Goodbye to Magnus

Fort Lauderdale – 4 kilometres walked, 110 kilometres driven

We said goodbye to our boy today and watched him walk into the Fort Lauderdale International Airport on his way to Edinburgh, Scotland for a semester abroad. He enjoyed his week with us and we would have loved him crewing to Bahamas, but he was ready to embark on his next solo adventure. We are so proud of his strong sense of independence and excited for him and all that he will learn, see, and do in the coming months. I hope those crazy Scots don’t overwhelm him with too much ale and whiskey. New country, new challenges.

 

The rest of the day was a series of chores preparing for our imminent departure to Bahamas – buying screen for the hatches, getting a new SUP paddle, updating our parking permit for a few more days, a bit of thrifting, snacks from Trader Joe’s, filling up the diesel cans, looking for a new “mini van” (portable carrier…ours is getting pretty beat up), picking up a portable generator for Ben and Kate, and dealing with the folks at RBC to figure out how to access our USD account from here (we can’t…need a new account and new card). Really, the only thing of interest I noticed all day was this weird little dog in Trader Joe’s that looked like it had been assembled with available parts from other dogs. It had one grey leg and one brown one and its left foot was pure white, except for a single toe which was black. Its face was all crooked, with one eye larger than the other, and one ear folded back while the other stood straight up like a British mohawk. Its back legs seemed a lot longer than the front ones so it resembled a mammalian dragster, but didn’t move nearly as fast and just hobbled around the store, tethered to its owners, who looked exceedingly average. Oh, and it had a tail like a cat.

 

The girls spent the day on their own at the beach, which was good as our busy schedule hasn’t provided much free space or time for them. Without motherly oversight, they applied sunscreen in strange strips and patches (where they did put it) so came back with streaks of red and scorched skin tattoos all over themselves. While they applied various salves and ointments, Ana and I inventoried our boat stores, consolidating items, removing packaging, tossing stale items, making lists, counting tins. We are now on hot standby for a weather window to the Bahamas and it looks like Monday might be the day, with spicy south winds which should provide a nice ride across the Gulf Stream.

 

I took the girls on a daring night water raid and we filled our four containers with thieved product from (what I now consider to be) the private/public tap across the street from the anchorage. Besides having less wily accomplices to pin the crime on in case the robbery got botched, I was also hoping the experience of carrying 63 pound water jugs across an insanely busy street and grassy park with land crab holes drilled all over it would encourage more economic water usage in the boat. I don’t know if it worked, but I do know they abandoned the jugs after reaching the park and make me carry them the rest of the way.