Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi, All -
We're spending two weeks in Phoenix, which happily includes the Thanksgiving Holiday. We arrived Nov. 15th, and will return to Brunswick and our boat on Nov. 30th.

It is a great time to be here. In addition to catching up with family, friends, visits to our doctors, dentist and financial advisor, the weather is beautiful. Susan's father (Ray Delrich) and I hope to play some golf next week. All this AND we get to spend time with Kara, Miguel, and our newest grandson, Andrew!

We are staying this first week with Ray and Pam Delrich (Susan's folks). The Ray and Pam Resort includes bed, board, pool, patio, BBQ grill, AND a putting green. What more could one ask for? Did I mention that we also get to dine on a home-cooked traditional Thanksgiving dinner, prepared personally by Pam Delrich?

We will also spend a few nights with our friends and ex-neighbors, Phyllis and Terry Carron, and a night or two with Sheila and Shirley, dear friends in the East Valley. Hopefully, we won't wear out our welcome with any of our wonderful hosts.

Our dance card is getting full, with invitations to dinners, lunches, cocktails, church services, appointments, meetings, real estate transactions, etc. etc. But we are having a wonderful time, and getting our land legs back, sort of...

We do miss KINGDOM; the beauty, peace and quiet of the harbor, and the more leisurely pace of life aboard. It hit me while driving around here, that we have become quite accustomed to moving along at a much slower pace. Seven knots, versus 65 - 70mph is quite a change. Even our scooters have a top speed of 40mph, downhill with a tail wind! Freeways are completely out of the question...

Well, we are determined to enjoy our "vacation from retirement", and relish the variation in climate, pace, and activity. We are resting as much as possible, since we have so much still to do when we return to the boat. Our goal is to finish our outfitting in preparation for moving south in January, and on to the Bahamas for the winter months.

Love to all,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

ps.
We will post pix of our visit once we get back to our onboard computer.

Smurfs on Wheels!

"Motorcycle Mama" Susan on her YAMAHA









































I look just like Brando, don't I?



















The lighthouse on St. Simons Island.













































Last week we purchased two Yamaha scooters. They are 49cc "Vino" models, and are identical, painted metallic black. These will serve as our transport while in port, so we can get around to shop for our groceries and supplies, as well as sightseeing. They are rated at 85mpg. With a top speed of 40 mph, we aren't in danger of getting real expensive speeding tickets, and most of the places we are using the scooters have limits of 45 mph or less.





Another advantage for small scooters like this is that they require no license tag, no special motorcycle drivers' license, and are cheap to insure ($200 per annum covers both of them!) They only weigh 150 lbs. each, so are easily lifted to our bridge deck for storage while underway.



We get lots of questions and compliments from people whenever we're out on thest things. Mostly, "Those are really cute!" and "How fast do they go?"

Today, we used the scooters to do a bit of touring. We travelled all the way to St. Simons Island (five miles) for brunch, toured the town, saw the lighthouse, visited the old (early 1700's) British Fort Frederica, and circumnavigated the island. Then back across the causeway to Brunswick, stopping at Winn-Dixie for groceries, and back to the boat.





It was a bit chilly, but our windbreakers and helmets did a fairly good job of keeping us comfortable. By the time we were back to the boat, our hands were cold, since the sun was getting low in the west.





Love to all!





Walt and Susan

We're in Brunswick, Georgia

Please Note - Narrative is at the end of these photos.

Susan at the Pilothouse wheel, with charts at hand.




















Walt, happy at the flybridge helm.






















Susan, studying charts and cruising guide, planning the day's run.

















Ed and Diane Havelka - Our "Training Captains", on our flybridge.

























Dolphins play in our Bow Wave

We are now tied up for two months in Brunswick, Georgia, at the Brunswick Landings Marina. Our plan is to stay here until early January, since it is getting too chilly to go farther North, and we must stay clear of Florida for 60 days (or be subject to Florida Sales Tax on the purchase of KINGDOM. So, we will continue working on the boat, readying her for our Bahamas/Caribbean journeys. In January, we expect to start working our way South again, taking our time, with the goal of crossing to the Bahamas sometime in February. We've been advised by other experienced boaters to wait for a really good "weather window", such that the Gulf Stream is relatively calm.

