Dania Beach, FL
After vacation, relaxation and celebration we came back to the boat with pressure to make miles. We had to make it to the boatyard by January 15th for a complete repower – also known as replacing our engines.
We bought our boat knowing that the engines were towards the end of their lives and their quirks were definitely showing. Tyler can give more detail of the ins and outs of oil changes and other issues, but one notable bit of personality was how we turned them off.
Most marine engines have a button or a key to shut off from the helm, but with our original engines every time we turned them off we had to crawl into the engine rooms and manually shut them off. It was a colorful act of contortion every time we stopped the engines for the first few months of ownership.
We spent January in the boatyard with about a week of our boat on the hard, which is the term for when a boat is out of the water completely. On the hard, the boat is posted up in a parking lot essentially on stilts so you need a ladder to get in and out and we couldn’t stay overnight on the boat.
The best word to describe the yard is chaotic. There are lots of large boats, large pieces of machinery and large teams of technicians buzzing about. Every owner wants their work done as fast as possible and as cheaply as possible with the highest quality and we were no exception. Our project manager however was much more interested in shooting the shit than managing our project so it was an uphill battle to get the work done.
On reflection, we both agreed if we did it again we’d rather put more money upfront than buy a boat that we know needs significant work. The yard takes a toll, financially and emotionally.
In addition to the new engines and saildrives, we also added a lot of personality for the boat in the yard. I ordered themed decor for the cabins and finally updated our name and decal to make it officially Felix. We went out to lunch at a tiki bar right after my disco pineapple arrived so I was able to indulge in a bring-your-own-pineapple meal out.
Dunedin, FL *by plane and car
As a major silver lining of our time in the yard, we got to visit my parents in Dunedin. I flew across Florida first to get some time with my mom. We explored the adorable town and went for beach walks with our sweet family pup Stella. Tyler rented a car and met me there a few days later after my dad had arrived as well. We spent lovely time with my parents, reunited with my aunt and cousins, and enjoyed beautiful waterfront sunsets (from the comfort of a couch).
Dania Beach & Miami, FL
We drove back to the yard after our Dunedin visit and stuck around until they wrapped up the work. We knew there’d be some kinks to work out to test the new engines and other updates to the boat. One key piece was a fix for a crack in our windlass, which is what we used to raise and lower our anchor. The windlass is a very important functional and safety feature and lo and behold, the first patch job wasn’t the final.
We referred to this time as our shakeout cruise – testing all the changes and new parts on the boat to shake out any issues before heading to the Bahamas. We expected we’d return to the yard for another pass at some of the work, but we set off from Dania Beach down to Miami at sunset.
When we arrived in Miami we anchored off Key Biscayne. We saw gorgeous sunsets, ate delicious Miami food and enjoyed time with my cousin Cameron and his partner Brooke. The four of us went out to dinner and music one night and they joined us for a day of sailing out on the bay.
The weather for their day aboard was overcast and chilly for Miami, but we did have wind to sail! It was more of an active hands on deck sail than a chill cruise. Cameron joined working the winches as we tacked up the bay. We really enjoyed hosting them for the day and were especially grateful that they picked up our grocery order on the way over.
We narrowed in on our list of final fixes for the boatyard at the end of January and traveled back up to Dania Beach for a couple days to finish the work. The windlass needed another fix, the engine alarms were going off regularly and we wanted to pick up the new salon cushions we had just had replaced. Our salon couch is the center for everything – living room, office, dining room – so we were looking forward to fresh cushions.
Once the last round of work was done at the boatyard we headed back to our anchorage on Key Biscayne to prepare for the Bahamas!
