Days 298

Miami Marine Stadium Harbor - Santa Barbara Harbor- Pompano Beach FL

• Start 8:30 AM
• End 3:15 PM
• Underway 5:05 Hours
• Distance 32 Miles
• Total Miles on Trip 4723
• Av Speed 6.3 knots
• Draw Bridges 4
• Weather Sunny , 80 Degrees, Wind Knots 16 ENE

We started our day off without having a firm destination in mind. We knew that we were going to anchor out for the night and had four anchorages picked out depending on how far we got. We decided to travel about five hours and find an anchorage around that area.

It is going to take a few days to figure out travel time verse distances on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). When we are in open water it is very easy to figure out how far we can travel over a certain time. On the ICW you have to account for draw bridges that only open on a set schedule, and no wake zones where we have to go much slower. Most of the draw bridges open every half hour, but some open at quarter of and quarter after the hour, some on the hour and half hour. Unlike the bridges on the Erie Canal, if you are not at the bridge when it opens they do not wait for you. We watched them close a bridge with a sailboat less than ¼ mile from the bridge, maybe 2 minutes away. I know everyone waiting in cars, hates the draw bridges but remember the waterways where here long before cars were.

In addition to the draw bridges there was a tremendous amount of boat traffic for a weekday, I could not image what it is like on a weekend. We passed or were passed by every size boat you could imagine from jet skis to large yachts. It was surprising to find most of them were very courteous, but there were still some that either had no idea of the rules of the road, or just did not care. Most of the ones that did not care, were the commercial boat operators, whose attitude seemed to be "It's my waterway, I'll go where I want when I want". Then there were the boats in the marinas. I am very glad we are not staying at a marina in Miami or Fort Lauderdale, we definitely would be a little out of place among the yachts and mega-yachts. The number of over 200' yachts was crazy. I have to wonder how often these yachts are even used.

We made it to Pompano Beach were we decided to anchor in the Santa Barbara Anchorage. It was a very large cove with 6 boats already anchored and all but one looked like transient boaters. The one sailboat, looked borderline abandoned. I understand why many home owners want anchoring restricted in Florida. I would not want derelict boats in front of my house. Since it was still early enough, and there was a fuel dock with the least expensive fuel in the area, we decided to fuel up before anchoring for the night. While it was less than a mile away, it was directly on the other side of a draw bridge.

After fueling up, I went to start the engines, and the port engine would not start. This was the same thing that happened to me earlier on the trip with the starboard engine. With the starboard engine, I traced the problem to a failed neutral safety switch, I assumed it was the same for the port engine. Knowing the problem was 90% of the battle, and I was able to bypass the switch and get the boat started within two minutes. Thankfully it was a quick and easy fix, as it was 2:55PM and we were able to make the 3PM bridge opening .

This time Dan & Cheri (Cheri Baby II), set their anchor and we tied up to them. Once we settled in both Dan and I started looking for a marina for our next stop. Our night at anchor was peaceful and uneventful, just like we like them.