From Titusville northward, we've been fighting a VERY strong northeast wind, averaging 20-25 knots, with gusts up to gale force (35). We stayed in Daytona three nights, hoping it would abate, but finally departed on Wednsday. At least that gave us an opportunity to have a good visit with my sister Ellie.

We anchored Halloween night just off the old Castillo de San Marcos at St. Augustine, FL. It was a beautiful sight all lit up at night, and we could see the revelers wandering up and down the quay of Old Town.

We left early Thursday morning, for a long leg making for Amelia Island/Fernandina. But continued strong winds and extremely high tides slowed our progress. We could have increased our speed marginally by using more engine rpm's, but that has the side effect of increasing our fuel consumption to achieve only marginal increases in speed. Susan studied our charts, and found us a nice anchorage just off the ICW at a place called Alligator Creek. It turned out to be ideal. It offered us a lovely sunset, protection from the wind, and a peaceful night. From there, we set out at first light for Brunswick, GA.

It was a tough slog all day Friday, again with heavy tidal currents running against us. As Ed and Diane Havelka said, "Running northward in the ICW is like running up a hill all the way." We encountered 5' seas crossing Cumberland Sound, which made for an exciting half-hour or so. The boat was happy, but we still have issues with the latches on our galley drawers...Susan had to get out the duct tape again to keep them from sliding open and shut, open and shut, etc.

We arrived in Brunswick around 3:30pm. The marina is at the foot of the old historic district of the town. It is well-preserved, with lots of restaurants and little shops within easy walking distance. In fact, we had a wonderful dinner at a place called Christie's. I ordered Lobster Mac & Cheese, which was absolutely scrumptious! It contained a large whole lobster tail, cut into large bite-size pieces, surrounded by pasta, with both cheddar and parmesan cheese melted overall. Wow!

We have encountered playful dolphins all the way along our journey. Often there are up to half a dozen playing in our bow wave for a half-hour or so. I'm including a photograph or two of them, but the pix don't convey the thrill we experience when these beautiful animals appear and convey their blessings on our path.

Finally! Time to Write!

