Retired!!

I had a beachwalk and an omlette for breakfast. What a great way to start the day!

Unfortunately rather than relaxing and napping and reading books for the rest of the day, we have a hectic day and a hectic month ahead of us... getting married this weekend, the cabinet guys come next Tuesday (meaning I have to have new appliances on the way and my kitchen emptied by by Monday). And the renovation crew for the rest of the condo shows up the following week (meaning the rest of the house needs to be emptied and we are supposed to be moved onto the boat!)

The wedding seems mostly under control... mostly because we are pushing hard to keep it very small and very simple. And also because my friend Cheryl and my Women's Crew are doing all the organizing of the 'reception' afterward. Cheryl has cleaned up her patio and garden and we're hosting it there, and Cheryl's doing most of the organizing of food. We only have about 30 people coming, all very close friends and family, so it should be an easy time. We got the marriage license yesterday, the rings (ordered online from a custom jewelry place) came in on Friday. What more do you need but friends, a license, and a ring? Good weather?... I've got my forecaster friend Winnie working on a nice afternoon. Current forecast looks good. 78 degrees and only a slight chance of rain.

We are heading over to St. Pete (Largo) this afternoon... I am trying to finish my Towing Endorsement and Sail Endorsement for my 50-Ton Masters License. Submitting it altogether as one package saves a little money. So I had the towing class last night in Melboure and the sail class tonight in St. Pete, and a test on Weds. Then all I need to do is submit the paperwork to the Coast Guard (and wait).

Wow, what a weekend!

First, our crazy friends at MYC put on a whole regatta as a surprise going-away party for me. I knew there was a regatta, but was totally blown away when I walked into the 'Skipper's Meeting' and everyone yelled 'Surprise'!

But it WAS really a regatta, so we got to go sail in some really nice sailing weather. My old crew pretty much all came along, so it was really fun even though we didn't win. We started the day with a halyard failure, and had to send Cheryl up the mast to recover the halyard.

Dave got some pretty good pictures of my crew in action. My friend Rochelle (and fiend who planned this whole thing) finally got a chance to beat us.


Can you believe the regatta trophies were bags and towels embroidered with "Sherry Beckett Honorary Regatta"?


And they made regatta T-shirts with my favorite Mark Twain saying:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

They even had a raffle and prize giveaway, with Dave Noble MC-ing as usual.

Dave (sneaky guy) had fed them old photos, and had that going on a slide show on the big screen TV. Including photos of me in kindergarden (!!), and all the highs and lows of my Fast Lane racing career.

And then... they did a "Roast Sherry".

All my friends came up and reminded everyone of all the fun we've had on the water and elsewhere. Everyone from Gary Smith, who pretty much taught me everything I know about racing, to Cheryl, who managed to make me cry with some of her insight into how much my crew of women have "grow up together" while racing over the years.

Finally, Jack Bibb and Jerry Ross sang me a song of their own making. By then we'd all been partying since about noon. Jack told me later "that song sure sounded a lot better when we practiced it sober!"

It was a great time and MANY THANKS to Rochelle and Cheryl and Nancy and Rachelle and Dave and all the other people at MYC who obviously spent a lot of time, money, and effort to pull this off. You guys are nuts and I love you!

Right, Rochelle, the friend (fiend) who orchestrated the whole thing, with Gerry Moores, our faithful Women's Racing Chairman.

Below: My wonderful Fast Lane crew... Hugs and Kisses to you! (and come visit us somewhere!)

I love to bottom paint!

Today turned out to be a really nice day. So we applied the first coat of bottom paint. Dave did the large area with the 9" roller, and I did the close-in work with a small roller and a small paintbrush.

Dave got the Engine Started Sunday!

After about 2 months of work on the engine overhaul, he put it all back together again, and it still works!! Installed new valves, machined the head, magnafluxed it, and cleaned and painted all the pieces (Perkins Blue!). He also installed rebuilt injectors and injection pump, and replace all the hoses and gaskets ($150 worth!). It is the most beautiful diesel I have ever seen.

