Nov 22 Sunday... more rain

Nov 21 Saturday

We have had three days of solid rain. The parking area is 3 inches deep in water and the washrooms are having difficulty coping with the water-logged systems.

Watching the weather news it sounds or looks like you guys are going to have a white Christmas.

So, the prop arrived for the dinghy motor. And then the mechanic asked us if we wanted to do the tune-up on our motor ourselves?! He's had it since June and I'm wondering if he thinks its toast but doesn't want to tell us.

Yesterday Rick and Quentin loaded the sails on, and I spent the day cleaning the freezer, the fridge and once again ruthlessly going through the clothes, storage, and galley stuff. I had 15 storage containers...how many leftovers can I put into a bar fridge? Even the freezer will only hold so much, and why would there be leftovers for very long...eat them! So I culled the non-Rubbermaid plastic boxes and odd dishes I have not used since we put them on the boat. Rubber scrapers... really did I need 5??

We had two blankets for every bed here... kept half.  We have put a lot of stuff in the car including the propane heater we needed all the way down last year. Rick is currently culling his hardware store so we can float above the waterline. Of course if we have to fix the dinghy motor ourselves, that will take a day at least.

This morning as I started writing this Rick realized that not only was he out of cereal, he didn't want to make pancakes so we got dressed and went out to the Golden   did our shopping and managed to get rid of some of the discarded clothes.  We got back here around 12:30, discovered we had a full coffee pot that was still hot and invited our new neighbours over, Brenda and Rob from Brighton. They also know Amazing Grace.

Rob said he needed to go up his mast and didn't look too thrilled. Brenda said he 'wasn't fond' of heights, so we let Quentin help him. Quentin went up and installed their radar reflector while Rob stood below and directed him.  Quentin thought it was cool.

Tomorrow we will work on the dinghy or, if the shop is closed, we will do all the other jobs and leave the motor until Monday. Right now Quentin is putting all of the cotter pins in the turnbuckles, and Rick is finishing up the wiring for the radio... two more jobs off the list.  I am watching the black clouds gather over us again, ready to dump on us. We had a thunderstorm this afternoon while we were having coffee. Everyone agrees that this weekend will not be the one to head out, but next week is looking better... cooler but calmer. We are going to go for dinner with Rob and Brenda to the Steak and Shake.  This will be our last restaurant meal for many weeks as we cross over and head!  Today I bought enough groceries to balance out the crap that we have in the front of the boat!

Sunday morning: it has rained incessantly since yesterday afternoon, and will be raining all day today as well. Tomorrow it's supposed to be clearing up for the week. Hopefully we will get way by Wednesday but it all depends on how good we are at fixing the dinghy.

 

attaching the radar reflector

his new friend

off the ground

neighbour going in before us

We are launched!

Friday Nov 20

We are launched! It took all day. We got picked up at 2 pm and didn't make the 300 yards to the water until 5:30. [dark] Then we had to move from the slip further into the pond to a dock because we don't have our dinghy motor back yet.

Of course the continual rain all day didn't help. We got about 4 inches of rain

We still have a bunch of things to do before we can leave and the most important is wait for the weather to settle. Someone said this morning "Oh yeah, the Christmas winds..." Oh good, this means we will have unstable air for the next month?? Didn't notice it last year; of course, last year we were in Lady's Island SC for Christmas and not in a rush

Our other issue is Customs and what they will say.  Not sure what reaction we'll get when we ask for an extension, but some Canadians are having a very positive experience and some are so dismissive and anti-rules that I wonder why they are even here if they don't like the rues they have to follow. Most are saying they just ignore the regulations. I try to avoid those people...don't want to get tarred with the same brush.

So we are at a dock but no further away from the trains. I cannot wait to get off the dock, and get away from land.  We went to 'visit' our neighbours last night. 'Beguiler' is an Endeavour Cat from Brighton Ont. Rob and Brenda are former Canadian military people who are retired and have a cat here and a cat in Ontario. This will be their first crossing over to the Bahamas.

We still have the 'administrative' things to do...groceries, laundry, tidying up and waiting for the dinghy motor.

