We moved Eximius to a new Dock
Back in August this year, our Dock-lord advised us they were selling the house that Eximius was docked at for the last many years. Once we overcame the 'Oh Heck, we have to find a new dock' syndrome, we started calling our sailing buddies to find out what was available but not listed on the many 'Docks For Rent' websites and apps.
We, OK, Peggy, would scroll through the many docks for rent listings online only to confirm that we could not afford any of them, and those that were just within our budget were too shallow for Eximius.
Surprisingly it did not take many phone calls to the members of the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club ( HISC ) to actually find a dock that was within budget and suitable.
We made an agreement with the owner and both of us agreed it would be best if we waited till the end of Hurricane Season. Our current dock was a Hurricane hole, we've been through two Hurricanes, one with no damage the other had minor damage when a piece of 4"x2" 'flew' over the house and struck the top of our mast knocking the Wireless Wind transducer hard, destroying it in one blow ( pun intended )
The new dock is much closer to the Ocean but is West of the ICW and the canal has a bend in it which will mitigate East winds. Best feature, other than being a beautifully maintained dock, is that it's less than an Hour from the Ocean and only 3 bridges compared to our old dock which had 7 bridges including an FEC Railroad bridge which can be down for up to an hour, was tide bound and the bridges were on lock down for a couple of hours each workday morning and evening. It really limited our ability to get the boat out and completely ruled out any chance of a day sail.
So, on Monday this week, we moved the boat to the new dock. We spent a couple of hours cleaning up the old dock where some of our dock lines had been in place for nearly 9 years and, after thanking our hosts, we set off down the North Fork of the New River.
We timed it well and had 10 minutes to spare when we were within sight of the Los Olas Blvd Bridge.
After calling in to the bridge tender, we just dawdled North towards the bridge, past the, now empty, remains of the temporary Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show docks which occupy most of the East side of the ICW between the Los Olas bridge and the Bahia Mar marina.
During the Ten minutes of hovering just South of the Bridge, we heard several other boats call into the bridge tender requesting they be put on the list of boats waiting for the bridge opening.
The Los Olas Blvd Bridge opens on the Hour and Half Hour, didn't happen! Normally it takes a minute or so for the tender to stop the traffic, check for pedestrians and cyclists and lock the gates down before unlocking the bridge and starting the Opening process. didn't happen.
After a couple of minutes some of the other boats called the bridge tender about the opening. It happens, sometimes life interrupts and things don't go to plan. Was there a problem with the traffic, perhaps an emergency vechicle had notified the bridge of their imminent arrival, in which case the bridge would remain down until they passed. Wasn't that!
We tried calling the bridge tender by phone. That meant navigating close enough to the bridge in order to read the phone number on the plaque on the South East side of the bridge. No Answer.
With the bridge not opening, now nearly 20 minutes late, I asked Peggy to call 911 perhaps the tender had had a medical emergency and needed assistance. Just as Peggy was about to dial 911 the Bridge Tender announced on the radio that the bridge was about to open. PHEW
No big deal to be delayed by the late opening of the bridge, but it did mean we would have to wait a half hour for the Sunrise Bridge to open as it opens on the 45s and15s. But again, not a big deal.
We dawdled the short distance from Los Olas Blvd Bridge to Sunrise Blvd Bridge and even then had to pull a few donuts as the current was pushing us towards the bridge. Again, no big deal and now we were back on schedule.
Only two more bridges to go:- Oakland Park Blvd Bridge and Commercial Blvd Bridge, we smoothly passed by them and then had to figure out the canal which led to our new dock. Of course, I had put a marker on our new Chartplotter indicating the 'Turn' so we had no issued recognizing the entrance.
We slowed to a crawl as this was new territory for us, we didn't know the depths and how wide or narrow the canal would be as we entered from the East. Once we were in sight of the new dock, I figured the best option would be to motor past it and turn 180ยบ so that we could tie up with our bot pointing to the East ready for our next trip out.
The home owner must have seen that we were approaching the dock and kindly came out to help us secure the boat. We ran lines to the dock poles and made a few adjustments. It's the King Tides time of year, so we needed to allow for the boat to rise and fall about 3 to 4 feet, we're used to doing that so again , no big deal.
We took our time wrapping up the boat, it was getting late and Sunset was approaching. With everything packed up, we arranged for an Uber to take us back to the old dock in order to pickup our Truck.
It took just over 10 mins for the Uber to arrive, not the best Uber experience, the car was almost a wreck and I really felt that the rear wheels were going to fall off each time the car breaks were applied. The young female driver was probably working full time as Uber or perhaps also going to school. We didn't get to interact very much with her, she was listening to a Spanish You tube channel and it kinda put a hold any conversation. At the end of the journey, I gave her 5 ***** on the Uber app and a decent Tip, no comment.
We picked up a rubber mat that we had left at the dock and, now in the dark, we set off home.
Pizza for a quick dinner, we were surprisingly exhausted but I think it was more due to the stress of the past few weeks.
Next morning I went down to the boat to check all was well and did a couple of hours work on the boat - that's another story.
We're back into feeling good about our boat and our dock. The Stress should ease up over the next few days, even though there is a late in the season Storm expected next week - we'll know by Saturday if we should take down the Canvas in preparation.
Boating - Gotta Love it!
We're nearer to the water - so See you there!
