We didn’t arrive at the yacht charter in Fort Lauderdale until noon, an hour late. Everyone else going on the trip was already at the boat by the time we belatedly showed up. Since the boys and I had already purchased some of the food for the trip, everyone helped unload the provisions from our car to the boat. Then, most of us headed to Publix to get the remaining provisions and lunch.
Olivia, Charlotte, Ezi, and I were in charge of securing the remaining food while everyone else got the 60 gallons of drinking water we anticipated needing for the next 5 and a half days.
It was a bit stressful and a bit entertaining filling 3 grocery carts to the brim with food.
After the shopping trip, a predeparture walk through of the boat was required. Edon, Doug, and Charlotte spent a very long time getting all of the information needed to help us sail this particular vessel safely for the next few days.
While they were occupied, Sue, Jean, and I worked on trying to figure out how to store $800+ worth of food into 2 mini fridges, a mini freezer, and random cupboards aboard the catamaran. By purchasing ice and storing the fruits and veggies in two coolers we had brought along we managed to fit everything somewhere.
Doug, Charlotte, and Edon finished the required info session with the charter company reps and we left the slip at 4:50pm. This time being much later than ideal.
Sailing out of the intercoastal and into the Atlantic was uneventful, luckily. We were delayed a further 30 minutes during this portion of trip because a bridge we needed to pass under only opened at specified times, and we had to circle around waiting for it to open.
Unfortunately, the wind was out of the wrong direction to make using the sail as an effective means of travel, so we had to use the motor as we cruised south past Hollywood and Miami.
Some minor storms with some exciting lightning were occurring around us, but did not affect us. It was beautiful to sail past the lights of Miami Beach at sunset and everyone was content.
According to the watch/chores list Sam, Olivia, and Charlotte had to cook dinner. Several people had wanted chicken and broccoli and we agreed this would be a fairly easy meal to make. The girls accidentally purchased too much chicken at the store and since we could only use two burners at a time to cook the chicken, it ended up not being an easy meal at all. It was nearly 11pm by the time all the chicken was cooked and the dishes washed. The broccoli was grilled, although that too was a challenge as the grill ran on a small propane canister and didn’t get very warm very quickly. The boys and I subbed vegan hot dogs on the grill for the chicken. Dinner was delicious, so that helped make up for the long hours put in cooking.
We didn’t make it to No Name Harbor, our intended destination, because we came upon a calm place with several other boats anchored in it and decided to drop anchor there. This was around 10pm.
After dinner and dishes we had a meeting about the importance of anchor watch and found out which crew members would be on anchor watch throughout the night. During the meeting there was suspicion that we were perhaps already dragging anchor. As the meeting adjourned, Theo and I, now officially on watch decided that indeed we were dragging anchor. So before anyone could actually make it to bed we had to pull the anchor up and reset it. Theo and I also got everyone to help us relocate the water that had been put in one of the heads into the crew cabin at the front of the boat.
A few people chose to stay up, but most drifted off to sleep in various locations around the ship. Some in berths, and a few thinking the berths too hot, on the trampoline at the bow of the boat or somewhere else on the deck. Theo, Edon, and I exhaustedly concluded our watch at 1:30am without any further complications.
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