Travel Tips

JOY left real early. JADE EAST (a CSY 37), and the other boat they were traveling with also left about 7. I walked up to the office to finalize our bill. We'd used 4 KW of electricity - cost $1.00. We also had the two lobster salads on the bill, and I'd bought an Explorer chart book at the suggestion of Tim as it had more depths and detail than the MapTech one we had.

The office opened at 7:00, and I was right there as she unlocked the door. We cast off at 7:20, and motored out of the marina, out of the breakwater (again no breakers as the winds were light), and actually saw the Bell Channel marker this time.

Then we had breakfast. Assisted by the current, we were doing 8 or more knots, but we were motor sailing. I took a nap. Then we had lunch. Then Bob actually took a nap of about 2 hours. Then we talked to Herb at Southbound II and signed off - he had trouble grasping that we were actually under way.

Now we were in the Gulf Stream and it was pushing us north. I tried to keep the speed up above 5 knots, and just let it move us sideways without trying to fight it. We would be steering 242, and the GPS would say our track was 255. The winds were light, and really SW or WSW. We had dinner while motor sailing. Bob took in the jib, so the sails were mostly steadying.

I went down and took another nap, although Bob refused to do the same. About 11:30, we had gotten near to Ft. Lauderdale, and I phoned Customs to see what we should do, and whether we could sign in by phone from a mooring. I got a grumpy guy and he said I couldn't phone from offshore (which was obviously not true), and that I would have to come in to a dock.

Since I doubted that there would be anyone around to authorize that at the hour we would be coming in, I didn't know how that would work.

We motored down along the coast just outside (inshore of) the Gulf Stream, dodging fishing boats that were darting out at random, and gambling ships which were barging around like fireflies.

Coming into Miami and going back to the mooring