Friday, January 31, 2014

Doesn't get much better than today ....


Not complaints, just wonder ... in this time of the year in Florida, the temperature 40 degree F? Back home  ... well we won't talk about that ...

We drove down, taking a few day arriving in St. Augustine on January 13 (we left Toronto with car January 11). We very quickly decided we have to get a heater. The previous heater for the boat we brought back home last year, never thought we will ever need it in Florida or other places this far south. Life is such a learning curve!

We went looking for heaters. To Ace Hardware, Walmart and Home Depot, no more heater, sold out! It seems every time a cold front goes through, they are sold out. This is interesting! We finally found at Target. From that day until today we have used (and  need) the heater in the salon.

We needed to clean and wax the hull, re-bed the ground plane thru hull posts ... (they were leaking "drips" last year). We also had to do some adjustments on the pitch of the Autostream Prop for forward and reverse nothing huge just fine-tuning ... probably should have left it alone ... time will tell. As well to investigate the rudder stuffing box as it was leaking a little last year as well.

Saber Tooth launched at Monday, January 20, we moved to River Edge Marina. We continued work to get the boat ready. We replaced all the seals in the opening hatches in the cabin,. As with all "five minute jobs" one window on the port side fell apart. So, add to the work list, to try and find somebody in town who can cut the glass in something less than a week.

Another big project in this "getting ready process" was to replace the water/plumbing system. It's not a fun job. Ordered all the hoses and the fittings, arrived in few days. So in between other projects, it took 4 days to finish this project.

Here is a photo montage of  the process (when we remembered to take pictures) ...















Fellow cruiser, "Greenstone" having some adjustments done at the top of the mast ... 


Close up of the great idea of having small steps at the top of the mast to help to get up and over the mast head ... helps take off some strain from the bosun's chair ... 
... or should we say "what is in" the bosun's chair ... ;-) 


The one offending opening port that sort of fell apart when replacing the window seal ... oh well ... another episode of running around town finding a supplier to cut new replacement glass to put it all back to gether ... fun in the life and time of cruising ... 


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all ...

It is the new year and getting ourselves organized to start the migration south. It has been a bitterly cold few days (how soft we have become) and long for the relatively warmer climates of the south. I say relative as Florida is experiencing cooler temps as well.

We have had a very busy couple of seasons (summer, fall and winter) and really look forward to cruising and the stresses that go along with that life style. I realize that there will not be much sympathy there ... but gotta try.


Our last "End or Season Gathering" with "the crews" from, 
Summer of 42, Greenstone and SaberTooth.

We hope to launch around Jan 17th, provision and catch up with the Florida cruising crowd to move to Bahamas for the rest of the winter months. We look froward to exploring new anchorages and experiencing the closeness with mother nature and all that has to offer us in our next chapter this year.

Awesome New Year to every one and look froward to fair winds and calm seas ...


John and Nora