Most of the time we’ve been at Las Olas Marina we have been the only boat at our dock.  There are six slips at “F” Dock and occasionally large yachts tie up at the end of the dock.   There have been two different megayachts next to us, but they didn’t stay long so usually we had a clear view out into the Intracoastal. (Las Olas Marina has a total of 60 slips spread out over a number of docks.)   Las Olas is one of the marinas used for the upcoming Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show at the end of October, so everyone has to move out in a few weeks to make room for the boats in the show. 

Friday evening we watched a large barge loaded with rusty steel pilings coming down the river.  Imagine our surprise when it pulled a slip at our dock and tied up.  Later, we found out that the pilings will be used to make more slips between Las Olas and Bahia Mar Marina for megayachts at the show.

Fortunately, we had already planned on leaving Las Olas for a different marina on October 5.  Today we went out for a day sail on the ocean with our friends Alice and Gavin along as crew.  We left at around 9:00 am and returned at 3:30 pm.  It was a beautiful sunny day, although there were storm clouds over Ft. Lauderdale after we left and we missed several weather systems on the ocean during the day. 

This was Daisy’s first sail.  (She wrote about it in her blog.)  She seemed to really enjoy the ride as we motorsailed down the Intracoastal. (See movie) She walked around the deck and refused to go into the cabin where she usually sleeps.  She wanted to be with us and was obviously having a great time.  We stopped for fuel, went under the 17th Street Causeway, raised the mainsail, and continued down the channel out to the ocean.  Once there, we turned south, raised the jib and sailed down the coast for a few hours.  We sailed out three miles to the Gulf Stream where the water turns a beautiful blue.   It was a rather choppy sea and while Seas the Day handles this well, it was not a smooth ride for Daisy.  Nothing moves inside the cabin, including pictures on the ledge in the saloon, items on the galley counter, etc. but something was moving inside Daisy’s stomach.

As the day went on, Daisy seemed to want to just lie by one of us.  She climbed under the feet of whoever was at the helm and rested there.   As we headed back to Ft. Lauderdale, Daisy apparently was getting sick to her stomach and threw up, right under Mark’s feet.  She then crawled down to the table area of the cockpit and sat with her head in my lap.   Poor Daisy.  We were so sure she was having a great time that we didn’t consider giving her motion sickness pills which are in her first aid kit.  We’ll do that next time and continue until she gets her sea legs.

When we got back to Ft. Lauderdale, we moved to a slip at the New River Marina,  It’s on a river walk in an area of condos, hotels, shops, restaurants, etc.  We won’t be able to walk to the beach now, but it will be a new route to explore.  We are tied up between a large yacht and another catamaran against a sea wall.