We're on the Move...Sort of

So, we finally abandoned our dock slip in Miami and sailed north to Fort Lauderdale.  What is likely a very easy ½ day sail for most was a true test for us.  We left dock with no reserve water, and we were low on fuel.  None of which made me feel all that prepared.  When our radio stopped working, we realized that we were setting ourselves up for problems.  Time to visit a fuel dock for essentials.  That small detour set us back at least 3 hours!  We had decided to take the outside (Atlantic Ocean) route instead of staying on the intercoastal the whole way, which gave JB his first taste of “2ft seas”.;)  He was a bit surprised that it felt so rough.  It was a fairly relaxing, peaceful motor-sail up the east coast and 10 hours later we successfully navigated one of the busiest ports in South Florida (Port Everglades) to come to rest at Playboy Marina.  

Don’t let the name fool you…this is NOT Hugh Hefner’s beach resort.;)  In fact, it is even more basic than our previous dock slip.  No drinking water, spotty electricity, and no internet.  What Playboy Marina does have, is access to all things electrical, and an electrical whiz, Damian.  So, our final stage is to get our boat up to code and convert our abomination of an electrical cabinet into something user-friendly and labeled. 

We have now been at Playboy for 2 weeks and we have our final walk-through today.  I will say that for the first time during this whole “boat fixing” process that I’m excited and positive we’re going to be out sailing before long.  In fact, last night we turned on our stereo, played some tunes, ate breakfast for dinner, had a drink and switched out a VHF antenna.  I felt a little twinge of “living the good life”, then our ampmeter crapped out on us and JB was up ‘til 2:30a cursing at it.  Oh well...

Our jaunt north has been productive, and we’re hoping to abandon land by Friday.  Ideally, we’ll sleep in for a week, then start diving the FL Keys, Dry Tortugas & Biscayne National Park before we have to put the boat into storage (late September).  If all else fails after this adventure, we’ll be able to start new careers in construction.;)