Mark here. Just a quick "check in". We are still on a ball in Ft Lauderdale exploring the area and working on boat projects. I've enjoyed a few bike trips to the local West Marine/ Hardware store and I even managed to find a few replacement cases of Founder's All Day IPA ( the preferred beverage of Stay Cat dwellers). Suzanne, unfortunately, could not join me on any of these super fun capers because she said she was "something something something beach".
Suzanne's pictures upon returning:
Not bad.
We also got a 3 mile run in on Friday that ending with a long walk down Los Olas boulevard. Los Olas is the nice "locals" part of town. Lots of sidewalk dining and expensive clothing stores and cars ("...water so clear you can see to the bottom. hundred thousand dollar cars everybodys got'em"). We found a really great Mex place, Rocca Taco's, and filled up... way up! (note to self: don't eat so many tortilla chips!)
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| good stuff! |
On Sunday and Monday we had some time to work on the side curtain project.
Late on Sunday we had to interrupt progress to search for a batten that slipped out of its fitting and bounced into the water. Its a sinking (sorry) feeling when you hear the "plunk" and then see the shinny, custom made steel batten slowly sink out of sight. The water was about 10ft deep and not all that clear. With fins and a mask I was able to find the sucker after about 20 minutes of diving. So what else was down there? A tire, a few palm tree limbs, some cinder blocks, rocks, a power cable of some sort, one fish and one pissed off crab.
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| GOT IT!! |
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| Wow, that was salty water! Not like the Chesapeake Bay |
On Monday (today) we spent the morning finishing the side curtain. Just as we put in the last few stitches in the rain started. So, we rushed out to install it for a trail run. It worked pretty darn nice I have to say!
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| Previous day of marking/cutting the side curtain fabric (in N. Palm) |
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| Adding snaps |
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| Is that a Hobbit's foot? |
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| Adding a window (or just staring at something... not sure whats going on here) |
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| Fit check |
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Thats one nice looking....
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| Done |
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| Done |
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| ...and DONE!! |
Other odds and ends:
I gave the Port engine bay a good cleaning. There were a small amount of salt crystals starting to form from evaporated sea water. The question is how is it getting in?. I think it might be coming from a small leak in the port rudder shaft. In rough seas I think water makes is way in and runs down to the engine bay bilge. I will be keeping an eye on the that.
On the Ammeter front, I did find a replacement that should work. I hope to have it in my hands next week. Someone did, however, offer to use a microscope to fix my hand soldered ammeter if I shipped it back to Virginia (thanks for the offer, Joe!). We'll see how the new one works first before a have anyone else see how bad my soldering is!
I think we will be here for a few more days which is fine with me. Its a great place for people watching and getting projects done!
Oh, so down here people pay a lot of money to have their palm trees wrapped with lights. Not to be outdone Suzanne hung a few Christmas lights in the cockpit. Who do think they're messing with here?!!
Sewing project looks good.
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