And Now Time for Something Different

What a strange world it is!

While we were at the motel for our 3 day shower, and all the TV stations available; Peter decided to call Pat and Ross Hastings to see if we could visit them the next day. They were going to be attending a get together at Ross and Carol Withall's. She said she would see if she could get us invited. And they agreed.

Carol Withall and Dave Campbell

Fort Myer's Beach is the mini communities of Elmvale, Wyevale, and Perkinsfield. We got there to find 10 couples that we knew and haven't seen for ages. I haven't been referred to as Cheryl Lyons (maiden name) for 42 years. Everyone winters in the Fort Myer's area and Ross and Carol had organized a Ladder Golf tournament. Ross had made the ladder golf frames and even made a ladder golf trophy with the name plaque from the previous years winners.

Spring Family, Ben, Brenda, Ben's wife and Barry

I will try to remember all of the names, but forgive me if I forget anyone. Ross and Carol Withall, the hosts, Ross and Pat Hastings, Dave and Marg Campbell, Sam and Wendy Langman, Mike and Marge Conn, Barry and Brenda Spring, Ben and his wife (Spring) Richard and Muriel Lesperance, Guy and Rosalind Maurice and 2 other couples who I didn't know. It was great to meet all of these people again.

Pat Hastings

Marge Conn and Rosalind Maurice

Wendy and Sam Langman

Cheryl and Peter

Unfortunately, Peter and I had to be the first to leave as we now have a curfew. The storage yard locks up tight after 8:00 pm. Absolutely no access. Our entry code does not work after 8. We found this out the hard way. There is an emergency number to call and one of the workers who lives about 1 mile away comes, and after giving him a guilt tip of $10. he opens a gate that allows us entry. We could be forgiven the first time, but the second time would just be inconsiderate. Or perhaps we could claim "seniors senility", I hear it is an ugly thing that strikes a number of us.

Muriel Lesperance

It seemed so strange for the couple who usually are the last to leave, become the first to leave. What is happening?

Mike Conn

Carol's teacher organizing skills were evident as she tried and suceeded in getting the players at the right ladder golf stations. Ross, with his famous roast beef BBQ was busily manning not one but two BBQ's.  Unfortunately the tournament was never completed as a late afternoon rain shower put an end to the tournament. They will all be back next year to compete for the "Ladder Golf" trophy.

Marg Campbell and Roslind Maurice

Today, Peter is back to buffing the hull of the boat. He thinks he will finish today. After the rain yesterday the temperature is more comfortable - 72. We will do some shopping later this afternoon to restock the boat provisions and get the necessary ingredients for Frank and Debra Hursts pot luck tomorrow. Here comes a Broccoli Cauliflower Salad. Then Friday is launch day.

With all of these social engagements it is becoming hard to leave this area.

Fresh Look

We have finished the stripes on Surona. She is looking fresh and new. Much better, than the sun faded stripes that had evolved over the trip. We had a bit of a problem with a runaway roller in some areas, so we will have to go back and get the black off the white in some areas. Coloring inside the lines has never been one of Peter's strenghts.

Peter taping the stripes. Preparation always takes longer than the actual job.

We also repainted the lettering on the transom. One of the times when Peter had taken a short cut when cleaning the teak with the one/two step process; the solution had run over the lettering and dissolved part of the letters. Peter had bought some aluminum colored paint for this job. I decided to attempt the job. While it isn't perfect when you are up close, it sure does look a better job. In fact the further away you are, the better it looks.

The finished stripes. Looking good. Now the buffing will make them stand out.

Peter has been buffing the hull of the boat. One side is almost complete. What a difference. Sure looks pretty. Now we are motivated to get the second side done.

Frank and Debra Hurst, 2 time loopers; that we met last year while staying at the Sleep Inn, invited us to spend an overnight with them in their rented house in Port Charlotte. A great evening of getting re-acquainted and a terrific shishkabob dinner. The  hospitatlity is outstanding. Once again, experienced loopers offer help and hospitality before you know you need it. They have been there and done it.

Frank and Debra invited us to join a "pot luck" dinner they are hosting for their "Looper" friends on Thurs, Feb 28th. All of these friends have been to the Bahamas and we could learn a lot from spending an evening with them, while they share their experiences.

