Arriving in Florida 

The weather was nice and mild it was around 8pm and actually still the same date we had left Melbourne.

We hailed a taxi from the taxi rank OMG

Once we were in the taxi we realised the meter was turned off the Id on the dashboard was not our driver and the driver had no idea where to go!!

The taxi pulled into a dark deserted car park to install google maps onto his phone, Craig had to help him and it took ages, I’m thinking "oh no it’s a set up" totally expecting  a car full of scary dudes with guns were going to pull up any minute, rob us and leave us standing there with only the clothes on our backs.

But no they got google running and we were on our way.

We had booked one night at an airb&b close to the airport, just a room and shared bathroom in a downstairs apartment it was nice and clean and we virtually fell into bed, Craig had managed to sleep a bit during the flights but I had binge watched movies and eaten everything offered, of course.

Our first day - 

The airb&b was clean and comfortable and we asked if we could book a 2nd night but no they had another booking. it’s a bit scary being in a new country without a plan.

We had paid $10,000 deposit on a boat called Santa Lucura it was from Brazil and had been brought up to be sold in Miami,  where there is a bigger selling market, the photos looked ok and our broker who was based on the other side of Florida had asked a friend to inspect it and she had said it was an 8/10 so we were excited.

We had purchased a USA sim card at the airport so the local dealer was able to message us via our original broker it got a bit confusing, anyway he offered to pick us up and show us through Santa lacura that morning yay.

An hour and a half later we were still waiting ! 

Eventually he arrived and we climbed into his car, having arranged to leave our suitcases at the airb&b for the morning.

Miami is huge, I really only saw it from the expressway going over the city  - everyone drives really fast and on the other side of the road, I was all eyes.

We were taken to a city marina where we traversed over a rickety metal gang plank onto Santa Lacura. 

She was filthy outside, the canvas dodger was old and torn, the sails apparently had not been used much but you could easily see where they were wound up that they were all cracked and deteriorating, Craig was so disappointed. There was a huge stainless steel structure on the back where you would winch up the dingy it was odd and impractical and looked like a Christmas tree.

Inside was no better, the boat was full of junk, it was filthy, I know everything can be cleaned, but for example the blinds were all mouldy and torn and would have to be replaced, she was certainly not an 8/10 and definitely was not worth the money they were asking. By that time it was drizzly rain and we were quite miserable. 

We did have a bit of a plan B, but we needed to hire a car, while the broker was driving us back to the airb&b he realised he was running an hour late for his next appointment, he had not changed his clocks after daylight savings over the weekend. We believed him as he seemed very unorganised. So to save time Craig google searched for a car hire close by and we asked him to drop us off, we turned off the freeway into the industrial back lots of Miami, he apologised and drove off leaving us at the dodgiest car rental place ever !! I guess he knew we were not going to buy his boat.

I thought the guy in the car rental place was nice and helpful but Craig felt we had been ripped off as we were standing in his office with really no other option.  We drove away in a reasonable car we hired for 1 week

In hindsight we were lucky we chose the unlimited mileage package.

Craig did such a good job of driving on the other side of the road, to this day I’m in awe of this skill.