Fuelling up and a negative recce trip
01 February 2009
• Gulfport, Florida
by Mike
Today started off with something new that Chris and Barb discovered yesterday in the grocery store - pancakes from an aerosol dispenser. I must admit that I had a few reservations about it, not the least of which was the image of pancake batter flying out of the can the moment that the nozzle was pressed and spraying all over the cabin, but I needn't have worried; the pancakes were easy to make and delicious.
I made a trip to a local auto parts dealer and got him to get 8 gal of diesel engine motor oil for us to be delivered prior to Friday. He will also supply a quick release part for the compressor that I have that I hope I will be able use with the hookah system to shallow dive on the boat. We then took Nelleke over to the marina fuel dock and filled her tanks and got her one step closer to our departure this coming Friday. We were of two minds as to what we were going to do today, head directly back to our slip or go out for a day on the boat. The weather wasn't so great but at the end, in the interest of giving Chris and Taunya at least one day's trip in the boat even if it was under power we decided to go out for a short cruise. In my mind it had a dual purpose - the cruise with Tanya and Chris and allow me to recce the spots where we were hoping to anchor for the night prior to setting off to Punta Gorda. As it turned out it was good that we did the recce as there was no place where we could anchor and take the dog ashore. Most of the places had great big signs "NO PETS". Peri's nose was quite out of joint. We will probably stay at the slip and leave directly and sail south rather than an overnight at one of the offshore keys of the Tampa Approaches. Too bad. This means a late afternoon departure from Gulfport and and overnight sail with an arrival at breakfast time the next day.
We had a nice cruise regardless with dolphins accompanying us for some of the route and mostly sunshine although the wind did add a significant chill factor. In the end we came back to the dock after three hours and Chris and Taunya took they kayak out for a paddle. I can't wait to see if they come back still speaking to each other. A double kayak is often called the divorce boat for good reason. Although Taunya is such a sweetie and so easy going it is hard to imagine what would upset her so much that she would lose it with Chris. He's lucky to have found a lady with that kind of temperament.
Last night Chris helped one of the local fishermen get his boat ashore and as a reward he gave him some of his catch - a bunch of stone crab claws which he and his Mom stayed up late last night cooking and cleaning. Today Barb is making crab cakes from a recipe that she found in one of our seafood cookbooks. That is what we will have for dinner tonight. Yummmmm!
One other thing, I didn't mention is yesterday's post that I finally got around to trying to fix the leak in the septic system. Once I took up the floorboards it was obvious that there was a leak at one corner of the inspection plate of the holding tank. Whoever last took it off to inspect the tank didn't tighten all the bolts properly with the result that there was a slow drip, drip, drip from the aft lower corner. Delightful! At least fixing that problem was relatively easy, but then I was faced with the charming job of cleaning up the bilge. Good thing that I have a strong stomach. The washdown hose was brought aboard and everything was hosed down and the bilge pump did the final duty of pumping stuff away. Sorry, Poop Police. This ain't a confession so don't bother to come knocking. Several people have told me that holding tanks always spell a little especially as we have run out of the deodorizer chemical to put inside after a pumpout.
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