I guess the ads are right for Florida - it never rains and if it does, it's only for a short time and then the sun comes out again. I sure hope that holds true for when Chris and Taunya are visiting. Today is bright sun with slightly cooler temperatures. By cooler I mean that the temperatures have dipped to a mere 20 degrees - centigrade, of course. Cool by Florida standards, but a quantum leap to the warm side for someone coming here from January and February in Canada.

Today I wimped out of going to the intermediate watercolour course, opting, instead, for the beginner's until I see how much of whatever talent that I may have had is still there. This gave us the opportunity to do yet another laundry in Gulfport. I must say that doing laundry at the Gulfport Village Laundry is a pleasure. Not only do all the machines work properly, but there are different sizes for different types of laundry, plus the owner is usually in the Laundromat and she is great about giving sensible advice for which machine to use and what cycle to have it on.

After the laundry we went out to the dive store nearby originally to buy a fitting for the hookah system that I needed but ended up buying new fin and mask straps as well as some new .5mm diveskins. As a Canadian diver the idea of a half a millimetre of neoprene to act as an exposure suit was inconceivable, but there they were. Barb got one too so she can come in the water with me, plus she got a new pair of dive boots. The added advantage of these lightweight dive suits is that they will protect us from the sun's rays while we are snorkelling and they will keep us from getting scratched on coral or rocks while underwater.

The final thing that we got today was from Toys 'R Us and that was the super soaker to take care of those pesky birds tonight. Pumped right up, the water just makes it to the top of the mast. We tried it to see, so birds - watch out! I hate to say it but I am looking forward to tonight to welcome the little beggars with suppressing fire......

Back aboard Nelleke we began some of the more intensive boat jobs. I cleaned off the waterline and made a start at getting rid of the "cruiser's moustache" that we all seem to pick up after a certain amount of time on the water. Barb cleaned off the decks and then we popped open a beer and sat back to enjoy the sunshine. We brought Peri and Al on deck as a treat. Peri gets quite excited but I'm not sure if Al cares one way or another. Whether he sleeps below on one of the bunks or on deck in a sun ray I don't believe that he gives a hoot, or a meow, or a purr, or a whatever.

The other day Barb mentioned in passing that when Chris and Taunya leave she will be quite happy to pull up stakes and leave the Tampa area. It's not that it's not a nice place, especially Gulfport, but she was quite done with the number of people and the traffic once we leave the little city of Gulfport. At the time I was more than a little startled. This type of wanderlust is something that throughout our marriage she accused me of, but to hear her express those feeling herself was al little startling. I guess she is developing a little of the sea gypsy blood too. Today's traveling around reinforced that for me. The rental car is a blessing and a curse. Without it we would not have been able to do nearly the number of things that we were with Kayt or that we will with Chris. Plus it is very handy to drive to the hardware store, the marine chandlery, to the grocery store, etc. If we were making a different sort of visit we would be walking to or riding the fold up bikes and our area of interest would be a lot smaller. In fact, I doubt if our Tampa Bay experience would extend beyond Gulfport. On the further negative side the walking or bike riding is good exercise which we are not getting riding the car everywhere.

I must say that the new counter on the blog is very illuminating. We had no idea that so many people were visiting the site, even if some of them are by accident, it is very flattering. Welcome to those of you that we don't know, and please feel free to add comments or your point of view if I happen to say something that you don't agree with.