Week 1 in Fort Lauderdale, FL

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We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on October 20th, 2012 to a warm and sunny welcoming. Rob and Joan, Ross's South African aunt and uncle who have been living in Fort Lauderdale for 15 years, met us at the airport and took us to their home in Plantation, FL, which is about a 15 minute drive from the ocean. That evening, 2 of Rob and Joan's South African neighbors Maude and John came over for a braai, and we indulged in some delicious South African and American meats, drinks, and American football. The next day, after attempting a run in the humidity accompanied by enormous banana spiders and black racer snakes, Joan, Rob, and Jenna showed us down town Fort Lauderdale. We enjoyed some lunch and beverages at a pirate bar while doing some "yacht watching" on one of the canals, then headed back to Plantation.

The following week included day work on Carobelle for Claire and Perfect Harmony for Ross. Claire worked indoors on Monday and Tuesday at the Bradford Marina, cleaning the entire interior of the 9 year old 100 ft boat, which had been left in pretty shabby conditions since reaching port in Fort Lauderdale from Panama. Apparently, a completely unexperienced crew had been taken on in Panama that hadn't known how to take care of a yacht properly. The crew quarters looked like they had never been cleaned, and the bathrooms were another story! On Wednesday, Ross worked at the Hall of Fame Marina, which was also in the famous Fort Lauderdale boat show that Thursday through Monday. Ross's first 5 minutes were spent scrubbing the rim line of Perfect Harmony on a wooden plank which ended up sinking and resulted in Ross swimming to the dock and tugging the massive wooden raft and cleaning supplies behind him. Not an ideal situation when the surrounding yachts were full of experienced deckhands and captains preparing for the boat show!

Nonetheless, we both managed to gain some experience working on the yachts just in our first week, even before taking the yachting courses. We also attended the boat show on both Saturday and Sunday, handed out some snazzy, personalized business cards and resumes, and met some friendly captains, stews, and mates. The highlight of the boat show must have been handing out resumes to Diamonds Are Forever, the yacht in the James Bond movies. The deckhand we spoke with, Sean, actually went to Ross's highschool! What a small world!

Another highlight was on Sunday after the boatshow. We headed to the beach for some R & R (note: this does not refer to the preferred Mozambiquan drink rum and raspberry) despite the crazy wind and waves due to Hurricane Sandy. Ross ended up body surfing the crazy hurricane surf. The only living things swimming in the water with him were the massive teams of fish crashing into him as he battled the waves. Meanwhile, Claire lay on the beach worried that if his head disappeared it meant he had drowned.

This week Ross is taking his Power Boat course, and next week is the STCW course. Then it's go time, and we're going to work hard to secure a permanent placement on one of the yachts headed to the tropics this winter! Stay tuned for more stories!

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