Of Boat Shows and Garlic Fests

So this past week, we celebrated my birthday at an overpriced restaurant. Then we went to the Miami Boat Show. We must’ve walked a hundred miles, boarded a bunch of boats and sampled the most awful excuse for gyros in the world. The boat show was interesting; it’s always . . . well, what? . . . interesting to see how the other half boats. We went on board several 32, 37, and 39 foot boats, mostly to see how they compared to our piece of paradise. We’re still happy! We were surprised by a Passport 47 whose hailing port was Port Oliver Kentucky. Being members of the Port Oliver Yacht Club, we were naturally intrigued. Turns out that the owner of the boat was from Glasgow, KY! Small world. Nice boat, BTW, very nice boat. Today, mensiversary 445, we went to the 11th annual Garlic Fest in Del Ray Beach. Fun, lots of people and don’t ask why they have a garlic fest in February. But all the food vendors had garlic laced everything, there was an iron chef garlic cook-off and we even tasted garlic ice cream. There may or may not have been garlic in the conch salad that I had for lunch. It was superb! Not quite as good as Friendly Joe’s on Bimini, but location may have had something to do with that. It was unique in that it was served in the cavity of half a papaya. After much searching, we
found Richard from Cote Provence at the Garlic Fest. He and his French partner had a shop on Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale. They also did a Sunday farmers’market on Las Olas. It was at the market that I bought one of their wonderful French garlic bowls several years ago. It is a colorful 6” ceramic bowl with “teeth” on the bottom. You can grate garlic, add evoo, a pinch of herbs et voila!!! dipping oil. He also has little plates that can be used for the same purpose or for grating ginger, hard cheese, whatever.
Check out his web site – he has some really neat stuff. http://coteprovenceimports.com

Ahhh! Fort Lauderdale

Ah! We’re sitting in the cockpit, sipping rum punches and enjoying an evening breeze. Shorts, t-shirts, bare feet. Such is life in Ft Lauderdale. Alas! It’s not our boat. We’ve been more or less stuck in Brunswick for several weeks. We failed to take advantage of the scant weather windows that materialized. The forecast for the next 10 days precludes any possibility of leaving during that time period. We were bemoaning that fact and thinking about another 10 days in Brunswick. Don’t get me wrong—it could be worse. At least it is not freezing, we don’t have snow and we do have a car and friends. So, we had resigned ourselves to 10 more days without the tropical sun. Then it came to us! Our friend Al has a boat in Ft Lauderdale. Yes!! Surely he would like someone to check on it for him, run the engine, check the lines, etc. N’est-ce pas? So, here we are in Ft Lauderdale. What would have taken us several days to accomplish on the boat was done in a matter of hours. There are several restaurants that have become our favorites, there is Sailorman (used and salvaged marine supplies) and, of course, the sun and warm weather. So, we’ll hang out here for a week or so, check out the Miami Boat Show and return to Brunswick where we hope the weather will moderate and we can finally get under way. *sigh* (says c.)