Category: Ft. Lauderdale

Vaccine Hunting in Florida

All your “I got Vaxxed” posts motivated us. Colombia is struggling to inoculate its residents, so there is little chance we would have gotten vaccinated there soon. We researched options and went vaccine hunting in Florida.

Long Time Away From the Boat

We left Colombia a week ago. It’s been a long strange week but a good one. The weirdest, and hardest part, is being away from Sava. It’s only been a week so far, but that’s the longest we’ve been away from the boat. In Curaçao we lived in an airbnb for a few weeks, but we still visited Sava daily while she was in the yard.

We are travelers, so being away from home isn’t an issue. But being away from our boat feels wrong. It feels like snorkeling without fins or traveling without luggage or Linus without his blanket. Sava is safe at a marina and will be fine when we get back, but I have to say I am antsy to get back even though we’re having lots of fun and reuniting with lots of people.

They say that sailors are called back to the sea; for us, it’s not that extreme, but we are drawn to marinas, bars on the water, and our cruising friends when we are not near our boat. We are not used to being away!

Sava Cartagena
One last photo before leaving Sava in Cartagena

It’s been two years and a few months since we sailed away from the U.S., and coming back by air almost feels like cheating. Yet, this was what we would have done if Covid hadn’t stopped travel for so long. We hope to plan more trips by air in between our passages, and hope for visitors to return to Sava before long.

Goals for the Trip

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Being Scared, and Getting Used To It

Melinda has been convincing me to write a post. So here is a bit of me. I am living on a boat being scared, and getting used to it.

Perception vs. Reality

Folks watching and reading about this adventure may have the perception that it’s easy and relaxing. But, to be honest, almost no day has gone by without some level of fear and terror. Sava is a big boat with a lot of moving parts, some of which break down quite often, and already have.

When we left the mooring just over two months ago and motored down The New River, not knowing how to steer this boat or even where we were going to spend the night, I was literally shaking all day.

Stressful Times

Then the next day we ran aground a couple of times. It was then that I realized lots is going to go wrong, and we just need to deal with it.

Since then there’ve been numerous very stressful hours and moments.

On our first outing after being on the hard in Fort Lauderdale, heading to Miami in a hard east wind and under power, the motor failed. We had to take quick action and drop anchor. We called Seatow to get us to Miami. It was rough, but during the tow, I managed to solve the problem.

Sea Tow boat Miami living on a boat being scared
We needed Sea Tow in Miami
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Made it to Key Largo!

We have already learned the main lesson of sailboat life: don’t plan too much because plans will change. After 2+ weeks! on the hard, we finally got out of Ft. Lauderdale this weekend. Nothing against Ft. Lauderdale, but we were ready to get back on the water, which we did and we made it to Key Largo.

The Opposite of Smooth Sailing

When you get what you want, it may not go your way. We learned that on Saturday when we were a couple of hours in our drive to Miami and the engine conked out.

Backing up: we didn’t sail from Ft. Lauderdale because the swells were very big and the wind was right in our faces. So we motored. And even that didn’t work out so well. But we’re learning, always learning through our mistakes

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