Thursday, 10 December 2015 - I arrived at the boat early this morning determined to get more put away on the boat, sort out which of the many cooking utensils that were left onboard by the previous owners and the ones I brought should be kept and which given away or donated to the church thrift store about a block away. Almost all of the pots and pans are excellent and in good condition, so it was hard to choose between them. I finally got that done and loaded some onto a cart and headed down the pier to the thrift store. I had gotten rid of about a third of them before I got off the pier. After visiting the thrift store to empty the cart, I went to the motor home to get what I thought would be a final load. I spent about an hour cleaning the sink, stove, counter, bathroom, etc., then loaded up. I didn't have room for everything, but all that is left is the food it the fridge and my bed covers. I still have to move it each evening, so I might as well sleep on it. I won't, however, be cooking in it anymore. No pots, pans, utensils, flatware, etc. I returned to the boat and put much of it away and will get the remaining food tomorrow morning.
                  I'm tired. It's 7:15pm and time for a shower.

Friday, 11 December - Much of today was spent doing some final cleaning on the motorhome and emptying the freezer/refrigerator and moving the items to the boat, then arranging things on the boat. As I hadn't opened one of the coolers since I got the boat, I discovered a little bit of food in one that had been there since I got the boat 5 months ago; an onion, a clove of garlic, and a couple of other things that were impossible to identify. I cleaned that refrigerator. Since I've been staying on the motor home at nights, I have been cooking breakfast and supper there. Now there is no food and no pots and pans...nothing, so I tried to cook dinner on the boat. It was the first time I'd done that since I bought the boat. There are four...no, five things that need to be done to use the stove. I did four. I had a cold dinner, then finally realized that I wasn't pushing the gas button in far enough as I tried to ignite it. Breakfast will be hot.

Saturday, 12 December - Upon the recommendation of the previous boat owner, I needed to "burp the shaft seal" since the boat had been out of the water for over a week at the boat yard. Too much time was spent trying to figure out what that meant and how to do it. I spent about 4 hours researching it, then did it in about 10 minutes. Easy...when you know how!

Sunday, 13 December - The first thing on the agenda this morning was to continue getting ready for my cousin John Egger to arrive today for a four day visit. I aired up the dinghy first. It hadn't leaked, I had let air out a few weeks ago just so it wouldn't be sitting there constantly tight, stressing all the seams. I then untied 5 five gallon plastic fuel containers from the deck and loaded the on the dinghy. I lowered it, got out the oars and rowed over to the fuel dock for fuel, then rowed back. Next, I prepared to pour the fuel into the tanks, but the filter that my predecessor left on the boat was quite dirty. I then spent an inordinate amount of time online and searching the docks for anyone than knew how to disassemble the filter to clean it. No luck.
                  John's plane was late taking off, so he arrived around 3:30pm. We celebrated with a margarita onboard, talked awhile, then decided we'd better finish fueling the boat. After that we headed out for some Mexican food. Closed. Okay, seafood. Closed. Okay, Chinese buffet. I ate too much.

Monday, 14 December - John and I had planned on getting a late start on the water because of the low tides of the morning, but in fact didn't get out at all because the wind was just a little too strong for me to feel comfortable and safe getting away from the dock. Sailing would have probably been pretty good, but I really didn't feel like it would have been worth taking a chance on damaging the boat with the strong winds. I showed him many of the features of the boat, including the chart plotter which is truly a powerful computer of which I have not even begun to know all the features. Later, we went out for that Mexican dinner we tried for last night. John slept on the boat and I returned to the motorhome.

Tuesday, 15 December - I arrived at the boat at about 5:30am determined to get on the water before the winds picked up and the tide dropped. I think we were backing out of the slip about 6:15 or so. Wow! That was a learning experience in itself. We had a light headwind and as I backed out of the slip, the wind caught the bow and pushed it in exactly the opposite direction than I wanted. I expected to back out and turn the stern to the right, then head out the fairway bow first. Instead, the bow went to the right and I had to back the short way down the fairway, then make a backward turn to port, which I've never been able to do before. The wind facilitated that. It simply blew the bow around to follow the stern in reverse. After I made two turns to port in reverse, I was out on the river, put in in forward, turned left and headed out down the river in the dark. Before we had traveled about a mile, the day was dawning. We headed down the river and exited into Tampa Bay, tacked a couple of times, then decided to head toward Tampa and sail under the Skyway Bridge, a fancy suspension bridge about 300 ft. high between Palmetto and St. Petersburg. After passing under the bridge, we decided we'd better head back to the river if we wanted to get there before dark. Winds were up and down and we decided on the last leg into the river to furl the genoa and staysail and motor on back to the marina, then we changed our minds, furled the mainsail too, and stopped about half way back to the marina. We're anchored just off a point where Hernando Desoto stopped in Florida a few years back and we may dinghy in in the morning and visit the park there before heading out to sail. It's a cool, clear night with a gentle breeze, the park to one side and mega homes in front of us. We made dinner from one of the recipes in Mother's recipe books. Quick, easy and tasty. It was supposed to marinate overnight, but was tasty anyway. This is my first night to actually sleep on the boat. Good night.

