Winter Weekend
The boat parade thing went pretty well. It was a long day, but I got to cruise the waterways of Fort Lauderdale. This area has over 300 miles of waterway - so no wonder it is called "the Venice of the United States". By the way, those 300+ miles are all deep enough for decent size boats. I am not talking a shallow canal here.
I was not really expecting what I saw. There were more mega yachts than I have ever seen before. Mega yachts were everywhere. If your boat is less than 100 feet, it really does not stand out much. I have found sources that claim 80% of the world's mega yachts are sold from Fort Lauderdale. I know that the world's largest in water boat show is in Fort Lauderdale. The Miami Boat Show is larger, but the Ft. Lauderdale show features more large yachts.
Another cool thing is Port Everglades. Due to Homeland Security restrictions, the Port Of Miami is closed most of the time. At least the Government Cut side is. The cruise ships are there, and if more than one cruise ship is in port the cut is closed.
Port Everglades is on the intra-coastal waterway (ICW). The ICW can not be closed down, so you can still motor through Port Everglades. The exclusion zone for cruise ships is a lot smaller. It has to be. So you can still get pretty close to them. Close enough to see all the rust anyway. People get on those things?
I think there are more cruise ships at Port Everglades than the Port Of Miami.
The photos of the boat parade itself did not turn out so well. They were blury. The new camera is cool because it is waterproof - but it is also crappy because not all the features can be used all the time. If I go to "anti-shake" mode then I can not select the ISO. I can also not select shutter speed. I think the older Sony camera would have taken better photos but I did not bring that camera.
Lets see...what else?? Should I have some photos? OK fine. Here you go!
This is the helm of the boat. You can see part of the steering wheel and the throttle control. On the "dashboard" there is (from left to right) a magnetic compass, a GPS chartplotter, a Humminbird depth sounder, a Sirius satellite radio receiver, and my marine VHF radio. If you click the photo you can see the GPS and sonar unit display, which will tell you my exact location, speed, course over ground, and other stuff. The sonar will tell you the water depth. Through the windshield you can see some ships in Port Everglades.And then there is this. I created this image for use one some forums as part of a signature line.
Ill have more photos later, as I get them ready. And by "ready" I mean resized, cropped, and uploaded from the camera.
posted by The Lazy Iguana @ 02:10
19 Comments:
Cool boat!
The way the weather was around here, a person could put a boat at the top of a hill and slide it down on the ice. I wonder if this would be a boat sled or a sled boat.
I see by your counter we have survived another 100 days. Only 399 left to go!
That sounds like a great life.
I read the other day about some of the big yachts that rival military ships! One Saudi prince has a yacht that's followed by another 100 to 200 foot yacht, which serves to carry its supplies.
They say the rich are no happier but I'd love to give it a shot.
Boat looks great! I'll have to post a picture of our boat sometime. It's my husband's pride and joy. (After his sons, of course.)
What the heck is a GPS Fishing System?
Hey, I have a new pic on my blog I'm kinda liking.
The Lazy,
I really like the way your boat looks. It's sharp looking.
Sometimes I think about getting a bigger boat but I don't leave the ICW so I'm staying small.
holy mother, do you have enough gizmo's yet? How can you even concentrate with all those contraptions bleating out information to you
CM - I do not do snow. Those boat photos were taken on December 15 of this year. Water temperature was close to 78 degrees. I consider this "chilly".
Ed - yes. Another 100 days have passed and the madman has managed to not kill us all. But there is still time.
M@ - the US Navy should torpedo that yacht, and the supply yacht that follows it. It is insane. I am at the point where I think it should be illegal to own a mega yacht - unless you are willing to pick up a machine gun and go fight for the diesel fuel the thing burns. The mere fact you can afford the fuel is not enough anymore. I talked to some guy at the boat ramp who is the captain on someone's yacht. Each of the twin diesel engines burns 80 gallons per hour. So that is 160 gallons per hour - to go maybe 40 nautical miles. In car miles that is 46. So it gets 0.2875 miles per gallon. Or 3.47 gallons per mile. And that assumes that the boat can go that fast. More likely it is going around 30 knots - giving it 0.215625 miles per gallon or 4.637 gallons per mile. This should be illegal.
Avery - She is a good boat. Power cats rule.
Scarlet - The GPS is for navigation, the fish finder is to tell me the water depth and also gives me an idea what the bottom is like. The GPS is hooked up to the VHF radio, but I can also connect it to the fish finder and enable some functions I am not using right now.
Doozie - Really there are only two instrunments - the GPS and the fish finder. The radio does not do very much - and the compass I never even look at.
Krok - it is one of a kind. Seagull did not make many boats. I will probably never see someone else in the same boat. I was looking at larger boats but I am glad I ended up with Seagull. She uses up less gas than the 25 foot Trophy I was looking at. But there is no cabin. I plan to get a full enclosure for the boat, so I can make it a weekender.
Glad the boat parade went well! Sounds cool. I'm jealous of all your boats.
Fewer than 400 days with W! Woo hoo!
don't sass me
In answer to your question about the link, if the link is for you then by all means go ahead, I have grown fond of you and as such I want to tell you that if you want a link for me on your blog then do it, and remember that because I am fond of you if I ever meet you I will be giving you a big hug and such, because you have been a great blog friend for a lot of time now. I'm feelin mushy, don't sass me
don't ask me about this in the morning
Just roll with it you cute little brown haired 30's something
no sassing unless you like a spankin
the first time I came in contact with you is in regards to the red sunbeam mini fridge you had in your cubbie at work, ever since then we have been kin
we still have the fridge, it is in the Boys room
I am a commenttard and such, please forgive me
please fly to idaho and meet us, we have not the means to fly to you
I will have to head out to Idaho one of these days. I have always wanted to go there for some reason. Maybe I can go garnet mining, or see a potato farm. I like the rugged beauty of the open wilderness. I never get to see mountains. I could fly into Seattle and rent a car. The drive would be cool and I have a GPS so I would not get lost.
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