More Adventures in and Around Fort Lauderdale

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The past few weeks here in Florida seem to have flown by. Our days consist of e-mailing and calling captains and boat owners with resumes, biking around town visiting different docks, and beginning our yachting courses. Our nights are spent networking with yachties at local pubs and restaurants, and indulging in Joan's fantastic cooking.

Last week literally started out with a bang. Ross and Claire decided to head out on their bikes early on Monday to visit the docks. While passing into the shade under an overpass on Broward Boulevard a few blocks from Joan and Rob's place, Claire was caught unaware when the curb on the edge of the sidewalk suddenly raised up. She was riding on the edge of the sidewalk to avoid hitting a telephone pole, and was temporarily blinded by the sun so she didn't see the massive cement block. She ended up banging into the barrier and being thrown off her bike. Fortunately, she did not hit her head, but ended up wounding her arms, leg, and thumb pretty badly. Then, while walking back to Joan and Rob's, she gave Ross a bit of a fright when she went into minor shock! Joan, who happens to be a nurse, cleaned her up very well, however, and Ross and Claire decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. She has some pretty gnarly bruises, but no permanent damage!

On Wednesday, after Devan kindly brought Claire to an interview in Hollywood, FL for a tutoring position that she applied for on Craigslist which ended up being a scam, the three of them took a little trip to 15th Street Fisheries to check out the tarpon feeding. There were some beautiful boats docked there but unfortunately it wasn't the right time of day to spot many tarpon because the water in the shade. It's so cool how the water here, whether it's the ocean or the intercoastals, are so alive with an abundance of fish! And there is SO much water here. Fort Lauderdale is known as the "Venice of the US." Ross is very eager to get on a fishing boat as soon as possible to cast some lines. Anyways, Ross, Devan, and Claire had a few cold beverages at the fishery restaurant right on the water before heading back to the Heathfield's. That night there was a Halloween party at a bar called TAP 42 where a lot of yachties hang out. Ross's friend Pierce who has been living and working in West Palm Beach was down for the day, so he joined us for that event.

Ross became certified in running and operating a motorboat up to 30 feet on Thursday and Friday of last week, which ended up being slightly more difficult than he had originally thought it would be.It's a bit different than driving a car! But they didn't flunk him so all was well! Over the weekend, Ross and Claire hit up Miami on Friday with Jenna for one of her friend's birthday celebrations, and then on Saturday afternoon Ross and Claire took the Tri-Rail up to West Palm Beach to celebrate Pierce's birthday with his girlfriend Kirsten and a bunch of their friends. West Palm Beach is a beautiful town slightly smaller than Fort Lauderdale with an awesome downtown area on a street called Clematis. Pierce picked us up from the train station and showed us the Rybovitch Marina which has luxory crew quarters which include a fancy gym, pool, and restaurant. All the amenities were designed specifically for crew, so there were a lot of young people about. That night we ate at a French restaurant called Pistache, and Ross and Claire both had delicious "moules frites." All in all it was a fantastic weekend spent with some cool new friends, and both Ross and Claire are completely sold on West Palm Beach and hope to get an apartment up there after they have been working on the yachts for a bit!

Tomorrow we start our STCW course which will last until Friday. The STCW involves basic boat safety training, and I'm sure we will have more stories from that when we finish! Then it's head first into the job hunt so we can hopefully seal up some permanent positions by the end of November.

That's all for now! Hope all is well with everyone around the world. We're sending lots of love to our friends and families!

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Comments

[Dany]

Hello
Hey Claire - glad you're ok after your bike accident!