Cruising Season 2016 Begins!

Happy New Year!

And we’re back on Blossom and back to blogging! We’ve just spent what had to be the quickest four months ever, back in the Bay Area. We had a really wonderful time though it sped by far too quickly. It seemed that we were just settling into a groove and getting caught up with our friends when suddenly it was time to head back to Florida. Highlights of our time home included catching up with good friends and family, track dates for Martin, quilt festivals for me and wine tasting in Livermore, Napa & Sonoma. We rearranged our downstairs and put in hard wood floors upstairs. We were visited by some of my fabulous high school friends and my Mom came to celebrate the holidays with us. Then suddenly it was New Year’s Eve and we were on a flight to Ft. Lauderdale. Talk about a whirlwind visit!

Even though we were feeling a bit sad that our time in CA was over so quickly, we were also feeling very excited to get back to Blossom. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale and drove over to Ft. Myers on New Year’s Eve. We celebrated New Year’s by sleeping through it (party animals that we are) and then drove over to River Forest first thing New Year’s Day.

Blossom on the hard sporting her new cockpit canvas

Blossom was certainly well cared for and maintained while we were away. She was washed, waxed and got fresh bottom paint and zincs just before our return.  April checked in every couple of weeks to make sure there were no mold or mildew issues. The only grime we need to clean up is the soot from the burning sugar fields that plagues southern Florida in the winter. Anything left on the boat deck is well-sooted so our outdoor table and chair covers need a bit of cleaning up. We were also pleased to see that our new canvas was installed in the cockpit (recently enough that it isn't covered in soot!) Bert, from Scotties Canvas in Ft. Myers, did a great job. The aft deck is going to be a much more comfortable, shady space, especially when we’re at anchor in the Exumas this year!

We spent the weekend putting the boat back together, testing the systems we could while on the hard, and doing some provisioning. We left her looking pretty disheveled in August, with all the lockers propped open and mattresses raised up on crates.

Master stateroom

Salon in disarray

Lining the boat around

First thing Monday morning we splashed the boat and lined her over to the wall. She’s a big girl to haul around with ropes but the team here made it look easy. We wanted some time to remove the plastic covering the vents, check thru-hulls, etc., before starting up the engines. Everything looked great and was running smoothly so we moved over to the floating dock later that day.

I know I’m biased but dang, she’s a good looking boat!

We had a really pleasant stay in Ft. Myers and got to know the town a little bit better this time. We also had the pleasure of meeting new Nordhavn owners, Rick & Michelle. They hosted us aboard their beautiful boat and we had a fabulous evening with them. I can never say enough about how wonderful the boating community is and what a great time we have with the folks that we meet! We were thrilled to then be able to reciprocate and have them over to Blossom for another fun evening on Tuesday.

Martin waiting for the doctor

On Wednesday we had a bit of a setback occur. Martin was stowing the dehumidifier in the basement and I was handing it down to him. The hose snapped back as it passed through the hatch and managed to smack him directly in his right – open - eye. He was in a lot of pain so I took a look, and freaked out a little bit (what a shock, right?) He had a little flap of skin loose in the middle of his eye. Yup, not fun at all. Luckily there’s an ophthalmologist in LaBelle (it’s a very tiny town) and they saw us right away. We were very relieved to hear that though a chunk of tissue was missing from his cornea, the doctor thinks it will heal very quickly with no lasting ill effects and that even 24 hours from now he should have much less pain and better sight. He can't see much of anything through that eye now and once the shock wore off he was pretty uncomfortable. So the plan is 24 hours of bedrest and antibiotic eye drops and a follow up appointment tomorrow.

Because of the accident, we had to cancel visiting with some friends of ours this afternoon. They’re visiting Florida this week from Wisconsin and just happen to be on vacation close by - talk about serendipity! Martin needed to sleep and not use his eyes so we've rescheduled and are looking forward to seeing them on Friday.

Needless to say, we’re going to delay our departure and are thinking about leaving on Monday rather than this Friday so we can make sure Martin is healing well and take our time getting the boat ready. Our goal for January is to head west and then north. We have family in Sarasota who we hope to see and then the plan is to spend some time in St. Pete’s. We really enjoyed St. Pete’s last January and have been looking forward to returning ever since!  

It feels good to be back in Florida now that the weather is a bit less hot and humid. (We’re having a cold spell here right now). Though there are reminders of the tropical state we’re in:

"Palmetto Bug" aka Extremely Large Roach

Yes, that’s my thumb, that sucker was big, and thankfully dead (and not on Blossom!)

“Love Bugs”

These are called “love bugs” for obvious reasons. While arguably the happiest critters on planet as they seem to be in this state all the time…I do wish they could find a hidey hole to enjoy themselves in rather than flying all over the place and covering our boat. They smoosh easily and aren’t easy to clean up due to some strange body chemistry that is corrosive. It was “invasion of the love bugs” yesterday and Blossom looked like a boat with a severe rash, covered by millions of the active little bugs.

So we’re back, happy (notwithstanding the eye injury) and very excited to begin our 2016 cruising aboard Blossom!

Boat Business: What we’ve accomplished thus far:

•          Run the engines – all okay
•          Checked the black and gray water systems – all okay
•          Put the interior of the boat back together
•          Provisioned and stowed everything so we have the necessities aboard
•          An initial wash (though River Forest had washed her, we had two days of rain and 50 gazillion love bugs on the boat so she needed a bath)
•          Scrubbed the table cover. Though not like new, it’s much better
•          Done at least 6 loads of laundry
•          Stowed our wine which arrived from CA today - woo hoo!

Things needing attention:

•      Starboard Thruster. Steve from ABT came out to take a look at our starboard stabilizer. We noticed a slight leak on our way over from Key West last August. He thinks he’s found the problem and that it’s fixed. I can’t provide details today because Martin is out of action and not available to proof this post and I wasn't paying close enough attention. We also have a worn bearing so we’ll have a service done in St. Pete’s when we get there.
•      Our salon audio station won't play the satellite radio. But we can attach external devices and play music so it's no big deal. Mart’s sure it’s something simple, we just need to figure it out.

To do list:

•         Test the electronics
•         Check the davit, windless and dinghy
•         Put our kayaks and fender boards back on the boat deck
•         Give her a proper scrubbing