Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Last dash to Fort Lauderdale

This was not going to be an early departure. We got up probably around 7:00 and took our time to have breakfast before we cast off for the last leg of this transit down to Fort Lauderdale. We passed the locks and the bridge around 8:30, but then found out that the zipper on the top of the lazy bag was stuck half way. After some time and a pair of pliers (actually two of them) we managed to open it and get out of Cape Canaveral. As soon as we were clear of the channel, we were able to put up main sail and genoa and for a few hours, it was great sailing at around 5 knots with less than 10 knots of westerly wind.
It was time to test the "guaranteed to catch" fishing gear that Stew had 
put aboard. David set it up and after less than an hour, zzzzzzzz the line went out in a hurry. Followed a good half hour of fighting on the part of David to try and get in whatever was at the end of the line, that we only saw at the last minute. We got it on board with 
the hook I purchased at the last minute before leaving Portsmouth. It was definitely a big fish, and David paid for it with a big bla
ck patch on his groin. I will have to buy a fishing belt if I want to do something similar.
Anyway, with the fish on deck, I took out the bottle of spice rhum and delicately poured some of it in the gills of this Amber Jack which as a result died peacefully and happy. David says it probably was a 40 pounder. You can judge from the picture. Out of the fillets, we got some sushis for lunch, grilled fish for dinner and fish sandwich for lunch the next day. And there was some left over.
After lunch, I kept switching between motoring and sailing until the wind died out for a while. Then, around 4:00 in the afternoon, we got into a monster storm off Vero Beach, with 55 k
nots of wind in it and very heavy rain. It did not last more than 25 minutes, but with the lightning very close (at some point it was less than 100 yards away) it was uncomfortable to say the least.
Then it was all over, and the rest of the trip was motoring and no wind.
As we entered the channel into Port Everglades, we sailed across Rhumboggie with Sam and Carol, on their way back to Norfolk and we had a chance to chat for a while.
As we got to the 17th street bridge, we were told that the bridge was malfunctioning and to wait. I dropped the anchor right there, underneath the bridge and at 11:40, was able to heave away and get through the bridge which had been repaired. At noon we anchored into L
ake Sylvia as I wanted to wait for the slack at high tide before going into the New River. This is what we did at 3:00 p.m. and we tied up in Cooley's Landing marina at 4:00. Almost immediately, Roland and Gary arrived to pick up Justin and drive back to Cocoa Beach.
And then it was Miriam who arrived to drive us back to Miami, as I was going to stay the night there and play golf on Monday morning with David. That will be the next story.

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