Happy Canada Day!!!
01 July 2013
July 1st, 2013 (Monday)
Happy Canada Day!!!!! Hope it's been bright and sunny on Grand Manan today. My hubby, Carson, was born and raised on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada and he remains a Canadian citizen. We're both proud of it!!! All of our children were born on Grand Manan and are both Canadian and US citizens. I guess you might say we have a mixed marriage..... (lol)
The weather remains the same (hot & humid) and it's not going to change anytime soon.... What can you expect in the Florida Keys? Sunday evening we had a squall come through... (Winds up to 45 to 50 from the south.) We had already taken our wind scoops in and dogged down the hatches and latched the portholes. Everything, that could possible fly off, was already moved from the cockpit so we didn't lose anything. Today it's been cloudy with wind gusts up to 30 but so far no rain.
We've had a problem with getting the batteries charged back up after the hot water heater breaker was somehow turned on accidently... (We have 520 watts of solar energy from 4 solar panels and a wind generator also.) So Sunday evening hubby ordered a generator.... (It never ends. BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand.) It'll more than take care of the freezer, "icebox", and battery charging. (If I'm very lucky maybe even cool the boat off a little, at night, so we can sleep better....) It will be nice to have be able to watch a DVD or VCR tape in the evenings, again....
Walked to the library in "town" today ... (Anyone who's been in the Keys knows it has one road that runs straight down from Key Largo to Key West so "town", as a "Northerner" would describe one physically, is a misnomer for sure. ) The walk only takes about eight minutes but it's almost as noisy as a street in a city, minus the jackhammers and construction workers. The traffic whizzes by you, at more than thirty MPH. There isn't a buffer zone between you and the traffic except for a painted white line. I swear sometimes they (car drivers) like to see how close they can come to a person before they force you to move further into the bushes! Interesting walk today... I spent about three hours, in the air conditioned library, catching up on reading magazines and of course, checking out another book to read.
Carson was able to rig a way to pump the water from the containers, that were loaded in the dinghy, into the boat's water tank. Because we have a high freeboard, on the Carson G II, Carson had used a pulley system to raise the containers up to the deck, and then manhandle the containers over to the opening for the water tank. Those containers are not lightweights.... (50 lbs a piece when filled)
We're planning on taking in some of the 4th of July festivities, at Sombrero Beach, in Marathon. There's to be a parade, live music, food, and then a "sky concert - fireworks". Hope the weather is good....
That's it for now.....