Boat chores...

After a wonderful time at home spending time with friends and family over Thanksgiving and Christmas we finally returned to Wind Spirit. While it took me a while to settle in, Bill was right at it. Boat chores are really endless, but getting ready to leave made it all more urgent. I won't bore you with a complete list of what he was doing but it included changing oil in engine and generator, cleaning or changing oil, fuel, and water filters. In that process he discovered a leaky raw water pump on the generator so we had a mechanic come and replace it. Bill went up the mast to replace an antenna for the VHF radio. Wrong part... so reordered it then went up again or rather we pulled a fellow sailor Richard, who has lots of experience, and was our teacher, up the mast so we could experience both going up and pulling up. Learning all the time. Still a problem with the radio so it may be the bracket on the port side instead of starboard so it means another trip up one of these days. Bill was so excited to be up there he forgot to take a picture :-(.

Oh yes back to boat chores... Sorting and storage are endless as we weeded through what we wanted to take with us and what we didn't, as well as separating what we need now and when the weather is warmer. We needed to store things more effectively using plastic bags, boxes, and cabinets as well as possible.

Lists are a strong suit of mine, but they have to be written in a notebook so we always know where stuff is and what we need to do or to purchase. I call the notebook my paper brain!

A bargain rental car over the weekend help with provisioning and sundries we couldn't live without.

We had a busy social life with friends at the marina while we were there, eating out and sharing meals together. Fun! Thanks Gideon!

Our plan was to leave on Monday the 24th of January, but very cold and rainy weather delayed us until the 27th. We had a fun surprise though as Claude called and said he would be able to come with us as far as St. Augustine. He came down on Monday the 23rd and waited out the bad weather until we left on Thursday a bright sunny cold morning.We were happy to have his car available during the last 2 days to get out some more and even to visit the Marines' Museum on Parris Island which was very well done!

More to come as we head south...