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February to March 2008 |
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Feb & March 2008, Palatka, Fl We have been very busy these last two months since the haul out, between the boat refit, working to pay for the refit, homeschooling, celebrating both the kids' birthdays, entering a marine market, doctors check-ups, soccer practice, one emergency room visit (everything is fine now - just our Aaron bumping his head again) and going to the Miami boat show, we haven't slowed down! No rest for the wicked, eh?! Feels like we be landlubbers again. Arrggh, take me to de islands and put me on dat island time! Yebo's interior is completely stripped now and ready for rewiring. First however, we will replace the portlight lexan. The old is a bit crazed and a little "leaky teaky" shall we say! We've registered her South African and have ordered our mainsail from S.A. The fiberglassing will commence soon to some of her bad spots. School is going well. Aaron is reading now so we are thrilled for him. Abigail continues to excel academically. We had gotten out of our routine a bit since the holidays/birthdays but are back into the 4 day work week now for school. They are both playing soccer this year. Abi has had two practices so far and is loving it. Aaron's team hasn't practiced yet but he gets to run around during Abi's practices and kick the ball a bit. He is also loving it. They are in separate leagues as per their age group. I'll put some pics up when they have their first games. We entered the Dania Market in Miami this year as vendors and hauled a load of stuff down to sell (marine surplus). It is a huge marine market that is held once a year in Miami. It was an adventure. We needed a trailer to haul it all down so after we found a used trailer we loaded her up as well as our van and headed south. It was a long trip as the trailer tended to fish tail on the interstate (overloaded no doubt!) so we had to keep her between 50 and 60mph. I tried to drive the Jeep towing the trailer but made it 2 exits on the interstate before I whimped out and went back to driving the van. It was really nuts. Every time a big rig passed us it would sway and wobble. Down in south Florida the traffic was so bad that keeping it between the lines required every bit of your concentration! Anyway, the Dania Market was good for us. We sold some of our wares and bought some things for Yebo at great discount prices. The squids were in charge of the worms (lures for fishing). They gave away the worms to kids at the market and sold them for 10 cents ea to the adults. Abi even made a tip for working out the correct change for a nice lady. Homeschooling at its best! We got some good deals on things we needed for Yebo (sea anchors, life saver, some electronics). West Marine always has a massive tent at the market with amazing discounts. We stayed on a friend's boat down in Ft Lauderdale for the week we were at the market. It was a little 32ft sailboat. Smallest sailboat I've stayed on but surprisingly roomy. Justin and I shared the V birth - that was funny because the v was quite literally a v and we took turns having our feet on top of each other each night. The kids' slept in the salon. We were lucky to have air conditioning as it is always warm in south Florida. Even when we go away now we end up on a boat somewhere! Saved us a few hundred a night on hotels too. We got a new dingy! It is a little Boston Whaler - 13ft. Perfect for us. We like it much better than the inflatable dingies, particularly our current inflatable which isn't inflated at all due to holes. We have been looking for a hard dingy for a couple of years and the Whalers are always pretty expensive as they are such good boats. Justin, bargain hunter that he is, found ours for a steal with 25hp Suzuki outboard, an awning and a trailer! Wow, we now have 2 boats and 2 trailers. It is hard not to acquire things even when you know you can't keep them forever. We can get another storage shed or sell things when we go. Took "Cool Blue" (that's her name) out with the kids to see how she went and a have a bit of fun on the water - gee it's been a while! We had a terrific time. We went exploring up Rice Creek, which is just a couple miles north of Palatka and saw lots of wildlife. There are a lot of resident alligators there - evidence to that in the pictures! Have had a few hundred gallons of water slowly leaking out of the water tank on our "purple boat" apparently. Got back from the market to discover below decks saturated up to Aaron's cabin and all his gear was drenched which are currently strung all around the boat drying while the bilges are pumped out. Boat life - it's always something!
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