We finished our final sailing class on Monday with a huge sigh of relief.  We learned a great deal and got a lot of practice sailing, but never knowing when the next class would be due to weather and mechanical problems on the boat was keeping us from making other plans.  Also, I hate to say it, but Captain Bill was a bit chauvinistic so he tended to direct most of his comments to Mark.  Being a teacher, I didn’t always agree with his teaching methods, and I especially didn’t like how he always answered a question with another one, even in hairy situations where we needed an answer fast, ie, “What do you think you should do?”   On the last day, he showed us how the boat will tack itself using the auto pilot, but I suppose he wanted us to learn to do it ourselves, which we did.  Our biggest problem with him was that he must have been scared by a fender as a child.  He avoided them at all costs, and the result was that coming into the marina one time, he stood right next to the bow as it hit a cement dock.  He could have moved a fender to protect the boat, but didn’t.  Mark fixed the damage, but it’s probably still a big visible.  From then on, one of us always made sure the fenders were in place and one of us was monitoring them, even when he kept telling us to get the lines and not the fenders.  OK, that’s important, but not at the cost of a chunk out of your new boat!  You can always pull out and come in again, but those dents and scratches don’t pop out.  He probably wasn’t the best fit for an instructor for us, but it’s over and now we can practice on our own. 

We haven’t taken Seas the Day out yet on our own, but will in the next few days.  We have a willing crew in our friends, Gavin and Alice, who are at this marina in their Manta, but Gavin is gone from Thursday through Sunday, flying to South America.  We’ll go out next week for sure.

We need to get out of Las Olas by the beginning of October for two reasons.   First, the prices go WAY up for “the season” and also part of the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show is held at this marina, so by the middle of the month, everyone has to move out.  We had been talking with the dockmaster at New River, which is another city marina.  It is quite close to where we are, but there will be more bridges to go under to get to the ocean, and the current is pretty strong there.  We visited a few days ago, talked with some people there, including an Australian who has a catamaran, and have reserved a space next to him.  We can stay there until the end of the month, but have to be out of Florida by November 6 or we pay them taxes on the boat.  We have a 90 day pass to stay here, and it’s up then.  Our pass should have started when we arrived here on August 21, but the pass was gotten before we came, so now we are in a pinch to get out earlier than when we wanted to go.  We had hoped to stay for the boat show, but that will be too tight.

We continue to buy things for the boat.  We’re trying to get everything organized and found a big sale at Target with lots of containers and mesh bags which were left over from college student supplies.  We got some hanging shelves for the closets as well as a hanging shoe rack.  We have four closets, but they don’t hold much on hangars.  We still have items to move over front the storage area which has to be emptied this week.  We’ll be filling the holds soon, as they have ample space for all of the things we don’t use on a daily basis.

We have been searching online for watermakers, solar panels, and a Spendide washer/dryer.  Probably, boat show specials would make it worthwhile to buy them there, but again, we don’t have the luxury of waiting.  Luckily, there are many places in the area to shop, and while we won’t get the best prices at least they are available.

We had purchased a Magma grill a few months ago and Mark has been working for days getting it installed.  We want to connect it to a propane tank, so it took awhile to figure out a good path to where the two tanks are stored.  It will be great to use a grill again.  The oven in the galley is small, but big enough for our purposes.  We also have a three burner stove and can use our pressure cooker to avoid steam heating up the cabin.  In addition, we have a small microwave and a George Foreman Grill.  The latter is excellent  and small enough that storage isn’t a problem.

We’ve been pretty spoiled here at a marina, with unlimited water, shore power, washers and dryers, showers, and free cable TV available.  We haven’t put in a TV yet, but there is one in a reading/TV room which we have used for weather updates.  Other than that, we listen to radio.  All we’ve probably missed is a lot of political news.

Soon, we’ll be “on the hook” and not able to climb off the boat onto a nice dock.  But, that is the plan, and the cost of staying at marinas is prohibitive.  Luckily, the hybrid aspect of the boat is going to be very economical for us, especially in combination with solar panels.  When we filled up with fuel, we had used about a gallon an hour motorsailing.

Speaking of plans, we still don’t know where we are going next.  We are somewhat limited by having to leave Florida and not return for 180 days.  Therefore, we can’t go north now, or our only option would be to cross to the Bahamas, whether we are ready or not.  Another option is to sail to Key West and up the Gulf coast, then out of the state.  We have to go all the way to the tip of the state as our mast is too high to cut across to the other coast sooner.