Refitting - Before tropical storm Debby dumped her deluge, we were able to get the mainsail measured and in the works. Since this was our first time we were happy to learn from an expert--Scott Loomis. He also noticed that our staysail needed restitching and promptly took care of that as well. We are still planning to take the genoa down for restitching, but the rain delayed our plans until this week.

Another refit that needed to be done was our dodger. After Beryl's winds in St. Simon's, we noticed that we had a few cracked places in the clear plastic. It was time for a new one. We tried several places here in Vero, but the soonest it could be done was 6 weeks. It appears that the canvas maker in Key West will get our business in a few weeks.

We had better luck with our bicycle repairs. They are ready to be picked up today. A winter on the boat had left them with rusted chains and handlebars. The new stainless steel ones (although expensive) should do the trick.

Relaxation What could possibly be better than spending some long afternoons holding baby Ben--nothing, as far as this Nana is concerned! Ric and I also drove over to Bonita Springs, picked up my mother and brought her over to meet her first great-grandson. As a special treat, we brought some pink gulf shrimp over in a cooler and Mom made her famous fried shrimp. We had a great time visiting with Alex, Rachel and the baby.

After a very rainy drive back to Bonita, we spent a week relaxing with Mom. Debby's slow pace gave us four rainy days to shop, visit and watch TV, but the weather was nice the last few days. We took advantage of that by going to the pool and beautiful Bonita Beach. Because of the storm, shelling was particularly good. I've never seen so many fighting conks in one place, as there were on the point of Big Hickory Pass. We collected about thirty "dead ones" excluding the one with a hermit crab in residence, whose pinchers quickly alerted me to my mistake. Then we started throwing the live ones back into the gulf. That is, until we rounded the jetty and realized that there were thousands...not merely hundreds of them. I was reminded of "The Starfish" story that is often used as an educational allegory.
(http://llerrah.com/thestarfish.htm)

Now we are back in Vero Beach doing some boat chores and visiting with friends and family. We are looking forward to a front row seat to the fireworks tomorrow night, as they will be launched from an island near the marina. Happy Fourth of July!