On buoy.....then not

Little did we know when I took the picture of the floating Tiki hut/bar it would be its last bay cruise for the foreseeable future.

De Anne returning from her walk back and forth on the Ringling Bridge.

 The marina from whom we were renting the mooring ball has been incrementally discontinuing services. Every few days another needed service would be cancelled with little to no warning. We realized a change was needed quickly. Through a series of rapid fire texts and emails we were able to lease our old condo again and secure a slip for the boat. De Anne is safe, the boat is safe, and I am relived. De Anne might reverse the order on the first two items in the previous sentence - if you know her you get it.

 Maybe in a month or two the Florida Keys will reopen and possibly our Bahamas plans can be renewed at a future date, but until then so many others are in real trouble that we will be grateful for our good fortune.

Hunkered down

One of my favorite sayings is "life is what happens when you are making plans".

 Two weeks ago we complained about crowds and traffic in the Sarasota area. That problem has dissipated for reasons we all know too well. It is good to be on a mooring ball with our nearest neighbor 100 yards away.

 Stay safe!

Marina Jack's

We left our condo with mixed feelings. Off for new sights, but friends left behind.

The first move was not quite an adventure since we traveled six miles to Marina Jack's mooring field just off downtown Sarasota. We remain here until at least March 26th when (hopefully) the aforementioned crowns are installed in my expensive mouth. I will eat a lot to ensure effectively amortizing the cost of said dental work.

 View from the buoy field:

It may take a little time, however we have done this before and do not expect too steep a learning curve this time around. (Ha Ha......stay tuned!)

Countdown

The final day living on Longboat Key. The boat is loaded and surprising still floating.

We have once again parted with possessions; however, once you have parted with decades of "stuff" ridding yourselves of a few years of things is not very hard.

 Next stop is the buoy field in Sarasota for final checkout and a couple doctors appointments. The biggest expense this month was not the boatyard or the diesel mechanic - rather my dental checkup that morphed into two new crowns. De Anne notes that I am expensive to keep.

 In the below picture note the refinished teak, the new dinghy davits holding the almost new dinghy and yet-to-be fully broken-in outboard motor.

As a last hurrah, De Anne spent several hours on the cabin roof sanding and applying a new coat of varnish to the mahogany light mast.

Like drunken sailors

We retrieved GiGi Mae this morning from the boatyard. All it took was spending money like drunken sailors.

The first corner of the the marina proved the worth of the new rudder. It took the corner in a well behaved manner and without even a touch of bow thruster. This included a stiff breeze on the beam. Strangely enough there was heavy fog in addition to the strong wind. Getting back into our slip was a one shot, easy coast. A couple taps in reverse and one second of bow thruster for alignment and she sat still for De Anne to tie her up.

 The rebuilt rudder before bottom paint. You can just make out the seam where the additions were made (click to enlarge):

We will refinish the teak, assemble and hang the dingy, and put some island clothes aboard, then be ready to shove off next week.