On Monday morning, Dave and friends Jim and Jim motored up to Port Canaveral to haul Soggy Paws at Cape Marina. Dave didn't tell our friend Jim the sailor that he'd taken all the sails off the boat (they are stacked in our living room right now). The wind was perfect for a sail up the river, but they had to motor. Jim said "I'm so embarrased to be motoring on the river in a sailboat, with a fair wind".

The haulout is well underway ...
- The prop shaft is out and off to a machine shop (to cut a few inches off the shaft)
- New 2" cockpit drains and seacocks are in process
- New cutlass bearing is underway
- The transmission is out being cleaned and repainted.

Dave has a finite list of things to complete, then a few coats of paint on the bottom and back in the water by late next week.

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.

The SSCA Gam is over with for another year (last weekend). We had a great time especially with the CSY Breakfast at MeMaws BBQ on Sunday (see photo). I particularly enjoyed meeting all of Dave's rabid CSY friends. It's a great group and I'm proud to be a 'member'.

We sold a lot of "stuff" at the flea market on Saturday--we got rid of everything major except the outboard motor. And I'm sure we'll find a loving home for it, too, eventually.

My 'Options for Cruising Websites' roundtable was very well received. And we in turn got some good info from several of the seminars we went to... especially the Heavy Weather Sailing presentation by Beth Leonard.

I entered a drawing with the 'Kids Aboard' people (a raffle to raise money for their projects). I specifically entered to win a 'Master's Upgrade' class from Sea School. And I won! I have registered for a class in mid-December to upgrade my 6-pack license to a 100 Ton Masters license.

There were a few unexpected people I saw at the Gam... friends I have lost touch with in the last 2-3 years, so it was very good to see them and re-establish contact. Some, like Mary and Christian from IWANDA, I am amazed to do the math and find out I've known them now for 13 years!! (since our first SSCA rendezvous in Maine in '93).

Everyone I ran into is thrilled to hear my news that I'm going cruising again. (yippee!) And, of course Dave's friends are thrilled for him too... (I heard "what a great match" a few times over the weekend). And Dave and I are still smiling at each other like silly teenagers.

Progress this week: 3 outboards, 4 closets and (maybe) the autopilot.

Dave enlisted our friend Wes Whitley's electronic expertise and Wes thinks he may have solved the CPT autopilot 'runaway left' problem. We also received the new relays in the mail Saturday, so we'll put them in too, and maybe, just maybe, the darned thing will work reliably.

After last weekend's cruise, Dave has done maintenance on all 3 outboard motors... the old 15hp is ready to sell. The 'new' 15hp, which we found to not work at high speed, has had the fuel system cleaned and it's working well now. The 5hp, our 'close around the harbor' motor just needed some TLC.

The closets... ugh. Dave made me promise to stay home this weekend and 'clean out the closets'. I have done 4 of them. The 'sell at the flea market' pile is getting so big we can hardly get around in the living room any more. We took a lot of stuff out to the trash. More stuff is in my car to donate to the MYC Junior Sailing Progam. I have a box for my ex-husband Lenny. So progress is being made (but it sure woulda been a great weekend to sail in the MYC Small Boat Regatta).

This post is specifically for my cousin Bryan, who's been complaining that we haven't posted in some time.

Well the truth is, we've been REALLY BUSY.

Between all the social and sailing events that Sherry is involved in, and the work on the boat, there's not been much time to spend on the computer. And, of course, getting Soggy Paws ready for our April 1 departure is my first priority.

Some of the boat things we've accomplished this month... retrieved the spare engine head from someone I loaned it to this summer and sent it off to get the crack repaired... pulled off the injectors and injection pump and had them rebuilt... repaired the CPT autopilot... repaired the fishfinder... repaired the old Tohatsu motor (now ready to sell)... removed and overhauled the old Monitor wind vane (now ready to sell).

