Still in Indiantown

It's been a while since my last post, partly because I couldn't access the site for a couple of days. So since i last wrote the big news is that we have made it out of the workyard and into the water at the marina!



Brio touches the water again after being on land for the last 2 years



It's been a while since my last post, partly because I couldn't access the site for a couple of days. So since I last wrote the big news is that we bade farewell to our fellow "dirt rats" and made it out of the workyard and into the water at the marina!

"dirt rat" Clyde

 





Fellow "dirt rats" Craig and Andy on Orion

Over the past couple of weeks we have been invaded by love bugs. These are small flying insects that are joined at the abdomen  - hence the name. When I say fly, it's more of a spiralling any which way they can as they go through their superglue mating routine. While they thankfully don't bite, they are a nuisance, especially when you are trying to paint or use epoxy, as they inevitably land in it and stay there! 

The results of a love bug swarm on fresh epoxy



Brio is looking almost ready to go - we now have a wind generator and solar panel installed, liferaft aboard, operational chartplotter and other things electronic, nearly completely painted deck, new hatch (after I broke one just opening it), so many other things I can't think of right now. Every day is busy, busy, busy.

The name goes on the bow

and home port goes on the stern

Even though we feel like we are nearly ready to sail , we still seem to be buying lots of necessary things - and some comforts like a bbq. Today our 'dirt rat" friend John  drove us to Stewart so we could buy a secondhand dinghy. The one that came with Brio, although not an old one, had obviously spent too much time in the Florida sun and humidity. No matter what we did to fix each leak, new ones would appear and usually on the seam so impossibly hard to fix. After many attempts and a whole lot of glues and solutions to remedy the problem, we finally decided it was a lost cause, and started looking for another dinghy. we now have an 8ft Walker Bay hard dinghy (so at least we wont have to patch it!)



Ivan, Laura, Tuckker and Louise

We spent a great evening with Tuckker and Laura at their house not far from Indiantown. Tuckker made the best fresh tuna sashimi and Laura cooked mahi-mahi (our first taste of the fish everyone seems to talk about around here). Tuckker works at the marine store where we buy most of our supplies from and has helped us so much with getting our boat ready, including connecting all of the electronic equipment. I'm sure he didn't expect to be spending quite as much time in the bowels of our boat as he has. We came to have dinner at Tuckker and Laura's place  because Ivan - who has more front that Myers- said to Tuckker he wouldn't have felt like he had visited Florida unless he had been invited to a local person's home!