Sunday, March 24, 2013

After a week retired...

Give us a week of leisure time and we can get lots done!  The kids came down to help me through my first weekend of retirement so there wouldn't be much chance for the "I am unemployed" shock to have much effect.  It sure was good to see them but I think they wish they could have stayed around a few more days to see the St. Petersburg Grand Prix right outside our marina.  Since Thursday we have been serenaded by the beautiful sound of finely tuned engines screaming around a course on the streets we drive every day.  Over the last month, the entire downtown has become increasingly disrupted with streets closed and detour signage everywhere.  Where we are, the street at the entrance to the park where the marina is located is part of the track so we have to drive in and out via the sidewalk. 

The sidewalk we drive to our marina

Once Cate and I were left to our own devices, we realized the two week clock was ticking, LOUDLY.  We got both cars detailed then put on Craigslist.  Within 4 hours we had a call on the Prius and early the next morning he had picked it up.  We have had a few calls on the CRV but luckily it has not yet sold - we still have lots of provisioning to do.
The piles!
...and more piles!











This past week we started the provisioning in earnest.  We would fill up the car, bring it home, then start finding places for it all.  We estimate we have 2-3 months of food and consumables on board now.  The pictures above show the results of one of the many trips.  The amazing thing to me is how Cate finds places to stash all the stuff!

We also got Julio around for his last work on Horizon.  He glassed in the aft deck box we had him build so now we have lots of dry outside storage for flammables, line, anchor gear, dive gear, etc.  Of course with new AwlGrip on the box, we are now under the gun to paint the rest of the deck.

Aft deck box


In my spare time I also got the watermaker installed in the engine room and working nicely.  I had a problem with the "under the waterline" part since I thought that line was higher but after relocating the low pressure pump and fresh water filter and with lots of judicious bleeding, water started moving freely around the system with no bubbles and it was making 8.4 gallons of fresh water per hour while drawing 18 Amps.  We now have water freedom!
 

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