..........--- Tired, Hot and Still on Land ---
...............................--- Nov. 20th to 23rd ---
We had made it to Florida, but there was still quite a bit to do before we went on the water with the boat as we had left in a hurry. Our original plan was to take 5-7 days driving down and spend some time sightseeing and making a grocery list for food and other items that we needed to ensure we could spend up to 30 days out without restocking water, food or other items. We thought we would be able to re-stock items, but didn't know for sure so the plan was to assume we couldn't.
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We found it hard to get to work on what we needed to do with the 80+ temps that Florida was experiencing at this time along with the high humidity, for us. In the shade walking around the beautiful RV park it was comfortable, but where the boat was parked it got hot.
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We took some time to walk the park and enjoy the views from there out over the water that was only 100 yds away from where we were with the boat. We spend the first day there trying to adjust to the heat and going shopping for supplies and that ended in a small disaster.
For lunch we went to a small Chinese restaurant and had a great meal. I paid with our credit card and we left for the boat storage place where we would launch to look at the ramp and such there. We arrived 10 minutes after they had closed for the day, so started the 30 miles back to the RV park. We stopped at a Walmart and shopped and shopped and shopped until we had a lot, some items which weren't even on our lists.
In the checkout line I discovered I didn't have my credit card. I felt for sure I must of left it at the restaurant on the little tray that you use to pay with. We wondered if the owner there had called it in and would Ruth's card be declined when we checked out. We proceeded to check out and the card ran with no problems.
So it was back to the restaurant where I was sure we would find the card. Nope they didn't have it and hadn't seen it. We went out in the parking lot, it was dark now, and called it in. There were no charges on it, but the ones we had made. They would send a new one Fedex, but it wouldn't arrive at the RV park until probably Tuesday. That wasn't a big problem as we needed the rest and setup time.
We extended our stay at the park, but were told that we weren't welcome after Wed. as the owner was afraid that their insurance didn't cover us being in there with a boat. They had been great to us though and only charged us $20 a day total which was a deal since it was a nice place to stay with clean bathrooms and such.
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Sunday was spent re-packing the boat with all the supplies and getting it somewhat organized and still trying to adapt to the heat/humidity. I'm sure it wasn't bad at all for the locals and wasn't really that bad for us considering that we found out that it was in the teens and snowing back home.........
Monday we moved the boat over to an open area 100 yds or so from where we had it parked at night. We raised the mast and I adjusted the shrouds for tension using the Loos gauge and they looked good. The rigging was tighter that it had ever been, but not overly tight according to the gauge. I adjusted the shrouds so that the mast was straight from the deck to the hounds, but raked back slightly.
I also added the roller furler line to the drum on the furler and furled the sail in and out a couple times to get the hang of that. I finished with it furled tighter than in the picture above. I also added the new preventer lines along with better blocks for them attached to the bottom of the pulpit stanchions at the back.
We also replaced the cloths line that we had used to mock up the lazy jack lines on the sail pack/cover. That pretty much took care of getting the boat ready to go into the water. We were packed and rigged.
Now we just hoped the new credit cards would show up the next day. OK now for the embarrassing part of the lost credit card deal. On this morning I opened the driver's door on the Suburban and the "lost" credit card was down on the floor leaning against the seat. The real problem was not waiting for the card, but that we had a number of 'auto pays' associated with it so that bills would be paid while we were on the water. We had to remember which ones we had and then had to find numbers for them and then call them and change the bill to data once we had the new card. This was all done over the next day or so after the new cards arrived.
Tuesday the cards did arrive and we spent the day doing some last minute shopping and one final good meal at the Chinese Restaurant and off to bed a little earlier than usual so we could hopefully leave fairly early to launch the boat. So this made the fifth night on the boat and there was still no water under it, but we were beginning to unwind and get our wind back in our personal sails.
