Towing Adventure

The adventure on the Sundancer, towing a 78-ft power yacht from Miami to New Orleans, turned out to include way more excitement than expected. We did not only go through very rough weather with strong winds and swells but also almost lost the boat. If we had not decided to board and inspect it at the exact moment we did but had waited 30 minutes longer, the Endera would now rest at the ground of the Gulf of Mexico. Several hours of pumping out water, a US Coastguard airplane dropping two additional pumps and finally a US Coastguard boat taking over the Endera and towing it into Tampa Bay were necessary for this undertaking. And we had more unplanned events coming up on the 18-day voyage.

The journey started with a non-cooperating marina which made us wait for several days to get ready until we finally could take the Endera out of its docking station. Unfortunately the powerboat had not been maintained at all by the marina, apart from being kept away from the sun. The inside as well as the outside were completely dirty and the problems why the boat had sunk previously were not fixed. We didn’t know that when we took over the boat and assumed that the leaks had been removed. Nevertheless we had prepared an emergency water pump in case there should still be a leak or we should get a new one.

We started towing the boat alongside, on the hip, out of the Miami river. We had to pass several bridges but reached the open bay soon and by the late afternoon we were moving in open waters in Biscayne Bay. A first little towing test showed no problems. We decided to anchor the night at Key Biscayne in protected waters and continuing the trip the next day early in the morning. Their were two possible routes for the next few hundred nautical miles to choose from. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) which runs in between the Florida Keys and Florida mainland or the outside of the Keys, the open Atlantic ocean. We decided for the second option.

With a calculated average speed of 4 kts (~ 4.6 mph, ~ 7.4 km/h) we should have been able to cover the approximately 700 nautical miles (~ 800 miles, ~ 1,300 km) in almost one week. Due to bad weather and various incidents we ended up needing a few days longer than we would have needed under ideal conditions. We tried to do a boarding of the Endera at least once a day to check whether there was any water entering the engine room or any other compartment. Sometimes this boarding was highly risky as both boats were bouncing around a lot in the swell and Charlie and I had to jump from railing to railing. On some days the circumstances were that bad that we had to skip the boarding.

The second day, late at night we left the Atlantic and crossed through the 5th channel of the Florida Keys into the Gulf of Mexico. This was the moment we started having problems with lobster and crab traps. We were running for almost 24 hours of “mine fields” of buoys which got caught in the propellers and rudders. We had to stop several times to cut the lines off the props, just a few on the Sundancer but almost 20 traps caught in the propellers of the Endera. Those had slowed us down to a speed of approximately only 2 knots.

One day later we got caught by a cold front with strong winds of 30 knots and more and swells of 5 to 8 feet. We were able to use some of the wind and motor-sail with the Jib, Staysail and Mainsail up. Unfortunately the weather stayed for that for round about 24 hours. I got pretty seasick and spent the whole day and night either laying down and trying to sleep or taking the helm and steering the boat.

The next day the wind as well as the swell finally calmed down and we were able to do an inspection of the Endera. As we looked back to it we already had a bad feeling and as we were towing in the towing line we knew that we were in a great trouble. The bow of the power yacht was pointing way too high out of the water, the swim platform at the stern hat sunk completely underneath the water surface. Charlie and I boarded the boat in a hurry and had to find out that the engine room was several feet under water. We positioned the water pump we had constructed and cranked it up as fast as possible. At the same time Steve sent out a distress call on the radio as well as via the satellite phone. Charlie and I had our water pump running for some time when it suddenly lost suction and quit working completely. We were not able to start it again and the water level which had sunk down a little bit started rising again. By that time an airplane of the US Coastguard (USCG) had arrived at our position which was about 60 nautical miles offshore from Tampa Bay. After circling for a while around us it came down directly above our boats and dropped a box with another water pump on a parachute.

