Kayte's Departure
01 December 2014
• Titusville FL
by Mike
This has been a sad but proud day. Kayte's visit with us is over and she is off back to work but in the midst of wishing she didn't have to go there is still a huge element of pride in the success she has achieved in her career and the respect in which she is held by her peers and superiors. Still, I can't help remembering the tiny little of squalling bundle that drew first breath in the delivery room in the Liverpool hospital and which I could only stare at through the nursery window with my head swimming and the blood pounding in my ears. It seemed like an eternity before they let me hold her and then I had to sit down to make sure I didn't fall down or drop her. Huge change from the infant to the tall glamorous profession woman she has become.
Last night, as a sort of final Christmassy thing to do during her visit, we went to an event put on by the town called Lights of Hope, a sort of light display with music, vendors and crafts. It really was quite remarkable with coloured lights bent into all sorts of shapes, for example - Santa surfing, space shuttle, elves working and playing. There was even a maze to negotiate which truth be told almost defeated us. But the really clever thing was a sort of treasure hunt for elves that were hidden throughout the park on the lights - an elf at the entrance, an elf riding a wagon, another riding a reindeer, ten in total. Once you found them all you go to one of the booths and get a small prize. Fun for the kids and fun to the adults too.
The new VHF radio delivery has been moved up a day so we might be able to get away after the launch on Thursday. We'll fuel up and get on the way down the ICW. Our friends Alan and Heather are planning to arrive on Wednesday and to stay for the launch. With them is his cousin Jim and his wife aboard their boat so if all goes according to plan we may be a flotilla of three heading south.
It may rain overnight so today is a day to do boat jobs. The biggest and most important one is to resolve how we get Peri his permit to enter the Bahamas. It might not seem like a big deal but the bureaucracy there is unbelievable! It is the Department of Agriculture who holds the whip hand and they don't have a clue about tourism nor especially the cruising tourist. We can send off and get a permit fairly easily but the permit comes with a document that we have to take to a vet to certify Peri's health within 24 hours of us arriving in the country. Now I ask you, how can you be sure that you are going to get a vet appointment within a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream? I guess it pretty much confirms that we have to go from Miami to Bimini so if the weather is crappy we don't have to put up with it for too long. It was the same last time and there was a nine day period between the vet appointment and that time customs stamped his form and they didn't care. It's only the Dept Ag bureaucrats that seem to have a burn on for this and I'll bet the person Barb was speaking to on the phone didn't have any idea of the reason for the rule.
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