Hmmm

Talked yesterday with both the marina manager and the guy who is doing the work on the prop and prop shaft, as well as the thru hull fittings. The boat came out of the water on Friday. It turns out that the bottom of the boat is suffering from more neglect than we anticipated. Will find out tomorrow whether or not they can get the work done on the boat by the time we expected to be in FL and whether the problems with the bottom of the boat are going to drive the expense beyond our immediate means. Will know more tomorrow when I talk with them again to get their best estimates (which I hope that they are working on this weekend).

Needless to say we are disappointed that we might not be down there by the end of next week and that we might have to put the trip off for a while. Lara has moved heaven and earth in her practice to accomodate this schedule, which included shoving two big juvenile trials into the middle of February -- in back to back weeks. :(

Anticipation!!!

Talked with the manager of the marina yesterday to confirm that they are going to haul the boat out of the water next Tuesday, January 13 and pressure wash the bottom, followed by two coats of anti-fouling paint. The fellow who towed the boat from Apollo Beach to Shell Point Marina is going to remove the old, broken prop and replace it with a new one, replace the cutless bearing and go through the thru-hull fittings to make sure they are all in proper working order.

Lara had a day off from court yesterday, so she spent the day getting clothes washed and packed for next week's trip to FL and gathering up the miscellaneous crap we have to take down there with us. She is the world's best at this, since she refuses to allow the boat to be overgrown with unneeded clothes and other "stuff".

We leave here on Thursday for the drive to Tampa Bay and the final push to get the boat to Tavernier. Yeaaaaaa!

New Years Eve

We spent NYE in Denver, watching Yonder Mountain String Band and Widespread Panic. The show was at the Pepsi Center, which was a terrific venue for the show. We left home at 4AM on NYE and drove to Denver, arriving about 11:30AM. The weather was great and the temperatures stayed nice the whole time we were in Denver. Last year the temps were close to zero at night; this year in the 40's. We woke up on New Year's Day and grabbed breakfast at a great diner and then drove back to Albuquerque, arriving about 6:30PM. I think we were both sound asleep by 7:30 and never moved a muscle until the next morning.

This quick trip to Denver came the day after we drove down to Las Cruces, NM to visit with Lara's mom and step-dad, who were traveling cross country for their annual hiatus in Palm Springs, CA. It was great to visit with them and to share a meal, before we got up at 2AM to drive back to Albuquerque, to be in court by 8:30AM. All in all, this was a busy end of the year for us.

With the Inauguration only two weeks away, lets hope that change is truly in the air! We so look forward to seeing our friends this year and to spending as much time as possible on the boat.

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