Sea Scouts Summer Trip: Day 5

I slept in for awhile, but Edon, Nick, and Doug were up and ate breakfast so that by 8am they could continue work liberating the prop either from the rope or the boat. It ended up that it was easier to remove rope a little at a time than remove the prop, which was corroded. Ezi, Theo, and I went swimming while the boys worked on the prop. Charlotte, who had come down with a cough and cold, was exhausted and fell asleep. Olivia rested because she felt like she was coming down with whatever Charlotte had.
The boys were successful in taking off enough rope from the prop to get the motor running. Yay! Except that then the port engine wouldn’t start. The kids tried multiple different ways to get the engine started, but couldn’t get it to go. So, we headed out of the anchorage on one engine. The boys kept working at the engine and it was a relief when shortly later they got it started.
Since there was doubt that the engine would start again if we turned it off, we modified our plan to snorkel and stop at No Name Harbor for the night. Instead we adopted a no-fun, sensible plan of heading straight back to the yacht charter company in Ft. Lauderdale. The boys were 100% confident they could restart the engines if needed, but based on the fact that the boat needs to be back and clean by noon tomorrow we have decided to stick with the straight-through plan.
At some point the main sail was put up and along with the two engines running we raced along at an excellent speed. Our expected arrival time to Ft. Lauderdale, originially 11pm,  kept getting earlier.
The water today was the choppiest it had been for the entire trip. It was also cooler than the previous days, still hot but not nearly as bad. Just before Ft. Lauderdale we hit an especially wavy area. I was reading toward the stern of the boat and was very glad I was not seated up in the helm. Edon took the waves head on and at some point a wave washed over the stern of the boat. Water poured into some of the cabins. We had forgotten to batten down the hatches! Shoot!
It wasn't too long until the large waves became smaller ones and the boat plunged less as it moved across the water. It was around 7pm when we arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale. We stopped to fuel the boat and then continued past the various mansions and yachts that line the channel on our way to the charter company.
Backing the boat into the slip at the charter company was not as easy as we would have liked. There was a strong current and the port engine died twice. Fortunately, a couple of folks on the dock grabbed lines and everyone worked together to safely bring the boat into the slip.
It was nice to be able to plug into shore power, close the hatches, and turn the A/C on. Theo and I went into the galley and started making pizzas for dinner, while others started emptying the garbage and recycling, and rinsing everyone's snorkeling gear. Several hungry people enjoyed pizza around 9:30pm and we all were glad to chat and hang out one last evening together. Since we were in a slip no watch shifts were required. Hooray!