Hauling the heavy bags onto our backs, we set off in search of the car rental area - what turned out to be a total MISSION away using bouncy travelators to speed up the route. Our old faithfuls Enterprise were our company of choice and never failing to please they gave us a free upgrade to a Dodge Avenger - butch name, butch car! As I quickly realised, everything in the US is big and I was very glad we had already decided that Dylan would do all the driving, considerably bigger than the Daewoo Matiz (0.8) that I was used to driving back home. Things got off to an interesting start when we attempted to navigate the car park in the opposite direction to the one way system, all smiles and waves we did a quick u turn and sped out into the night before any further embarrassment was caused.
Continuous chanting of 'driving on the right' got us to Ft Lauderdale in one piece, unfortunately Dylan only figured out how to use cruise control 4 days into driving having already clocked up 900 miles.
Up till now we had made do with our UK phones on pay as you go but this was proving costly when ringing in the US. Sprint (an unknown company to us) was the first phone shop we came across and we purchased a 'boost' package which gave us a very simple phone and then $2 a day from then on as long as we want to use it for giving us unlimited minutes to anywhere in the US.
From Fort Pearce we headed to St Augustine and as we were rounding the bend near another boat yard that could potentially have our ideal yacht...the cop car behind us started flashing his lights. Pulling over we start to rack our brains for what we could have done wrong, driving licence and rental agreement at the ready, we wind down the window, our eyes in a direct line to his very shiny belt complete with taser gun. Turns out we rolled at a stop sign, knuckles rapped we got away with a warning and went on our way - from then on Dylan was like a person who was on his driving test, all signs and speed limits strictly adhered to!
Having clocked up so many miles of driving on the interstates (although quick, there is nothing much to see), we went to check out the famous Daytona and Flagler beach on the A1A highway. WOW what a view, with stretches of ocean or intracoastal highway to see, we crawled at a snails pace as we oohed and aaaahed our way south. The property in the area was a sight to be seen, mostly on stilts they offered uninterrupted views of the ocean, real estate to aspire towards!
Having taken a sharp right from Daytona Beach we headed to St Petersburg to view boats on the west coast and then made our way back to Miami via the Everglades on the southern tip of Florida. Having no choice but to watch Swamp Monsters when Dylan was in charge of the remote, I had a new respect for their profession, seeing stereotypical swamp boats driving around the mangroves and thinking of all the crocodiles that could be lurking in the greenery!
Back in Miami we stayed with a friend of Dylan's right near the beach. Alex (an ex work colleague of Dylan's) invited us to a Puerto Rican BBQ and it was here that we got our first lesson in Caribbean rum. Having only tasted the western version of rum such as Malibu, Captain Morgans and Bacardi, it was an eye opener to see, smell and taste the bottles and bottles of home made rum with different fermenting fruit inside. What friendly, hospitable people and it only put more pressure on us to get this boat found, bought and sailed to the Caribbean ASAP!
No trip to Florida is complete without visiting the Keys so it was on day 2 that we decided to day trip to Key West. Five hours worth of driving one way was a little steep but totally worth it. With 120 miles of Overseas Highway to travel on and 42 bridges to cross, it made for a fantastic drive. At some points it feels like you are driving on water with only ocean on both sides of you and not a car in sight.
Pelicans are sat staring at you from the sides of the road and almost every town has a dive school, fishing shop and seafood restaurant specialising in their local crab (stoned crab). Key West was our destination and once we had mastered the horrific one way system in the town (seeing a pattern here?) we headed to Fort Zachary Taylor Park. A magnificent white coral beach surrounded by palm trees where we soaked up the sunshine before making the 5 hour ride back to Miami.
Dylan's birthday today as I write and his only birthday request was to have a lie in and go for a walk along the beach. Man of simple needs he didn't even want a present and I suppose why would you, having not worked for a month now and with 11 more months of Caribbean sailing in front of us can life really get much better than this?!
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