I had the best of intentions to start this blog in late October when we arrived in Fla. However...
So, we came from IN to the boat yard at Port Charlotte in late October, and We worked hard on the boat to get it ready to Launch.

The rudder needed to be removed and repaired as the whole bottom of the rudder had been sanded down to a ragged end. Steve fixed this by soothing down the end and applying new fiber glass and layering it. we had to wait to put the rudder back in place until just before we launched.

We had made a deal to replace our old leaking dinghy last year, but waited until this year to put the plan into reality (we didn't want to store a new dinghy for 6 months) so we took time to go to
Sarasota to pick up the new dinghy...with which we are very pleased. It has a bow step and a flat bottom inside the hull that makes it very easy to enter and exit. The tubes are the same size as the old one (18 "diameter) which helps to keep it very stable.

I washed everything down inside the boat to get rid of the shinny white film that all of last summers rains had encouraged to grow on everything, then tried to make a comfortable home for us by shopping and filling the pantry.

We scraped and painted the bottom of the sail boat. Not a fun job, but one that must be done every few years. Then we waxed and polished the top and sides of the boat...thank God for small electric polishing wheels.

During this time we had many friends in the boat yard to "Play with". Our Canadian friends Brian and Lynn arrived (Midori). We visited the Rotunda Country Club a few times for their Prime rib specials, fixed many good meals in "the Hut" (this is the tiki hut that has the showers, bathrooms, laundry, kitchen and barbecue area for the boat yard), visited with my cousins (Bill and Judy Stecher from Anderson, In and Venice,Fl), and the big break was a trip to Key West, by car, in early November to attend the Jimmy Buffett week of Meeting Of the Minds...MOTM. We met our good friends Mark and Trudy Litz and Bruce and Nancy Moreman for a great time listening to fantastic bands.

Lynn and I volunteered at the local Methodist church just before Thanksgiving to help fix food for the Big meal the church fixes for Thanksgiving, then we attended the dinner on Thanksgiving day with Brian and Lynn and Steve and Cindy, another couple from the boat yard. It was very good.

Oil and filter changes, reinstalling lines, fiber glassing the hull where a Nun Buoy had attacked us...just normal care and maintenance. This kept us busy until just after Thanksgiving.

Early In December, the ladies of the boatyard went to Fort Myers to help Ronnie, one of the boatyard owners, get her BIG beautiful log lodge home ready for the wonderful Christmas Party she has every year. We helped her set up her large collections...Snow Babies, Disney collections,
3 different villages, Santa's, snow-people, the trees, roping for stairs, and decks, etc. we worked 2 full days, helping...and the party the night of the 14th was fabulous...as usual. Always fun to attend because it is soo-oo "over the top".

Midori left the boatyard on the 16th of December and we left on the 17th.

We spent the night of the 17th in the basin near the locks so we would be able to get through the locks at midnight, on high rising tide. Our companions were Bill and Amy on ESTRELETTA. They have just returned from a 7 year circumnavigation and have many wonderful stories.

We then went across the bay and anchored till light. We had such a great morning we were able to get a good start towards Ft. Myers, where we planned to go.
Because the wind and water were so good for traveling we decided to go on further south...maybe do an overnight to Marathon. All was good until about 10:00pm when it started kicking up!

We were about 17 miles out on Fl Bay and the water and wind turned ugly, so we headed toward shore and calmer water. About midnight we were near Pavillion Key so we dropped anchor for the night. The next morning we were off again headed to Marathon. We arrived at seven mile bridge about 3:30 in the afternoon... about 30 minutes behind a green and white catamaran...MIDORI and we were assigned balls Q 9 and Q 10 respectively, then we headed to the UPPER CRUST with Brian and Lynn for pizza to celebrate Steve's birthday.