Tuesday March 29: Aft Cabin Finished - Preparing to Move On!

The aft cabin is now considered complete! I finished the area above the bed yesterday - what a difference. Remember the before? Here's the after :-)

Once the foam dried, I attached one edge of the ceiling material to the underside edge of the trim around the wall. This would let me pull the material tight when I stretched it across to the outside of the boat. I just used the trim piece that was already there to hold the outside edge of the material - used a lot of screws instead of the few nails to hold it though.

Trim the excess material - and done! Well mostly. The porthole needed some extra time but it turned out pretty well. Now if I only had remembered to close it before it rained last night!

Steve in the meantime was working on his bike. Seems the bearings were going in the rear wheel. That required two trips to Key Largo to a bike shop that we had ridden right by when we were at Pennekamp! Anyway, success in the end.

It's very humid and hot lately - time to start moving north. Probably will leave here on Saturday or Sunday. We'll miss Ty and Bonnie and Pam (the owner of the marina) - they have become good friends. It kind of supports the theory I have held for a long time: it's easier to find new friends that are already boaters than to turn current friends into boaters :-)

Sunday March 27: Back Home to Treasure Harbor

True to their word, the weather folks got it right today! Almost no wind - the result being that today we traveled in an aquarium on the way to the reef. The water is this picture is about 8 feet deep with the bottom easily visible. Sponges, eagle rays (the ones with spots) and barracuda were easily spotted near the boat.

But first this morning on the agenda was a ride to Kmart and Publix (grocery store). I thought I could get a new bike tire at Kmart but they were out of the right size. We did find water absorbing stuff to put in the front and aft storage areas. It's very humid some days and with us not moving regularly, the air doesn't really get a chance to circulate. The calm held through our dive at Molasses Reef - definitely the best dive so far with lots and lots of the small reef fish that are so bright with colors. It seems the reef is recovering from the heavy misuse that was evident 10 years ago in the form of broken sea fans and dead coral. Florida has done a nice job protecting the string of reefs that lie about 5 miles off of the shore. The glass bottom boat out of Pennekamp park joined us at the reef. It's a fun trip that we've done a couple of time when in the Keys in the past.

Once we left the reef (depth about 25 feet) we had to travel a mere 1/4 mile to reach water between 100 and 200 feet - the perfect depth for Steve to try his hand at trolling. Amazingly enough, it wasn't too long before he clearly had a fish on! Didn't know what but we would soon find out it was a mahi-mahi (dolphin fish)!! He's been trying to catch one of these ever since we were here years ago on a chartered Mainship trawler with Paul and Miriam. It was quite the challenge to get it in the boat but between the two of us we did it :-) Miriam did catch a shark one time (picture of Paul, Miriam and Steve is from summer of 2000) :-)

The real problem came when we went to put it in the cooler ......

The rest of the trip back was uneventful and no more fish (which is probably a good thing as our freezer is getting quite full). The size limit on these fish is 20" and this one was 31" so we figured that it must be fairly big. Sadly, we didn't think to weigh it. As usual, I filleted it and then guess what we had for dinner - again :-) The rest of the fish will go into the crab pots as bait this morning when Ty and Steve check the traps. Wonder what they'll find as the traps have sat for 3 days .....

Friday March 25: Key Largo

The two day weather forecast was for perfect weather - light winds (which means we could maybe dive) and highs in the 80's. So yesterday we headed for Key Largo - 25 miles east of Treasure Harbor. This is where we first discovered renting condos! When we (Steve, me, Wendy and Becky - and probably Paul and Miriam, not sure) first walked into the place we thought we were in heaven! It was SO nice!!! This was some years ago of course and it was Becky's 16th birthday. Poor kid was never home for her birthday as it was always in the middle of summer - prime boating season. Anyway, she LOVES lobster and saw this 5 lb lobster at the grocery store so for her special dinner - that's what she had! As I recall, she ended up needing some help to finish it off :-) The day yesterday was as predicted although still a bit rough to dive. So Steve snorkeled and while he was in there, decided to try to climb into the dinghy from the water. We had often wondered if we would be able to do that. Turns out, we can't! But a short rope tied to one of the handles is all we would need - put it on the 'to do' list for sure. The water is beautiful but takes some getting used to seeing the colors and realizing the depth doesn't change much - just the composition of the bottom. A sand bottom produces the very light blue water while a weed bottom give the darker blues. John Pennekamp State Park (the only park that covers a reef system) is about 1 1/2 miles back a winding channel through the mangroves. It was a very nice ride and clear enough to see the sting rays swimming. Getting off of the boat was an experience as they don't have docks here - just 4 poles to tie to so off the front of boat it is! Today's weather was even better!! We went 12 miles to the Elbow reef and caught a mooring ball. Almost all of the reefs now have the mooring balls so instead of everyone anchoring (and destroying the coral), you just catch a mooring. Much easier - just pass a line through the loop in the line and we are good to go. The dive today was MUCH more successful than the other day due to the calm seas and visibiltiy. Lots of fish :-) Steve had made sandwiches up before we left the dock (we do get smarter some days) as it is really bouncy in the main cabin when there are waves but turns out it was so calm today he wouldn't have needed to do so. They were great anyway!! We had lots of company before we left: snorkelers from the Pennekamp park boats - we thought it was an invasion :-) So Jeff Foxworth says "you may be a redneck if you have a rear view mirror on your boat" ... mmm does this really mean we're rednecks? We had picked up this convex mirror but had never used it. Very helpful for watching for fast boats coming up behind us - but it does need a better home. Somewhere in my normal line of sight instead of being attached to the flybridge canvas. Steve also was fishing again - with good results. Two Mangrove Snappers which are cooking as I write this. Fish again??? I think I may begin to really like it! Maybe it's the freshness ..... 4 hours from swimming to plate. The marina is quite nice (and we actually are tied to a dock tonight as the boat that was here left this morning) - 3 snorkel boats and 1 tour boat.

