Off to a good start

Left FWB on schedule Wed 25 for an eight hour run to Panama City and a visit with Rich and Mary Gano. The boat ran fine and the Gano's were five star hosts. A major weather front was forecast for Thur so we stayed over getting a few boat chores done and being hosted to a fine dinner at Gano's, another 5 star dinner. They are neighbors of Butch and Kathleen Gould. All in all a great two days playing boats with friends. We were so well taken care of that we were considering becoming taking up residence.

Joan's imput: Something Larry neglected to tell .... We were walking along the dock to the boat after a fine time when Larry disappeared from sight but did hear a splash. YUP, he did it again. Went swimming. We found his glasses the next morning so all was not lost.

Back to Larry
Friday we were off to a 5hr run to beautiful downtown White City. Bet you never heard of this place. Tied up to a free dock at the county park just off the waterway and had very nice afternoon and evening walking the park and watching a bunch of fishing boats come and go.

Joan's imput: I ran the washing machine for the first time. Awesome. I just sat there and watched the little thing do its job.

Today, Saturday, we cruised 2 whole hours to Apalachicola and checked in at the Scipio Creek Marina to do some more wash and prepare for the voyage across the arm pit of Florida tomorrow. The weather is forecast to be fine so hope to be just under 12 hours into Steinhatchee.

The scenery and pleasures of cruising along the way so far have been all and more than we had hoped for. This is just plain fun. Our only regret is we cannot share it with you all. Just endless beautiful scenes and all kinds of critters. Slowly moving along the mostly placid waterways unfolds and ever changing panaroma of God's master work of creation.

Took some pictures and attempted to upload them for this post but the cell signal is a bit too weak for much data. Will get them up as stronger area.

Joan & Larry

Creature from the black lagoon

Hope I can read a chart better than a calendar. Our "D-Day" was Tuesday 24 Apr vice 21 Apr as noted in the previous post.

Yesterday I put the Hookah rig together for the first time and inspected the boat under water. The rig worked perfectly and will be a great asset along the way. My total cost was about $150 thanks to Ebay. Commercial versions are over 1k.

The bottom was fine but there was 1/2" of barnacles on the prop. No wonder the boat felt sluggish Wed when we ran over to Destin to top off our diesel tanks.

We now hope to be underway Wed 25 Apr headed 8hrs to Panama City and an over night visit with our friends the Gano's.

The predeparture checklist is now relatively short and seemingly under control.

D-10 and counting

The dinghy goes aboard and miracle of mircales fits. This rig was designed in pieces over a span of several years and had never been "proofed" other than some cardboard silhouettes. But! Praise the Lord, it fits like a glove. Otherwise departure prep is on schedule and weather permitting we hope to be underway Tuesday 21 April headed for Panama City and points east and south.

Maden Voyage!

CHARIS IN PENSACOLA. We spent last night in one of the nicest marinas in Northwest FL. A fitting debut for for such a high class lady. Five hours each way and all systems never missed a beat except the Capitan narrowly missed a humpy little sand bar when the Adrimal pointed it out at the last minute. Please see picasaweb.google.com/lropka
for a few pictures of the neighborhood and especially the gormet breakfast served by the Adrimal.

Mini Cruise

A beautiful sunny day and it all came together as we ventured all of the way to Destin for fuel and beyond. Joan almost fell overboard taking pictures of the dolphins frolicking around the bow. A bunch of big ones! Then 200 gal of diesel (OUCH) at the Harbor Marina fuel dock followed by lunch around the corner on the bay. We ran about 4 hours and all systems worked as planned. More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/lropka/minicruise

The People Catcher

The long awaited bow rails are finally installed. A very tedious job involving about one hundred trips from deck to fore cabin and back to align and finally get the rail bases bolted down. Even some blood letting from attempting to reach into unreachable places to screw on and tighten retaining nuts. Tomorrow will get the nose piece formed and installed.This can be rotated out of the way to allow lines to be repositioned without being taken aboard if necessary. Forty eight bolts closer to finishing construction. :-)

Time out

Foul weather and a laundry list of house repairs has caused a pause in boat work for the past week or so. We replaced 11 thermopane windows and completed a number of interior details left over from the hurricane Ivan rebuild. Because the windows are custom built in cedar frames we had to break them out and then painstakingly remove the bits of glass, metal insulation strip and original adhesive, a 2-3 hour process per window. NOT FUN. We also pressure washed most of the exterior and will re-stain the washed areas over the next few days. Hopefully by the weekend we will be able to do our long delayed mini shakedown to Pensacola.