December 8

Our quiet little secret in Ft Lauderdale - a spectacular daybreak cruise. It’s bustling rivers, some of the busiest in the nation are a ghost town at sunrise. Gliding through the ritzy city’s rivers and charming canals was a slow walk through a movie set. Think of La La Land, but instead of singing and dancing we used headsets and hand signals to navigate our way through winding rivers and seven bridge requests while murmuring “oooh, aaaah did you see that?”

With the Christmas holidays around the corner Bistari needed December dockage. Luckily we secured a friends private canal dock off the South Fork of the New River.

Getting there was not straight forward. Arrival time was critical. Bistari draws 7’8”. Low tide in parts of the private canal is 6’, making a high tide arrival time essential. The tide chart for Andrews Bridge, had high tide at 8:15am making the private canal’s high tide 9:15. To stay afloat and not get stuck we need to be at the canal within the hour of 9:15.

Anchored 3.8 miles away in Sunrise Bay, we estimated the journey would take 1.5 hours. However, due to rush hour bridge closings from 7:30-9:30am, we had to be at bridge #1 by the 6am opening to insure we would make it through the next six bridges before 7:30am.

Up and off the Sunrise Bay hook by 5:45 we were ready to pass under Sunrise Bridge by 6am.

The moon lit start was magical. Through the first bridge by 6:00 we slowly navigated tight canals, empty rivers and friendly bridge operators to the South Fork. Arriving an hour before high tide we explored the marina next to I-95 and then slowly entered the canal and smoothly tied up to the dock. We smiled, said to each other “nicely done” and then went about preparing to leave Bistari for the next month.