Thursday 1 October 2015

Fort Lauderdale part 2

Fort Lauderdale part 2

Here are a few pics of us when we hauled out in May.

The old paler blue bottom just after washing, it wasn't too bad, mind you we cleaned underneath as often as we could along the way.
The prop in bits being cleaned up
New anodes
Prop back together and greased
All done, shiny sides too
Don is just doing the underside of the keel
The next scary bit, always a tense moment
On the dock at Cooley's Landing
While Don worked on the outside I was busy giving the inside a bit of a facelift.



I returned to collect Don and this is his new "Blue Man" look, he must have been like that all day and no one said a word
Along the riverfront are a couple of "Irish bars" and a few nice places to stop and eat.We have walked into Las Olas a couple of times which is not far from the place that we stayed in 2013, its full of designer shops, exclusive boutiques, art galleries, very posh restaurants and the whole area is lined with Bentley's Ferrari's Maserati's, Porche just to mention a few. Oh and the "posh" folks to go with them.

We have rented a car for most of our time here as there always seems to be things that we need that are miles away, not just for "boat bits" but to eat out, visit friends and go to the cinema.

Along the riverfront are a couple of buildings which are pretty old, now the museum so we went one afternoon. Not that anything here is very old but it did give us an in-site to local history. I won't bore you with the details but if you like you can read about more yourself. http://www.fortlauderdalehistoricalsociety.org/ 
The website isn't too good but does explain a little.

Of course we constantly check the weather for any signs of hurricanes after all we are in "the zone" the area did have one waring which turned into nothing really but we had "superyachts" come past us for at least a week to seek shelter further inland and gain when they returned to where ever they had come from. We do get thrown about when they come past going way too fast but not as much as the "nutters" every weekend using the free slipway'e next to us. This is supposed to be a "no wake" area to protect the manatees but folks ignore it.

Jail with a nice view, its next to the city dock where we were 

One of the locals along the river
Since being here we took a 4 day trip "down" to the Florida Keys for a break.
We did like the place but its way too "touristy" for us, we thought one day we may visit on the boat if we could find somewhere shallow enough but now we won't bother. The highlight was to see our first Manatee, not that we could see much of it but we did see one. Typical ! the camera was in the car.

We did see the African Queen the boat they used in the film, its one of Dons favourite films






This cheeky fella watched us eat dinner
Chowder, yummy
Don on our swinging seat for dinner
A lunch stop, they did excellent crab chowder
Oh well !
View from our room
We did see some very nice sunsets




One of the Sunday concerts
A golden breasted woodpecker, it lives near the new dock
This is where we are at Cooley's
When we took a trip along the river to find a dock this is what we found
Bet thats fast, ugly but fast
At the moment we are getting ready to leave, not too far, just a mile or so along the river to a non live aboard dock so its cheaper while we are away. Off we go mid October to comply with the US rules that we must leave after 6 months. Obviously to visit family and friends in the UK, check on the house in Spain and then!
The next big trip, Australia for just over 3 months, we will stay with my favourite sister in law Lisbet, Dons sister, she lives in Perth. All being well in the new year (flip where is the time going) want to go to Sydney and a few other places but have nothing planned yet. We do hope to see some of our cruising buddies we have met along the way, we will see.

Back here in mid March 2016.

I'm sure there's lots I have forgotten but you can always ask.

BFN
Glenys and Don
Agua Therapy