Last post for a couple of weeks

Just wanted to show a few pictures before I head off for New Hampshire on Friday.

After the pump out (clearing the holding tank takes 2 hours) yesterday we went on a sail --- our first since we got here in November.  Hurray.  The wind was 6k; the boat did 2k - a slow lazy sail out in Biscayne Bay!

Miami in the background and some of the cool buildings with amazing architecture if you look at the details.

and a little movie

I'd love to try this but my balance isn't that good anymore.
     
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I realize my job is default boat hand, a job I didn't interview for, but here I am.  Originally I thought I'd spend a couple of hours on house/boat work each day and then do something enjoyable like a movie, museum, bike ride, walk, visit a garden, explore a park.  It's not panning out that way, wah, wah.   I have a fantasy life in my head - the idea of what I'd like to do each day with Drew and then the reality life of what actually happens (all of the above but often by myself.)  Drew's daily life includes the gym.  He has work phone calls "Gotomeeting," or the Island Packet Listserve that he enjoys contributing to and trading fix it information, researching and ordering parts, and of course boat projects.  This is what happens when one person of a couple is retired, and it takes a few years to iron out a pleasing acceptable routine.  Harder for me since I am the one retired from a very busy fulfilling career.  Now to find other fulfillment on a sailboat when it isn't sailing. 

Yesterday I worked on polishing all the stainless steel on the boat.  It gets more marks on it because of the seawater.  Today I spent all afternoon resewing the leather wheel cover at the helm. Over time the threads disintegrate because of sea air.  I did a bit last year, but now I'm finishing the job. 
See the needle stuck in the wheel cover?  It takes a few days to finish the whole thing.

I have had the stunning realization that this is it -- I am now a boat hand every day.  This is my life in Florida on this boat.  There is a long list of cleaning, replacing and fixing jobs - endless actually.  Another one is, I am embarrassed to say for the first time, taking off all the slipcover upholstery on all the cushions and having them professionally laundered.  Drew is better at wrestling them back on than I am.  He gets the seams just right.  The bow light isn't completed.  Next is cleaning the entire boat top and then waxing it all.  That doesn't include the hull or cleaning the bottom which we hire to have done.  Yikes.  I am not usually a complainer, but sometimes... I really do.

I do love the sailing, the warm and the views.

Lastly, there's always that incredible sunset over the water.  The spot in the sky is a blimp that went over us as we sailed at dusk.