Dec.6 Sunday

Dec 6 Sunday

This is getting old! We are sitting in Lake Sylvia, Fort Lauderdale, listening to the weather station on the VHF. It is 3:30 and we stopped here because by the time we got through the next 5 bridges to the next anchorage at South Lake, we would be in the dark, again. We were going to get a dock at a marina but we can't find one small enough and I was not about to up the NEW RIVER again! The first time was fun but there are 25 knot winds out right now and I didn't want to chance it.

The radio is not telling us anything new except that the weather is stalling over us and Monday /Tuesday may not be our weather window. I am about to say screw it; let's go, but then the coward surfaces. I don't actually care how long we are there before Quentin has to leave, so long as he can GET there in time for a flight.

We stayed in the Ocean Ridge Nature area last night. It is a day use park that can only be accessed by foot, bike or boat. We were there once before.  It has a beautiful floating cement dock that can hold about 3 big boats or several small runabouts. It is very quiet and full of manatees in warm weather; it also has huge spiders hanging in the trees. Quentin was not amused!!  They are called Golden Silk spiders and although the sign says they only grow 1-11/2 inches, these ones were bigger!!!

We left this morning at 8:50 am and considering we went through 14 bridges and got here at 3:00 we didn't do too badly. We made just over 30 miles. But we kept the poor little bat running at 3000 rpm, not what she's used to!  The dinghy up helped a lot and the winds behind meant we could run with the small job at times, but with the twists in the river it got to be a pain so we put it away early in the day.

Tomorrow we will leave here at the crack of [yeah, right] and get to No-Name harbour...only another 30 miles to get to our jump off spot. I find it a bit disturbing that my memory is so unpredictable right now. I know that crossing Lake Ontario last year n October was brutal and it was 50 miles of cold choppy water with an unstable boat [mast lying on the deck] and yet we made it. I remember how I ran through the storm coming back with the boat, sailing all night and trying to avoid the lightening, and thinking the next day, 'wow, that wasn't so bad." But my brain is telling me that I don't want to go anywhere when the weather is not completely calm and perfect. Did those things happen to someone else? Did I just read about them? Why did they not give me more confidence to do thing I know I can do?  Crap, am I getting old???

We did make a vow when we bought the boat that we would never deliberately set out in bad weather...Lake Ontario didn't count...we had no choice. And this is Florida, after all. It can't be crappy weather ALL the time!

So, Rick is putzing around with the equipment. He can't sit still right now but he will want to go to sleep at 6:30. I am watching the cat at anchor behind us because I am afraid that we might be dragging anchor but I am not the anchor setter... I hate anchoring in front of boats. I would rather be behind all of them. And the wind down here is still strong. I remember the night in Georgetown in the storm, when we got far too close to Jasmine City for my comfort zone!! And Stephan's, I'm sure!!

all kinds of tour boats

sleeping egrets out of gator reach

Stork-in-a-tree

Quentin learning to drive

There is another cat here called Adrenaline II [Canadian] Must be from Quebec. I think we might have met it once before but it's hard to tell because some names are so common.

This must be boring so I will quit now.  Hope everyone is well and happy. ttyl