The heat has broken

Greetings all,
The heat in St Petersburg seems to finally have broken. This week highs are supposed to be only 83 or 84. That is a welcome relief.

Since my last post we have been keeping busy with projects on the boat and time for some fun now and then. The weekend before this last one we attended the Seven Seas Cruising Association GAM here in St Petersburg. I have no idea what GAM stands for but it was a day of multiple hour and a half sessions on various topics. We attended sessions on Cruising the Bahamas, Crossing the Gulf Stream and Chris Parker's talk on weather. If you are planning on cruising the Bahamas or Caribbean, you need to know about Chris Parker. He is THE weather authority for cruisers.  At the GAM and the happy hour the previous night we met a lot of interesting and fun people.

Last week we replaced our water heater. It was the first time we did a project that went pretty much as I optimistically expected it to in regards to time and effort. It did not take 8 times the amount of time I anticipated! Yeehaa! And it worked and didn't leak. Bonus! We also replaced sending units in the holding tanks so we can tell when they are getting full. Very strange that both went bad at the same time. We found and fixed a leak in one of the water tanks but I think there is another. This could be a problem because it is the big tank where our water maker is going to dump freshly-made water. In the event we have to replace that tank, it is going to be a major undertaking. To get the old tank out and new tank in will require pulling the inverter / charger out as well as dismantling a good bit of the nav station. That's besides paying $510 for the new tank. I hope we can avoid that project.

The water maker is only a few small connections and one trip to Home Depot away from being done. I know, there is no such thing as one more trip to Home Depot. Yesterday we fixed the wiring problem made by yours truly. Other than getting the part we need we won't do any more work on the water maker until we get to (sea) water that is cleaner. Once we start using the water maker it will need to be run every other day or so.

This past weekend we motor sailed (tried to sail but not enough wind) to Egmont Key- a small island / bird sanctuary just outside Tampa Bay. We went with Another Life and new friends we met the previous weekend, Bob and Yvonne on Learning to Fly. Bob is not learning to fly, he has been flying helicopters for the US Army for the last 20 years. I think it's more they are learning to spread their wings and enjoy life outside the Army. It was a great weekend though a bit short. Because of the weather forecast we came back on Saturday afternoon. Besides several good meals together (beef fajitas Friday night and egg casserole Saturday morning) we managed a walk on the beach on the Gulf side of the island and some swimming and snorkeling.

Sunday it rained most of the day so we walked up to the movie theater an saw A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. It was pretty funny. Amazingly the skies cleared in time to watch the lunar eclipse last night. This morning it is back to being overcast but I'll take it if it means a bit cooler temperature.

Here's a brief look at our plans. Somewhere around October 16 we'll leave the St Petersburg Municipal Marina and start making our way South with stops in places like Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Fort Myers, Naples, Marco Island and then some longer passages to get us to the Dry Tortugas, a national park 68 miles West of Key West. From there we'll figure out the best way to get to the Bahamas and make the trip across the Gulf Stream. The speaker we listened to on crossing the Gulf Stream kept saying "I'm not trying to scare you or make this sound intimidating", but he did.

I've rambled on long enough. I guess I need to do this more often so I don't have as much to say. Take care all.

Brian