The push is on.

And that push being; our decision to cruise to the Bahamas.

We spent our Easter Sunday with Hans sweating in the engine room, and me sorting through my stash of dog collar hardware (I do admit to sneaking in some selfish time perusing all the new-to-us books I picked up at the exchange library and I'm absolutely giddy over some of my finds). At the end of the day Hans managed to replace a lot of ground wire connections along with two new transmission oil dip-sticks, and I had a bag full of sewing stuff to take ashore today where I fashioned a new leash and harness for Wilbur in between doing a couple of loads of laundry. Alas, the harness is a tad too big but can be easily fixed.

When we decided to spend an additional week here in Boot Key Harbor we thought we had tons of time to get some loose ends tied up. Every night we'd discuss what we would need to accomplish the next day and then for some reason the next morning those very tasks didn't seem to get done because some other matter would take precedence. But, all of a sudden we are down to a couple of days and even more stuff has cropped up. One thing I hadn't counted on was the propane tank to my stove crapping out on me. When we were living in a marina I could get one of those suckers to last me over six months. This one lasted two. This is a direct result of constant heavy winds making it impossible for me to use our grill and therefore relying solely on our stove. We are very thankful to have a place to fill our propane here and this morning, in addition to a much needed liquor run, we got that out of the way (and don't think crossing a four lane highway with a full tank of propane sans a traffic light isn't exciting).

First and foremost: every day Wilbur needs to go ashore for some much needed sniffies. This dog has been in his glory here, and as soon as our sun screen and my orange dry bag make their appearance Wilbur becomes unglued and starts snorting, huffing, and pacing. Surely some other dog on some other boat has dared to piss where he's pissed and he. will. not. stand. for. it. So, ashore we go with him because he's our baby and that's how it is.

And then there was the morning I knew if I didn't do something about my hair the world just might as well end. Hans and I spent an hour and a half of sweaty labor pulling my hair through one of those bleach caps with a crochet hook (if Hans ever wanted to exact some revenge upon me, that would have been the time), and after all that fun I took a pair of rusty scissors to the whole mess. Actually, the result wasn't all that bad and I saved us about $90.00 (the going rate here in this area).

One day I boldly made the slightly over one mile trip to Winn-Dixie by myself. I discovered, via my trusty luggage cart, that my duffle bag full of groceries, two 24 packs of beer and four 12 packs of soda, weigh a lot more than the 8 rolls of paper towels and the 4 rolls of toilet paper I'd hauled the day before. Yesterday, as a couple, Hans and I made a huge provisioning run to Winn-Dixie and filled two carts to the absolute max. We then ended up in line behind a couple who tried to pay for their purchases with an out of state check. With her french manicure, the cashier clacked and clacked at the touch screen, but the transaction wouldn't go through. After much more clacking, she got on the horn and called for help. When another call for help went out Hans very politely informed me that he'd been in line ahead of this out-of-state-check couple but had lost his place when he had to rescue me from floundering down the wrong aisle in search of more sun-screen.

My very first 'easy' run

 

Hans had departed the dinghy dock and took the first half of our haul to the Knotty Cat while I waited for him to come back and pick me up along with the remainder of our groceries (from our taxi run)

Even though we were waiting in line with refrigerated items and knew our taxi was due to arrive any second, I wasn't nearly as distraught as the young lady rushing about and hysterically waving her arms around with her mini-cart of groceries and wailing, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! I only have a half hour before I need to get back to work!" Unfortunately for her; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph never did arrive to help, but, Jesus (pronounced Haysoose), Maria, and Jose, did arrive at our checkout and even after more collective clacking they could not resolve the out-of-state-check issue. In the meantime the out-of-state-check couple continued to stand placidly by without ever seeming to understand that what they were trying to achieve just wasn't going to happen. It was just about the time the holy trinity was ready to cry uncle and call in the Federal Reserve that the out-of-state-check couple got with it and the wife grudgingly unlocked her purse and produced a credit card.

The damn finally broke and we all flowed with relief from the Winn-Dixie. And on this particular wave we hope to push on to the Bahamas.

Our cockpit with a miniscule amount of the crap we hope to haul to the Bahamas

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