Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 31 – Happy New Year!

Fort Lauderdale – 8 kilometres walked, 10 metres swum, 52 kilometres driven

Nothing starts a day better than a trip to Sailorman. Magnus and I picked up Corey and we drove to the huge consignment store in search of boat goodies. Corey was looking to build a cockpit arch for a solar array and I was picked up a few small items – wooden dowels, dive knife, cupboard latch, but didn’t find a good deal on a fishing gaff so would have to keep looking. As we were browsing, one of staff members approached us with a pitcher and cups.

 

“You guys like some fresh home-made eggnog? It’s loaded with rum.”

 

“Yes please!” Cory and I said in unison. Magnus grimaced – not a huge egg nog fan. It was rummy, foamy, and delicious.

 

We moved onto the Boat Owner’s Warehouse and I picked up a spare spark plug for my generator and the boys took advantage of the free coffee station. Next was a stop to fill up our spare diesel and gas cans, then a fishing store where the super cool owner took us under his wing and crafted a cedar plug fishing lure for each of us, found us some simple hooks for reef fishing, and sold me an $8 hook I could use to make my own low cost gaff instead of spending fifty bucks on a new one. He also gave us two important tips on cruising the Bahamas:

 

1.     Eyes are everywhere. Stay on watch at night. Lock anything you don’t want to lose. People will come on your boat to steal things when you are not there. Use a buddy boat system.

2.     If you catch more fish than you can eat you can trade with locals for other food.

 

We then dropped by the marina office to pick up a parking pass, which gives us a permit to park on the street right beside the anchorage park instead of in the residential neighbourhood. Once back at the anchorage we swapped spots with the girls, including Marie and Alice, and they drove to Delray Beach for shopping and beach gawking while we did a few boat jobs – transferred the diesel from the cans into the boat, installed a cabinet latch for the electrical panel, and made ourselves a super deadly fish gaff with a nice maple dowel Corey gave to us. Once the work was done we walked with Corey and his friend Justin to the beach and got a bit of sun, a bit of rain, listened to some tunes, and I went for a quick swim in the surprisingly flat waters.

 

Back at the boat I whipped up a New Year’s Eve dinner for us of crab cakes, shrimp pasta, coleslaw, and fresh bread. We had an excellent slow meal in the cockpit, a champagne toast to 2025, then left around 9:30 to see what we could find happening in Fort Lauderdale. As expected, the city was exploding with activity. Restaurants with fancied up dudes and ladies, bars with heavy beats pumping out into the street, delicious smells, flashing lights. We saw women wearing outrageous outfits – tight tops with bursting cleavage, skin-tight dresses, skirts, and leather pants, jumpsuits, hot pants. One girl was wearing a golden bikini…and nothing else. The outfits got trashier the closer we got to Esplanade Park, for the midnight anchor drop, DJs, and live band. It was pure madness. My body was being vibrated with deep bass from powerful speakers in all directions, from the two stages, from the bars, from the clubs, resulting in a jumble of nonsensical sound. The crowd got rougher, with gangsta types, drunk people, hooligans, messy party girls, thousands of hooters and hollerers. Ana checked her phone around 10:30 as we were expecting a message from Cory, Marie and their gang, but nothing yet. It was still a ways from midnight, and we were not feeling entirely comfortable in that scene, and I hate to admit it, but both Ana and I we were thinking of the US massacres in recent years that happened in crowded places, with a sniper on the roof spraying AR-15 bullets through random, innocent people. This felt like just the sort of place where something like this could happen.

 

We left, and walked back towards Las Olas, taking our time, looking for just the right place. Ana and Anna were holding hands as they walked, having fun. A well-liquified couple walked towards us. The woman pointed to Ana and said, “Look! I want to hold hands with a girl just like that!” I agreed. My wife was looking especially beautiful this evening.

Then, Stella found it. A small pizza joint with plastic chairs and tables on a patio, with two checkered-shirt Mexican gents playing guitar and keyboard. We sat down and ordered drinks. The music was great. We watched the evening partiers walking back and forth, laughing, being silly. Ana ordered a margherita pizza for us to share. It was getting close to midnight when the staff began handing out party hats and noisemakers to the customers. There was no countdown. There was no heady anticipation. The owner simply walked onto the patio and said, “Happy New Year!” It was fantastic! We hugged and kissed and Ana told the kids how happy we were that we were all here together.

 

We left wearing our fancy hats and Stella and Anna blew their party horns all the way back to the boat, increasingly irritating Magnus who was New Year’d out and ready for bed. During the dinghy ride back, Stella blew an especially loud one and Magnus bent her party horn in half.

 

“You Scrooge!” said Anna. Then started chanting, “Scrooge McDuck! Scrooge McDuck! Scrooge McDuck.” We all joined in. Magnus laughed.

 

And that’s how we spent the last day of a very, very fine 2024.