We found that the canal behind Sherry's condo gets a little shallow at times. Soggy Paws was hard aground for awhile. The water levels here in the Indian River estuary are not generally tide based, but more related to what the wind and rainfall are doing. With a change in the wind direction last weekend, the water level came back up again, and she finally floated free. I have now rigged a 2x4 as a gentle pusher to help keep her far enough off the dock to stay in the deeper water toward the center of the canal.

The weather's cooling off here in Central Florida... it's actually almost Fall-like here. We're going to take a weekend off from boat and house chores and racing events and actually go cruising this weekend. We're headed out for a 2 day cruise to 'Boy Scout Island' with the East Coast Sailing Association. (actually, the primary purpose is to check out the repairs to the autopilot, fishfinder, outboard motor, and to do a little bottom scrubbing before the weather gets too cold).

Well, we made it to Sherry's dock in Satellite Beach.

The weather for the trip was pretty good, though the winds were too light for much sailing. We stopped the first night behind Rodriguez Key (off southern Key Largo). The auto pilot was acting up again and Dave wanted to rig his wind vane/tiller pilot arrangement.

We finally got away about 11am on Wednesday 9/6, and planned to go all the way to Port Canaveral.

It was a mostly uneventful trip... motorsailing the whole way in mostly mild conditions. There was a nice full moon for most of the night (except for Sherry's watch, in which she spent the whole watch with the radar on dodging thunderstorms). The Gulfstream gave us a 2-3 knot boost... giving us many hours of 9-10kt ground speed, according to the GPS.


By early Thursday morning we were off Ft. Pierce still doing about 9.5 kts. Sherry was on watch with a beautiful sunrise, with thunderstorms out on the Gulfstream.

As soon as we turned NW for Port Canaveral (at Ft. Pierce) we lost the current and our speed dropped down to 5-6 Kt.

We finally made the outer bouy at Port Canaveral at 3:30pm on Thursday. We were eagerly anticipating anchor down soon after, but then remembered that the 401 Highway bridge into the Banana River was closed from 3:30 to 5:15 (due to evening rush hour traffic). So we stopped at Cape Marina to top off fuel and so Dave could get a look at the haulout facility there.

We were able to get quickly thru the bridge and the lock and get our anchor down finally at about 6pm, with a huge big black thundercloud looming to the west. We set the anchor firmly in anticipation of high winds, and were 'rewarded' when 10 minutes later we were blasted with gusts to 40 knots. (the anchor held fine, and we had a nice shower, dinner, and off to bed).

On Friday, Jim and Nancy came up to meet us in Jim's ski boat, to make the trip down the river and under the bridges. We managed to get Soggy Paws under all 3 bridges... with about 12" to spare on the lowest bridge.

The final step was to get Soggy Paws alongside Sherry's dock behind her condo. It was no problem up to the last 5 feet... we already knew it was a little too shallow to get SP alongside. For now we have put a ladder across as a temporary gangplank--we'll work out a better solution soon.


Today was spent watching the Space Shuttle launch, exploring Patrick Air Force Base facilities, retrieving the cats from the cat sitter (Thanks Rochelle!) and a little grocery shopping.

Sitting in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, in the Keys watching it rain.

Actually we are doing boat chores and planning our departure for tomorrow. We needed this day to finish up all the stuff Dave didn't get done last week when hiding out from Ernesto.

Weather has been abominable the last 2 days... has been drizzling on and off. We tried to take friends out snorkling yesterday but ended up aborting the trip due to rain and strong winds (forecast was 10 kts East, we had 20 kts South).

None of the 'weather guessers' seem to know what's up... they have only been forecasting 'scattered showers'.

Working on wifi from Boot Key Harbor! 'Only' costs $8.95 for 24 hrs or $39/mo. But sure easier to get weather reports over the internet vs. HF.