Hurray, We are on Our Way Again, Surona lives!

All of the work was finalized on Friday (yesterday) They finally ended up bringing in a 70 Ton crane to lift the boat. By about 4:00 pm the boat was fixed. New shaft, the rudder back on, the propeller back on and the motor re-alligned. She runs like a dream. The spare prop is a little smaller than the old damaged one so we can't go quite so fast. We will need a new one when we get to Pickwick.

We started to put everything back together only to find that the one board that is the access to the engine compartment through the cockpit and the screen for the companionway were missing. They were sitting on the dock while the work was being done and they must have blown off . Peter looked and looked and had almost given up. After breakfast this morning we thought we would take a look along some of the other docks and there they both were together, floating just off the shore. We sure were happy to see them. It just seemed like one more challenge before we could get underway.

We are now at Cuba Landing Marina. Only about 20 miles from Pebble Isle. Would have liked to gone further but the next marina was 4 hours away and it was too close for comfort for the remaining daylight hours. Everything has to be planned for sufficient daylight hours. There are so few. You have to wait for the fog to burn off and quite often that is 9:00 o'clock. That only leaves about 9 hours of running time and at 5 to 6 knots that only gives you 30 to 50 miles of travel each day. The marinas are not always conveniently located at those intervals. We are getting spoiled by marinas that supply our little heater with power. The thought of waking up to freezing temperatures makes us look for electricity at every stop now. No longer do we wish to brave anchorages as winter approaches. Cheryl is getting too old for this.

We have about eighty five miles to go till we get to Pickwick Lake where we have to see about getting a new prop and having the bottom painted with special paint that comes off when barnacles attach themselves to it. we will also try to store the boat here for a couple of months till we return in January. We would have liked to have gone farther south but our insurance won't cover us until after tornado season so we would have to wait till the 15th and commitments at home are making us return so now is as good a time as any. We hope to see our friends from "Yesterdays Dream" here before we return.

It is nice to get back on the road again. Two weeks is a long time to watch the seasons get ahead of us.

That is it for today.

Pete and Cheryl reporting from the sailing vessel "Surona".