Wow, it's February, and getting well on toward the end of February.

I have less than 4 weeks left to work. We are already interviewing for my replacement at work. The boss has finally figured out that I'm really going to do this thing. (I told him 6 months ago that I was leaving but he didn't really believe me).

Here at the house (with Soggy Paws right out the back), things are zooming along. Every minute of every day is jam packed, for both Dave and I.

Dave is finishing putting the engine back together. The head goes on today, with the help of Don from Tackless II, who is visiting here in his RV for a couple of days. Their CSY is currently in Fiji. See their travel log here: http://www.thetwocaptains.com

Our new 'hard dodger' project is mostly done. Dave got the frame done and it looks great (see pics on the website here). The canvas work is being done by a local Melbourne company, Canvas Connections. They should be finishing up soon. I think Dave also plans to have them do some interior cushions for us.

The engine *must* be back together and running smoothly by Monday (3 days from now), when we're scheduled to take the boat to the yard in Port Canaveral and haul it out. Dave hopes to be in the yard for about 10 days. He has a finite list of things to do, and has a couple of friends lined up to help in the yard on projects that require 2 people to do them, as I'm still working.

After the haulout, the next major project is the watermaker. Dave says he has all the parts for it, except the membranes. He will buy them just before he commissions the watermaker.

We have slipped the target departure date from 'April Fools Day' until mid-April. This is mainly because, to fix my broken oven in the condo, we've decided to do a $15,000 renovation project. There is no 'drop in' replacement for my oven, so that means cabinet work, and the 25 year old cabinets in my kitchen look like they're 25 years old, and one thing led to another and here we are...

My brother Jimmy is a renovation contractor http://www.cupecoyconstruction.com, and he's giving us the deal of a lifetime so we can't pass it up. He is sending a crew of 3-4 guys and a trailer down from his home base in St. Augustine, and promises to be done in a week. We'll see. We are allowing another week to put the finishing touches (and the carpet) on. We acknowledge this is a very ambitious schedule, but we're trying really hard to make it happen.

We've already had 2 marine flea markets so we are whittling down the duplicate boat stuff. The 'get rid of' pile in my living room is getting pretty small (having been replaced by the 'load on the boat' pile.

The next big thing is a house garage sale. But first I have to figure out the rental plan for my house... so we know whether the furniture has to go too. I am currently going down a list of friends who have expressed an interest in living in my convenient waterfront-with-a-dock condo, looking for a commitment to live here, share the expenses, and handle my mail.

Labels: Satellite Beach FL