Feb24-25. Back in the USA

Feb. 24-25

We had a very nice sail across the Gulf Stream arriving in Port Everglades around 3:30. On the way across we noticed 100's of the strangest looking jellyfish.  They had a rectangular blue bottom and a clear top with a sail shaped fin and floated on top of the water.  We thought they were made of plastic at first and filled with air.
The first bridge we came to is 55' and of course we are 55' plus 1' of attena/wind vanes so we requested an opening.  Once clear, the bridge master told us to pay attention to the height boards cause the tide was down and we could have gone through without an opening. Hmmm...my opinion is that if we're off by a couple of inches, we loose the attena.  I'll stick with the opening, thank you very much!
We headed up to Middle River to the anchorage only to find it full.  So it's back downstream to anchor off the ICW.  It's only a so-so anchorage with a lot of boat traffic and wake, and not a lot of swing room.  Good for the night but anxious to move on.
We were invited to have supper with friends of Mark and Kay, but not having gone through Customs, and not secure in the anchorage, we felt it best to stay on board.  Probably a good idea as we were in bed and asleep by 7:30.
We listened to the weather at 6:00 the next morning and felt that we needed to leave today or be stranded in Fort Lauderdale until next week.  We quickly ate breakfast and pulled anchor to make the 7:30 am bridge opening to get out to the ocean again.  We were both upset that we couldn't say goodbye to our friends but we are counting on meeting up with them again in Lake Worth.
It was a beautiful day to be on the water with winds just off the bow and motor sailing at 6 knots.  It almost felt like coming home as we entered Lake Worth and headed for our old anchorage spot.  We managed to get in to Customs 10 minutes before closing making for an unhappy Customs Officer, but we cleared without incident..other then he forgot to give us back our passports and we had to go on a mad search to find someone to get them back for us.
The wind picked up considerably through the night and we were both awake most of the night listening to the creaks and groans of the boat.  But since she has weathered 30 and 40 knot winds without incident, I was not too concerned with the 20 knot winds here.