Day 131, "on the loop", 2/17/2023

We have a lot to share! *warning, may be a LONG read*

Friday 2/10 ended up being a work day. Joel worked on the dinghy (aka tender) most of the morning. All the wear from traveling across the gulf and other open waters took a toll on our dinghy. We only used it a few of times during the loop; however, we feel we will use it more on the East coast. We have heard stories of people losing their dinghy's in the open waters'. However, we do not know anyone personally that has lost theirs.

Our dinghy came with our boat. Breakaway has a fancy dinghy! The person that owns the slip (and a 100 ft yacht, named Wolf Pack) we used at Loggerhead has two additional slips for two of his tenders. I don't call his a dinghy as you can see his are the size of a small pleasure craft. These size tenders are not uncommon for the larger yachts!

Breakaway's tender: BRIG is a polish brand, common in Canada. Alain purchased this with his previous boat, which was black. They have a thing about matching things to their boats! Their electric bikes are blue, like their boat.

Our dinghy, not so fancy, but gets the job done. It is the most common of them all. The first picture, Joel is working on replacing a clamp that holds the dinghy to the boat. The next picture is ours all wrapped up and ready for the next trip. Joel may get a new one when we finish the loop! It will depend on how much we use it.

The picture below is one of the smaller boats that the 100 ft yacht owns. FANCY! I say this guy has all the cool toys!

In addition to the work day, we took on fuel at Loggerhead. Here the fuel trucks / tanks come straight to the docks. Fuel was $4.20, the cheapest we have paid the entire trip. In order to get this rate, we needed to pay with cash or check as well as prevent paying the 3% credit card fee. We also received this rate because both Breakaway & Summer Place needed over 300 gallons between the two boats. If we took on less gallons, the price was a little higher. Chris and Joel did a great job making sure no fuel was lost in the water!

Saturday, 2/11 ended up being another work day. Joel and Chris washed the boat. Alain worked on his boat as well. Joel gave Breakaway a new American flag since theirs was starting to look worn.

You can probably tell I am bored as I write this blog, Below are pictures of the Washroom at Loggerhead. I didn't mind taking showers there, it was clean; but, I find it odd that everything seems to be made for the shorter person. See the light-switch is at the door handle level. It's not just in this washroom, the light-switch is at this level in all amenities. (laundry room, men's room, bathrooms, etc.)

As I sat on the back deck, preparing for the day, I took a few pictures of houses in the nearby canal. This would be Joel's dream set up. These houses are beautiful with pools and boat docks attached (in a canal).

We also captured this picture of "rowers," is that the proper term? This looks like a great workout... one had a pet on the front of their boat.

Sunday, 2/12 - SUPER-BOWL SUNDAY! What a day, it was a bit windy and overcast. We put traveling off by one day and stayed in Hollywood (due to weather). Originally, the plan was to move from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. We worked around the boat and did laundry. The washers at Loggerhead worked fine; but, the dryers did not. Dryers took almost 120 minutes before the clothes were dry enough. The Walker's took the bikes for a grocery run.

After the chores were complete, we were ready for the Super-bowl. I made a few snacks tortilla rolls, French onion dip w/ ruffle chips & sausage balls. We were mixed on the half time entertainment. I liked Rhianna; but, Joel wasn't too impressed with it. We, along with the Walker's, were happy with the outcome of the game! Happy that the Chiefs won.

The Ft. Lauderdale ride took about an hour. The winds were whipping and fairly strong when we arrived Hall of Fame Marina. We arrived early enough to for a walk and dinner.

Passing under a few bridges. Side note: In 2019, Joel and I attended a Trawler class with Captain Bob. The marina that Captain Bob kept his boat at was in Dania. The 2nd picture below was the entrance to Captain Bob's home port was (probably still is).

During our trip to Ft. Lauderdale, we passed this sailboat that was resting on a sandbar. Typically, the anchor will be in the water (not above water as you see in this picture).

More pictures from our travels on 2/13/2023.

Pic 1 - A cruise ship (waiting to be boarded)

Pic 2 - Just one of the many properties in this Ft. Lauderdale area

The Walkers walked the boardwalk and enjoyed some time on the beach. Joel and I walked the strip, looking in the stores and checking out the restaurants. We did visit the Elbow Bar (a favorite of Breakaway) where Joel had a beer.

We ended the night with dinner at Coconuts. It's a hot spot here in Ft. Lauderdale. We met Alain and Danielle friends that live or vacation here in Ft. Lauderdale. @Jane Ruby, we met your singing match!

• The food at Coconuts was great. I had BBQ shrimp (nothing like New Orleans; but, still good). Joel had jambalaya, Chris had a lobster boil and Keyla had a Hogfish snapper - all very delicious. We had appetizers too: deviled eggs, Scooby snacks, mussels and crawfish bread.

• Scooby snacks are 4 lobster tails with a spicy buttery sauce. Apparently, these are a big hit for the kids and people come back just for the Scooby snacks!

• Alain and a couple of his friends stopped by our table to say goodbye, one of the friends serenaded us. He changed the lyrics to a few songs and had a great voice!

I can't forget to mention, we met 2 men from Boston, MA. They were FULL of energy, we had a great time talking with them. They played football for University of New Hampshire. One is a restaurant owner, I didn't catch what the other gentleman did for work. They are both retired and apparently were in town for a wedding.

• The Boston restaurant is called Chateau https://www.chateaurestaurant.com - we explained the loop to them, they seemed to want more information and stated they would stop by to look at the boat the following day.

