Friday, March 14, 2008

"Papy Jovial" goes to sea for the first time

Having been properly renamed, Papy Jovial is now ready to go.
We left Bubbles dock on Tuesday morning,  anticipating a nice sail back to Fort Lauderdale, having the peace of mind of freshly polished fuel.
This was without taking into account those damn crab pots. One of them got unnoticed and managed to get his rope around the propeller.
Reversing the engine cleared it some, but not all of it. However, we were able to continue, spent the night anchored under Rodriguez Island, the following night anchored off Biscayne, arriving in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday around lunch time, having been subjected once again to a nasty storm off Hollywood.
However, we were able to sail from Key Biscayne to Hollywood with 14 knots of wind on the beam and Papy Jovial was flying at nearly 8 knots (8.1 on the boat speedometer but it probably needs calibration).
After we got through the 17th street bridge, we stopped for fuel and lunch at the 15th street Fisheries, before proceeding up the New River.
The tide was not with us and we spent the night across the river from River Bend marina, waiting from the high tide on Friday morning.
Finally on Friday we tied up at Teri's dock, happy to close that first chapter of Papy Jovial life on a good note.

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