March 22, 2006
Finally!
We're watching a very short weather window, squeezed between two cold fronts, for a Thursday evening departure for Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island. We should arrive Friday afternoon around 2pm (timed for high tide - the channel into Port Lucaya is very shallow). There, we will wait for the next weather window for our 1,100 nautical mile journey to the Virgin Islands.
We are so pleased to be finally heading out of Fort Lauderdale. My feet are itching to get moving.
Posted by dave at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
Spring Break
Posted by dave at 05:51 PM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2006
Spring Break & W.
Spring Break has returned to Fort Lauderdale.
While the local politicians tried everything to drive the kids away, they are back in droves. The police are everywhere. The “no beer or alcohol allowed on the beach” signs are ignored. The weary partiers from last night, who didn’t quite make it home and chose instead to sleep it off on the beach, strike up the next round of partying with a little hair-of-the-dog at 9am as we run past.
Having finished the New York Times (Maureen Dowd’s column in today’s New York Times is a bang-on summary of the macerations of George W. Bush - click HERE if you are an online subscriber) and the Wall Street Journal, we decided to go for a walk on the beach. I should say, a putter. You could barely move. Wall-to-wall bodies. And, I am finally prepared to accept, my t-shirt was not coming off near these svelt, highly buffed, chiseled bodies. I clearly am less comfortable with my body than the guy that runs the beach in his dental floss thong. I mean, barely covers a thing. Truly, the quintessential banana hammock. And horror of horrors, he don’t got the body for it.
The strong cold fronts that rolled through every 4 or 5 days and chilled things off (we had frost!) have slowed right down and moved north as spring arrives. We need one of these strong fronts for our upcoming departure for the Virgin Islands.
The Virgins Islands are 8 to 10 days of sailing from here. We will sail straight out through the Northwest Providence Channel that separates Grand Bahama Islands from the rest of the Bahamas, and head due east for 65 degrees (directly north of the Virgin Islands). We will then turn south.
The reason for this plan is quite simple – sailboats don’t sail into the wind. And prevailing winds here are southeast to east – our destination is directly into the prevailing winds. So we wait for the front side of a cold front. The winds will be in the south, then shift clockwise to the west, then north. Once it passes, the wind will shift back to the east/southeast again. So, with some luck, we will sail due east with a south, then west, then north wind, reach 65 degrees, and turn south when the wind shifts to the east.
The plan, called I65 by American sailors, is tried and true. It adds 200 miles to the journey, but it beats motoring for days into a headwind.
Now, we just need a nice strong cold front. Meanwhile, we run. We walk. We read. We visit friends. We wait.
Posted by dave at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)
February 23, 2006
Pee Water
The tap water in Lauderdale looks like pee. You would think someone before you had forgotten to flush the freakin toilet. But it comes from the Everglades, we are told. As though that means something. Like it's because of the alligators and possums?
No Lauderdale pee tap water is going in Platina's delicate water tank. So we set to sea today to make water. The forecast was for no wind and light seas. The light seas prevailed, but the wind picked up to 15 knots. It was an amazing sail. One of those where you just trip into a trance.
450 litres of clean no-pee water later, we returned to the dock. A beautiful day, a beautiful sail, and clear, clean water! Who could ask for a better day?!
Posted by dave at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2006
Las Olas Municipal Marina
Back down the New River, we have tied up at the Las Olas Municipal Marina. It was a long journey back down the river with lots of inbound traffic - the Miami Boat Show being over, all the boats were returning to sites unknown.
For now, we will hang here, running the beach and enjoying the warmth and sunshine. Stay tuned for the next chapter...
Posted by dave at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)
Back in the Water
Well, they put us back in the water yesterday morning, and we tied up at their dock here at Lauderdale Marine Center to finish off some last minute things. We are pooped. Aches and pains everywhere, but that's all part of the adventure. There are only a few things we wanted the yard to do, and most of it we wanted to do ourselves.
The propeller was one thing we hired the yard to do. It was covered in barnacles and calcium deposits. This photo shows the freshly greased and painted prop. They used a relatively new product called PropSpeed. The yard raves about it. You can see in the photo that the blades of the propeller "feather" when we sail, and spread when we are motoring. This produces less drag when under sail.
Of course, as sailors, we should hardly be proud of our propeller - our focus really is on sailing!
Posted by dave at 07:37 AM | Comments (0)
February 17, 2006
Haul-Out!
Finally, at long last, the haul-out. Our annual maintenance list for the part of the boat that lies below the water line was pretty short. Other than a general inspection of everything, top of the list was to take the propeller off, clean it, grease it, repaint it, change the prop shaft oil (8 litres of it), change the bushings and gaskets, and put the whole thing back together. Easy as pie?
