It’s hard to believe that it’s possible to pass through 40 miles of water and have to go through over 20 bridges, and to do all of that in one day. As Iwrite this it’s Tuesday evening and while it’s not even 9:00, Brenda’s snoozing. It may seem odd to you but motoring along all day and constantly having to adjust the speed of Pandora to arrive at a given bridge in time for them to open, is very tiring.
In this part of Florida, the bridges are very close together and all are too low for Pandora with her 65’ tall mast, to get under. As a result, we have to time our approach to each bridge so that we arrive at the appointed opening time. Some only open up once per hour, some each half hour and some on the quarter hour. The problem is that there is barely enough time to get from one to the next in the time alowed. Pandora’s comfortable cruising speed is about 7 knots, about the equivalent of 7.7 MPH. This isn’t very fast but typical for a boat such as ours. This is a picture of one of the better looking bridges. 
The bridge operators are plenty friendly but they won’t stray from their appointed schedule by much more than a minute and, if you are even two minutes late, you will have to wait till the next opening which will be at least 30 minutes later. That doesn’t sound like much but you can loose hours in a day and spend a lot of time circling in the water with the boat while waiting for the next opening.
Happily, we timed most of our bridges pretty well and made it all the way to Ft. Lauderdale where we are now in a day. 40 miles doesn’t sound like much but when you combine that with so many bridges, it’s a long way and plenty of tiring as we had to be “on” every minute.
Enough about the difficulties of bridges. At least it’s not snowing. Did I mention that it was in the 80s and sunny? I probably shouldn’t have.
This is the view that greeted me today when the sun rose. Pretty nice. 
As we passed along the waterway, we spied an endless number of magnificent yachts. I feel pretty good about Pandora but she’s a canoe compared to these babies. This one is classified as an “expedition yacht” which means that she can go about anywhere in the world. 
Some of these yachts even have their own submarines aboard. We even saw one with a helicopter perched on the back deck. Hard to believe that one person owns these.
This beautiful yacht is more for coastal cruising as opposed to ocean crossing. I also saw this one in Newport RI a few years ago. She really gets around. 
This sailboat, Rambler, is quite famous on the ocean racing circuit. She wins many races and has competed in some of the world’s most difficult events. In the “Fastnet” race off of England, a few years ago, she her keel fell off and she turned over in the water instantly. Pretty amazing boat though. She’s about 100’ long. 
The keel is a massive lead part under the boat that helps balance the boat and provide resistance to the wind in the sails. Without it, any sailboat will turn turtle right away. Pandora weighs about 25,000 pounds and nearly 10,000 pounds of the weight is in the lead keel. Fortunately, when Rambler turned over she didn’t sink and was salvaged so she could race again. Also, thankfully, none of the crew was hurt. The odds of a keel falling off are very slim and thankfully, no boat like Pandora has ever lost a keel.
Along the waterway we passed one amazing home after another. Some tacky and some grand but all really expensive. I wonder what folks to do earn that much money.
This is a typical home and we saw plenty.
This one was particularly impressive. Quite modern.
This earth mover was toiling away on a little sand island. I have no idea how they got it out there as it was perched on the mound and yet there was no way to get to shore without going in the water. I doubt that they float well. I guess he will have to pile up sand to make his own island all the way to shore.
With all the sunshine here in Florida, you’d expect to see solar panels. We didn’t really see any but did see these wind generators or mills on the top of an apartment tower. They look pretty wacky but were churning away making electricity. 
Pandora doesn’t have a wind generator but she does have large solar panels that supply all of her electrical needs when we are at anchor. The panels put out enough power each day to run our refrigerator, freezer, computers etc along with enough left over to power our desalination unit which makes fresh water from salt water. In the Bahamas, fresh water is very precious and if you don’t have your own desalinization equipment you have to purchase water for about $.50 a gallon. That may sound like a lot for water but believe me, it’s a lot cheaper than making your own as the equipment is very expensive. However, cost aside, having enough fresh water is worth most anything to Brenda who loves here daily shower. And remember, keeping Brenda happy is job one. As they say “a happy wife makes for a happy ship”. Works for me.
We are now anchored in a small harbor in Ft Lauderdale and tomorrow we will head out for some last minute shopping as it looks like we will be able to head over to the Bahamas on Thursday. The wind will likely be light so it will be a motorboat ride. That’s fine as Brenda prefers that to more exciting sailing. We will likely make Bimini our first stop. Bimini became famous as the winter home of Ernest Hemingway. I guess they still have plenty of rum there.
Well, I had better wrap this up and get to bed myself as after going through 21 bridges today I am ready for 20 winks and now’s a good time for that.