Jim: Side trip to Florida

Last week our adventures took us to Florida. My home town is Orlando where my mom still lives and we traveled there to establish residency.

I took the auto train down with my Toyota Tundra "Old Blue" in tow. I had a blast on the train. Sixteen hours from Lorton, Virginia to Sanford, Florida. Hanging out with the retired set is a hoot. Free food and wine and plenty of stories. Here are some cool train facts:



Pat flew down the next day and we were off to Disney world. We stayed at a cheap Disney value resort called Pop Century that really turned out to be fun. For $79 a night we got a nice room with a king size bed and a meal plan that kept us well fed.

Due to Pat's extraordinary planning skills we had a really easy time getting our residency paperwork done. We had our Florida license in 11 minutes, our Florida tags in 40 minutes, and about five minutes to have a piece of paper saying we were Florida residents. I even got the same license number that I received when I was 16. Pat got her new license and just like that, Floridians. AHHHHH.

We stopped in at my mom's house and took her to lunch. She is 86, rides her bike up to the store, and has been selling Avon for 32 years. Needless to say I was raised with that sweet smelling Avon cologne. Yikes. After a visit back at the house, we headed out to Disney.


Mom and I.

Our friends Kevin and Lisa were also coming to Disney to celebrate Kevin's mom 75th birthday. She traveled from Chicago to see Walt Disney World for the first time. In addition to Kevin and Lisa her second son George and grandson Ryan also came along. She was like a kid in a candy store. We took her to the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT and she seemed to find a princess around every corner.


Mary and Snow White.


Mary and Cinderella at the castle.


We had her try on every hat in the park. She had a blast.

All in all a great trip. Mary had a great birthday, we became Floridians and we are one step closer to DDay. More later.

Cheers,

Jim: A lot has happened

Life has been very busy since the last post, but a lot has happened on the boat. Here are the highlights:

Richard from MTS in Deale did a fantastic job on the electronics package. Everything is installed except for a battery switch we had to order. The new inverter works like a champ, the plotter, radar, autopilot, and all the wiring are completed. All that is left is the check ride. I highly recommend using Richard if you have any electrical needs. He will be taking the Winter off and heading south in his beautiful sailboat "Cody". She is fresh out of the barn with a new paint job and other improvements. If you see him in your cruising grounds, flag him down and pop open a cold one. He is one hell of a nice guy. If your interested in having him do some work for you, he can be reached at mtsusa@hotmail.com. Thanks to Richard and Ryan at MTS.



The old Nav Station.


The new Nav Station. I still have to build in the sides to it. That is #237 on my list.

The fuel system is finally completed with the addition of a booster pump to help the generator get its fill. Both engine and genny are running smoothly.


The old 162 gallon iron tank under the main cabin floor boards. After cutting the fiberglass frames, I drained 45 gallons of diesel fuel out, cleaned out the two inches of sludge and I cut the tank out with a saws all and a grinder. That was fun.


The tank top gone. Still had to cut the baffles out.


The new 40 gallon tanks bolted into the old tank bottom. I secured them with epoxied wood and fiberglassed the frames back in place.


The new fuel filters can be switched if one becomes clogged.

The new water system should be ready next week with 140 gallons of water in four tanks. We have three sinks, a 12 gallon water heater, a two gallon accumulator tanks and a 5.7 Gallon per minute water pump. Two Vacu-flush toilets also run on fresh water. I just have to install the galley faucet and connect the aft head faucet and then I am done. (Did I really just say that?)



Water pump and accumulator under galley sink.

We have had many other projects going on but I will include them in the next blog.

Cheers,