To Lake Sylvia
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 25 Apr 2012 22:57
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To Lake Sylvia, Fort
Lauderdale, Florida
On went the engine at eight thirty on
a beautiful morning. I was just heading to the fuel jetty, minding my own
business and admiring Joy looking after Jonathan when
the next thing I was being boarded by two very attractive US Coast Guard men -
that bit was fine, but it was a bit early in the day to be looking down the
rather large, black gun on the front of their very speedy vessel. A security
check they cheerfully said. Well whatever next. They took notes from our boat
ownership and passports, chatted merrily about the forthcoming Fort Lauderdale
Services Festival this weekend and off they went.
Now it may just be
a) the fact of being boarded
b) the close proximity to two men
packing weapons or
c) the mere fact I have a uniform
‘thing’, like those who see a doctor and their blood pressure immediately shoots
up that I felt the real need for a short, sharp sherbet in a tot glass.
Put me right wrong it did, but a slug
of my whipped cream vodka and a long breather, while the Captain did his thing
on the fuel dock at the Riviera Marina that I began to feel a bit more like
myself.
Off we went on our way by ten past
nine. I didn’t feel the need to say Arrr at this old lady
with a distinctive hole.
Nor did I feel sympathy at ten thirty,
for the lady bridge master, who got her rear right span jammed. Oh dear it could be a very long day.
The scenery
changed to a very wide channel, deep enough not to have to be staring at
the depth gauge all the time, this did make a nice break
Some very parsey
hoses
Bear was amused on his first duty to
go through a ‘One Carefully Owned’
bridge
I had a very pretty one, but had to
peg it, to reach it on its opening, as the last chap made me idle for half an
hour when he cut out his quarter to opening. See Pepe out of sorts yet again.
Just as it had just started to get betted aboard
Beez.
Going along nicely now. Thank goodness.
Not a nice
roof, way too shiny in the sunshine
Berger
Houses ??? In America – it’s not the Caribbean after all
An airship
– whatever next
A stunning
house, with an incredible infinity pool AND
traffic cones on the left hand side
We pass Hillsboro
Bridge, a big inlet from the sea
Finally we make it to Fort Lauderdale – It says so on the
side of the bridge, you know
My final challenge of the day was to
negotiate round a policeman in the middle of the river, giving a ticket to a
speeding day cruiser, whilst listening to a man on his very loud, bagpipes (just visible in front of his
garage doors). Unreal. So pleased to hand over to Bear for his last stint
– and a little ‘sailing on the spot’ as he attempted to find the entrance to
Lake Sylvia.
As we got the anchor down at 18:45 a
policeman passed by, he must have seen my weary face as I weakly gave him a
wave. Thank heavens skipper let me win at backgammon and agreed to a pick about
supper. We had come thirty nine point six miles, had been through twenty lifting
bridges – some at twenty to or past, some half past and o’clock, some at quarter
past and to. Bear’s final duty was to phone in to Homeland Security and a chirpy
lady gave him the log in reference D6256. Just as we fell into bed shattered a
party boat arrived, glad they played good music though. We watched an episode of
Sons of Anarchy, I put my eye covers on Beds and I and it was lights out on
quite a day.
ALL IN ALL A VERY LONG AND
EVENTFUL DAY |