A week with Shirley on board

After a last minute change in plans my sister decided she would be able to join me for a week on the boat to help organize and catalog all the spare parts and supplies that were in various hiding places on the boat. 


Feb 26, 2012  
After delays and a bumpy flight our arrival, car rental pickup, and drive to Marina went well with one stop at the farm stand at the end of the Sunshine Bridge.  We had a great time doing some provisioning there with fun food and flowers.  Our arrival at the Marina was later than expected but there was still enough time to wash down the boat and clean the refrigerator.  After all that activitiy we were ready for cocktail hour but there was no tonic water, actually there was but we didn’t find it until later.  Our neighbor did not have any so we headed to River House to beg.  Well, the bartender said he would accommodate us so we ended up having two drinks, the decadent house fries, and left with a gallon jug of tonic water.  By that time we didn’t need the tonic water we just needed to go to bed. So at 8pm we were all tucked in and off to slumberland till around 3am.  

Monday Feb 27

Shirley started the day early by joining me in bed around 5am, to check out the mattress. so we chatted for an hour, listened to the train whistle and with a little Advil we were ready for a busy day cleaning, cataloging and rearranging the the galley. Bob can never find anything because it moves to a different spot each trip.  The water in the tank was not so tasty so we headed to office for coffee and hot water. I had scheduled an early dinghy pick up for the motor installation. Thankfully, Mike Hackett towed me and the motor-less dinghy to the ramp.  Shirley and I  had a lovely breakfast and then headed to Snead Island  to check out the area.  Emerson Point Park  turned out to be a nice surprise with lots of paths, mangroves, gnarled trees, birds, people fishing, private beach coves, and great scenery.  We took lots of pictures and wandered about until we got call to return to pick up dinghy. 

The dinghy was not performing the way I had expected.  After discussion with neighbor Dan, it was decided I needed a doefin installed to prevent the porpoising and to keep the bow down.  Shirley was not comfortable as we bounced through the choppy waters.  After much discussion with Bob, Don, Dan, Brad, a boat dealer from St Pete, it was determined that the fin should have been put on before we got it.  So now Bob decided to purchase and put it on himself.  This is not starting out well. 

Snead Island Boat Yard was supposed to send over someone to check out the water in the bilge.  They changed appt to 8:30 am the next day.

Dean and Glenda invited us over to chat about about possibly crewing on one leg of our trip north.  They have a Tiana, named soul mate that he has been working on for 3 years. It is a very cozy boat. 

Not sure what we had for dinner but we were in bed around 8:15pm.  We are not night owls.

Tuesday Feb 28

We indulged in a much needed shower first thing in am. The guys from Snead did not show up until 9:30, Sue did call ahead and let me know the the guy for the leak and the arch fabricator would be arriving at same time.  Joe checked out the bilge and could only find a fresh water leak coming from under the water tanks on each side where the valves were attached, he did not see any water around the valves.  Derek, measured the boat and took pictures so he could send a mock up of what the arch would look like.  The base price for this is $10,000;  the money pit gets bigger and bigger.  Scary. 

 After dealing with them Shirley and I got ready for our trip to Sarasota to meet with Chip Alario and Mike Hawkins, and Al Wilhelm.  We left a bit later than planned and ran into lots of traffic, so we did not take the scenic route but headed back to rt 41.  We did make it in time for our 2:00 with Chip.  As we departed Chip gave us two red Wells Fargo coffee cups after encouragement from Shirley.  The ride to our 4:30 appt with Mike and Al went quickly so we were on time for that appt also. Tax documents were discussed, copies made and Al will put our stuff together so we can determine our tax situation.  

Our next stop was St Armands circle, Chicos, Soma, and several other shops on our way to an Italian restaurant. I was served a special glass of wine, with a really nice lasagna.  Hunger and thirst satisfied we headed back to boat.  We sat out for a bid since it was nice and cool, snoozed a bit and then went to our cabins around 11:30pm.

Wednesday Feb 29

Instead of going to Naples as planned we decided to hang out and relax.  Shirley cooked breakfast, after our grapefruit of course. I cleaned the dinghy for a planned excursion with Margaret and Mike.  Dan’s dinghy was delivered and he spent a lot of time with the vender going over the boat and the davit system.   We headed across the river to 59th street ramp.  We did some cleaning with the help of an 8 year old boy who was all over the boats.  Very chatty.  The pelicans were hovering around the fishermen in the channel and almost landed on us. Shirley and I went across to the cut out to Terra Ceia Bay.  The Bradenton yacht is on one side and it looked like condos on the other.  there was a boat yard with a new 100 yacht being prepped, a bunch of ratty looking bait shops, derelict boats and interesting characters along the way. We only went into the bay for a quick look and turned around and headed back to the Marina.  It was choppy and we got a little wet.  Since we could not go very fast it did take some time, but we were in a sort of following sea and we surfed along.  

Back at the boat Dan had already gone out on his test run and tried to find us.  He also is not happy with his davits and needed to change a few things. He brought us ice cream that was very soft by the time it arrived.  

Shirley cooked her chicken pesto and we stuffed ourselves.  After laying around like beached whales for a bit we cleaned, had the ice cream, fruit and hot chocolate. Talk about uncomfortable.  So we played cribbage, Shirley was ahead a couple of games from the other night, and she is now further ahead by 5 games.......incredible.

Time for bed. We are thinking of going to Ellenington tomorrow am and boating in the afternoon with our porpoise-ing dinghy. 

 

Thursday, March 1

The early shower was nice!  We had our grapefruit and I had my yogurt and fruit and we were good to go shopping.  The trip to Ellington took longer than expected, so many shops and so little time but more important; tired feet.  We were not really impressed with the shops anyway.  Shoes, watches, and another stop at Chicos for a couple of shirts and we were done.  Peaches was close by so we had a late lunch and headed back to boat.  

After all that shopping we needed some outside time so off to Emerson Point at the end of Snead Island. We were treated with a dolphin show.  They were jumping out of the water to the delight of all watching on the beach.  

5:30 was our designated cocktail and appetizer hour with our slip mate Dan.  Although we were a little late returning from the beach, in short time we had bruschetta ready and our guest aboard.  Dan hung around for a bit, so I started cleaning up for our departure tomorrow.  Packed up most of my stuff and the paperwork Bob wanted and that about filled up my little carry on so I decided to leave the new clothes on the boat.  

Friday, March 2

The pump out station was not working so Mike will pump us out when it is fixed.  Mike also helped us get the dinghy up on the davits. I turned off what I thought was correct on the panel, however it should have been the AC bus A and charge button left on not the DC main switch.  Hmmm  Soooo I called Mike and asked him for some assistance. 

The ride to airport went without incident and we had enough time for Shirley to buy a watch.

bumpy flight home, Bob picked us up.  It was good to see him. He will be on the next trip.