Shakedown Cruise

The biggest single purchase I made for the boat this Winter was a portable refrigerator.  Although not technically essential to our safety or the proper working of the boat, I felt it was essential for our sanity.  I've found that there's a direct, inverse relationship between the temperature of one's beer and the quality of one's life.  Its a lesson that was drilled in to me the last time I sailed Strolla in the Bahamas.  With personal space cut by half this time around, I intended to improve quality of life wherever I could.

Through a mistake in payment, the refrigerator would not be arriving until three days after our already postponed departure date.  So, when we felt like the boat was ready to go, when everything except the frig had been loaded aboard, it was time for a little shakedown cruise.  We decided on an overnight trip to Miami to burn up the time until the frig arrived.  It would be one last chance to see what we'd forgotten and what didn't work before leaving the states.

(No tans yet)

After several delays, we finally motored off the dock at Laila's house at the casual hour of ten thirty, threading our way through the drawbridge laced canals of Fort Lauderdale until we picked up the Intercoastal Waterway down to Miami.  I made sure to let Mark, Nate, and Becca get some good practice time at handling the helm, working the throttle, and calling up the bridge operators on the VHF radio.

Nate had the first mishap of the day when he wandered outside the channel markers and ran us aground.  It wasn't too bad.  We bumped the bottom a couple times before I was able to dive up on deck and steer us back to deeper water.  There then followed a brief lecture on navigational aids and the responsibilities of the helmsman.  Everyone made a good show of pretending to listen until Becca saw a "shark." 

Mark made the next mistake, again putting us aground.  Fortunately, this second grounding was no worse than Nate's.  I soon had us back in the deep water and fully afloat.  This time we were still within the marked channel and so there followed another conversation about chart error, shoaling, and reading the water.  I pointed out how it was possible, looking back behind us, to see the clear color distinction between the deeper channel and the sandbar where we'd just been.  The conversation ended when Becca saw another shark in the canal.

 

The rest of the trip down the Intercoastal to Biscayne Bay was fairly routine.  We found a good, protected anchorage just across the water from downtown Miami.  No one was feeling too hungry for dinner so we just took our pistachios and beer in the dinghy for a little evening cruise.  The new dinghy motor lacked all of the excitement and character of our old British Seagull.  It started on the first pull, every time.
 

(First anchorage of the trip with Miami in the background)

 
There was a wedding being set up in the small park directly onshore from us so we got to enjoy the soft, subtle strains of Shakira while we drank.

(My morning view: Mark's first morning in the port quarter berth)

The next day we motored out to the mouth of Miami Harbor to sail back north to Fort Lauderdale on the second leg of our shakedown cruise.  The Tradewinds were blowing, the waves were crashing, and with an ebb tide pushing against both, the swells at the harbor mouth were a bit more than we felt like dealing with this early in the trip.  After being tossed and thrashed about for a good ten minutes, I took stock of the crew.  Only Nate, standing up at the bow for a better view, seemed to be enjoying himself. 

 

 

(Scattered showers and fowlies)

 

Carefully choosing my moment, I executed a neat little about face between swells and we rode the waves back into the protection of the harbor.  I wasn't too excited about another day of motoring back to Fort Lauderdale but it was better than scaring the crew, at least while they could still back out. 

(Coming back to Fort Lauderdale)

 

We got caught in some passing rain showers on the trip back.  I got to try out my new raincoat.  It worked great.  Because of the time wasted leaving the harbor and coming back, we didn't arrive back at Laila's house until well after dark.

(motoring back to Laila's house)