Posted by dave at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)
February 10, 2006
Oh Crap!
The New River was lots of fun, right in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale, close to shopping, restaurants, bars, etc. But busy with boat traffic, narrow, and full of crap! Like leaves, grass, seeds, garbage...
We draw "raw" water, from what we float on, into our boat to (i) flush toilets, (ii) run air conditioning, (iii) run the engine, and (iv) run the generator. It was hot one evening, so we cranked on the A/C and soon.. grrrr, buzzzz, bleee.
The raw water intake was so plugged with crap so we shut everything down. It was so jammed, we had to set out to sea to flush the entire system. And I mean the ENTIRE system. What a mess, it tooks us several hours to get everything worked through the system.
Needless to say, we returned to Bahia Mar, our least favourite place, for the satisfaction of cleaner water and higher fees. Ahhh, welcome back!
Posted by dave at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2006
New River, Fort Lauderdale
While we truly enjoy Bahia Mar Marina and its proximity to the beach and the sea, it was time to move on. Besides, for the price of a hotel room, the marina seemed uneasy when I asked them to change linens and bring fresh towels. They just didn’t appreciate my Canadian sense of humour.
We wiggled our way up the New River into downtown Fort Lauderdale. Shallow, narrow, twisty, and busy with boat traffic. We parked along the canal wall and went for a walk. The location is fantastic, but the boat traffic makes it a bit rolly on the boat. We’ll stay here a few days while some wicked thunderstorms roll through. Good thing we’re amongst the tall office towers – for a change, we’re not the tallest thing for miles!
Posted by dave at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2006
Farewell Southern Duchess
Our new friends, Dieter & Maya on Southern Duchess are from Munich, Germany. They left us today for Bimini in the Bahamas, despite our pleadings to stay and eat cheese at sunset. We already miss them.
Posted by dave at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2006
Oh, Fort Lauderdale, Again
Winter weather in the Southwest North Atlantic is no picnic. Random cold fronts, windy weather, unexpected storms... the list goes on. The forecast was for winds from the east 15-20 knots. Seas 6-8 feet.
Right.
The US National Weather Service? Add the forecast. 15-20 knots=35! Seas 6-8 feet means 14 feet. Oh, yeah, baby! Rough, lots and lots and lots of wind, and we barely ran the engine. Our planned 30 hour sail was done in 26 hours.
The overnight sail was made perfect by the gorgeous lime-slice moon, just waiting for someone to drop it in the gin-blu sea.
We arrived in very rough seas just in time for a cruise ship to pass us in the rough channel. A little scary but we did just fine.
A little lunch, followed by the infamous post-overnight-sail SNOOZE.
Bonne soiree, everyone!
Posted by dave at 03:36 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
Next Moves
Wondering what's next?
We have decided to head back to the Bahamas for 5 or 6 weeks. On our northward trek, we skipped Eleuthra, the Abacos, and Grand Bahama Island. Radio Shack sold us a 12-volt converter so we can plug in the 300 Christmas lights we picked up at Walgreens. We plan to explore the beautiful Bahamas, mostly on anchor, and enjoy a relaxing, sunny, warm, white-sand Christmas. We'll find a lonely palm tree on a lonely beach, and decorate it with dried cranberries!
We plan to leave Fort Lauderdale on the backside of the next cold front. Whenever that will be. Our entries will be less frequent, as finding internet access in the Bahamas is challenging. Fear not, the blogs will continue!
Posted by dave at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2005
Happy American Thanksgiving!
Our friends, Ann and Ralph, recently sold their Amel named Harmonie. We met them on our northward stop here in Ft Lauderdale. They are gracious and funny, with plenty of sailing stories to tell. They won the Jimmy Cornell around-the-world rally, so the stories flow about as fast as the wine. And the food.
They hosted us for Thanksgiving dinner at their home. We had a wonderful time, with lots of laughs.
Posted by dave at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
Oldest Saloon in Florida
Where else would you find us hanging out but across the street from the oldest saloon in Florida, third oldest in the USA?
Fernandina was once a salty Spanish town occupied by seafaring rogues of unsavory repute, a place where over 50 saloons and bodellos formed the "Ladies Promenade", at a time when Princess Amelia was widely known as the "Spanish Hussy".
In 1807, the US Embargo Act banned imports into the US from the UK and exports to Europe, making Fernandina the perfect place for smuggling. The next year, the US banned the importation of slaves from Africa, and Fernandina became a premier slave-smuggling port. It all came to an end 2 days before Christmas, 1817 when US Naval and Marine forces landed on the shores and brought Fernandina's swashbuckling days to an end.
