I have been rather lax on writing our blog since we arrived in Florida January 11. It has been busy as usual, but an extra stick has been thrown into our launching cog. Our insurance company wanted an insurance survey, to be sure that our boat is fit to cruise the Bahamas?! Now really, it is not that surprising, when there are literally thousands of boats destroyed in Hurricane Ian. As you drive down the road, 1/2 mile from the sea, there are 40 foot boats laying in driveways. Crazy. We were in downtown Fort Myers today, and it is staggering to see over 100 sunken boats in one marina. And very sad.
The survey was performed on Thursday, and the usual things were pointed out. Flares out of date this April, fire extinguishers need annual test, etc. There are some areas of moisture by a couple of through hulls, which we may have to pull and re-seal.
This in addition to the dozens of clean up, storing new groceries, painting the bottom with anti fouling, cleaning the dingy, which got really dirty over the past 8 months. We had stored it upside down on 4x4s, but someone wanted that space, and dragged it onto the dirt. That dirt leached into the plastic, staining it badly. Susan valiantly fought to get it back to white, but I believe we shall have to get used to mottled Cream Colour, with black spots!
I have had my 15 hp motor in a Mechanics shop in Cape Coral. This old Vietnam helicopter pilot works out of his garage, and he is awesome! Last of the old school, fix ''em type of guy. Down here, most shops will not even look at an outboard over 5 years old! They want to play on the 300, 400, and 600 hp motors, and obviously get a lot more payback working on those!
While I have been enriching the Marine Supply stores, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot, Susan has been doing the same with Grocery stores. Stockpiling he boat with essentials for 3 months is a challenge. Freeport, and Nassau have good grocery outlets, but when you leave those ports, you have to be self sufficient. The other interesting part is finding places to store the items. The other part is "balance". We have a large amount of space under the settees on the port (right) side of the boat. However, if you put all the cans there, the boat would tilt to the right. Darn, one more item to figure out.
Susan and my calf's are looking pretty tight now. Living on a boat " on the hard" is no fun. No toilet (head), 15 amps of power, so no stove, no hot water, and only 750 watts of heat allowed ( it's been down to freezing here at night)!
To get on the boat, we climb 5 steps to the swim grid, and the another 4 to the aft deck. Then you go down 5 to the aft cabin. Then, you realize you left the keys in the car, reverse the process, and reverse again. That's 32 steps. We do this at least 50 times a day. No requirement for a gym!
The great news is that the boat is all coming together, it survived two hurricanes with virtually no damage, except got dirty. There are thousands of boaters that would trade places with us in a heartbeat!
Also, my buddy, Bill Murphy, from London Ontario is here with his wife in LaBelle. It's great to visit with him again.