Finally we unstuck ourselves from Vero, cast of from Cgull Seeker and Bilbo and head south once more.
Peck Lake is our intended stop for at least one night.
Friday 9th January
We stay a day in Peck Lake. It’s a bit ‘wake’ prone and unfortunately you are no longer permitted to take pets ashore on the beach side of the lake but thanks to advice from another dog owner, Steve on ‘The Seeker’, we could dinghy to a park up a side tributary of the ICW. We saw our first anhinga there. This is a bird that might be mistaken for a cormorant but has a much more slender neck, travels solo, is much less common and swims with its body underwater and just its head sticking out above the surface.
Saturday 10th January
We are on our way again, heading for Lake Worth,
famous as a jumping off point for the Bahamas and North Palm Beach, Palm Beach and home of the ultra rich, West Palm Beach.Sunday 11th January
West Palm Beach is also home to our good friends and ex-cruisers Ira and Ann Russianoff who live in a huge retirement community where we visited them.
Monday 12th January
Shopping at the nearby Publix Supermarket and tidying-up-the-boat day.
Tuesday 13th January
Another day of jobs around the boat.
Wednesday 14th January
A visit for lunch from Ira and Ann and discussions of upcoming destinations
Thursday 15th January
An unacustomed early start to the day as the journey south continues past West Palm beach and the famous Breakers Hotel, usually seen from the ocean side.
We anchored for the night in Lake Boca Raton . Boca Raton is a big hi-tech centre, after the birth of the IBM PC there.We found the waterfront properties in Boca to be probably the most attractive so far.
Friday 16th January
Another early start to avoid upcoming unpleasant weather and on down the 'Canyon', a part of the ICW lined with concrete walls that amplifies the effect of the wakes you get from numerous rather inconsiderate power boaters. They're not all idiots but many are.
On this stretch of the journey there are also a 'lot' of bridges that have restricted openings so you spend most of the time trying to arrive at the next one at their scheduled opening time. Some of them are quite whimsical.
Fort Lauderdale had many massive homes on the water accompanied by huge boats at their private docks. The following may not seem that impressive unless you are aware that the 'little' speedboat in front is actually over a hundred feet long.
Here's what appears to be an attempt to duplicate the White House.
South of Fort Lauderdale is Hollywood and a reasonably priced marina, fairly close to where Carol's cousin Mike and wife Melanie live in Pembroke Pines. So we had planned a stay over as there was a bit of a family gathering, organized for Mike and Melanie's granddaughter's third birthday.
Saturday 17th January
It was quite a party with about 50 guests with lots of food and Carol got to meet up with her other American cousin Victoria (shown here with her brother Mike) who she hadn't seen in 40 years.
