Miami to Ft. Lauderdale

Our plans were to visit Trinity Church in North Miami on Sunday morning. This is a great church pastored by Rich Wilkerson. But when confronted with an almost $100 cab fare, we decided to look for something closer. Voila! We found Calvary Chapel Miami Beach about 2 miles from our boat. This is an established church right in the heart of Miami Beach where darkness abounds. It is a mission field in it's own right and they are well prepared for it. It was also where my fourth research interview materialized - definitely God ordained. By the way, the new blog site has been created on this topic for those of you interested in my research work. The site address is 1stgen.blogspot.com

After church, we made our fourth visit to the Lincoln Mall area. Clearly some of the best food so far. Marlene's favorite restaurant was Cafe at Books and Books. We also walked a good part of the Historic Art Deco District, a residential section just south of Lincoln Mall.

As we prepared to cast off from the marina, the rains began to come down. Keeping in the channel became difficult as I tried to focus through the pelting raindrops on the isenglas covered top deck where I have piloted the boat entirely so far.

Going up the Intracoastal Waterway is very much like river travel so far. But because this area is very populated, there are bridges about every two miles, most of which have to be raised for my 26 foot mast. So getting to Ft. Lauderdale was a good four hours.

Currently we are anchored out in a beautiful lake off the ICW called Lake Sylvia, along with about 10 other boats. It is a beautiful setting with mostly upper bracket homes surrounding the lake. Just a few minutes ago a cruise ship was leaving the harbor for the Atlantic. We passed several other container ships as we came up earlier on the ICW.