Hello, all! It has been over a month since my last posting, and this is my first opportunity to sit down at the computer except to pay our bills and check a few emails. Since it has been this long, I should probably start from where we are and work backwards...
We are at anchor in the ICW (West side, out of the main channel, of course) just off Titusville, Florida. Off to the East, we can see the NASA Shuttle Assembly building, some of the outbuildings, Space Museum, and what appears to be a launch facility. We arrived around 1:00pm, after an early start and easy run up from Melbourne. This is our shortest travel day so far. Tomorrow, we have a longer 50 mile run up to Daytona, where we will spend two nights, and visit with my sister Ellie Rein.
We spent a full day at Melbourne Marina, as I had hoped to have a Garmin 4212 Chart Plotter display repeater installed on our flybridge. We love the one that is in the pilothouse so much, we've decided we must have one on the flying bridge as well. Unfortunately, Bethel Electronics in Melbourne could not get a network cable in time to do the installation, so we will wait until we get to Brunswick GA to have it installed. While in Melbourne, Susan caught up with laundry, polished woodwork, while I worked on various maintenance projects.
Some of the things still on my to-do list are:
Fix the Reverse Osmosis system, which has mysteriously quit working. We have filtered water from the tap, but the RO system feeds the icemaker. We've resorted to making ice in baggies!
Replace the raw water pump which supplies cooling water to the air conditioners. We can only run 3 of the 4 air conditioners at any one time. We've tried a number of alternate solutions, and have concluded that the motor is wearing out. There is also a possibility that the supply manifold is too small to supply all 4 at once. I was able to buy a new pump motor in Riviera Beach, but have not yet installed it.
Speaking of Riviera Beach (which is actually a suburb of West Palm Beach), we had the scare of our lives while approaching the Marina there. We were ending a long run from Biscayne Bay/Miami, and were only 100 feet from the dock when we realized that the starboard transmission was stuck in reverse gear, and the controls would not respond. We were in danger of drifting into megabucks worth of other boats, destroying the dock, or our own boat! Quick action by our training captains (Diane and Ed Havelka), prevented disaster. Ed dropped the anchor mid-ICW, and stopped us from drifting into anything. A TowBoatUS craft was passing by and immediately came alongside. He tied up to us and within 20 minutes had us eased into our berth at the marina! Whew!! The tow captain recommended a friend of his (Mark Ogden, a marine electronics guru) to look into our problem, and even called him to see how soon he could be aboard. Mark arrived the next day about 2pm. He located the problem within a couple of hours. It turned out to be mechanical, not electrical, in nature. The cable running from the MicroCommander control box to the starboard transmission shifter arm had worked loose, leaving the engine running in reverse gear, just as we were maneuvering to the dock. He tightened the screws holding the cable and all was well (or so we thought). Mark also researched and corrected a couple of other minor problems during his service call, and worked with us until around 8pm. It was well worth having him aboard!
The next day, we traveled from Riviera Beach to an anchorage in Ft. Pierce. This was our first "solo" day without our training captains aboard, and the exact same problem occurred while we were maneuvering the boat waiting for a drawbridge to open. Starboard engine stuck in reverse! However, we knew exactly what to do...Drop the Anchor! Susan and I were SO glad this problem arose the day before. Susan performed lookout duty, while I went below and REPLACED the damn bolts holding the transmission cable linkage in place. I used lockwashers AND nylon locking nuts. After we got underway again, we checked my repair every hour or so, to ensure that it was still secure. It has held up so far, and we've seen no sign of any further loosening. Since we lost time during our repairs, we reached our planned anchorage just by the skin of our teeth! We dropped the hook at 6:44pm at Ft. Pierce. Sunset was at 6:45pm. Actually, we could have navigated there after dark using our instruments as it was nearly a full moon, so it isn't as scary as it sounds...
Backing up a couple of days:
The run from Biscayne Bay to Riviera Beach was the first time we ran into 5-foot seas. The boat handles these with great aplomb. However, our rough-water tie-down systems were tested. Some of the cabinet latches failed, and we lost some crockery. The refrigerator wanted to go for a stroll, and the sofa was apparently going across the salon to meet it. All this without the boat rolling at all! The active stabilizers largely eliminate roll, but the wave height still produced the forward and back motion. Somewhat like riding a hobby horse. Not severe, but enough to give us a sense of what we need to do to complete our tie-down routine. Actually, considering all of the furnishings that actually did stay in place, we are quite pleased with our initial preparations. We just need to fine-tune a couple of things. For example, the crystal and glassware cocoons we made performed perfectly! None of these items moved a bit.
I think I will stop here, and do another posting with a few pictures, then I will attempt to go back to our starting point in Bradenton on October 15th, and describe our training run from there to Biscayne Bay with Ed and Diane.
Love to all,
Walt and Susan
Aboard MV "KINGDOM"

Party Cubano!

"The Chinese Box", containing a whole pig!














Coals are spread on top of the box.













Just after flipping the pig over...













Ready to eat at last!















Raphael - Master Chef. His work is done!















Tato and his lovely wife.

















Papa, Mama, and Susan















Eduardo, Manuel, and Mama

















Mama, Susan, Eduardo, and Walt















Tato, on his 28th birthday.













Friday afternoon, Tato invited us to a party at his house in celebration of his birthday on Saturday.

Tato is part of the Cuban family business led by Eduardo, Papa, and Mama, whom we engaged to lay the beautiful new flooring aboard "Kingdom". They did an excellent job, and are now working on repairing the dry-rot we found in the aft bulkhead of our Master Stateroom. We have learned to love this wonderful family! We have become friends, even though we don't speak much Spanish, and they are still struggling with English.

Papa, Mama, Eduardo, and Tato all emigrated from Cuba in the 90's in small boats. Papa told me that he was in a 21-foot boat with 10 other people and two babies for seven days before reaching Florida. This is a very common experience with this generation of Cuban immigrants. Many then had to spend up to a year or so in internment camps before being released to the general population here. Tato's father-in-law spent 21 days at sea in a 17-foot boat with 8 others aboard before making landfall in Florida. All of them detest Fidel Castro.

Their descriptions of life in Cuba are harrowing: Extremely low wages prevent earning enough to support their families; Not enough food or milk available for the children and old people; rampant corruption. You have to be desperate, to make the attempt to reach the US under the conditions many of them underwent.

Susan and I are completely in awe of the Cubans' resilience. We have experienced them as hard-working, skilled, ethical, dependable, and honest. In addition, we admire their family values and can-do spirit. They came to the US under the harshest of conditions, and are determined to make their own way to success. Nobody in this family is on any kind of government-funded welfare program. Everybody works long and hard for their living. No matter what work they do, they want to do it well, and be proud of their work. At Tato's party, we met family and friends of the family who are bakers, auto mechanics, electricians, groundskeepers, as well as medical technicians, doctors, and entrepreneurs.