My biggest concern is getting Quentin to the Bahamas in time to get him onto a plane and back home for Christmas. I wish he would decide to stay with us over Christmas and go home for a visit in January. We can't wait here until it's time to send him back and we can't move any faster than the weather will let us move safely. Sailors should NEVER be on a schedule.

The next three days are supposed to be rainy and stormy and then next week it supposed to get cold... 60-65 degrees [16-18C]. Good thing I still have blankets on the boat! I hope that everyone at home is surviving what looks like some real winter weather. I know Julie is ecstatic and if it makes you feel better, Julie, the public Christmas trees and decorations are up here and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!!!

So time to go and get the rest of the work done so we can get outta here!! ttyl

Tuesday Nov 17...Wow, sorry about the gap!!

Tuesday Nov 17

For some reason this date seems significant to me; however I cannot find it. So, if it's someone's birthday I have forgotten, please accept my apology. The brain is turning to mush and I don't know how to stop it. Maybe it's this machine...we rely on them so much we let them take over our thinking too much, although Rick is just as bad and he doesn't even use it...so much for that theory. And I refuse to accept the "getting old" excuse.

We sat down this morning and said, "Oh, we should look that up before we leave."  Great, but what ???Neither of us could remember this afternoon what the great idea was this morning.  Scary.

So drive is done and we are ready to launch, except that the dinghy motor is not ready and we can't leave without it. We could go into the water and anchor out in the ICW [remember that? Inter Coastal Waterway?  Been so long I had to think about it too!]  But we still need to be able to get to shore so we need the dinghy motor!

There is really nothing going on here until we get wet.  The weather sucks... it goes from cloudy and rainy to stinking hot and steamy. The winds are on shore and gusty. It's hard to tell what the weather is really like out there. AHA !! I remembered!!!! I'm supposed to look up passage weather for the next 7 days !!!

We watch the news every morning and its different here. We are seeing the world through American eyes, and I am becoming increasingly aware that we are foreigners. There is no sense of danger but as the threat to this country increases, I become more aware of the fact that we are "non-belongers".  It's also very hard to separate from world events and ignore what is happening.

Well, it's time to go find Quentin. He is parked in the Canadian history section of the library...I think. At least that's where he SAID he was going. I need to get water and something for supper. Joseph is on his way over to talk to the Marina mechanic [owner]...needs motor help.  I hope it's nothing serious!!

Will be back when something positive occurs! Oh, but they stuck another boat into the gap so we have a baffle against the trains again...not very effective but the noise will bounce a little. Speaking of bounce, I need to do laundry too! ttyl

Remembrance Day / Veterans' Day

Wed. Nov 11 Happy Veteran's Day

Such an odd greeting...I never thought of this day as happy... solemn, serious, reflective, even sad, but not happy. But that's the greeting everyone here uses.

We took the time this morning to attend the Veteran's Day service at Veteran's Memorial Park. They gave out poppies although not recognizable by Canadian standards. These poppies are formed to look like real flowers, not flat and stylized like ours do.

The services down here are much less formal and much more personal than Remembrance Day in Canada. The veterans wear such different uniforms that it's hard to tell who is what. Today there were Marines, Navy, Army, Air force, and Coast Guard represented here. It was a short service outside with presentation of flags by the Legion and a keyboard and an accordion playing the music. We heard from a Marine and a retired Naval CPO, and the minister. The program said there would be paying of wreath but it must have happened while someone was talking because we didn't see it. After it was over [it took about an hour and they didn't stop at 11:00 ... they didn't have 3 minutes of silence; just a 21 gun salute at 11:45 and someone playing Taps very slowly...no Reveille either....also no bagpipes!!!]

We spent about 15 minutes talking to a couple of Marines, about their service and who is Senior down here. Apparently it is at the discretion of the Parade Commander, but they both agreed that the Navy was formed first in a pub in 1756 [give or take a few years.] He then told us about getting into the Marines when he wanted to be an Airman. It got lost in the details but he was very funny, and told us that there were some Canadians down there with him at that boot camp. I should have asked him if he remembered the names. My Uncle Albert Greenwood crossed into the States to train as a paratrooper with the US forces until his dad found him and dragged him back home. But this guy was too young to know Albert. He was only in his mid 60's.