It is great to have a flexible timetable. So once again we have changed our schedule. Peter just got back from the office, where he told them we would like to change our launch date from today to Friday at 1 pm. They were good with the change.

Danger, Danger. Peter has the West Marine catalogue open and is scrutinizing all of the treasures. He says we need a masserator pump, because I don't eat enough fiber. Here we go again.

We are having another hot and humid day. Just what we were expecting. The evening lows have been around 70, with daytime highs in the 80's. There are cooler temperatures coming later in the week. Daytime temperatures in the low to mid 70's with some rain coming tomorrow. It sure beats the snow and cold weather at home.

Sunsets are special, even on the hard.

Even tho' we are not in the water yet, we are quite comfortable. If they only had showers here it would be even better. Apparently that will come soon. They need to jump some hoops with the local county. They had their systems all up and running before we arrived, but then the county inspection identified some things that needed to be done to pass  inspection.

William and Kari's Wedding, Feb 18th 2013

We have returned to the boat after a few days away.

We visited friends, Marcel and Fern in Largo on our way to Martin and Kathy's in Zephrhills. Spent 2 nights with Marcel and Fern. Unpacking the car on the first night, I found that I had forgotten my overnight bag  at the boat. I realized just how much I over pack when travelling. Two thrift stores and a trip to Walmart and I had the essentials for 5 days away from the boat and a wedding. Fortunately we had left our dress clothes with Martin and Kathy.

Marcel and Fern took us to St. Petersburg harbour for lunch and we had two nights of Euchre. If my memory serves me right, the ladies won the first night and the gents the second night. Always good to spend time with them.

Peter, dressed by "George"

Oh but the fun didn't finish there. One hour before the wedding, Peter was getting dressed, only to find that he had no dress pants. Not sure where they are. But a quick trip to Walmart again and he was set. Peter, dressed by "GEORGE". And we made it to the wedding on time.

The original time for the wedding was 6:00 pm, and William and Kari had moved the time up to 5:30pm. Kari had warned everyone that she was going to arrive at 5:15; and if everyone was there ---- the wedding would begin. Nervous ? or Anxious? Not sure. She is so much fun. Such a beautiful bride. She looked beautiful, and her dress was perfection. They exchanged their vows as the sun was setting. An intimate outdoor setting on the golf course. Perfect. It made for a very relaxed ceremony. The heat of the day was waning. The lighting perfect for the pictures after the ceremony.

And here is the newest VanLaarhoven family. William, Oliver, Kari and Abbey.

Martin and Kathy had a BBQ for everyone the evening before the wedding at their Florida home in Zephrhills. We arrived with enough time for me to do "gel" nails for Kathy, Wendy, and Mom. Phew! Got them all done just in time for a drink before the BBQ. It was good to meet Kari's side of the family. While we knew a lot of them already, there were some new faces. Great to renew other friendships.

The renowned "Bitches with Brushes" were together again. They do clean up good. Mom, myself, Kathy (mother of the groom) and Wendy. 

Tuesday morning, the guys were off to the golf course, and Kathy, Wendy, Mom, Francie and Mary were off to Brandon for the big JoAnnes Fabric store. We had a leisurely start, and then tried to find an illusive flea market, then off to the boat.

We have decided to paint the waterline stripes on the boat as they are badly faded. Made the decision to go into the water on Monday. We will probably sit at the dock for a day or two to make sure everything is working well and then head off for a hopefully leisurely trip down the Gulf coast as we make our way to Marathon Key.

All American Saturday, Feb 9th

It was a cool night, and it is slow to warm up this morning. Can't believe I am saying that 50F feels cool. Guess we are climatizing very well.

Have some work to do on the teak on the outside of the boat, but it can wait till it warms up a bit. We have decided to paint the outside teak with a grey Brightside. It should look good, and we will not have to keep oiling or refinishing the teak over and over again. The Brightside sure looked good on Deja Vu when we painted the hull. Hope this works as well.

We met with Frank and Debra Hurst for lunch yesterday. You may remember that we met them last spring when we were working on the sailboat and stayed at the Sleep Inn. They are down for the month of February and have a rental in Port Charlotte. We were very surprised when Debra responded to Peter's email. Good to see them again and get caught up.