Susan and I were the only non-Cubans invited to this particular party. We were treated as honored guests, and felt welcome and comfortable with everyone throughout a long, happy, day.

Tato had told us to come anytime after noon, so Susan and I arrived around 1:30 pm, thinking we would be there for an hour or so, have some cake and ice cream, and go about the rest of our day. That's not how the Cubans do it!

When we first arrived, we found massive amounts of food, and even more massive amounts of beer on hand, though there were only a half-dozen people on hand. Susan and I worried that there was far too much food for the gathering we could see.

Outside, we discovered Raphael just starting the coals for the "barbeque". This was unlike anything we had seen before. An entire pig, split horizontally and lying on its back in a rack enclosed in a wooden box lined with galvanized tin. The box was covered with a sheet metal lid, topped by a steel grill. This outfit is called a Chinese Box, and is apparently manufactured specifically for this type of cooking. Charcoal briquets are spread on the grill atop the box, and kept burning for about three hours. Then the box is opened, the pig is flipped over, and cooks another hour or so, or until the Master Chef declares it is done! No spices, basting, or sauce of any kind is used in this process. The meat cooks in its own juices, and it was indeed juicy and tender as anything I've ever eaten.

Dinner was served at about 11:oo pm. Besides the roast pork, there were big platters of rice and beans (unlike any I have ever tasted, and much better too!), rice and shrimp, salad, yucca (looks much like potato, but isn't), several dishes I couldn't name, but devoured just the same, and birthday cake!

Susan and I spent about ten hours at this wonderful party, helping as best we could with the decorating, and chatting with the other guests as they continued to arrive throughout the day and evening. As one guest told me, "Cubans love to eat, drink beer, talk, dance, and listen to loud music, all at the same time!" That is the perfect description of the party we attended. As the beer flowed, our Spanish slowly began to improve, and our hosts' command of English got better, too!

Thank goodness, Papa served us tiny cups of Cuban espresso at about 4pm, or we would never have made it to midnight, when we finally departed. I should also say that the party was only beginning to get into high gear when Susan and I went back to the boat and our bed. The men were just starting to play dominos!

In many respects, this party was a perfect example of why we have chosen the cruising life. We feel we have made new friends, become part of a larger human family, and experienced a small slice of a culture previously unfamiliar and largely unavailable to us.

We hope you enjoy the photos.

ps. Though I did not take photos of the interior of Tato's home, it is gorgeous! Inlaid wood floors, beautiful tile work, and tasteful high-quality furnishings selected by his wife, attest to his craftsmanship, and their combined creativity, imagination, and hard work.


Walt and Susan

Flybridge Seating Arrives, Aft Deck Gets New Sunscreens

In my last posting, our dinghy was ailing. On Monday morning I called Suncoast Inflatables, a company recommended to us by our F-Dock neighbors. By Monday afternoon, they had picked up the little boat and she was on her way to the "Dink Doctor". While in for re-laminating, they are also going to do a thorough engine tune-up. So when she comes back, she will be as good as new!
Today we received the seating components we had ordered for our flybridge. Now we can actually seat more than the two of us up there. Once we add a table to the center of the seating area, we will be able to serve cocktails and light meals up there. We're also having a custom deck box made for the flybridge which will hold our existing ice-maker and drinks fridge. It should arrive any day now.
I'm also including two photos of the sunscreens we had installed last week around three sides of the aft deck. They are made of a high-grade plastic mesh material, which is very effective in creating shade without stopping air from circulating. They are designed to enclose the entire aft deck, but sections can be unzipped and rolled up to accommodate weather conditions, to provide privacy, or to create the view we want. Last night, for example, we had dinner in this space, even though it was raining steadily. Since the rain was coming from the east, and the aft deck faces west, we were able to roll up the curtains at the rear, and dine while watching the rain and a spectacular sunset!

On Monday, the custom linens for the V-Berth and VIP Staterooms should be delivered. Susan was able to buy standard linens, and the seamstress alters them to fit the unique shapes of the mattresses. She also makes a pattern for us, so Susan could use it in the future for new linens whenever necessary. We did keep Susan's sewing machine. She plans to make throw pillows from terrycloth for the flybridge seating area.