So the last part finally came in today and we hope to be the water by Friday, assuming we can get everything re-assembled. So of course that means the weather is changing. We are supposed to get a low pressure bringing a cold front through. And if it works out right, we will be heading down the coast and over to Bimini by next week.  We are so tired from the heat and climbing up and down the ladder, it will be a pleasure to sit on the boat and just chill while she sails herself over to the islands.

And Mark & Gail, we were just talking about when we met you and where we were this time last year!! We were in Cape Charles at the Veterans' Day service...we met you about two weeks later heading into the Dismal Swamp! See you soon!

The catamaran behind us had its owners arrive yesterday. They are both former military from Brighton, Ontario! I hope we leave first... if they go, there is nothing between us and the trains!!

So helping time and getting back to work! Quentin is at the "office", posting his blog and hopefully getting some other work done. We are finishing the history unit this week. Stay warm... or cool, whatever you prefer. I hear the dandelions are flowering again in TBay...what no snow? Julie will be going crazy! How can you put up Christmas decorations without snow?!?!?

Quentin and Me

Storm coming

fixing the traveler deck

mess of masts 

service today

Planes, Trains and Automobiles...but mostly Trains Nov 10

Tuesday Nov 10 ...Planes, trains and automobiles...well mostly TRAINS

Seems to me that this time last year I was nowhere near the Bahamas either. I am about 4 states closer than last year but it doesn't feel like it!

Rick's glasses came yesterday and he won't wear them while he's working on the boat so they should last FOREVER! The part still hasn't arrived...of course we didn't expect it until tomorrow anyway. And we aren't ready for it although we are closer. Today Quentin and I cleaned up under the boat while we were waiting for Rick to come back with the propane and specialized motor paint. [It's funny but every time I type the word "paint" I leave off the the "t" ...Freudian slip??]

We went to the beach yesterday and enjoyed the surf for about an hour. We can't stay there very long because it gets dark earlier down here...like 6 pm, so we need to be out of the water at feeding time and get back to the boat before we can't find it!

Right now Rick is finishing the traveller track...putting the hardware back so we can hook up the boom. I have finished the white pain although you can't tell because our feet are so dirty from the dust in here that there are grey tracks all over it. I will be able to wash it when we get out to sea.

We have had a few planes flying very low over the boatyard, but I'm not worried... there are too many Canadians here for them to find us easily...just kidding... we can prove that we have taken so long to get out because we were waiting for parts.  If the boat won't go...

There are a growing number of Ontario plates down here. In fact, Sunday when we went to the beach there were about 50 cars parked along the road and over half of them were from Canada...a couple from Alberta, and several from Ontario but mostly Quebec!

 It was the 30th Anniversary of the Navy Seal Museum this weekend and we should have gone but we forgot about it until we went to the beach Sunday. I say we should have gone...I should have gone...Tatum O'Neil was the guest speaker ['Magic Mike']. But really, I'm old enough to be his grandmother!! Right?

Well, I've not got much to tell you because we haven't got that much accomplished...I now know what hell is...living and working in a boatyard! Especially with the TRAINS right behind us. I was taking to a Floridian who lives just across the tracks in the Village of St. Lucie. He says he's used to it but he admits that the engineers take great delight in blowing the horns as loud and as long as they can.

 Today the internet is really slow so I'm not sure I will get to post pictures with this. Tomorrow we are going to find a Remembrance Day service so we can attend. I think Quentin will find the contrast interesting.

ttyl

 

Painting the traveler deck with non-skid

Quentin found live sponges

Salt Shaker and Pace

All the boys...Daniel and Pace, Quentin, Sam and Amariah [boy]

More waiting ... more heat ugh!

November 6, Friday

So we are waiting for ANOTHER part...the one we got to cover the shaft where it was scored is too small so we need an extra one. In the meantime we are painting the boat decks white. OMG what a difference! It drops the temperature by about 10 degrees in the boat...covering up the primer finally and getting a reflective white paint to deflect the sun.

I know that you guys are getting colder up here and I am finally going to admit this heat is really getting to me. It is abnormally hot here... everyone is complaining about it!  We are starting to work at 6 am just so we can do it without passing out !

