Following our friends Annie and Liam on the Chincogan "Gone with the Wind' through one of the opening bridges on our way to the marina.

The bridges on the Inter-Coastal Water Way (known as the ICW) open every half an hour on request. It is possible to spend weeks going up the inside of the coast and not go to sea at all. But it is a very slow way of heading north, waiting for all those bridges.

Safely tucked up in the Las Olas City Marina, just under one of the opening bridges.

Fortunately there is not much traffic at night and it is surprisingly quiet in the evenings.

A bit of a culture

shock here!

Just over a week ago we were having trouble finding a restaurant or a supermarket and now we are in the city needing a navigation device in the rental car to steer us to the right address.

We have had some great fresh seafood, but the portions are enormous and often one meal is enough for the two of us.

Made a stop at Blue Water Bookshop to buy charts and pilot books for the east coast of the States.

We ordered two paper charts and I was impressed when the chap prints them out for us on a huge printing machine, oh the wonders of modern science!

An impromptu quay party.

Daryl went over to get some help loading some charts onto his new Ipad

(he can't resist buying all the latest technology!), and it turned into a party! Excellent!