The weather gods are smiling upon us!
We have been keeping a sharp eye on the winds/waves and gulf stream activity and it would seem tomorrow will be a good time to attempt to cross to the Bahamas.
For you boaters who haven't discovered it yet there is a great AP called "Windy" which uses NOAA weather data in a unique format that allows you to visualize the wind/wave/swell weather patterns. No more iso bar lines to try an interpret. It will even pattern clouds/sea surface temperature in a visual way. I have been following it for a couple of weeks and a week ago it predicted 2 foot waves and winds less than 8 knots for this saturday....Tomorrow! The prediction hasn't changed for a whole week and checking on the NOAA site confirmed the prediction.
We have all major systems functional and Beth has charged up every electronic appliance. She has our passports, dogs vet papers, all listed in duplicate along with the entrance cruising fees neatly filed in a binder for the customs and immigration, and most importantly has every nook and cranny filled with Bacardis, Tullymore Dew, Gin, Vodka, french wine, Coors banquet beer and girly man beer....coors light....(Oh!...and of course some food.) Yes.....There will be a p.a.r.t.y in the Bahamas!
Excited and ready to say goodby to Dania Beach, we plan on leaving at daybreak.
Since we don't know when we will have wifi connection to up load the blog and pics the posts may be somewhat spotty. However you can always see where we are by clicking on "Spot" at the top of the blog. You can even get a google picture of our location.
We will keep you posted!
Friday, March 30, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Dania Beach
Dania Beach municipal marina is nicely located on the ICW just south of Fort Lauderdale and immediately north of Hollywood, Fl. We easily passed under the reported 17 ft bridge to find much taller boats inside. These boats entered at low tide (4 ft depth) which allowed them 20 ft clearance, or maybe they were here before the bridge was built! Some of them looked like they hadn't been moved in a very long time. A majority of them were live aboards.
Lucky One at Dania Beach Marina on Whiskey Creek
We eased into a t-head slip next to a 50 foot Hatteras that sunk during the storm Irma. Avoiding the surrounding water boom, we tied up and struggled with three different corroded electrical connections before we found adequate power, then settled in on the aft deck for the celebratory arrival cocktail.
Slowly perusing the boats and marina, we noted that some of the boats were in disrepair, the docks were floating docks and all had locked gates for security....except for ours! We were on a courtesy dock that allowed local boaters to come in and tie up gratis, so they could visit the local restaurant "The Quarterdeck" and the Atlantic side beach located directly across the parking lot from us.
Dania Beach Pier
Wow, a great location! This being the stomping grounds for the Lucky One crew (actually where they first met), we had connections with the manager who saved us two slips on the courtesy dock. At $1.50/ft/day it is also the cheapest slip in the area and as a bonus we had fuel delivered by truck at a super rate of $2.77/gal (again the cheapest in the area!)
The Quarterdeck restaurant has excellent food serving Maine Lobster on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The service is excellent. I noticed that even on a table of 6, the waiters and waitresses never once wrote down the orders and I never saw an incorrect order!
The beach was raked daily providing an optimum vantage point for viewing the large cruise ships gliding out of Port Everglades. We fantasized about their destinations wondering when we will get a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and live our own adventure.
Dania Beach Waves
"In the meantime I will launch the dingy and go for a row." I thought.
"No!" said the Gods." Your davit wheel will not turn. It is seized in place. You will take the next 3 days to use a hammer and chisel to massacre the wheel into freedom, and another day to take a grinder and cutter to widen the davit to allow another wheel (sheve) to freely spin in place!"
Plugging in the ac cord to run the davit winch, I watched as the dingy slowly lifted off the cradle. Once cleared, I pushed the davit to the side until the dingy was free to ease down into the water when it happened. Half way down, the motor suddenly stopped. Quickly I jumped below to reset the circuit breakers and tried again.....crap! No go!
After repeatedly using short blasts between circuit breaker failures I managed to get "Lil Betsy" secured back up into her cradle and began the task of figuring out what was tripping the breakers. Smoke coming from the davit motor pointed to the problem. The motor had a short circuit.