Yesterday was a surprise!  Joe and Yvonne stopped by to see us n their way to their boat in Okeechobee. It was nice to see familiar faces!  And just as they were leaving Gail and Mark called us to say they were starting out for their boat! Quentin will be losing his friend tomorrow or Sunday...Daniel and his family are heading over to the Abacos and Hopetown, so he won't see them until we get over there and only if they head down to Georgetown. So he has the day off today from school so he can spend the time with Dan. He's helping them get the boat ready... good practise for when it's our turn.

Yvonne gave me some good shopping tips for Ft. Pierce...places that I hadn't discovered yet.

Today is going to be clean up the inside and re-pack the sail locker and the workshop.  Our goal is to get everything done so the last thing we need to do before we launch is assemble the prop shaft.

Not much news today. I'm sitting in Wendy's parking lot using their internet...not too stable right now, so I'm going back to the boat. I've checked email and sent some messages. So ttyl...stay warm J

Whaddya mean it's November?!?!

November 4

OMG - one month away from Christmas and we are still stuck in Florida!!!

Sorry, I've been slack here but things are heating up literally and its taking longer than we ever expected to get off the land. Hopefully we can be in the water by the weekend. For some reason Rick is dragging his feet...not sure what that's about except that we are still waiting to find out if our dinghy motor will live and I suspect that's what's taking so long.

If you caught Liz's message on facebook re: Quentin and his focus, I had said that he could go back to Canada next year and re-do grade 10. Liz's comment was that he could leave paradise now and go home to do it.

Let me be clear: THIS IS NOT PARADISE!!! 

·         It is 239 +/- steps from the boat to the bathroom...one way. How far do you have to walk to YOUR bathroom?

·          Lots of times there is a wait time of 10-15 minutes before someone in there finishes their cigarette, their book or simply wakes up. 

·         Does the expression "Crapped a cow" hold any meaning for you?  The bathrooms are revolting at the best of times

·          You cannot drink the water. It is so sulphur-y that it is hard to believe we don't smell like rotten eggs after we shower.

·         The freaking trains are unbelievable. We compare notes in the morning as to how many times we heard them. I think engineers here get to pick their own horns and they hold contests to see who can blow it the loudest and longest!

·         The dust in the yard is a combination of limestone and shells. There is the constant feeling of grit in your teeth, in your hair, in your eyes, in your ears...

·         We are buried in the back of the yard and all the other boats around us block the wind so there is no breeze that reaches us in the boat.

I think if it weren't for his friends he might have opted to go home already...I know I've been considering it!!

Hallowe'en [I don't care what your computer tells you...this IS the right spelling] worked out better than I expected. Quentin wanted to go trick or treating with Daniel and Pace, and their parents were fine with it. I was a little iffy since he is 5'6" and doesn't look like a little kid but that's me.... so I had a brain wave!  We dressed him up in his ordinary clothes, including socks and a tie. Put on some nerdy glasses frames and I made him up a name tag that said he was from Statistics Canada, and he carried a clipboard. His question was: At what age should kids give up 'trick-or-treating'?  Brilliant, right?  He didn't look like he was begging for candy but he got a good haul anyway: some people recognized that he was a nerd right away; some people even had a name for him!! The only problem was everyone wanted to talk to him and he was holding up Pace and Daniel!!

Sunday night we decided to go back to the Steak and Shake because I was too tired from working to cook, and it is still stupid hot here.  We took Daniel with us and then stopped at the Carnival...good move. Quentin and Daniel each got to ride all the rides and we didn't have to! They were on the assorted shake-up machines for about 2 hours and we just sat on the grass and watched the world go by! The toughest part was getting back on our feet!

This morning we were up at 5:30 and by 6:00 a.m. I was painting the decks. Rick got up and helped and then Quentin came out and we got it done by 8:00 a.m.

The parts arrived for the drive and Rick is taking them up to a machine shop today to have the bearings pressed on and then we can re-assemble it and try it out.  MY worst job is to try to re-organize all the stuff we have on the boat that has to stay there. I am putting most of the cold weather clothes in the van and they will be ready for us when we get back next year but not take up so much space.

So, time to go and find him. He went out to the van 20 minutes ago to get a chocolate bar and hasn't returned yet. I think Daniel is upstairs working and that's where he's gone. I need a leash! ttyl

The nerd but you can't see the socks!

Swimming again

The new toy

A stormy day ... too rough to swim