Fort Lauderdale – 2 miles by dinghy, 18 metres swam
For the last workday of the week I constructed an immaculate breakfast egg scramble, cojoined by a raisin and cinnamon bagel. I wasn’t sure about the flavour pairings, but it worked just fine and I enjoyed my eats in the cockpit as I watched the boats, cars, and people coming and going.
I had plans today to meet my buddy Stillman and his friend Scott at Coconuts for lunch so I spent the morning working on boat jobs and fixed one of our two remaining water leaks by taking a wooden dowel and hammer, swimming to the front starboard side of the boat, and banging it into the thru hull of the forward head. One of the previous owners had removed the toilet in the forward cabin and converted it to a shower room, so the valve connecting the holding tank to the thru hull hasn’t been in use for years, but we discovered early in the trip that this valve had been leaking. The temporary fix worked and next time we take the boat out of the water I will replace the entire assembly.
I rode the dinghy to Coconuts, which is just across the ICW from the anchorage, and enjoyed an excellent Mahi-Mahi sandwich and French fries for lunch. Stillman’s friend and business partner Scott is a great guy and they told me all about the two start-ups they’ve worked together on for the past ten years. We decided to dinghy back to the boat for a beer before they had to return to Boca (Stillman had ballet-dad duties to attend to), but as we were leaving they pointed out the dozens of smaller fish and two giant tarpon hanging out in the waters beneath the restaurant deck, no doubt waiting for a morsel of food to drop off somebody’s plate – a ketchup-dipped French fry, a wad of mayonnaise-saturated brioche bun, a leaf of feathery lettuce, or if they were really lucky, a scrap of their flame-grilled buddy they were just swimming around with a couple of days ago, making crab jokes and checking out the lady fish.
I gave Scott a tour of SeaLight, we had a drink, then I zipped them back across to Coconuts to pick up their vehicle. I then returned to the boat and did not leave for the remainder for the day. I made some calls – spoke to Ben and Kate in Bahamas, my buddy David Leng in Brantford, Ana and Stella, and later on that night had a long call with my bro Marty and caught up on all their news. I wrote for a while, did a bit of reading, then looked at “Exercise” on my daily list of things to do, and the twinge of guilt I felt propelled me to loop a scrap of rope over our solar arch, tie on one of the boat cleaning brushes, and do a few sets of desperate lifts on the jury-rigged pull-up bar. I thought for sure the stick would break and I’d plunge into the water, likely smashing a body part on the way down, but it held, and the only resulting injury will be some sore muscles tomorrow.
As sunset approached, I paddled over to see Cheyne and Marilyn on sailing vessel Herkee, and to invite them for a sundowner. These are the folks on the catamaran we met briefly when we first arrived at the anchorage. I apologized for not connecting with them sooner and explained that Ana was back in Canada for the week (hence, unwittingly and accidentally playing the coveted and foolproof “bachelor card”). They insisted I join them instead for drinks and dinner, and after a quick run back to the boat to grab my contribution of two sausages and a bottle of red, we enjoyed a long, slow, delicious dinner then an extended visit where we shared our various life histories. I introduced them to a game we invented in SeaLight’s cockpit this summer with our friends Greg and Sharon. Each person has ten minutes to tell the others their life history, from birth to now. Marilyn took a bit of prodding as she is quiet and proclaims herself an introvert, but once she got going, the stories flowed rapidly. Cheyne is a great talker so he had no problem filling the ten minutes, and I think he went into overtime for 70 minutes longer. They have an incredible shared history, full of surprises and globetrotting adventures. They’re on their fifth trip to Bahamas so gave me many tips and suggestions for our trip. I can’t wait for Ana to return so we can meet up with them again.
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