It is time to get ready to go. I stopped working last week to get ready and sure enough, there have been problems to overcome. You think you keep ahead of your boat but you don't. Had Smitty, the local diesel expert mechanic, check the valves and listen to the engine. All OK, then I changed the oil and filters and found a pile of fuel soaked socks under the engine. What seemed like a glistening of fuel was really a film that was running off the engine and being absorbed by the fuel sock. Smitty came back and replaced O rings on the fuel pump and it is dry again.

Got the dinghy outboards out and sure nuff, the 5 hp Nissan wouldn't run. Started and died, started and died, etc. Remove the carb and clean it, started and ran fine. Got down the folding bike and the pedals were hard to crank. Remove the pedal crank, pull the bearings, clean and repack them, that was a task I hadn't done since the 1960's.

Update the computer charts, stock the larder, stock the wine and keep checking things.

The plan for the trip is a quick trip to Key West and then up the Keys to Miami. I need to get a shot for my breathing every two weeks so I might have to rent a car and come back home or try to get one in Miami. Once fortified again, I'll see if the weather allows a trip to the Abacos in the Bahamas. The idea being to take off right after a shot and then go without for a month. We'll see how it all works out.

Final preparations on the 17th included having to sew a new front hatch cover after an afternoon storm blew the old one overboard. On the 18th I found wear spots on the bimini top under the new solar panel. So off came the bimini so I could sew patches on it.

Underway about 11 AM under cloudy skies and strong winds from the south. Of course the route out of the harbor is southwest so the trip started with winds almost on the nose as usual. At Cape Haze, the course changes to the west and we sailed to Cayo Costa State Park at Boca Grande to await the forecast afternoon storm. Well, no storm and the winds died off instead of getting stronger. So day one was a 17 mile run to my normal anchorage. Forecast for tomorrow is strong west winds so I'll likely run the Intercoastal Waterway down to Sanibel and wait for better weather.