We've been looking for a licensed captain to assist us in our initial shakedown cruise. We finally found not one, but two! They are a retired couple who operate from this area. They're a bit younger than we are, but have a LOT of cruising experience. They spent three months cruising in the Bahamas this past year, for example. They do a lot of new and used boat deliveries for the Mainship and Luhrs Yacht dealers in this area. We will begin working with them the first week of October, and expect to leave Bradenton October 15th. They will be aboard with us for the first week, which should be enough for us to be in the Ft. Lauderdale area, and well on our way to Georgia.

Tomorrow, the wallpaper will begin going up! We've been patiently waiting for the installer to finish another project so he could begin our work.
Next week, we should have the new galley cabinet doors installed.
Once the Zodiac is back from the "dink doctor", we will feel much more ready to take the next step: Starting the engines!

The Dink

My project for the weekend was to get our RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat, aka Dinghy, or Tender) in the water and test the outboard motor on it. It is a very nice center-console Zodiac model with a 25 horsepower Yamaha 4-stroke motor. The boat is equipped with lots of little niceties, such as running lights, electric start, engine tilt-up, and electric bilge pump.

Yesterday, Susan and I used the davit crane to lower the boat from our flybridge to the water on the starboard side of the yacht. Once in the water, I learned that the RIB's starting battery was dead. The RIB has not been used for at least six to nine months. I thought perhaps I could charge the battery using the onboard chargers for the generator starting batteries, so I hooked it up to one of the chargers. This morning, I checked the status of the dinghy battery. Still dead. So, I took it over to West Marine Supply, and bought a new battery. The new battery was fine, and now the outboard was cranking, but not starting. Okay, back to West Marine for new spark plugs, and a spark plug wrench. While I was out, I also bought a 2-gallon gas container and fresh gas.

I installed the new spark plugs, added fresh gasoline to the tank, and tried again to start the outboard. No luck!

About this time, some of our friends from F Dock began wandering by, offering assistance, suggestions, and horror stories about their own dinks (yachtie slang for dinghys). In the end, two of their suggestions made the difference, and the motor started and ran beautifully. Let's just say these suggestions involved a rubber hammer and a can of aerosol starting fluid.

Susan and I were now ready for the maiden voyage in our own personal dink! We made a couple of idle-speed rounds of F-dock, just to make sure the engine wouldn't quit, then headed out through the breakwater into the Manatee River. We opened up the throttle, and were merrily bouncing over the waves, when we noticed that our feet were becoming progressively wetter, and water was rising in the bottom of the boat. We looked at each other, and said, "Is it normal for water to enter the boat between the fiberglass hull and the inflatable tubes?" Picture a bathtub half-full of water, floating between two large inflated sausages.

So we headed back to the marina, very slowly. We were not frightened at any point, as these things are almost impossible to sink unless you rupture the inflatable tubes.

Fortunately, once back at the dock, our handy-dandy bilge pump automatically emptied the boat. In addition, we learned from our buddies on F-dock that it is common for these types of boats to become de-laminated after 4 or 5 years of use. That means the seal between the inflatable tubes and the rigid part of the fiberglass bottom separate, and allow the boat to take on water while under power. We also learned that there is a repair readily available.

Pictures of Kingdom's dink are included here.

We Get To Sit! And Cook!

At last, we get to actually sit on furniture!
We moved our furniture, lamps and linens aboard yesterday, so now we have a place to actually sit and relax. And a table to eat on. And a stove to cook on. And good sheets and towels! Here are pictures of the salon showing the arrangement. We found two small end tables and two cool ottomans at Pier 1 Imports to go with our leather furniture and drop-leaf table. Our lamps worked out perfectly. In addition, all of the metal window blinds (seafoam green, ugh!) were replaced with wooden blinds throughout the boat. We are very pleased with our new "living room".





























During the past week, the galley has been torn apart, awaiting installation of the new Cambria countertops, stainless steel sink and faucet.

Galley under construction - Stove opening, sink opening.














Midway thru countertop installation.

Finished countertops, stainless sinks and faucet.





















The "before" look of the galley. It was all done in stark white formica and plain white Corian countertops. It was too much like a sterile operating room to suit us. When I found that much of the original teak underneath the formica was restorable, we decided to remove the formica and restore as much of the teak as possible.


