June 13th, 2010

Steve’s Birthday!!! I just had a long conversation with my brother who is up fishing in Alaska with my cousin Brian. What a great birthday present. His trip up to Juneau is becoming a yearly event! His wife, Michele, and son, Jon, will join him at the end of this week, for 2 more fun packed weeks.

Meanwhile, all the way across the United States, we are still in the great state of Florida. And….we’re finally in the water!! We splashed down on Friday, 6-11-10, at 11:00 am. Before we did, I put my artistic talents to work and painted an anchor, “MOM”, and the date, on the hull of the boat. An anchor to represent the hopes and dreams of our upcoming journey, and Mom and the date, for my mother, Bernice, who died on 6-11-99. I really felt the presence of my Mom and my Dad, Lyle, the best captain I’ve ever known. Almost all of my boating skills, I learned from him.

June 14th

Oh, what a beautiful morning!!! Oh, what a beautiful day! (can you hear me singing???) The sun is still climbing into the sky, getting hotter by the minute, but there is a balmy breeze on the water that feels awesome. I’m sitting in the cockpit, under the bimini, soaking up the delicious moment, and sharing it with you.

Sorry I’ve been so delinquent in writing. We’ve been so busy, and time passes by so quickly that I just can’t seem to find the time or energy. Yesterday was 99 degrees, and with a little humidity, feels like 103. Dave went up the mizzen mast at dawn again and disassembled the old wind generator, dropping it slowly onto the deck. We put on a brand new halyard line to raise him up. When I cranked him up on Friday, I noticed that the old line was frayed in half in about 6 places. Thankfully he made it up and down with no problem, but I hate to think of the possibilities.

Saturday we drove over to St. Augustine to a discount marine store and bought new lines for the boat, at half the price of West Marine. It was blazing hot, so we decided to go into the old part of the historic city and have lunch on the bank of the Intercoastal waterway (ICW). This is the route that we will use to go North to Chesapeake Bay. Soon, very soon, I hope. We had just finished lunch and were heading to the car, when Dave said, “Isn’t there a gelato stand nearby???”. Oh my God, was it ever delicious. They even had a new flavor for Dave to try, Toblerone! He was in heaven.

In spite of the almost daily amount of DQ blizzards and now gelato, we are both losing weight. Our new lifestyle must be agreeing with us. I hope this trend continues. We are also getting quite tanned, but believe me, it’s not from laying out. Just the small snippets of time that you go from shade to shade or car to air conditioned store or restaurant, is enough to get to your skin.
The breeze is getting stronger. Feels marvelous!! Oh, I almost forgot! I saw my first manatee on Friday as the boat was getting settled in the water. It came right up near the bulkhead and flipped around like a swimmer does when he comes to the wall at the end of the pool. They are huge!!! The water in the marina is not very deep, so I was very surprised that manatees would swim there.

In spite of all the work we’ve been doing, I have gotten Dave to take a few breaks during the extremely hot parts of the days. A few weeks ago, we went to the theatre and saw “Sex and the City 2”. Believe it or not, the afternoon movie was only $5.00 a head. After the first 20 minutes, the power in the theatre went out. After a half hour of waiting, they finally evacuated the place and gave everyone a free pass to come at another time. Cool!! Even better, we were just walking out the door when the power came back. They said we could go back in, and the movie would start right back where it cut off. Super cool! The movie was okay. It was fun to see the characters again and spend time with them, but the story line was a little outrageous.

Yesterday we went up North to buy an outboard motor for our dinghy, but forgot that it was Sunday and the store closed at 3:00pm. It was exactly 3:00 pm. So instead, we decided to use our free movie passes. We were a little early, so we killed some time walking the air conditioned mall. The only money we spent was on a pretzel for Dave and a Baskin Robbins’ ice cream cone for me. I chose Nutty Coconut and Rum Raisin. Should have had just Rum Raisin. It was soooooo good! Then we went to see “Killers” with Katherine Heigel and Ashton Kucher. I had really low expectations, but it was a lot of fun. Very funny! It didn’t hurt that Tom Selleck was also in it, and I love Tom Selleck! Haven’t heard Dave laugh that hard since our days of watching “Two and a Half Men” every night. It felt good!

I’m still having fun getting my dog fix from Roxy. She’s the self trained service dog of our new friend Phil. He had a motorcycle accident a few years ago, and lost his right leg. He gets around in a wheelchair with Roxy in a harness pulling him along. She loves it!! They were clocked once by a county sheriff going 28mph in a posted 25 zone. In more confined areas, she puts her head under the seat and pushes him from behind. Quite amazing!! Since I’ve been giving her daily treats, like cheese and milk bones, she gets very excited whenever she spies me, and races to greet me! So Phil always knows when I’m approaching because Roxy goes nuts. I was given the task of dogsitting Roxy while Phil cranked Dave up the Main mast. While Phil left his wheelchair and climbed onto the boat, I was told to take Roxy for a walk down the pier. Every few steps she would turn around to make sure she could still see Phil. Once we were out of sight, she turned and dug in her heels to speed back to Phil’s side. She is so loyal. He had to leave her once to have some surgery done on his leg, and since then, she is afraid he will leave her again. She is also the only Lab I’ve ever known that hates the water. When she was a pup, the family she lived with had two boys that took great joy in squirting her and harassing her with a hose, so no water for her! Phil rescued her from those two brats, which is why she is so loyal to him. And ironically, she now lives in a boat, on the water. She can swim, but she does not do so voluntarily.

One of my chores that I actually look forward to is doing the laundry. The building here that houses the machines is air conditioned, and is a wonderful respite from the heat. I usually put the wash in and then sit and read for the time it takes to do its’ thing, about 30 minutes. Then I load the dryer and go do something else for 60 minutes. Yesterday, when I went back to fold the laundry, there were 3 men in the room just shooting the breeze in the air conditioning! They are no dummies!

Well, I should probably wrap this up. The breeze is starting to die and the sun is getting hotter. Before I do, I have a special request. My friend Kathy is in the hospital in Longview having a tough time. She has a blood vessel that is causing internal bleeding at an alarming rate, and it is too risky to operate due to its location. The doctors are hoping that it will heal itself given time, but she has already been there for a week and she is receiving 1-2 units of blood daily. Please keep her in your prayers. Kathy and I worked together in Longview for 19 years, and kept each other sane (I think). I am having separation anxiety!

Hope all is well with each of you. Thank you for reading this blog. It is so much easier than sending mass emails, although I may have to start doing both. Some people just seem unwilling to pull up a blog page!

Love and Hugs,
The Admiral