On Saturday, October 23, 1999, Angela and I, accompanied by my son, Chuck, and his wife, Marina, flew to Ft Lauderdale for a week in the Keys.  We rented a car to be able to get our luggage to the boat, buy groceries, and see some of the area by car.  We did drive by the Bahia Mar Marina, where the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show would be held the next weekend.

     Our dock landlords, Brad and Helen, were out of town.  The boat seemed to be in good shape-the refrigerator was still working.  However, the salon air conditioner was off; and there was a stain (mildew?) on one of the salon curtains.  The boat cleaning service did not come to clean the boat as they had promised.  It was hot, and we unloaded the car and went shopping.

     The local Wal-Mart was not close by, so we tried the local K-Mart, but they did not have oil for our diesels.  They did have propane for the grill, which we purchased.  We drove to the grocery store and bought groceries and stowed them in the boat.  We drove to the South end of Miami Beach and ate stone crabs at Monty’s (expensive).  We drove up Miami Beach and saw the sights, as this was the first time to this area for Chuck and Marina.  (You may know Marina came here from Kyrgyzstan, formerly in the USSR, and married Chuck in 1998.)  Five cruise ships were in the port at Miami.  The weather was pleasant-warm and clear, with a cool breeze.

Ft Lauderdale, FL to Miami, FL, Sunday, October 24, 1999

     On Sunday I got up first and drove the rental car back to the airport.  The nice young lady at Enterprise gave me a ride back to the boat.  Then we discovered the water leak under the sink in the forward head.  A couple of the plastic fittings had cracked and broken.  Chuck volunteered to walk to the BOAT US store about 9 blocks away.  They couldn’t help him.  He called West Marine; same answer.  We would have bought oil for the diesels there, but they only had 7 gallons.  Chuck would have bought those seven, but he couldn’t get a taxi to come pick him up.

     We made a jury-rig repair which allowed us to use the water everywhere except the forward head, which could be lubricated with water via a plastic cup kept by the sink.  We made other adjustments and pulled out about 12:30pm.  The 11^th Avenue Bridge opened electrically instead of manually; we wondered if the mechanical openings we had seen had been temporary or if the bridge had been modernized.  The ride down the river was typical of our previous trips; the houses and boats were impressive.

     At the ICW we turned south and proceeded past the Marriott and the Hyatt Pier 66 and under the 17^th Avenue Causeway Bridge.  More than usual very large boats in that area signaled the preparations for the boat show.  At least 4 cruise ships were in the Port Everglades harbor.  We turned east and went to the Atlantic Ocean through the channel.

     The day was perfect for a short run on the ocean.  We had worried about Marina, because she was not tolerant of the boat when ‘it moved’, but she seemed to enjoy the run as much as anyone.  She and Chuck had just announced she was pregnant, and we hoped that would not make it worse for her.

     The starboard tachometer quit, again, after only a couple of hours after replacing that little shaft for the umpteenth time.  Also, the depth indicator malfunctioned.  We observed our depth dropping, when there was no reason for it to go down.  It settled on 2.6 feet, after reading 125 feet.  We turned it off and back on, with no change.

     We saw Ft Lauderdale from the ocean, as well as Hallandale and Hollywood and    
 
the other communities on the way to Miami.  Miami Beach was beautiful, and we turned into Government Cut with Fisher Island on our left and a stunning new condo building (50-60 stories) on our right.  At least 5 cruise ships were tied up along the docks on our left.  The depth indicator started working again.

     At the end of Dodge Island, where the cruise terminals are located, we turned left and went under the new bridge connecting the island to downtown Miami, then turned right into the Miamarina.  A shopping complex called Bayside was on three sides of the marina, including restaurants like The Hard Rock Café and Dick’s Last Resort.  The marina was operated by the City of Miami, charged $1 per foot per night, and had no fuel dock.

     We arrived about 3:30pm, and after changing clothes, we walked through the shops and listened to the different kinds of music being played.  We ate some seafood at an outdoors restaurant and celebrated Chuck and Marina’s one-year wedding anniversary.  There were sightseeing boats coming and going, and a live band cranked up in the main outdoor concert area.  The crowd was primarily Hispanic, but Marina and Chuck threw in a little Russian to make it interesting.  Thank goodness Angela could speak Spanish or we might not have gotten our dinner at all.  The waiter had only started work the previous day.

     We estimated mileage for the day at 40; running hours were only 3.

