Wednesday 22 Dec, West Palm to Fort Lauderdale, cruising day 25: Night sail south. Squeeze into Lake Sylvia anchorage. Dinner with friends on Swan-66 “Gale”.
Our day starts with a 2:30am alarm, so we can make the 45nm leg south to Fort Lauderdale and arrive just before high tide. After a few last checks, the anchor is up at 3am and we set off into the darkness. Which isn’t actually very dark because there is a bright moon high in the sky. 15 minutes later we are out of Lake Worth inlet and into the Atlantic.
Although the NW wind has been steadily abating, I still estimated the reaching conditions would produce ~8 kts and timed the trip as such, to arrive before 9am. But, even with the genoa and mainsail fully out, we are only doing 7.5kts at best and sometimes only 6. While this is giving us a wonderful gentle sail in flat moonlit seas, it’s not fast enough! So, I decide to carry on sailing while it is so pleasant and calculate at what point we need to start the engine (which will get us to 8 knots) so that we still arrive on time. “On time” now means at the 17th Street Bridge for its 9:30am opening time.
About ½ way (25nm) the engine goes on and we start to motor sail. And Oana wakes up for me to take a nap in the saloon. As dawn arrives, we see several center-consul boats out, fishing. None with any AIS. Boats without AIS are always the challenge when sailing close to the coast (out in the ocean, every boat has AIS). Meaning while closer to the shore we have to keep a sharp lookout for lights and have the radar on in case there are idiots out there with no light. Rare in the USA, but plenty around Caribbean Island coastlines.
As we approach the Fort Lauderdale inlet, the last few miles the wind gets up to almost 20kts. Typical, just when we no longer need it!
As we enter the inlet at this early hour we are glad to have the channel to ourselves, with none of the usual powerboats zooming in or out, creating ridiculous wake. We arrive at the 17th Street Bridge at 9:20 am and make the VHF call to confirm opening. We are told the sequence will start in 9 minutes and to “hold position near marker 29”. At 9:30 sharp the bridge starts to open. We are the only boat going in, but there are 3-4 yachts coming out. This is what I had hoped. That the change of weather would entice boats to leave, just as we are arriving to find a spot. Later in the day, all the anchor spots would surely be taken.
From the bridge we motor just 1.5nm up the Fort Lauderdale ICW, whose shore is lined with multimillion dollar properties each with their own dock and boat. Classic Florida style. Then we arrive at the entrance of Lake Sylvia. I have to say, I’m pretty nervous about our next move. Ralph, on their HR43 Flora, had sent me their track from 2 weeks ago. And he told us shallowest they saw was 2.6m when they exited on a high tide. Our draft is 2.5m. So I’m expecting, at best, just 10cm (4 inches) between our keel and the bottom as we enter. And to add to my nerves, there is an unwelcome cross wind.
But we are 45minutes before high tide, so I will have a while to get unstuck, should we hit bottom. For entering we must hug the port side of the channel, maintaining a slim 40ft distance from the shoreline. This is the deepest route through the shallowest spot. We start the run-in barely moving, with Oana watching and calling the depths while I try to keep Cloudy in a straight line as the wind tries to push us left. Thankfully there are no other boats coming out and from what we can see, the little Lake Sylvia, visible in front of us, doesn’t look too busy.
In the end, the shallowest we saw was 3.0m, so I need not have sweated at all! Then we are inside, where the depths are OK for us, everywhere. Wonderful. We are elated that we got in. Although there are several other closely packed boats already in the lake, we do manage to find several spots for us to anchor and I’m just lining up for one when Oana points out a totally open area on the far southern side. So that’s where we end up, in an absolutely perfect spot in this rather unique lake, in the heart of Fort Lauderdale. The wind is light, there are zero waves, we are surrounded by gorgeous houses and it’s very quiet and peaceful.
After a morning coffee a small Hallberg Rassy Rasmuth (the original HR production boat from the 1970’s) anchors briefly behind us. I go over in the dinghy for a chat. He is local and tells us there was a big campaign by the property owners to ban anchoring in here, because some boats were unsightly long-term liveaboards and some abandoned boats. 2 of which even sank. Considering their property taxes will be at least $20,000 per year, we can understand the outrage when some jalopy boats anchor long term right in front of them. While their protest failed, there was a clean up and the boats in here today are all very civilized looking. With Cloudy Bay topping that ranking of course 😊.
In the late afternoon we take the dinghy over to see our friends, Christian and Eva, on the Swan 66. “Gale” is down from New England and has a winter berth in Pier-66 marina. The marina is literally 200 meters (yards) from us. But unfortunately, the closest small road bridge is very low and we have to take a slightly longer way around. Even so, we both need to duck as low as we can get under another concrete bridge, and the outboard clears with just 1cm above it! It’s a bit of a claustrophobic maneuver.
We had first met Christian and Eva in Bermuda, then later cruised with them for a short while in the US and Spanish Virgin Islands, back in 2019. Since then, they got married and had a baby girl. It is great to see them again and we have a lovely evening and dinner in Gale’s massive cockpit. It’s hard to believe Gale is only 12ft longer than Cloudy Bay. She is HUGE! But with a standard mainsail (no in-mast furling) she is quite a handful to sail. And she draws 10.5ft too! Not a boat for us but nice to be on. While Hallberg Rassy could be likened to the Mercedes of the yachting world, Swan would be the Rolls Royce or Cadillac.
Going back to Cloudy Bay, at high tide, presented us with a problem. We could no longer go under any of the concrete road bridges… at least, not with the dinghy inflated and our scalps remaining intact! So while our boat is so close to the marina, we end up going 1.5nm all the way around, taking the same ICW route we did with Cloudy this morning.
With our early morning start, lots of wine at dinner and the calmness of our surroundings, sleep comes very easily to Cloudy’s crew. Now, we finally feel that our winter vacation has officially started.