Wednesday, 16 December - John and I decided that since we were anchored in a beautiful bay with about three or four beautiful sailboats anchored near us, another derelict boat not far away, and yet another washed ashore on the beach of Desoto State Park, we'd better take a look at the boats and go see the park that celebrates the arrival of Hernando Desoto in Florida in the 1500s looking for the ever elusive gold. It was a pretty well spent morning; nice and informative. It did, however, cause us to get a pretty late start out into the bay. We only had time to make a couple of tacks, then head back to the marina to arrive just at dusk. A fellow sailor, Clive, from across the pier came out to help us dock and tie up, so we invited him to dinner and all went to Kevin's Crab Shack and had a great dinner. I had shrimp, sausage and a potato, all drowned in butter, plus Cole slaw. Very good.

Thursday, 17 December - Out early again to take advantage of the high tide for half a day of sailing to the "outside". The "outside" being beyond the barrier islands, out of the river, bay, and into the Gulf of Mexico. My first trip out. We had two or three foot waves and a swell of maybe 4 - 5 feet. The boat handled the conditions very well, although with winds up to 23 knots we did have to reef all our sails a bit; another first. We did get some water over the bow, but that was to be expected. John had to be ready to leave for the airport by 5pm, so we headed back early. The wind was still quite strong so, rather than try to dock in the high winds, we anchored just outside the marina and dinghied in. At 5:00, after a quick shower and John had treated me to a late lunch at the Riverside Restaurant at the marina, and then left for the airport, I realized that the wind had died off a bit, so I dropped in on Clive to see if he was interested in helping me bring the boat in. I wouldn't have had time to return to the boat, raise the dinghy, put out the fenders and fender boards, weigh anchor and motor in by myself, but I came in just at dusk with Clive's help. Margaritas on board were in order, so we each had one.

Friday, 18 December - I went for groceries before going to West Marine for a line clutch and some other parts I needed. Although they didn't have the line clutch, I realized that a new one would cost $275, very good incentive to repair the one I have, so I returned to the boat to research that. I found a video on how to disassemble a newer model than I have and found out that the handles are interchangeable. Good news indeed because I just happen to have a newer spare. The newer one I have is for three lines and the broken model is for two, so I can't just remove one and put the other in its place. Before I could dive into that, I need to meet a broker at the motorhome so he could take pictures and get more detailed information to list it on another site. That took about an hour then I returned to the boat to start replacing the line clutch. After about an hour,Clive wandered by on the way to the bar. Clive and I examined and pondered for about an hour, it got dark and we couldn't figure out how to take the older one apart, so we decided we'd better think about it over a margarita or beer at "happy hour" at the marina's bar.

Saturday, 19 December - A cold morning. Only about 45°F, but with the high humidity and breeze, everyone was wearing jackets and long pants. Of course, I understand that Alta Ski Resort got about 40 inches of snow recently. At 8am, I went over to the fuel dock where they serve free doughnuts for free on Saturday mornings. This wasn't the first time I'd been there on a Saturday morning, but it was the first time I'd been there in time to get a doughnut. They're usually gone by about 8:30 I am told. I went today in order to mine the volume of local knowledge the long-time sailors have about disassembling my Spinlock line clutch that is broken. No one knew how, but I did get some ideas, none of which produced a solution. I returned to the boat and finally found instructions on the internet. I then spent much of the day fixing that at a savings of $275 that a new one would have cost. John and I had had to really move things on the boat around to sail and to find room to sleep onboard, so I started finding better places for things.

            Until next time,
                        Dream BIG, or Live Bored.

                                          Rick