South Florida Here we are..WARM

Thur Nov 29th 8:45 AM ....Well here we are downtown Ft Lauderdale and I mean downtown. Arrived early yesterday afternoon after mostly motor sailing down from Ft Pierce. Remember the AutoProp we discussed during the bridge fiasco, well when the boat is sailing along in light airs at 4-5 kts, we start the engine put it in gear at about 13-1400 rpm, the prop changes its pitch ...IE shifts into 4th gear and takes bigger bites of the water and bam..we are going 6-7 kts using very little fuel, charging the batteries making hot water and getting there sooner, in this case to enter on an incoming tide and make a scheduled bridge opening.

We shared the narrow channel with this large container ship...I kept to the extreme right side ...the ship lets go 1 huge blast on the horn as some #%$%&$% sailboat racers come tacking out the channel. These guys must have been from Annapolis....almost as stupid.... Joyce almost jumped overboard.

The bridge tender did not drop the bridge on us..guess this guy has more experience...and the boats are bigger and more $$$$$. Here is my expample of a well found trawler to move to when I can't sail anymore.

We motored up the New River to the downtown Marina. We dropped the main and jenny and packed them to go to the sail-maker. They forgot to put the telltales on the new main. They are going to replace the sunbrella on the jenny and do some repairs. The sunbrella is along the bottom and back edge of the sail so when it is rolled up the sail is protected from the UV rays by the sunbrella. Here goes another $7-800 bucks. Better than a new jenny for $5500 or so...

I'm normally not much of a marina rat...but this place is rather unique. In an area with few places to anchor, and marina prices at $ 2-3 dollars a foot, the City of Ft Lauderdale has 3 different marinas at $1.25 a foot...and with a BoatsUS membership...less 25% for the 1st 3 days. We are literally downtown, 3 blocks form a supermarket, lots of shops for Joyce to explore. Los Olas Blvd is just 3-4 blocks over...the favorite place for all the $$$$ snowbirds from the frozen North. Small and large boats and "ships" moter past us all day long. The sound of bow thrusters warn of a big one making the tight turns on their way to the ocean. In this case the boat is being towed...1 in front to tow and 1 in the back to stop...

It's supposed to cool off to 78 deg ...wow a cold spell down here...yes Joyce is warm and happy till I turn on the A/C when I start to sweat. We have a list of boat chores to to do here while we have unlimited water and power...must go supervise Joyce....she is getting ready to do the cockpit..