WE ARRIVED AT RIVER FOREST YACHTING CENTER Friday morning. The plan is to haul Broulee out on Monday.  The marina staff here are very accomodating and again, ended up having the whole place to ourselves. Our friends Rick &  Pam on M/V Tourist have been taking care of our car in Ft. Myers during our two month cruise.  Of course, they brought it back to us in better shape then we left it, full of gas and 6 bottles of wine in the back -  I think they could have rented a car for less.  Thanks guys - for taking care of the car and glad to hear you finished in the top three in the swamp buggy race with it - hope to cruise with you again, soon.

After two action packed days of packing, cleaning, and eating everything we could in the frig/freezer we awoke Monday morning to severe weather and our depature looked tenable.  Weather cleared around 10:00 and we finished packing the car, loaded Izzy, hauled out and were on the road north by noon.

The trouble with packing is we all leave home with one ball and after six months of cruising you now have nine.  There was talk of renting a u-haul trailer to get home, but we somehow managed between the roof top carrier and using the old shoe horn method -  finally were able to get it all in the car. 

Izzy trying to negotiate for the front passenger seat. I don't think so! But Mom, stuff is falling on me.

Bye, Bye Broulee have a good summer and no playing with hurricanes.

Broulee's summer home

Now let's talk about the LIST.  We arrived early in November to Columbus, MS so items on the LIST could get done.  It all started the day we arrived and found our freezer had died and the LIST was somewhat set aside for priority NON LIST projects.

   

New fridge/freezer/cabinet (now stained and varnished) but, not on the list.

One rainy day while in the main saloon - a drip of water hit me on the head and appeared to be coming from where the mast is bolted down on the flybridge.  GET THE CAULK GUN!  No it wasn't as simple as that - of course not.  The wood core material sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass was saturated and completely rotted thus another NON LIST item required immediate attention.  New base completely rebuilt and refinished. Further inspection of the upper deck revealed a soft spot and some blisters on the gel coat in a small area near a rail stanchion  - ok another NON LIST item.  Remove part of the fiberglass deck material scrape out wet/rotted coring, fill with fiberglass, replace deck piece and refinish gel coat.  On the LIST was to rebed all of the upper deck stanchion bases - completed now as part of the deck repair.

After rebedding the stanchions on the upper deck, Rick decided to inspect all other stanchions and oh yes the bowsprit showed some minor blistering - that means water in there but caught soon enough so no rot - but this repair is also a NON LIST item

Bowsprit with pulpit removed (railing), repairs completed awaiting new anchor rollers, re-installing anchor and rebedding of pulpit rail.

The chain in preparation of color coded depth markings - this is always on the LIST

This is a project that has been on the LIST in Rick's head  - a bowsprit support. Thanks to the welding equipment Wayne carries with him on Take Time and his knowledge of working with stainless steel he and Rick were able to complete this.  What other hidden list items lurk in the minds' of men?

 

Job well done!

Removing minor gel coat blemishes from the fashion plates and priming and finishing with two part polyurethane paint was on the LIST, however, the project was started in Columbus and not finished until late April due to cold weather and rain.

Again the downside is the pilot house becomes a workshed and sometimes difficult, when necessary, to manuver through it. Oh, well that's boating and everyone back home thinks we are just crusing around drinking Margaritas all day.

Hey, now we are headed home to our 115 year old house - can you imagine what projects await - both LIST and NON LIST!

TIME TO SHOVE OFF AND HEAVE HO  - and start setting our sights on home.  It's been an interesting winter for Florida standards and need to get Broulee to bed and Izzy home.  We woke to a hazy sunrise, waved goodbye to our friends and headed towards the St. Lucie River.  Rounding the bend at the Roosevelt bridge we were hailed by our friends on Istaboa . They are just down from Memphis where they have been dealing with an aging parent and are hoping for some much needed R & R on their 57 ft Nordhaven.  Sorry to have missed hooking up with them this year but, hopefully there will be another opportunity.

  

Morning haze

Good bye to Wayne & Carol

As we approached the St. Lucie Lock the captain hailed the lockmaster and announced in his professional captain style "Brawler Trolley requesting west bound lockage" - I not only shot coffee out my nose - I almost peeed my pants laughing. He looked at me and said did I just say Brawler Trolley?  - He's a keeper!

The rest of the trip was uneventful - the lake was calm - it was a  #10 suntanning kind of day and we got to Clewiston at 5:00pm.  This is an interesting time of day on the Okeechobee because it's din din time. These guys were everywhere.

 

This one cruised along side us for sometime - think he was hoping for Black Lab dinner.

Decided to dock at Moore Haven town wall for the night - nice spot and a $1.00 a foot includes water and electric. 

Moore Haven sunrise

TIME HAS COME FOR US TO LEAVE JENSEN BEACH and our friends Wayne & Carol on Take Time.  Pictures below are a glimpse of the town and surrounds.  We enjoyed the company of our friends, the park for Izzy, the playful manatees, the weather and we would like to say the marina - but without going into detail - not so much. 

The manatees would play behind our boat (and drive Izzy crazy) - this one is doing the back stroke.

Izzy where are you?

Come and play Izzy - the water is fabulous!

When she wasn't busy watching the manatees she was busy watching for people.  We now call her Busy Izzy.

This would be our favorite Izzy time - wore out Izzy.  She goes and goes then it's crash.

Downtown Jensen Beach scenes

Sorry - but flowers and sunsets are hard for me to pass up - this time I will only bore you with flowers.

Fun things we would see on our evening walks

Bejeweled turtle

The beach - Wayne & Carol walking with us.

The Tuckahoe Mansion - originally built for the heiress to the Coca Cola fortune, but was left to ruins and has been completely restored by the city and  is now being used for weddings and and special events.

The mansion from the backside overlooking the water and the dolphin fountain at the entrance.

The marina was small  and quaint, but amenities where few and the manager had a chip on his shoulder - seemed he really didn't like trawler trash - more of a sportsfish kind of guy.  Some pics from around the place.

I'm not a fish

One Fish

Two Fish

Three Fish

Four Fish

I got an idea  - lets call the marina Four Fish.  Why didn't they include the mermaid - somethings fishy?

BRAGGING RIGHTS! The kids sent a video of our six year old grandson, Cooper - skiing for the first time. Of course, his nine year old Olympic skier sister was close at hand. Way to go Coop!

WE ARE NOW IN JENSEN BEACH at a marina called Four Fish spending some time with our friends Wayne & Carol on a Krogen 48 Whaleback. The weather has taken a change for the good and we are finally enjoying beautiful sunny days and warm ocean breezes.  There is a huge park for Izzy to play and a nice beach for romping in the water.  Projects are underway again which means dust and construction zones everywhere - but it's all stuff that needs to get done so Izzy and Deb are trying their best to put up with the mess. 

Another angle on the bee sting incident - it's still hard for us to look at it.

Some pics from the travel up from Miami

Coming thru Port Everglades - lucky us two freighters and boat commotion everywhere.  There is a tug in the front and a tug in the back helping to steer the freighter.

Just some fun Florida pics.

More Fort Lauderdale Yachts

Izzy with two of her favorite things - a ball and water.

Come on - throw it already!

We heard this blowing sound and stepped out onto the top deck and found this manatee wedged between Broulee and Take Time - he was under their boat - hence the blue paint on his back.

I did finally manage to get a photo of a manatee playing behind our boat - it's a baby laying on his momma's back.

Now get ready - this is their poop - Wow!