"Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Louis Pasteur

I also like. “There’s no harm in hoping for the best as long as you’re prepared for the worst.” ~ Stephen King

Larry takes receipt of the two new spare propellers

We are back in Florida, at the Riviera Dunes Marina in Palmetto, getting ready for the next set of adventures. Amazon Prime is making good money off of us, as is West Marine, Publix, Costco, etc. Larry is in full force prep-mode from bow to stern. The biggest item being the two, four blade Michigan propellers. They measure 32 inches and weigh about 125 pounds each. It was amazing we could fit them both into our little rental car. Lifting them onto the boat and getting them into the engine room and secured was not as difficult as you might think due to Larry’s midnight planning sessions (otherwise known as sleepless nights). Other projects have included installation of a new fly-bridge captains bench at the helm station, stocking the engine room with replacement zincs, filters, oil, etc., and of course provisioning the freezer and refrigerator. Yes, that pesky refrigerator appears to be functioning properly. Larry threw new computer parts at that thing like pasta on a wall. A new inverter board and a new main control board appear to have done the trick. With the fridge working we could pay a visit to the brand new Costco in Bradenton followed by Publix. Larry also had to change our MSI (Maritime Safety Information) code on the VHF (Very High Frequency) Marin Radio as we will be entering international waters and a new code is required. He has also spent countless hours researching and downloading pages of charts and transferring them onto our Navionics electronic charting system for the new areas we are heading toward. So much to do in so little time…

Truly amazing what you can fit in a four-seater rental car…

Ready for transfer to the marina

Ready for transfer to the boat and into the engine room for storage…hopefully never to be used!

Speaking of fitting tall things into small spaces…how Larry crawled into this little hole is beyond me. He had to lengthen the water line to the fridge so we could pull it away from the wall far enough to replace the computer parts.

Let’s hope this is the last time I take this picture…

The all important visit to Costco

This is only a portion of what it takes to provision the boat

As Larry says…his work is never done…and it is never straight forward either. You have to dismantle the entire helm station control panel to get to the back of the VHF radio in the center of the consol. Thank goodness we found a great guy who would meet us at the marina and download our new MSI number, otherwise we would have had to pull the two radios and drive them to Miami.

So all work and no fun is just no fun…so went and had some fun at ‘Woody’s’

Back to sunrises and sunsets…I know you missed them! Sunrise at the Riviera Dunes Marina, Palmetto, FL