We also reduced the width of the "L" part of the counter by eleven inches, which added an additional seven square feet of living space in the salon. Every little bit of space counts, when living aboard a boat!

The new look is warm, cozy and inviting.

Heads Up (for updating)

It's Labor Day weekend. We slept in this morning 'til almost 7 am! We take our Holidays seriously.

Boy, did we labor today!

While the head (bathroom) in the Master Stateroom is just fine the way it is, the three other heads were in need of various levels of updating. The lighting in all three was horrible. Fortunately, new lighting was all that was needed to bring the day head up to date. In both the VIP stateroom head and the crew head, one of the past owners had covered the beautiful teak paneling around the medicine cabinets with mirrordc panels. That would have been okay, but the mirror panels that had been added were becoming de-silvered around the edges and looking really ugly. Susan came up with a solution for the VIP head using glass "frosting". The first picture is of the process, showing the masking tape and paper covering the parts not to be frosted. We ran out of the spray "frosting", so we need to buy more before we can take down the masked part. When it is finished, we will post the "after" image.

The day head only needed new lighting. The mirror was in good shape except for a bit of de-silvering at the very bottom. We just cut a bit of teak molding and placed it over the bad part, and installed new lighting.

The crew head required the most work. The mirroring surrounding the medicine cabinet was so bad we couldn't save it, so I removed it. Whoever installed the mirror panels used both mastic glue AND double-sided tape. The tape was bad enough, but the mastic glue took out chunks of the wood paneling as it came out. That is some fierce glue! So, we will fill the gaps with wood filler, and apply wallpaper around the medicine cabinet, since the rest of the walls will be papered anyway. It should blend just fine. The picture shows the medicine cabinet with its door off, surrounded by the remains of the double-sided tape and mastic scars. We'll post pictures again when the room is finished.

Last night we learned how to use our propane gas oven. We cooked a frozen entree to take to a pot-luck dinner that was held at the Marina pool. So tonight Susan is preparing our first "home-cooked meal"; roasted chicken, baked potatoes, green beans almondine, and iceberg lettuce wedge with chunky bleu cheese dressing. YUM!

We're pooped after our Labor Day labors, but the sunset tonight is fantastic, and we are happy with the progress we are making with our projects to create our "dream boat."

Love to all,

Walt and Susan

We Be Nukin' Now

At last! The new Microwave and Refrigerator was installed today. It required significant surgery to the cabinet openings, much grunting and groaning, and a bit of vaseline, but they are finally in place and working!

As usual, I'm posting "Before" and "After" pics. The top picture shows the galley area before we started making any changes. The second picture shows the work in progress as the openings were enlarged for the new microwave and refrigerator. The last picture shows the new appliances in place.

What is not shown (intentionally!) is that we have begun removing all of the white formica facings from the cabinets, since we found original teak cabinets underneath most of it. We just met with a Danish couple who own a cabinetry shop here in Bradenton, and we are very excited about their ideas for restoring and updating the cabinets in the galley area, and the mirror surrounds in the guest heads belowdecks. More on that later, once we get their bid, and find out if we can afford to have them do the work...

In the meantime, over the last few days we have been stripping wallpaper throughout the boat. We've lined up an expert wallpaper guy, who is experienced with boats. New commercial grade vinyl wallpaper in a nice grasscloth pattern has been ordered. So, over the next few weeks, we will see new wallpaper go up, the blinds and valances will be hung, and hopefully the cabinets will be in progress. New countertops will be installed next week.

Best of all, the flooring will be completely finished in one more working day. That means that the chop saw that has been sitting on our aft deck for the floor installers will be gone for good, along with the sawdust it creates. Then we can bring aboard our salon and aft deck furnishings that are now in storage locally. You cannot imagine how tired we are of sitting in the two five-dollar plastic chairs I bought at CVS! I am LONGING to finally be able to sit in my comfy leather chair, with my feet up on the ottoman!

During the wallpaper stripping, we did find some wet, rotted plywood under two windows (portlights) in the master stateroom. I water-tested them with a high-pressure hose, and they don't leak. We've concluded that they must have been left open for an extended time in wet weather. So, now we have some plywood to replace before the new wallpaper goes up on the aft wall of the master stateroom. I already have a guy lined up to do the work. I've been told that this one is a common problem on boats, and that it is completely preventable. The good news is that we have found absolutely no damage to any structural components anywhere on the boat.

