60 and clear
02/12/2012, University Cove

The day was spent cleaning and organizing the boat. Isobel was a enthusiastic worker. Of course she had to get properly dressed before going to work.

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02/11/2012, Oleta State Park, FL

It is so nice to be underway again. Isobel spent a bunch of time on deck... arranging her "horse" and riding the skuut on deck and waving to bridge tenders. The day was almost over and we ran aground... We had called Tow Boat US for clarification on the entrance to this anchorage. The guy told me to make sure I stayed 10 to 20 feet off the marker 6A. We did... and ran aground... Luckily another sailboat offered to pull our bow around and this pulled us off. Then, they showed us the way in, which was 100 feet off the mark! Ah well...

We are happily anchored off the Florida International University and the Oleta State Park. Finally some quiet and much less light... and a little beach and a playground...

25 54.459'n 080 08.039'w

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02/10/2012, fort Lauderdale, FL

We have had many shared meals and shared food. Although the parents try to share meals, but not eat off the same plates!

Although we have been in Fort Lauderdale longer than we wanted, we have had fun, hanging out with the folks on Ruack. A canadian flagged boat, they now live in Bar Harbor ME where they run a restaurant during the summer season. Six month of the year they spend on the boat in Florida or the Bahamas.

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02/08/2012, Fort Lauderdale, FL

While Teri was here, we rented a Nissan Leaf. Pretty cool. Lots of power and a range of about 100 miles between plug ins... over night with 110 volts or a few hours with 220.

Bill has been working on installing the Watermaker and it is basically done. Just hook the new small drinking water tank to the faucet....

And we have everything that we need (almost), so we hope to be off to head south and look for the next weather window.

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02/05/2012, Fort Lauderdale, FL

We have returned to the dock... Teri has come back to visit Isobel (and us too!). I have taken some time while they are out to work on the water maker and other projects. One little project was to remove, clean and replace the speed transducer. Although it has a little flapper valve, I opted to check the entire mechanism. Here is a little video of me reinstalleing the transducer:

Gives you a sense of what a 1.5" hole in the boat would look like!

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Bill, 75 and overcast
02/03/2012, Middle River, Fort Lauderdale, FL

The kids off Ruach 2 and Isobel have been having a blast together. Depending on the day and time they are on either boat getting into stuff and raising a ruccus... and basically having a great time.

This has also been fun for Bill and Lara as Mom and Dad on Ruach are also fun to hang out with... Dan and Bill each helped the other go up the mast on both boats... on Ruach 2 to fix the anchor light and on Sunrise to replace the deck light and work on the wind instrument, and try to solve the interference issues we are having with our OGM light and VHF radio. ANy of you cruisers know what to do to solve this issue?

We have moved to Middle River (26 07.971'n 080 07.109'w), which is much quieter and we are on our own anchor, which costs us nothing. We have already made friends with some folks on shore and waved at the two Dutch boats who apparently spend the winter here ( a lot nicer than the Mediterranean and free).

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Lara
01/25/2012, Ft Lauderdale

Have you ever prayed with your dentist? I couldn't have answered "Yes" until I went to Dr. Yolanda Citron's office on Monday. In the morning everyone, including all patients & staff, prayed together and listened while our Dr. Citron read from the Bible on her IPad and talked about blessings from God for what seemed to be at least 20 minutes.

I'm all for new experiences and it certainly can't hurt to be in touch with God, but it was bizarre (in a good way). Funny how we know how so much of our life will go - even the structure of a dental visit. It's refreshing and invigorating to have things shaken up once in a while. I'll also note that everyone in the practice was a pleasure to deal with and remarkably thorough.

We returned today and Isobel, being the girl who likes to take part and not just be a bystander, wanted in on the action. Since she couldn't clean Bill's teeth she spent half an hour poking around in my mouth with her latex gloves repeating all sorts of "teethy" remarks she overheard.

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Lara
01/25/2012, Ft Lauderdale

We're scrambling around below getting together snacks, drinks, camera, a small kite and towels; putting on bathing suits & sunscreen - so we can meet up at the beach with another family with 2 young kids that Isobel has grown very fond of. The phone rings & it's the dentist calling saying my new mouth guard is ready & can I come in today or tomorrow instead of Friday as planned. If we go today at 1:00 we can both get cleanings...so we say "yes."

How do we get there now that we finally returned the car my Mom had while she was here? We each argue our reasons why we feel either the bus or a rental car would be more insane and stressful. I calm down & we decide on the bus. We scramble again to add whatever we need for our post beach adventure - clothes, toothbrushes, etc.

We're off for a quick but satisfying trip to the beach & then a race walk to the bus stop. After a brief wait we climbed into a bus, then changed to a connecter bus where the driver had us laughing from the moment we stepped on until we waved goodbye. It was a fabulous experience - & clearly one that we would not have had if we had driven around isolated from our surroundings in a car.

This is definitely a recurring theme for us living on the boat. The interactions we have with people along the way are largely what make our journey worth while. Of course there are times when it seems that life would be so much simpler & quicker if we could just hop in a car wherever we are to take care of whatever we have to do. But... in the end the journey is always (well, almost always) far more interesting and satisfying when we dingy, bike, hitchhike, bus, train, or walk and expose ourselves a bit to this crazy, wonderful world.
This photo is from the first bus, not the comedy bus.

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Lara
01/25/2012, Ft Lauderdale

Fun in the sun with the crew of Ruach II.

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Lara
01/25/2012, Ft Lauderdale

Bill & Isobel take a few waves in the face. This one was just exciting.

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