Time to Learn some more

Two of the pictures are from when we left Manatee boat yard. The area is relatively protected. Lots of mangroves, but no other large trees. It's a prettly laid back mom and pop boat yard, so lots of people working on their own boats. The other two pictures are from the Anchorage Resort area right at the edge of Key Largo. We're on the dock right now with another older Gemini right next to us. Our boat is on the right. Marilyn caught the other picture just as the sun was going down tonight. Temps are in the 60's at night and 70's during the day. Looks like there could be a slight warm up at the end of the week.

Today's project was to get the oil changed in the car and install the selenoid for the propane that finally came in. I've also been waiting for a couple of other parts that I ordered and seem to be having trouble getting delivered. I ordered them from inflatableboatsusa.com and I may have to dispute the credit card charges because I can't get them to respond and they don't seem to show that anything has been shipped. That's probably the biggest irony of everything. I have the most problems getting boat parts in the boating capital of the US. Go figure. However, it seems like everyone is boating and no one is working.

Splash!!

The boat went splash. We finally got her back in the water. We left Manatee Bay Marine about 11:00am at low tide. Boy am I glad we don't draw any more water than we do. We saw about 3.5 feet as we were leaving the channel area. Some guys that we met at the boat yard on a 41 ft Morgan draw 5 feet, so they definitely have to leave at or near high tide.

We left the Manatee Creek area and got into the deep water of Barnes Sound where there is anywhere from 5 to 10 feet of water at mean low water. Yes the Florida Keys have some skinny water. First we sailed down wind with the Genoa only just to see how it would work. Shortly after getting under sail we spotted several dolphin who came to see what we were doing. We hoped that this was a good omen of things to come. Since the wind was relatively light, 8 to 12, we decided to put up the main and see how things went. Everything seemed to work well. We were having a pretty good time, so we decided to sail around awhile before we headed to the Jewfish Creek and Anchorage Resort were we plan to stay for a few days. We arrived with no problem and got tied up with a little help from the dock master. When we hooked up to shore power we met our next challenge. No power on board. We had the dock master checking his outlet and checking our power cord. At first it looked like it might be a bad power cord, but then the dock master realized that he didn't have his tester turned on. (Marilyn just got up from her book to got get a blanket, so sometimes it does get cooler in the keys) Finally we found a toggle on the electrical panel that had no label. As soon as we turned that on, amazingly we had power. We never even knew that switch was there. That's the kind of thing that we've been working with for the last three weeks.

It was time for a beer. We had a friend we met at the boat yard drive our car over to this marina, so we felt we owed him a beer or two. At the bar we met a couple of other individuals that had helped us with repairs, so it's a good thing it was happy hour and the beers were only $2.

It's been an exciting day which includes finding out that our son Tom who's in the Navy is also going to go onboard a ship for 6 week in December and January. Time to go to bed. Till next time.

Windy, Windy, Windy

I think I'm back in North Dakota. We've had 3 days of 25 to 30 mph winds, so if we had snow we'd have a regualar old blizzard. But no snow! I've checked the forecase for the next week and the winds looks much better which I'm happy for. If we get the boat in on Tuesday, I'm not really interested in starting out learning what the boat will do in high winds. I'd like to use it a little before that happens. We'll be moving to a marina call the "Anchorage Resort" for about the next two weeks. From there, we'll be able to sail and/or motor in either Barnes Sound or Blackwater Sound. This will give us easy access to learn about the boat and then have a place to return to reassess what's gone right and what hasn't and to finish up some final repairs. After that two week period we'll be heading back to the Manatee Creek area where we have the boat now. There's a small boat yard in that same area where we will keep "9 Lives" in the water while we return to ND for Christmas and take care of some cruise commitments that I have with the Dakota Community Bank. Don't forget to send me an email if you haven't done so, so that I can add it to my laptop addresses. My email is bschlo@btinet.net.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. No, neither one of those boats are ours. I guess we might espire to one of them, but ours is much more modest.

After breakfast this morning we took a drive through some of the neighborhoods just to see what thing look like. This was a stop at the canal next to the Holiday Inn. Lots of BIG boats. I had been to this area before when Lon Romsaas, our son Tom and I visited Kirk and Carol Romsaas several years ago when we did our open water dive for scuba certification. The area looked a lot the same. They even still have the original "African Queen" of movie fame still on the dock. It's in pretty tough shape, but we understand they want to fix it up.

Most of the afternoon was spent, you guessed it, watching the Greenbay - Detroit football game. When we do get on the boat I'm afraid we're going to have to frequent the local sports bars even more than we have in the past. We won't currently have any TV unless we happen to be at a dock that has somekind of cable hook-up.

We communciated a little with Tom this morning and hope to Skype with Andrea and grand-son Kyle this evening. We also sent a few texts back and forth to Mike and Renae Baltzer who are in Denver visiting the Schweigert/Sweeny clan for Thanksgiving dinner. Sounds like they were going to have 34 for dinner. Later.