"ENOUGH!", I screamed. "I'm going to fix this thing once and for all."
Huen, captain and owner of "Lucky One", grinned when I said I'm going to put a hand mechanical winch on and forget the electrical crap.
Smiling he said, "I don't think you are going to like cranking that dingy up in the wind but I will help you install whatever you decide on. It would be easy to run wires from your boat batteries and use a 12 volt winch."
For Huen it would be easy, but for me it is just something else for me to screw up and I am trying to simplify my boating life. A mechanical winch is cheap and if its not working I can always go back to an electric winch. However, we found an ac powered winch at Harbor Freight for half the price of the usual ac winch and with my help, Huen had it installed in an hour.
Maybe the Gods were smiling upon me. If this had happened in the Bahamas, no doubt I would have had difficulty finding parts or had to wait to have things shipped over from the U.S.A. More importantly, not being able to launch the dingy is a safety issue in the event of an emergency.
I have been very fortunate during my boating years to know people who are much more mechanically inclined then I. My brother in laws "The Dannies", Tom Dupre, and my good friend Huen.
The contrast in our thought process is interesting. Huen and the Dannies will tackle any repair.
Huen's comment is, "It's already broken so why not try to fix it ourselves!"
In my world we were taught, "Primum non nocere"...first do no harm! Excellent guidance for the medical field, but it has made me very leery to tackle any job that I am not absolutely sure how to fix.
It is also one of the reasons that in my 40 year medical career, I have never been involved in a law suit. Don't misunderstand me. I have made errors and mistakes but with discussing possible complications before a procedure; prompt honest admission of mistakes; and thorough discussion of what should be done in the event of an untoward event, my patients have endeared themselves to me and have not been inclined to include me any any lawsuits.
While I'm on a rant let me add that now that I am retired and had time to reflect on why I have never been sued, I recognized that a major factor was manipulation on my part to work as infrequently as possible with surgeons and colleagues who in my opinion were not at the top of their game, or tended to blame things that went wrong, on everybody but themselves. It has always been evident to me that those who cannot admit they have made errors are unable or unwilling to learn and strengthen their skills.
I chose to work with colleagues who were professional, polite, and enjoyed a pleasant operating room atmosphere with everyone in the OR suite. An operating room often is very stressful, but in my experience it has been the surgeon who is confident in his skills and is able to maintain a collegial atmosphere in the operating room who routinely gets the fewest complications and the best outcomes.
We are still waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas and it looks like next Saturday may be the day. In preparation, Beth continues to provision the boat and to the relief of Beth and the family we have installed a boarding ladder in the "unlikely" event that someone should fall in the water!
(Admirals Note) Captain forgot to mention refrigerator started acting up so immediate run to Best Buy while we had the rental car and replaced with new Frigidaire. At this rate we will have a new boat if this keeps up!
New refrigerator.....may need some help with the molding... Nick?
Broken Seal on old refrigerator.....nothing a lock could not fix. Great drink refrigerator for the Islands.
Lucky One at Dania Beach Marina on Whiskey Creek
We eased into a t-head slip next to a 50 foot Hatteras that sunk during the storm Irma. Avoiding the surrounding water boom, we tied up and struggled with three different corroded electrical connections before we found adequate power, then settled in on the aft deck for the celebratory arrival cocktail.
Slowly perusing the boats and marina, we noted that some of the boats were in disrepair, the docks were floating docks and all had locked gates for security....except for ours! We were on a courtesy dock that allowed local boaters to come in and tie up gratis, so they could visit the local restaurant "The Quarterdeck" and the Atlantic side beach located directly across the parking lot from us.
Dania Beach Pier
Wow, a great location! This being the stomping grounds for the Lucky One crew (actually where they first met), we had connections with the manager who saved us two slips on the courtesy dock. At $1.50/ft/day it is also the cheapest slip in the area and as a bonus we had fuel delivered by truck at a super rate of $2.77/gal (again the cheapest in the area!)
