Tuesday, March 3, 2015

February 27, 28, March 1, 2015 New Plan

2-27-15
OK, new plan.  This thought started formulating last night and we made it happen today.  We have been planning to have Dave’s mom, Alice who is 82, join us in the Bahamas.   But there were so many unknowns for making plans.  Since we are going to be here on the coast of Florida for close to a week (because of weather), we decided to have her join us here instead of the Bahamas.  She won’t get to use her new passport, but maybe next year. 

We checked with her last night to see if she could leave by Sunday or Monday if flights were available and not outrageous.  She was all for it, since it would get her out of cold MN now and be cheaper and easier. 

Then we called our friends in Rapid City that owned a travel agency, Lisa Moderick.  They sold the agency, but she assured me the new agency in Rapid City would have all the same options as an agency in Florida.  Someone from their agency called me before I could get our wifi to connect.  And it was Gloria that we have known for over 10 years.  Pete used to date her daughter in high school.  Well, we found great connections and a decent fare.  So she called Alice and put it all together.  My dad used to call this “good old American know WHO”

We spent the rest of the day researching marinas in the area with a pool and beach access.  We are going to VACATION for a week.  We want Alice to have plenty of sunshine and relaxing.  She hasn't seen our boat, so that will be fun for her, too.

It was raining off and on all day.  Dave’s comment this morning was “I hope all that water stays outside of the boat today.”  Actually, we have had a slow leak on a hatch for a while now and finally figured out what needs to be done to repair it.  At least he knows what to try first. 

On these cloudy days, our solar panels don’t keep up with our daily usage (refrigerator, lights, fans, charging phones and computers).  So we ran the generator for awhile this  morning and tonight.  Always a balance.

2-28-15
Lazy Saturday making plans for our visitor, Alice.  We decided to return north about 10  miles to Jupiter, FL while she is here.  We were there in November and really liked the area.  Everything here and south is so congested or expensive.  There is a marina in Jupiter that has a pool and is a couple blocks from the beach.  We can dinghy to restaurants.  And the water is a beautiful clear blue. 

We lined up a rental car.  Sat outside in our cockpit during the rain today.  Then Dave made an awesome pasta.  He had made pesto with spinach a couple days ago.  So he added pecans, sun dried tomatoes, black olives, mozzarella cheese and shrimp to the angel hair pasta.  Yum Yum. 

3-1-15
Day of organizing and cleaning.  It was great to have some sunshine.  We got into our “spring cleaning”.  Dave worked on the outside.  He started with sealing the gaskets on two port lights (not windows).  The gaskets are cut and placed around the frame.  Then they are sealed where the ends meet.  Well whoever sealed it before didn’t do a very good job.  So he cleaned that out and resealed 2 port lights, the forward head and the starboard saloon overhead.  I would call this a hatch.  I think of a port light as not being able to open.  So hatch or port light, as long as they don’t leak, I don’t care what you call them.  

He also scrubbed the deck, put 15 gallons of diesel fuel from our jerry cans into our fuel tank, and aired out our spinnaker.  We have been storing the spinnaker in a bag on the deck at the bow.  Some moisture got into the bag, so it was good to just air it out. 

I cleaned our galley.  I took everything out of our cupboards, cleaned the shelves and the liners, and replaced everything with a little rearranging.  I could see mildew on the wall of the hull, which is the back of the cabinet, and wanted to get that cleaned up.  I also put some things in storage that aren’t used often.  I cleaned around the stove/oven and the sinks.  You’d think my mother-in-law was coming to visit.  Oh wait, she will be here tomorrow. 

We ran the generator this evening to make water again.  Then we are going to “pickle” the water maker.  We will be at a marina for a week while Alice is with us, so we won’t need to make water.  Pickling it keeps the lines clean when it’s not in use.  We'll wait until we get to the marina and have endless power. 

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