And so it begins “Great Loop Day 1”

Day 1 in our Great Loop adventure

April 3rd 2019

Fort Lauderdale to West Palm beach

41 miles and 18 bridges

We left Fort Lauderdale with the sun today and set off for our first stop in West Palm Beach.  We said good bye to Fred and Greta, who had rented us their boat dock behind their house right on Los Olas Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale.  The house was just across the ICW (inter coastal waterway)  from the city marina we had been staying in.  Andy found this ad for a dock rental and it was a huge savings.  Since we were coming home to California for 2 weeks, we decided this was perfect to leave the boat behind a private home and not in a public dock.  It worked out really well and saved us a bunch, that is until our grand puppy decided to poison himself on Vitamin D and ended up in a doggy emergency hospital for a few days.  Goodbye savings!  But so happy he did ok and will live to give us lots of cuddles.

Today we traveled up the ICW for 41 miles to West Palm Beach.  We booked a marina at Palm Harbor.  The boat show had happened just the weekend before.  We decided not to come up this way until it was over.  We are not in the market for a new boat,  at least not this year!  Andy and I both came back from California with the flu so that delayed us a bit to heal up.  We took care of some important services while in boating meca and layed low to heal.  Tuesday we did all the laundry,  grocery shopped,  stock up the bar, made the last trip to the best marine stores in Florida,  and returned the rental car.  We fell into bed and woke up ready to set off.

We had a cloudy day and a bit windy as we started.  I think it was a blessing because the Florida sun is brutal.  We traveled 41 miles up the ICW thru 18 bridges.  Some we were able to go under,  some we had to call or wait for openings.  It was super cool.  The houses were grand and there was one after the next,  grander and grander.  Who affords these??  Just for fun I loaded Zillow and scrolled what came up.  20 Millon, 40 Million,  4 Million.  Incredible.  The boats also where cool to see.  Everything from 150 ft mega yachts and fancy sports fishers to average boats.  Mostly big ass fast, fancy paint jobs with lots of motors.  This is really how the 1% lives.  I am hoping as we continue to travel north, we will get out of the affluent Florida areas and “find our people.”  Sure fun to dream.  Here are some fun picture of the bridges we went under today.

As  of today,  we are finally free.  We set off today as our house in California finally closed escrow.  THE SAME DAY!!!  That is called serendipity.   It was an agonizing 6 months waiting for it to sell.  We left our house empty,  completely committed to this trip,  but the longer it sat empty the more stressful it was.  Just as we listed it the market crashed and well…… So it was!!    Thankfully today this chapter is now closed.

Today we traveled 41 miles of ICW from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach.  We had a total of 18 Bridges.  Some we went under, some we waited for an opening.  Ride along the journey if you want.  It’s in hyper speed, 12 minute of our 5 hour ride.  Also check out all the mega houses and puffy clouds.