Days 143 and 144 - Arugula — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $45, daily high temperature 73*f

The Miami Boat show continues. There is literally $1 Billion worth of boats at this show. That would make a nice commission at 10% if I sold them all. Priscilla and I visited the after market vendor displays today. My favorite was the Freedom Lift hydraulic dingy hoist display. Priscilla had two favorites – Torqeedo (electric outboard dingy motors) and The Galleyware Company that has full range of dinnerware. Some of it is non-breakable and some of it is Lenox china.

The trip from Ft Lauderdale to Miami each day for the boat show is brutal. Interstate 95 is more of a parking lot than a highway. We parked at the American Airlines Arena and took a bus to the Rickenbacker Causeway. That took over 2 hours each way.

There are some celebrity mega yachts in Ft Lauderdale. This one, Seven C’s belongs to Steven Spielberg.

Dinner was a gourmet feast at Letster’s diner. It is a classic New Jersey style diner in Ft Lauderdale. Even our waitress was at least 100 years old. My meatloaf with gravy and mashed potatoes was so large it was two meals. Chris Weber came back to the boat late and made short work of the leftovers.

This is our waitress at Lester’s diner celebrating her recent birthday.

Priscilla and I took a day off from the boat show on Saturday and visited the gym and spent some time in the heated pool. The marina hosts a free buffet on Saturdays at 1:30 pm. It is a very nice selection with salad, chicken, meatballs, red potatoes, penne pasta, broccoli and dessert.

Valentine’s Day will soon be here and it is a special event for us. Valentine’s Day 1968 is the anniversary of Priscilla and my first date. That was 48 years ago. We were juniors in high school. We went on to go our junior and senior proms together.

Saturday night brought the Weber Yachts team together onboard CL for docktails. Rich Reick’s wife Karen joined us. Karen has been with IBM for 32 years. We decided to go to dinner at the marina restaurant called Rendezvous but a virtual yacht club is having their monthly gathering at Marina Bay resulting in a 1.5 hour wait. We hopped in our cars and went to a wood fired pizza restaurant and enjoyed a great meal. We had the ultimate dichotomy in pizza selections. One pizza was sausage and pepperoni and the other was cheese and arugula.

Bonus photo

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.” – Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1882, she fell ill and was struck blind, deaf and mute. Beginning in 1887, Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, helped her make tremendous progress with her ability to communicate, and Keller went on to college, graduating in 1904. In 1920, Keller helped found the ACLU. During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments.