Getting Ready for the Splash!

Friday, January 25, 2014

Tom is continuing his work. We can't do anything until he's finished. We did put a bunch of stuff we brought from home back on the boat.

We watched a crane lift a 48 ' catamaran out of the water this morning. The marina stared handling big cats this way a year or s ago. The owner hires a crane, the crane company lifts the boat and the yard gets storage feeds. The yard fees are 1/2 what they are in other marinas, so even though the owner has to pay for the crane service and crew, he saves a significant amount of money.

In the evening, we met up with the Fritz's. During dinner at PJ's, we heard about their boat trip the Marathon and Key West, and about Joe's latest foot infection. He seems to be doing pretty good and is just a couple weeks away from discharge.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

The Keel project is coming along nicely. Tom is doing a masterful job. By the time he's finished, the bottom of the keels will have six layers of biaxial glass. The will be much stronger than originally built. He is also doing a great job fairing the keels and the area where his work meets the hulls. We are very pleased with this project to date.

Besides watching Tom, we drove to Cocoa but the hardware store, which was our objective, was closed. We also visited West Marine, in an effort to secure a couple of canisters of butane for the cook stove. We can't find it anywhere!

We had an outstanding lunch at the Catfish Cabin. The blackened cod was outstanding. We like the cabin much better than the more famous Dixie Crossroads!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Even though it's Sunday, Tom continued his work on SUNSHINE. he faired the keels, applied three coats of Interprotect 2000, and one coat of bottom paint. He should be finished tomorrow. Tomorrow morning, SUNSHINE will be placed back on the jack stands. She has bee hanging in the slings of the travel lift since Friday evening to give Tom access to the bottom of the keels.

We've been camping about 10 miles south of the boat since we arrived on last Thursday. Tomorrow we move aboard, even though SUNSHINE is still on the hard. Over the next few days, we have to clean inside and out, bend on the sails, put up the canvas, inflate the dinghy and attach it to the davits, and attach the bow nets. There is also the little matter of waxing but since my power buffer was destroyed in the hurricane, we may farm out that little job.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Time to break camp and move onto the boat. We enjoyed our stay at Manatee Hammock County Park. It is a decent facility. Certainly not one of our favorites, but adequate for sure. During the day, there was a strong propane odor in the tent area. We didn't notice the odor anywhere else in the park.

It is a very busy campground and popular with the RV crowd. Many stay for the winter. There is a 180 day limit. It looks like a lot of RVers maximize their stay.

The campground also boasts a pool, rec room, canoe/small boat launch ramp and a fishing pier.

Back in the marina, Tom finished up his work on the keels. He still has to finish bottom painting the rear quarter of the port hull. He ran out of paint. We ordered another gallon. It should be here tomorrow so he can finish.

We started to clean SUNSHINE's interior. All the wood surfaces were wiped down and the refrigerator was cleaned and started. It is running fine as it the inverter/charger. The batteries are fully charged, compliments of the solar panels.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The cleaning of S/V SUNSHINE begins in earnest today! Tom finished his work yesterday so we can have at it without getting in his way.

We worked all day; the boat has never been this dirty. It'll take several days for Anna Marie to clean the inside. It may take me longer to do the outside! We got a good jump on it though.

In the evening, we watched a movie rented from a nearby Red Box.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Yippee, more cleaning today! Anna continued her fun on the inside. I washed and waxed the cockpit. We knocked off early 1600 hours, to get ready for what we expected to be a fun evening. Boating buddies Dee and Lee picked us up at the marina and whisked us off to the Catfish Cabin where we enjoyed dinner and conversation. The evening flew by! In no time, it was time to go home.

We got back to the marina in time to walk to the adjacent park to watch the launch of an Atlas V rocket with a DRTS satellite aboard. It is the next generation data reception/ transfer satellite. The launch was right on time and spectacular as usual.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Oh boy, more cleaning today! The deck is scrubbed, but still blotchy. I'll have to do it again. I managed to find time to replace the Racor fuel filters too.

Anna Marie continued her inside work. While I was washing the deck she checked for leaks. She reported that there were none. Given the high coefficient of expansion on the plexiglass windows caused by the intense Florida summer sunshine, I always expect that it will be necessary to rebel some of the portlights. It looks like we're good to go this year.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Most of the cleaning has been accomplished. What's left can be done while underway. The last major projects will be to clean the deck lockers and inflate the dinghy. We plan to do the lockers on Saturday and the dinghy on Sunday. Then we'll be ready to splash.

We'll also have to find time to provision.

BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP -THE MUSICAL

We took Friday evening off to attend the world premiere production of the aforementioned show at the Cocoa Village Playhouse. The show was written by Tony Macaully, who has written 20 hits in the 60's and 70's, including four that topped the charts. Those four songs plus 14 other new ones were in the show which chronicled the trials and tribulations of the music industry furring the period.

The music was great and boy oh boy, could the cast sing. They had outstanding voices. Unfortunately, the choreography was lacking, probably because the cast members couldn't dance! During the few dance numbers, the dancers looked like they had two left feet!

There is a lot of buzz about this show being Broadway bound. It certainly has the pedigree. With some tweaking, it just may make it.