Wednesday March 23: Operation Spruce Up - Almost Done!

So I thought the aft cabin was finished when the wallpapering was completed and the ceiling was painted but I forgot about my little porthole and the mess that is the ceiling under which I sleep every night! Pics of the whole aft cabin redo can be see at: https://picasaweb.google.com/lfrankooh/AftCabinRenovations# as there are just too many pictures to put here. The ceiling is really nasty looking but is actually quite clean :-) Ever since we first discovered the leaks in the walkaround deck 4 years ago, this is what I have been sleeping under! My little porthole was never finished on the inside either. First step was to use headliner adhesive to attached a very thin layer of foam rubber. Once this dries I'll start the final phase of using a light brown fabric to complete the job - more on that when it gets done :-) The Spanish Mackerel was EXCELLENT! This is from a person who will eat fish (it's really healthy) but wouldn't choose to ever have it for supper. However, I found myself reaching for more!! Guess we had better go fishing again :-) There is still plenty in the freezer for now though.

Two more jobs were finished up today. Both of them were must do's. One was polishing all of the stainless steel railings and fittings. We found out from our brother-in-law Jim that not all stainless is alike as it depends on the amount of chrome in the mix (hope I have that right, Jim!). It was obvious that we've been in a salt-water environment as everything needed cleaned and polished. The cleaner will also help prevent rust from forming but this is definitely a new regular maintenance that needs to be done.

The other job that was imperative to complete was to attach all of the thru-hull fittings (which provide raw water to the engine, generator, and air conditioner) to the sacrificial zincs that are on the back of the boat. Same principal as the shaft: the zinc gets eaten away by stray electrical currents in the water (conducted way better by saltwater than fresh water). So Steve attached 3 of them yesterday and I finished the last two up today -- of course in the most forward part of the space under the cabin floor. Smooth job - went well :-) Check!!

And as always, it's not all work. Larry and Tammy (Ty's sister and brother-in-law) cooked for everyone the other night. They own 3 bars/wing joints in the Cheboygan area in Wisconsin and he makes his own sauce - of which he was kind enough to leave us a bottle of each. Before they left to spend two weeks away, he made 450 gallons of sauce to keep the supply where it needed to be!! It's called Legend Larry's and there is a website on which you can order it: http://www.legendlarrys.com/sauce.html We used it again last night to make ribs and Steve has definite plans for the Scary Larry in the batch of chili he is going to make tomorrow. Personally, I liked the Honey BBQ :-) Also more crab claws yesterday - the largest ever! And 4 more today :-) Total: 9 - sounds like a feast!

Saturday March 19: Work and Woofstock

Yesterday quickly turned into a work day. While we were diving the other day, Steve noticed the bottom of the boat was getting some growth of very small barnacles - due mostly to our being in one spot for so long. Today he put on scuba stuff to make it easier to scrub the bottom on the boat! It's not enough that we have to keep the top clean but the bottom as well. I provided moral support and every so often checked that there were air bubbles coming out from under the boat just to verify he was still under there :-) The Ove Glove now has another official use: boat bottom cleaner - there is just no end to the uses of that thing! Of course while under the boat cleaning the bottom (in less than clear water), Steve noticed the zinc anode was missing from the propeller shaft. Instead of the prop shaft getting eaten away by stray currents in the water, this sacrificial anode gets eaten away. Definitely need to replace that! Fortunately the hardware store a mile down the road had one that fit the shaft so back into the water Steve went. The allen key and flashlight he used were both tied to him with a string - we've lost way to many tools overboard :-) The challenge is to get the two halves of the anode around the shaft then use the allen wrench to tighten the 4 screws that hold the two halves together - all while hanging upside down under the boat in murky water. It was a challenging 30 minutes to do this but success was his in the end! Meanwhile, Ty's sister and brother-in-law came to visit them so we had a pot luck dinner and played domino's after. Ty was ever the clown with his eyepatch and fake teeth .... all enjoyed the evening :-) This morning they headed out of the harbor for a sail and an overnight trip to the bayside. Today after our 9 mile bike to breakfast (round trip), we stopped at what we thought was Woodstock - thinking we missed the first one in the 60's so maybe we'd catch this one! Little did we know that it was WOOFstock - a music fest that focused on dogs!

The funnest were the airdogs jumping into the pool. Apparently not all of the dogs wanted to do that as the man in the second picture needed to demonstrate how to run and jump into the pool! There were also dog races and a guy in a dog suit who posed with your dog for pictures.

There were cute dogs everywhere and many booths - all stuff for dogs! Fozzi would have loved this place - organic treats and everything!