WELLS MARINE
Pompano Beach The morning dawned windy, chilly and partly cloudy. There was a strong north wind blowing across the docks. The purpose of our stop in Pompano Beach was to have Shibumi measured for a stern-mounted radar arch. Howard Wells, the founder of Wells Marine met us at the marina and worked up his figures. We decided go to with an arch that would allow us to carry our dinghy, four solar panels, a wind-generator (which we do not have, yet) and a radar antenna (also on our wish list). Howard will need several weeks to build the thing. We will have it installed on our return trip in late April.

POMPANO BEACH TO FT. LAUDERDALE
The stiff north wind and tight quarters around the slip at the Sand's Harbor Marina made our departure from Pompano Beach quite interesting. But with the help of some gracious folk on the dock we got Shibumi pointed in the right direction, without hitting anything, and were underway.

We tried to time our departure from the marina with the sheduled opening of the Atlantic Ave Bridge. The bridge was a mere 200 yards south of where we joined the waterway. We were early, by about 10 minutes. The wind and current pushed Shibumi toward the bridge. So, I chose to setup a holding pattern in the ICW similar to a holding pattern I'd fly in an aircraft going into a busy airport. However that pattern put us in the midst of caravan of southbound boats... three sailboats and two powerboats. We pulled in behind the Sailing Vessel Super Star and in fornt of the Sailing Vessel Sangaela.

We became part of the fleet and continued south through all of the bridges until we reached Ft. Lauderdale.

Much to our surprise, both Super Star and Sangaela turned into the same marina for which we had reservations, the Las Olas Municipal Marina.

We had to take our time approaching the slip. The same north wind and conflictling current conditions that we faced leaving Pompano Beach, were here also. But patience and lessons learned from previous tight docking encounters paid off. We were in and tied to a nice slip in a clean marina that is two blocks from Ft. Lauderdale Beach and beneath the famed Las Olas Blvd Bridge.

HAPPY HOUR ABOARD
SUPER STAR
John, the Captain of Super Star, invited us over for "happy hour". He had a huge bottle containing the French Promard grape.

The crews of the three ships, Sangaela, a Tartan 42; Shibumi, a CSY 44; and Super Star, a Columbia 45; got to know each other as we swapped adventures and shared our dreams of where we intended to take our vessels in the future. Happy hour lasted 5 hours that night.