It was a busy time and lot of fun in Ft Lauderdale once again. On arrival, we cruised up the New River enjoying the sights of the fabulous riverfront houses and mansions. What a fun place to live if you can afford it. This time around it was a lot less intimidating transiting the New River as we were familiar with the current, bridge protocol and heavy traffic. We were met by Matt the dock master at our slip along the New River between 3rd Ave and Andrews Ave. We like this spot a lot. It is close to the marina office, is two short blocks from a great supermarket and right across the bridge from museums, cinemas, restaurants etc on Los Olas Blvd. After one day on the New River, we moved up the river to the Lauderdale Marine Center where we were scheduled to haul out the next morning.
LMC is a massive boatyard and marina. The boatyard services modest yachts on up to mega-yachts. Since Mirasol's beam is over 24 feet, we had to use the huge (and expensive) 300 Ton travel lift to get hauled out. It was fun to be surrounded by 100+ ft mega yachts all blocked up on the hard, all getting our bottoms cleaned and painted. While on the hard we had the bottom and saildrives cleaned and painted as well as the shaft seals on the saildrives replaced. The seals seemed to be in good shape, but given the cost and inconvenience of a haulout, we decided it was wise to replace them anyway. While the pros were dealing with the messy work of cleaning and painting the hulls, I took the opportunity to remove, clean and reinstall the transom rub rails which have been slowly working themselves loose.
Jen and I discussed doing the painting ourselves, but it didn't make much sense. We don't have the vacuums, sanders, ladders, and other materials required to remove the old paint and put on new. Plus, since boatyards and 4 year olds don't mix, Jen would be watching Quinn and unable to help with the work so it would have taken several days. Given the cost of renting the equipment we needed and the additional cost of lay days in the boatyard, hotel and rental car expenses, it was only a little more expensive to pay someone else to do it. Oh, and a lot more fun for someone else to do it too...
While the pros were working on the hull and I was working on the transom, Jen and Quinn went to see Shrek 4, visited a Children's museum and did some shopping. On the third day my work on Mirasol was finished and I took Quinn to the beach. Everything went well and we had no rain delays so Mirasol was splashed only three days after being hauled out. We motored back down the New River to our spot by Andrews Ave where we stayed for about two weeks.
While on the New River we took care of a lot of chores that needed done such as doctor appointments, cleaning, provisioning and maintenance. We also sampled some of the local restaurants and spent a wonderful day with our friends Brian, Shannon and Connor Hermann in their backyard. Conner is about a year younger than Quinn and they got along very well.
Maintenance items we accomplished while here include replacing the fresh water pump on the port engine, replacing coolant, thermostats, belts and raw water impellers on both engines, replacing the starboard engine's exhaust mixing elbow, clearing out a clogged head (what fun!), reprogramming a malfunctioning Raymarine ST70 instrument, and replacing the broken Raymarine VHF. Quinn got to visit another museum, a couple of parks and did a lot of bike riding. Maybe we'll take off the training wheels in Charleston.
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