Walking the Beach to Everglades Inlet

On Sunday afternoon, we made a trip over to Everglades Inlet to watch the cruise ships depart Fort Lauderdale for their Caribbean cruises. Most of the ships leave on Sunday between 4PM and 6PM, so we thought that if we left the condo about three-thirty, we'd get there in time to see them all leave.

To get down to the inlet, you have to walk. There is hardly ever any parking within the neighborhoods adjacent to the inlet, and we didn't want to cruise around forever trying to find a space. So we drove from the condo to the southernmost parking lot along Fort Lauderdale beach, and then walked down the beach to the inlet. Here is Fred walking along the beach about midway between the parking area and the inlet. I thought I would also take a movie while we were walking along, and so I got in front of Fred and took a movie looking backwards at him, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.

Unfortunately, we were a little late getting started down here, and we were still a half-mile from the inlet when we saw the first ship exiting through the inlet (you can see what we saw with the movie player at right). But we knew there would be more ships, probably three or four, so we kept on walking down to the inlet itself.

As we got a little closer to the inlet, we could get a better view of the Norwegian Cruise Lines ship heading on out to sea. Likelier than not, the ship is going on either a Western Caribbean course (Mexico) or an Eastern Caribbean route (St. Thomas/San Juan/Nassau). Possibly it might also stop in the Bahamas.

As you can see from the aerial view here, just on the north side of the inlet and jutting out into the Atlantic is a large pile of rocks that mark the beginning of the ship channel. These rocks are a popular place for locals and tourists in the know to come and sit and watch the boats go in and out of the channel. We have been here before, and will likely come here again. It is a really neat place to bring friends who might be coming to Fort Lauderdale for the first time (and it is likely a place that we will bring Frank and Joe when they come visit us here next February).

The first ship that we got to see leave Everglades inlet was Princess Cruises' "Dawn Princess," and this series of pictures and movies will show you that ship's departure. I took the first movie, that of the Dawn Princess getting to the channel opening, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.

Then, Fred got a good picture of the bow of the Dawn Princess as it came abreast of us sitting on the rocks. Next would be Fred's movie of the Dawn Princess passing us on its way out into the Atlantic, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

While Fred was taking that movie, I switched to still picture mode to get a view of the stern of the Dawn Princess as it passed by us. I am constantly struck by how "un-nautical" most of these cruise ships look. Sure, they are streamlined and they have dramatic bows, but they are so big and so wide that I lose the sense of its being a boat- at least not the kind of boat that an individual might own or sail. It seems that the bigger they get, the boxier they become, and while they are certainly luxurious, if it weren't for the fact that you can go to the rail and watch the water go by, you would never know you were at sea. Kind of takes the allure of the sea out of it.

Fred's last picture of the Dawn Princess shows her entirely out of the channel now and heading out to sea.

Between the Dawn Princess and the next ship, we had time to take some other pictures from our vantage point here on the rocks. For example, I was up on the highest rock when I took this picture looking down on Fred on the rocks, and I was standing in the same place when I made my movie of the rocks and the beach north of us; you can watch that movie with the player at left.

For his part, Fred also got some interesting pictures, such as this beautiful sailboat coming in to Lake Mabel through Everglades Inlet. He also got a very good picture of Fort Lauderdale Beach, looking north from here, as well as a picture of me on the rocks.

Fred doesn't take many movies, but he did a really good one of the rocks, the beach and the inlet, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

We saw one more ship leave the channel this afternoon, and it was another ship from the Princess Cruise Lines company- the Star Princess. I imagine that one of the Star or Dawn Princesses was going to the Eastern Caribbean and one to the West, but that is just a guess. I made two movies of the Star Princess leaving Everglades inlet, and you can watch those movies with the players below:

We waited for a while longer here at the rocks, hoping that some more ships would come through, but that seemed to be it for today, so we headed on back up the beach to where we'd left the car. On the way, Fred took two shots of me- one which is just me standing on the beach and another that caught the waves breaking around my feet.

Relaxing at Riverview Gardens

By the time we got back to the condo to make our frozen drinks and relax at the dock before dinner, it was getting dark. At first I wondered why Fred would want to take a picture of me walking from the car to the stairway, but now that I see the result, I understand the allure of the moon over Riverview Gardens.

	October 26, 2004: Florida Trip Day 4
	October 23, 2004: Florida Trip Day 1
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