Out with the old and in with the used

We did find a used inflatable to replace that poor little Port a bote. I couldn't convince Marilyn to get in the port a bote so I knew we had to do something.

I talked with the boat yard office this afternoon and made arrangements for the boat to be put back in the water on the Monday after Thanksgiving. The new batteries are in and we need one more fitting to replace the sump pump in the head. A new selenoid has been ordered for the propane, but even if it doesn't come right away, it can be installed when the boat is in the water. I need to have the wind stop blowing for at least one day so that I can get the two head sails put on the boat. I tried to put the big screecher on yesterday, but when it was half way up, we realized that it was just too windy to get it up, secured and rolled up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but it was pretty warm today. When I got in the car to leave about 2:00pm the car thermometer said 88 and it was sitting in the shade. It was also pretty humid. When I got done cleaning the dingy, my shirt looked like I'd gone swimming.

We're starting to get the Skype thing down. We placed a video call to our daughter and grandson this evening and also talked with Colleen Schweigert last week. So, if you want to Skype, let us know.

Getting Closer

This picture was earlier this month when we were visiting Tom in Augusta. I've run out of current pictures, so I guess it's time to start taking some more. There have just been other priorities.

We can kind of see light at the end of the tunnel. Our new friend Lou, not to be confused with Lou Hafermehl, will be helping put in the new batteries and a new shower sump pump today. We're also going to lubricate the roller furling hardware on our head sail since it was hanging up when operated. The only other major thing to complete is replacing a selenoid on the propane gas line. Even in this sailing capital of the world, I couldn't find a replacement selenoid and had to order one. It's suppose to be here early next week, but even if it doesn't get here right away, we can temporarily bypass it and have things operational.

The weather has been really unsettled lately. Very similar to the BVI where clouds come and go. Yesteday a couple of squals came through at the boat yard that must have dumped a half an inch of rain each. Temperatures are still moderate with no snow, so I guess we can tolerate it.

If you haven't already done so, please remember to send me your email address so I can add it to my laptop. My email address is bobsch@btinet.net. Most of my email addresses were on my desk top in Bismarck. Later.

The Schedule Has Changed a Little

I heard a rumor that there were snowflakes in Bismarck yesterday. Not sure if that's true or not, but there was a low of 63 here last night.

We've worked out arrangements to stay in the apartment that we have for another week. We do have a couple of items to deal with on the boat before we can put her back in the water. The surveyor recommended that the batteries be changed and the location of the batteries is unbelieveable. Hard to believe that an engineer would put the batteries where they are when everyone knows that they have to be replaced sooner or later. Oh, wait a minute, I know a few engineers and I guess it's not unbeliveable!! Anyway, after working on the Baltzer/Schlobohm electric golf cart, I've decided to get some assistance with the replacement. We have to go through the inverter/charger to even start to see the batteries, so help is on the way. We also need to replace the selenoid on the gas line, get the hailing port printed on the boat and get the roller furling systems going. Once those are done, I think she'll be ready to go in the water. We do need to replace the dingy and I'm not having much luck finding a used one. Found a couple on the local Craig's List, but can't seem to get anyone to respond to me. We also need to make arrangements for a place to leave her when we return to North Dakota for Christmas and January. So, we just needed more time than we originally anticipated.

The good part of all of this is that the people that own the apartment where we're staying are selling the house and they're actually moving further north just before Thanksgiving, but not closing until December. So when we approched them about additional time they said we could stay in the main part of their house, since they were not going to be there. They were also going to give us a much better price because they were concerned about the inconvience that we might experience while the movers are there. Actually, we'll probably be over working on the boat, so may not even see the movers.

What, A Day Off?

There was the danger of a strike, so we decided to take the day off from cleaning and fixing. We did go look for a place called "Mother Ocean" which takes things on consignment. I think we're going to take our "Port a boat" dinghy there along with several other items that we have and see if we can get someone to buy them. After that we had lunch with, Bill Ware, the guy that was the broker for the boat when we bought it. He's been really helpful with fixing things and answering lots of questions. He's made money on the deal, but I appreciate all the advice that he has provided. He's going to stop by the boat yard tomorrow and look at a few things on the boat and also show me some anchorages and other spots on the charts that are worth exploring.

After lunch with Bill, we looked at a couple of marinas that might have dock space for storing the boat while we're back in ND for December and January. As you can see, we're not in Kansas anymore, Todo. The one marina "Gilbert's Resort" looked like Sturgis South, NOT. Eat your heart out Ron Yeager. There had to be at least 100 bikers at the resort. Lots of boats around, but if you were in their marina, you'd have to be ready for week-end parties and bands. Hay, that doesn't sound so bad, maybe we'll have look closer. Time to check out the football on Sunday afternoon.

