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Showing posts from March, 2021

On the hook

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 We left the marina today about 3:30 and made our way to where we had anchored before, about 45 mins away.  The electronics were going kinda wonky, but we got it figured out and made the trip uneventfully We anchored, man are we getting good at that.  We were hot and sweaty as it it was almost 90 and about 55%.  So we jumped in the water.  It was about 82 and felt so good.  After hosing off on the back deck, we set up the chairs and stared into space while the oven heated up to cook our gourmet cauliflower crust pizza. We ate it but not so sure I’d buy it again.  We watched a movie then went up to the fly bridge to look at the stars, it started to rain, ha Selfie with a reflection. Sunset. Ellie pondering  New shoes for the hot dock.

Maiden voyage

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Yesterday morning we took Painkiller out for our first solo adventure.  The wind was light, the water was calm and our excitement was high.  We missed having Captain Bernie as our dock boy as that task now fell on my side of the to-do list. I jumped onto the dock while Captain Dave had the yacht controller (sorta like a remote control to drive the boat) in hand,  we got the lines off the dock and onto the boat, I jumped back aboard.  David took us off the dock and into the channel without any glitches at all.  It’s a good thing it went off without a hitch as all the people at the fuel dock were watching and when we yelled across to them that it was our maiden voyage, they all started clapping and yahooing.  It was a good feeling!  So off we went at our turtle speed,  dodging the weekend warriors that went zipping by us with their powerful outboard motors.  We put our training to good use as we navigated our way out to bigger waters.  It was very enjoyable and to qualify our excitement,

Ellie’s friends

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 Ellie has made many new friends.  There’s Trapper the lab,  he is a trained bird dog and he has very nice manners and a good Butt sniffer.  Then there are Oreo and Tati, they are cute and fuzzy.  Tati has a little attitude so her Dad has to carry her around.  Oh, and Malibu, she is a black Great Dane and very sweet off leash, we don’t have a picture of her yet, as she tried to eat Ellie last time we passed on the dock, and we didn’t want to ask her to pose for us after that.  Their is a new poodle on the dock, quite the diva but we don’t know her name yet.  Oreo’s parents were kind enough to lend us their car so we went to a hole in the wall place, La Familia, it was definitely authentic Mexican food. I even used a little of my rusty high school Spanish.....si, muy bueno, caliente, gracias.   After lunch we found a new Costco and bought some beef and veggies.  Have you tried their hamburger? It’s really moist when you make hamburgers for dinner, probably because the fat content is so

New Projects

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 Do any of you remember Miss Sherrie, the children’s TV show that she would look into her mirror and would say “And I see Johnny and Doug, oh and there is Sarah and Linda.  Good morning to.......”. Well, I would like to say hello to a few people, Kev and Sam, Larry and Diane, Leslie and Jake, Grant, Ashley and baby Kruft, Lynn the Pin, Kitty and Marilyn and Maridee and Stan too, Marcia, Bob and Chris and KT, and all the others that are reading and I only know them as “Anonymous “. Thanks for your interest and support in our adventure.  Now for an update. David and I launched the dinghy yesterday and went for a little tour of the marina.  Ellie had her life jacket on and is quickly becoming a boat dog. She has gone from cowering in my lap during the dinghy ride to feeling empowered and beginning to hang over the edge and let the wind blow her ears to and fro.  I’m waiting for her climb into the seat in the bow and do the Titanic pose.  While we had the dinghy in the water, we made anoth

Palmetto Florida

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 Captain Bernie has left us and we received a copy of the letter stating we had passed Boat School.  It was a lot like Summer School, we crammed an enormous amount of information into a short amount of time.  We now have time while we are here at Riviera Dunes Marina to get a few more things fixed.  We had a stabilizer bite the dust and the solution to fix it is to pull the boat out of the water and install a new stabilizer fin. Or I could just buy a new car instead but since I have no need for a car, I guess we will just fix the stabilizer and do some maintenance on the remaining fin.  David informed me that we also have a small leak in the transducer through hull. Great time to get new electronics. Or I could buy a second new car or yes, just get new instruments.  We recognized a Fleming 55 down the dock, it so happens we had met the owners 2 years ago at a Trawler Fest. We were able to find their boat card (Boatland version of your business card) so I texted them, they responded, dr

Oops, operator error

 Sorry for all the typos from the last post, videos being mislabeled and not loading correctly. Hey, I’m a 66 year old Grandmother that did not grow up with computers but figuring out new stuff with each post.  I’ll see if I can get the dolphin videos to upload correctly.  These beautiful animals are simply amazing to watch

A week in Palmetto Florida

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Another crappy sunset in Paradise Painkiller “on the hook” (anchoring) David, Ellie, Pam And Kirk Ellie first time at the beach Dolphin playing   beside the boat  We slept in this morning, 7:30 was our front and center time, woohoo. We did a few anchoring drills and headed towards our new home for a week.  The ride was 4 miles and about 45 minutes. We first stopped at the fuel dock, 350 gallons, $3.05 gal.  Then we pumped out the holding tank, and gracefully pulled into our slip.  Good job Captain Dave!  We didn’t do much the rest of the day. The boys went to the boat toy store, West Marine and came ho e with several bags.  It looked like it was Christmas time and the stockings would be filled to the brim.  Our friend Kirk A. drove over to our marina and we all had dinner together which was fun, great to hear about Kirk’s new boat that is ready middle of April.  I figured out how to load the videos so I’ll put a few upfront you to enjoy, well, hopefully enjoy.

Offshore and Overnight run

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 We did it!! We completed our overnight, 29 hour run, 63 miles offshore, trek. We left Panama City yesterday at daybreak, it was a bumpy smooth, not perfectly smooth but not too bumpy of a ride. The further we went, the smoother it got.  We all had dinner, a sandwich and chips, at 4:30pm.  Captain Bernie went down for a nap to prepare for his watch which started at 7pm., at which time David and I headed for a nap and Captain Bernie started his lookout. At 11pm, David went up to the pilot house to take his turn on watch, I went up to help David about 1:45 am and we got into a geek-off,  discussing navigation and radar, time flew by.  David went down to sleep in the salon just in case a kraken showed up and tried to eat us, so I ran the boat by myself, in the pitch dark, just me and the radar and it was wonderful.  It makes you feel so empowered!  Captain Bernie came up exactly on time at 5am to relieve me.  I told him about all the wondrous things I had seen, turned the helm over to him

Off the grid

 We are in Panama City Fl tonight.  In the morning we are heading out into the big water and off the grid. Our overnight run to Bradenton FL will last into Monday afternoon, a 32 hour trek, about 230 miles at 7.5 knots. We’re learning lots and our skills are improving daily.  Pray for good weather and smooth seas!

Hello Florida

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A little recap....left New Orleans, a little bumpy, arrived in Gulfport MS (and it is pronounced guff-port, like the guff o’ Mexico). Next day we travelled to Gulf Shores, AL (pronounced gulf) it was a beautiful marina and we got to go to LuLu’s for dinner (Jimmy Buffet’s sister’s place). It was more of a destination than just a restaurant. They had beautiful white sand everywhere for the kids to dig in and throw at each other, a hair braiding station, gift shop, a rope climbing structure, not to mention the scenic outdoor eating area.  The nachos looked Godlike and Captain Bernie’s BBQ sandwich with onion rings looked pretty darn amazing too.  They had live music, a gal “singing” and we anxiously awaited her break time.  There was no impromptu concert by big brother Jimmy, darn, it’s been know to happen. Today we left early again, I’ve seen more sunrises in the last week than I’ve seen in the last 5years, ha. Seas were smooth all the way here to Shalimar, FL. David is getting quite ta