Nov 10, 2021
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We had a fun time at the Ft Lauderdale International Boat Show. There were zillions of very expensive boats, and we barely even noticed them! We spent our whole entire time inside looking at STUFF. One of our primary goals was to talk to Cross Chartering Yacht Transport Company about logistics for shipping Island Girl to the Pacific Northwest. We are already booked and have made a deposit with them for April, but the actual date could be anytime in April between the 1st and the 30th. One of my navigational planning questions was, how much lead time will we have? Since we have to get the Girl from the west side of Florida over to the east side (Ft Lauderdale) to be loaded on the ship, there are some logistics and planning to do. Our preferred route is to go through Lake Okeechobee, since it isn’t quite as sensitive to weather and wave conditions compared to crossing the Gulf waters from Ft Myers to the Keys. But one of the locks on the Okeedokee route is going to be out of service from January 1 – March 31! ☹️. So if we have to be in Ft Lauderdale by April 1, we’ll have to go around through the Florida Keys to get there. That isn’t a terrible option, but it will take longer, and IF we have to go that way, we might actually decide to take our time and enjoy our last opportunity EVER to be boating in our own boat in the Keys. So, we talked to the fella that was there, and he said that they should have an idea by February regarding the April timing. It depends on lots of things, including how many boats they have lined up to ship, and if they are loading ships in Ft Lauderdale every four, five, or six weeks. He also said that we could slide our date to March or May if we gave them plenty of notice. Hmmm. OK. This kind of flexibility is really hard on this Type-A Planner Navigator person!! 🤨 I guess I’ll plan both basic routes and then just wait.
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