More Work Than Meets The Eye

OK, we knew there was going to be some work getting the boat ready to put in the water, but it's turning out to be more than we initially expected. Even though we hadn't seen the dinghy when we surveyed the boat, we knew it was a "port a boat" and might be a little iffy. We sent Tom a picture and he said it looked like something that the Native Americans might have used back in the day. It's not quite that bad, but we are going to think about what our alternatives might be. For now it's completely assembled, ready to go on the divits and may have to work for awhile until something else can be worked out.

Marilyn has spent a lot of time cleaning and rearranging things in most of the cabins and we still have a fair amount to deal with. We were scheduled to leave our apartment on the 18th, but I've talked with the family we are renting from and we have it worked out for another week if we need it. I feel much better knowing that we have that extra time to continue with the boat as well as determine where we will keep it once we put it back in the water. This morning when we headed for the boat yard, they were having a foot race over one of the two bridges that lead to Key Largo, so we had to take the other route which was about 25 miles longer. Only in Florida would they close a main road for runners. It would be kind of like closing I94 from Bismarck to Glen Ulin and then make everyone take old Highway 10 with no turn-offs.

The weather has been a little blustery lately with winds from 15 to 20 kts, so not too much boating going on. It will be interesting to see how often the winds blow like that and especially interesting to see how the boating is in the skinny waters of the keys.

Marilyn's Two New Best Friends

Marilyn has two new best friends. Soft Scrub or Bleach and Miller Lite. She needs the beer after the cleaning. Things weren't terrible, but after being closed up for 5 or 6 months, there was a lot to be cleaned on the boat particularly since someone left the refrigerator closed. So, we had a little bit of mold to deal with. The previous owner had duplicates and triplicates of just about everything, so we had to decide what to keep and what to throw or giva away. Marilyn can also be seen daily at West Marine and the local hardware store.

The house in the photograph is where we're currently staying. It's not large, but has everything that we need. It's about 12 miles from the boat yard, but all the stores that we might need are pretty much in between.

We've recently been in contact with our neighbors at the lake, Randy and Pam, and they are going to be staying in Key West over the Veteran's Day week-end. So, we made arrangements to at least have a quick beer with them on there way through Key Largo on the way to Key West. We also just recently got things set up to Skype, so if you are signed up for Skype and want to visit, let us know.

Now the Fun (Work) Begins

We've finally made it to the boat yard to get an idea of what needs to be done to prepare 9 Lives to be put back in the water. We're going cabin by cabin and locker by locker to see what's there and whether we want to keep it or not. The first thing that we found out was that the previous owner had enough dishes and glasses plus fry pan, blender, toaster oven, etc to outfit 3 boats. So we will be removing a lot of stuff. The boat does have a full enclosure for the cockpit area, both screened and plastic. It was like putting a jigsaw puzzel together, but we finally figured it out and numbered the pieces so that next time it won't take so long to set up. The weather was beautiful for this kind of work. It was in the mid to upper 70's. Glad it wasn't any warmer since we were down below a lot.

We kind of met the guy that was working on his boat down from where we are. I pointed out to Marilyn that he had Wisconsin plats on his truck, so she immediately went to find out if he was a Packer's fan and where the best place would be to watch the game tomorrow. We found out that he and many others are Packers fans and they go to a place called the Glass Bottom Bar which is next to a restaurant called the "Pilot". We never did find out his name, but I'm sure we will. It just so happens that the bar is within walking distance from where we're staying, so you can imagine where we'll be tomorrow afternoon. We will be going back to the boat for at least the morning to keep on working.

Don't forget to send me your email address if you make your way to this blog. I need to save them all on my laptop. Till next time

From Atlanta to Titusville

We're currently in Titusville FL. We had a great time at the Atlanta Aquarium and as you can see, Tom made a new friend. The trip down is getting to be a little long with the stops that we've made, but we're really happy for the opportunity to visit with Tom. We hope we can see him at least for an evening when we head back to Bismarck, but want the trip to go a little faster as long as the weather will cooperate.



We stopped in Savannah, GA yesterday and once again played tourist and did the local Trolly Tour to get an overview of the city. Lots of history and way too little time to digest it all. Went from Savannah to Titusville, FL today. Went down to the local marina to see how things might have changed since we sailed here 20 years ago. They've changed a lot, but the city marina still has lots of transient sail boats and there were a lot anchored outside of the marina. Tomorrow we head for Key Largo. We probably won't get to the boat tomorrow, Friday, and am not sure what the situation will be for the week-end, but for sure Monday, we'll start to see how things look.



One thing I don't have is everyone's email address. I had most of those addresses on my computer in Bismarck, but forgot to transfer them to my laptop, so if you read this, please send me an email or your email address. Weather's great. High today was 79 in Titusville. More later.