"2000, December 17-18 Twenty Bridges to Ft. L." Lighthouse Point by grandmaR

One of the many bridges

See some local rain showers - wind is SW at 12-14 knots. Saw two dive boats going north - STARFISH ENTERPRIZE and LOGGERHEAD. I took over for Bob and panicked in Boynton inlet currents. After going under 20 bridges we got to Lighthouse Beach Marina just north of the Hillsboro Inlet at 3:48 after 43.2 miles and a total of 1078 nm.

The dockmaster put us on an outside dock, which was good, but didn't give us any help docking, which was bad as the wind was pushing us away from the dock. We finally managed.

I tried very hard to use their phones to download e-mail, but they had a new phone system - must have been digital because the modem would NOT do it. Also the Compaq will not run on the battery.

We ate dinner at the little restaurant, and the local Xmas boat parade started about the time it got dark, so we sat on our boat and watched all the boats go past. There was one with a huge 8 legged creature - found out it was supposed to be a crab - I thought it was a spider. There was one decorated as "Life Under the Sea" with black lights on the people. Some boats had Santa's sleigh pulled by sea horses or dolphins. There was no real Xmas music - one boat was playing "Walk Like an Egyptian".
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December 18 - the home stretch

Disaster day - we only have 5 more bridges to do --- except that I mistake the first bridge and we go out the Hillsborough Inlet bridge instead of the 14ths St. bridge. Luckily the bridge tender put the bridge back up and let us back through. So we didn't get through the correct bridge, which was about 2 miles from us until 10:45, an hour after we started.

Next stop: Ft. Lauderdale.