To Fort Lauderdale & Key West

I last left off that I had spent an enjoyable night wandering around the charming little town of St Augustine, the oldest community in the Americas, and was to head down to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with Joel Potter, the former Amel sales representative for the Americas (who now just sells boats he believes in out of Fort Lauderdale (he can’t fly much so lost his distributorship of new Amel’s)

I got up early, grabbed the free breakfast such as it was at the Red Roof Inn and decided to take the coastal route down as far as Daytona Beaxh. I was hoping to get a sense of the coast but the highway is mostly commercialized so you see lots of strip malls and gated communities.  I saw no end of people talking and reading their cellphones in the car so figured the cellphone ban hasn’t got to Florida yet and decided to chance taking some pictures on the move (I was trying to make it to Cort Lauderdale for a 3 pm appointment with Joel so didn’t really have time to stop and gawk)

The Intercoastal Waterway - a channel that allows boaters with masts less than 65’ tall or drafts bigger than 8’ to travel all the way from Key West up to Boston without having to do much Ocean work.

A lot of boats do the “Great Loop” over the course of about 11 months starting in Florida, working their way up the east coast to New York City and then going up river in the Hudson as far as Albany before either getting into Lake Champlain and then Montreal on the St Lawrence or through the Canals to Lake Ontario where boaters can tour the Rideau canals up to Ottawa from Kingston or go through the Trent Canal system at Trenton to Lake Simcoe (where I love) and then join the Severn Canal system into Georgian Bay and the 30,000 islands. Most boats hit here in July/August before continuing up past Tobermory to Sault Ste Marie and then turning into Lake Michigan and joining the Mississippi River at Chicago where they can follow this down to New Or lean’ sand into the Gulf of Mexico. There is another waterway that allows them to continue along the west side of Florida back to Key West. 

More of the same...

The winds were pretty strong out of the east so there was a lot of blowing sand from the beaches. 

One of the many, 65’ tall bridges crossing the Inland Waterways 

lots of construction building new homes on the beach. 

After about 90 minutes of that, I decided I was not going to make my appointment at 3pm at this speed so decided to jump on I-95 and head south to Fort Lauderdale. I put the cruise on 78mph and just stayed with the flow and arrived in Fort Lauderdale well in time to check in and get setup by the pool to meet with Joel and his wife Vella.

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours discussing Amel’s and sailing stories and I learned a bit more history on the brand and the particulars of a few of the boats I had been following before we broke for the evening. I went hunting for some caffeinated sparkling water drinks (Phocus) that Karen had found worked well in night watches unsuccessfully but grabbed a quick bite and then headed back to my room for the evening.

The next am, I decided that I would throw away my airline ticket from Miami to Key West and simply keep the rental car and drop it off at key west allowing me to do a drive that I’d always wanted to do and still get into Key West earlier than I would have by flying down.  First I had to stop off at Best Buy to pick up a hard drive enclosure as I was carrying down a few TB of movies for Alan but needed a way to share it.  I managed to find on in Miami but unfortunately I dropped my iPhone as I was loading it into the trunk and smashed the screen to bits. This is the second time for me on my old iPhone 6s+ but don’t want to upgrade until the new 5G phones next year so started to look for some place in Key West that I could get it repaired before heading off into the wilds for 5 weeks.

I should have a screen protector but I find this phone almost too big as is and I view it as a tax on my stupidity that I just have to pay now and then. Two screens in almost five years is tolerable when you get a like new phone back. Anyway, I continued down the A1 to Key West through Key Largo. I didn’t get a chance to visit Key Largo but from the A1 (admittedly not the best vantage point) I was reminded of a bigger version of Wasaga Beach.   I didn’t see much but mangroves, causeways and one fairly large (4’ or so) iguana crossing the road.

The iconic causeways of the Florida Keys. 

Like much of A1, not a lot to see. I hesitate to judge as I didn’t get off but it wasn’t quite the trip I’d hoped for. Still, as there was no drop off charge for my rental and it only cost me a half tank of gas, it was well worth it. 

I arrived in Key West in time to drop my stuff off on the boat and then get the rental back to Hertz at the airport for 3pm so my total charges to go from Jacksonville to Key West over two days was $75.   Considering that my ticket from Miami to Key West was $120, I thought that was a real bargain.

Karen, Dean and the kids picked me up in their golf cart and we went back to the boat. I then took an Uber downtown to get my screen replaced and got to see a bit of the FantasyFest festival that was going on in Key West. I wasn’t bold enough to take photos but I’ll share one that Karen had taken the night before.  From what I could tell, it gave mostly old farts (like me or even older) a chance to shed their clothes for body paint and wander around naked. This photo gives a very positive impression. Reality on the other hand....

FantasyFest might be a bit more appealing if they all looked like this...  watching 70+ year olds try to imitate it... not so much.  

I got my phone fixed within 20 minutes which was enough wandering around in that for me and took an Uber back to the boat for the night with Karen, Dean, the three kids and the boat captain they’d hired to guide us to Isla Murejes.

Karen and Dean’s beautiful new boat Sensible a Beneteau Sense 55 will be my home for the next week 

Tomorrow we leave for Isla Mujeres (Cancun).