Since the November/December anchor out, I’ve been looking forward to this trip. The deal with my broker has come to an end, the Miami boat show behind him, I needed to remove While One from the broker’s home.
Allen picks me up at 7 and then my friend, Ken, at his home. By morning of March 2, we should be landing in MIA. Shawn will meet us at the boat around 10am.
I reserved a car to pick Ken and I up at MIA, drive us to a grocery store and then on to While One.
It was almost one year ago when Sherine and I flew to Florida to check out some boats and to test sail a Nautitech 46 Open through Performance Yacht Sales. During the weekend of March 19, 20 and 21st of 2021 we visited quite Catamarans.
Early on the morning of the 19th, we landed into Miami after taking a red eye from SFO. We were picked up by a driver that took us to Riviera Beach Marina.
We met Nico and Nicholas and had a handful of hours sailing out off of Palm Beach. Upon return, Sherine and I grabbed a few Painkillers at Rafiki Tiki Bar and grabbed a few tacos.
Getting a ride back to Fort Lauderdale where we rented an Airbnb was a challenge. After several Ubers which bailed at the last minute after waiting for 10 minutes apiece for them, we finally landed one. It was early to bed that night after a red eye and a day of sailing.
The following day we viewed a Hylas 48 and a few other Catamarans. Loved the Hylas and got a view of the Hylas 57…wow, what a boat. I refused to ask for a tour…didn’t want to be temped.
That said, we ultimately decided a Catamaran suited the type of sailing we intended to do and being full-time live aboard.
Following day brought us further up the coast to view an Anteres…and debated whether or not to make a bid while having an early lunch at the Sea Watch Restaurant. Got there early and grabbed a great corner table outside…what a day!
We pulled anchor around 10:30am that day to head back to Coral Gables and ultimately back to Lecanto, FL. Sherine took the helm as I pulled anchor and motored us back through Biscayne Channel. Once outside of Coral Gables, I took the wheel.
Once at our finger, I stopped While One and decided to back down the channel to avoid needing to rotate 180º. I wasn’t sure if there was enough space. To my surprise, While One was very easy to control with her two motors.
We unloaded, sprayed down the boat, turned the batteries and refrigerators off and headed out. We were in our car by about 3pm.
Nothing really to report about Thursday. Spent the day playing with our Atoll SUP, swimming and dabbling around the boat.
The anchorage was very calm after about 6 or 7pm. The current and the wind shifted throughout the day and night. More times than not, the bridle were underneath the boat which was a bit concerning. That said, we didn’t drag the anchor one bit.
My only frustration with the anchorage is that of power boaters. For some reason, folks find it necessary to blow through the anchorage at 10 knots or more causing what was really a pretty calm an tranquil anchorage into something rocky early morning…why do they find it necessary to pass between the boats or the boats and the shore, I don’t know. The channel is plenty wide enough and it would have been very considerate just to head out 100 yards or so into the channel. In the words of Forest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does.”
We woke up early on Wednesday as we wanted to get down to Key Biscayne earlier in the day. We pushed off around 8:15am, enough time to request the 8:30AM bridge opening at Holywood Beach Blvd. Bridge.
This was the first time I’ve taken While One’s helm. Existing the marina was relatively easy as Nico had provided a starboard bow line to help bias the boat as we left. 227 was the last slip next to the fixed end of the dock which were concrete.
Requesting bridge openings we also new for me but watching Nico a few days earlier made it a non-issue.
Once we exited Port Everglades, the seas were quite rough. My mom became seasick. We headed out about 4 nm but ultimately turned back closer to shore to avoid the current which seemed to be about 2 knots. Coming back closer to shallower water once we were further south gave us about another 1 knot in boat speed. We had both engines at about 1800 rpm and were make about 5 knots with the wind and current at our nose. After several hours and turning further east, we were able to put the jib out for a bit to pick up another knot. We arrived at the anchorage outside of No Named Harbor on Key Biscayne about 3pm.
The bridle on While One is very long…I’m not quite sure why. In any case, Sherine and I were familiar enough with using a bridle during anchoring when we bareboat chartered in the BVI a Leopard 40. However, the new windless, chain counter, slipping gypsy, etc. caused us several unsuccessful anchoring attempts.
After a few hours at out current spot. some of the folks had started to leave and so we desired to get in closer to shore. We attempted to bring up the anchor but found it was fouled on what seemed to be a lobster pot and some line. We tried our best to remove it but ultimately Sam had to jump in the water to remove the line from the anchor.
