Day 136 - Cloverleaf — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 6, it seemed like 60 miles, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $53 (at last) daily high temperature 78*f

A northeast storm blew through last night with high winds and heavy rain. The temperature dropped 12 degrees and with the continuing high winds feels a bit chilly. It is overcast so the sun has not broken through the clouds.

Our boat is a little rolly in our slip. Andy woke up and decided she should not stay below. Saturday we will move the boat up the New River to the Marina Bay Marina where the water should be flat. We will finally be connected with our live-a-board mentors Bev and Dave Feiges. They were our cruising-life inspiration after they invited us to spend a week with them onboard their Krogen 65′ Cloverleaf in the Exumas, Bahamas a few years ago. For the past 136 days I kept thinking that every mile we cruised got us closer to seeing Bev and Dave.

Our friends from the Waukegan Yacht Club Bill and Marty Valters visited with us for lunch at the Lauderdale Yacht Club. Bill and Marty live in Lake Forest in the summer and Ft Lauderdale in the winter. They have a nice yacht in both locations. Bill has been extremely helpful to us by providing insider information regarding cruising in Florida. The Lauderdale Yacht Club adds a 20% building maintenance fee to each dinning bill for non- members.

In the evening we were joined by Oscar and Sylvia Rubio. Oscar and I have worked together at Rust-Oleum for over 20 years. Oscar and Sylvia are from Peru but have been living in Miami for over 25 years. We have traveled together to Las Vegas for the World of Concrete trade show for the past 10 years. So this year instead of Vegas we met in Ft Lauderdale. It was a great time, really.

Oscar and I travelled all over central and south America for many years. One of my favorite stories has to do with going to the restroom (bano) in Montevideo, Uruguay. After enjoying a few cervesas (beers) at a lovely beach front restaurant I went looking for the men’s room. I came across a door with a giant “M” on it and was about enter as a woman exited. Taken aback I noticed the next door had a giant “H” on it. Channeling my high school Spanish I realized M was for Mujeres (woman) and “H” was for Hombre (man). No harm no foul.

The cruise up the New River was only six miles but it was action packed every inch of the way. The river is narrow and winding with large, expensive boats tied up on both sides. We chose to go up the river against the current. This was the right choice because the down bound boats were swinging their sterns in wide arcs. There were three bascule bridges that we requested be raised. At one bridge we waited for six boats to pass down bound before we could go up-bound. They looked like they were headed to the Miami Boat show. Then the bridge tender started to close the bridge before we passed underneath so I called him on the radio and asked him to hold the bridge open a little longer.

Bridge after bridge after bridge

A few larger boats along the way.

And another boat and another boat.

We arrived at Marina Bay Marina and are tied up for the next three weeks. Our friends Bev and Dave on Cloverleaf are just across the fairway from us. We can walk around or take the dingy. As we entered the marina we heard someone call out to us. It was Chris Weber showing a boat to a prospective buyer in this marina. Yes it is a small community of boaters. The Weber Yachts sales staff will use CL as their headquarters during the Miami Boat Show. More to follow.

Bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day

“The sea, the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea.”
James Joyce, Ulysse

James Joyce (1882-1941), Irish novelist, noted for his experimental use of language in such works as Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). Joyce’s technical innovations in the art of the novel include an extensive use of interior monologue; he used a complex network of symbolic parallels drawn from the mythology, history, and literature, and created a unique language of invented words, puns, and allusions.

James Joyce was born in Dublin, on February 2, 1882, as the son of John Stanislaus Joyce, an impoverished gentleman, who had failed in a distillery business and tried all kinds of professions, including politics and tax collecting. Joyce’s mother, Mary Jane Murray, was ten years younger than her husband. She was an accomplished pianist.