FIXED TO FLOATING

We were on a fixed dock and the finger was not every wide. I was getting on and off the boat through our side door but it was high. I need a new hip and it was tricky with a foot stool. We got an opportunity to move to the floating docks here and they are beautiful!! We thought it would be temporary while Paul washes and wax both sides of boat, but not! We are staying. Nice for me to get on and off from the dock to swim platform and I feel better if we host visitors on board.

On our way to the slip here in the marina, there was something sticking up almost out of water. It looked like a big stick. Well, look here, try to pull up an opened umbrella! There were three guys involved. This umbrella was full of barnacles, it was under the water for awhile. It probably came from a neighbouring pool on a windy day.

Paul waxing the boat on the side, shiny!

Cheese Paul.

Painting snowman on rocks, fun!

We are leaving Florida in less than a week. We will be happy to be with friends and family then back in January. I will have recovered from my hip surgery by then. I can't wait to swim, snorkel, paddleboard, walk and run if I have to. We will provision Time Out and leave for the Exuma Islands mid February. Our 2019 adventure will begin.

LIGHTS, SUNSETS AND SAND

We are enjoying our "marina life" here in Vero Beach, Florida. We are meeting many nice people here at marina and the various homeowners. We are doing a few odd jobs while on boat. The big one will be to get a frame made to go on top of our bimini up in the flybridge. This frame will hold the solar panels. We are waiting for a second quote right now. 

We have our air conditioning running full time and as a result our sea strainers have to be cleaned weekly (by Paul). 

The water is so brackish here and not nice! Mind you the dolphins and the manatees don't care!

Even a neighbourhood turtle doesn't care when there are crustaceans to eat off of our hull. 

We never anchor in the dark! WRONG. Two years ago we went into Chub Cay, Bahamas in the dark and what are the odds that there was no moon? There was no moon! Plus it was raining that night. There were so many sailboats anchored with their dim anchor lights on up on their mast..... which I absolutely hate because these lights look like stars. Our big spotlight at bow was not working properly at that time and since that time. Paul is fixing it now and the small teeny light bulb is $65 that we need. Yikes. Plus he is checking all the wiring because there are two bulbs and one burnt out bulb should not cause the light to malfunction.

Our dinghy is on the flybridge and Paul had fun installing cute blue lights on the stern. 

These will look so cool when our dinghy goes in the water and the water is clear.

This great idea of sand and shells was in a lobby of Kimpton Hotel here in Vero. I was invited out for a lunch there with three others. Unfortunately, we ate inside instead of on the water on the ocean side. There was the Red Tide that arrived and this is a terrible problem in Florida that causes respiratory problems along with death of marine life. I will let you look that up. The Red Tide lasted about 10 days here in Vero but not at our marina.

This is a beautiful sunset we saw last week. We are so lucky! 

DECISIONS DECISIONS AND MORE DECESIONS

The Quick Lift up in the flybridge is great IF it is working. We wanted to lower the dinghy and go for a ride on Sunday but a NO GO! The darn Quick Lift was acting up and not performing so the dinghy is stuck up there which is actually better than being stuck in the brackish water here in Vero. Sometimes it is working and sometimes it is not. An expert will need to be called... a major decision!

We bought this boat in 2014 with the original carpeting and we do not like this carpet. Every stain shows up and it needs vacuuming more than once a week, the carpet fibers are floating in the air everywhere! We went to a carpet place to look at samples and bring some back to the boat. Now the big decision (and the big expense) ... WHICH ONE? All the carpeting will be replaced.

Between these two samples

Last Exuma excursion was later than normal and the breeze in the pilothouse was not good, especially dinner time. So we have made a decision to install a fan in a corner. This will also help when we actually decide to drive from the helm here. It gets so muggy.

I

Paul has opened the panel to see where the power can come from and we have a couple of "spares" on the panel so now just to do the work and decide where to place this fan. Our company that comes and plays cards with us will be so happy and cooler! Yippee.

As you can see it is not all play and no work..... or I mean all work and no play? We balance it all out as there is a nice refreshing pool here at the marina to cool off in at end of day.

Painted a starfish from Vancouver Island that was getting old and yellowish as it was collected in 2005!

