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We arrived Saturday morning, 0800, at Port Everglades. We hung out for a while at Lake Sylvia, to avoid the worst of the current at our home dock; Susan and Leigh made a reconnaissance mission in the dink to check the current and set a couple of lines. When we got back to Raconteur, JP said - go check out that cat - it might be the French couple we met early in the journey, on Saltimbanque des Flots. Sure enough, it was them. They were trying to find propane, because they were setting off for the Bahamas crossing overnight. We took their tanks, then made our way to 777 Bayshore. JP brought her safely into the dock, stern-to, around 1:45 in the afternoon.
After we got settled, JP and Susan took the tanks to the propane dealer, and dinghied them back to Lake Sylvia in the late afternoon...but not without mishap. The dink hit something in the ICW that sheared the bung and the cord holding it, so they limped to the stern of Saltimbanque with Susan on hands and knees trying to keep her afloat. Luckily, with the pieces and parts aboard SDF and her fellows, they were able to do a field repair, stay for a beer or two, and make it safely back to Raconteur.
Since then, we have made a permanent repair to Scheherazade, had a diver and an electrician, and replaced most of the Lewmar hatches (two will have to wait for the wind to subside, and one for the parts to arrive); we also held a Boat Parade party, strung lights on the lifelines and forestay, and set up our Christmas tree.

Day 47: Fort Pierce and a possible weather window

The lazy blogger returns. We stayed at Hammock Beach until Saturday the 27th, then headed south again. We overnighted at Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach, had a stroll in the historic (Florida-historic) downtown, dined on Thai food, and started to ponder the inside/outside question. Uncle NOAA said conditions for outside would not be favorable until Thursday the 2nd earliest, so we replotted a more leisurely trek toward the best inlet, at Fort Pierce.
First stop on Sunday night was the SE corner of the NASA Causeway/Addison Point Bridge. We cooked the quail that we had picked up in Isle of Hope, and Leigh's famous fried cabbage (handed down from Pearl to Virginia to Beth) for JP's birthday (alas, no cake - bad planning) and had a good night despite the rather blustery conditions.
We had a rainy slog to Melbourne, even a short period of low visibility. We have been very fortunate in our weather for nearly the whole trip (aided by our ability to stay put whenever we felt like it) so no big complaints. Stayed two nights at Melbourne Harbor, mostly because Captain JP caught himself a cold. Nice marina w a good dock bar restaurant steps from the boat (Ichabod's) and a good if expensive Chart House right around the inlet "corner". We made up for the no birthday cake with a shared chocolate lava cake and vanilla ice cream (yes, we had dinner too).
Left Melbourne a little before 8 yesterday and headed for the last (??) ICW stop before home port. The weather window had shifted out a bit but has stayed at Friday/Saturday for several days so we plan to head out the inlet tomorrow, targeting the all-too-necessary slack tide that will occur around 1245 Saturday for our arrival at 777 Bayshore.
Cool to cold at the moment (in the 40's) so the silks will have to come out one more time tomorrow.