Aborted Plans

                                          Does this look like the Bahamas ????

NO....it's downtown Miami

I had totally expected to be sending my next blog from Bimini, but it seems that of late my expectations are being sorely tested!  It started out well enough....we left Marathon on Wednesday, dallied in Islamorada on Thursday, planned to get fuel on Friday and head to Rodriguez Key to meet the other boats.  As the Merrill luck (or lack of lately) would have it, when we fired the engines up on Friday to head in for fuel I went below and immediately smelled exhaust fumes in the aft cabin.  I ran up to the bridge and sent Gary to investigate.  Sure enough, the starboard engine exhaust hose had started leaking my first expressed thought was "this is fricking it!"!!!!!!  

So we spent an hour going over options... head back to the boat yard and call it quits for now? (I don't have a lot of patience as some of you may have ascertained) or head somewhere on the water where we can get the new hose and fix the problem.  Obviously the keys is not the place as we would be backtracking to find a mooring field.  We then came up with the plan to go to Stuart on the East Coast, a boating Mecca of sorts. They have a mooring field where we can stay for $20 a day, fix the exhaust, and hopefully continue on our Bahamas track.  Once I got over my initial "I CAN'T TAKE THIS",.... logic prevailed and that seemed to be the best course of action. Since Sue and John are heading over soon we could tag along with them instead of meeting them.

So we have spent the last 2 days going through the weekend mania of Miami through Jupiter on the water on a weekend.   A trip I recommended for the first 6 hours. Miami wasn't bad, it was before noon, I was like "the East Coast is so energizing isn't it, all the people out enjoying the day", but Lauderdale was a nightmare  (one every sail boat should experience :-), but can't :-( )  Between looking at the enormous display of extreme wealth and watching behind us at umpteen bridge openings for the "crazies" ...we were totally exhausted last night...Gary fought the wheel (and his shoulders are not thanking him) all day travelling on one engine, only starting the leaking one if he absolutely had to at a bridge opening gone nuts.  

The thirty some miles between Ft. Lauderdale and Palm Beach is called 'the canyon'.  It gets the name aptly as it is a narrow, 150-200' canal, with cement sea walls on both sides where the wakes reverberate from one side to another.  The speed is mostly "go as fast as you can" tempered with "slow the hell down" every once in a while.  Picture downtown Atlanta at rush hour only with boats. There are trawlers (not many, we are forewarned to stay away from weekends, but our repair window negates our common sense), lots of small weekend boaters, the fishing boats with three or four 250 HP engines seeing just how fast they can torque them to max speed (aren't they supposed to be out in the ocean fishing, for cripes sake), the pontoon boats....and lets not forget the Jet Ski's!  It was literally wall to wall boats for most of the day.  I couldn't take pictures because I was too busy looking behind us to tell Gary what was coming from the rear!!

AND YES...I WAS YOUNG ONCE!!!!  Have I become a crotchety old person?

Today was a little better until we hit Jupiter then it was again a free for all. We are anchored in Peck Lake (not really a LAKE but an indentation in the Intracoastal) and the traffic is dying down. There is a great ocean breeze and we sleep well.  Tomorrow a short trip to Stuart and on with the business at hand.

So there you have it, our woes and triumphs over life aboard.  (This week anyway!)

Can't leave out the pictures while I can send them.....

Five cruise ships at the Port of Miami
with an additional one on the other side...total of six

South Florida's "boat beaches" a shallow spot at low tide

Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale) Cruise ships
there were 5 in port and I 'Googled' it, they were all headed out yesterday
Panama and the Caribbean....do that many people go on cruises every week?  Six in Miami, five in Lauderdale?

Then there are the Port Everglades mega yacht marinas...most of them were flying British Flags
and were probably charter boats.


My favorite "Aquila" , they were asking 12 million for this
50 meter yacht.  It sold in February.






Then their are the Mansions....WHERE do these people get the dough????

"Let the fuel come to you"!!

                               
                                This one just thrown in for a little levity....some of us are
                                 just average joes....if you enlarge you can see the guy in the
                                 green shirt waving at me....maybe he though I was famous??

This yard art was a bit "what are they thinking"

                                      And then this.............

The Hillsboro Inlet mansion that has been under construction for seven years, still not finished
now for sale...for $139 MILLION....the most expensive listing in the U.S.

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2014/09/04/the-most-expensive-listing-in-the-us-is-a-139-million-house-in-fort-lauderdale.php
evidently you lose interest after seven years....that is if you aren't getting a divorce

Palm Beach (one of the) mega-yacht centrals.

So it's time to call it a day and gear up for tomorrow's new delights.  I am sure I will have more fuel for the fire coming up this week, if you can stand it.