After a good nights sleep, we headed back out around crash corner and into Hawks Channel. Pushing past the reef line, we headed east making 24kts. With little help from the current.
After cruising a ways, it occurred to me that I hadn't sent a quick check in email to the dock master in Hillsboro Inlet, so I rattled off a quick note to him about just that. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to fish today, as we had to get Steve (Deck Bitch) over to Port Everglades to catch his flight out.
Once we arrived into Port Everglades, I was instantly jarred back to reality and life with a hustle to it. Largo felt like the other side of the planet. As we came under the bridge and rounded the corner to Pier 66, I instantly felt poor. Very poor.
The remnants of the Ft. Lauderdale boat show were still there, and I was flanked on every side by 100' and larger yachts. Damn. Just then, I received an email about my slip in Hillsboro, saying "sorry, we had a mixup, and I don't have any space for you..." What?!??? I called, and Josh, the dock master, picked up. I queried him on the situation, and whether he had received my contract and reservation a month ago. He had... Ok. Could he help me find a slip? Nope... A long litany of phrases and euphemisms then followed as I gave him directions to a spot he apparently had never been before. So here I am, 30 minutes from Pompano, flights out booked, and no place to leave my boat. Brilliant.
After some wrangling and sweet talking I was able to secure a slip at Sands Harbor marina, just north on the ICW. So off we went, under many drawbridges I hadn't planned on, in a boat that I was unsure of the vertical clearance on ( it's roughly 26.5 feet, btw). So the adventure started at Las Olas bridge, where we passed under the bridge with literally 6" to spare. Whew! Then, moving north, we came to our next bridge which was showing 22' of clearance, so we had to wait the 30 minutes to the opening.
Heavy traffic and a ripping current convinced us to backtrack a bit, so we shot back south, scraped the outrigger tip on the Las Olas bridge thanks to a rising tide (Grrrrr....), waited for some cruise ships to clear, and then popped a few miles north into Hillsboro inlet, and it's historic lighthouse.
Once into Hillsboro it was yet another drawbridge, and then on to Sands Harbor marina.
Sands Harbor is everything I love about boating life. Warm, friendly, people; good conversation, and almost instant acceptance. How often do you get together with neighbors, sit on their deck, and just chat about life and share stories??
It's a great experience, and a wonderfully different experience from daily life. In my almost two days there, I met folks from Ohio, England, and locals who shared a wealth of knowledge with me, as well as a seat at their table for dinner.
These are all people who decided to live their life exactly as they wanted, without the trappings of schedules, commitments, and 9-5 schedules. Just them and their loved ones.
I may be romanticizing it a bit, but it's the way I'll choose to remember them.
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