We hope...

you are all enjoying the SPOT updates. Make sure you click the satellite link on Google maps to get the full effect.
Tonight we are in Lantana, near Palm Beach. We are expecting winds at 20 to 25 knots for the next several days, so we might get delayed again. We are waiting to see what conditions are really like on the ICW tomorrow. We're not far from the ocean, and there's not much land to moderate the winds. The last 2 days have been beautiful, with light winds and lots of sun. We had to run a lot of bridges (7 per day!) so progress is slow. The bridges start to thin out a bit from here, so we are hoping to improve our daily mileage.
We don't get to write a regular update very often as internet access is spotty. We will write more when we can.
The dreaded trip across Biscayne Bay turned out to be a fabulous day of sailing. We held one tack the whole length of the bay, with the wind on our starboard quarter. Whew, what a ride! It was neat seeing Miami appear just under our mainsail.
We had some excitement on Tuesday evening. We had anchored at a spot called Baker's Haulover anchorage and settled in for a quiet evening. About 9 pm, we heard a chopper hovering right over our heads. We looked out and saw a CG boat, and a Fire/Rescue boat. We turned on the radio and overheard the chatter between the various vessels. It turned out that a kayaker was missing and they were conducting a search. We never did hear if he was found.
Passing through Ft. Lauderdale and Port Everglades was also a bit exciting. There is a very busy, major shipping port there. We saw a half dozen container ships loading and unloading. We also saw a ship that is used to transport yachts across the ocean. The ship itself sinks so the boats can be floated onto it. Then the water is pumped out, raising the ship so it can navigate with all the boats strapped to its deck.
Now we are in the sheltered waters of the ICW. Not much sailing, but given the 8 foot waves outside, I think we'll just continue put-putting our way up the ditch for a while.