Waiting in Fort Lauderdale

It has now been a week since we arrived in Fort Lauderdale. As much as it’s a nice place to be, and certainly warmer than home (although it IS cool for Florida) we are ready to leave and cross to the Bahamas. The weather has had other ideas.

The week has been busy, with both maintenance issues, and exploring the area. We are becoming quite good at using the public transportation, and have done our share of walking as well. 

We started off the week with big winds and cool temperatures, and were quite happy to be tied to the dock. It was so windy the first two nights that we both slept with earplugs to try to cut out the noise! Despite the fact that the beach is a five minute walk from the boat, it definitely has not been beach weather. However, we have discovered a wonderful French patisserie across the street and have become daily customers! And of course the search for the best Happy Hour continues!

One of the highlights of the week was an unexpected phone call from Hugh’s brother Adrian, who we mentioned many times as our “phone a friend” during our trip south last year. He is a semi-retired professional Captain, a wealth of marine and ICW knowledge, lives in Florida, and is currently driving a 125 foot private yacht. It seemed that he needed to move it from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and would we like to come along as “crew”. He did not have to ask us twice!

So Friday morning he picked us up at our marina, drove us to the marina where the boat stays, we all hopped in an Uber to Miami, and boarded Kimberlie.

Kimberlie

Wow, this is how the other half live! The owner of the yacht lives on it full time, so we really could not wander around, as this is her home. I did manage a quick peek around, and Hugh got a tour of the engine room with the boat’s engineer, which is probably twice the size of our main salon! The kitchen is huge, but despite the size they do not eat on board, ever!

Dining room

Main salon

The boat employs a full time engineer/manager and one full time crew, then hires Adrian and a stewardess as needed. We sat up in the pilothouse with Adrian and watched with awe as he maneuvered the boat away from the dock, out a narrow opening and into the ICW.  We passed through eight bascule bridges and arrived in Lauderdale and again watched him dock the boat in a space just about as big as the boat. Not much room for error! His many years of experience certainly was evident. Thanks again Adrian for a great day!

Adrian at the helm

So the maintenance issue we have dealt with while waiting is the house bank of batteries, which Hugh was sure were slowly failing. I will let him tell you what happened and the solution!

Before we left Fort Pierce, we unplugged from dock power to see how the solar and batteries survived the summer.  While the overnight electrical load was the same, we use about 65 amp-hours overnight between when the sun goes down and the solar panels stop producing electricity and when the sun comes up in the morning and the panels start producing again, the battery voltage (a measure of how much energy is left in the batteries) dropped to 11.7 volts meaning the batteries were less than 50% charged, whereas last year we never went below 12.4 volts or about 80% charged. Of course, the question is why … I left a solar panel hooked up over the summer to keep them charged, and the panels have a “smart” controller that is supposed to prevent overcharging the batteries.  To maximize the life of lead acid batteries they are supposed to be fully charged after being discharged and we had a hard time doing that in the Exumas when we anchored most of the time. Maybe that was the beginning of the end.  Anyhow, I wasn’t going to the Bahamas with suspect batteries and risk that we wouldn’t be able to keep the fridge and freezer running.  Three options were open to us, replace the batteries with the same mid level AGMs we had, although I was leery about that when we had not got the life out of them that we should have expected.  A second option was to go the least expensive route and pick up regular flooded lead acid batteries from Costco or Walmart, but of course that would mean modifying the battery boxes to make them fit, or, go high tech and get lithium batteries.  George and Bev, friends of ours on another Hanse 415 Breeze On went with lithium batteries a couple of years ago and are very happy with them.  Key advantages are that they can be recharged much more quickly, important for us when we want to minimize running our main engine or our generator.  They are happy living life between 20% and 90% charged whereas lead acid batteries shouldn’t be discharged more than 50%, so they offer much more usable capacity, and finally, they are much lighter.  George recommended Alex from Sea Tek in Marathon, so I gave him a call, and luckily he was planning to travel to Fort Lauderdale for some other business and offered to come up and swap out our batteries for the lithium (LiFePO lithium, ferrous, phosphate to be accurate) batteries.  The install went very quickly and after a night of charging we unplugged and in spite of a couple of days of very overcast rainy days where the solar put in virtually nothing, we consumed 190 Amp-hours of our 400 Amp-hour bank and still had a couple of days capacity!  Suffice to say I’m very pleased.  My only reservation is that the alternator will be working a lot harder with the lithiums because they accept a much higher charge for a longer period (hence the fast recharging).  Hopefully the alternator is up to the challenge.  I have a spare!

So now we are hoping to cross tomorrow, although we just looked at the ocean and there is no way we are going out there unless it calms down. I have never seen the horizon as “wavy” as it was today. The plan is to go overnight and get to the Berry Islands, check in there and stay a day or two, and then hop south to the Exumas.

Windy day!

Fortunately, we have met another boat also waiting to cross (Mike and Julie on Blue Train). They are also from Toronto, and even better, Mike grew up in the same neighborhood that I did, and his mother lived in the same retirement home as mine does. I love “small world” stories! So we are going to cross together, which is great, as they say, safety in numbers!

Unfortunately, we recently found out that our friends and buddy boat from last year, Bob and Sheila, have decided not to cross over to the Bahamas this year. They will explore the Florida Keys and west coast. We will miss their company!

So with laundry done, and provisions topped up, we are ready to go. Let’s hope tomorrow is a good day.

And so the adventure continues ... one day at a time!

There is always something!

Fort Pierce to Fort Lauderdale

It has been a busy few days (week?) since we last wrote.  We replaced the starter battery, finished getting the boat stocked, emptied the storage room, parked and covered my trusty Subaru. With the last day of the good weather we left the dock bright and early Friday morning and headed out to the Atlantic.  Seems crazy to have our first sail of the year (and in 8 months) in the Atlantic, but we knew that the seas would be calm and it was the only way to get to West Palm Beach without having to go under those nasty 65 foot fixed bridges. We had a lovely motor/sail, and even had a school of dolphins greet us as we came out of the Fort Pierce Inlet. A good omen!

We arrived in Lake Worth, which is a very popular anchorage for boats waiting to go across to the top of the Bahamas, or further down the Florida coast, and it was quite busy near the entrance when we arrived.  We found a lovely spot away from the crowded area, looking at a lovely mansion and its sailboat parked out in front. Not a bad view!

Our Lake Worth view

We were planning to do down the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) for the next section of the journey to Fort Lauderdale, as all the bridges between Lake Worth and Fort Lauderdale are bascule bridges, which open up from the middle and have no height restrictions. Or so we thought!

Bascule bridge

Hugh had been doing his usual research on the next day’s trip when he came across a comment on one of the sites saying something about there being a lift bridge at one of the bascule bridges (the third bridge down).  Further research did not support the social media comment, and there is nothing shown on the official nautical charts so we dismissed it as “bunk” and planned to leave the next morning at 8am and start the ride down, going through 22 bridges to get to Fort Lauderdale.

I was woken up at 5am by Hugh saying “we have a problem”. Turns out, it had been bothering him that someone had said something about a lift bridge, and after further searching, found that there really is a temporary lift bridge where they are replacing a bascule bridge. Now, for those of you who followed us last year, you might remember that our mast is 64’4” without instruments or antenna, and most ICW bridges are 65 ft at HIGH tide which gave us some room to go under at low tide. We called the bridge tender and she swore the lift bridge has a height of 65 ft at LOW tide We used our water bag three times last year to heel us over to make it under bridges that were too low and swore to each other we would never do it again. It’s too stressful and heart stopping! Now, with instruments back on top of the mast, we are about 65 1/2 feet high and were pretty sure we could not get under this bridge without heeling the boat.

Needless to say we did not leave, or sleep anymore that morning, but spent the rest of the morning discussing what to do. Should we go outside to Fort Lauderdale? That would mean waiting for a few days with big winds in the forecast. Should we just go over to West End, Bahamas like last year instead of our plan to cross to Bimini from Miami then down to the Exumas? Should we get the water bag out and do it one more time?

We decided we might as well enjoy West Palm Beach as we weren’t moving anywhere that day, so we lowered the dinghy and went over to the town dock and walked into town. The first thing we found was a huge “Green Farmers Market” with tons of stands selling food, crafts, flowers (beautiful orchid plants) and all sorts of environmentally friendly stuff. Great Fun! We even took a free trolley ride, thinking it would show us a bit of the town, which it did, but mostly it’s a free bus service for the local seniors! We had lunch in a cute little Italian place, then decided to take the dinghy and ride down to this lift bridge and assess it with our own eyes. The ride was a little wet, but not too far, and sure enough, there it was with all its glory, that damned lift bridge! We noticed that a sailboat was heading towards it and as they waited for it to go up we asked how tall their mast was. They replied it was 55 feet. So we watched them go under, and from where we were sitting it looked like they had quite a bit of space above their mast, but who could tell from the where we were sitting?

So we went back to Trekker and decided, with our hearts in our throats, that we would rig the water bag up and heel over to go under the bridge. Again. It’s actually crazy that we still had the bag on board, as it was in the storage locker and we were going to leave it in the car since we wouldn’t need it, but Hugh decided at the last minute to take it. Who knew we would need it so soon! We decided to go under at low tide, giving us as much clearance as possible, plus we spoke with Hugh’s brother Adrian, who said he thought that they are saying that the height is at low tide to give themselves a little wiggle room. They certainly don’t want any masts hitting it as it is a temporary structure. Finally, Hugh called the Coast Guard and they said they would never have approved a bridge lower than 65’ above high water … who to believe??

We left just before low tide, giving us lots of time to get through the first couple of bridges, then get the bag ready, fill it and go! As we got through the first bridge I heard someone on the radio call for an opening of the lift bridge, to which they were told there were mechanical problems and it couldn’t be lifted. WHAT?? I called the bridge and confirmed it was not working, but she would call me as soon as it was. How long? No idea. So, we decided to anchor and go tomorrow. But just as we were finished anchoring she called to say it was working. We looked at each other and Hugh thought it would be better to go tomorrow, but honestly, I just wanted to get it done and over with. So, we got the anchor up and headed towards it. With hearts pounding, and of course the wind blowing, we got the bag filled and headed towards the bridge. Honestly, I cannot tell you how close we were, but I did not hear the antenna hit the bridge, so we must have had at least a few inches to spare! (my heart is pounding while I write this!!) We quickly got the bag aboard and headed through a couple of more bridges to an anchorage that we had read about at Lantana. We were quite happy to put the anchor down and celebrate another bridge heeling success with a beer! We swear we will never do it again, but …

The next morning, we headed down the ICW through 17 more bridges, enjoying every moment of it. The houses (I should say mansions) along the canal are unbelievable. We even went by a family of Manatees as we cruised down. It was all very relaxing and enjoyable. 

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and are now sitting at the dock waiting out the heavy winds that came through last night, and are probably going to be here all week. 

Trekker sandwiched between a big cat and power boat

We really hadn’t planned on being here that long, but it could be worse. The weather is lovely (a bit windy), we are tied to a dock, the beach is two blocks away, and there is lots to do in Lauderdale.

Of course, being a boat, there is another battery issue with our house bank, but we are in a good place to have work done. I will leave that story for Hugh once we know what is happening.

The adventure continues … one day at a time!

Preparing to go sailing!

Fort Pierce

First thing we had to do before we could check on Trekker was go buy a ladder.  All our neighbors had very inconsiderately  locked theirs up (as opposed to the spring when were able to borrow one)!  Having made a run to Home Depot to buy the ladder, roller handles, rollers,  brushes, gloves and other painting supplies we were able to climb aboard. Turning the key in the companion way lock I wondered,  what we would find, mould, mildew, bugs, animals?  As I pushed the hatch forward and climbed down it smelled – fresh – woo hoo! Closer examination was consistent with the odour, no sign of any foreign substances! Thanks to Cap'n Ron Hawn who kept an eye on her over the summer,  replacing 5 Damp-Rid bags each visit.
Over the summer Johhny  B Good washed and waxed the deck and stainless a couple of times and just before we arrived they cleaned and buffed the top sides, and she looked great! The only disappointment was the nearly black teak that, as we later determined, was very dirty. Guess they don't clean teak.  Apparently ash floats over the marina during controlled burns inland.
After checking on Trekker we checked into our condo for the week. 
Sunday we drove down to North Palm to have lunch with my brother Adrian and his wife Mary, to pick up our bottom paint and to do our first shop – at Costco. We bought a “boatload” of meat that we would later divide into servings, vacuum seal and freeze.
Next day, dressed in our work clothes, we headed back to the marina, and primed with coffee, took on the task of applying the first coat of bottom paint.  Two hours later we had it on, and were splattered in paint and hurting!  

Most of the paint went on the bottom!

After showers and lunch we headed up to the storage unit to bring our first load back to Trekker. And so it went, a second coat of bottom paint, trips to the storage locker, dinners in, dinners out, including $6.99 burgers and trivia night at the Second Street Bistro!  Interspersed with putting the boat together Karen slowly knocked off her grocery list, $xxx at Costco, $xxx at Walmart and $xxx at Publix, but we were able to rationalize the cost because we were buying for four months! 

Trekker ready to go 

We launched Thursday and all was going well until the starting battery turned out to be dead.

Trekker splashing down 

 We knew it was low so we had plugged in in the yard but for some reason the starting battery was not charging. I’m still trouble shooting this problem.  Anyway, I boosted the starting battery from the house bank and she fired right up! The good news is the starting battery is charging from the alternator. Off to the slip we went.
The next few days included more trips to the storage locker, moving aboard, stowing food wine and beer, putting sails up, going up the mast to replace the instruments and Windex, starting the Suzuki dinghy motor and Honda generator and generally making sure everything works and getting her ship shape.  

Freezer all stocked up!

