FORT LA-DI-DA!

            The trip from Ft Pierce to Ft Lauderdale is usually an 18-20 hour trip.  The biggest problem encountered is the edge of the Gulf Stream, that north flowing river that lies off the East Coast.  When you are headed south, it slows you down.  To avoid it, you have to stay within a mile or so of the coast.  This year, for some reason, we ran into the current as close in as ½ mile.  Instead of taking 18-20 hours, the trip took 24.  Before leaving Ft Pierce, I caught the first fish of the season—a nice catfish.  OK, so there was little sport involved.  Number one, we had chummed the water frequently.  Then, a bread covered hook attracted scores of fish, I didn’t even have to wait for one to tug on the line, I could see when he took the hook.  It’s still a thrill to have a fish on the end of the line.

           
             Upon arrival at Las Olas Marina, we had a different current problem.  The tide was coming in and pushed the boat from behind.  Normally, the extra speed would be welcome.  In this case we were coming into a dock.  The current kept us from slowing down enough to avoid bumping into the dock.  There are only three things you need to know when boating.  The first one is, “Don’t hit anything hard!”  There is nothing soft about concrete docks!  Thank goodness our good friends Jim and Ellie (s/v FinniRish) were on hand to cushion our landing.

            Oh, the other 2 things you need to know?  “Keep the slimy side down!”  and “Stay on the damned boat!”

            My friend and occasional sailing companion Al let us use his condo and car when we got to Ft Lauderdale.  He arrived a few days later.  I took advantage of his presence and asked him to help me take the boat to Playboy Marine for a haul-out.  I wanted to re-pitch my propeller and I had an ancient seacock that I wanted to replace.  The old one was hopelessly corroded and frozen in the open position.  Both jobs required the boat to be out of the water.

            I felt really special at Playboy.  Officially, the yard was closed for renovation and they weren’t doing any haul-outs.  I smiled real nice at Wendy, the person who schedules haul-outs, and was able to get an impromptu haul-out within a couple of days.  Then, I was able to get Danny, the contractor who has done work for me before, to drop what he was doing.  He did the work while the boat was in the slings and it only took a couple of hours.  We were back at Las Olas in time for lunch.  Sweet!

            Then, more friends came to town.  Frank and Carol from Port Oliver Yacht Club came down to sail to the Bahamas with Al on his boat s/v Moon Taxi.  Al took us all out to lunch at el Tamarindo, one of my favorite restaurants.  While everything they serve is excellent and delicious, I nearly always order Mariscada—a seafood soup/stew; all kinds of seafood swimming in a fantastic tomato-herb based broth.

As if that weren’t enough, Al insisted on grilling steaks for us at the condo.  We stayed up far too late solving the world’s problems, telling stories and lies.

                    There is no shortage of palatial homes along the banks of the new river

                          And no shortage of fine food at the many restaurants of Ft La-di-da

                       And don’t think that wildlife doesn’t abound on the streets and waterways!

                     All in all, Fort Lauderdale is a reasonable response to a latitude problem!

GOODBYE, FROSTY!

   

Our excursion to the frozen northland has come to an end.  A five inch snowfall welcomed us to Columbus.  Another several inches were falling as we left.  We said goodbye to Frosty and battled slick roads and darkness, driving a whole 30 miles per hour for the first two hours.

  Faster than the 5 knots I expect when sailing, but a lot slower than the 70 or so MPH our tiny Chevy Spark could deliver.  1050 miles later, we had our celebratory arrival rum at 2 AM.  How wonderful to be back in South Florida.

    Since we still had the use of the car for several more days, we went shopping.  I had to introduce Kathleen to my favorite supermarket, Papa’s Meat Market.  I had discovered it years earlier, by accident.  Claudia and I were arriving by car in Ft Pierce.  Naturally, we were looking forward to the customary rum drink.  Alas!  We had no limes.  Papa’s was the only market that we passed as we came into town.  Such serendipity, what a terrific store.  Fresh vegetables, tropical fruit, specialty meats especially suited to Caribbean cuisine, tripe, chicken feet, cows’ feet, etc. If you are so inclined, you can even get a smoked goat’s head!

  None of the customers speak English; Haitian Creole is the predominant tongue with Spanish a close runner-up.  It was heaven for a foodie like me.  Although, I still don’t know what you do with a smoked goat’s head. I must admit, I have butchered dozens of goats but never thought of smoking the head!   Jamaicans apparently use it to make Goat Head Soup, a party dish served at weddings and other social occasions.  Apparently it goes well with alcohol!  Uhuh.

    We got back in time for the New Year’s Eve celebration—dinner at Harbor Cove and party at the pavilion where we counted the seconds off

as 2013 approached.  Fun and silliness

and perhaps a bit of confusion since at least one person seemed to be celebrating St Patty’s day.  Well, anything goes on New Year’s Eve, even green hats!

    So, anyway, with shopping done all that remained was to do a couple of boat projects, chief among them being the leaking water bladder under the V-berth.  I warned Kathleen to cover her ears since I knew that a significant amount of cussing would be necessary to extract the bladder.  The prognosis for repair?  Not possible.  Well, the prognosis was possible, but the repair not.  As a consolation, I was able to stop the leak on the sea water/ice box drain spigot.
    Finally, the moment we had awaited since before Xmas.  The BB King concert was terrific.  He still has a powerful voice and of course, his music on Lucille is incomparable

We sacrificed a good weather window for heading down to Ft Lauderdale.  I’m sure we’ll get another window but we may not have the opportunity to see BB King again.