We left New River Marina at 7 am, filled up with fuel and made the 8 am 17th Street Causeway Bridge opening.  We have to pass under two bridges before we get to the 17th Street Causeway Bridge.  The two bridges on New River are closed between 7:30 and 9 am, so we always need to make sure we are on our way in time to get through them.  They lift on demand while the 17th Street Causeway Bridge opens on the hour and half hour.  At the left is one of the river bridges.

On our way out the Port Everglades inlet, we passed one of the large mailboats (below) we had actually seen while we were in The Bahamas.  It brings food supplies and other deliveries to the islands and is always eagerly anticipated by cruisers and the local residents.

As we exited the inlet, we were going over 7 kts motorsailing.  The wind speed was only about 5 kts and from the south plus we hadn’t entered the Gulf Stream yet where we would pick up more speed.   Once we did, we were motorsailing at 9 kts with almost no wind to help us.  Then......we heard a sound from the genset which powers our engine.  It started to turn off, but started again.  It did this a few more times over the next few minutes and then it stopped completely.  Since we had just spent one month in Ft. Lauderdale getting the genset fixed (mostly waiting), we were frustrated that we might need to go back for more repairs.  We were still in sight of Ft. Lauderdale and it was decision time.   Mark took a look at a few possible causes and before he began to start replacing parts, he tried turning the genset back on.  It started right up so we decided to take the chance that it would be OK and we continued north.  However, it kept stopping about every half hour or less. We’d wait a bit and then start it up.  We finally determined we must have something in the fuel, perhaps some water.  For five months while we were in The Bahamas, we never put fuel directly into the tank from a fuel dock as we had heard so many reports of tainted fuel there.  Instead, we filled our four jerry jugs with diesel at the marina fuel docks and poured the fuel through a filter into the tank.  We never had any fuel problems.  The first time we filled up in the States directly into the fuel tank, we had this problem.  We had put 60 gallons into our 80 gallon tank, so it is possible the fuel left in there was bad, but we hadn’t had this happen before so it was questionable.  After several hours, the genset started running well and didn’t stop again.

As the sun was rising in the east, it caused us to be very hot at the helm.  Many boats have installed shades on the sides of the bimini cover, and we will definitely do that at some point.  Mark suggested that we get out our beach umbrella.  The wind was low and from behind us and the seas were very calm, so we set it up over the bimini and off to the side (photo above).  This made a huge difference in the heat and the direct sun shining on us. I’m sure we looked a bit strange to anyone who saw us.  This further convinced us of the value of something to block the sun’s rays in the cockpit.  We don’t really want to do a whole enclosure, but there are clothlike screens which can be made and installed to be pulled down when needed.  Normally, it isn’t this oppressively hot on the water, but today the combination of heat and sun was uncomfortable.  Daisy wore her “Chilly Dog Cool Vest”  all day for the first time since last summer when we took this same route north.  It has pockets for the “cool packs” which are similar to blue ice, but not poisonous and safe even if eaten.  The vest keeps her comfortable in the hottest of weather for about three hours and then we have a spare frozen set of cool packs to replace the thawed ones.  They were designed for military dogs in Iraq.  On the Glaciertek website, there is an interesting video about how the vests are used by military dogs.  They aren’t cheap but well worth it for pet dogs in hot climates and almost a necessity for military dogs in desert conditions.

All went well until we ran into a squall.  During the morning we had seen storms along the Florida coast, but nothing had come the 5 miles out to us.  Then the wind shifted, brought the storm clouds toward us, and we couldn’t avoid a huge squall.  For awhile the rain poured downhard.   We thought how lucky we were that the generator (which runs the engine) didn’t die in the middle of this.  Eventually, we got north of the squall.  We had heard thunder while in the midst of it, but didn’t see see any lightning as the rain was coming down so heavily visibility was limited.  Once we were out of the squall we looked back and saw that lightning was striking into the water as well as lighting up the whole sky.  The storm was miles long and wide traveling east.  If we had been without power trying to sail through it, we would have been stuck in it for quite awhile.  It truly looked like a fireworks display behind clouds which filled the sky behind us especially after the sun set and the rest of the sky was dark.  Every minute or two there would be a lightning strike into the water.  This was a dangerous storm and we were fortunate to get out of without any damage.  While it wasn’t coming north, it seemed very close for many hours into the night.

Except for these two problems, we had a very pleasant sail to Port Canaveral.  The seas were smooth and except for the 25 kt wind during the squall, the winds were only about 5 kts therefore not causing any white caps or swells.  Once we got out of the Gulf Stream, we were still making 6.5 kts.  At midnight, I slowed us down to 5.5 kts and at 1 am I slowed us again to 5 kts, so we would reach the inlet at 7 am.  Mark took over for the last shift and only passed one cruise ship.  There was very little boat traffic all night long, and with the smooth seas and sky lit up with a half moon, it was a pleasant peaceful sail.

We arrived at the fuel dock at the Ocean Club Marina at 7 am and after getting fuel, they put us in a large transient slip.  This is a new marina and their slips are for sale.  We are hoping that they don’t sell the few wide slips they have as it is the perfect (although expensive) place to stop when visiting Jennifer.