After much ado, setting up the funds transfer and filling out paperwork, we said goodbye to the previous owners and the S/V Robin came into our hands. Thus began the first adventure in our sailing 'careers' that was not on a boat owned by someone else. From here on out we will be 100% responsible for every light bulb and oil change that S/V Robin will need as well as investing a considerable amount of "TLC" to bring her back to a fit and fine shape. We knew (well, pretty much) what we were getting in to, but that does not in any way preclude the possibilities for learning a million new things beginning with this sail-away trip. Owning a home or car in no way prepares you for a boat save the basic mechanical, electrical, plumbing and other skills you acquire living with stuff that breaks or wears out. Boats are ... weird ...
We cast off from the previous owners' dock space after some struggle figuring out how they had tied it up to begin with. It seemed as though it had been secured for some time and the pilings and lines that held her in place were not too fond of the idea that we were leaving. We wrestled with a few lines that were seemingly glued in place and were finally clear of the dock and the pilings and on our way; our first concern being a visible sand bar that would make for an even more interesting story had we run solidly aground less than 2 minutes after taking possession of our first boat. The motor and transmission worked like clockwork (you know; the kind of clockwork in Indiana Jones and National Treasure??) and we pensively headed out looking for deeper waters. This was a Monday afternoon and there were very few other boaters around which was fine with us.
Thankfully, with Robin at the helm, we motored safely clear of the shallow water and headed out toward the first maker depicting the deeper water of the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW) channel. But the journey was to begin with intrigue anyway... within 5 minutes we encountered our first future project when all the gagues failed at once. Suddenly we had no indication of fuel, oil pressure, engine temparature or RPM and battery charge. It happened all at once and I sent a quick text to find out if this was something we should panic over or if the gagues were just playing finicky. I was informed that they had supposedly been fixed by the mechanic and that they were just behaving badly due to some mysterious electrical problem. OK .. item number 1 for the to-do list. I will leave the mechanic alone for now as I am not too terribly sure he did such a great job. There's a story of a high-pressure diesel fuel pump in here too, but we'll save that for later. The motor was running great and the batteries were charging and the exhaust was spitting water properly so we decided to continue toward the new 'home' location at Cooley's Landing Marina in Fort Lauderdale. This was 'back-to-basics' boating and it was OK as long as we didn't see any signs of overheating. I climbed below and kept a close eye on the motor for any trouble for a while but my confidence that it was simply a ground-wire or some such problem brought me back up after a short while to enjoy the ride and help navigate.
The planned route was to go right up the ICW past the Fort Lauderdale cruise ship terminal (Port Everglades) and into the New River which basically runs right through downtown Fort Lauderdale. The distance was 20.4 Nautical Miles and at an average speed of 5 Knots it should take 4 hours but I planned an extra hour in there for fighting currents and winds and to get drawbridges to open up for us. The one thing we did not plan on was rush hour on the freeways ... I think I knew about it; but didn't plan on it very well ... you see, drawbridges will pretty much open up for tall vessels on request as you make your way along the waterways. Sometimes you have to wait for traffic or pedestrians to clear the bridges, and perhaps you'll wait while more than one boat gather at the bridge to go through simultaneously. That is .. except during rush-hour traffic when they either open on a set schedule (twice an hour) or not at all. We knew that the bridges in downtown Fort Lauderdale did not open at all between 7:30 and 9:00 A.M. or 4:30 and 6:00 P.M. to provide for heavy commuter traffic on the bridges. We planned on arriving a those bridges after 6:00 P.M. so we wouldn't be delayed. What did delay us were the other bridges along the way that switched into their afternoon 'twice-an-hour' mode.
Now, let's say one bridge opens on the hour and on the half-hour so we arrive about 10 minutes early and have to just wait around. OK, I'm good with that one. The issue is that the next bridge up the ICW opens at 15 and 45 minnutes past the hour, and try as we night we can't quite make it there in time from the previous bridge so we get stuck waiting 25 minutes at each of 3 or 4 bridges along the way, just not quite quick enough to get to the next bridge in time.
Since we had started off about an hour and a half later than we'd planned it looked like the additional delays might cause us to end up finding our new docki n the dark, and that was not an appetizing proposition for our first sail. All in all we did fine though, and the longer days of late spring alloowed us daylight all the way.
Along our trip we saw multi-million dollar homes and yachts, high-rise apartment complexes, all kinds of birds and boats and people sitting at waterside restaurants that were more than happy to send us a wave. We saw the drawbridges open for us, followed another sailboat for a while and went through a drawbridge at the same time as a huge tugboat pulling hundreds of feet of floating lipeline along behind him came through the other way. We saw a few clouds and lots of sun, a few breezes but lots of calm, warm air. We saw monstrous cargo vessels and the huge cranes that load them working away as we passed by. It was hot out and we appreciated the breezes when we could get them. We both slathered on the sunscreen and kept our wide-brimmed hats on to prevent a burn and we tried to keep hydrated in afternoon sun on what was turning out to be the hottest day of the year so far.
We followed our markers, kept a keen eye on the charts and handheld GPS and along the way added the additional fuel we'd brought with us. Then, 5 hours and 20 minutes later we pulled in to our slip (dock #6) at our new marina. The engine cooled down beneath us as Robin and I toasted or first trip aboard our first sailboat.
Gagues or not, diesel smell or not, this is our boat now; our project and our practice platform to learn how to pilot and maintain a salt-water sailing vessel and we will try to keep that in mind as me move forward from here. There is alot to think about and there will be a lot to do. We bought her 'as-is' and we're happy with that decision. I'll start a project list in the morning :)
and so it begins ...
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