Fort Lauderdale

In case you are wondering where we are and why we haven’t updated our Blog in a couple of weeks, well, we are still in Fort Lauderdale at Marina Bay. The work we are having done on the boat hasn’t gone as fast as we had hoped, so our planned departure date of today, March 1st, isn’t going to happen. Seems as if every time we think it’s all getting wrapped up, something else falls through or breaks. Take today for example. We have an inverter on the boat, and if you don’t know what that is I’ll just say that it is a complicated electronic box that turns 12 volt electricity from batteries (like you have in your car) to 120 volt electricity like you have in your house. It decided to die today. Thankfully, we are in the “Yachting Center of the World” and can get just about anything done, for a price. Anyway, we are still here getting our old boat looking and running great.

We have enjoyed our time here, and it looks like we will be here until 21 March at which time we will begin heading north. We look forward to moving on and seeing new places and experiencing new adventures, which is why we are on this trip in the first place.

While here we have had new canvas made for the boat, fiberglass work and deck painting done, cushions recovered, windows repaired, and our inverter repaired. All but the inverter were planned to be completed while staying here for the month of February. There is always something on a boat that needs attention at one time or another. Fortunately, we are dockside and don’t need the inverter right now, and the Captain has found a place to get it fixed in a few days.

We have spent our time here taking advantage of the pool here at the marina, visiting friends who live nearby, doing boat projects (which are never ending), and enjoying the Fort Lauderdale area. We also went to the Miami Boat Show in February. Ted Jones introduced Mike to Dick Lazzara who designed our boat some 20 years ago. The story as to how this boat came to be is interesting and funny. The highlight of the show was being able to tour the 75 foot and110 foot Lazzara yachts—WOW. Our favorite was the 110 foot, and a smaller version has been added to our wish list should we ever win a HUGE lottery!

We hope to leave next Monday (5 March) with Eric and Ellen Provost on their boat headed to the Bahamas. We will hang out at SailFish Marina in Lake Worth, FL, waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream. It will be a quick trip there and back, but we look forward to making the trip and seeing what the Bahamas look like from a boat rather than from land.

Pat’s mother is flying in to Fort Lauderdale on 16 March to visit for a few days and will then drive our truck back to Alabama and keep it for us until we decide we want or need it again. However, once we leave here we don’t think we will be staying long enough in any one location to warrant getting the truck again for quite some time. More Later.