I caught the line with a boat hook and we lifted it up the rear door. Immediately we made this new pump working and fortunately we were able to get the water level down by a few feet. After another hour this pump quit working as well and we were in a hassle again. The airplane dropped one more pump which just worked for less than one minute after it quit pumping. Instead we managed to made the other pump working again after a while. The situation was really chaotic and we were in a constant danger of losing the boat. After two more hours a boat of the USCG arrived with further pumps and fresh crew to help us. We were completely worn out by that time, no energy left. We’ve been breathing carbon-monoxide exhausts of the running gasoline pumps in the engine rooms as well as compartments for a long time. I burned myself several times at the exhaust system moving the pumps from A to B. We did not have proper tools to work with, a simple screwdriver for strengthening and opening clamps would have helped a lot. We had been working for several hours without drinking any drop of water until we finally found a few bottles of water and one bottle of ginger ale which have been left on the Endera, no food the whole day. As there had been open fuel buckets floating around in the engine room we did not only pump out water into the ocean but unfortunately a combination of dirty diesel water. I was really sad to have to do that but looking at the alternative of letting the boat sink, releasing absolutely everything to the sea and losing the boat, it was probably the better option.

It was a big relieve when the USCG offered to take over the boat, pumping the water level further down and towing it towards the coast. As soon as they were in charge of the Endera we powered up our engines and set course to the coast as well, making a speed of 7 – 8 knots. The Coastguard boat was a little bit faster and at approximately 5:00 in the morning we met up again in Tampa Bay where we anchored for a few hours and got some rest.

We spent the next morning analyzing the damage and the possible reasons for the water intake on the Endera. We found out that the gasket of the garage door was the main failure of the boat. It seemed to be an engineering design flop of this boat, the Leopard 27 Open. Another guess was that water may have come in through the exhaust system. We had to open the hydraulic garage door manually and stick an improvised gasket to the bottom. It was not a 100%-fix but definitely sealing way better than before.

Although the next two days were expected to be calm due to various weather reports it turned out to be different. Another cold front coming down from Canada reached us with wind gusts of 40 knots. As we were approximately 100 miles offshore, the swell was also 5-8 feet high and both the Sundancer as well as the Endera were shaking around back and forth a lot again. We were afraid to get into a similar situation like before, nevertheless it was impossible to board the Endera and have a check if there was any water running into the engine room. The sea was too rough for a maneuver like that. As the wind was bringing cold air from the north, temperatures dropped by at least 20 °C to almost freezing point. In combination with the strong wind, sitting exposed to all the elements for several hours, including a spray of saltwater every few minutes, it felt like if it were below freezing point. It was a nightmare.

In one of these days we also lost the ability to use the Mainsail as the part of the sail that connects to the main halyard (line that brings the sail up the mast and holds it there) broke. We tried to repair it twice as it didn‘t work out immediately. The first time I went up the mast to bring it up again, the second time Steve went up whilst we were underway. However, the fix was just a temporary one and we couldn’t use the sail under strong wind conditions.

On the 10th day of our voyage the weather finally got better again, the wind as well as the seas calmed down and we were able to do a boarding of the Endera again. We were relieved to find that the garden hose as a sealing had done a very good job and almost no new water had entered the boat despite of the heavy seas. We ended up maneuvering close to the coast of Alabama and Mississippi where we had to make sure to avoid running into one of the oil rigs. At night it looked like there was a party going on – so many lights were shining above the water. Some of the oil platforms had the look of illuminated cathedrals. But at least most of the structures we passed were lighted because there are also lots of abandoned oil rigs that nobody feels responsible any more to maintain. Furthermore a lot of barges and tug boats crossed within the channels which we carefully had to look out for as well. Occasionally winds and currents pushed us sideways strongly which made it to hold a direct course. Next to the huge towing boats plenty of shrimp trolleys passed our way pulling their nets through the Gulf of Mexico.

In one of the rescue maneuvers trying to save the Endera the starboard rudder of the Sundancer got heavily damaged. Half of the rudder was missing as I dove down to inspect the propellers and rudders for lines of crab traps again. It was not too much of a problem though. We just lost a little bit of the steering capability. Thinking foresighted for things like that to happen, captain Steve had built the biggest part of the rudder to be replaceable. It broke at a predetermined breaking point without damaging the shaft itself. Besides, a window from Steve's stakeroom broke out and he fixed it by stuffing a big pillow in the open gap.

Finally we got closer and closer to New Orleans, but unfortunately also slower and slower. A few days before the arrival the water pump of the port engine quit working. That meant that we lost 50% of our 270 horsepowers as well as maneuvering flexibility. From there on the speed dropped to just 2 knots (2.3 mph or 3.7 km/h).