The Quarterdeck restaurant has excellent food serving Maine Lobster on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The service is excellent. I noticed that even on a table of 6, the waiters and waitresses never once wrote down the orders and I never saw an incorrect order!
The beach was raked daily providing an optimum vantage point for viewing the large cruise ships gliding out of Port Everglades. We fantasized about their destinations wondering when we will get a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and live our own adventure.
"In the meantime I will launch the dingy and go for a row." I thought.
"No!" said the Gods." Your davit wheel will not turn. It is seized in place. You will take the next 3 days to use a hammer and chisel to massacre the wheel into freedom, and another day to take a grinder and cutter to widen the davit to allow another wheel (sheve) to freely spin in place!"
Plugging in the ac cord to run the davit winch, I watched as the dingy slowly lifted off the cradle. Once cleared, I pushed the davit to the side until the dingy was free to ease down into the water when it happened. Half way down, the motor suddenly stopped. Quickly I jumped below to reset the circuit breakers and tried again.....crap! No go!
After repeatedly using short blasts between circuit breaker failures I managed to get "Lil Betsy" secured back up into her cradle and began the task of figuring out what was tripping the breakers. Smoke coming from the davit motor pointed to the problem. The motor had a short circuit.
"ENOUGH!", I screamed. "I'm going to fix this thing once and for all."
Huen, captain and owner of "Lucky One", grinned when I said I'm going to put a hand mechanical winch on and forget the electrical crap.
Smiling he said, "I don't think you are going to like cranking that dingy up in the wind but I will help you install whatever you decide on. It would be easy to run wires from your boat batteries and use a 12 volt winch."
For Huen it would be easy, but for me it is just something else for me to screw up and I am trying to simplify my boating life. A mechanical winch is cheap and if its not working I can always go back to an electric winch. However, we found an ac powered winch at Harbor Freight for half the price of the usual ac winch and with my help, Huen had it installed in an hour.
Maybe the Gods were smiling upon me. If this had happened in the Bahamas, no doubt I would have had difficulty finding parts or had to wait to have things shipped over from the U.S.A. More importantly, not being able to launch the dingy is a safety issue in the event of an emergency.
I have been very fortunate during my boating years to know people who are much more mechanically inclined then I. My brother in laws "The Dannies", Tom Dupre, and my good friend Huen.
The contrast in our thought process is interesting. Huen and the Dannies will tackle any repair.
Huen's comment is, "It's already broken so why not try to fix it ourselves!"
In my world we were taught, "Primum non nocere"...first do no harm! Excellent guidance for the medical field, but it has made me very leery to tackle any job that I am not absolutely sure how to fix.
It is also one of the reasons that in my 40 year medical career, I have never been involved in a law suit. Don't misunderstand me. I have made errors and mistakes but with discussing possible complications before a procedure; prompt honest admission of mistakes; and thorough discussion of what should be done in the event of an untoward event, my patients have endeared themselves to me and have not been inclined to include me any any lawsuits.
While I'm on a rant let me add that now that I am retired and had time to reflect on why I have never been sued, I recognized that a major factor was manipulation on my part to work as infrequently as possible with surgeons and colleagues who in my opinion were not at the top of their game, or tended to blame things that went wrong, on everybody but themselves. It has always been evident to me that those who cannot admit they have made errors are unable or unwilling to learn and strengthen their skills.
I chose to work with colleagues who were professional, polite, and enjoyed a pleasant operating room atmosphere with everyone in the OR suite. An operating room often is very stressful, but in my experience it has been the surgeon who is confident in his skills and is able to maintain a collegial atmosphere in the operating room who routinely gets the fewest complications and the best outcomes.
We are still waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas and it looks like next Saturday may be the day. In preparation, Beth continues to provision the boat and to the relief of Beth and the family we have installed a boarding ladder in the "unlikely" event that someone should fall in the water!
(Admirals Note) Captain forgot to mention refrigerator started acting up so immediate run to Best Buy while we had the rental car and replaced with new Frigidaire. At this rate we will have a new boat if this keeps up!
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