Great Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope you got "stuffed". We went to Hollywood Fl for the holiday and spent it with Jon's Family. Bob and Kathy (Jon's Sister) have been going there for many years now and have made so many friends that now they all travel the same time so the hotel is filled with friends and family. We stayed with them for two nights and it was wonderful(thanks guys). the view each morning was great and the food and drinks never ended. I got to spend some time with my niece Kim which was really nice because we don't see each other very much. The Tide Hotel let us bring the dogs so that made the trip possible, thank you very much.
We are now back at the boat just waiting for parts after that who knows where we will go but it will be somewhere.






I almost forgot, last Monday night Jon went out on some bus thing with about a dozen people called the bar crawl and I ended up going to shore a few times with the dogs, well the one trip just before dusk found a dolphin right next to the dink and Sara had her snout right over the side trying to figure out if it was friendly or food. I wish I would have had the camera but it was awesome anyhow.......

We are sitting Pretty in Stuart

Indiantown finished the bottom of Kasidah on Wednesday and we were launched that morning. Jon spent a few hours up the mast fixing a couple lights, adding the new st70 wind and washing the black crap off on his way down. While waiting on deck for Jon I noticed this turtle on the side of the boat as I worked on a few things he followed me around so I started to watch him a little more closely and realized he would get up against the boat and scratch on the side which made a slight noise. That dam turtle was bagging for handouts. I went down and got him a dog treat and he devoured it right away. We also got to see the 8ft gator in the marina both days Kasidah was at the dock.
Thursday we left the dock around 10:30am and did the 20 mile trip across the canal and over to the Stuart mooring field. It was a very hot day until the 2 minute heavy downpour then the temp dropped into the high 70s which was perfect. We will be here in Stuart till after Thanksgiving waiting for some parts to arrive then we will head out. Not sure where but somewhere warm......

Splash Tomorrow

Well after almost a week of work, cleaning, painting, turning systems on and checking, we will go into the water tomorrow. The crews here in the yard have been hard at work on Kasidah's bottom. There were no blisters and she cleaned up real nice. The 2 coats of barrier went on and 2 coats of bottom paint.

So Just off to Kasidah's port bow there is this tree that is dropping nuts all around. You can see it in the 2nd photo and at night you can hear them hitting the other boats, we are too far away for them to hit us. So I noticed over the weekend that it is the tree which branches are on Kasidah's bow. It is a Water Maple, and the leafs are green not gold. It is also called the Eyebrow of the boat. Well it had been in need of a sanding and new paint. So Arline and I spent almost all day yesterday cleaning and painting Kasidah's eyebrow. MAN it came out real sharp. It's not a Hazard Classic, but my friend Rob (for all your sign needs go to his link http://www.hazardclassic.com/ or find it on the side of our blog to see his work;-) he would sure be proud of our handy work. We have had a couple of "Nice Job" "Too Much Work for Me""Looks Good" We talking about my boat or my wife on the ladder? "YEAP" .

I fired up the engine today just to make sure it would and it did. There is a boat here that will be hauled tomorrow because of engine problem$. His engine $eized up over the winter, he was having an anti-freeze issue and didn't do anything with it when it was put away, so there you have it. He didn't check before he went into the water to see if it would start or even turn over. Well ours started right up but when I pulled the fuel shut of to kill the engine it came out of the jacket in my hand. Short panic, but I had the engine cover off and knew where the shut off valve was and it was a little sticky but I managed to get it shut down. (I'll check the water pump impeller soon) I freed up he valve and was able to reuse the shut down cable.

The work area has about 75 boats being worked on, most of the work is done by the owners and we are all very efficient. Everybody starts by about 8:30 and the grinding painting screaming begins. At 5 pm everybody STOPS for 555 shuffle. At 5 pm they all make a made dash for 55 gallons of hot water in 4 co-ed stalls to wash the bottom paint off ourselves. I wait till 8 when everybody is done. Thanks Tim for the endless hot water heaters at FPM.

We'll be in Stuart on Friday and stay there for a short while. And remeber folks, Arline Lives for commits so let's not make me ask again!

More later, thanks for watching.

