We needed to be in Fort Lauderdale by June 5 to load Current Life onto the cargo ship so gave ourselves two weeks to get there from Charleston. Tropical Storm Berth formed off the coast of South Carolina a few days after we left, bringing 50 mph winds to the Charleston area, so we felt lucky that we left when we did.
We departed Charleston mid-morning on Sunday, May 24 with a bit of a headwind that was supposed to only last five hours or so. It lasted a few hours longer but eventually clocked around to just behind the beam which made for a nice overnight sail to Fernandina Beach.
The wind was forecast out of the South for the next week, including a few days of tropical storm Bertha, so we decided continue south on the ICW for a few days.
Wednesday, May 27 – ICW to Jacksonville public dock. No idea why this is free, it’s a great space to spend the night. Our refrigerator compressor failed while we were here. I called the manufacturer and they agreed to ship out a new compressor, but that didn’t help us for this trip. We had to throw away all of our perishable food but luckily we had plenty of canned soup, rice and pasta for the trip.
Thursday, May 28 – ICW from Jacksonville to Daytona. Motored through a couple of thunderstorms. Lots of lightning and rain, but the wind didn’t get past 15 knots. We were really glad to get to Daytona and tie up to our slip at the marina.
Friday, May 29 – ICW from Daytona to Eau Gallie. Stayed right next to the Eau Gallie yacht club where Emery’s grandmother used to live. No thunderstorms today even though they were in the forecast.
Saturday, May 30. Long day on the ICW from Eau Gallie to Palm Beach Gardens. Lots of little powerboats on the ICW today. Some were going to little islands, but to us it looked like most of them were just cruising up and down the waterway.
Sunday, May 31. Palm Beach Gardens to Pier 66 Marina in Fort Lauderdale. Short ICW run down to Lake Worth, then we made a last minute decision to go outside at Lake Worth Inlet and come back in at Port Everglades. The South wind meant we still had to motor the entire way, but were much happier not having to travel the ICW with power boats/yachts continually speeding past. We caught a lucky break by deciding to go the outside route – a bridge near Fort Lauderdale malfunctioned and we would have been stuck for hours waiting for it to be repaired!
Surrounded by huge yachts at Pier 66 Marina
When we got to Fort Lauderdale, Emery walked to West Marine and bought an electric ice chest so we could have refrigerated food once again.
On Tuesday, June 2 we rented a car from Enterprise and drove down to Miami to pick up our rental RV, a 2019 Thor Motor Coach class C RV. We’ll load the boat onto the cargo ship on Friday and start the 3000 mile RV portion of our journey.