We changed our home port on the boat. We were originally told that you had to have the name of your home port match where your boat was registered, which was Daphne, Alabama. Well, after we became citizens of Florida last summer, we did our own research into what home port we could use. We had all kinds of authorities telling us definite answers. So we went straight to the US Coast Guard, since we are registered with them (not all boats have to be, but ours already was when we bought it). They said it can be any US city that we want! So we went back to Rapid City, SD as our home port.
Back to the procedure. First we had to change all the proper paperwork with the US Coast Guard and wait for that to clear before changing it on the boat. There were a few other agencies we had to change the home port with, too. Then we found a sign company back in North Carolina last fall to make the letters to match the font and color of the name of the boat.
While in Georgia, we planned to have the boat out of the water in early January and just change the name at that time. Well the boat was out and in the same day. So back in the slip, Dave removed the old name off of the boat while I was in South Dakota. Then just this week, we place the new port: Rapid City, SD. Everyone looks at your boat to see where you are from. So we believe having Rapid City on there will generate a few conversations. Just today, someone from Montana come over to talk to Dave and shared fly fishing stories. They generally ask “where did you sail in SD” or “how did you get that boat here from SD”.
I know it looks like Dave did all the work, but someone had to stop working long enough to take pictures. |
Provisioning. I think I mentioned this before, but we are trying to see if we can supply the boat for 4 months. We will supplement with fresh fish, fruits and vegetables in the Bahamas, but trying to cover everything else. Once we stored our earlier shopping spree purchases, I came up with a list of things we forgot or thought we had more of. But at some point you have to say “enough is enough”.
I updated my application of “what’s on my boat” in my phone. Now we’ll see if I can keep it up to date. I am also going to use a master list to see what we started with and what we end up with. Then I will be able to track if we were correct in our estimating. We hope this will help on future passages.
Then there is always laundry and cleaning of the boat.
While we had the car earlier this week, we drove to Darien, about 20 miles from here, for dinner. Someone told Dave about a little restaurant that has a buffet with Georgia shrimp, BBQ ribs and rib eye steaks. It was very good. But if we ever return, we think we’ll have one person order shrimp and one order the ribs or rib eye and just share with each other. Earlier in the week they have chicken and pizza, so check the menu if you plan to go.
We are also looking at weather and tides to plan our departure. We have gone back and forth about going through the ICW or on the outside. The first leg of the ICW has to be done at hight tide, or close to. Well that happens to be 4:00 am or 4:00 pm this time of year. Then we thought about doing an overnight on the outside, but the weather has been windy and cold, so outside at night may be pretty miserable. So we are leaning towards the ICW to start with and go outside when we are further south and warmer.
I guess you’ll have to wait for my next update to find out how it goes.
Happy Valentine's Day!!
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