Posted by dave at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2005
N30.7 W81.4 Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, Florida
We had an exciting overnight sail from Cape Canaveral to Fernandina Beach, with the usual restless trimming of sails, and therefore, little sleep. We arrived at Fernandina Harbor Marina, tied up, had lunch, and went to sleep in blissful A/C. It is 120F here today, with no breeze.
What a cute town! And like Cape Canaveral, it’s a contradiction. Amelia Island is historic, quaint and inviting. And yet it is right next to a huge, belching, stinking pulp mill. The water is muddy—the colour of tea, with foamy bits of pulp that float by. Progress, we guess.
Posted by dave at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)
July 27, 2005
The HALF that Got Away
On our journey from Cape Canaveral to Fernandina Beach, Dave rigged up our fishing rod, using a large, day glow, rubbery lure. Chis remembers thinking, “what kind of fish do we think we can catch with THAT…a cartoon fish?!” Well, after about an hour trolling behind Platina, we hooked something that bent the rod in half. Mobey Dick, Chis was thinking.
Dave fought with it for ½ an hour and passed it to Chis. Chis fought with it for about ½ an hour. It was so strong — Chis could barely hold the rod. Bit by bit, he began to reel it in. And then he felt the fish dive, and then I felt the rod shudder, and then the fish seemed to gain strength. Suddenly, the fish seemed to tire. Although weak, it was still heavy.
Finally, Chis reeled it in close enough to see it. It was a massive, hideous barracuda. The teeth! And those black, marble-like eyes! Chis’ heart skipped a beat when he saw that we reeled in only half a fish. And that shudder he felt on the reel … was another fish eating our fish. Nice.
Our half was about 2 feet long, which means that an even bigger fish got the other half. We think that we caught the better half.
Apparently, the poor thing had a fight at both ends - hook in the mouth, and predator on the the other end. No wonder it was such a fight.
We put the rod away, and gave up fishing for the day.
Dave says he has overcome his fear of killing a fish.
Posted by dave at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2005
Discovery Launch
You can see in this photo the trail of vapour from the fuel. It looks like a corkscrew because they spin the shuttle. The centrifugal force apparently minimizes the gravity force effect on the crew.
Posted by dave at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
Discovery Launch
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Discovery Launch
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Discovery Launch
Here are a series of photos of Discovery's launch this morning.
Posted by dave at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
N28.3 W80.4 Cape Canaveral, Florida
We left Ft. Lauderdale a couple of days ago. Anchored in Ft. Pierce. We met a couple in a cool beach bar in Georgetown, Bahamas. The bar is basically a hut on the beach, and the only way to get to it is by boat, so everyone arrives in bathing suits and bare feet. You can order anything to eat, as long as it’s a fish burger. Anyway, we sit down at the bar and the guy next to Chis says, “what are you drinking” and orders me a beer. Super friendly. His wife is chatty, and seems to know everyone in the bar, even though they had just arrived. Both are in their late 40s/early 50s, over weight, comfortable in their skin, and happy with life. Here’s the funny part: he works at a nuclear power plant in Ft. Pierce. AND they just moved back into their house, as it was destroyed by a hurricane 8 months ago.
When the hurricane hit, she woke up because water was dripping from the ceiling on to her head, in bed. She told her husband that they had better get up, and he said, “honey, just cuddle up closer to me; my side of the bed is dry.” Luckily, she said, they had a place to move into—her father’s house, vacant because he had just died. How convenient. They were characters in a movie. Very Homer Simpson.
As we sail north, out of hurricane alley, we are quite limited by the depth of our keel, which is 7 ft. 3 in. deep. We decided that, because the timing is right, we should try to be in Cape Canaveral for the launch of the space shuttle. It just so happens that the ONLY place that we can stay over night between Ft. Lauderdale and Cape Canaveral, is Ft. Pierce. Homer Simpson town. Because of our depth, we had to anchor just outside the Coast Guard station, just outside the channel. We felt very out of place.
Ft. Pierce is a mélange of residential block housing and industrial industry with the added attraction of nuclear power generation. And the water is the colour of tea to boot.
Needless to say, we slept lightly.
We lifted anchor at 6:30 AM the next day, and motor sailed north, into northerly winds and swells. Very unusual weather. After 12 hours, we arrived at Cape Canaveral, where we were instructed by the harbour pilot to wait (in the 30 knot winds and northerly swells, next to a HUGE tug pushing a HUGE fuel barge, next to rust bucket barge, next to a HUGE dredger. Oh ya, and the marina where we had a reservation, would not answer our calls on the radio.
