January 14th, 2007
We cannot believe that almost a month has gone by since our last general update. Thank you to everyone that has emailed us over the past weeks with your good wishes.
We are basically as ready as we feel we can be to set off officially on our first leg of our journey. Now we wait for the weather.
These past few weeks have been absolutely full of shopping, shopping and more shopping. Most of the storage spaces are maxed to the point we felt the boat had too much weight on the port side, so we busily emptied the aft head of all the beer and back up water we had stored in it.
Our recent purchases/special orders have all arrived. These included a back up 55kg. Anchor, Honda Gas Generator, Mercury 9.9 hp. Dinghy motor, the Furuno Navtex Receiver, and the Sailrite Sewing Machine. We have decided to purchase the sewing supplies we think we will need to make our own dodger and cockpit cushions. We have had the Generator and Sewing machine up and running.
Here I am making our safety tethers.
We cannot believe that almost a month has gone by since our last general update. Thank you to everyone that has emailed us over the past weeks with your good wishes.
We are basically as ready as we feel we can be to set off officially on our first leg of our journey. Now we wait for the weather.
These past few weeks have been absolutely full of shopping, shopping and more shopping. Most of the storage spaces are maxed to the point we felt the boat had too much weight on the port side, so we busily emptied the aft head of all the beer and back up water we had stored in it.
Our recent purchases/special orders have all arrived. These included a back up 55kg. Anchor, Honda Gas Generator, Mercury 9.9 hp. Dinghy motor, the Furuno Navtex Receiver, and the Sailrite Sewing Machine. We have decided to purchase the sewing supplies we think we will need to make our own dodger and cockpit cushions. We have had the Generator and Sewing machine up and running.
Here I am making our safety tethers.
Randy and Derek were checking the steering cable and Derek noticed it was frayed, so we had it repaired and then Randy did the re-installation.
We have actually made a floor plan of the whole boat and broke the food/provisions into groupings hoping this will make for locating everything an easy task. Where does one put 48 tetra packs of soya milk???
We have mounted all our fire extinguishers and recently purchased a back up 12 gauge flare gun, new flares, plus a couple of baseball bats and a new lock for the companionway door. Our first aid kit is as complete as we can get it. We also purchased and mounted a life ring, MOB pole and MOB strobe light. Sounds like we’re ready…Hope so!!
This past Monday we went and saw “Moe” at the US Customs Office and he gave us our Vessel Clearance Statement. This officially means we have cleared customs to leave the US. However, by the end of January we have to fax back proof that we have arrived in the Bahamas in order not to pay the Florida sales tax.
The key now is to be patient and wait for the proper weather window. Looks like Monday and Tuesday should be good. We have a couple of options in mind to get to Bimini. One being head south to the Biscayne Cay which is off of Miami and then head East to Bimini, or as Harry our “seasoned sailor” friend has recommended---“just head south for about 12 miles and then East using everything you’ve got-sails and motor together”.
We will spend today washing down the boat, topping up the water tanks, putting out our jack lines (which is what we will attach our safety harness tethers to);and putting everything securely away .( We just made our safety harness tethers and will try and forward a picture.)
Enjoy, love lynn and Randy
We have actually made a floor plan of the whole boat and broke the food/provisions into groupings hoping this will make for locating everything an easy task. Where does one put 48 tetra packs of soya milk???
We have mounted all our fire extinguishers and recently purchased a back up 12 gauge flare gun, new flares, plus a couple of baseball bats and a new lock for the companionway door. Our first aid kit is as complete as we can get it. We also purchased and mounted a life ring, MOB pole and MOB strobe light. Sounds like we’re ready…Hope so!!
This past Monday we went and saw “Moe” at the US Customs Office and he gave us our Vessel Clearance Statement. This officially means we have cleared customs to leave the US. However, by the end of January we have to fax back proof that we have arrived in the Bahamas in order not to pay the Florida sales tax.
The key now is to be patient and wait for the proper weather window. Looks like Monday and Tuesday should be good. We have a couple of options in mind to get to Bimini. One being head south to the Biscayne Cay which is off of Miami and then head East to Bimini, or as Harry our “seasoned sailor” friend has recommended---“just head south for about 12 miles and then East using everything you’ve got-sails and motor together”.
We will spend today washing down the boat, topping up the water tanks, putting out our jack lines (which is what we will attach our safety harness tethers to);and putting everything securely away .( We just made our safety harness tethers and will try and forward a picture.)
Enjoy, love lynn and Randy
No comments:
Post a Comment