Leaving tomorrow

We got the boat mostly ready today. We will have a little to do in the morning, but that's okay. We need to wait for the tide to rise a little anyway. Low tide is at 6:15, and although we should be okay, it would be close getting out. I am amazed how shallow it is around here. I tuned the rigging today. That is a big relief. It has bothered me since we bought Morgan, as I had no idea of the correct way to do it. I met a guy here named Ken Jackson. He is from New Zealand, and a very nice guy indeed. He taught me how to do it. Not that hard if you know how. Although I am certainly not an expert yet, I do feel comfortable doing it now (probably know just enough to be dangerous). He looked over it and gave it his approval. We got the shopping, laundry, gas fill up, and everything else done this evening. We can't wait to get going. We may not have good enough Internet to blog for a couple of days, but should by the weekend.

Destin, here we come.

Mike

Lots happening

                             Sharon, right after I asked her if she still loved me.

                                             Destin

                                          The bay in Destin we plan to anchor in.

                                             Sailing today. Oh yeah.

The great Catalina rescue.

It has been busy lately. We went to Pensacola on Friday and picked up our sails. The guy did a good job. While we were over there, we drove on to Destin to check it out. It is beautiful. We found a nice place to anchor once we get Morgan there. On the way back we stopped at "Pirates Cove" in Alabama to look around. We had several people tell us it was a nice place. It doesn't look like a place we would care too much for, seems mostly for partiers. I am too old and tired to party. I just want to sit, relax, and enjoy the company of a couple people at a time.

I had to rescue a guy on a Catalina sailboat yesterday. He decided he was going to sail out of his slip here in the marina and out into the bay. Unfortunately the wind was blowing straight into the marina, so he backed out of his slip, and was blown straight across the marina and into other boats. Everyone was coming out of their boats and pushing him away from their boat and onto the next one. I jumped into Rosie and went over and grabbed a line and pulled him out of the marina. He never has come back. I don't know what happened to him.

WE WENT SAILING TODAY!!!!!! It was 69 and sunny, and as close to heaven as you can get here on earth. Made me feel like winter was officially over. The marina we are at does not have pump out facilities, so we had to go to another one to get the holding tank pumped out. On the way back we were accompanied by dolphins. I don't think it will ever get old seeing these wonderful creatures swimming by the boat.

We are planning on leaving for Destin on Tuesday. It should take a few days to get there. We can't wait to get into the clear water of Florida. Not looking forward to the government hassles though. Oh well you have to take the good with the bad.

Mike

What a day!

Had a really good day today. I installed the fire hose rub rails on Rosie today. They turned out pretty good. Now I don't have to worry too much about her rubbing up against Morgan while at anchor. It took 20 feet of 1 1/2 inch fire hose, 20 feet of 1/2 inch aluminum flat bar, and 120 stainless steel screws. It felt good to get it done and her back in the water. I took her out for a spin when I got done. It was a nice day, so it was fun to do a little exploring. Had a nice relaxing evening, grilled steak, had a friend over. Good food, good conversation, a very pleasant evening. Another couple came into the marina today from Galveston on their way to the Bahamas. We had a nice chat with them as well. Why didn't I discover cruising five years ago? We should pick up our sails from the sail maker on Friday. So we should be leaving weather permitting Tuesday or Wednesday. Time will tell.

Work, work, work. (the fun kind)

Sharon getting on Morgan at low tide (no, she doesn't know I'm posting these).

New solar panel.

We had a nice sunny day yesterday and part of today. Highs in the upper 50s. It felt really good. I watched the Superbowl yesterday, good game. I would have liked to see the steelers win though. I always root for the underdog (and they were for most of the game). I installed the solar panel today that we bought over Christmas. It turned out pretty good. In full sun we were charging 4.51 amps.when it was cloudy it went down to about .5. I would like to have one more, but at $200, it will have to wait awhile. The tides have been really low lately. Makes getting on and off the boat a little more of an adventure for Sharon. I hope she doesn't ever fall in. For several reasons, 1 I would get in trouble for rolling on the ground laughing while she was getting out, 2 she would be hard to convince to carry on cruising, 3 we would have to go to the laundry mat again. There is a state park about 4 miles from here. We drove there and took a shower today. I can't believe I didn't think of that before now.

Great Day aboard

We had a great day today. We got the boat clean, and most of the stuff stowed. Since we have the car here this time, we were able to go to Lowes, china-mart (wal-mart) and my favorite fast food restaurant in the world, Whataburger. I got the sails down today to get the main ready to take to the sail maker tomorrow, to get two more reef points put in. It seems really weird to have a car here. Almost like anti-cruising, but it has its advantages. I got lots of things to do to Morgan, but am going to wait until the weekend. They are predicting 6o's for Monday and Tuesday. Oh yeah! that's what I'm talkin bout. It was good to go back to Indiana to build up the cruising kitty, but it is good to be home. We sold about half of our furniture while we were there. I think we will sell the rest in May, and make a complete break. Time will tell.

I talked to a guy in Destin FL. today. He told me of a cheap marina close to Destin. We are going to check it out tomorrow when we take the main over to Pensacola. We may stay in the area until April. Time will tell. I think that is my favorite phrase now "time will tell". I have lived my whole life running, running, running. What a joy it is to cruise. I am so glad Sharon is on board with me. Even though she doesn't fully embrace the dream yet, she fully supports me and my dream. I am proud of, and appreciate her emensly.

Having steak and fried potatoes tonight. MMMMMMMMMMMM

Later,

Mike

BACK ON MORGAN

In the immortal words of Jackie Gleason HOW SWEET IT IS! We got back to Morgan at about 1 am this morning. It was a hard drive with the high winds.We went about an hour out of our way (further west) to avoid the worst of the rain.
Morgan seemed to fair well while we were gone. A friend here Ken Jackson kept an eye on her while we were gone. He is a liveaboard here from New Zealand. Everything inside was covered with a thin layer of salt film. Other than that all was well. I did almost nothing today, other than rest. We had six weeks of running at full speed. It felt good to do nothing for a change.Tomorrow we will clean and unpack everything. I have to take down the sails, so I can take them on Friday to be repaired The sail loft we are going to on Friday is in Pensacola, so while we are there, we are going to check out the area by car. That way when we get there by boat, we well have a better idea of where we want to be.

I can't wait to get going again.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I wish I was there now.

I can't believe it's January 13th and I am still in Indiana (yes it was planned to still be here until the end of January). I can't wait to get back to Morgan. It was 17 freaking degrees last night. I can't believe I lived here most of my life and didn't wake up one day and say "why am I here?".There is warm weather, crystal clear water, and wind waiting in Florida. I need to find a winning lottery ticket on the sidewalk or something I won't buy one (voluntary income/stupid tax), but it would be nice to win. I can see light at the end of the tunnel though. We will be back to Morgan on Feb. 1rst. if not sooner or Sharon will have to put me in the mental hospital. OK, there's my rant, I feel better now.