A fuel transfer from the extra diesel tanks on deck to the fuel tank for running the engines was necessary several times during the trip. As we were approaching our final destination in the night of the 10th of November, the 11th day of the journey, it was one of those moments. This time unforeseen, as we didn‘t consider that we had run out of diesel that fast. Just after midnight, only 20 nautical miles from the marina where he had to tow the Endera to, the engine quit working. We were navigating through a narrow channel by that time and barges were going up and down as well. The only option we had was pulling over sidewards and running the boat onto the river bank to enforce a quick stop and clear the channel. After an hour of transferring fuel and making the engine run again we continued our journey with a speed of 2 knots again.

Just after sunrise we were in only half a mile reach from the marina. There we got struck by a new and absolutely unforeseen event. The bridge that crossed the water channel did not open. After calling a dozen different number from marina to Coastguard and city offices we ended up finding out that it was temporary closed to marine traffic, without any specific date to open again. Unfortunately this  information had not been published and apparently we were the first ones to find out. So we ended up pulling the two boats over to the side and parking them on the river bank again.

Charlie, Paul and I used at least a few hours of our stay in New Orleans to leave the boat and do some sightseeing. We took a series of buses to get from A to B in the city which worked out quite well. Nevertheless we didn‘t head for the city center immediately but for a Goodwill store to get some warmer clothes for the way back as temperatures were still low and another cold front was predicted. After that we were strolling for a while through the French Quarter before returning back to the Sundancer.

The next day we had found a solution to move the Endera its last steps to the marina. It was unconventional and adventurous but it worked out: We pushed it up the river with the dinghy of the Sundancer, equipped with a 25-horsepower engine! It was no problem for the Endera to pass underneath the bridge, just the Sundancer with its two masts was not able to pass through. The process was extremely slow though and had there been any wind or current it would have been impossible but for once we had great luck again. Once the marina pulled the Endera out of the water we even had to find out that there were two crab traps still dragging from the propellers of the powerboat. Those had made the whole operation even more tricky.

Another cold front was expected to reach New Orleans during the night. We couldn’t stay at our made up „river-bank-dockage“ but decided to move just a few hundred feet back down the river and tie the Sundancer up to some pylons next to the railroad bridge we had passed previously. This worked out pretty well and we were able to arrange a fuel truck driving down to the boat and filling up our diesel tanks partly. We had burned approximately 1,000 gallons of fuel so far, on the way back it turned out be  just a third of that. Furthermore we got some fresh water and as soon as all the tanks were filled up we left New Orleans again, headed back towards Miami.

We left the railroad bridge dockage at noon on the 13th day of the journey, taking the Intracoastal Waterway of the Gulf of Mexico eastbound. Winds were blowing strongly from the north and the temperature was dropping harshly each hour. The cold front which came down all the way from Canada brought extraordinary cold air to almost the entire United States. Usually we were running 3-hour or 4-hour watches before we handed the steering wheel over to the next person. This afternoon we had to reduce the time to 30-minute watches. The stove was in constant use heating up one pot of hot water for tea and coffee after the other. We decided that running the whole night under these extreme conditions would have worn us out to much. Instead we anchored just after sunset close to another railroad bridge, 30 nautical miles from where we started.

Unfortunately the temperature inside the Sundancer dropped to the same extent as outside as the thin uninsulated fiberglass hulls are not made to keep heat in or out at all. The sailboat has been built for adventures to the Bahamas and Cuba and not for arctic exploration tours. The next day we woke up we almost couldn‘t trust our eyes: We had frost on deck! I threw myself in the warmest clothes and ended up with six layers of shirts and jackets as well as two pairs of pants, a long thermal underwear and four pairs of socks. The two pairs of shoes I had were absolutely not made for these temperatures. Neither were they made to wade around in sloshing diesel water. But they had to do it. I ended up putting one pair on top of the engine, the only real warm thing on the boat, exchanging them every half hour. Charlie even ended up resting one day for a while in the engine room to heat up.

We were chasing and chased by cold fronts the whole way back to the Florida Keys. On the one side this meant we had to continue freezing although it got better each day we got further out into Gulf of Mexico and therefore south. On the other side we had very favorable winds from the north that speeded up our journey a lot. Without the force of the wind it would have been at least twice as long as we still had not been able to fix the second engine. Predominant winds usually blow from the south-east from the Atlantic. We were lucky that the usual wind situation was disrupted a lot by the strong cold front. Water temperature soon went up from 55°F (13°C) to almost 80°F (27°C) again and also air temperature gradually increased to at least 50°F (10°C). Wind was blowing with constant 20 to 30 knots for almost the entire four days we needed to reach the Florida Keys. Swell got bigger and bigger from day to day ending up with 8 to 10 feet high waves on our last day in the Gulf of Mexico. Luckily, we were running the same direction as the swell which made it a comfortable run. Every time a big wave was overtaking us it slowed us down for a few seconds and then we were surfing it down, making top speeds of over 14 knots. We were mostly sailing with three sails, Jib, Staysail and Mizzen, sometimes wing-to-wing when we were sailing exactly downwind.

