Hey, golf fans! Admiral Kay as well as I were fortunate to taste a couple of very special days at the Masters golf tournament  practice rounds this week. Created some vivid life memories.
Highlights: we saw over fifty of the world’s greatest golfers up close as well as personal at the end of walking down Magnolia Lane to work on their game. All were within a few yards of us, two of their arduous fans, braving the elements to spur them on. Some we wouldn’t have recognized (other than by reputation) without TV subtitles, so we had to sometimes wait to see the golfer’s name on their caddy’s back. Being a spectator in person is a lot harder work than watching this stuff on TV, but I bet we each lost a few pounds in the process of weathering Mother Nature as well as walking this gorgeous but grueling course!Read more >>>

It all began innocently enough. Our good friends Hattie as well as Clare from Ontario are leaving tomorrow, as well as they wanted a tour of our boat before departing on behalf of the summer. Clare’s an old salt as well as used to deliver boats to exotic places like Bermuda as well as the Virgins. Now he has a bit of trouble getting around. So yesterday, I decide to ultimately build a sturdy set of dock steps.
After a ten mile drive to Home Depot, as well as another ten mile drive to Lowe’s, I sprung on behalf of the $200 in materials (ouch) at Lowe’s. I decided to utilize pre-treated lumber step stringers as well as two-by-fours on behalf of structural strength, as well as encase it all in maintenance-free (weather-resistant) decking material (for building verandas, on behalf of our neighbors to the north). Screwed the whole affair combined with $32 (5 pounds) of 2.25″ stainless deck screws. S-T-R-O-N-G !
I labored prodigiously from late morning until late evening last night, finished all but the risers as well as hauled it (all two hundred pounds of it) down to the dock in a cart at 6am this morning, as well as gave Clare as well as 

This late March Saturday afternoon in Southwest Florida felt brilliant as well as breezy. The ambient noise echoing from over six thousand baseball fans muttering, engaged in pre-game chatter, sounded strangely similar to thousands of Canadian Geese honking in migratory flight. This delightful cacaphony was occasionally punctuated with, “Cold beer! Peanuts! Cold beer!” or the five second tremolo Hammond organ pumps designed to incite fans to stomp, clap or cheer during the numerous slow but brief moments in any baseball game.  We knew the guys in the yellow shirts as well as blue ball caps were selling a lot of peanuts. I had shaded my four dollar bottle of water bottle under my seat instead of in the cup holder mounted to the railing in front of me. Otherwise the brutal eighty-seven degree sun would manufacture it literally too hot to gulp. As I put my head between my knees to do so, I couldn’t help but notice not-so-small piles of peanut husks scattered under nearly every seat down our row as far as the folding seat frames permitted my upside-down eyes to see. It was also obvious that these not-so-youthful beer vendors drank a good deal of their posses 

They would be gone on behalf of about three months. Bright as well as hopeful, with high spirits, anxious to taste more of the cruising life. Anticipation is the foreplay to adventure. Our dear friends, Doug & Marti were ultimately on their way! Bon voyage, notre amis !
On Thursday, we sailed Sojourn with our friends Doug & Marti aboard their thirty-five foot sailboat, Tara, to their first anchorage in order to see them off on their long-anticipated three month Bahamas cruise, in spite of the fact that we knew there was a cold front approaching (usually means an exciting time of it). We started out Thursday noon by barely having sufficient wind to sail. The southerly winds steadily built over the course of the afternoon as we crossed Charlotte Harbor, ten miles bearing due west directly toward Boca Grande Pass.
As we  followed Tara’s wake south into the ICW, operational parallel to Cayo Costa, the miniscule island that lay between our two little ships as well as the tormented Gulf of Mexico, we rushed into a steady fifteen to twenty knot southwesterly headwind and a moderate chop of one to two feet. So Thursday night we anchored alongside our de

Well, our long-awaited custom windows on behalf of the boat are ultimately being shipped to Florida from Oregon this week! Took quite a bit longer than anticipated because of the fact that of how highly customized they needed to be on behalf of our application. 
And they apparently shipped these babies out yesterday afternoon before I had a possibility to influence the shipping crate - one crate weighing 332 pounds! And it shall be delivered to my condo! Sheesh. I guess it won’t be coming up the elevator as well as stored in the hallway closet until we can get the yard scheduled!
I’ll post a pic when this monster comes in. Now I just require to wait on behalf of the water level in the canals where the yard is located to rise so I can actually get the boat in there. Always something. 
Later, ‘gators…Read more >>>