BIMINI, HERE WE COME!

Yes, our fridge is packed, the two freezers are full, the pantry has no more room. We have enough wine and rum on board for our 4 weeks of guests. We drove our car to Stuart, Florida to put it in storage, this is on the East Coast. We then rented a car to drive back with. We are now on the hook anchored in the Keys. Our journey has began. Our water maker is making water right now. All is peaceful (for now!).

Testing our water to make sure it is ready for drinking and showering. 

A Cruise RO system, brand new.

Our boat Time Out is registered in Canada as Time Out VI.... there are five other Time Out boats registered in Canada. Each name is unique. To be legal, we had to add a bit more lettering to our boat on the back. Marco Island, FL had to be taken off and in it's place.....

Yes we also stuck a Canada flag sticker! We are now legal.

We travelled about 85 miles today out in the Gulf of Mexico to get to Long Key area here in the Florida Keys. This was not a leisurely drive at all. There were crab pots everywhere. We could be travelling along for half an hour and then boom!!.... about 20-50 pots to navigate through. The auto-pilot gets turned off and Paul steers by hand like an obstacle course. Then the auto-pilot goes back on and we are good for a short time before another cluster of pots are upon us. These crab pots have coloured floaters attached, some are quite visible, bright orange or white but most are the same colour as the water, blue or grey. We were the only boat around but if someone from above was looking down, they would see a boat swerving alot! Always we had eyes on the water ahead. We left at 8am this morning and anchored at 5:30pm this evening, so a very tiring day for us.

Tomorrow off to Key Biscayne area near Miami. The internet should be much better as the two pictures on this post took me 22 minutes to upload. Patience is a virtue! So, more pictures will come.

Did you know that the Florida Keys have never reported frost! I like that!

OOPS, DINGHY MISCALCULATION

TIME OUT is new to us and we sold our old dinghy with our catamaran. A brand new one was needed. After many calculations, sizing, measuring and re-measuring we ordered one. We had it and were anxious to put it up on our flybridge. The crane is there and up it goes! Oops, the crane is in the way somewhat. It can only move inward so far before hitting the side of the dinghy. We wanted our dinghy to sit across the flybridge with the motor on starboard. We measured so the motor does not hang out over the side of TIME OUT. We also measured that the bow does not hang over the port side. This dinghy came just slightly wider than anticipated. All boaters can relate when something just doesn't measure up. Well, another plan has to be thought out.

Our first attempts.

Decided to make a big decision and cut some railings and centre the boat on the flybridge. Sometimes things happen for a reason and this works so much better anyway.

See the railings at the back of the dinghy.... just a couple of hours work.

Cut away boys.

There, much better! Just have to get another flagpole holder as the bow of dinghy is on top of it. Simple fix. This is much better anyway, Time Out will be more balanced when we travel. Looking very good and Paul slept much better. Thanks Dave and Paul!

We are now another step closer to leaving. We are not leaving until ready, no sense rushing and having problems. We must test our brand new watermaker then a few more small things. We have to move our car to the other coast so in April it is there when we arrive back from the Bahamas. Just a few more days. Whew!

"The cure for everything is Saltwater, 
sweat, tears or the Sea"

OUR NEW DINGHY

Our new inflatable was delivered to a nearby marina in a crate. This marina had proper equipment to lift it off the truck. Paul went over to inflate it and put our new 30hp motor on. It is a great dinghy. All boaters need their "taxi" to get ashore when anchored somewhere.

Friends on Daruma, Dave and Traci drove us to Caloosa Island Marina (Marco Island area). This way we can drive our inflatable to our marina here in Naples. It took us 2 hours out in the Gulf. We did see dolphins and manatee on our way into our marina. It will be a much better ride when we have a seat! I sat at the bow most of the way.

Paul and Dave, taken from our flybridge

At the fish cleaning station at Caloosa Island Marina there was an interesting "supervisor" there. I bet he is there every day!

We are days away from leaving this marina and heading south down to the Florida Keys, then await for the perfect crossing to Bimini, Bahamas. That means we have only a few days left to provision. We are left with the freezer and fridge stuff. We must fill up the leftover empty spaces with beer and wine. The Kalik Beer in Bahamas is $65 per case of 24 bottles in the Exumas, maybe $55 in Nassau.

This couch is one of a few. It is loaded with necessities. I have a log book as to which couch has which items. Everything from toilet paper to shampoo to tomato soup. A logbook will exist for the beer and wine etc. Many nooks and crannies to fill up. If there are square inches left over.... there may be room to put another box of wine there. A boater's nightmare is running out of beer and wine (that is what I've heard, has never happened to us).

This is our brand new freezer/fridge. We will start out on our journey with it being a freezer. I fill it with beef and pork and some more beef. We are able to buy chicken in Nassau. I do start out with some but we buy many steaks and pork loin roasts here in Florida. This will be our third time going so I feel I know what I am doing this round.

READY FOR OUR GUESTS
The Spiced Rum you see was $20 at Walmart! Yes, in the USA, alcohol is not taxed!

A blowup fender is the way to go! This heavy duty one took just minutes to blow up (with battery and pump). When not in use, we deflate and put away. All boaters love this kind of equipment.

I know it has been cold up north and here it got so cool look what I had to put on!

ANOTHER NEW YEAR

We left snow and cold to our boat Time Out! We ate, drank, baked, ate some more and visited with friends and family over the holidays. A very enjoyable time. We are in Florida just finishing up our provisioning and boat "stuff".... wait did I say finish up?? As any boater knows (or even a home owner), one is never really "finished". We hope to travel to Bimini, Bahamas in a week or so.

Happy New Year to everyone! May you also be smiling in the new year. Health and happiness!

A few resolutions for 2015:

Smile more
Be grateful for small things
Talk to my parents more
Text less to my kids (it annoys them)
Hug Paul every day
No more dieting this year, an extra 10lbs is not going to kill me
Drink more water and less Diet Pepsi, yes I will try again this year
Eat less chocolate (wait, didn't I just say no dieting?)
Share my chocolate

SUN TO SNOW

HERE I AM SMILING IN NAPLES, FLORIDA even though I know shortly I will be home in the snow and cold. (this was December 6th) But I am smiling because of family and friends. Christmas is a time to reconnect with family and friends and that is what we are doing now.

Our front yard before it melts. The weather "experts" say it is going to melt next week. Not good for the skiers and snowboarders in our family. 

Our Christmas tree is trimmed, gifts are wrapped, cookies are baked and we are ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and health and happiness for 2015. We fly down to the boat January 2. Stay tuned for our final preparations. Our journey to Bahamas will happen in our new boat Time Out.

FRIDGE AND CHAIN

What to do with our bar fridge that does not work? It is in the flybridge, now how do we get it down? The crane for our dinghy! It is good for heavy items!

Swing the crane over the side and voila, the fridge is down on the dock in no time. We have replaced this fridge with a new one. You can guess how we got it up to the flybridge.

I flew home on Saturday and a son picked me up at the airport. Paul is working away on some more items down there, The fridge replacement and the anchor chain.

TWO HUNDRED FEET of chain is extremely heavy! Paul had his good friend with a truck help pick up the chain from West Marine and bring it on board! If you are anchored out at night and want a good night's sleep..... you get an excellent anchor and chain.

Slowly we are getting "Bahama ready". We will fly back in January to finish up then off we motor to warm temps, small breezes and blue waters. How blessed are we?

p.s. I am up north where there is snow and more snow tomorrow !! Brrrrrrr

VIEW FROM BACK PORCH

SPECTACULAR, pictures just don't capture the whole sky!