Hurricane season is over!!! We just spent the last five months in Jacksonville doing a refit of DreamCatcher, she is 16 years old and when we left in January we had no idea how much work needed to be done to her. It was a real blessing we spent the time, as the holding tank had corroded through (Bruce removed it and now we have a flexible holding tank), and we also discovered a hole in the diesel tank (keep those wood plugs away from aluminum tanks!). That repair required emptying the tank, a large hole cut out of our floor, welding a patch, installing an inspection port and putting the floor back down – FUN!

Refit rundown: The other big items were new Corian in the galley (it’s gorgeous!), new Bimini with connector, side windows and sunscreens, two additional solar panels, new freezer unit, a Flexiteek cockpit floor, we deteaked everything except the coaming and handrails, all stanchions have been rebedded/repaired/replaced, toerail now painted with black EasyPoxy, dink refurbished, liferaft inspected, 34 sewing projects, two new Trex boards to mount eight jerry cans (with Sunbrella covers), all winches serviced, new composting head, rigging tuned, six coats of Cetol on the two remaining teak areas, and she’s been cleaned and waxed! There were dozens of other small items, plus the purchase of spares and provisions. Bruce also took the time and earned his General HAM license. WHEW! It’s time to go cruising!

We laughed about this summer – we retired, but it seems we traded our jobs for new ones that don’t pay anything! We are sure that we greatly boosted the Jacksonville economy by tons of $$$$!

We did make a few trips via land yacht during our time in the states – we visited our friends Don & Suzy at their condo in Destin, attended the Annapolis Sailboat show and stayed with Bruce’s sister Paula, then Bruce walked Lindsay down the aisle in October in Wilmington, North Carolina. We gave Lindsay and Andrew an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas (on DreamCatcher) for a wedding gift – we are looking forward to seeing them in early March. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday at my brother and FSIL’s, returning to Jacksonville via MegaBus ($1.50 for both of us!).

Our immediate plans are to head to southern Florida, cross to the Northern Bahamas then work all the way south thru them and on to Central America for next hurricane season. But as you know, all our plans are firmly set in jello. Stay tuned – DreamCatcher is on the move again!