There are new owners at All American and they agreed for us to stay on the boat overnight. While the facilities are very limited, i.e. a portable pottie. No toilets or showers yet, soon to come. We are making do quite nicely. Peter has our TV working and we now get 18 channels. Still nothing to see, but we have a good news and weather channel. Good thing we have lots of DVD's. We stay on the boat for 2 nights and then treat ourselves to a motel with a shower and a TV with all of the stations. Peter commented last night, that the interior of the boat is larger than the room we had at the Microtel. How true. I didn't think you could get a room so small in a motel. Our bedroom at home is larger. Too funny.

Peter bought a microwave for the boat and it will replace the toaster oven. He now can make his porridge extraordinaire for breakfast. Rolled oats with frozen blueberries, walnuts, crushed flax seed, and some brown sugar substitute. All is right in his world. And it is a good thing when Peter's day starts right.

We have lightly stocked the galley to be able to enjoy a lunch or dinner on board. Restaurants in the south seem to be able to deep fry everything, so it is refreshing to have a normal meal. I can also better manage Peter's diet if I cook.

Peter bought a new longer hose, and a spray nozzle. Now we have water readily accessible to the cockpit of the boat. The water at the tap is not pottable, so we do not want to fill the water tanks yet. But this is an improvement over climbing over the back of the boat, going to the tap to get a pail of water and then trying to climb back up onto the boat with a pail of water. This has become a two man job.

Oh and yes, I am back to peeing in a bucket again. At least overnight. It is better than having to get up and climb out of the boat  over the transom, down the ladder and make the trip to the johnny on the spot about 500 yards away. I think Peter was concerned just how much trouble I could get into in the middle of the night when I was half asleep. I am not hand, eye, body coordinated in the daylight.

If you are somewhat confused by all this; let me explain that the boat is on land, sitting up in the air on stands. The swim ladder hangs down off the back of the boat. Peter has made a raised platform that allows us to climb up high enough off the ground to be able to climb the swim ladder and enter the cockpit of the boat. Everything that comes on or off the boat has to make this trip up over the back of the boat. I now will also share, that I do not like heights. The boat is about 8 feet off the ground. I sometimes feel a little dizzy if I move too quickly when I walk outside on the deck. Perhaps Peter has reason to be concerned.

This morning when Peter was checking out the motor area; he found that the last mechanic who worked on the engine, had moved the overflow reservoir and set it alongside the exhaust. The exhaust had melted a hole in the plastic reservoir. Good thing he checked. He is now off to Napa to get a new one.

We haven't done much work on the boat for the last couple of days. Still some things to do towards launch day. Brightside the teak, clean the dinghy, clean the decks and the cockpit, new covers to be sewn for the fenders.

Peter just got back and brought some cinnamon sticky buns. He warmed one up and served it with a cup of coffee. Life doesn't get any better than this. He is calling them diabetic cinnamon buns. Can't fool this 'ole girl.

I am off to work with the Brightside and burn off some of these calories.

Boat Preparatiion.

Everything always takes longer than you think. I guess that is because of boat time.

We have stayed 2 nights on the boat in the boatyard. Not much for services. Hydro and water (not potable) and a Johnny on the spot not too far from the boat.

Things are coming together not too badly at all. We finally got everything out of the car and put away on the boat. Did some laundry so the bedding and things don't smell like boat. The galley looks like it should, the head is getting there. The TV is installed and we will try some coax cable to see  if it will work as an antenna like it did on Deja Vu.

The first night aboard the boat, we went out for dinner and did some shopping. When we returned we were locked out. Even our code wouldn't work after 8 pm. We called the emergency number and the guy lives a mile away, came and opened a gate for us. We learn something new each day. When the sign says the gate locks after 8 pm, it means that even your code won't let you in.
We continued to scrub and clean. I was on the inside of the boat and Peter was outside working on washing the lines. He tells me we have a lot of lines on this boat.
When I got off the boat he had lines hanging from the front of the boat to the back ...... Drying. Looked like a Chinese laundry.

One good thing when cleaning the boat, is that it is easy to decide what to throw away. If we never used it on the trip down the rivers 2 years ago, .... Chances are you don't need it. Or if it is fodd stuff and it has been on board for 2 years, chances are it is garbage. Now we have 4 bags of garbage and there is no dumpster at the boat yard. Hmmmm where to leave it. 2 bags around the shopping plaza and then West Marine said we could leave the rest in their dumpster.

