Getting ready for lift off
15 March 2015
• Indiantown FL
by Mike
'Twas nice to be just sitting on the boat last night at dinner and looking out the portholes and seeing turtles and Crocagators swimming by. A turtle came by last night and although the signs here said no feeding the gators they didn't say anything about turtles so we fed this one. Remember those cute little baby turtles that we used to get when we were kids? They would live in a little plastic bowl with a ramp and an island with a plastic palm tree in the middle. The ones we had as pets never seemed to last very long. You would always have a sad day that you noticed that they don't do well if you hadn't fed them in a week, or if you changed their water and didn't let the choline gas off first, of you left their bowl in the sun one day, and you would find their little smelly corpses floating in their bowl. Well, if left to their own devices in the wild these things grow up and what a picky bunch they are. After a couple of mouthfuls they are looking for more and different stuff. Little beggars. Then, suddenly charging into the midst of everything comes the damn crocogator and muscled his way into where the food was being served. Big bully!
Today we are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, if we had to we could probably move our schedule to the left about two days but I think I would rather leave us the wiggle room in case we have any problems....touch wood.... We have confirmed that there is enough clean oil in the engine for the summer, we have removed all the sails and gotten them ready for transport (yes, I said transport. We will be taking them home for servicing over the summer by sailmaker Barb), we have just about concluded the packing, in fact the cabins look like our houses have just before moving day, I cleaned out the shower sump, and I tried to get the blades off the wind generator only to find that I don't have the right sized Allan wrench available, so I simply tied off the blades so they couldn't spin. We have reached the point where we are saying to ourselves and each other, "Enough! Enough! That'll do it for the day!" I guess we are being a bit lazy but in this sun I just couldn't push myself any further. Today that time was around noon and I was beginning to wish for a rain shower.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, little Barb is hard at work trying to get us set up on this Local Boater program that is now available for US and Canadian boaters. If you get in the program it is really useful as it allows you to clear customs by telephone when you come back into the U.S. or Canada from each other's or any other foreign country. The only problem is that it requires an interview and the interview must be set up through a website which is unbelievably poorly laid out, designed and hardly user friendly. She, Barb I mean, is sitting across the table from me alternately sighing in exasperation or screaming at the screen. If it were me I would have long ago said simply "Screw it!" and decided that they could keep this program if they are making it that hard to get into. Maybe that's the aim. They want to weed out all the folks that aren't determined enough to push on with it in spite of the problems.
Tomorrow we will be draining the oils and lube out of the outboards and putting the Suzuki into the boat and the Yamaha ready for travel. We still have to take down the Bimini, the dodger and the splash cloths, and cover the instrument panel but that isn't too much of a chore and we can do it before the sun comes up.
Sigh!
I am beginning to be looking forward to getting on with the trip home.
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