17 days, 16 hours - 04:00, we have arrived at the dock!  Time for a celebration drink and then good night!  Snowflake, standing by on 16.

The repairs to the autopilot have been completed.  Now the boat and crew are ready to make the run to Key West.  We are waiting on the high tide to lift us off the bottom and provide sufficient depth to permit clear passage out of the Ft Lauderdale channel.  This should be by about 18:00 EDT.  With leaving in the evening, our 36 hour run to Key West will put us in the morning. That will be our last fuel stop before we cross the Gulf of Mexico. 

We would need double our fuel capacity running the engine the way we ran down the east coast.  The adverse current and light wind kept us motoring at higher RPMs.  To conserve fuel, we will need some favorable winds to help speed our crossing, because commitments for the crew are becoming a concern.

We are scooting down the Florida coast, finally making some progress against the Gulf Stream. It is one thing to understand that the Gulf Stream is a river of water flowing northward along the east coast, quite another when your knot meter indicates you are moving at 7.5 knots but GPS say, sorry you are only going 4.5 knots!

Anyway, we are getting ready to pull into Ft Lauderdale for a day and half layover. Clean up the boat, clean up the crew, repair the autopilot, re-provision the boat, fuel up and make the final push down around the Keys and across the Gulf!

We are all well and looking forward to a hot shower and a little rum! More later - Snowflake standing by on 16 - Out.