While docked at the Lauderdale YC last year, we thought we smelled something burning, which is never a good sign on a boat! We quickly went to investigate only to find smoke coming from a boat dock two boats behind us!

We watched at the Fort Lauderdale FD and two marine units responded to the fire. The cause of the fire was a short where the shore power connects to the boat. This lead to a fire on the interior of the boat that was behind the cabinets and got in between the hull and interior. Once the FD applied foam to the fire, they quickly brought it under control.

Fortunately, no one was injured while the boat sustained extensive interior damage. It was towed away to a boat yard a few days later for examination by the insurance company and eventual repair.

Before we got underway, the Admiral was busy stowing all of the food & beverages that we brought back after a run to Costco! We found some storage spots aboard that we didn’t even know we had and one thing was certain, we would not go hungry or thirsty!

Day 3 we left Naples and headed to Marathon – about 100 nm away!

Day 4 we left Marathon and headed North towards Ft. Lauderdale!

Once we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, we cleaned the boat, which takes 3-4 hours, and then settle in for another stunning sunset and then a full moon rise!

We stayed a few days in Ft. Lauderdale at the Yacht Club and had some service done on the engines before continuing North. We were blessed with more stunning sunsets and I’ll warn you now, there will be lots more of them coming!

The Tech’s from Florida Keys Marine Diesel, who service MAN engines, met us at the dock and spent the day changing out the engine oil and fuel filters. Just for context, it takes 44 gallons (194 liters) of oil to service both engines! They also replaced the 12 fuel filters (6 per engine) primed the fuel system and had us ready to head North!

Stay tuned cause next week we share a little incident that took place while at the Lauderdale YC that created some excitement!