Miami, FL to Key Largo, FL, Monday, October 25, 1999

     On Monday we got off to a slow start.  At 7:30am the skies were dark and rain seemed certain.  Although it never did rain, and the skies did clear, the winds from the NE and E were 15-20 knots, with gusts at 20-25 knots.  Of course, we wanted to go down the Hawk Channel to get to our marina and the best diving areas.  The Hawk Channel is on the ocean side of the keys and is somewhat protected by the fringing reefs further out, with the Atlantic on the other side.  Waves were reported to be 6-8 feet outside the reef, and 3 feet inside.

     We left the marina at 11:30am, and slowly motored south by some of the most impressive real           

estate anywhere.  The Miami River intersected the ICW on our right, as was Coconut Grove, where the City Hall for Miami is located.  We had a little trouble finding the Biscayne Channel; there were lots of markers in that area.  I was a little nervous there, too.  There are channels 18-20 feet deep, right next to flats of less than one foot.  At the east end of the Biscayne Channel, there was a collection of stilt houses-no land, just a dozen or so houses on stilts.

     The Hawk Channel then curved to the right.  The NE wind changed from head-on the bow to on the port quarter.  The waves were high; one trawler turned around and came back in saying they had experienced six-foot seas.  We pressed on, of course.  I was trying to locate markers on the charts and on the GPS chartplotter, and the autopilot was steering.  It could not react quickly enough, so we were swinging wildly from left to right.  Angela took over the wheel, and I worked on the navigation.  Marina was sick, and Chuck tried to take care of her and everything else.

     We had waves hitting the bow and the port quarter, and the waves splashed up to the front and side windows and even covered the bimini top.  It did get better, but not before showing us all of the leaks in the port side of the boat, basically all the windows.  Papers, books, videos, and all items stored in or near the windows got wet; and the violent motion also tossed items into the floor.  I lost my Cross pen, which was not unusual for me. I thought it was under some of the stuff that got thrown around.

     The water was a pretty, light green; but it was not clear and there was a lot of grass in it.  There were even a few logs, which surprised me.  We certainly have them in Texas, with all our creeks and rivers, but that area was just offshore of the Keys.

     In retrospect, the stain on the curtain on the port side was probably the result of water coming in the windows there during Hurricane Irene a few days earlier, and/or other rains since we departed the area.  (The air conditioner being off made the situation worse, since the a/c would have tended to dry up the leaks.)  We had other rains on this trip, and several of those windows leaked right away, where they had not in the past.  Time for some caulking of windows.  Also, the middle bilge pump quit.  When the light on the instrument panel stayed on, I went to the bilge to see if the float switch was stuck, but found the pump would not run.

     We pulled into Key Largo Harbor Marina after 4 hours running; estimated mileage was 50 miles.  Our slip was located at the Ramada Inn, and the people there were really friendly.  The Key Largo Marina, Port Largo, and Key Largo Harbour also seemed to mean the same organization.  There had been some recent consolidation, including the Holiday Inn and the Ramada.  We cleaned and dried the insides of the boat and rinsed the outside to get the salt off.  We walked around and talked to the dive shop about the snorkeling and diving, not good due to high winds.

      Since Key West was 100 miles away, and since the day had been so rough, we considered staying in that area rather than going any further down the Keys.  Most of the coral was in that area, anyway.  And we did not have time to go to Key West and the Dry Tortugas, as we want to do sometime, on that trip and still make the boat show.  Returning from Key West in that heavy chop would have been unpleasant, and the ICW channel is slower and shallower.

     The marina complex included the Ramada and the Holiday Inn, three pools, a fitness room, a couple of restaurants, etc.  We checked them out and went into the water sports store in the mall next door.  Angela and Marina cooked a good meal for us.  We played a board game called “ Sequence” and discussed politics before turning in for the night.

Exploring the Key Largo area, Tuesday October 26, 1999

     Marina wanted to visit a beach, so we set out looking for one.  There are not a lot of beaches in the Keys.  We sought local advice and went out of the marina complex and south to Harris Park, which turned out to be closed for some construction or maintenance work.  A barrier of rocks and large pieces of coral separated the beach from the Atlantic, so it was not exactly what we were looking for anyway.  Also, it was small.  We tried to anchor there and did not succeed; the bottom was rocky and we did not find a purchase.

