Catch Up

 Well, we have been busy doing some land travel now that we have a car and the boat is parked at the marina here in New Bern waiting for repairs. After the 4th of July holiday we loaded up the animals and drove the 10 hours to Orlando (Apopka) to stay at Mark and Kerry’s house while they went on a Mediterranean cruise. We watched their 3 dogs and took care of the house and pool, which was not tough duty for sure.  We got to stay in a beautiful house, have a pool in the backyard, enjoy our kitty as well as a total of 4 dogs and cook in a real kitchen and watch Netflix till we couldn’t see straight! All of the dogs were so good and they all got along with Madison, so that was a nice benefit. It is ungodly hot and humid in Florida this time of year, so the only time we poked our noses out of the house was to get in the pool - which we did every day! It also rains every afternoon this time of year, so we timed our pool time accordingly.

Mark and Kerry got home last Sunday evening and Tom and I drove back to New Bern on Tuesday. Dave, the guy working on the bow pulpit repair, started work this week and we’re hoping it will be all done in another 10 days to 2 weeks. There is a stainless steel cover plate being made in Baltimore that will cover the bow pulpit and Dave and his wife - who are from there - are there this weekend.  They hope to be able to drive it back down here when they return on Sunday.

We have been keeping busy doing boat work. Tom unloaded the whole lazarette and painted the metal rudder post for the stern and the worst part of that was the unloading and re-loading of all of the “stuff” kept down there.  Think basement….  LOL! Plus, the heat has been stifling, so we have to start those projects early and rest often. Today we changed the oil in the generator, cleaned out the strainer and fixed a leaky connection to the antifreeze reservoir.  That work was beneath the floor inside, but still plenty warm….

I am starting to sort through what will stay on the boat while it’s listed and what will go with us and trying to plan meals that will use up what resources we have on board now. We are doing some exploration of the area by car to get a “feel” for what it would be like to live here, and it is already feeling a lot like “home”. We shall see….

We have been having some strong storms in the afternoon here too, and the winds have been strong, but if the weather allows, Tom will go golf 9 holes tomorrow morning while I clean a head (bathroom) - I think he has the better deal.







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