Happy New Year! Hopefully this is the year the economy will come back, we'll move this boat to exotic places, everyone will stay healthy and since Jon is obsessed with fishing at the moment, we'll catch innumerable fish with all these new poles and lures he's gotten!

We had a great Christmas with Roland & Mariette and also had some time to just be together and not rush around. It was fun to sitting at the table in the morning drinking coffee and planning our day. We certainly ate well too! But we did need to get moving again and back to reality. We got back to the boat and did a sea trial with our new engine and it wouldn't get up to RPM, meaning that the pitch of the prop was too steep. The engine also needed more aligning. And in there too was the discovery that our cockpit waterproof computer monitor wouldn't power up and the backup system with a laptop/handheld GPS was no longer usable because the GPS doesn't work with Windows 7. Pull out a couple more thousand and we can fix this; money is always the answer. So we have a new monitor headed to Miami, we bought yet another GPS and we now have a backup system again. Oh and the best part is, in order to re-pitch the prop, we needed to haul the boat again. So we did this a few days ago, got the pitch set, launched an hour later and busted out of Ft Pierce. We got about 15 miles down the waterway and changed our scenery, went for a great run that evening and felt relieved to be at anchor again.

The break-in period for the engine is 50 hours and it is pretty intensive in that you have to constantly be adjusting the RPM every 10 minutes or so. We're past the babying stage and now we have to go everywhere at close to or at full throttle. This was hard to accomplish moving in the waterway with all the bridges & boat traffic but we came very close. We went alongside the coast for the short hop from Ft Lauderdale to Miami and that is when the water changed from green to the more tropical blue that we should be staying in now for many months to come. Jon dragged 2 lines but we didn't catch any fish.....

We pulled up to a mooring at Miami Yacht Club on New Year's Eve and plan to stay here for 10 days or so visiting Ann & Bruce and getting the last of our stuff done. Yesterday we worked on the boat for a good part of the day and then took a great run with Ann to Miami beach. It sure is nothing like it was when I was a kid- now they have this perfect boardwalk all along the beach and you can run for miles. The water was glowing in the last of the light and all the restaurants on the inner streets were getting going for the evening. All we could smell was garlic & olive oil which made our gatorade very unappealing!

The weather has been knock your socks off gorgeous for I don't even how long now. It has been perfect for getting things done on deck during the day and for drinks or coffee on the ends of the day as well. Last night a cold front came through so it is much cooler today but still clear & lovely. Miami's Parrot Jungle (I think they call it Jungle River or something now) is right ashore near the club so we can hear all the birds & monkeys making noise over there. It's kind of funny to be out working on deck and hear all this squawking.

Today we're hoping to get a bunch of errands done, the most important one being purchasing 2 solar panels for the boat. I really don't like the thought of adding yet more weight to our stern but we decided not to bring the bikes this time and we got rid of the air conditioner, so there's been a little reduction there! Plus, we need to power. The wind generator is up & running although we had to spring for more expensive blades since the original ones were making us nuts. Jon installed the new blades yesterday and it is much quieter. It makes good power but it still doesn't cover our needs and when we're underway we use a lot more power with all the electronics & autopilot.

I realize I need to get busy and take some pictures. I'm looking forward to getting underwater and trying out the new camera case- all of the previous ones we've had have eventually leaked and this time we decided to get a cheaper camera, but two so we have a back-up and put the money into a better case. We'll see if this one is actually worth the money. There's nothing like being 60 feet down and noticing water in the camera case. By then you know it is too late.

Well, that is the news from Evergreen. Yesterday someone rowed by in the anchorage and said that new England boats always look perfect. There is truth to that but I'm not sure why exactly. Yep, the boat is looking pretty dapper right now with all the fresh coatings and new gear hanging from everywhere. Even my botched green stripe looks shiny from a distance. But soon we'll be in serious sailing mode and all this stuff will become worn & faded again (if not broken!) But it will mean that we're on our way and that will be a good thing.