Visit to Largo

Had a nice visit to Largo on Tuesday.  I stopped by Seco South to have some lifelines remade (first attempt was wrong) and then stopped by the Island Packet factory and had a nice visit with Bill Bolin.  Was nice to hear that the new boat (360) is in production and that they have orders for 2 or 3 other boats.  Waiting on the results from my Prostate Biopsy and just taking life easy the past few days.

Signed the papers on our home refinance (Quicken Loans) yesterday.  The whole process of  application and submission of supporting documentation was processed on line and then the closer came to our house and we signed the final papers.  Sure was a nice process.

P I E pie!

Lesley makes great baked goods - not just bread.

Tonight I am having homemade apple pie (3 different types of apples) and vanilla ice cream!

Bread and Baking

We eat very well on the boat and at the house.  Lesley is a Gourmet Cook and an excellent baker and we have been starting to make breads and buns while on the boat so that we are less dependent on shore based resources.  Yesterday, before going to Seco South to pickup up some rigging, Lesley started (or continued prep) on some French Bread that she wanted to try.  The bread came out great and tastes wonderful.  The next time we have Veal Picatta with Risotto and sauteed zucchini and onions or other delicacies - we have the French Bread solution.

New helm seat

While we are on the boat in the Caribbean we spend a lot of time in the water and come back onto the boat over the helm seat. The original helm seat, teak, gets wet and is very slippery so I decided to replace it with some no skid starboard.  Will see how this works out when we return to the boat in November.

a bit itchy?

Since we've been back here in Florida we've had a bad infestation of mealy bugs on the Hibiscus plant in the yard.  The Landscape maintenance Company has aggravated the infestation by performing a serious trim on all the shrubs in the yards in the neighborhood.  In the meantime Lesley as developed a sensitivity to one of the plants in the yard!

Ouch!

Shots, steroids, pills, creams - finally getting better though, believe it or not!

Lift Bridle

Finished sewing the new bridle and wanted to post some photos.  I used the old Davis bridle as a guide but replaced the old plastic hardware and added a few extra parts.

The old Bridle was at best a sloppy fit or even worse, once it was snugged up it was difficult to get a hold of or time consuming to remove if I needed access to the inside of the engine.  I added two stitched loops on the side of the front strap so that I could slip this loop into place on the front of the engine and then secure using an elongated captive pin shackle.

We've always used this shackle on the handle to make attaching the dinghy davit lift tackle easier.  I also wanted to have an easier way to make a handhold on the engine when I move it on/off my rail mount.  Added this webbing strap handle.

New outboard lifting bridle

Received my order from Sailrite today so have been busy making a new outboard lifting bridle.  Needed a "Guinea Pig" outboard to do the final fit and Alan (Island Packet 420 "Flatlander" here in the Marina) has offered to let me do the final fit on his Yamaha.  Will go over to the boat in the morning and make final adjustments and post a few photos of the outcome.

Lesley made a great Cherry Pie today and will have that and vanilla ice cream for desert......

 

Burrowing Owls

Lesley bought me a new telephoto lens so we went out
to try it out this afternoon. Even though the wind was blowing more than 20 knots I was able to get some decent shots of the local Burrowing Owls.











Family of four........................