After 3 cruise ships departed, we were allowed to enter the harbour. We have since learned that, since Sept. 11th, boat traffic is strictly controlled, due to the cruise ships, commercial trade, and naval operations.
As you can imagine, Platina is too long and too deep to easily fit into the marina, so we are at the end of the fuel dock. Lots of (friendly) boaters from the marina have dropped by to see the “big beautiful boat”. The good news is that we are in a GREAT location to watch the shuttle launch tomorrow morning. Cool.
Posted by dave at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
Time to Move On
We got Matt on his flight today, after which we raced around doing the zillion errands that need to be done before we leave.
We have decided to head north up the eastern seaboard, and with luck, we will be in Cape Canaveral for the space shuttle launch, if they decide to launch it. We expect to head as far north as Maine before returning the the US south. We will head across to Mexico and Belize later in the year.
Our research indicated that there were few, if any, safe places to go in the event of a hurricane. We are just as happy to be heading north.
Posted by dave at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2005
South Beach
The terribly trendy South Beach beach. We took Matt down to see just how bad it really is. Oh, it's pretty over-the-top.
Posted by dave at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2005
Matt on the Jet Ski
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Jet Skiing
We walked Fort Lauderdale beach this morning looking for a good place for brunch, and after filling ourselves with an American-sized meal, we walked some more. We stumbled on jet skis, and Matt was too tempted.
Posted by dave at 02:53 PM | Comments (0)
Fort Lauderdale Beach
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July 16, 2005
Visit with Matt
Chis' brother Matt arrived yesterday, deciding to take a break from the heat in Toronto for the opressive heat and humidity of South Florida. With a short visit, he really wanted to fish or sail. So we chose both. With a brand new lure recommended by Ralph and Ann from "Harmonie", we not only caught nothing, some sorta big fish ate the lure and the leader.
Posted by dave at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)
July 11, 2005
Hurricane Emily
Tropical Depression 5 was named Tropical Storm Emily at 5 this morning. Larry King beat the National Hurricane Center to it when he named it on CNN last night. Emily is east of the Windward Islands and moving west northwest.
Click HERE to see the latest predicted track for the next 5 days. (Links on our website do not open in a new window, so be sure to click BACK. Alternatively, mouse over the link, right click, and select Open in New Window).
Posted by dave at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2005
Day After Dennis, Fort Lauderdale Beach
The day after Hurricane Dennis, and we went for a run along the beach. This is a wonderful photo of a lifeguard station on Fort Lauderdale Beach, with the waves in the background. Note the red flag on the life station - it represents a danger hazard one level below closing the beach. Yesterday, the beach was closed.
Another note - the cruise ship in the background? Gambling! Never too rough for a little roulette?
Posted by dave at 04:40 PM | Comments (0)
Hurricane Dennis
Dennis has now past, with lingering rain bands that come with big winds and lots of rain. Fort Lauderdale is returning to normal (whatever that is), and the bulldozers are out this morning moving the sand off the road back onto the beach.
We experienced winds up to 50-60 knots and heavy rains. But nothing like what the gulf coast will experience later today.
We are thrilled to hear that Dennis did little damage to the family of our great friend, Janet Todd, in Jamaica. At the same time, we are saddened to hear of the loss of life in Haiti and Cuba. Our respect for Nature grows every day.
Posted by dave at 04:25 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2005
N26.1 W80.1 Fort Lauderdale, Florida
We awoke to unexpectedly strong winds, and decided to depart quickly to take advantage. The ridge of high pressure that was still stalled over us was making a mess of winds and weather. We cheered when we saw 5 metres under the keel! Finally off the Great Bahama Bank, we entered the Florida Straits and the powerful Gulf Stream. The charts showed 2-4 knots of northbound current. The wind was blowing from the south, assisting the current. To correct for the current, we steered 240 degrees instead of the straight line 295 degrees. 55 degrees to correct for the current.
There is a little icon of a boat that moves on our electronic charts. It uses GPS to show us where we are. It even points in the direction that the boat is facing. It looked like we were sailing sideways!
We had a wonderful sail, and tied up at the Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale. High speed DSL! Cable TV!
We are here for at least 2 weeks, with much to do. The shopping list is endless. This is our first "civilization" since France!
Dave needs new running shoes (they smell REALLY bad)
Chis wants to get the laptop fixed
Chis wants to read newspapers
Dave wants to work out in a gym
Dave craves a Starbucks grande soy latte
We want to get a cell phone
And on it goes...
We may never leave!
Posted by dave at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)