Fort Lauderdale Fl USA

Looking west up Carlotta Canal from Richie and Susan’s dock (Fort Lauderdale).  ‘Florida, the Sunshine State’ is the strapline on Florida registered car number plates.  Sunshine State?  Really?

The view east down Carlotta Canal towards the Stranahan River

It was rather grey and overcast when we arrived at Fort Lauderdale and made our way to our friends’ dock.  We had always intended to stop in and see Richie and Susan (who are also the OCC Port Officers for the city) on our original pre-Covid-19 plan to explore the Florida coastline on our way north towards Newfoundland.  However, the pandemic has messed up our plans and our expected visit time and so, sadly for us, Richie and Susan were actually away when we arrived.

On the dock

But when we turned into the inlet at 0735hr on Sunday 17 May, Richie and Susan’s neighbours, Jean-Marc and Melissa, were out on the dock to meet us and to help us with our lines.  They immediately made us feel very welcome and we arranged to join them for sundowners on the deck later.

Fort Lauderdale was our port of entry into the USA so our immediate priority was to clear in with CBP (Customs and Border Protection, the federal body that covers customs and immigration).  This is a 2-stage process for us as non-US citizens/residents.  The first part was to notify our arrival on the ROAM App and, once that was complete, we were given permission to go ashore to the nearest CBP office to complete the process.  Jean-Marc and Melissa were stars and offered us the use of one of their cars, so getting about suddenly became very easy indeed.  Checking in with immigration was quick and efficient, with the office open on Sunday.  Clearing the boat in with the customs side of CBP would need to be done on Monday.

The Fort Lauderdale CBP office is about 5 miles away from where BV was moored and in the same area are a host of shops including a large West Marine chandlery, a laundrette, and a big supermarket.  Laundry was left for a day but after a trip to West Marine, Nicky came away with some new sea boots and deck shoes so that she can move around safely on our Atlantic crossing [Ed: my old boots and deck shoes both had nearly slick soles and neither had any significant grip on the deck, particularly when the deck is wet], whilst I had done some research for a new Raymarine instrument to replace the one at our chart table  The instrument in place was rather old and had had a number of funny turns on our passage north following which it had, at best, taken to displaying depth only in fathoms, with other data displayed as and when it wanted to show it, in the format it decided met its needs, not ours.  Our return trip was via the Publix supermarket to check that out and to buy a few bits and pieces for dinner.

I tinkered with some minor maintenance jobs on BV whilst Nicky caught up with some admin and work for the OCC.  Before we knew it, it was time for drinks with Jean-Marc and Melissa on the patio where we could chat whilst maintaining appropriate social distancing.  It was a lovely evening and, along the way, we hatched a plan for a barbeque the following evening with some English friends of Jean-Marc and Melissa.

Now that’s more like the weather we expect of Florida!

Monday (like most of Sunday, to be fair to Florida) was a beautiful day with blue skies and warm [Ed: hot!] weather.  First thing, we studied the latest forecast and checked with Chris Parker the weatherman.  Unfortunately, it looked as if there wouldn’t be a good weather window to set off transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale for 10-14 days.  Two weather systems, particularly Tropical Storm Arthur [Ed: an early start to the hurricane season this year] were forecast to kill the wind almost completely, after which the trade winds were forecast to fill in strongly from the east, rather than the more normal southeast.  On top of all that, Tropical Storm Arthur looked to be curving back southeast, towards the routing that we would want to take though, admittedly, quite a long way further east than we would be.  So, we made a new plan to move up eastern the USA until the conditions are right for turning towards home.

The clarity on the weather was opportune because our priority for the morning was to don facemasks again and visit the CBP customs office.  That proved to be a little more difficult than the check-in at immigration, but we came away with a US cruising permit valid for the next 2 months which means that we can cruise up the coast and not have to visit any more CBP offices until we plan to leave the US.

The new instrument fitted at our chart table.  We are gradually
upgrading the whole system to the newer NMEA2000 network
 standard.  We currently have a mix of the old and new networks
 with a couple of boxes to translate between the 2 but it’s
 proving to have too many niggly and irregular errors

A further trip to the shops saw us arrive back at BV with more food, a topped up propane bottle, and a Raymarine instrument from West Marine.  They only had one instrument in stock, so we bought that and ordered another one for the cockpit.  Once the food was all stowed, Nicky took a trip to the laundrette complete with a huge bag of washing, whilst I played carpentry and electronics and fitted the new instrument at the chart table.  Sadly, by sundowners time the weather had turned very thundery so we postponed the planned barbeque.

Tuesday was literally a washout.  The weather was miserable all day with lots of thunderstorms and heavy rain.  Exactly the unpleasantness that we had timed our visit to Fort Lauderdale to avoid; it would have been miserable being at sea during it.

With little enthusiasm to venture out, we spent the morning catching up with some admin and blog stuff.  However, during the afternoon we had to do a quick run out to pick up the second Raymarine instrument from West Marine, which I then fitted in the cockpit under the shelter of the sprayhood.

By late sundowners-time the thunderstorms had moved off far enough for evening drinks on the deck again with Jean-Marc and Melissa, though it was too cool for lazing in the pool.  Again, Jean-Marc and Melissa (and Tillie the dog) were great company and it was lovely to hear about their work in Fort Lauderdale, their future plans and some of their previous sailing escapades.

All in all we had a lovely 3 day stop in Fort Lauderdale, all resulting from the generosity of Richie and Susan in letting us use their dock.  It’s such a shame that they were away when we visited but we touched base with them via FaceTime and emails and hope to see them properly again when we are back in the USA.  Melissa and Jean-Marc were absolute stars, lending us one of their cars and making us feel so welcome.  In the current climate, with Covid-19 still prevalent and taxis/Ubers difficult or impossible to come by, having the use of the vehicle made such a difference to us in being able to get around Fort Lauderdale quickly and easily.  We achieved so many things during our stop that we would not otherwise have been able to do and, better still, we had some lovely evenings chatting to delightful and interesting people.  As ever, we were sad to move on, but the next leg of our journey east was beckoning – a 500nm+ leg up to Beaufort in North Carolina.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA