Looks like we could get “stuck” in Fort Lauderdale, you find these places where you just feel “at home”, everything is close by, the people are friendly and the weather is sunny and warm. Well, the bow thruster part was correct and is now fitted, we had to buy a new VHF as the original has packed up on transmit and I am doing a few “tinkering” jobs.

 

Last night we had Tony and Margaret from “Joalea”, a new Hylas 54, over for drinks, they had taken us in their rental to West Marine for the VHF and other bits. They were both from Portugal, Tony from the mainland and Margaret from the Azores. Both ending up in Vancouver and only met when they went home for funerals for their respective parents on the same day in the same crematorium. They discovered their parents had been best friends, but they had never met each other – they even lived 5 minutes apart in Vancouver. Tony has a company and like us has managers running it and is planning to go straight from here to Antigua, with a hired crew and in 2013 go through the pacific.

 

Suzanne has gone off on her bike today to a Hair Salon – so I imagine she will get the full works – probably won’t be back till night fall and then we are off to the Quarterdeck restaurant (a different one)

 

Now we sit here having missed the 27 Dec to cross to North Bimini, which always looked good on the GRIB, – Ha.. you should have seen the wind yesterday, blowing 25kts gusting 30+kts. Often vessels cross the Gulf Stream at night and as we sat having drinks, several boats went out and then turned around and came straight back, deciding once again the GRIB was wrong.

 

Now I have just had a “Small Craft Advisory” from the US Coast Guard for high to gale force winds from the north ahead of the approaching cold front. So we are going to tour the canals in the dinghy and hang out here for a bit longer, considering our options.

 

We cancelled the rental  as Key West is 191 miles, so wondering about sailing south to Key Largo, anchoring off, running ashore in the dinghy, picking up a rental there and driving the 90 miles to Key West, on the Overseas Highway, and back as we can’t get any reasonable accommodation. Then we are looking at the weather and waiting for a something from the south, but the dominate wind pattern is always a Nor'easter – decisions – decisions !!