Holding in Fort Lauderdale

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted last. We've been in a holding pattern and are now at the point where we are packed and ready to go every night, checking the 10pm then 3am forecast to see if it's safe to leave. NOAA is always overly optimistic and as the time approaches, wind speeds seem to increase along with the seas. Right now we're planning on leaving tomorrow...unless conditions worsen...

We've done a few fun things this week. We went out for a dinner cruise on the Jungle Queen the other night. The Jungle Queen is docked right across the way from us and every day, 3 times a day, we hear the captain talking to the tourists as they leave and the horns as they come and go. So we decided to go for it! You take a 45 minute boat ride north, up the river to an island. There you have a barbque dinner and a short (30 min) talent show (ventriloquist and magician...) It was very sweet and we and we had a good time.

We have a really nice new neighbor at the marina. Andy is from Sausalito, CA and is cruising in his 43 foot Nordhavn. Oh my God, is that a nice boat! He gave us a tour and I melted. The Nordhavn is more of a "ship" than a boat and it's gorgeous. I had to wipe the drool off my chin. I had to post a pic on the pic of the day. Andy is a very experienced sailor and just recently moved over to the trawler (he just got this boat). It's been great talking with him!

The beach has been busy this week too. There is a Christian Hard Rock Concert going on right now across the way so we don't need to play the radio ;) We walked up to take a look and talked with the police there. The other day we went for a walk and there was a bit of mob scene on the beach. Martin (and a few other men) got accosted by a group of kids so we came back to the boat. The police today explained it was a 1/2 day for local high schools and there was a "throw down" planned between rival schools on the beach. It turned into something quite nasty. They said it happens fairly regularly, sigh.

Last night we took the water taxi to downtown and got tickets for the IMAX theatre to see Monsters v. Aliens, in 3D. We enjoyed the movie and then had a really nice dinner downtown. Between buying the tickets and waiting for the movie we had a couple of hours so we walked along the riverwalk to look at boats. We happened by a 43 foot motor cruiser similar to ours with a different set up for their tender and the owners came out while we were looking. Joslyn and Simone are from Montreal and have been cruising the coast. They have long-term cruising plans. We had a wonderful conversation about the pros and cons of different kinds of motor yachts. They are sold on the Nordhavn 43 trawler - exactly like Andy's. They seem like a really fun couple, I wouldn't mind bumping into them again in our travels and getting to spend some time getting to know them! It was fun to find another couple that had a similar idea as ours (long-term cruising though they are longer term than us!) and who also started out in a similar boat.

Interestingly, we were all on the same track that the 43ish foot fast motor yachts make excellent weekend cruisers but for seriously long-term liveaboards, they may not be optimal. The discussions we've been having lately revolve mostly around the pros and cons of displacement speed boats v. planing boats, the comfortability of the types of boats at varying speeds, how well stabilizers work, benies of fore and aft cabins, etc. I'm getting into the boats :) I can't wait to see more as we go along!

Okay, back to battening down the hatches, gently storing the gin and vodka I bought today, doing yet another load of laundry... Maybe we'll be writing you next from Bimini!