We were in about 11 feet of water. I wanted to have a scope of about 3 or 4 (not being familiar with the bottom conditions, boat or anchor). We ultimately determined, after several attempts of the the devil’s claw slipping off the chain, that we were letting too much chain out before putting the bridle on. Once we figured that out, things were much smoother!
We spent the day at Holywood Loggerhead Marina, taking it easy and finishing up putting away the boat stuff we brought from our prior boat, Farraige.
While One has 2 120V/50A shore power inlets. One is dedicated for the AC and the other for everything else. Two shore power cables were provided with While One. However, most slips only have a single 50A outlet.
Leading up to our trip, I reached out to Nico requesting a list of things I should buy in order to enable staying on the boat for a few days. One of these items was a 10 lb LPG tank. The other was an EEL pigtail adapter which I purchased. However, what Nico should have told me to buy was an EEL Y adapter. So, after walking to Walmart to pick up a few items for the boat (cleaning supplies and groceries we had forgot), Sherine and I jumped in a Lyft to go to West Marine. They were kind enough to let us return the previously purchased adapter and buy the Y adapter instead…for a difference of about $200!
Anyway, after taking a Lyft back, we were now able to simultaneously run AC and power the rest of the boat.
A mobile fuel service also visited the marina and asked if we needed fuel which we did. We had left Coral Gables with about 50% in both tanks. We filled While One to about 85% capacity.
After returning home from Florida last night after two weeks of vacation, visiting my folks and our shakedown cruise of While One and found a letter from Annapolis Yacht Documentation in our mail. While One’s Certification of Documentation has been obtained!
Next step is to obtain a MMSI number for our EPIRB, MOB PLB’s, AIS transceiver and for setting up Digital Selective Calling in our VHF’s.
According to: https://www.boatus.com/products-and-services/membership/mmsi we are required to obtain a ship license from the FCC. I remember doing this once with Farraige but had forgotten the conditions which required a ship license.
According to the FCC: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/ship-radio-stations a vessel is required to have a ship license since we have the intent to travel offshore to other countries. If we had no intent to travel offshore, we would be considered a “voluntary ship.”
We met Nico at Alex’s house at 10am. While One were sitting at a private slip on one of the fingers of Coral Gables. Nico and Nick were doing something on the mast when we got there.
We quickly unloaded my car onto the driveway so Sherine could take off to the grocery store to buy food for the next 4 days. For the next several hours Sam, Don unloaded the Buick Enclave and moved all of the stuff (quite a bit of it) onto While One.
We didn’t push off until around 1pm when Sherine finally made it back from the store and all groceries had been unloaded and put away.
We motored up and thru Biscayne Channel, then turned North. About mid-way up, Nico brought out the jib on a starboard tack. We were making 9 knots through the water, but I believe we were in 1-2 knots of current.
We made the entrance of Port Everglades around 6pm. After three bridges: Dania Beach Blvd, Sheridan Street & Holywood Beach Blvd we passed the South Lake Anchorage and then turned into the marina. It was dark. Nico was at the helm for most of the ways. We took slip 227 under dark.
Mid-way up I noticed the engine hours for both engines were at 24 hours.
Once we signed a contract to purchase a Nautitech 46 Open, we immediately started brainstorming its name. It’s not often that one gets to name a vessel!
At this point, you’re probably wondering where While One comes from. Before we get there, let’s review all of the names which we had written down.
There were several criteria in consideration when we ultimately chose a name.
Sherine offered up this name for consideration. Having “Fun in the Sun” is something repeatedly offered up in jubilation by her! However, it’s not particularly unique and so we passed. Plus, “Fun in the Sun” isn’t exactly a short name.
Sherine and I have attended quite a few Grateful Dead concerts and the Grateful Dead is my favorite band by a long stretch. Those concerts, road trips, camping and everything surrounded by them holds such a special place in our hearts.
The song Iko Iko was written by the Dixie Cups in 1965 being a conglomeration of African, European and Native American influences. It was a staple of the Dead in the 90’s and I’ve read they’ve played it at just under 200 concerts from the late 70’s onward.
I love music, especially live music and the Grateful Dead holds a very special place in my heart. Not all of these songs are Dead songs but the vast majority of them are. I went to my first show in Riverbend Music Center Hamilton, Ohio (Cincinnati, Ohio) in 1986 or 1987…I think I was a Junior, so perhaps that puts it in 1986. In any case, that was just the start of my passion for them and from then on, I did everything possible to see a show.
