2/17-2/26 M/Y FANTASEA...Fort Lauderdale to Miami

From Fort Lauderdale to St Thomas

Well, the generator needs more than a quick fix…

With the help of some great people and the shrinking of our wallets, we discovered that the back end of the generator needs rebuilding. It will get fixed in Fort Lauderdale and then we will figure out how to ship it to St Thomas. We met a great guy in the marina who lent us his truck to get groceries and supplies. While we were out shopping, I asked Brian what this nice man’s name was…he didn’t know. They just started chatting, he was from Boston, used the F word like it was “umm”, and lent us his truck. He offered his convertible Corvette, but we needed more room for supplies! Eventually, we learned his name was Dennis and he was a great addition to the adventure. We spent about a week at the marina waiting for word about loading the transport ship. While we waited, the generator was taken apart and hauled off the boat. The young man that was doing the heavy lifting and had the expertise needed said to Brian, "you are a lot more spry than you look". Brian wasn't sure whether to feel complimented or offended! I continued to see work and Brian kept getting things situated with the boat. There was a restaurant in the marina that was a great spot for dinner and watching boats come and go. We saw a yacht from Yarmouth, Maine leave as we were eating. It was a good place to wait for the official word about boarding the transport ship, but we were ready to leave the parking lot of yachts and the sounds of Fort Lauderdale Airport and Route 95!

Picture taken by Dennis

Our “Neighborhood” In The Marina

Checking Out The Sites In The Canal By The Marina

We were feeling pretty tiny maneuvering amongst the many yachts and boat traffic, but managed to scope out a cool place for lunch.

Port Everglades

The pictures just don’t do the feeling of awe coming into a busy, commercial port justice. We were instructed to move aside for a full cargo ship that was leaving the docking area that we were headed into. Everything seemed so enormous! Brian maneuvered our boat up alongside OSLO 9 (the transport ship) and we felt even smaller. We scrambled around to finish tying down the last few things, closing through-hulls, and shutting down all the systems. Everything on the boat had to be secured. We had things taped shut, tied down, and squeezed into corners to keep everything safe during transit. It was tense but so exhilarating! There was a tender waiting to take us ashore where we then got an Uber and headed to Miami for the night. USVI, here we come!

In the 3rd piciture you can see the diver is on the swim platform ready to jump in to set the straps

Miami

We spent one night in Miami before we boarded our flight to St Thomas. We hit the pool as soon as checked in, explored a cool immersive art show, worked a few hours in the morning, and off we went to wait for the boat to arrive.