I can also report that yesterday, we got the Satellite TV and XM Satellite Radio working. We're now plugged completely into the outside world of news, weather, events, and entertainment.

Also, this evening we briefly attended a cocktail-hour mixer sponsored by the marina management at Mattison's restaurant. It was nice, but we could only stay about 45 minutes, since we had to get back to the boat to meet with the cabinetmakers.

So ends another busy day aboard "Kingdom". We are making it our own; beautiful, comfortable, tastefully updated and functional.

Naked Deck Now Decent

I'm posting a few pics of the new flooring we're installing on the boat. The flooring and carpeting that was present was really not of good quality or installed properly. So we immediately tore it out. So the "before" picture simply shows the plywood under the carpet in the salon. The new flooring is BellaWood, Brazilian Walnut. This is a hardwood product, and is wood all the way through, not laminate or veneer. It can be refinished if damaged. It is warranted for 50 years.

The installers will be working tomorrow to finish laying the floors in the below-decks companionway and the other three heads.

On Monday, we believe the installation of the microwave and refrigerator will be completed.

New Electronics Installed today!

I'm posting the "before and after" pictures of the pilothouse electronics station. I'm very pleased with the new Garmin combination Chart Plotter, Radar, GPS and Weather display. We now have true redundancy for Chart Display, Radar, and GPS. The new unit will also be interfaced with the Autopilot system. We're moving the Autopilot interface over from the older Simrad GPS system, which is the display on the far left. Second from left is a PC version of the MapTech Chart Plotter, which receives boat position data from the Simrad unit. Third from left is the new Garmin unit, set to display the same chart as is displayed on the MapTech unit to its left. To the right of the Garmin display is the depth sounder display, which reads out a bottom profile as well as numerical data. Just below it is the autopilot unit, which is only turned on when it is needed while underway. Autopilot is ordinarily used only offshore for somewhat longer passages.

Tomorrow we will run the cables from the new Garmin XM satellite weather antenna unit to the Bose sound system in the salon. That will allow us to have the satellite weather information broadcast into the salon area, as well as provide the ability to listen to all the usual XM non-weather satellite radio stations.

Lastly, we will program the TV to pick up satellite television broadcasts from the existing gyro-stabilized TV antenna located on the radar arch over the flybridge.

Whew!

I am so glad Susan is coming back tomorrow!

My Day Off

Today, I took the day off! It is Sunday, and as the story goes, even God took off the 7th day...

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures of the Marina we are in. It is called Twin Dolphins Marina, and is located just West of the Highway 41 Bridge over the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida. There is a nice pool area with propane grills and hot tub for use of the resident boat owners and their guests. On these hot, sultry afternoons, people really enjoy a dip in the pool, socializing, and eating in this area.

The Bradenton Library is directly across the street from the Marina, as well as the Manatee Aquarium, and Bradenton Museum and Observatory. The city hall and police station are a block away. There are a few small restaurants within a few blocks, but I haven't tried any of them. I've mostly taken my meals aboard the boat, except for a couple of burgers at Mattison's Restaurant, overlooking the river.

I've met 8 or 10 other couples who either live aboard their boats here at the marina, or spend weekends here. Some, like us, are retired, some are still working in the area, and others are seasonal or part-time live-aboards. All are friendly, sociable people who are more than willing to offer advice on services here, swap boating stories, and answer any questions I may ask. All have been very complimentary on our choice of boats. Many have been aboard our boat while it was for sale, and they have invariably expressed envy of the living spaces, as well as the heavy duty construction, and seaworthiness of this boat. The ladies are all curious about the new appliances they've seen come aboard, so we will have to hold an "open house" when our remodel is finished.

Today, I also met the former owners of our boat (Vicki and Dave). They traded it in on a new Mainship 43' Pilothouse model. They only use it on weekends. Very nice couple, so I spend a couple of pleasant hours talking with Dave about his experiences aboard. Too much to relate, but long story short is, his wife has no interest in long-range cruising or living aboard for extended periods. She also has no nautical skills, and is not interested in learning them. So... they downsized to a boat he can handle alone when necessary. I could tell Dave really misses this boat. He had nothing but good things to say about it.

It has been really great to be made welcome in this small community of like-minded folks.