Vero to Coconut Grove: part I

The best news in Vero Beach (other than the arrival of Celeste) was the arrival of Claude's "muffler". Here is his, proudly holding up the one he cobbled together in Oriental, NC. Yes, the darn thing worked since then! Claude got the actual correct part, installed it, and we were off for 5 big days. Here is Doug in Vero as well, just before leaving. He should have stayed with us, as he went home to a blizzard in Canda, but that's another story. The third picture is Merope in the rainy weather we were encountering on the way. Miami looms in the background, and we are getting there!

From Vero Beach we put in a 40-plus mile day to stop in Hobe Sound. This was one of those anchorages where you just pull off a bit to the West, throw out the anchor, and stop for the night. We had a long discussion about going "outside" to avoid the 38 bridges or so between Hobe Sound and Miami. The bottom line was we did not have the stuff. Claude had nice charts (paper) and of course complete charts on the computer, and also had a great GPS unit. We still cannot use our GPS as the sole source of navigation, and do not have a complete set of charts. I thought that perhaps we could make the overnight run outside if we borrowed Claude's charts, but then he rightly refused because then HE would not have any backup way to navigate. Add to that the huge container ships and cruise ships we would be likely to encounter in the dark, and a less than perfect weather window, and we decided to stay inside and brave the bridges.

The next day we went all the way to Lantana, where a bridge was our undoing. Waiting for the Lantana Bridge, Wayne shifted into neutral. When he tried to shift back into forward, the cable snapped and we were adrift. I steered over to the side, he threw out the anchor and we let the bridge tender know we would have to wait for the next opening, a half-hour later, due to technical problems. Wayne figured correctly that he could shift into forward manually, so we managed to get through the bridge 30 minutes later and pull into the anchorage. Whew! About an hour and several phone calls later, we miraculously found a place in the Lauderdale area which had the appropriate cable and a salesman who was so nice, he said he would drive it to us after work. This is a plug for Boat Owner's Warehouse and a guy named Jeff who was an outstanding guy. We said we would meet him at the "Old Key Lime House" restaurant, luckily a famous restaurant in the Lantana area. He got there around 7pm and would not let us buy him a beer but we gave him $10 and he graciously accepted. The next morning, Claude and Wayne installed the new cable and we were off again by 9am. Oh, did I mention that Doug, that GREAT GUY, picked up dinner for us all at the Old Key Lime House in celebration/mourning of his impending departure? What a guy!

We really needed that cable, as from Lantana to Fort Lauderdale there were about 15 bridges to go through. We miraculously timed them quite well, but it required Merope to run full-blast quite a bit. We anchored up a little river in the Lauderdale area, and were surrounded by Claude and Doug's compatriots. Truth, we were the ONLY American boat at the anchorage! A discussion of the cultural aspects of the prevalence of Canadians making the trip down the ICW bears examination, however that will have to wait for a moment. It is interesting, however, to note that young French Canadians with kids and dogs and the whole shooting match somehow manage to acquire great sailboats and make the journey. The Canadians are doing something right!

We left Doug on a street corner in Fort Lauderdale and went on our way to Miami. He cried and said he did not know how he was going to survive being separated from Claude again. (OK, I made that part up but it sounds like a great movie scene). Doug did send us a great shot of a 5-foot snowbank right outside his house upon returning to Canada. It's great to be in Florida. Here ends part one, with Merope and Cassiopeia about to arrive in the magical destination - Miami. More on that tomorrow.