     We then motored north to Largo Sound, home of John Pennekamp State Park.  We followed the winding South Sound Creek into the lake, where we read a sign on a day marker advising us to contact a park ranger for a mooring.  Our radio call was answered by the park dive shop; we should anchor and come into the beach by dinghy.  Outboard motors were not allowed in the beach area.  We saw the large SPIRIT OF PENNEKAMP tour boat (28’ beam) coming up the creek behind us, and it turned into a channel that led to the park headquarters.  We decided to do that as well and try and find an interesting marine laboratory mentioned in our cruise-guide book.

     When we got into the turning basin by park headquarters, we could find no place to tie up.  We still could not raise the park ranger on the radio.  The dive shop said they functioned as harbormaster, and we could use one of the park moorings for no charge for a few hours.  We went back out into the lake and picked up a mooring.  We dropped the dinghy and went exploring.

     The guidebook said there was a Marvin D Adams Canal, carved out of the coral these islands were built on, which allowed small boats to get to the other side of the key, the ICW side.  The opportunities to “cross over” are rare for big boats, anyway, and this one looked interesting and close to us.  Along the way was Koblics Marine Center, where we might learn of the marine laboratory.  All four of us took the dinghy to Koblics, slowly.  The high-pressure ridge sitting over Florida for most of that week created strong NE winds, which kicked up a chop with whitecaps in the bays and offshore waters.

     We found out the marine laboratory mentioned in our book was a figment of someone’s imagination.  It didn’t exist.  But the Jules Underwater Lodge, where overnight guests enter via scuba gear, was indeed real and also nearby.  So, we dinghied into that area and saw the Jules Lodge.  It was not a Hyatt.  Interesting, yes; but I doubt anyone in that crowd would try to stay there.

     We dinghied to the canal, called ‘the cut” by locals; and it was very interesting.  At the western end the exposed coral was 6-8 feet high, and the whitecaps in the bay on the west side of the island were worse than they were on ‘our side’.  We went back to the boat, picked up the dinghy, and motored back to the marina.

     Total miles for the day were about 20; engine hours were 3.  The generator tried to save us some fuel; while we were out in the dinghy, it shut itself off.  We swam a little in the hotel pool and ate on board.

Drive to Key West, FL, Wednesday, October 27, 1999

     Since the winds were keeping us from going diving and snorkeling, as we had planned to do, we decided to rent a car and drive to Key West.  None of us had ever been there, so we were very interested in seeing the area.  We left at 11:30am and arrived at 1:30pm.  It was a drive of about 100 miles.

     The Overseas Highway from Key West to the mainland is about 128 miles long.  Based on my own preconceptions, I expected many long bridges and four-lane roadways.  The reality was mostly two lanes with mangroves between us and the water, which was pretty when you could see it.  The speed limits varied up and down from 35 to 55 mph.  The islands were so close together that the bridges tended to be short, although there are a few long ones.

     The annual Fantasy Fest was going on, and we were a little apprehensive about parking, traffic, crowds, etc; but all that worked out well.  We went to the Historic Seaport area and parked in a garage.  We ate at a restaurant called Turtle Kraals, on the water; we don’t recommend it.  We walked along the waterfront and eventually arrived at Mallory Square.  We toured Mel Fisher’s museum about searching for underwater shipwrecks and the treasures therein.

     We were too late in the day to tour all the interesting places we wanted to see.  We walked a lot, and we saw a beautiful area of old and new homes
in Truman Annex, on Emma and Front Streets.  Some were private homes and some were rentals, apparently; but the whole area was immaculate-just the way I like it.

     The buoy-put-on-land to mark the Southernmost Point in the Continental USA was a photo stop, as was Hemmingway’s house.  We bought a few souvenirs, of course; and we did see a few unusual, liberated people in different forms of clothing.  We spent a little time at Mallory Square; that’s the area where people gather to watch the sunsets that are famous in Key West.  A variety of musicians and other “entertainers” set up their instruments, of different kinds, to show off their skills while people are gathered there for the sunset, with collection boxes set out front for tips, etc.

     Our trip back began about 6:30pm, and we stopped in Marathon for dinner.  The hotel restaurant at Hawk’s Cay Resort was very good, expensive, and Italian.  The air-conditioning was so cold inside that most patrons elected to eat on the patio, as we did.  The resort was very nice, with pools and a private bay overlooking the Atlantic.  We arrived back at the boat about 11pm and promptly turned in.