I’m certainly not as decorated as others with regards to the number of shows attended. Back then, you’d have to go through elaborate measures to get mail-order tickets or sit on speed-dial. I don’t completely remember everything you needed to do but it involved a 3 1/2 card with the show you wanted, # of tickets, a cashier’s check and a return envelop. You’d have to have everything perfect or they’d reject you. Further, you had to have them postmarked no earlier than a certain day. It was something else.
In the summer of ’92 I did a large portion of the Midwest / East Coast summer tour starting by a Greyhound to Louisville, KY and then hitchhiking the rest of the two weeks. What a blast.
They Loved Each Other, a soulful song written by the late Robert Hunter and sung by Bobby, was one of our favorite songs when we were dating. We, of course, would have to drop the ‘d’.
Well, I can’t remember who came up with this, but it’s pretty self-explanatory..that said, I ultimately dismissed any name which reminded me of working for Apple, despite loving the company and being so appreciative of what they’ve done for me
In 2011/2012 I moved over from working on iPhone, leading the Analog Design and Validation teams, to working on Watch. I have been exceedingly fortunate to have worked on two world-changing products at Apple and, at the time of writing this blog, I still work for Apple leading the Watch System Architecture team.
This boat is going be our home while we cruise once we retire. Off Watch, suggested by Ken, was particularly clever and was on the short list for a while. However ultimately, I determined I wanted to the name to be more forward-looking and not a reminder or tribute to how we got there.
Memory Allocation was one of the lead horses for a good period of time. For those of you that have written software, this name will be familiar. For those of you that haven’t, here’s the meaning.
In “C”, malloc(x), is a function which returns a pointer to a block of memory in the heap of size x. What the heap is doesn’t matter but suffice it to say, malloc and free (the opposite function of malloc) is used to allocate and de-allocate memory in a computer or microprocessor.
Anyway, at this point you may be able to see the double-meaning. Our next chapter of life on our new boat is all about making memories! If this name wouldn’t cause a fellow cruiser to spark up a conversation at a Tiki bar, I don’t know what would!
The first computer language I learned was Basic on an Atari 400. I quickly outgrew that machine and got an Apple ][+ with a floppy disk. Its core was an 8-bit 6502 microprocessor and compared to a cassette tape, the floppy was single-sided and stored 144KB, if I remember correctly. What a machine! Writing in Assembly Language was the only way to generate any code which had any reasonable performance.
In High School (St. Xavier High School), I learned Pascal and COBOL using a VT-102 (?) terminal dialed into the University of Cincinnati’s Mainframes.
College brought 8086 assembly, Fortran and ultimately C which, for anybody who’s familiar, uses open and closed braces (‘{‘ & ‘}‘) to denote the beginning and end of a functional block. Used in conjunction with Tabs, well-written C is very easy to read.
Nowadays, it would be nearly impossible to find anybody who programs that isn’t familiar with or programs in Python. Python uses tabs to indicate a block…and boy, do I hate it! Of course, most of the folks that love Python dislike comments in their code…but perhaps I’m being a bit stereotypical.
Not sure why these had anything common with cruising, sailing and engineering but what the heck. Definitely on the Geek side of the spectrum.
Our three children. Out third boat.
Too many words.
I don’t completely remember who came up with this one but I believe the intent was trying to relate our new home with the fact that Sherine is Egyptian. Perhaps a bit too obscure.
I’ve always loved the water and boats. Ever since I came back from my sailing classes on Lake Michigan in Chicago and started to page through a brochure for Hunter sailboats, I got an itch.
That was ~2000 and I’ve been working towards being able to cruise ever since and to me, this is Living Large.
There’s nothing more peaceful and tranquil than waking up and sitting out on the deck in a calm, secluded anchorage. Even not so secluded anchorages are peaceful, at least until the power boats come roaring through at 6 and 7 A.M. (See my While One Shakedown post for more on this!)
This name is a play on a Tom Petty song, Running Down a Dream. The band I started, Identity Problem (http://identityproblem.rocks), plays/played this song quite regularly.
Love the name, it just didn’t make the cut in terms of originality.
Another highly use name.
Of course, we had to explore the play on nautical terms…
Yeah, you can tell we can’t get to retirement fast enough! In the end, perhaps it’s a tad bit over enthusiastic and many of them are not very unique.