We are treating ourselves to a dinner out and a motel room with a shower and a TV that gets all the stations. News and weather.

Arrived at Boat

Arrived at boat on Saturday. Found everything in good order.

We left home last Saturday. The trip that formerly took us 2 to 3 days now takes a week and it could have taken longer. There are just too many good friends to visit. But then again, you can never have too many good friends.

We visited Greg and Leslie  in Middletown, MD, then on to see Jim and Linda on Edisto Island, SC. They are really hard to get away from. Southern hospitality at the extreme. We had a day in Charleston with them and Bob Wilkens joined us for lunch. Had a wonderful visit. Too bad we missed his wife Linda who was in California working for 3 months to help a friend. Jim and Linda took us for a day tour of Savannah.  A very interesting city. We will need to come back and spend more time there. While in Savannah two Canadian marine boats came in and tied to the docks. Jokingly we said that Canada took the Port of Savanah without a fight. They even caught our lines.
Jim thought we should stay, saying we hadn't seen Atlanta yet. They do make it hard to leave, but leave we must. They should know better. The last time we stayed with them for over 6 weeks, when the engine for Deja Vu was being rebuilt at the nearby Rockville Marina. I think there may have been a family lottery for how long we would stay this time. Wonder who won?

We left Edisto and made our way to Zephyrhills, Fla to go to Martin and Kathy's new home and get some of our boating stuff that they brought with them and were storing. Unfortunately the car is absolutely full so there was very little we could bring this trip. The rest we will have to get when we return for William and Keri's wedding in February. Thank you Martin and Kathy. You have a great place there. We know you will enjoy it.

The boat is calling and we must make our way to Surona to see how she weathered the last year. More friends to visit, but that will have to wait. Arrived Englewood before noon. Quick lunch, then to the boat. Everything was in good order. Much better than last year when we found a window had broken out and let water in. Now what can we get done?

A boat looks so awful when you put it up for storage. Did we really leave it in such a mess inside?

Now what can we get done today, and where to start. We put the main sail on, to get it out of the way. Then got the dinghy off the front deck. Hmmmm needs some air, and definitely needs a good cleaning. Black mould as a result of being stored under the tarp. Then the dodger, Bimini, and connecting piece. Beginning to look more like a boat. The new floor boards need to be installed, but I would like to clean the Fiberglas under before the floorboards go on. Peter worked on the dinghy and had dinghy and motor hanging on davits while I scrubbed.

Not a bad day. Off to find a room for the night. This area has become very expensive. No more coupon rooms. They tell us we can stay on the boat overnight in the storage yard. We just need to make the boat ready. There are no showers in the yard so we will have to see what we will do about that.

Nothing is out of the car yet. Perhaps today.

Today is Superbowl Sunday. We will go to the boat for awhile and then we will get ready for Superbowl  Sunday Party. Some wings,  some drinks, a motel room, and we will be ready for the commercials. Some folks watch for the game, but we watch for the commercials. The best commercials for the year.





We first put the main sail on to get it out of the way.

Even tho they had been golfing on Friday, they had a wonderful meal to share with us. Martin shared some of his wine stores with us. Great visit, great hospitality.  William and Keri should arrive Saturday with baby Oliver. We tested the bed in the guest room and it is a good place to visit.  Thanks Martin and Kathy. Wish we could have stayed longer with you. You have a great place for the winter months. Enjoy.

There were more people we could have visited, but the cal of the boat was too strong. We arrived at the boat before lunch. Stopped for abide to eat in Englewood then to the boat. Met the new boat yard owners. The boat was in good shape had weathered the year well. Now to see what we could get done towards putting her back in order. A boat looks so sad when you have put it up for storage. And what a mess.

First we put the main sail on, to get that out of the way. Then we put the dodger, Bimini and joining panel on to get that out of the way. Got the dinghy off the front deck and got the mighty 4 hp motor out of the cabin and onto the dinghy. Needed a little air.Then he got them hanging on the davits. Dinghy is in need of a good cleaning. Lot of black mould after being stored under the tarp for the summer and fall