BACK ON THE BOAT!!

When we return to Sunshine after being away, I like to walk on board and yell, "We're home!" I think she misses us when we are in Indiana for the summer and is glad when we return.

Florida was frigid when we arrived earlier this week. It felt about the same as Indiana. The passing cold front moved on and the temperature has returned to the upper 70's and low 80's. Just about perfect.

It's exactly 1,000 miles from our home in Greenwood, to our boat in Titusville. This trip, we had the car packed so tightly I worried that if we had been bumped by anyone, the doors and trunk would have flown open and all our stuff would have exploded out of the car.

Finding places for all that stuff has been challenging, but we are sorting and sifting and making room. Some things are being returned to the car for safekeeping while we're off cruising this winter. We won't need any of our Bahama charts and books, since we plan to cruise around the Keys and up the Gulf Coast. For everything new we bring aboard, something old has to go.

We took a two-day hiatus to attend the Seven Seas Cruising Association Gam in Melbourne on Friday and Saturday, about 45 minutes south of Titusville. We enjoyed time with many friends, including Shirley and Mac from Cat's Paw, Daniel Grant from Psyche and Mike and Rana from Raven.

We also attended some interesting seminars. I especially enjoyed one entitled, "Staying Afloat with Two on a Boat." You can guess what that was about. I discovered that, after 40 years of marriage, Phil and I are already doing lots of the things they recommended to couples trying to get along in a small space.

So now the fun begins: getting Sunshine ready to cruise. We each have a long list of boat projects. Phil's list includes fixing the refrigerator, which seems to have lost its Freon, and repairing the dinghy, which seems to have lost it's air. My list includes constructing a new Bimini, which is the canvas awning that protects us from the sun when we are cruising.

We hope to get the boat "splashed" (back in the water) within a week or so. Then I'll begin work on the Bimini. I hope it won't take more than a week or two to complete.

We purchased the fabric at the Annapolis boat show in October. I got 25 yards of Sunbrella for about half price. It may have been marked down because it is blue and white striped. I have been looking at dozens of other boats and have yet to see any with striped Biminis. Oh well, Sunshine will just be easier to find in a crowded anchorage :)

In the meantime, we are fairly comfortable on the boat. We have electricity, water, a stove, a temporary refrigerator, a comfortable bed to sleep in, a television, and a computer with internet. It's kind of like camping out, but we have to climb up about 15 feet to get in our "tent."

We have many friends here in the boatyard who are also working through their lists of projects, getting ready to cruise. The cruising life involves a lot of hard work, but it's all worth it when you release the dock lines and sail away.

I'll try to post more often this winter, since we'll have continual internet access along the coast.

Thanks for following our blog.

Go Colts!