How often do we put off doing some thing like visiting our friends because life gets in the way... far to often we get so wrapped up in our daily lives that we forgo the pleasure of renewing old acquaintances. Today we put life aside and drove up to Fernandina to see a very dear couple, Earl & Karen Goodwin, cruising down from NC and hanging out for awhile in Fernandina before heading back home, and to introduce them to Nancy whom they had heard of but not met. Arriving a little after 1:00 we set of together to 29 South for lunch and to catch up on old times. Afterwards they invited us out to Getaway for a couple of beers and more conversation. What a delightful day we had... Thank you Karen and Earl for being the life long friends you have been.
   What wonderful friends we have been blessed with like the Goodwin's,Pam & Pete Peterson, Kirk Chamberlain and Nancy Warner, Chris and Rachael Morejohn just to mention a few.
   Today's lesson was to put life aside more often and spend time with those who have touched our lives while we still can.

   Cheers to you Friends!

Earl and Karen aboard "Getaway"

Nancy and I aboard "Getaway"

   Today was a good day for getting things done. I was able to finish the parts needed and get them to the welder. I hung around at his request to make sure everything went together as I had designed and after about an hour and a half with a few interruptions for him to take care of other customers the job was done, at least for him. I gladly paid the $111 bill and was back on my way home. I still need to polish the welds and break out my welding torch tomorrow morning and relive the stress on the radar mount rings so they will slide up and down the mast for proper location. All and all I very satisfied with the results.
   Nancy tells me she checked Passage Weather and if we can get away next Monday we should have tailwinds for the the major part of the trip to Bermuda. Fingers are crossed! Still have to get those damn dinghy chocks corrected, maybe tomorrow...

   Pics below of Radar post, click to enlarge

Radar pedestal sits on this side  

 the underside

The top of the post which will carry the wind generator, objects in background are the mount for the base of post and rings which the support struts will attach to the post below the radar pedestal.

   Well today was spent cutting out the last of the stainless steel parts for the radar post. As the sun went down and my light with it I thought I was done only to find, as I was setting everything aside to take to the welder tomorrow, that I still had a bend to make in the base plate so he can weld the base cap to it. I'll take care of that first thing tomorrow morning.
   Yesterday as I was leaving Avelinda after painting the dinghy chocks, which I just installed, I decided to go ahead and set the dinghy in them as the paint was dry. As I positioned the rear of the dinghy over it's chocks I was baffled as to why it didn't settle into them correctly until I realized it was because I had installed them 180 degrees out...Arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Time for a good stiff drink!!!!!! Ok two steps forward one step back. While the welder is welding up the post I'll cut off the rear chocks and re-glue them back in place, shouldn't take more then a hour or so. There is nothing, simply nothing as much fun as just messing about in boats! I think I'll have another drink...life's so much more rosy!
   Below is a picture of all the parts (except for the base plate and the 8 ft post) ready to go to the welder Click to enlarge.

   It's hard to believe that it's been 4 months now since my last post. To bring you up to date, we were so close to departing for the Bahamas near the 1st of Feb that we were actually moved aboard. We got up one chilly morning, lit the trawler lamp to take the chill off the air, had some coffee and went topside to strap down the dinghy closing the hatch as we went to keep the warmth in. As we were finishing we heard a beeping and suddenly realized it was the smoke detector. Dashing back and throwing open the hatch we found to our horror Avelinda was completely filled with a heavy oily black smoke and we could not even see the forward cabin. It was quickly discovered that the trawler lamp was belching out the smoke and it was removed to the cockpit and extinguished. It took over an hour to clear the smoke from the cabin and once removed the damage was unbelievable. The overhead was completely black and everything, table, cushions, cabin sole, counter tops, chart table, everything was covered with black oily soot.
   Needless to say, our trip was on hold while we figured out how to clean up the mess. To make a long story short... we are finally back on track. The cleaning took forever as we found that because all of the cabinet doors were louvered the soot had found it's way into all the cabinets and soiled everything within. The cushions required replacing and of course that took time but now we are almost ready to go to sea and have decided due to lost time we will just sail over to Bermuda and spends a little time and return via the Bahamas so we can get in some sea time before the heat of summer sets in.
   The last project before departure is to install a new radar post and that is in work and hopefully will be completed by the end of the week. A quick trip over the side to clean the bottom and we should be off...stay tuned.
   Below are some before and after pictures: Click on an image to enlarge

And the last pictures are aerial views of Avelinda on her mooring taken with my kite cam: