Preparing to go sailing!

Fort Pierce

First thing we had to do before we could check on Trekker was go buy a ladder.  All our neighbors had very inconsiderately  locked theirs up (as opposed to the spring when were able to borrow one)!  Having made a run to Home Depot to buy the ladder, roller handles, rollers,  brushes, gloves and other painting supplies we were able to climb aboard. Turning the key in the companion way lock I wondered,  what we would find, mould, mildew, bugs, animals?  As I pushed the hatch forward and climbed down it smelled – fresh – woo hoo! Closer examination was consistent with the odour, no sign of any foreign substances! Thanks to Cap'n Ron Hawn who kept an eye on her over the summer,  replacing 5 Damp-Rid bags each visit.
Over the summer Johhny  B Good washed and waxed the deck and stainless a couple of times and just before we arrived they cleaned and buffed the top sides, and she looked great! The only disappointment was the nearly black teak that, as we later determined, was very dirty. Guess they don't clean teak.  Apparently ash floats over the marina during controlled burns inland.
After checking on Trekker we checked into our condo for the week. 
Sunday we drove down to North Palm to have lunch with my brother Adrian and his wife Mary, to pick up our bottom paint and to do our first shop – at Costco. We bought a “boatload” of meat that we would later divide into servings, vacuum seal and freeze.
Next day, dressed in our work clothes, we headed back to the marina, and primed with coffee, took on the task of applying the first coat of bottom paint.  Two hours later we had it on, and were splattered in paint and hurting!  

Most of the paint went on the bottom!

After showers and lunch we headed up to the storage unit to bring our first load back to Trekker. And so it went, a second coat of bottom paint, trips to the storage locker, dinners in, dinners out, including $6.99 burgers and trivia night at the Second Street Bistro!  Interspersed with putting the boat together Karen slowly knocked off her grocery list, $xxx at Costco, $xxx at Walmart and $xxx at Publix, but we were able to rationalize the cost because we were buying for four months! 

Trekker ready to go 

We launched Thursday and all was going well until the starting battery turned out to be dead.

Trekker splashing down 

 We knew it was low so we had plugged in in the yard but for some reason the starting battery was not charging. I’m still trouble shooting this problem.  Anyway, I boosted the starting battery from the house bank and she fired right up! The good news is the starting battery is charging from the alternator. Off to the slip we went.
The next few days included more trips to the storage locker, moving aboard, stowing food wine and beer, putting sails up, going up the mast to replace the instruments and Windex, starting the Suzuki dinghy motor and Honda generator and generally making sure everything works and getting her ship shape.  

Freezer all stocked up!

Pretty well ready to go, we decided to replace the starting battery.  It's five years old and we figured better to do it in Florida than the Bahamas.  Of course it’s not your standard sized battery … and there are none in Florida, so after much Googling I found another brand that looks suspiciously similar with the same dimensions and ordered it from West Marine. Hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow. 
Plans are to take out the old battery, install the new, make the final run to the storage room for stuff that will stay in the car, visit Customs and Border Protection to recover our registration and get our permission to proceed and then leave bright and early Thursday for Lake Worth. From there we’re planning to go down the ICW to Fort Lauderdale.  Regular readers will no doubt think “what about the bridges" but amazingly all the bridges between Lake Worth and Ft. Lauderdale are bascule, meaning that they split in the centre and pivot up out of the way.  We're looking forward to the sight seeing! We are planning on meeting up with our boat buddies, Bob and Sheila,  either in Miami area or Bimini, Bahamas. Mother Nature will determine when!