Where was everyone?

Where was everyone??

Peggy & I were aboard Eximius for a day sail outside of Port Everglades with Bob & Pat from Esprit Du Vent, another Catalina 34.

Bob & Pat arrived early, thank you! and paid attention as I read though the New Crew/Passengers Check List. Then after our Preparing to cast off check list, we headed out from the slip and motored down the New River... and for the first time ever, the East Coast Railroad Bridge was down. Most likely for a few minutes before we got sight of it, and of course, Andrews Avenue Bridge was down as no point in it opening. So we hung out keeping station for less than 10 minutes, then the bridges opened and we passed though without incident.

Sneaking under the closed 17th street causeway bridge in very light winds, we turned out towards the ocean raising the main then unfurling the jib about 10:00 as expected.

Wind all over the place but mostly from the north. After It got a bit crispy, we headed back into Port Everglades around noon and got to Lake Sylvia around 12:40 at anchor.... We had our Burgee out so that everyone could find us, but nooooooobody there ??

So we enjoyed lunch, alone on the hook till after 2pm then pulled the anchor and headed home. Sorry we missed the other club members... we had 4 bottles of wine, lots of cold drinks, Veggie & Fruit Platters, Coffee, fruit, yogurts, wraps, crackers & cheeses, so we dined well! Sorry we missed them.

We heard 'Magic' calling bridges but nothing on the horizon. Then as we headed up the new river, the East Coast Railroad bridge was closed - again! This time we were east of Andrews avenue bridge and heard over the radio that a TowBoatUS was dragging a 'quite large catamaran' out of the river and were upstream of 7th avenue bridge. We called Andrews to let them know we were in line and called Tow Boat US to discuss options for us two passing between the bridges. They agreed that we should head through the bridges ahead of them. We were able to hold station really well downstream of Andrews bridge and could see the railroad bridge from our position. Several boats on our Stbd side were tide up alongside the river, and they were obviously discussing our position holding. But we did really well.

Finally the northbound train passed over the bridge and both the FEC bridge and Andrews started to open. As agreed, we snuck through first, hugging the fenders on the North side of the river. We thanked the Andrews Avenue Bridge tender for the opening and then the TowBoaUS for allowing us to go through first, and then we remarked that TowBoatUS had not told us they were towing a spaceship! Wow, what a great looking Catamaran! SyFy!

The rest of the trip up the river was pretty routine and we tied up after Peggy did a great job bringing Eximius alongside our slip. Then a few minutes patiently swinging the boat to face back East before tying the lines and putting the fenders out. 

Bob and Pat were great company today, we really enjoyed sharing our experiences with them and very glad that they were able to come out even if it was a kinda short sail.

See you on the Water