3/20 – 4/17
We left Niles Channel on 3/19 and spent the night at Gilbert’s again. I think it’s growing on us; every time we stop, we like it a little more. Had dinner at the Tiki Bar and breakfast in the restaurant because in the morning it was too hot to sit outside. We just missed the Jewfish Creek bridge opening and had to wait an extra half hour. Once again, it was too windy to travel in the ocean. We tried going out when we got to Ft. Lauderdale, but it was too rough, so we continued in the ICW. It was very slow going with a wait for nearly every bridge. This meant arriving in Boynton Beach after dark, so we just docked at the fuel dock at Marina Village; we had to fuel up in the morning, anyway. We had a view of the sunset from our bow in our slip here, and we had an excellent view of ICW traffic and the new Ocean Avenue Bridge. We also had Two Georges and the Banana Boat restaurants just down the dock next to the bridge. During this time we had a haul out at Rybovich Spencer Boatyard to have the bottom power washed, the hull cleaned, and some other work done. The hull looked so good we decided to have the whole exterior detailed. HOW ‘BOUT US is lookin’ good! This is a major boat yard where they also build multi-million dollar sportfisher yachts. They have one of the biggest boat lifts in the country; compare it to the normal size one that hauls out our boat. They also have a syncrolift, a very old rail lift system, one of only a few left.