Ft. Lauderdale, FL

sv Mary Elizabeth left the dock at Boca in time for the 10:4o bridge. We had a nice motor down the ICW and up the New River in Ft. Lauderdale. It was a pretty uneventful day; several bridges, more beautiful homes, amazing yachts.

We are docked up the New River at the Ft. Lauderdale Municipal Marina - adjacent to the SE 3rd Ave bridge (which happens to open on signal and often). There is an incredible amount of boat traffic (water taxis, tour boats, fishing boats, b-i-g yachts, etc.) so we get waked every five minutes or so. The New River is narrow so when there is traffic both ways the boats come close since Mary Elizabeth is docked along the river. This is one of the most unusual places we have been -- we are basically docked in front of the Ft. Lauderdale jail --- but it is very lovely all the same. When we got in around 2:00, our first order of business was to get a pump out (the pump out station at Boca was occupied by another boat for the last five or six days we were there... we were overdue!) We ended up having to call a truck to come and pump us out since the pumpout stations here at the docks aren't operational.

Once that was taken care of we checked in with the dockmaster and then walked around and explored a bit. We are docked along what is called the River Walk and is within walking distance of several restaurants and a movie theater, which will be fun. It is a neat place; full of life, lots of people. We came back to the boat and played five rounds of Skip-O (Bill 3, Lauren 2) until dinner.