What a week or is two weeks since I last wrote… The crew have arrived safe and sound and have gotten straight into living life aboard Squander.

It’s been one of those weeks where a lot of big jobs got done quickly and many quick jobs took a looooong time!

The trusty Jeep has clocked up some miles running around town getting everything from new kiteboarding equipment for Dmitrij to essentials like rum and beer for all of us!

Vacuum sealing the sirloin steaks.

Squander looks tiny next to "Carpe Diem" – our 165 foot next door neighbour.

The sentiment has been very positive, with every little hiccup being a ‘lesson learnt’ or a ‘thank god it happened here not out there’. I think Squander is feeling the strain of having 4 blokes living aboard and is requesting an upgrade or two to cope with our demands.

The old liferaft – thankfully never used anyone want it??

The last week has seen us provision the boat with food and drinks, install new shelves, add fishing rod holders, test the dinghy and outboard, buy a new liferaft as the old one was deemed unserviceable in less then 3 weeks and even then would cost up to $1200 for the service, re-coded the boat EPIRB to Australian standards,

replaced the Battery charger that gave up the ghost last night,

installed 4 new house batteries,  re-tapped the old cleat and sealed it to the deck, , installed a Pactor modem for offshore email communications, pulled out the generator water pump for the second time and a did a bunch of little jobs in between – huge thanks to the guys on Carpe Diem (Jeff & Ben) who helped us out with many tips and Ben even made a new gasket for us that solved our generator water pump leaking problems!

And that’s just a start – poor old Squander is sitting about an extra foot lower in the water since our trips to the supermarket started.

Before I continue allow me to introduce our illustrious crew who today put the final touches on Squander by scrubbing the decks – in order of arrival.

Simon "Action" Fraumeni

Dmitrij "Camera" Filatov

Nathan "Strike" Harvey

We decided to give ourselves a well deserved night out in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday night – kicking off with  Dinner and a few quiet drinks at the Tarpen Bend in downtown.

Dmitrij was still a little jet lagged so he went home, where as us Aussies never really got taught the meaning of moderation – countless bars from live Punk rock to Coyote Uglys and god knows what else in between – We survived the night and crawled into bed around 4:00 am – Ouch!

The following night was a quiet dinner on the  boat and an early night.  

With batteries fully charged, we were back into full swing – making friends  around town.  Nathan learning the basics?!! Ha – look how good those decks look after the scrub!

Ben from Adamant marine joined us for dinner & a beer  – thanks for sorting out our Battery charger issues!!

See if you can spot Squander amongst the big boys?!

It’s 2:00am here and time for me to Sign out from the USA – if all goes to plan our next report will be from the Bahamas!

G.