Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day1)

Vendors meeting deadlines and submersible docks

The trip to help move of friends Leopard 45 from Jacksonville to Ft. Lauderdale started with a flight down to Punta Gorda Airport.  We left the ground in Raleigh just in time to avoid the early AM thunderstorms that were forecast to become possible PM tornadoes.

When we landed at PGD airport, Bob was already waiting in baggage claim to pick Sue and I up (which was super nice).  We then went to do perishable provisioning for the trip and divided and conquered the shopping list.  As we were driving to the Burnt Store Marina, Bob warned us that there were a number of people on the boat, trying to get things like their vinyl enclosures and cushions squared away before they departed.  They had been promised that everything would be done by that Friday.  They got close to completing on time.

SV Counting Stars at the Burst Store Marina

Our cabin (Port Aft)

On the plus side, the folks working on the boat, especially those working on the canvas (American Yacht Outfitters) did really nice work.

At some point in the day, we did a little route planing by looking at the weather and by using the route planning in the PredictWind app.  After Sunday evening, the wind turned foul for our trip up the outside of the Keys, so we all agreed that the first plan would be to try to sail as long as we could, hoping to leave by 10am Saturday and arrive in Marathon on Sunday around 6pm.

Bob and Melinda had been using a rental car while there and I helped Bob drop it off with the added help of a friend of their's Mini Cooper to which they were given access.  The line of storms that we missed on the way out extended all the way into Southern Florida, and they didn't miss us on the second attempt. As we were driving back from returning the rental, the skies were getting darker and louder.  We called the rest of our group still at the boat and figured out an early dinner plan to meet at the Marina restaurant.

We got over to the restaurant just before the skies opened up and the westerly wind started kicking up, a lot.  So much so that the fixed docks at this marina were underwater at the peak of the storm.  Andy (he's a 2020 Leopard 45 owner, that we met at the Miami Boat Show when we met Bob and Melinda) had jogged back to the dock to help Bob secure the boat from the high winds and the flood current that was now pouring into the marina at a visually noticeably rate.

They arrived back at the restaurant, with one or two dry spots between the two of them after they were happy with how Counting Stars was situated.  Dinner was actually very good, though our waiter could not remember things like who got the margarita with salt and without, who got the steak sandwich with mushrooms and who without.  These were very serious first world problems.

At any rate, we returned to the boat and soon after the folks from American Yacht Outfitters returned with some very cool "Transom-handles-turned-Transom Steps" and some panels to finish up the enclosure.  I ended up staying out in the cockpit watching and helping for a while (actually, yes helping, I was even thanked the next day when we saw them again!)

After they were all squared away, we all turned in, ready for our big sail the next day!