have to have opened for us, so the probability that we would be waiting with other boats in tight quarters with unknown wind and current conditions was high.  Finally, we were concerned about handling the boat in the 5 locks on the Okeechobee Waterway.

Tamure is the 2nd boat from the top, in the canal between Nassau & Okeechobee Lanes.  Notice the 2 boats at the end of the canal that we would have to back out between.

There was an anxious moment when the port engine didn’t seem to go into gear, but after Captain Ray put it into and out of gear from the lower helm, the control on the flybridge started working.  It was probably just a matter of the running gear oil having to circulate and build up pressure to the flybridge control.  Rob, Jim, and I were standing at the ready with extra fenders in hand just in case we needed them when maneuvering through the tight spaces.  I wish we could have taken pictures of the first few miles of our trip, but we were too busy watching out for boat traffic and keeping an eye on our clearance all around.  I did find a photo on the Internet which gives a good idea what much of it looked like though.

This may actually be one of the canals off of the New River, but parts of the New River itself looked very similar.

The Ft Lauderdale Boat Show had ended the previous day, so there was more boat traffic than usual, with boats being moved back to their slips or dry docks.  We got through all of the tight areas just fine with Captain Ray at the helm, having to use our extra fenders just twice.  Of course this occurred while waiting for bridge openings, jockeying around with other boats in close quarters, with a fairly strong current pushing us into the bank.  Fortunately, we were in a canal section of the river, so there was good depth all the way across and we could choose to brush the wall with fenders deployed rather than one of the many boats all around us.

We were pretty happy that the part of the trip down the New River to the Atlantic ICW only took about 2 hours.  We were following a bigger yacht that was being towed out by 2 small tugs, so we didn’t wait long, if at all, at any of the 4 bridges that we needed opened because the bigger yacht needed them opened too.  Apparently some insurance companies require that bigger yachts use towing services to get them down the New River to the ICW, and when we finally reached the ICW, the yacht pulled to the side to be untethered from its escorts.

Big yacht being escorted on the New River by tugs

Atlantic ICW at last!

Once we got to the ICW, the navigational channel widened out, so we were able to relax and enjoy the sights.  We passed Bahia Mar, the site of the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show, and there were quite a few of the big yachts still there.

ICW channel in Ft Lauderdale

Yachts still at the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show site

There are so many nice waterfront homes along the ICW in the Ft Lauderdale area that you would fill up many albums if you took pictures of them all.  I took pictures of a few so that you can get an idea of what we saw as we cruised by.

 One of the many good tips we picked up from Captain Ray was to use the Waterway Guide for navigational challenges, such as bridges and locks.  We had noticed the marina listings in the Guide but had missed the bridge listings which are especially useful when going through an area with as many bridges as Ft Lauderdale.  The bridges were listed in order, so Captain Ray had a piece of blue painter's tape that he would move so that the information for the next bridge was right above the tape.  How simple but how ingenious to help keep your place!

Sasha enjoying the cruise on the front deck

We didn’t have a marina picked out yet, because how far we would go was so dependent on how things went on the New River and at the bridges on the ICW.  Since we seemed to be making good time and were having short bridge opening waits, if any, Rob started calling ahead to see who had room for us.  We ended up staying at the end of the fuel dock at Boynton Beach Marina, which was a nice easy dockage right on the ICW.  There was a nice grassy area right by the dock that was just big enough for Sasha to play Frisbee, and there were 2 restaurants right beside the marina.  We ended going to Two Georges since it was raining and it was the closest – we just walked down the small fuel dock to their outdoor dining area – and the food was very good.