SHINY!

If anyone knows Paul, you know he hates to hire out projects if he can do them himself. He relented and hired a few men to come aboard to compound, wax, polish and shine this boat. They exceeded our expectations! What great guys. The below picture is taken through the window looking up to the flybridge. The sun was reflecting off the inside of the boat. Paul was amazed and wanted me to let you know that the picture was taken THROUGH THE WINDOW. So imagine how shiny and clean (including the high up radar arch and all the stainless steel) Time Out is.

Back in 2010 we bought our catamaran Coyaba (see that blog  http://coyabacat.blogspot.com/) here in Florida and bought the Waterway Guide. Every boater needs this book if travelling up and down and across Florida. There are so many bridges down here and this guide helps with that along with all the waterways and marinas etc. It can be outdated right at publication because a new bridge opened or the times of openings have changed. There are so many notes handwritten in the 2010 book that it was time to update the book. Since 2010, there have been new bridges and some gone! This book is a wealth of information on our way south to Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and finally to Key Biscayne where we hope to cross to Bimini shortly. 

I WILL NOT THROW AWAY THE 2010 book.... so many interesting hand written notes to ourselves. Will have to transfer to our new book, neatly.

This is Bimini. We hope to be there soon!

COBIA AND MAHI MAHI

As boaters we are friendly and talk on the dock, especially when a fisherman arrives back from out in the deep waters. These guys brought back a Cobia (right) and a big Mahi. We did catch a Mahi many years ago and love it. I took some cool pictures and asked a bit about the Cobia. The fishermen offered to give us some Mahi and asked if we eat it. I said sure we eat it and love it. 

One half of the Mahi

These pelicans are sure excited. I wish I had took video as there was a piece of scrap Mahi fish about 20 inches long and 6 of them were playing tug a war. 

DEATH OF A FRIDGE

While I have been doing Walmart trips back and forth Paul has been wiring up the solar panels. I helped just a small bit helping to feed the wire down from the fly bridge to the engine room through a loom in the travel lift. Now the solars are wired and Paul is testing one today!

Our mini fridge in the fly bridge just died a few days ago. Replacing it with the 12 volt one we want is $1,000! But at Lowes a normal plug-in fridge was $116.00. Paul drove there today and brought it to the boat. It is plugged in and has the beer and water in it. He has estimated that one solar panel can run that fridge. It is very energy efficient.

We wish it was a little bigger but I said at $116.00 if we find another one in a couple of years, no big deal, someone can have this one! I can now resume going to Walmart and start buying the fridge stuff! Every square inch of this fridge will be full the day we Escape Florida for the Bahamas. I will post a picture then.

Soon, this blog will have pictures of blue waters, dolphins, Paul and I in swimsuits and a big smile on our faces! Yes, there are swimming pigs at Staniel Cay, Exuma, I will post pictures of that too. We are getting excited.

BOSE SOUND BAR

A sound bar comes in handy when hearing the plot line is an issue! We had to venture to Sam's Club to buy the Mini Moos (mini creams for coffee and Brandy Alexander), kleenix, feta cheese, shrimp and the big container of fancy nuts plus the oil needed to do an oil change on engines. We knew we needed a sound bar and knew 3" is all we had .... and lo and behold there is the one we need. Paul installed it and he can test it with a movie soon.

Sounds fantastic when the music channels are playing!

Perfect fit! Great handy man that installed it.

These are two of the three couches that are packed with our 10 weeks of provisions. Just to fill the freezer (Sam's Club shrimp are there already) and fill our fridges. ETE (not ETA).... we nicknamed our Estimated Time Escaping! Yes, Florida is great but when you know how wonderful the Bahamas are you start getting excited like a kid! ETE is not this weekend but next weekend. Yippee.

We flew home for a medical appointment and a funeral, so our date of departure got delayed.