On A New Tack

At 7:45am we woke up to the sounds of voices in the cockpit of the boat.  Voices that we didn't recognize. Long story short, the Captain stayed out very late (4am-ish), eventually walked back to the boat, but "decided" to stop and take a nap on the front lawn of someone's house.  After his nap, we woke up and called an Uber to take him back to the boat, not quite sure of where he was.  It turns out he was only a 5 minute drive to the boat. Oh, and then there was Charles, he was one of the voices we heard in the cockpit, along with two others, all of which returned to the boat at 7:45am.  Charles was probably a little drunk, but his two drinking buddies were pretty well gone. It took some time to get rid of them, but after we did, we had breakfast, had a quick review and then took the final test for ASA 104 (we scored 95 and 99). We were 101, 103, 104 and 114 certified! We cleaned, packed up and said our farewells to the Captain, Charles, Caroline and "A...

Day 6 was the trip back up to Ft. Lauderdale.   We started the day early and were all eating breakfast before 8:00am. After breakfast we performed Engine Checks.  One of "About Time's" engine was new, the other was original.  It was quite easy to tell which was which (both visually and audibly). After the engine checks and topping off the oil in guess-which-engine, we took the ASA 114 test.  I got a respectable 94%. Before leaving the Harbor, we did some close quarter motoring drills and then left the harbor and  turned south to go around the Southern Tip of Key Biscayne. After getting just beyond the bottom of the Key, we turned, raising the sails and headed out to sea for a mile or so, then turned north to head towards Ft. Lauderdale. We had great wind and the benefit of the Gulf Stream, so we were moving along at a very respectable 10 kts! Eventually the wind shifted and weren't getting quite as much speed, but I ended up at the helm fo...

Another strong breeze for another great day of sailing! No test today, so we just had sailing and MOB (Man Over Board) recovery practicing.  We left from our mooring ball with Sue at the Helm and took us expertly out of the narrow channel, especially given the current and wind, which was stronger as we left the protection offered at the mooring ball. Captain Keith gaves just a destination and asked us to come up with the plan and the expected ETA.  We plotted the course, factoring in some tacks we would have to take and gave an estimate of 12:15p. We arrived to what was basically a wide open spot out in Biscayne Bay and we started learning and practicing four methods of MOB recovery: Figure 8 - Good if you are in warm water and are not really in a hurry to get the victim back on board and want to go on a bunch of points of sail. Broad Reach/Close Reach - A lot quicker and involves only two points of sale.   Quick Stop - By far the easiest and quickest wa...

This was a great day to sail.  A nice consistent 20 kt wind and otherwise nice weather in Biscayne Bay! So, I had to get up around 3am and re-apply bug spray because the mosquitos were finding me through the hatches we had opened to get some airflow.  I managed to walk up in time to re-apply before beocming light headed from lack of blood supply. I wake up for good around 6am to a beautiful sunrise above the Atlantic visible from across the small, 200yd wide key.   After breakfast, we walked up to the top of the Boca Chita Lighthouse, which is usually closed.  The view of Miami was pretty amazing! I took the helm to bring us out of the anchorage and into the narrow channel as we headed towards Coconut Grove; our next stop. We continued to take turns at the helm practicing points of sail and taking turns grinding the winches and were averaging around 8kts, which is about top speed for a 37 foot catamaran. Sue taking her turn at the Helm ...

Sue and I woke up at about 700 am and I decided to go for a swim in No Name Harbour.  It was a little cold at first, but I fixed that with a lap around the boat. It is a really nice State Park and would be happy to return here! Once everyone was up and moving, we pulled the hook and moved over to the face dock while there was an opening.  Captain Keith made us a breakfast of Pancakes and Sausage.  We gathered up the track on the boat and deposited that while we had the opportunity.   We then took the first our our tests, the written exam for ASA 101.  I aced it at 100%!  We left No Name Harbour around 10:00 and returned to Biscayne Bay were we headed mostly North, tacking back and forth until about 12:30p when we hove to so that we could have lunch. After lunch we all took turns practicing all the points of sail.  For those of you that don't know, that would be: Port Tack, Close Hauled (heading up as close to the wind as possible)...

We woke up early, un-tied and cast off with Sue at the Helm, motoring the 30 minutes down the ICW.  We timed our departure so that we could make the timed openings of the two bridge between the boats slip and the cruise ship port of Port Everglades, where we would access the Atlantic. We entered the Atlantic and turned South to head to Miami.  Unfortunately, the wind was directly on our nose, so it was about 6 hours of motor-sailing along the coast. Sure, we would have preferred to sail, but it was a really relaxing trip and Sue was driving the boat like a boss! After motor-sailing, we entered the Miami area, motored past the Miami Boat Show location and then down to No Name Harbour, where we dropped anchor and stayed the night. FYI, the mosquitos AND the no-see-ums both found me quite delectable.  Grrr. On the plus side, the first beautiful sunset of the trip! - Mike

Saturday night, after being introduced to the boat and each other, we sat down in the Galley and came up with a meal plan and then a shopping list, by grocery store department, for the week to come.  We walked about a half mile to a grocery store, broke up the list and went shopping!  We also walked across the parking lot to the liquor store for some other essentials ;-) With our three carts worth of bagged groceries, we hailed an Uber XL for a ride back to "About Time".  We stowed all of our groceries in the galley, which honestly all seemed to disappear in to so many nooks and crannies.  While the boat lacked in storage in the cabins, there is a surprising amount of storage in the galley/saloon.  We honestly probably could have provisioned for 150 meals instead of the 75 we provisioned for. For dinner, we walked about 10 minutes to go to a burger place called BRGR STOP.  Glutenous menu of piled high burgers and milkshakes, which were really good....

Time to Learn to Sail!! The Boat Show was fun and helpful, but not the main reason for the trip.  What is this sailing thing about anyways?! We started the day (Saturday) in Miami and took an Uber up to Dania Beach to look at a few boats for sale, just to get an idea of what'd out there and see some Leopard 44's currently on the market.  We're currently thinking that getting a 3 or so year old used boat will get us the best value; that's when the depreciation is worst and when the first owner is usually doing upgrades to the boat, that we would likely want or at least appreciate. The Leopard 45s are brand new and are selling at a premium.  Again, we love that boat, except for the 4'11" draft (and the brand new price tag).  The Leopard 44 is almost as nice, available on the used market (sometimes) and has a 1 foot smaller draft.  We looked at two 44s and it was obvious that the mainteance done by the previous owners makes a big difference in the look of...