Beach Day No. 1, check!

Violet, while assessing the day’s leg flesh wounds last night, said “Hey Mom! My scrape looks like a farm field! And.. my knee scab just looks like a blood pit.” A little insight to V’s funny and constant commentary, and I’m just so glad that she’s discussing the matter on the clean sheets that took me a full twenty minutes to change. (We store the stand-up paddle board at their feet before we get to the Bahamas, so wrestling that sucker out of there was only part of the fun…) That said, the days preceding the wound inventory were full, and we’re so glad that we had a chance to stop in Ft. Lauderdale for two nights. We have the wonderful fortune of having incredible people folded into our lives from times and places of our past, and this particular city’s cache of fine folk was great to visit with, if only briefly.

We slipped by this monstrous container ship being guided into port by two barges in Ft. Lauderdale this morning.

West Venetian Causeway bridge and part of the Miami skyline behind it.

I type as a rainstorm passes over and washes the deck of the day’s salt spray, while also soaking the beach towels that I just hung on the rail. Win-lose on that one. Anchored just west of South Beach, we motored this morning with some wind on the nose (hence the salty deck), and we’re now poised to start our crossing after this front passes later tonight.

This boat is packed with tourists, I’m assuming all wearing some heavy duty ear plugs and seat belts. It zoomed by about three times in three hours.. fun?

While Andy and Dan went to refill jerry cans of diesel, Susanne and I took the kids to the beach that we’re anchored off of, and they had their first sand extravangaza. It did not disappoint, despite the overcast skies and threat of rain. They swam, made a house in the trees with driftwood, dug giant holes, tried out a new skim board, and easily fell back into their routines. Looking forward to continuing the process with fewer high-rises in the distance!

After we eat dinner we’ll hoist anchor and make our way out and across for our ~30 hour journey to Nassua. For now though, we’ll take in the sights and sounds of Miami: boats and jet skis whizzing by, the tuba baseline of some banda music playing from a nearby day tripper, transatlantic planes making their steady approach into Miami International, and the rain on the bimini above.