Lake Park Harbor Marina to Lake Boca

Luckily we didn't intend to make beaucoup miles today because the bridges are timed for boats that make 8 knots or so, and we don't! We did a lot of hurry up and wait as we attempted to make the timed openings----missing several of them by only a few minutes which resulted in a half hour wait for the next opening. The sun was out all day, but the winds were strong and chilly from the North, so we were well bundled for the whole day.

We had made contact with Steve Gepford, (Dan's cousin Joan Gepford finally lost her battle with cancer last June) who has a condo right along the ICW, and right after the 2:30 pm opening of the Spanish River Boulevard Bridge in Boca Raton, we passed by his condo. He and his daughter, Elizabeth were on the bulkhead waving as we passed. Elizabeth and her two year old son Stephen and six month old daughter Sara are staying with Steve for the next two months while Elizabeth's husband, Don Hill is deployed to Afghanistan. We had one more bridge at 3:00 pm and arrived at Lake Boca about 5 minutes later.

There was plenty of room for all four of us to anchor and we settled in to the dulcet sounds of a live band playing just up wind! We called Steve and arranged to pick them up after the kids awoke from their naps. They came aboard for a brief visit and Stephen seemed to enjoy Grand Mar's bag of tricks that she keeps aboard for visiting grandkids, etc. Dan ran them ashore before dark (which luckily is getting a little later, I think it was almost six before they left.) Tomorrow we face a few more bridges before heading out the inlet at Ft. Lauderdale to miss the one fixed bridge on the ICW that doesn't meet the 65' minimum height (it's dyslexic at 56'!) . We plan to come in at Government Cut and anchor in Biscayne Bay tomorrow. ~~~_/)~~~ M&D

See ---our marina was quite nice! Dan tried several times to get a close up of the ibis that frequented the lawn near our slip, but this is as close as he could get.

The chilly winds didn't seem to bother this sunbather.

Thanks to Elizabeth's good camera work and her quick upload to Facebook, I have a great record of their visit with us. Elizabeth caught all four of us coming down the pike as I was snapping a picture of Steve and Elizabeth waving. She also made sure we had pictures of everyone as we enjoyed a cocktail below. Dan ran them back to shore before it got too dark.


It was such a pretty sight to see our neighbors silhouetted against the lights of Boca that I had to try to capture it. The camera wasn't sure what to do and even though I had the flash turned off, it chose to flash every now and then. We were swinging ever so slightly, so no matter how still I held the camera, there's a blur, but I still like the overall effect.