Saturday 23 November 2013

Its a long time being ashore so to speak

Well we are still here in Fort Lauderdale, both of us raring to go to sea, is it fate or what? more delays for various reasons.

Don can't quite get in this hole

Agua Therapy with a skirt on
Still trying to work through the endless list of jobs too, however lots have been ticked off now, would you believe over 115 when we started.

The new mainsail is installed and rolls up inside the boom correctly thanks to Supersail and Don refitting the boom higher up the mast.

A new AB rib is waiting for delivery and we managed to exchange our 6HP Mercury engine for a 9.9 to give us a little more stability and power when we go ashore.

The new shiny Ultra anchor which should hold us in place in the anchorages so both of us may not have to lie awake thinking "are we dragging" "watch this space"

Yet again we had another trip to the UK to visit family, Don in Scotland to see his Mum and sister.

Me to sunny Stoke - on - Trent to see Mum and friends.
Julie an old school friend and me at the Indian restaurant, we had such a great night. 
Vicky and I went for lunch at Weston Hall, it was yummy.

This is at Weston Hall in Staffordshire.
We met up after a week and dove to Plymouth to see Vivien, Andy and the boys.
During that week we paid a visit with Viv to Port Isaac which is home to the TV series "Doc Martin" (Port Wen).
St Isaac, the famous Port Wen
Us outside "Doc Martins house and surgery"
From a distance
While in Plymouth we took advantage and drove across Dartmoor to the prison museum and saw lots of ponies along the way, quite erie when we came out as the mist / fog had dropped, I hate to think what it would have been like for all those prisoners on the run when they escaped, seeing how desolate it is. Such a pity no photographs are allowed to be taken. Apparently some pretty bad people were there at one time, serial killers and murderers.



The view from Doc Martins house


Afterwards we stayed with Steve and Lizzie on "Seraph" their yacht in Chichester marina, it was great to see them. Unfortunately while I was there I managed to pick up an ear infection which was quite scary thinking about flying and the thought of going deaf permanently. Thanks to Steve sorting out an emergency appointment with a doctor I returned with antibiotics and lots of painkillers.

We returned on the 30th via Philadelphia which made the trip quite tedious we were shattered when we arrived, the body clocks were still very confused.

My 2 favourite fellas, we went to see Michael Bublé
 in concert, what a show! Another tick in the box in my "bucket list"
After a few days here we moved to a boatyard and have been lifted out the water in a yard not too far from Geoff and Stroma's house where we are staying in their Winnebago until we complete the anti fouling and through hulls. The soda blasting to remove 7 years of paint has been done and Don has almost finished the primer and the top coats of antifoul painting.

This painting is so cute, its in a gallery window on Las Olas high street
The sign on the table at Bubba Gumps the place on Fort Lauderdale beach front
Don with some of the famous shrimp
All being well weather permitting we will be crossing the gulf stream to go east until we are north of the Virgin Isles where we hope to continue our next season in the Caribbean. Must admit the thought of 10 - 12 or more days non stop is quite daunting.

So this may be the last post from the USA until we have the internet somewhere in the Virgin Isles.

For those of you that follow the little blog you have to go to
http://blog.mailasail.com/ look for "agua" click on that link which then should take you to a page with a map and a map pin, if you look below that where the dates are and a title of some sort you can read our progress.

However please do not try to contact us via this link as we can't accept normal e-mails, only plain text messages or you will stop us from receiving important weather information.

BFN until next time
Don and Glenys
Agua Therapy about to start the next seasons adventure