Florida, Here We Come!

    The boat is ready to go and finally so am I. Got the ok to cruise from the cardiologist following an Ablative procedure in October and Cardoversion in November to resolve my altrial-fibrilation. All systems are go and we are planning to depart on 3 Jan, following provisioning the boat and picking up refills of medical prescriptions. Getting old is not conducive to cruising. Good justification for cruising when you health supports it - not when financial security does. Sue and I are 65 and 66 and starting to experience health issues that can limit your activities. We're very glad to be able to get back to cruising at this point.
   We are heading, this winter season, to Florida waters. Will hang out in Biscayne Bay and Florida Keys for awhile and cruise up to Punta Gorda to visit friends. I love this photo of the Boca Chita anchorage and we plan to spend some time here again on this trip.

   Our last trip to the keys we arrived at Key West at sunset and cruised by the crowds on Mallory St at the waterfront.

   This is the view that all the people are lining up to watch. Sunset off Key West.  Will be good to see these sights again.

   

Cockpit Enclosure Rehab

    Preparing to leave now on 1 Jan, we pulled out the cockpit enclosure side and back pieces from storage in our garage and found that the vinyl windows had hardened and cracked on most all of them. We made them with inexpensive materials since they were just our first trial. After 3 years in the sun and 2 years in storage the plastic was in bad condition.

   We sewed new plastic over the old windows, the cut the old plastic off. It is a real makeshift solution, but only has to last for this sailing season as we plan to have a new enclosure made next summer. We still need to take the pieces down to the boat and do the final fitting of the aft pieces that have cutouts for the backstays, radar mount and pushpit braces. 

   All finished and ready to head south on 1 Jan.  Hope the sun shines and keeps us toasty inside.