December/2008, Aruba to the B.V.I.
We are back from a wonderful adventure! A freind has a 50 foot catamaran and wanted some help moving her to the BVI for the winter. We flew into Aruba and the boat left right away the next morning for our crossing. The first two days at sea were very windy with swells building to 10 to 12 feet. Poor Steve spent about 36 hours with his head in a bucket. Can you imagine not being able to go inside the boat for that long trying to focus on the horizon? He was a trooper though, by the third day the seas had calmed considerable and by the 4th day we could see Puerto Rico as we passed by on the way to the BVI. Steve was in great shape by this time and we had just gone below to check each other for ticks when the boat passed a pod of 5 whales sleeping on the surface. Oh Well!
The 4 days in the BVI had fabulous temps and wind. Every day was warm and sunny with cool nights - truly paradise. We visited a few of the usual spots including Foxy's, Cane Garden Bay and Marina Cay. We stopped for a short snorkel at the caves on Norman Island. I am looking forward to next year when we can explore every harbor and snorkel spot! When we were leaving and Morgan dropped us off at the dingy dock in Trellis Bay, it is about a block walk to the airport. All we could think of was - next year this will be us dropping friends off at the airport and we will be the ones staying.
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October/2008, Tampa Bay
Steve is retired from the corporate world and currently doing his dream job - starter at a golf course, and I recently was affected by a downsizing at my company when they sold off my division. I was going to quit fall of '09 anyway so we decided to push the date up to this spring if we could get everything ready. We now have decided to stick with the original fall date for starting this journey.
Most of the cosmetic work is done, but then I had the easy part. We will need to refinish the deck now that the weather is cooling down. All Electronics are in except for a new wind indicator to tie into the C80. Steve now has the refrigeration working and I was very excited to learn that I was not going to be at the mercy of hauling ice to keep food cold. He is in the middle of installing a new toilet and has rebuilt the floor under it. I am most excited about the purchase of a water-maker! To have unlimited water is going to be a real treat. Ah - showers! Next on his list is a new cook-top. We most likely will not have an oven and I am experimenting with baking on the grill using a pizza stone.
Before we leave Steve will go over the entire engine then we will haul out and paint the bottom, pack the cutlass bearing as well as any other work that needs to be done on the bottom.
This is all very exciting and our dream is coming closer to reality.
| Getting The Boat Ready |
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