We were told that any day now the boat would be here. Originally, we thought by freighter all the way from South Africa to Ft Lauderdale, and before Thanksgiving. Then the plan changed and it would land by freighter in Tortolla and then it would be sailed here to Ft Lauderdale, possibly by middle December. A lot of boats were now going to Tortolla to be part of the new charter fleet.
We have been hanging out in Ft Lauderdale for a bit now. David more so than Eileen. Eileen came out at the end of October and then shortly after we flew home to be with family for Thanksgiving. We have now together been enjoying the exceptional weather and all things Florida has to offer and just hanging out together in TY Park; riding our bikes, walking for frozen yogurt and running errands. We have met a couple (Chrissy and Tony) here in the park and have become fast friends, all of us headed out to the Everglades and went on an amazing alligator tour.
Friday we were cruising on our bikes along the Broadwalk (Santa Cruz it’s the Boardwalk, here in Ft Lauderdale it’s the “Broadwalk”) on a beautiful day and saw a catamaran out in the distance, then we started to fantasize it might be ours. We raced over to the harbor to see if there was any luck; nope! …. But we were told it was almost there! Possibly might be coming in about 1am in the morning. That same day Eileen’s Mom was flying in that night, to go on a cruise to Cuba on Sunday. So just like kids before Christmas day we could barely contain ourselves. The next morning, we grabbed Mom, tried to enjoy a nice breakfast and then headed to the harbor.
Raven had just arrived minutes prior. We were able to meet Captain Tom and Gabrielle that brought Raven in, they joined us for a toast of champagne, and we gave a little taste to Neptune as well.
The past weekend and last few days have just been a whirlwind. The minute the boat arrived they jumped on and have been working on Raven. She already has a new solar panel rack, dive tank racks, and other crazy stuff. We have a lot on our wish list for the crew at Just Catamarans to do, so it will be a bit before we are moving on Raven. We believe looks like the end of January. And when we do move on…we now have a storage locker that is chock full of stuff for Raven; David hauled out a bunch when he drove out, we bagged a ton that was put in our luggage flying back and forth from California, we had a huge box put on a trailer that headed to Florida, then there was all kinds of goodies that we purchased at the boat show at end of October. Along with everyday is an outing to get something for this new home and adventure. Tomorrow looks like investigating dive equipment.
Our Adventures Around the World-Leopard 45