Most of our journey we were both under sail as well as using the engine(s). Almost every bigger sailboat is also equipped with either electric or diesel-fuel driven engines. So was the Sundancer with two 135 horsepower diesel engines. Especially for a project like ours, towing another boat across the open sea, it is indispensable to have such a backup. As the weather can change quickly flexibility as well as fast responsiveness are key factors on the boat. Winds are not always blowing in a favorable direction and with the right force. Consequently the skill of a good sailor lies not only in setting and  trimming the sails best possible but also knowing when and how to use the engine. Minor adjustments to the course or the torque can make a huge difference in efficiency. I have come across a very well written article about “The Art of Motorsailing”, if you’re interested in this topic, click here: The Art of Motorsailing

We did not see as much sealife as I was able to discover on my other sailing trips as we didn‘t have any stops for snorkeling reefs. Nevertheless we could spend plenty of time with the most faithful companions, the dolphins, surrounding our boat and swimming along with us. Different kinds of porpoises showed up, always bringing a smile to my face. Apart from that we had some days where we saw flying fish all day long, in rough weather several ones flew that high that they landed aboard.

We were glad that we had covered 150 nautical miles on average every day in the open Gulf of Mexico. The night before our arrival back in Miami we anchored at Cotton Key, a small island with nothing to do. We arrived at 23:00 and captain Steve started the engine the next morning at 4:00 getting us all out of the bed to make the last 60 nautical miles back to Miami. This time we decided to take the ICW route that allowed us to travel in protected waters. We had to look out for channel markers all the time, navigating according to electronic charts and looking out for red and green marked pylons sticking out of the water. Before sunrise we had to be especially careful to watch out to interpret lights correctly and also avoid running into unlighted markers. The skyline of Miami approached soon and we had a celebration dinner for the successful voyage the same evening.

The whole journey was not really restful. Everyone was responsible for a night watch each night for at least 3 hours, sometimes more. Days were short as the sun set early and rose late. A very important factor was that we were always well fed. In comparison to the other boats I've been crewing on so far where I was preparing almost all the meals, the Sundancer has no lack of good cooks. Captain Steve prepared fresh meals at least twice per day if possible and had a variety of recipes in his mind, from Bohemian corn and beef grits to sausage and gravy on biscuit (New Orleans Style). Most of the time we couldn’t finish everything and so it came that we always had diverse TupperWare full of leftover food in the fridge. Vegetarian meals were rare though, every plate included a lot of meat/bird/fish.

Nevertheless everything turned out to be successful, there could have been better preparation and planning for this trip. Had we known that temperatures can fall that low in November in the Gulf of Mexico we would have taken warmer clothes with us in advance. Also the Endera should have been revised. We should have set up the water pump on the Endera and place some tools to work with on there at the begin of the journey, before we got into bad weather. Had we brought a good spotlight we would have been able to illuminate the Endera also during the night for a few seconds and evaluate its floating status. Also the dinghy of the Sundancer was failing a lot when we finally needed it in New Orleans, the fuel line came off several times and fuel spilled into the river. Spilling gasoline into the water was an environmental harm which I didn’t tolerate but couldn’t do anything against at this moment. Furthermore the stopping engine was also a risk for us whilst we were underway. We had to deal with a lot of issues like that which were caused by old equipment that would have needed to be inspected or parts replaced.

