Moving Day!

Posted by Scot

After finishing up the main sheet work on Saturday, we spent yesterday running around Lighthouse Point and Fort Lauderdale, moving our car south to our new destination (we are not quite ready to give it up yet), getting our propane tanks filled, and making a final dash to Costco for more provisioning. Then it was back to the boat for a huge scrub down before dinner.

All of that was in preparation for today, our official casting off!  In fact, it all happened with relatively little fanfare.  We got up as usual this a.m., and while the kids did school and breakfast, I returned the rental car that allowed us to move our car south.

School was a bit abbreviated in the excitement to get moving.

Then, around 10:00 Betty and Tom came down to the boat to say goodbye.  We took a few pictures, and we were off.

Leaving Lighthouse Point

We headed out through the Hillsboro Inlet Bridge.  We had debated just cruising down the ICW, but we wanted to get back in the open ocean, and we figured we could avoid a few bridges through Ft. Lauderdale by just sailing outside.

We are finally getting this whole bridge thing figured out.

Unfortunately, we had moderately large waves broadside to us the whole way south, with little wind, so it was kind of a rolly ride.  It wasn't the worst we have been on, though, and no one got seasick.  Other than Katie getting her finger caught in the fridge door, which engendered a few minutes of excitement (soon fixed with some hugs and a bandaid), the whole trip was pretty straightforward.  It was a good opportunity to get used to the engines and some of the nav equipment on board that we haven't used much as of yet.

Heading back out to sea.

The sunny Atlantic.

We never did raise our mainsail on our fancy new electric winch, though, since by the time there was any wind to speak of, we were turning back into the ICW at Port Everglades.

We motored through the huge container and cruise ship port, which I thought would be intimidating, but fortunately all the big ships were either at anchor or docked today.  Maybe that is because it is Columbus Day here in the states.

Lots of big ships in Port Everglades.  Fortunately none moving around when we went through.

Anyway, before we knew it we were through a couple more bridges (we are getting pretty good at them now.  Sara and I had a competition going to see who could time our passage the best when the bridge opened), and our marina was in view.

Sara was pretty proud of her bridge judging prowess.  I was just glad we still had the instruments on the top of our mast.

It took us a while to get everything sorted out to dock.  We were fitting our 20 foot beam into a 22 foot slip, so there wasn't much room for error.  Fortunately, Sara realized that our outboard kayak racks would get wiped off on the pilings if we didn't swing them in, so we remembered to do that before we docked.

Then, after a little bit of close space manoeuvring, we were tied up.

At that point, I was pretty much done for the day, but one of the things we noticed cruising with the kids is that once we dock, they are just getting ready to go.  They generally don't use too much energy while we are sailing.  They are keen to help, but when things get quiet, they often lie down and take a nap, or sneak down to their cabins to read.  So when the boat stops, they get started.

This is why the kids are never tired after a day of sailing.

We quickly settled the boat in, then walked across the bridge to the Hollywood Beach, which was pretty crowded, but probably one of the better swimming beaches we have been to so far in Florida, with a decent boardwalk with shops and restaurants.

Sailing is so exhausting!

After a swim, we came back to the boat, then we hopped in the car and headed to downtown Hollywood.  Monday night is their "food truck" night in the park, where all the fancy food trucks from Miami come up to establish a rolling food court right in the park.  So we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with burritos, burgers and kebabs in the park.  I know it doesn't sound too festive, but it was way to hot to cook on the boat.  We decided maybe we will celebrate American Thanksgiving instead this year.

We are thankful for ... hamburgers you can buy from a truck?

Once we got back to the boat, we had a chat with some of our neighbours, who have been cruising for 20 years.  They pretty quickly figured out we are newbies, but were patient with our questions.  Eric even helped me get our electricity hooked up right (who knew two 30 amp connectors could be combined to go into a 50 amp outlet? What kind of math is that?)

We are trying to get through the night without firing up the A/C, even though we have shore power. We figure we need to get ready for moving further south.  So far, though, it is warm enough that I am up blogging at midnight instead of sleeping, even after that long day.