Getting ready to launch

We have been very busy trying to get Kasidah ready to Launch.
When we first stepped on board I was shocked at how much mold outside and in she had accumulated in the six months we were gone. I just shook my head and started to think about the last time we were here in the spring walking around the yard and seeing all these boats that we thought had been sitting for many years and now realizing that they probably had only been here less than a year. it makes me worried about leaving her again.
We have cleaned her completely inside and out,waxed her,rebeded and put caulk were needed. started most systems up without any problems, used woody wax on just about everything. We have taken her bottom right down to the gelcoat and are having a barrier coat put on before the final bottom paint. On Saturday night we even managed to go to a cookout with some cruisers working on their boats,this is Sid from Washington State, he has a really nice dog that Sara can't seem to keep her paws off from, also Glen and Pam from Canada, both of them own Island Packets.

Back to Kasidah in the morning.

We are finally in Florida, it was great getting out of the Jeep tonight and not needing a jacket. We are staying at a hotel close by the marina, because it is late and we don't know where Kasidah will be in the yard and would have to find a ladder to climb aboard, so this is just as well to get up in the morning and just start the work to get her ready for the long fun winter ahead. This will be a little different from last year because we have wheels here till we do the crossing so will do a little exploring by car also.
First items to deal on Wednesday will be getting the sun shade screen off her and getting her in tip top shape for living on her again. The marina should have the bottom sanded down for our inspection before we do a barrier coat and repaint her bottom.

Sunday drive to Annapolis

Amy headed out this morning for a month of training in San Antonio so we decided to take a drive over to Annapolis to see how Bud and Jill were doing on S/V Earendil, they are falling right into the cruisers lifestyle. It was really nice to see them and hope to see them again in Stuart or maybe even do the crossing with them.














The real funny part was right behind them was Grey Hound on a mooring. Dick and Ann were not there so we did not get a chance to catch up with them(sorry we missed you but Jon forgot his phone in Dover).

Side trip to Philly

We made a quick run over to Philly to catch up with the Libby brood from Maine. We found out through facebook that there was a wedding going on this weekend and it would be a perfect time to say hi (We really need to have a reunion).



Jon and Jeremy couldn't resisted stopping downtown Philly for the famous Philly steak sandwich which was awesome!





All the doggies in their Christmas outfits

Sitting in Dover De.

Our visit in Connecticut was relaxing. We first stayed at daughter Jill's house then headed down to Jon's mom and dads for a few nights. While there we treated his parents to Mohegan Sun Casino, they enjoy going there once in awhile and we have never been there so off we went. Jill and I played poker at the tables and I walked away -$30 Jill won $310, some how that girl always wins and knows when to walk. Jon said he made out the best because he sat at the bar and enjoyed some beer.
Jon spent one day with his brother Tim tinkering on his 57 Vet, on our way out we were treated with homemade fudge that Jon's sister made for the road trip(thanks Kathy).




Now we are in Dover with Oldest Daughter Amy and husband Jeremy, we have lots to catch up with since we haven't seen them since summer.
We took a ride down to Cambridge MD to see the people at Mid-shore Electronics, they are the company that put in all our new electronics last fall this time. We also picked up some crab while there for dinner. On our way back to the house we stopped by a barn that Amy has started to ride horses at. This was really exciting to see her back on a horse, we were into horses with the girls while they were growing, they rode in shows and for many years we were very involved in Foxhunting and she also did some training of horses before leaving for college.










Jon had a very exciting day when Jeremy asked if he wanted to go up and fly around Dover for a bit in the plane he fly's, so off they went, they flow over the Delaware bay and took some photos of the base and Amy's Plane she fly's, also the area they live in. their house is on the lake in the photo with the Dover casino behind them. Sounds like they had a lot of fun.

























We have been keeping in touch with a couple Bud and Jill that stopped by the marina last month for us to drop thier mast for the canal, it's really funny because they are not to far from us and we figure by the time we leave here we should be able to meet up with them on the Chesapeake some where ( http://www.sailblogs.com/member/svearendil/ ) . Jon was thinking he might even see them while flying over the bay.