Our Journey Nears Its End

We launched the boat today at a Ramp in Thunderbolt, GA Thunderbolt is a municipality adjacent to Savannah and access to sights and things are close by. We left Lighthouse Point yesterday after a wonderful month there and met great people and had a blast. We will definitely make it back there. I will report back later in the week with pictures and activities. For now here is a shot from the back of our boat.

A trip to Ft. Lauderdale

We are taking a few days to visit Ft. Lauderdale and experience the city. We left our "home base" in Lighthouse Point yesterday for a nice easy ride down the ICW. We passed some pretty big homes and even passed by our good friend's house, Donna Addessi, and said hello. When we got to Lauderdale we checked in at the City Marina. It is centrally located, two blocks from the beach, a walk to the water taxi and a two mile walk to the Las Olas Blvd shopping.

The water taxi is a great way to see and learn about the history of Ft. Lauderdale. Did you know that Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) created a facility in Ft. Lauderdale to give kids in the cold winter climates a place to come and practice swimming? They loved the place so much they would come back during spring break to have fun and relax,  hence the beginning of Ft. Lauderdale Spring Break.

As we meandered through the many canals of Ft. Lauderdale we passed homes and yachts of affluent people such as Steven Spielberg, Burt Reynolds, Wendy of Wendy’s, the owner of Subway, the owner of Papa John's,Morone Chevrolet (a big car dealer in FL), a Toyota dealer who has two black Labs named Cash and Flow, an unnamed plastic surgeon and it goes on and on. Below are some pictures




A typical yacht docked outside a home





15 Street Fisheries is a restaurant, but you can feed the fish after dinner and I don't mean Mafia style.





If you look closely there is a restaurant behind that yacht! it has a green awning.





See what i mean? Pretty big isn't it?





Here we are in the Las Olas City Marina





Steven Spielberg's Yacht.
 I belive it cost $200,000,000 and you can rent it for $1,000,000 per week.
What a Bargin!



A day cruise down the ICW

Yesterday we decided to take a trip up the Intracoastal and anchor out in Boca Lake and have lunch. This trip takes you through the heart of Boca Raton. Definitely big bucks in this area. Probably a few less since Bernie Madoff, but you wouldn't know it looking from the water. Below are some pictures of homes, and boats we passed along the way

The pink tower is Boca Resort & Club. A lot of history here.

I wonder what his fuel burn is per hour? See the boat behing him and to the left? That is his also.

Homes of Boca on the ICW

A little stubby, don't you think?

I think the house is a bit bigger than the boat, but not by much.

always busy on the ICW

I think his dingy may be bigger than our boat.

Relocated to Lighthouse Point

We have left Palm Island Marina and are now on the East Coast in Lighthouse Point. The Town of Lighthouse Point is adjacent to Boca Raton and Pompano Beach. It is a very nice community and our marina, The Lighthouse Point Yacht and Racquet Club, is convenient to most shopping. The East Coast is very different from most of the West Coast. It is very busy and built up. Perhaps the West Coast learned from the planning and zoning “errors” of the East Coast.

This marina is well appointed and has everything one would need and want. Although it is a private club they allow us visitors (also known as transients) use of the facilities and partake in events. Somehow the term transient reminds me of people in flop houses in Manhattan who wait at soup lines for meals. Sometimes criminals on shows like Law & Order and NCIS are transients in one of those hotels. Actually when you look at our boat among the others we are near,  we are “THE TRANSIENTS”. I expect them to ask us to wear bells so that people will know to stay clear of us when walking the docks. Kidding aside the people are very friendly and welcoming. One great thing is no one stops and starts asking about our boat like they always did every day at our last marina. I have a feeling they may stop by and give us food and clothes and offer to take us to the free medical clinic.

We will be staying here for a month and will keep you posted if anything of interest arises. Below are some pictures of the marina.

Pool

Other shot of pool with Tiki Bar in background

Like the book Where's Waldo the people here play Where's ILLUSIONS

There she is

Our dock, Where's ILLUSIONS