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).