Fort Lauderdale

We’re at a mooring 2 blocks from Fort Lauderdale Beach and the swimming is fabulous. It was well worth suffering all those cold days to get here.

We’ll wait here for the rest of this week until our friends John, Lorie and their son, Christopher from catamaran “Felix” arrive, then we’ll move to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Miami, before “buddy-boating” with them across to the Bahamas.

Act III and Felix had been crossing paths down the ICW until we met again in Cocoa, FL last week. Since we’re both crossing for the first time, we’ll watch out for each other as we cross the Gulf Stream. I hope it’s more of a psychological crossing than a physical adventure; we’ll make sure to have a good weather window before departing.

While in Cocoa, Christopher climbed our 62.5’ mast, wearing a harness and supported by 2 halyards. He can be our mast boy any day: you’ll see in the video how easy it is!

Dophins became frequent and bold over the past week of cruising down the Intracoastal; they love to play in the bow wake as we motor. We stopped in North Palm Beach for our first visit with Bill’s sister Edie, and her husband Frank, then had a glorious sail outside, from Port of Palm Beach into Port Everglade, the entrance to Fort Lauderdale. It was a warm, sunny day, the wind started at 5-10 kts, then increased to 15 kts, and we flew down the coast at 7.5 kts. along the beautiful Florida beaches.

Here in Fort Lauderdale we visited Heidi’s aunt Jacqui and her husband Bill, and some cruising friends of theirs, and they’ve all traveled to the Bahamas many times. I’m advised to provision heavily here as it’s expensive to get staples in the Islands, so we’ll fire up the freezer and lay in a good stock of meats. We used the freezer to store gallons of drinking water, but now the water-maker makes that unnecessary. And the wind generator will help keep the freezer running. Life is good.

We’re learning more than I even knew possible about gasoline “phase separation” which has clogged our outboard motor. The carburetor is currently being sonic cleaned and the motor will soon be purring. We also discovered that the little steel balls we were finding on deck were coming out of the jib roller-furler, but fortunately Fort Lauderdale has a rigger shop that can help (and every other imaginable boat service.) Bill is eager for his new balls to arrive tomorrow (heehee) so he can repair our old but trusty Hood Pro-Furl 5 system. The last(?) big project is to get a booster that will amplify wi-fi signals so we can better keep in touch.

In between, we’re swimming in the warm ocean and loving life. Dear friends: it’s time to start packing your bathing suits to come visit in de Islands!