The whole time on the boat was like under a dictatorship, that’s what captain Steve had promised us before we took off and he definitely made it come true. Regarding his statement that feedback and input of the crew is appreciated at any time I can now confirm that this part did not really happen. Sometimes Charlie, Paul and I felt treated like kids. Steve told us his way how he wanted us to open the sugar box as he thinks that the box design is planned obsolescence (which might be true) and if you don’t unscrew the whole cap it will brake soon and can’t be reused. Often he did not take into consideration that different ways of doing something right might exist. An example for that is the way he likes to steer his boat, or likes his boat to be steered. There was a little piece of tape which is wrapped around one of the spokes of the steering wheel and if you keep your hand always exactly at that same spot without moving your hand from spoke to spoke but moving your whole arm in a circle with the wheel, you will never lose the center. I saw his point in using that technique and also adapted it for certain conditions and for night watches but didn’t use it during the day at times when a lot of steering was necessary. Another example is the anchor chain. Most boaters mark their chain with some kind of color or with adjustable plastic clamps to mark specific distances to make anchoring easier. This way you can see exactly how many feet/meters of anchor chain you‘ve already dropped down into the water. Captain Steve didn’t grow up with this auxiliary means so he just relies on his measurement of the angle the anchor chain comes out of the water. That way he definitely ensures that he has 100% control over his boat, crew which is not used to his old-fashioned technique might have problems with anchoring his boat though. I didn‘t share this opinion of trusting someone’s own senses always more than technical devices like a wind indicator or an autopilot. Regardless of our differences of opinion it was a good learning effect for me to see that different people do things differently. 

Anyways, there were certain things captain Steve didn‘t trust us to do. Anchoring was one of the tasks he always did on his own. Other things included using his electronic chart plotters, adjusting sails or the engines. In comparison to the other boats I‘ve been on this was new to me as I had a lot of more freedom and trust in me there. It didn‘t really bother me though. The only real incident for which my knowledge of doing things like that might have been of importance was a possible man-overboard scenario. There should always be more than one person aboard who knows a 100% how to control everything. As I knew that Charlie could have taken over in that case there was no real reason for Steve to also introduce Paul or me to these tasks.

Captain Steve defined a lot of rules for the trip. Unfortunately he did not always stick to what he defined himself before. We were running 3-hour watches at the beginning of the trip, changed to 4-hour watches after some days. At first these watches were well planned and everybody knew in advance when he had to be up to take the wheel. We set alarms to be awake 15 minutes in advance and prepare ourselves for a few hours with drinks, food and adequate clothing on deck. Due to unpredictable weather and very quickly changing situations we switched from planned watches to unplanned watches. We stopped setting alarms but woke up the next person instead by going under deck and letting the wheel be steered by a bungee cord for these seconds. One night, at 5:00 a.m. Steve woke me up, grumbling at me that I should have been up for my watch already two hours ago. Whilst getting ready to be up as soon as possible I looked at the time and recalculated the time since my last watch. Had everybody done his 4 hours of watch since my last time, I would not have to be up before 6:00 a.m. in the morning. The time 3:00 a.m. was therefore completely made up but I decided that I didn‘t want to start my day with a discussion. Even though I might have been right Steve would have found one argument after the other to prove the opposite.

Anyways, even if I had overslept my time to be up for a watch there could have been a nicer way to make me aware of my mistake. I did one additional hour of watch once for example as Florida changed from daylight saving time to standard time. It was in the middle of the night and I started getting tired after several hours of steering the wheel. Nevertheless I stood it and waited for Paul to come up. We furthermore changed several time zones on the trip, making timing also more complicated as all GPS-tracked devices like smartphones changed time automatically whereas some analog watches on the boat didn‘t.

I was also not sure when a situation required me to wake Steve up during my watches and when not. One night I didn‘t wake him up although the wind had speeded up and slowed us down as we were going almost directly into it. He got up on his own by chance and made adjustments to the sails. I realized that it would have been my duty to wake him up already earlier that time. Another night I had a similar situation, the wind speeded up again, this time in our favor. We were already making a little bit more speed and might have been able to get even out more power out of the wind with some sail adjustments, so my thoughts. Yet he taught me better. Steve did not bother to come up on deck to have a look at the wind situation, he kept lying on his bunk, telling me that he had already felt the change. He made a provoking comment, asking me if I wanted him park the boat. We were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico by that time. I left without a comment and continued my watch. I was clearly irritated in some situations like this and felt partly personally attacked. However, I didn't let myself get irritated and realized that this was simply Steve's personality. His way of expression may just not have always been the friendliest.

