Saturday at Fantasy Fest

The weather did clear up, the parade was wonderful - floats were prettier than ever. The theme was Aquatic Afrolic so there were plenty of mermaids and jellyfish etc.  I decided we didn't need any more beads but managed to get some without even trying. There was a time when you had to flash for beads but not any more, they just throw them at you. There was, however, a fly in our ointment, actually, two but the worst one was that the camera, which had plenty of memory left, decided it didn't and refused to take any more pictures. I attempted, in the dark, without my reading glasses to delete some that were over 2 years old and suddenly the camera said there were NO photos, nil, zilch, zip, zero, nada.  OMG, what a tragedy! Gerry kept his cool, I was more upset than him. So what can one do but carry on. But once again, after only 12 pictures, the camera announced no memory space left. We gave up and used his Itouch but without a flash the pictures were less than desirable. We wouldn't be without photos, Jean and Rick had taken plenty.

Guess pictures will tell the rest of the story, except the tale of the camera. We had hope that the pictures had not vanished, and since we forgot the camera cord and the SD card would not fit anyone's computer, even with an adapter, we took it to Walgreens to see what was really going on. Miraculously all the pictures were still there. While I was deleting the old photos the camera had switched from the memory card to its own internal memory which pretty much explains the whole thing. Stupid camera.

Costume alterations

Costume design

parade

parad

jelly fish theme

Add caption

Thursday, October 27 - Delray Beach to Cudjoe Key

Time to make the annual pilgrimage to Key West and Fantasy Fest.  Thanks for the hospitality Bill and Diana!

The traffic down the keys was unusually heavy despite the fact that the forecast for the weekend was rain, rain and more rain - we expected less traffic not more. After hitting a few stores we finally arrived at Norm and Ginny's on Cudjoe Key just a little bit ahead of Jean and Rick who drove down from Boynton Beach, coincidentally just a stone's throw away from Delray. 


Friday October 28

After much discussion the six of us decided to be pirates, and wandered down to Key West. For the first time I think more people took photos of us than we took of them.  Unfortunately the promised rain did move in and we had to cut the festivities short. Tomorrow, different costumes and hopefully different weather!

meow

cute guys

October 24 - What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

.................but why do we do things with the potential to kill?

We've cleaned Ramblynn out and reinstalled the sails. Unfortunately while I was winching the main sail on a lazy jack got caught and broke. Betty volunteered to get hoisted up (only to the first spreader) but at the last minute she and I decided Gerry should go up. He actually trusted us to get him up and more importantly down in one piece.

So now there's no more excuses, it's time to go but unfortunately I remember every second of the last 2 crossings where the conditions were less than ideal. This time it “shouldn't” be as bad. Winds are only forecast at 10-12 knots, seas less than 5 feet.  I think less than one would be better.  Bill called to tell us the marina is expecting us and hoped we weren't sailing today – he projected seas to 12 feet!  Neither Richard, Gerry nor I found any evidence of seas that high.

I wasn't taking any chances of being sick so took some gravol. Of course it made me sleepy so I went below around 8 for a nap, but it was too noisy to sleep – creaks, groans, a sword fight in the mast (halyards clanging). My next nap would be in the cockpit.

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It's 2 a.m., I'm trying to sleep in the cockpit, wind is howling, boat is rocking and all of a sudden everything seemed to double in intensity. I'm pretty much frozen in spot, not daring to move (guess Bill was right). I thought, I can't lie here all night, the spray is hitting me, so I popped up, took a look around and realized it wasn't so bad. The boat had a rythym. Ta dum ta dum ta dum, glide, and then a sudden violent twist to starboard, straighten out, ta dum ta dum ta dum............... Eventually I realized the twist to starboard wasn't going to throw me off the boat, and I had come to grips with the fact that I will be soaked every few minutes by a rogue wave.  We only had the jib up but with the winds and the gulf stream (we were going to West Palm instead of Fort Lauderdale) we were really flying! We made it across by 4 a.m. , record time, 12 hours! I managed to pick out the channel markers in the dark, Gerry dropped anchor, we slept till 8 then slowly made our way down the intracoastal waterway to the marina.  hmmmm just dawned on me...... except for 3 ships near Freeport harbour we didn't see a single ship, how unusual!

