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Published: March 8th 2010
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Leaving the Fairhope farm
Are those cherry blossoms in your hair Rick? 3/2-7/2010 Welcome everyone. This is Rick and Wayne’s blog of their Florida cruise. This is the ROAD portion of our Florida cruise.
We hit the road on Tuesday the 2nd. We ran out of snow in central Illinois. To our surprise we saw snow again in Northern Alabama. There was just a dusting on the hills. Everyone we talked to down South was complaining about the cold. When we arrived in Fairhope, Alabama on Wednesday afternoon the sun was out and things were looking up. Amber Lee II looked just like she did when we left her in November. We made arrangements to meet Gene, our kind host and keeper of the boat, at the Yacht Club for dinner. Our good friends Don and Tracy also joined us. We had a great visit and then handed over some good Wisconsin Cheese and Spotted Cow beer to our Fairhope friends. We had such a great time in Fairhope because of these people. We hope we can stay in touch as we all go about our everyday lives.
We were on our way to Florida bright and early on Thursday morning; now being followed by a 27 ft. sailboat. It took
Indiantown Marina
Amber Lee II in the boat yard. us all day to cover the 400 miles from the west end of the Florida pan handle to Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast. We were going to spend the night in the Daytona Beach area, but made other plans when we were heard that 300,000 bikers were making that town their home for the week. We stayed in St. Augustine for the night.
How about a multiple choice question for the day? What is St. Augustine’s claim to fame? A.) It is the newest city in the US. B.) It is the oldest city in the US. C.) It isn’t a city at all.
We had a little excitement at our motel in St. Augustine. About 11:00 PM we heard a crash in the parking lot. Being a Good Samaritan, Rick jumped out of bed and ran out on the balcony in his pjs to see what had happened. Some drunk had driven over a pole and then made a second lap around the parking lot. In all the excitement Rick forgot which room we were in. After several unsuccessful knocks on doors he went to the office to ask which room he was in. In the mean
Good job Rick
Preparing the bottom for paint. time Wayne had become concerned about Rick’s absence and was dressing to go out and make a search when Rick arrived back to the room. And NO, we had not been drinking.
On Friday morning we stopped in Titusville to see an old BBYC sailing buddy. We had a good visit with skipper Ken and his wife Joan.
We arrived in Indiantown Marina in the afternoon and were provided with a parking place in their boat yard. We will be doing some work on Amber Lee to prepare her for the trip. Saturday was spent cleaning and painting the boat bottom with paint containing copper. The copper acts as a biocide and helps prevents creatures from growing on the bottom of the boat. We also had time to drive the 20 miles to the Atlantic to see the large breakers crashing on the beach. It wouldn’t be a good day to be sailing down the coast today. Wind and cold weather is still plaguing Florida. The restaurant we ate in even had portable heaters around the dinning area to keep the customers warm. The days have been sunny and warm by Wisconsin standards. Nights are cool and we use our little heater to keep us warm in the boat.
Sunday March 7, 2010
We got the mast up and the boat is now in the water. All is well and we are anxious to get started sailing.
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Karl
non-member comment
Stay Warm
Hope you get some warmer weather. All is well here. The sandhills are back and I heard a robin today. thanks for the update. Karl