On the cusp of the holidays, I wish I could report on our many sailing adventures and new ports of call over the last month, but the dock lines refuse release their grasp of the cleats. I have managed to get a few projects ticked off the list. I replaced the throttle cable, a small job that, like so many things on a boat, turned into an epic when I could not get the transmission to engage when the new cable was installed. After much hypothesizing and experimentation with no success, I read the directions and damn if the thing didn't begin to work properly. If all else fails read the directions.

Thanks to an early x-mas gift from Polly & Bud, Anne's grandparents, we purchased ourselves a joint X-mas gift... a Garmin Chart plotter. I installed the unit a few days ago. I placed the new unit on the existing swing arm that extends into the companion way, and mounted the existing black and white unit near the electrical panel. The older unit will now serve as a backup.

We purchased some Bristol Finish for the exterior wood, but the rains won't seem to hold off for long enough (work won't hold off either) for us to tackle the exterior wood.

We hope to spend a few days over X-mas on the boat. I'll be sure to keep you updated if we finally escape the dock.

The image included was taken from the upstairs front room of the lodge here on Sunset Island looking WSW across Chokoloskee Bay and Indian Key Pass. Yall come vist now, ya hear.