MINI PROJECTS

Oh No! There is water dripping on the mattress in the guest stateroom! A slow drip, drip but none the less it has to be fixed pronto. After the rain stops of course. Always something that needs a small repair here or there and some that require your attention first. So glad we were here for this rainfall. The stuff being stored on the bed seemed fine and did not have any water over the previous 2 months.

Paul caulking around the hatch. 

The sun is very hard on our 2 teak tables. Every year Paul oils them so they are as good a new! Paul is doing the small table. The big round one looks awesome!

OH NO, what the heck is our toilet bowl doing sitting in the our shower stall ? It seems the seal was leaking slowly ... Paul noticed the smell the day earlier. The Early Warning Sign that something was going to happen. Another unexpected mini-project! 

Bring out the air fresheners during this job

We deserved a lunch out to a restaurant this week. We found this great place on the water in Sebastian, Florida. Delicious! And the great news is at Sam's Club, you can buy 2 $50 gift cards for $80.00. As the Canadian dollar is not doing that well, we take advantage of these savings.

BACK FOR PROJECTS (and fun)

TIME OUT needs some attention and we did not want to wait until January. It is super hot down here at Suntex Marina here in Vero Beach but many projects are inside where we have the AC on full blast. I need a hip replacement so doing the projects now beforehand makes sense as we have the time.

Project 1

The cheap leather-like vinyl along the dash in the pilothouse needs replacing but we just could not figure out how to take off. Paul went under/inside the helm and took off all the screws. This boat was made in China so the small scale men there put this boat together, hence the small openings and weird placement of the screws. This vinyl would peel off and fall on the carpeting and is basically annoying and terrible to look at. It is now being replaced with quality leather-like vinyl. Yippee.

Paul's feet under the helm!

The ugly pieces are off!

Look at this corner, see what I mean about pieces falling off and just plain ugly.

More projects we have planned. This is our "diary" to look back at this all.

BY THE NUMBERS 2018

58
Day in the Bahamas

14
Nights with guests on board

17
Nights in marinas in Bahamas

8
Nights in marinas in Florida (after we left our home dock)

566
Gallons of diesel used

216
Hours on our generator

97
Hours on our engines



2
Snorkeling excursions to the Thunderball Grotto at Staniel Cay

3
Times we went to feed the Famous Swimming Pigs, Big Major's Spot

1
Hat sank before we could fetch it out of the water!

5
Lunches out in the Exumas (0 dinners out)

3
Major rain storms we had to travel through

40+ Knots
(or 72 km) an hour of wind when our wind instrument broke!

1
Mahi Mahi caught and eaten

6
Solar Panels were installed in March.

10,000
Feet deep + crossing the Tongue of the Ocean

22
Head scrapes on Paul's head while he is in the engine room (probably more)

18
Lines are attached to our boat to dock while Time Out stays in water during Hurricane Season

10
Hours we still had to drive home WITHOUT air conditioning working in our car! It stopped on the hottest day outside of Washington, D.C.

Our season is over and we miss Time Out already! We miss all the friends we met this year and look forward to when we rendezvous with you all again. We will continue to post when we are doing projects with the boat throughout the Fall.

Thanks for following along!




The above quote is Paul and some others I know! Funny.

HURRICANE READINESS

This is the first time we are leaving our boat in the water for the hurricane season that is now until November. Before we prepare the extra steps needed; we do the usual "putting the boat away" stuff. We flushed and "pickled" the watermaker. We flushed the generator, both boat engines and the outboard motor. The top bimini is put away and all loose objects are gone off decks. We went and bought extra lines to secure this boat at the dock here at Vero Beach.

Top bimini is taken off and put away inside

We bought this product to place on the inside of all the windows to block out the fierce sunlight that shines in right through our curtains. Our air conditioner will not be on when we are away. Just a dehumidifier and a couple of fans.

Example of one window with the Reflectix stuff on

Lots of this stuff around the boat while Paul measures twice and cuts once to fit the windows.

We ordered our new lines at Walmart.com and had delivered to the nearest store. We have 16 lines on our boat to the docks and piles. We want to sleep well when the first hurricane come through Vero!

We used our bridle too as extra security.

We travel to Ontario! I will post on blog one more time in the upcoming week. It is the one I like titled By The Numbers. It is a recap of our winter. Check in here late summer if want as we may come down for a week or two.

We bought a laptop so this post is the first using the new computer and great keyboard. I love it and much better than that small phone.