Regarding security issues captain Steve he did not drive a clear line. Sometimes he was very concerned about us as crew as he didn‘t want me to swim alone in the water when we were anchored the first night in the Florida Keys. In other occasions he did not spend a lot of energy or thoughts on security or personal health. Once I went up the mast to bring the halyard (line that lifts a sail up the mast) down. On some boats, people use security belts for both the person who goes up the mast as well as the person who secures the other one. The only „safety equipment“ we had was a kind of children's swing, a piece of wood with a line at each end, to sit in. Steve and Charlie hoisted me up in this self-made device. My task was to get my job done up there as fast as possible. Then I got exactly 30 seconds for taking pictures before I was lowered down again. I felt really unsafe as well as under a huge pressure up the mast as Steve‘s instructions were formulated very harsh and strict. Of course I could just have said „No!“ to going up the mast like that but it was not so much the task of going up there itself nor my trust in his ability to bring me down safe again. It was more the the way in which the whole procedure was carried out at short notice and with unfriendly instructions that concerned me. Another safety issue was that every time we boarded the Endera there was the risk of falling down into the water in between the two boats. In calm weather it was not really a problem but once the sea got more rough it was a real danger jumping from railing to railing, spinning propellers underneath us. I also told Steve that I didn‘t come aboard to risk my life whereupon he responded that I got involved in it the moment I decided to join his adventure. I didn‘t necessarily see the need of an adventure to be a risk for your life to make it an adventure, seemed like we had different understandings of the definition of that word.

After having several discussions I had a point where I decided for myself that it would be better for the rest of the trip to limit my answers to yes and no and do not question any statements of the captain.  Steve definitely made me getting to know myself better as well, making me a better observer and rethinking questions twice before asking. I had to notice that I wasn‘t always paying as much attention to all the details I would be able to observe. When he had hoisted up two sails and asked me to hoist up the third one I was not able to do it although I was standing right next to him the two previous times. Also the fact that he doesn‘t have an autopilot, a basic function that holds the bearing towards a certain destination and steers the wheel for you, made me observe more in detail the work you have to do to hold the course. Depending on the wind direction, speed, swell, current as well as the situation towing a boat behind you this task requires a lot of attention. Having no wind indicator made me paying more attention to the tell tales on the sailes and on how the boat reacts itself to the wind. When he asked me to clear the propellers I didn‘t recognize that buoy lines were wrapped around the shaft as I thought it would just have been sea grass. Thereby we ended up losing a bit of efficiency for quite a bit of our trip. I also had to learn the hard way that you should not leave anything lying around on the boat without securing it. Conditions can change quickly and so a plate broke when some bigger swell shook us around. Had I dried and put everything into the drawers after washing and rinsing it would not have happened. Fortunately it was just one plate. It might as well have been my laptop. One of Steve‘s slogans was that you have to learn from failures – but they don‘t necessarily have to be yours!

Besides, Steve made me learn how important it was to always have my camera at the right place at the right time. When he was announcing that he‘s looking for people for his all-expenses-paid boat delivery project he was not looking for a cameraman. Therefore, my wishes to shoot a photo here and there were always minor matter. So when he thought that there was anything more important than taking a picture, he didn‘t let me reach for the camera.

From my description you may think now that I didn‘t have a lot of fun on this voyage. If I compare it to my two previous sailing trips it was definitely completely different. Nevertheless I had many cheerful and enjoyable moments on this adventure and I do not regret having been part of it. This is also mainly due to the other two crew members Charlie and Paul. Charlie as an educated and experienced former US Navy, a good storyteller, always up for a joke and sometimes randomly starting to sing songs. Paul as a laid back adventurer, always being in a good mood and a hand offering help. Together we acted as an effectful team that complemented each other pretty well. Captain Steve is a goodhearted man and a challenging teacher. Just his way of expressing himself was not always the nicest. And I certainly have learned something more: I will never ever forget how to tie a bowline or a clove hitch.

After coming back to Miami I spent my last few days of my year of travel on the Sundancer, did some cleanup and repair projects on the boat as well as small excursions in Miami together with Steve and Paul. Steve taught me how to unscrew the propellers from the boat and made me go underneath the water as one of the propellers had been warped when a rope got wrapped around. Paul and I spent one last day at the beach at Virginia Key and checked out the Miami nightlife in Wynwood with a dozen Couchsurfers. Furthermore we made some more shopping tours to Goodwill, Bargain Pound as well as Salvation Army Family Stores. We had a fantastic celebration dinner the last evening which Steve’s wife Barbara had prepared with a lot of love: Barracuda filet with squash, fried plantains, a mixture of whole grains and fresh salad. The next day we all left the boat, heading towards the Swap Shop flea market in Fort Lauderdale and after that everyone went their own way.