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.