Travels of Geo Nova: December 2013

Our Christmas Tree the Wine glass is for perspective

Diana and Abe Christmas Morning

Wood Duck

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

Anhinga bringing dinner ashore

Geo Nova decorated for Christmas

We Have Moved On To The Boat

The engine is put back together and we have been staying on the boat. It’s nice to be in our own bed at night. Now we get to slow down and smell the roses a bit, however with a boat the project list never ends. Two weeks ago we finely made it up to Savannah to see Mike and Carol. This gave us our first opportunity to play golf since last October. David got to go with Mike to his new gun club and shoot trap. This brings back memories of Boy Scout Camp many years ago. Mike and Carol were nice enough to have stored our Singelton order of bacon and ham. This will allow us to enjoy great bacon and ham while cruising the Bahamas. Just prior to driving up to Savannah we did all the bright work (applied Seatol, a varnish like product, to all the exterior teak wood). This allowed it to dry for 6 days without any human traffic.

The latest project has been taking apart each of our 8 winches and cleaning all the old grease out from the gears. The trick is to let it soak in mineral spirits for at least ½ hour before cleaning with a toothbrush. It is also important not to lose any of the tinny springs and pawls. Once that is done then we will have to waxing the cabin tops.

Christmas was spent in Boynton Beach with Abe. It still seems strange to have it so warm for the Holidays. That being said it was nice to have gone for a walk to the beach in sandals, shorts and a t-shirt on Christmas day. Today while Abe is at work we got an early start to do some bird watching where we saw 32 different species including a new one for us, a Green Parakeet.

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays with family or friends. The important thing is to spend time with ones you care about.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year!

SEASON 2 TRIP FROM MAINE TO FLORIDA

Hi Everyone,

We finally have a down day from working on the boat so I am working on getting the blog up and running again. I guess I should start from the beginning.

On Oct. 17^th David finished up with work. We spent the next few days getting the house and us ready to leave. With the car all packed and the fridge empty we headed south. Our first stop was in Sterling MA to see Diana’s dad. After a visit and lunch with Charlie we traveled on to Weathersfield CT. Here we were able to visit with Kurt and Jane, sailing buddies from last season. From CT. we moved on to NJ stopping to see David’s aunt and uncle Irma and Lou. After leaving Roosevelt we left to head to Greenville, SC. We ended up breaking up the 12 hour drive by stopping in the Shenandoah valley for the night. The next day we took back roads and visited several Civil War sites. In Greenville we spent 2 days with Ann and Art, more sailing buddies from 2012, walking and biking the area. Ann and Art live on the west side of a mountain so we had wonderful sunsets of the city with the Carolina and Tennessee mountains off in the sunset. Leaving here we went to Atlanta to see sailing buddies from 15 years ago, Skip and Nancy. It was wonderful getting caught up with them again. We are now on to Titusville FL where the boat is.

We arrived in FL on Oct. 28th. Thankfully we have friends in Titusville. Dick and Andrea let us move in with them until the boat is ready for the water. We thought it would only be a week. We spent a week getting the boat uncovered & washed, put up the dodger and biminy, waxed the sides, replaced a through hole that wouldn’t close and then painted the bottom. Next we had to take apart the interior so we could run the new wires for the new autopilot. Remember the old one died last year in the Bahamas. Well nothing goes as planned on a boat. We got everything installed but it wouldn’t work. We had to hire a technician who worked on it for 4 hours and couldn’t find out what was wrong. He thought that our new autopilot couldn’t talk to our 3-year-old chart plotter/GPS without an update so he left to get a chip with up dates but couldn’t come back for 4 days. Once back with new chip and new updated equipment it still wouldn’t talk to each other. AH! So he changed a wire. It talked! Long story short bad wire was sent with new autopilot. Now another day to get everything put back together.

We also needed a new switch for the refrigeration so once that arrived it was replaced and we put new insulation lining in the refrigerator and freezer.

Cleaned again the inside and outside because the boat yard is dusty and dirty with people sanding the bottoms of their boats our boat gets covered inside and out with grime.

Once most of the repairs were finished we set a launch date for Nov 19^th. We found out Abe was off the weekend of the 16^th so we took a break to drive down to Boynton Beach to visit with Abe on his weekend off. On the drive down David and I couldn’t believe we had been in FL for a almost a month, working on the boat everyday and it still wasn’t in the water. It was great to spend the weekend with Abe. David and Abe went for a sunset swim in the ocean one evening, out to a movie and dinner another. Great break before the launching on Tuesday.

We also had a nice surprise when we got back from Abe’s, Naomi and Hans were in FL and stopped by on their way through. We took a break and went out to lunch.

With the boat finally in the water we had a few days with winds up to 35 knots. I couldn’t stay on the boat without feeling sick. I am so grateful to Dick and Andrea for letting us stay with them.

The next big repair is to replace 2 y valves. One is easy under the galley floor the other is in the forward head. With all of the issues the aft head had last year we decide to replace some of the waste disposal pipes while replacing the y valve. This involves removing the toilet from the forward head. It’s a small space with no room to move and your body is ½ in the hall while you are working. Once the toilet is in the salon area we are ready to tackle the pipes. Try getting 2 people working in a space that can’t fit one was fun. David was on his hands and knees with me standing in the hall straddling him trying to reach around him to help. Too bad we didn’t have a third person taking a picture it was like stuffing 10 people into a VW beetle body parts twisted every which way.

Dick and Andrea did get a break from us during Thanksgiving. We flew to Islip NY on Long Island on the 26^th to visit family until Dec. second. It was a great time with family. We got out walking even thought it was cold! Even got some birding in and saw a new bird for us!

We are now glad to be back in FL in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. David is at the doctors today with Dick because Andrea had to work. He has some liver issues and builds up with fluid so it had to be drained. We are so glad we can be here to help around the house and with doctor appointments. Tonight I am going to Andrea’s line dancing class. Tomorrow we tackle a leak under the kitchen sink for them.

Tomorrow after the sink gets fixed we have to put the pedestal back together. 2 days ago we took it apart to put new break pads on the wheel break. The first glue didn’t take so had to glue again and wait another 24 hours. The engine is also apart and an engine repairman is coming to the boat to put an elbow we had sandblasted and repainted back on. Once the engine work is done we should be ready to move back on the boat.