Snorkeling and Diving, Thursday, October 28, 1999

     The high winds from the northeast had thus far prevented us from doing the main thing we thought we would be doing in this area-snorkeling and diving.  The John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is 21 miles long and contains, as I understand it, most or all of the coral reefs in the Keys.  The often-photographed underwater statue of the Christ of the Abyss was out there in one of those dive sites just waiting for us to see it.

     Thursday dawned with a clear sky, then a blue sky; and our dive trip was planned.  The dive operator promised one-foot seas and underwater visibility of 30-35 feet.  We debated going north to Key Biscayne and a nice beach, but decided to go for the adventure.  One pm was the departure hour.  We were ready and on the boat well before then.

     The boat was 65 feet in length, with a crew of only two plus a dive instructor who had some students to tend to.  The surface drives threw up a spray in the after half of the boat, but it was not too rough on the 30-40 minute run to the reef.  Once we picked up a mooring, the waves had increased; and they got worse all afternoon. There were 9 snorkelers and 8 divers on board.

     We were surprised to find that no dive master or leader would accompany us; we were used to following a dive master down and through the formations there.  They told us to dive and look up and keep the boat in sight.  This did not seem possible or practical based on our prior experience, so we started out with an attitude of “how are we going to do this?”  We stepped off the back of the boat more than a little nervous, and had trouble sinking under the surface, which was somewhat typical, especially for Angela.  As we struggled at or on the surface, we drifted away from the boat, which was pitching and swaying upwind of us.  The crew indicated we should swim towards them, which we did.  I think Angela was worried about me and I was worried about her; neither of us were strong swimmers.

     Both of us experienced hyperventilation, and the crewman had to swim out to me and pull me back to the boat.  Angela pulled herself in on the rope trailing behind the boat.  My feeling was I could not get enough air through the regulator, so I kept taking it out of my mouth, which meant I swallowed a lot of salt water, which increased my sense of not getting enough air.  (I had been having trouble breathing on dry land; in the water it was worse, especially when swallowing salt water.)

     Once on the swim platform, we eventually calmed down and regained our color and our strength.  After seeing us in action, Marina was reluctant to enter the water.  Chuck got in and did fine, but he said he had to swim hard to stay near the boat.  Marina did get into the water and did fine, but the visibility was so poor, nothing could be seen in the water.  Some people said it was 4-7 feet.

     The next dive site was a few hundred yards ahead; we didn’t go in the water since conditions were no different.  We were shaken up by the experience.  Our diving experience was limited, including diving 10 times over 5 days at Cozumel, in Mexico, which was so nice.  This was much more expensive, and the water was rough.  Several people on the boat became sick at their stomach, including, unfortunately, Marina.  The dive masters at Cozumel had spoiled us for the kind of service they provided.  Service at this dive shop was limited, although I did appreciate getting towed in to the boat.  The weather report at 4:30pm called for a Small Craft Advisory in our area, definitely not 1-foot seas!

     We got back to our boat at 4:45pm and found the harbor master there waiting for us.  Due to some scheduling problem of theirs, we needed to move to a different slip.  So we did, and began experiencing problems with the electricity supply.  We rinsed our gear and our bodies and ate on board, listening to rain showers outside the boat all evening.  I believe it rained every night and most days on this trip.

     Looking east from Key Largo, it appeared that you were looking at the Atlantic Ocean, and that’s what it was, except there was a reef out there you don’t see.  The reef was parallel to the keys and generally underwater, sometimes more or less than others.  There were large and infrequent towers with lights on them to warn you of the reef, but navigating in those waters without charts would be suicide.  Even between the reef and the key (island) there were very shallow spots and additional reefs.  My impression was that was a dangerous area for boaters.  Since the diving was done at the reefs, I would only want to try it again on a calm day when I felt my own condition was in top form.  The combination of high winds, rough seas, strong currents, and somewhat less than the best of physical condition made the dive trip unsuccessful.  It also made visibility very poor; even though the water was pretty, it was not clear (Panama City was the same way).

Key Largo, FL to Ft Lauderdale, FL, Friday, October 29, 1999

     The fuel dock didn’t open until 8am, and we were there at 7:40am.  It is usually a good rule to fill up at night, so you can leave whenever you want to.  We have been delayed by an electrical storm on one trip; we had to wait for the electricity to be restored before they could pump fuel.

