Tuesday, 12/15/2015

     We left the anchorage at Lake Sylvia about 0900 and started in again with the draw-bridges. Many more to go today.

     I had realized I had forgotten to bring a dinghy anchor for the trip, so Kathy got on the internet searching for marine second hand stores. Of course we had just come by one in Stuart, but she found two, one in Key Largo and one in Fort Lauderdale. Just around the bend.

     We found what we hoped would be the closest anchorage to the store, Sailorman's, and dropped the hook. To avoid at least a $10 dinghy tie up fee, Kathy dropped me off at a nearby bridge where I went off on foot, carrying my folding hand-cart and backpack. Nice neighborhood, and look, a manned gate-house. Getting out was no problem It might be interesting getting back in.  I'll worry about that later.

     Off I go, up and over the big bridge to the West in search of the store. We thought the store was somewhere just off US Route 1, but I didn't think it would be so far. Eventually after three calls to the store I made it.

     In the mean time, Kathy texted and said she needed to move the boat, as we had anchored nearby to a scuzzy liveaboard catamarran. What we didn't realize was that he had way too much anchorline out and when the tide changed he would be on top of us. Justin, from a nearby boat recognized both the problem and the Willie Dawes and came to Kathy's aid.

     Sailormans was all it had promised to be, lots of great boat stuff, new and used. I picked up two dinghy anchors, one with chain and rode, also a 15 foot piece of hawser to braid up for Tommie's rescue ladder. Had I not been on foot I would have come back with more loot!

     Now, to get back and find a place where Kathy can pick me up. Found a place to mail a letter and made a pharmacy stop. Kathy recommended the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Marina Resort at the foot of the bridge as a possible pick up spot, but all entrances were gated, and altho she says I am a smooth talker, I am hardly respectable looking. For starters I have Desitin all over my face and ears as sunscreen, drab green pork-pie hat pulled down to my giant sunglasses, and if all that and wearing a backpack isn't enough, I am dragging a handcart with an anchor sticking out of it. Even I think I look like a street urchin! No way I can talk my way into a gated community or marina, no way.

     I did find a parking lot that was not gated, which led to the end of a canal where boats were moored to a seawall, and tucked myself inside, gave Kathy a call and hoped not to be tossed out in the meantime.

     I had barely sat down in the shade leaning up against some kayaks when out walks a 2 foot-long iguana lizard. Okay, not sitting here anymore. Time to stand out in the open.  Here comes Kathy in the Seaquin, not a moment too soon. Get me out of Ft. Lauderdale!

    Soon back at the boat, we decided to go another ten miles, 3 or four more bridges then anchored off the channel with high-rise hotels on all sides. Before supper we dinghied in to a grocery which backs right up to shore. Hmmm, tall fences all around, but not at the vacant lot next to the grocery where four guys are fishing from the seawall. After I fouled one of their lines on my prop, one of the guys took our line, helped us ashore, and as he was showing us the secret path to the hidden hole in the fence, told us he was born in Portland Maine. He was very helpful and watched our boat while we were in the store. He was all set up out behind a shipping container and a bunch of construction material, had a grill and chairs, very comfortable.

     Back aboard we spent a quiet nite, the only boat in the anchorage.

~ We have no pictures of this day - I was too busy getting to the consignment shop and back, Kathy was busy tending the boat in my absence.