Blair and Lorie's new Morgan, they will be heading to Cuba next weekend.

Friends around the dock!

After being away from the boat for 6 months, there is always a transition period where you have to readjust to once again living aboard a boat and spending most of the day with your spouse. This is not always easy but eventually you do and you get used to the bad habits (and sometimes annoying habits) you have picked up by being a landlubber for the last 6 months. I am happy to report that I think we have finally done so (although I still haven't gotten Bruce to hang up his wet towel yet!) He is not writing this or I am sure he would be adding his two cents also, but I am not going to let him!
When we first arrived, most of the other boaters were live-a-boards that either worked in town or spent most of their day at the local pub with their dog and a cigarette in their hands. We really didn't have much in common and had a difficult time meeting new boaters. One day while listening to the Cruiser's Net, Bruce heard a gentleman by the name of Tom looking for other people to join him and go diving. He thought this sounded like a good idea as our boat was not ready to take out yet and he was anxious to get diving again. We tried to meet up with him before going out, but that didn't work out (big mistake), Tom said he didn't mind picking us up as we also had not got our dinghy in the water yet. We hadn't gotten very far in the dinghy when he started to tell us that he was short on cash and had to find a way of making some money as he had lost his check book (we found out later that his check book was his last girlfriend). He then told us that he would like to charter his boat but was having a hard time getting the appropriate licences as he was bipolar and on medication. This was looking more and more like a bad idea! As we were getting out of the dinghy and onto his boat, he told us that we would have to take our shoes off, which we didn't mind until we got on to the boat and saw that the boat was filthy! At this time I was glad that I told him we would bring lunch instead of taking him up on the offer of pea soup that he had made the day before and was still sitting on the stove and remained there all day. He started the engines and told Bruce to throw off the bow line. When he put the boat in gear, I heard him say "that doesn't sound good" and when he tried to put move forward, we didn't move at all except to drift toward another boat. We fended off the other boat and picked up another mooring ball. Tom jumped into the water to check out the problem only to return to say that he would have to put on his scuba gear as the prop was covered in barnacles. We finally got off again and decided to go out Sister's Creek as it would save us some time and it was high tide so we wouldn't have a problem getting out that way. Both Bruce and I told Tom at different times that he could not head straight to the entrance of the Creek as there was a very shallow shoal that we would have to go around first but he assured us he had the depth sounder on and he was in lots of water. I guess you already know what happened as our day just kept getting better and better. We were now hard aground and could not get off by ourselves, we had to call Boat U.S. to come and tow us off. Our day did manage to get better and Bruce did get out diving but we will certainly think twice again before we commit to a day on the water with a stranger!
By the end of November many of the Snowbirds started to arrive along with some friends that we had met last year. It was nice to meet other sailors that were on their boats because they wanted to be, were anxious to meet other sailors and were interested in travelling to other areas. Soon all the docks will be full here with the arrival of our friends Kent and Linda from Ottawa and Pat and Addison from PCYC. The meet and greets have started over at the city marina and we have met other Canadians from Penetanguishene and Manitoba. We have finally got the boat ready to sail and will probably go out for the first time this week as the weather is supposed to hit 80 degrees again by midweek but then turn cooler again by Thursday. We have again been having trouble with our dinghy engine and Bruce has spent many hours working on it with lots of advice from the local inflatable boat dealer. The salt air along with the ethanol in the fuel causes the carburetor to gum up and then the engine will not run. The latest piece of advice from the mechanic at inflatable boats was to boil our carburetor for 20 minutes every three months (seriously). We tried this and it has been running better than it ever has!
The fisherman next door is back finally so we now have a constant supply of freshly cleaned Mangrove Snapper anytime we want. This makes Bruce really happy! Many of the restaurants here are feeling the effects of the poor economy and are offering $5.00 lunches which are just great as you can't even eat at McDonalds for that! This really makes me happy as it means less cooking yeah!
There is less than 3 weeks left before Christmas and we are really having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. It just doesn't seem right to have warm weather and palm trees at Christmas. We have not even started to decorate our boat and have not gotten a tree yet. We did go to see Four Christmases this weekend so that helped get me motivated a bit . One thing that I am not missing however is the crowded shopping malls. We move over to Sombrero Resort next week so am looking forward to using the pool and tennis courts. All of the kids are coming down for a week over New Years and we are really excited about having everyone together for a whole week. Not sure what our plans are over Christmas yet but this will probably be the last blog until after New Years. We are anxious to get on the move again and it is looking more and more like the Bahamas in January but like all of our plans this is subject to change at any time!
Bruce and I would like to wish all of our family. friends and anyone else that follows our blog a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.