any given moment....... from P

What a wild day. The forecast was wrong... again. We just got settled at anchor in a great little lake in Ft. Lauderdale surrounded by eye-popping mansions. But to get here, we sailed through some of the roughest seas I have been in. This morning the marine forecast called for 2-4 foot seas. Well, our 37 foot boat was burying her bow into huge waves as we pitched and rolled our way out of the Miami harbor (Government Cut). It got better once we got offshore into 100 foot depths, but the seas stayed a steady 6 feet (angry and breaking), and the wind hung around 20-25 knots ENE all day. We did make some good decisions (reefed Genoa only, life vests, deep water, centerboard down). Now we have that weird, tired but exhilarated feeling of having come through a tense day in tough seas, and other than disheveled items and a smashed up tomato, all is OK. One moment we feel like we are on the edge of trouble, the next moment we are settled, safe, and enjoying an adrenaline high.

What a great little party! You just never know. My motto is "always have cold beer just in case." Yesterday, after walking around Miami Beach, we dinghied back out to Senara and noticed that a new boat had come in and dropped anchor. Lo and behold, it was flying an Old Point Comfort Yacht Club burgee (our sailing club). Before long, the skipper dinghied over and joined us on board for a little happy hour. Simon is a Dane who bought his boat in Maine. OK, that's all the poetry for today. It was great swapping stories with an accomplished cruiser, and great to meet yet another club member from home out here on the water. Simon - we will catch up with you again in the Keys!

Any small malfunction, or weird occurance, can change everything - and Murphy is a hard worker. Yesterday morning I was routinely pulling up the anchor when suddenly the anchor windlass just quit. Uh-Oh. I seriously doubted that my back would abide the strain of pulling my 35 lb anchor and 42 feet of chain out of the mud by hand. Worse, the thought of another three months of using the boat engine to pull the anchor loose, then hand hoisting it every morning was not appealing. But after only a few minutes of tracing wires, I found one loose wire-nut, tightened it up, flipped the switch, and the drum started turning once again. Moment to moment.

Murphy worked some OT yesterday. When we had climbed out of the dinghy to walk around Miami Beach, the tide was low. While we were walking about, somehow the dinghy found its way under the pier, then the tide came in! When we returned, we found it squashed under a support brace under the pier, just about ready for water to start pouring in over the squashed rubber pontoons. It was about to go down - dinghy, motor and all. I rolled up my pants, jumped in, pulled the motor off, and deflated the dinghy while trying to hang on to the pier. Eventually, we dislodged the deflated dinghy. But now, how do we get back to Senara on a limp piece of rubber? Thankfully a nice young man in a powerboat offered to ride me out to Senara to get my air pump. Moment to moment.