Obligatory touristy pic

After a few fruitful days in Fort Lauderdale, where we very much enjoyed meeting the Quebeçois crew of Mångata, we sailed on June 4th for Palm Beach, and are now at anchor in Lake Worth, which provides quite a scenic tableau.  

Right next to us we've seen a resourceful diver, who cleaned our hull together with his son, find and claim a large abandoned anchor; a Palm Beach "soccer mom" pick up her daughter's friends from house to house... er, from dock to dock; the neighbours of one of those have a shouting match («you are not a gentleman, you are a pig!») right as they stepped off their own boat; and other gossipy stuff.

We've also had a parade of little boats cross our bow at anchor.  So far, Lime Light, 196 feet, Limitless, 315 feet, and the pocket-sized sailboat Genevieve, 121 feet.

But we had a surprise this morning as we stopped at the Palm Beach Sailing Club for a brief visit: Venus is again here, having crossed the Panama Canal no less than four times since Steve Jobs passed away.

And so here is the Admiral later in the day with the iBoat when we went for drinks at the club.  Observe how the faux terrace deck at the top hides most of the antenna farm typical of larger boats today, to achieve Steve's trademark cleaned-up look.  The aft deck, below and aft of the flag, has an iPhone-shaped skylight on it, which we found amusing.

The Admiral driving Peregrinus' tender, foreground, with Venus in the background.  Rybovich Marina, June 6, 2014.  iPhone 4S, ISO 50, 1/163.

Departed

Partir, c'est mourir un peu:  to leave is to die a little, wrote Haraucourt in 1890.  

And so Miami is gone from us, after fifteen years.  The city we knew well, perhaps better than some.  In a way, we were among the last of our generation, the starry-eyed dot-com youngsters who were going to change the world.  

But the bubble burst, and that cohort of friends largely left for Buenos Aires, Madrid, México, New York, Paris, São Paulo, San Francisco, Seattle and other places.  It is now our turn to leave our Miami friends behind (but not to lose them), and to make new friendships in new horizons.

Peregrinus at anchor, Biscayne Bay, Miami, 8:13 PM, 16 May 2014.  iPhone 4S, ISO 125, 1/20"

As we do not get to update this site as often as we'd like, and sometimes we post on things that may have taken place a few days before, here is a clearer timeline:

 - April 27th - moved to the boat

- May 12th - left dock, becoming full-time cruisers

- May 26th - left Miami

A well deserved rest

The Admiral pauses on deck after hoisting the Seaman to a height of 63.5 feet (19.4 meters), i.e., to the base of the antenna farm at the top of the main mast.  The seaman was up there precisely to get the specific height of the mast, using a laser.

The antennas stand a further 4.5 feet (1.4 meters) from that point.  And this is the reason why Peregrinus stood a few days about 100 yards from the MacArthur causeway in Miami, and yet can never go under it, at least not until some day the offending antennas are relocated to the spreaders, or to the mizzen.

Miamarina, 22 May 2014, 8:38 am.

Sunset in the city

Brickell, left, and downtown, right, from the Marine Stadium basin.  A fine anchorage little explored by cruisers.  

14 May 2014, 8:19PM.  iPhone 4S, ISO 800, f/2.4.

A view of Peregrinus by a dear friend

The mizzen mast (palo de mesana), as seen by Alicia Martínez-Fonts this past Monday.  The night sky glows, reflecting the lights of downtown Miami.

Miamarina, 19 May 2014, 8:52 PM.  iPhone 5s, ISO 1600, f/2.2

A library for errant sailors

This is about half the library section of Peregrinus, aside from the numerous sailing touring guides we carry, known as "cruising guides" in the marine world.

Most books we haven't read; and some, only one of the crew has had the pleasure.   There's a bunch of history, including histories of Spain (Pérez), England (Hibbert), and Central America (Cardenal, Lutz), and there's a bit of Cervantes and of Shakespeare.  Many are long overdue reading (Barzun), and some may be unbearable: how exactly did we end up with Proust in there?  Some are well loved, but read decades ago and in need of re-reading from the perspective of adulthood: Dumas and Tolkien, for instance.

Hopefully we'll come back without any of these books, as the custom among cruisers is to read and give away, or exchange.

Why is this guy not smiling?

The Alférez probably intuits he's moving to Peregrinus next week.  He's sitting on this storage box as if trying to keep us from packing away his home.

Besides, cats can't smile.

It's sunset for Orange Isle and us

With most projects completed, it's time to say good bye to Orange Isle, which has been Peregrinus' home for over two years.  Peregrinus will be moving to a live-aboard marina in Fort Lauderdale early next week.

Fort Lauderdale is filled with canals like the canal between Orange Isle street and Tangelo Isle street.  31 March 2014, 7:45 PM.

A view from the top

Nelson from Electronics Unlimited came by this week and replaced the AirPort extender amplifier at the top of the mast.  We were able to log in and browse via Lauderdale Marine Center's access point, 600 meters or 2,000 feet away.

November 2013 photo from the top of the main mast.  That's the Seaman's right foot.

Preparations continue

We are amidst several projects, including fitting solar power, improving refrigeration, adding backup water pumps, rationalising and increasing the safety of the 12 volt subsystem, and various repairs.  Some of it requires work such as going up the mast, but here's a video of Alex Thomson, who has figured quicker ways to get there:

Alex Thomson is a successful sailing competitor who has been sponsored by Hugo Boss for over a decade.