     I went into the bilge with a light and removed the middle bilge pump.  It would pump when it was removed from its base, so I worked with it to remove the obstructions and got it to work normally.

     After buying our first fuel of the trip, we headed up Hawk Channel toward the north.  The winds were reported on the radio to be 14-21 knots from the NE, with gusts to 24-28 knots, which was probably the windiest day of the trip.  I had very little information about crossing over to the ICW, and what I had made me nervous, ie, “very narrow channel”, “4-foot controlling depth”, etc.  That’s why we came down the Hawk Channel in the first place.  But that chop was rough and would no doubt get rougher as the day progressed, so we turned into Angelfish Creek to get to the more-protected ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).  Even so, we had to travel almost 2 miles in the Hawk Channel to get to Angelfish Creek.

     The channel was narrow to start, but we made it fine.  The ICW side was more difficult to navigate because there were some shallow spots and reefs to pass through, but the markers were there and led us through.  As we got further up into Biscayne Bay, we came to the area where we had gone out through the Biscayne Channel four days earlier.

     There were high-rise condos on our right, on Key Biscayne, and on our left, at Coconut Grove and points further south.  And, we saw the beautiful Miami skyline directly in front of us; it was very pretty.  We ran inside all the way to Ft Lauderdale, so we saw waterway that none of us had seen before.  And we made better time, in spite of the slow zones from Haulover Inlet to Ft Lauderdale.  The winds did pick up, and it was windy for the next three days.

     Having been to Miami a number of times on business, I always wanted to ride a boat on that pretty bay just offshore of the Biscayne Marriott, for example; and now we had done it.  What I didn’t know then is the water depth outside the ICW channel is about 1-2 feet deep; what a surprise!

     We cleared most of the bridges with our antennas down, but the 16’ clearance at the Bay Harbor Islands Bridge was too low for us.  That bridge operates on a restricted schedule all the time, as opposed to some are only restricted on weekends and/or during the November-April tourist season.  That bridge delayed us a few minutes, but was not too bad.

     On arriving at Ft Lauderdale, Marina was feeling better; we stopped to fuel up so the boat would be full while we returned home.  The Pier 66 Marina had shut their marina down to make room for hundreds of boats for the boat show, which had started on Thursday.  Across the way was the Lauderdale Marina, where we filled up; prices at both places were up about 20 cents per gallon since we last filled up there.

     We motored up the ICW to see the Bahia Mar Marina, where most of the showboats were, and the Swimming Hall of Fame Marina, and the Municipal Marina.  It was a stunning picture, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of boats sitting side-by-side.  The longest was about 200 feet, but there were so many boats, I doubt any one person could see them all in the full four days of the show.  A 112-foot Westport we toured the following day was priced at $7.5 million, for example.

     By 4:30pm we were tied up at our temporary home on the North Fork of the New River, and we were glad to be there.  It had been a windy trip, but we had done and seen everything we had wanted to.  Some had not worked out as well as we would have liked, but all in all we enjoyed the experiences.

Ft Lauderdale International Boat Show, Saturday, October 30, 1999

     It was hard to get a taxicab in the part of town where we were, because of the boat show, and also because the drivers did not like our part of town, we found out.  Although that neighborhood, Sailboat Bend, was historic and artsy, across Broward Blvd was one of the city’s ghettos, we were told.  Anyway, due to a mistake on the part of the dispatcher, we were finally able to get a taxi to the Bahia Mar Marina complex for the boat show.  A broker friend had left tickets for us, which normally sold for $12 each.  We toured the show until about 7pm and then had dinner at a restaurant on the beach.  Chuck and Marina took off a couple of hours to go to the beach in the afternoon.  We taxied back to the boat after dinner and made preparations for their flight home the next day.

     We read later that there were over 100,000 visitors to the show.  There was over $1 billion worth of boats on display.

Ft Lauderdale International Boat Show, Sunday, October 31, 1999

     After I had been up and cooked breakfast and got Chuck and Marina and Angela up, we realized no one had remembered to set their watch or clock back one hour, so we were early.  That was good, since the heavy rain of the previous night had soaked the port side counter tops again.  We had time to remove and dry everything, and to renew our resolve to get some caulking done before we left town.  Caulking does not last forever; it needs to be redone periodically.

