GOODBYE WINTER!

Finally, a blog post!  Between parties, Xmas, New Year’s, parties, rum tastings, shopping and sleeping, life has just been too exciting to put thoughts to paper.  We just didn’t know whether we were coming or going

.   Let’s see, we got back to the boat just before Thanksgiving.  Well, sort of back to the boat.  She was sitting on the hard, gunwales 8 feet or so off the ground.  We opted to stay in a motel where we got busted for cooking in the room.  I guess the perfumed aroma of sautéing onions and peppers and eggplant gave us away.  What?  Cooking in the room?  Oh, no, we were just microwaving some things.  The ratatouille was phenomenal.

 Well we moved to new digs—better deal, hundred bucks cheaper, bigger room.  Wait, why is there no hot water in the sink?  Oh, I see, the shut off valve is closed.  Whew!  That was easy.  Eek!  No knob on the hot water in the shower!  Get out the pliers?  Nah, remove the screw from the cold water knob and switch the knob between the hot and cold.  What are problems for if not for solutions?

All this excitement was punctuated by stimulating moments of sanding the bottom of the boat.  Dressed in a hazmat suit, mask over nose and mouth, I scuffed up the old paint in prep for nice new coats of the stuff that keeps the uglies from growing on the bottom.  At last, the bottom covered with nice new anti-fouling the boat was ready to splash.

  Half hour later, we were tied up in Harbortown Marina next to s/v Chardonnay III, our home for the next six weeks.  Time for the traditional celebratory rum at the end of a journey.

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Let the parties begin!  There was the boat parade, 

                                                       
                                                             then Xmas, then New Year’s,

                                                                  then the rum tasting,

                                                    then plain ole parties and dinghy rides.

The trip down to Miami was uneventful (the best kind!).  No Name Harbor, on the other hand has been entertaining.  During the first blow, the winds clocked from Se to SW to W to NW to N and built to 20 knots.  We were right up next to the mangroves.  I mean close enough to touch.  And then we began to drag anchor.  Thankfully it was daylight.  So, haul anchor and move.  Drop it 3 times, no go.  Move to another location, 3 more times, during one of which the anchor became entangled with the chain.  Oh, did I mention that the anchorage was very crowded?  Finally, we bite but are just a few feet in front of another boat.  Not bad, but not good either.  Surely this qualified as an event deserving of a celebratory rum! We weren’t alone in dragging.  Several hotshots in their Searays and sleek power boats dragged, too;  in the middle of the night.  Always more exciting that way.  Mañana we move again.  Same deal, several times before we bite.  Then the blow comes through and we drag again.  We barely get hooked when we notice that the trawler next to us is dragging big time; no one aboard.  Several of us neighbors (sailors all) boarded the boat and found another anchor which we deployed by way of a dinghy.  For you Rocna/Manson fans, That’s what the trawler had out.  In all fairness it must be said, .  “Even a Rocna or a Manson won’t hold in 12 feet of water with 30 feet of chain.”

No Name is really a very comfortable place to be.  It’s part of a State Park with walking trails, tropical flowers, birds and a lighthouse.  It’s only a mile from downtown Biscayne Bay and a shopping center.

So, we’re well on our way.  As soon as the weather settles, we’re Bimini bound!

Goodbye winter!