• After dinner, we exchanged goodbyes and they said they would reach out to us before they leave Ft. Lauderdale. Before leaving, they did this little cheer:

  • They yelled "2 claps for St. Louis" (and then they proceeded with 2 sets of 2 large, hand claps). Keyla and I liked this so much, going forward, we will do this for others or when something cool happens!

2 claps for our followers; clap / clap! ; clap / clap!

Tuesday, 2/14 - Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Heart Day, Happy Loveuary, Happy Galantines or Happy Tuesday (whatever it is and however you celebrate). We hope you had an incredible, warm and sunny day! Joel and I had breakfast out and then joined the Walker for a Water Taxi ride.

The Water Taxi experience did not turn out as we expected. The app wasn't working properly and the staff on the water taxi gave inaccurate information. We inquired on when the next taxi (going to stop 1) would arrive at our destination and we were told it would be within 20 minutes. Sure, a couple of taxis showed up; however, they were full capacity and couldn't take on additional passengers and the 20 minutes turned into a 1 1/2 hour wait (it may have been longer). After the long wait, we decided as a group to board the next water taxi that arrived at our location.

Of course, the water taxi that picked us up was going in the opposite direction that we wanted to go, so 2 hours later, we reached the stop (stop 1) that we wanted. Since it was so late in the day (5pm), we decided to eat dinner out. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, had a great meal. After dinner, we walked around the area before returning home. Joel and I were exhausted after such a long day.

Things we learned while on the Water Taxi:

Seward Johnson home: Related to the Johnson & Johnson family. Seward Johnson was an American artist known for his work with painted bronze statues. If you look closely, left side of the picture below, there is a statue of a man and boy. On the other side of the property, there is a statue of a young boy with a bird (I did not get that in this picture).

Jimmy John Liautaud Boat (2 pics below): Boat name is "ROCK IT" / $69 million dollar yacht, 5 cabins for 10 guest. The tour guide stated this boat has a jet engine and runs on jet fuel. It's one of the fastest boats on the water.

The OLD Anheuser-Busch mansion: The Busch family sold this property, I believe the tour guide stated for $22 million. It was also stated that millionaire's do not want to live in another millionaire's home. So guess what! You can see here, it is being torn down and another home will be built in its place.

Ted Turner Built this house below. Apparently, built when Ted Turner and Jane Fonda were together. The home was built for them; but, they never moved into it.

Demi Moore & Bruce Willis connection: Apparently, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis and their family stayed here when Demi Moore filmed the movie "Striptease".

Kim "Bo" Bokamper, Miami Dolphin: This is a Miami Dolphin's restaurant. Bokamper played football for the Dolphins all nine of his NFL seasons, 1977-1985. Founded in 2008, a great restaurant to enjoy a sports like atmosphere on the waterway.

Wednesday, 2/15 - Took this day to relax and just hang out on the boat. Walker's hung out by the beach most of the day to soak up as much sun as possible before making their way back to cold St. Louis. Joel cooked hamburgers for dinner. It was nice to enjoy a low key sort of day.

We are at a marina that looks onto the Ft. Lauderdale Aquatic Center. We were able to see folks training on the high dive. Picture below is the view from our boat deck.

Thursday, 2/16 - Joel and I purchased tickets to the Miami boat show. Danielle and Alain had a car and drove us there. Due to traffic, we left at 8:30am. The Walker's stayed back for their 4pm, departure.

It took a couple hours to arrive at the boat show (due to traffic); we spend the bulk of the day touring the gadget section. We walked around the show to view a few new boats and boy are they nice! Mid afternoon we took an uber to another part of the boat show, the "in water show". We toured several boats. They were all nice; I like the Beneteau (Swift Trawlers) and Beneteau Gran Turismo. I also liked the catamarans, they are extremely spacious. Now, get this, the new ones you could not touch for less than 1 or 2 million dollars. Yes, we looked at some used boats too! They were just as expensive, I don't recall seeing anything less than $800K.

The boat show closed at 6pm, so we headed home. Alain was in the mood for 5 Guys Burgers. He has been wanting this since Key West. Well, he finally got his 5 Guy burger fix. We were all hungry and the hamburger was AMAZING (or perhaps we were just starving).

Pic 1, 4 - 6: Lake / Water Lounge, these items go for 5 - 8K. There was even a pole dancing floating lounge. Can you believe this?

Friday, 2/17 - It was a rainy day here in Ft. Lauderdale, so we took advantage and used this day for cleaning which was way overdue since we were entertaining our guests for the past 3 wks. I cleaned the downstairs and Joel took care of the things he had been putting off upstairs.

Joel addd some weather stripping to the outer deck doors. We are hopeful this will prevent water from coming into the upper deck area when washing the boat. It may not always work; but, may prevent water from coming in when underway also. Joel also uploaded maps for the upcoming trips.

Pictures of our living space:

Pic 1: - Master Bedroom

Pic 2 - Living Room / Galley (view from cabin entry way)

Pic 3 - Guest Room (where we keep stuff when we don't have guest)

Pic 4 - Looking down into Galley (view from living area)

Pictures 1 - 6 mostly bathroom shots from different angles, it's hard to provide a true view of how things look on a boat :-)

Shout Outs:
2/11 - My dad passed away 3 years ago!  I know he is enjoying Heaven.
2/14 - Happy Love Day to everyone! Be kind to yourself and others.
2/17 - Happy Birthday, Denny Jarvis... hope you are soaking up some sunshine!
2/17 - Jonathan's car has been repaired (finally) from where the guy backed into him at a gas station in October 2022.