Pretty well ready to go, we decided to replace the starting battery.  It's five years old and we figured better to do it in Florida than the Bahamas.  Of course it’s not your standard sized battery … and there are none in Florida, so after much Googling I found another brand that looks suspiciously similar with the same dimensions and ordered it from West Marine. Hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow. 
Plans are to take out the old battery, install the new, make the final run to the storage room for stuff that will stay in the car, visit Customs and Border Protection to recover our registration and get our permission to proceed and then leave bright and early Thursday for Lake Worth. From there we’re planning to go down the ICW to Fort Lauderdale.  Regular readers will no doubt think “what about the bridges" but amazingly all the bridges between Lake Worth and Ft. Lauderdale are bascule, meaning that they split in the centre and pivot up out of the way.  We're looking forward to the sight seeing! We are planning on meeting up with our boat buddies, Bob and Sheila,  either in Miami area or Bimini, Bahamas. Mother Nature will determine when!

Here we go again!

It is hard to believe that we are on our way south to get back on Trekker and out sailing again. The summer started off pretty slowly ... "Boatless and Bored" we called ourselves. We did our best to bum off as many friends as we could, including racing 5.5 Metre keelboats in Midland and visiting cottages up in the French River, Georgian Bay and Haliburton. We became quite the cinema aficionados, frequenting our little indie theater and seeing many of the TIFF movies for a third of the price. One of our goals was to find as many local independent coffee shops as we could and the Kitchener Public Library coffee lounge become one of our favorites. We also joined the Conestoga Sailing Club and did a few races.

But most exciting was our decision to move from Kitchener to Midland. We have been talking about moving to Midland for many years, as we have spent many, many summers up there boating, and have made a great group of friends from the sailing community.  Friends showed us a vacant lot that was for sale by a custom home builder, and long story short, we are building a home we have designed and will be moving next fall. It will be very busy once we get home from this trip, picking everything out for the house!

As fall came we knew that we needed to start preparing for our trip on the boat, but somehow we managed to avoid most of the prepping until the last few weeks.  Of course preparing our home for Christmas took up time.... shopping, baking, decorating ... I was definitely going to make up for missing Christmas last year!  Both of the kids came home for Christmas, they really didn't have much of a choice in the matter!! It was a wonderful time with family and friends.

Hugh bought spares for the boat and painted the propeller. We have a cupboard in the basement that is designated "the boat cupboard", and anytime we buy something "for the boat" it gets shoved in there and forgotten about. So our first job was to go through the cupboard and see exactly what we had collected.  I made a list  of things I needed to take back when we left the boat last spring, and slowly the list was checked off.  Unfortunately the list wasn't as complete as I'd hoped!  Trying to remember what we had brought home and what we left was a bit of a challenge. Did we bring home the towels? Pillows? Napkins?  What clothes should we bring this time? Definitely not as many as last year, as we went through three seasons and had lots of clothes and coats for each season. This year will be mostly warm temperatures, but I do remember it being cooler in January. Shoes, sandals, hats, bathing suits, sweatshirts and jackets ... all very necessary wardrobe items. 

Following Christmas we started making piles in the den of boxes and bags. I collected a few food items from home, including spices and dry goods already in my tupperware containers. I also bought a few food items that we aren't able to get in the States.  Games, card sets, cookbooks, and items from the drugstore such as shampoo and soaps, toiletries and medications, all went into the pile. On January 1st Hugh began packing up the car so we would be ready to leave bright and early the next morning. Everything fit in very nicely, and we were quite proud of ourselves at our great packing job, until we started looking around, and checked lists, and realized we had forgotten a few things. I don't think we could have fit another thing into that poor car!!  

We left January 2nd and took a two night side trip to Amelia Island, which is located at the very top of Florida, then arrived in Fort Pierce on January 5th and gave Trekker a big hug. We have rented a condo for a week while we put her back together. Those that followed us last year will remember that we emptied her into a storage locker, since this was the first year we had left her in the hot, humid Florida summer and had no idea what to expect. So now we have to do the reverse. We may rethink that idea in the spring!

The distance that took us 5 months to sail last year took us two days of driving this year! It is so awesome to watch the countryside slowly turn from browns to greens, and to begin seeing flowers, and palm trees. Every time we stopped for gas or a pit stop it was warmer and warmer. So nice! It was also fun recalling our trip down the U.S. coast as we drove past towns and ports that we had visited or sailed by.

Before she goes back into the water we need to paint the bottom of the boat. Once she is in the water we can load her up. Another big job that needs to be done is provisioning. We will be shopping for four months worth of food, wine and beer. The challenge is finding where to put it all!!

This year we plan to sail down to Miami where we will hopefully meet up with our boat buddies from last year, Bob and Sheila, on Her Diamond, and head over to Bimini Island. We will then head over to the Exumas, which we loved. The hope is to visit anchorages and  islands along the way that we did not get to last year. We will make our way up to the Abacos before heading back to Florida where we will leave the boat again. 

So we hope that you will follow as we explore the Bahamas again. You never know what kind of adventure we will have!
Here we go again.....one day at a time!