12/15/08 Vultures deciding which boat to poop on next!

December 12, 2008 - December 15, 2008 Ft. Lauderdale - Miami

Any Mom who gets a call at 7:00 a.m. on a Friday, from a daughter ecstatic over the gorgeous moon, ought to be suspicious. Has the daughter been out all night howling and needs sleep? No. She was having one of those moments we’ve most wanted for her—awe of our wonderful earth and an appreciation for the simplicity of an absolutely beautiful sunrise. She was driving to work in Austin and needed to share it with us. “The cars in front of me are silhouetted by the moon! It is so big!” she exclaimed. (Yes, she’s talking on a cell and driving.) Texas sunrises have always been our favorite, so Mom & Dad were proud. (I now expect to have numerous calls from her competitive siblings exclaiming over their recent bug findings or such stuff.)

We had arrived at the FTL Las Olas Marina on Thursday noonish in an attempt to beat yet another front to town. We docked in 20-25 knot winds in a controlled manner, with Jim secure at the helm and with me doing the footwork. He did such a good job fellow boaters congratulated Jim on his handling of Summer Breeze. (Remember this for later.)

We had rushed to FTL in hopes of securing a dock for Saturday night’s Christmas Boat Parade and time with grandkids, but alas all dockage was reserved and we had to pull out Friday morning. Jim was up early to case out the mooring field across the river. A boat that had been there the night before had pulled out early. We made a mad dash for it and were tickled when we’d secured it. It was ours! We still could see the boat parade and kids.

So we went on with business. It had taken 2 weeks of dealing with our new batteries and solar system to realize that we weren’t generating enough power to suit all of our needs. Jim began engineering to add another panel. E-Marine has always supplied us with the knowledge and parts for our solar, so Jim called them with a wish list. Of course, our solar panels are no longer made. Better ones are now available and to top it off, controlling boxes have changed. Watts, amperage, wire gage, oh my gosh! Everything’s different! Jim’s got a handle on it all. He’d been talking with E-Marine for days, and they had agreed to deliver all the parts we needed to the boat at Las Olas. Jim arranged to dink across the Intracoastal when called to pick up a 130 watt solar panel, some aluminum, and a box of parts. Things were going smoothly.

We were passing time in the mooring field, awaiting that call when we felt a definite bump around 3:00. We looked at each other, a manatee hit us? What? Our mooring was in at least 6 feet of water and we only need 4. We went out and looked. Nothing. Soon, we felt a definite solid bump, bump, bump and déjà vu! We have felt that before. “We are hitting bottom!” Guages were turned on, the motor started, and with me on the bow and Jim at the helm, we tried to outmaneuver what was happening. We shortened and lengthened lines. I hung on the shrouds. Jim gunned the engine. Nope. We weren’t going anywhere until the tide came in. Then the much anticipated phone call came and off went Jim in the dingy to pick up the solar panel.

Nothing exciting happened while he was gone, but my adrenalin was ready should it have. He arrived back shortly with a huge box and news that the low tide in the middle of the night could produce the same or worse conditions. Supposedly, no one has had a similar problem on that mooring ball. So, we packed up, dingy on the bow, made everything fast, and left around 4:00 motoring south through Port Everglades, aimed at Miami which we know well and has lots of anchorage room compared to FTL. Our night motoring experience is adequate, but not great, so we had hoped to be settled in 1 ½ hours of daylight we had. No marinas had room in Hollywood, and we ended up in the dark at a new-to-us anchorage near the Sunny Isles Bridge north of Miami. We were the only boat there which I like.

We generally don’t think much of tides because we don’t need to. Brooke’s interest in the full moon led her to info that the moon was at its closest to the earth for the year and extreme tides were the result. We do know of extreme tides, just had forgotten. Years ago, Jim, Spring, and Mat spent a night on Wet Seasons on her side in the Everglades with no water within a hundred yards.

So, here I sit at Pelican Harbor Marina in Miami. We’d spent the previous night anchored near North Miami Beach so Jim could get more parts at Ace Hardware. Then we decided we needed shore power to operate his jig saw to mount the new solar control panel.

We’ve never been to this city marina before, but chose it because we liked the price, a cheap $31 a night. Initially, we docked to do sewage detail, and with the help of an attendant and the 20 knot wind, managed to dock only the bow. The attendant told me to stay on the boat. I shouldn’t have. Then trying to fix the mess, I put my hand on a piling in a pile of bird doo rendering it (the hand) wet and useless while the attendant proceeded to tell us how to get the rear end of Summer Breeze to behave which she wouldn’t in the wind. Finally, I grabbed the aft line with my clean hand, took it to the bow, and handed it to him. He pulled the rear in. So, I sat there watching and asking about the marina. “What are all of those black dogs doing over by the showers marching back and forth?”

“What dogs? Those are vultures!”

I’ve never seen vultures that big!

Off we went to find our slip for two days. It’s an older marina with stationary docks and narrow slips. Though fairly well protected, the current and wind made backing in impossible. It was hard enough to get the bow in without crashing the anchor into the cement. Thank goodness we didn’t have help nor an audience. I jumped ship and did what I do best. BLOCK! We docked her with only minimal damage to the GPS receiver. All this cancels out all the praise in FTL!

I still hadn’t grasped the full name of Pelican Harbor until I went for my shower at 4:00. It was impossible to miss the guano when walking to the shower. Buckets of water are put out for the vultures, and employees were feeding the Muscovy ducks. I had to wash my shoes to get on the boat. This morning a guy was hosing down everything. This is my kind of place! A zoo! Actually, it is also Pelican Harbor Seabird Station.

Goo, the sailors life ….