Friday, March 7th we left Marathon and headed up the ICW towards Key Largo. At one point we left the protection of the ICW and went under a bridge that looked like we weren’t going to make it through, but we did and we were now in the Atlantic Ocean. As usual, it was a long day to Key Largo passing by some beautiful homes and areas. We saw the African Queen tour boat, met a guy from Rhode Island who was familiar with Centerville and Marion, and had dinner with Ripple – Alison and Doug from Piqua.
.Saturday we headed towards Miami and had great views of the Miami Skyline. We arrived at the huge Dinner Key Marina with 587 Slips! A cool fact about this marina – Pan Am had its Seaplane Base here back in the 1930’s and 1940’s. We did lots of exploring and eating out in this town known as Coconut Grove. It was a very easy walk into town with some great restaurants and Danielle’s Ice Cream!
The next marina was Bahia Mar in the heart of Fort Lauderdale! Can we say Spring Break?? Did I ever wear a bikini that small?!?? We met a new looper couple, Livin’ the Dash – Jim and Tammy and we all went to dinner. Afterwards, we walked across the street to the beach. The Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center was right near the marina which also included a Dive Tower. You definitely needed to be qualified and certified to dive off the varying height platforms, We saw someone dive from the second level from the top. Whoa – quite impressive!
The next day we left Ft. Lauderdale and headed north once again. It was quite a long day of traveling due to a variety of factors. The first being the many bridges we encountered along the way. Our boat height is 17 feet and many of the bridges were lower than that so we needed to call the Bridge Tender on the VHF radio and request that they raise the bridge. The bridges on this stretch of the ICW are typically raised either on the hour or half hour or on the quarter after or the quarter before. You are also trying to gauge your speed with the timing of the raising of the various bridges. Upon approaching the entrance underneath the bridge, you are required to slow your boat speed to cause NO WAKE. The reason for NO WAKE under the bridge is that it could cause damage to the supporting structure. In addition, as we travel along the ICW, there are areas with lots of homes with private docks and even restaurants that also require a NO WAKE or MINIMUM WAKE as you pass by.
We arrived late afternoon to North Palm Beach and went to the Safe Harbor Marina where we also ate at a Food Truck called Belles.