Big Sky Blue Waters: Fort Lauderdale to Cape Florida

New Years Day brought sickness for Mark. I think that he ended up catching something on the airplane because he was hit hard with sinus problems that bogged him down. He laid most of the day in bed at the dock. I busied myself with projects still undone. I took out of the bags both paddle boards and the dinghy and pumped all three up. When I was done I thought I might venture out on my paddle board while Mark sleeps. Though as I prepared myself for the adventure the weather took a turn for the worse and I thought better about going out alone. The ICW can get a strong current and with wind and rain I didn't want to be out on it alone trying to get back. It was a good decision because 15 minutes later it was raining cats and dogs.

Mark was feeling better the next morning so we through the lines off and headed down the ICW to the Port Everglades. We were headed out to the Gulf for some open sailing. Lets see what these sail look like and what the boat can do. The sails looked great and the boat was handling wonderfully. The highest speed we hit was 7.3 knots. The boat healed but it didn't feel as unsteady as New Girl. It felt comfortable and strong. We spent the entire day sailing passing Hallendale, Miami, and rounded Key Biscayne to Stiltsville.

Stiltsville started out from a shack built by "Crawfish" Eddie.

Crawfish Eddie

"Crawfish" Eddie Walker built a shack on stilts above the water in 1933, toward the end of the prohibition era, allegedly to facilitate gambling, which was legal at one mile offshore. Crawfish Eddie sold bait and beer from his shack and was known for a dish he called chilau, a crawfish chowder made with crawfish he caught under his shack. Thomas Grady and Leo Edward, two of Eddie's fishing buddies, built their own shack in 1937. Shipwrecking and channel dredging brought many people to the area and more shacks were constructed, some by boating and fishing clubs. Local newspapers called the area "the shacks" and "shack colony". Crawfish Eddie's original shack was destroyed by the late season Hurricane King of 1950. (as stated in Wikipedia).

50 more stilt houses were built but many were destroyed over the years by hurricanes. Some were rebuilt but Stiltsville is now down to the remaining seven. Read here about the Stiltsville Trust.

A-frame house

Leshaw house

Baldwin, Sessions house

Jimmy Ellenburg house

Baldwin, Sessions house

We sailed in through the channel markers and came around for our first anchoring just outside of No Name Harbor. We backed down on the 30lb. Bruce anchor and got a good solid holding and settled in for the night.

We used our oven for the first time and made some baked chicken, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner. I do believe that this is the first time this oven has ever been used. The broiler pan was wrapped in its original packing material and the instructions enclosed, untouched.

Life is good out on the water!