Still waiting for a weather window

We have been really busy here with projects, repairs, places to go, places to see, and of course places to have fun.


This is Jon saving Sarah and Blue from a nasty gator that was trying to make a lunch date with them, everyone knows Nobody messes with Jon's girls!!! Nobody!!
















I have been organizing things and Jon has been doing projects one after another. His list is way longer than mine but mine seems to be more important.....

Some of the projects include new day tank in the cockpit, adjusters for the solar panel, repairs on the watermaker, fixing some minor (before major)soft spots under box in cockpit. Fixing small problems with our filter boss, the company was a lot of help as usual. Replacing a lot of small parts and last but not least changing the flapper valve on the head.....that is a Jon Job for sure.

It is always a small world out here when you really stop for a moment and talk to people about where they have been. This is Dick Harding and it just so happens that he owns a canal boat that was built by some very good friends of ours from Skaneateles NY. We've also met some people new to boating that read our blog and are here in Stuart getting their boat ready to travel north, they are Adem and Leslie . We wish them the best of luck in the world of sailing.









Monday we made our way over to Ft Myers to visit some very good friends we had met long ago in the Dominican on a vacation. It had been awhile since we had seen them, but would email each other every once in awhile. We decided we needed to visit them because it had been way to long. Dave and Janet and their new pup Gypsy are from Ontario and promise to visit us this summer...... They are great people and we are glad to know them (thanks for the wonderful time at your place, and thanks for bringing Jon some REAL Canadian Blue). When we were there they brought us to a power plant to see where the Manatees gather in the warm water from the plant, which was lots of fun but really cold that day.
On our way back to the boat we stopped by to see Lake Okeechobee which was a lot bigger than we thought. This week has been filled with many fun things to do and the projects are almost finished. We were planning on crossing in a few days but now it looks like a new front is coming in that might once again put our crossing on hold. That's alright with me because I am having a lot of fun and I know soon enough we will be heading to new places.

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.