We’re not going to be working forever! Knot Us…or something like that.
Living on a boat, cruising the Caribbean and Bahamans is Knot So Bad!
We can all use a little less stress in our lives. I’ve come to recognize that I need a certain amount of stress and anxiety…but it seems there’s a fine line of life expectancy reducing stress and just enough.
Cruising could not have come fast enough. Finally!
Yes, finally Out of the Office (OOO)!
I have really enjoyed California. It’s one of the few places in the world where you can actually ski and go to the beach in one day (although I’ve never really done that). It’s really a beautiful state.
That said, there’s a bunch of stuff that has worn me thin…but I’ll keep that to myself for now. At least for now…
Both Sherine and I are engineers…what can I say.
I have absolutely no idea where this name came from or what it meant! That said, naming a boat Paper Bag and expecting it to carry us across the oceans seems like tempting fate.
Not going back home. Not going back to work.
Well, I do expect I will work again, should an opportunity present itself and I was looking to do something new. Who knows. Never say never.
Probably not that unique, admittedly, but we really brainstormed a while on knot-themed names. This one actually didn’t really fit too well either…we’re not that naughty!
Another Knot-themed named. Why not buy a very expensive depreciating boat, sell our appreciating home, put our stuff in storage and move onto a boat? Well, there’s a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t do this but regardless of all of these reasons, there’s one that I can’t get over as to why I should do this. I only have one life to live and I can pretty much guarantee, if I were on my death bed tomorrow, I’d regret not taking this leap but I wouldn’t regret not working one more month or year beyond what I’ve decided.
A While Loop is a programming construct whereby a certain block of code is repeated an unknown number of times until a certain condition is met. In programming, any non-zero value is TRUE. Therefore, a while(1) loop will execute indefinately!
In English, the word ‘while’ can be a noun, conjunction or proposition and, as a noun, mean “a period or interval of time.” This seemed fitting to describe the time we’re intending to spend cruising.
While One seemed like a winner to us:
These are all syntax derivatives of While One…but let’s not geek out too much.
After scouring both the east and west coasts of Florida for a berth for While One, I’ve finally put a deposit down holding a future slip.
Although I had heard that catamaran slips were far fewer and therefore much harder to find, I didn’t really recognize just how few. I had heard that I could have ordered a ICW-height rig but at no time was I offered or questioned by the broker on this. That said, I’m not sure I would have made a different decision as I likely would have favored performance.
A 75’ draft pretty much eliminates any marina behind a fixed bridge as most of them are no more clearance than about 65’. It’s definitely something to consider depending on your cruising grounds and intended use of the boat.
I had been told that by in large live aboard slips in the Fort Lauderdale area are non-existent…or rather there might be a few that have been grandfathered in. I haven’t confirmed this. However, this would have been the area I would have liked to have put her. That said, when presented with a $1500 to $3000+ per month lease I started to expand my search quite early. It’s going to be about 1 year before I retire and intend to move aboard. That said, I might have considered if we could have found a slip that we could have at least stayed aboard while we visited.
The first potential slip I found was Shell Point Marina in Ruskin, Florida. At about $14/foot, it seemed pretty reasonable. Live aboard was $300 and a 50A service would cost two 30A circuits at $30/circuit. Thomas was very nice and offered to give me right of first refusal to my offer of paying him to hold the slip until I visited on December 20th.
https://www.shellpointmarina.com/
The one worry I had, however, is that the channel to get to the marina is rather shallow and I was afraid I’d run aground should I not wait for the tide, even with my 4’9” draft. That said, it was an option worth considering. The other downside is that the marina is on the West coast. While this makes commuting to see my mom and dad, I had wanted to be on the east coast to make heading off to the Bahamas a bit easier.
I continue to look and ultimately came across Kennedy Point Yacht Club up near Titusville, FL. Although much further north than I preferred, the costs compared to Shell Point were nearly equivalent in aggregate. In addition, Kennedy Point had a laundry room and dock-side pump-out.
The biggest downside, I think, is that I’m behind two bascule bridges and a lock to get to the Atlantic. I figure, however, that when I’m heading out, I’m heading out for several days or weeks…what’s another hour or two?
http://kennedypointyachtclub.com
Bruce has been exceedingly pleasant to work with and followed through with everything he said he would. After ~$1800 for January and last month’s rent, I secured a slip for March (…yeah, I know I need to pay for February’s rent as well)
Here’s some eye candy of a few of the possible slips.