Lots of bridges to go under

Pelicans

Tale of Two Boats

We've been on the island a week. A week of mostly rain, humidity and a lot of work. The powerboat (a Cruisers) is very dirty but when we're done she'll be a beauty. The cupboards and closets are pretty clean considering no one has taken care of her for a while (she was repossessed), but the wallpaper is beyond washing and will need to be stripped. Some of the walls and ceilings (which are carpet - duh) are stained, but the hull looks pretty good and the bright work should come back to life with a little TLC. There's hardly any wood on deck so all that's needed is about 15 minutes with sandpaper and Cetol. Since we're renaming her I've scraped all the lettering off her hull and expunged all mention of her names on all the paperwork. She has had 3 names (Cruisin' II, Dilly Dally and Saw-Mill III). The previous owners were not superstitious and didn't erase her former names from any records. I'm not superstitious either but I'm not taking any chances. She'll have a proper denaming and christening. Basically, a good excuse for a party and Gerry is installing a few extras. Apparently a powerboat isn't complete without a dance pole, disco ball, fog machine and many many rope lights.

We're getting Ramblynn ready to sail to Florida to load her up with all the junk we crammed into the car and little boat plus groceries. This means taking a LOT of stuff out of her and storing it (some permanently, some temporarily) on the Cruisers. I think Gerry is a little overwhelmed by all the treasures that have accumulated on her over 20 years.

Ramblynn is 35', the powerboat is 42'

Nothing like a sailboat under sail!

Nothing like a powerboat at dock (no $$ spent on fuel)

Ramblynn's main salon.

The Cruisers main salon

Movin' on south, to the south side, to a deluxe powerboat on the can a al.... sing it out

We've finally began our journey south October 7. 

Loading the car, the boat and getting last minute details done (picking up new lettering for the power boat) - and most importantly spending time with Sally and McKenzie who were in town for a wedding, we hit the road very late in the day, arriving at Jeff's in Michigan around 9 p.m.  Rudy kindly lent his trailer to get the Whaler as far as Michigan where a brand new one (in 3 boxes) awaited assembly. Two days later (had to attend a Halloween party) we hit the road confident that the little trailer would make its inaugural run all the way to Florida without incident (and it did). A few of the guys thought the trailer was too small and should be "blessed" before going that far.  The weather was amazing, just some rain in Georgia.

Assembling in Jeff's driveway.

A cute and very drunk friend of a friend.

Launch and recover was the only way to swap trailers

 without unloading the boat.

The new vehicle, purchased the day before we left!

Arrived at Bill and Diana's in Delray Florida on Wednesday around dinner time. They most hospitably put us up for the night, stored our car and boat and the next day Bill drove us to the cruise ship Celebration in West Palm Beach. Discovery, which ran between Fort Lauderdale and Freeport has been scrapped, she ran during the day, at inconvenient times on both ends, had long lines getting on and getting off and was horribly shabby. I think only the paint was holding her together. We now traveled in style on Celebration. Lunch, dinner, fabulous entertainment, a cabin and breakfast, no line ups getting on or off, was amazing. Coincidentally Janice and Steve (playing in the pub) were on the boat too. Steve was our favourite entertainer in the Bahamas and both will be sorely missed, as they've left the island. Gerry took the photo of the skyline (and a few more) so when we sail back for Fantasy Fest I will recognize the channel to enter (not our usual Ft. Lauderdale one). Isn't he funny?

Goodbye Florida

Hello Steve

Gerry's Mojito, I was just holding it for him

September 22, 2011 - Last Wildwood Sail

We've had a terrific summer, lots of great weather and lots of sailing. Today, as you can see by our faces, is a sad day - sailing on Wildwood Lake is over for another season. Maybe next year they'll clean the bottom of their boat. No wait,  a dirty bottom will slow them down.

Les and Chris

Sad

helping hands

and more help.......Ellen and Chris folding sails.

And it's not just goodbye to sailing: After an entire summer on the kitchen counter this symbol of love had to be trashed. And the lovely burnt wrap symbolizes the death of the toaster oven. He destroyed a brand new toaster oven, while last year I (and a bagel) destroyed an old well-used microwave.