FT LAUDERDALEl

November 27, 2011

While we were at the dock waiting on a mooring ball we saw a boat vacate one so we started the engine and motored over to pick it up.  The mooring field is well protected but this particular mooring ball has the best protection of all.  The current here in Ft Lauderdale really rips along.  There are times when it is running 3 kts!  Ft Lauderdale is another one of those yachting meccas.  Like Annapolis, it has everything a cruiser needs.  We find it more expensive than the Annapolis counterpart.  Annapolis is a much friendlier place and, historically, more scenic and interesting.  It's now too cold to be up North so the warm Florida Wx is welcoming.

While we were in Delray Beach, Dan and Phyllis were  busy setting up the rigging for the outboard motor and Avon inflatable.  I was busy with the radio technician installing the SSB.  Now we'll see how all that comes out.

1200 hrs.  The dingy and outboard motor have been successfully launched!  Dan and Phyllis did a great job.  It appears that Phyllis and I will be able to do this ourselves with the help of a winch.  I was very satisfied with the rigging that Dan did to make it easy to launch the outboard.  We can now motor back and forth to the marina carrying supplies and taking showers.

November 28-29.  Shopping, shopping, shopping.  It doesn't stop.  Additionally, Dan recommended that the spare alternator I have onboard be taken to an electrical  shop and rebuilt.  This we did and got it back today.  Lots of electrical improvements will take place from Dan's recommendations and supplies we bought.  I will do most of this in the future.

In addition to being a professional tugboat Captain, Dan was a commercial and charter boat fisherman.  He has taken this experience and rigged up all our fishing equipment for the trip.  How wonderful is that!!  The end is in sight.  I'll take the next couple of days to work out the Passage Plan and details from Ft. Lauderdale to Panama.  We'll wait on a suitable Wx window to depart.  The trip is about 1300 miles but will be more with tacking and working the winds.  I'm thinking fourteen days to make the voyage but hope it will only be ten.

Dan left this evening to continue his professional life in the tugboat world.  Thank you, Dan,  for all the wonderful work and running around you did for us.