With less than a week to go before Christmas, we are still waiting in Ft. Lauderdale. The weather is OK to go to Miami, but it will be Christmas Eve or Christmas Day before we can cross, again, to Bimini. We hope to leave Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow or Tuesday. The first halfway decent weather for the crossing is Christmas Eve day. Last Christmas Eve we were in Morgan City, Louisiana and had dinner at a Chinese Buffet. It would be nice to be in The Bahamas this year.
The good thing that happened by coming back to Ft. Lauderdale was that we got to visit with our friends Alison and Philip. We met them shortly after we moved aboard Seas the Day in August, 2008, and they helped us christen her. Above is Alison waving goodbye as their boat, Pascana, leaves Lake Sylvia after tying up next to us for a few hours. To the right is Pascana coming into Lake Sylvia. We have enjoyed their friendship, not only because they are very nice people, but also because Philip is a very experienced sailor and has been our mentor.
We have spent some of this “extra” time figuring out where we want to go in the Bahamas. Mark has been huddled over his computer, marking waypoints on our navigation software, most of today.
A group of young children came into the lake this afternoon, practicing their sailing skills on small sailboats. Most coastal cities we have visited have these sailing schools for elementary age children. Lucky kids!
Last Saturday the “World’s Largest Holiday Boat Parade” was held in Ft. Lauderdale. Yesterday, we saw a local TV show about it and it must have been fantastic to see in person. At the right is a photo of one of the boats in the TowBoat US fleet - possibly the same one which picked us up near Bimini and towed us back to Ft. Lauderdale. Of course, it wasn’t decorated then!
