Fizz in Ft Lauderdale

17/04/2010 by admin.

Today is Friday 16^th April, and we just got in to Bahia Mar marina in Ft Lauderdale this afternoon after a short sail up from Miami.

We left Turks & Caicos on the 27^th March and headed up to George Town on Great Exuma in the Bahamas. This was a long 245’run and we got in to George Town on the evening of the 28^th.  Great Exuma Island , as with many of the other islands in the Bahamas, is protected on it’s NE coast by a line of offshore islands and reefs, which make the approach fairly interesting, particularly for deep drafted boats like Fizz. We picked the N Channel rocks entrance and with less than 1m depth beneath us we surfed in through the narrow gap with rocks 5’ either side of us. Once inside , the next challenge as we headed up to George Town was to keep on the recommended track to avoid numerous shallows. We eventually anchored off George Town after 5 that evening. We took the dinghy ashore that night to explore George Town. There wasn’t much to see in the town, it has less than 1,000 inhabitants and consists of a single road with a few houses strung out along the road.. We eventually stumbled on the Peace And Plenty hotel, where we had a surprisingly good dinner. The Peace and Plenty hotel started life allegedly as a slave market before being converted to a sponge warehouse and then a hostelry. It’s a great little place and well worth a visit. There is even a photo of Prince Philip visiting the hotel 30 years ago.  The following morning we were ashore again to clear Customs and Immigration and hopefully find an internet cafe.  The only place that seemed to have Wifi was a bench outside the local liquor store. So we spent an hour huddled round this bench doing our emails and skyping, before heading back to Fizz. As the forecast was for the winds to back round to the north and strengthen, I decided we would not spend a second night at the anchorage as it was fairly exposed to the north. So that evening we headed off for Nassau up Exuma Sound. Around midnight the wind strengthened to 25 knots, dead ahead, so we had to bring the sails in and motor the rest of the way. The winds strengthened to 30 knots and we had a very uncomfortable run up Exuma Sound pitching into short steep seas before eventually getting to Middle Ground where we again had to navigate through a 30’ wide channel with rocks either side of us and a strong tide running against us. Once we got in to Middle Ground it was a long slog across shallow water to Nassau on New Providence Island. We tied up at Hurricane Hole Marina in Nassau on the evening of the 30^th March, and had a couple of days R&R before heading off to Ft Lauderdale on the 2^nd April. We berthed at Pier 66 marina in Ft Lauderdale on the 3^rd April and met up with Richard and Suzie Veale and their children Thomas and Hannah for dinner at the Ft Lauderdale yacht club. We had a great evening catching up on what’s been going on with respective families over the last 18 months and reminiscing over old times at LRF. Great fun, lots of laughs !

On Easter Sunday we met up with Mick Jennings, one of our Palm Line friends who we keep in touch with back home. He was over in Ft Lauderdale on business so it was a great opportunity to meet up on Fizz. We “rolled “ our Easter eggs on Fizz’s decks before heading out for a sail down the coast. The following day we headed down to Miami where we spent the next few days catching up on outstanding maintenance before meeting up with Claire Warner and the Swifts on Friday 9^th. Claire and Ben joined us on Fizz while the rest of the Swifts headed down to Key Largo where they had rented a condo for the week. We sailed down the following day and anchored off Key Largo for a couple of days. On Saturday 10^th April the Swifts joined us on Fizz and we had a day out sailing up the Keys. The sun was out and the water was warm so we managed to get some swimming in, some of it unplanned, helping Zoe onto Fizz !!!! The weather then took a turn for the worse, and became pretty unsettled with strong winds and frequent rain showers so we had to cut short our visit to the Keys and headed back to Miami on Monday 5^th.  We spent most of this last week sightseeing/shopping in Miami. The Swifts headed off to Orlando yesterday for a week doing the theme parks, and we began the long run up the East coast today. We will be coast-hopping up the Florida coast and plan to be in Fernandino by the 25^th April to visit with the Adkins family, before heading back down to St Augustine to prepare for the transatlantic crossing back to Portugal in ARC Europe, starting on the 6^th May. Our 2 remaining crew members for ARC Europe, Alec Lamont and Peter O’Sullivan, join us at the end of April/early May . More to follow. Watch this space !!

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