     The previous night I had called a taxi driver we had known for a couple of months, and he agreed to pick us up at 8:30am.  Since he was usually early, when he didn’t show up by 8:35am, we figured he wasn’t coming and called Yellow Cab.  They could not get a cab to us, so I asked our landlord for a ride, and he got us over there in about eight minutes.  Chuck and Marina made the plane and got home as scheduled.

     Angela and I had a coffee at the airport and caught a taxi to the Broward County Convention Center, just in time for the formal opening at 10am.  That taxi driver said they were very busy due to the boat show and cruise ships in the port.  I know all the car rental companies had been sold out for weeks.

     We toured the third floor booths at the Convention Center and learned some very interesting information about several subjects.  Also, we met and briefly chatted with our friends, John and Marion, from Oceans Spring, MS, who had been on their trawler at Panama City when we were there in July.

     We had lunch and took the shuttle bus to Bahia Mar.  It rained on and off all day.  We saw most of the boats I was interested in.  Glendinning had a booth there, so I was able to get some good advice on how to repair our engine synchronizer.  Boat prices had gone up, in my opinion, dramatically since our last boat show.  Apparently people were buying so fast and furious the builders couldn’t keep up and raised prices.  One broker told us there were more boats being built in the over-200-foot size than presently existed on the water at that time.  I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but business was good in the boat industry, that was clear.

     We taxied home and started trying to finish eating our remaining food.  At the show we had made a date for 8am to get our windows caulked, and we also had a date with a decorating shop to look into having some curtains made.  Packing and cleaning up were also on our minds.

Preparation to Go Home, Monday, November 1, 1999

     On Monday, we got all the cabin windows caulked.  I removed the exhaust fan from the forward head, but it needed replacement, so we arranged that with our new friend, Danny, the window caulker.  Angela cleaned the boat, and I rearranged the dock lines and put the cover on the dinghy.  Merle, the interior designer came and went and came back again; we finished with her about 6:30pm.  It was a busy, tiring day; but it felt like we accomplished a lot.  I found my Cross pen, not in the debris caused by the heavy seas, but in a storage bin up on the flying bridge.

Departure, Tuesday, November 2, 1999

    I got up okay at 6:30am, and we should have made the 9:25am plane.  But it seemed to take too long to get everything done.  It poured down rain in the early morning hours, and it was so muggy and humid I felt like I was melting.  Carrying all the luggage and two large trash bags, etc to the car really drained me.  Our landlord (or is it sealord, since we’re renting water- and dock-space from him?) offered to take us to the airport, and we gratefully accepted, since getting a taxi was so difficult.  We agreed on 8:30-8:45am as our departure time.

     By the time we got every thing in the car, it was after 9am, but he had gotten Chuck and Marina there in 8 minutes.  Not us; the bridge he usually used had closed on November 1, for 3 months!  (In Houston, they rebuilt the freeway through downtown in three months!)  We had to move further downtown to another bridge, and traffic was backed up several blocks in 3 directions with people trying to cross that bridge.  After waiting through several lights, Brad went around them to the next bridge, which was visible-in the up position!  By that time we could not easily get to the tunnel, which goes under the river.  (I think I would use the tunnel all the time if I lived there, but Brad and all the taxi drivers we used never used the tunnel.  Must be something I don’t know.)

     Anyway, we finally got there, at about 9:25am, and that plane left right on time, without us.  We taxied to Miami and caught a noon flight and arrived home about 2 hours later than planned.

     The caulking worked; the cabin and windows were dry after the rain.  Danny was authorized to remove and refinish the teak strips affected by the leaks around the windows.  He also agreed to make a couple of fiberglass repairs, like fixing the deck where the portable stairs had pulled out during Hurricane Floyd.

     The temperature in Houston was a delightful 68 degrees F.  It had been 85 F in Ft Lauderdale, and muggy.  For a week I had not worn long pants, socks, undershirts, or regular shoes.  Vacation was good, but vacation was over.

Statistics for the TX TO FL CRUISE, TRIPS 1-5, 1999

The following is a summary of statistics for the five trips in this cruise:

              

         12.3 mph    79 miles/day   1.69 gals/mile     21 gals/hour   $0.87pergallon

Changed Racor filters (3 engines) twice.  Changed fuel filters (3 engines) once.
Changed oil and filters (3 engines) once just before the cruise and once during the cruise.  Completed a bottom job, flushed both CAT heat exchangers, and had props reconditioned in Ft. Lauderdale. 
We visited 5 states on that cruise:  TX, LA, MS, AL, and FL.