Northbound Day 4 – Ft Lauderdale

We got a break on the waves today: mostly 2′ and nothing close to 5′. The only hairy part was around Miami

• dodging cruise ships
• dodging container ships
• dodging small outboard fishing boats who seemed to be anchored directly on our compass course.
• dodging southbound boats steering a reciprocal course. We come at each other at an effective closing speed of about 50 mph

Despite these challenges, we made it in about 5 hours (8AM to 1PM), so we had time to grab some lunch at Coconuts on the Water, wash the boat, and take a walk. I took Guinness over to the beach at 5PM…he’s not allowed on the beach, but I figured the life guards might have gone home by then.

Surprisingly, he didn’t want to swim; he wanted to walk north up A1A, with the beach on our right and the bars on our left. Guinness was correct again: What a Scene!

The beach and the bars were jumping, and I was surprised at the heavy police presence:

• barriers along both sidewalks (presumably so drunks wouldn’t jaywalk)
• at least 40 police cars
• K-9 units
• And 6 horses from the Mounted unit.

I actually asked one of the cops whether this was normal. He said “No, just for Spring Break.” I was so confused, because I’ve been away so long, until I realized: “Hey. Yeah. Mid-March. Holy Cow! Ft Lauderdale at the height of Spring Break! Yowza!”

The horses were arguably the most fun, because I realized that Guinness had never seen a horse before. He knew they weren’t giant dogs, but he wasn’t sure what they were. He barked at them and they just looked at him implacably. The Mounted officers were very nice to him, especially Sarah.

Great fun, and a memorable stop on the way home!