Utility Room Update

 We have been carrying around two boxes of laminate flooring since we installed same in the galley.  We decided that it was time to install it in the utility room as we planned.

It took almost the whole day.  First we removed the baseboards so we could rip up the vinyl flooring Sea Ray installed at the factory.  We also removed the door to give us a bit more room to work. Then we used my trusty Dremel MultiMax tool to remove excess glue from the floor.  There was a hatch to do as well.  

You can see that there isn't a single straight line, right-angled wall to work with.

Even without the door there was still little room to move.  I got cramps in my legs and, more than once, my toes went numb.

Thinking about the pool and a libation at this point and we hadn't had lunch yet!

Around three o'clock we were struggling with the last piece.  Did I mention there are no right-angles on this boat?

The last piece in place, base-boards cleaned and re-installed and the door back on.

A good day.  Now for a swim and a Scotch!

Another Aquarium

We weren't impressed by the Palm Beach aquarium so we searched for another.  Jo found the Florida Oceanographic Center in Jenson Beach.

We're still not close to the Monterey Aquarium league but this one was very interesting and informative.

The centre-piece is a huge man-made lagoon containing game fish from Florida.  We arrived at feeding time and they were all collected around the feeding station.  Five of the six nurse sharks were sitting on the bottom waiting.
  

In the same lagoon were a couple of Loggerhead turtles.  This one was 300lbs or so.

These are horseshoe crabs.  My son, Jon, might remember these on a beach in Cape Cod many years ago.

These rays are part of the touchy feely part. They feel like velvet!

A good day.

Palm Beach

We decided to take a road trip yesterday.  Jo wanted to visit an Aquarium so we checked the web and decided on the one at the South Florida Science Center in West Palm Beach. It was a bit underwhelming but fun nevertheless.  Don't go to Monterey Bay Aquarium before you to West Palm Beach!

A hurricane wind simulator ruined my hair-do.

We spent an hour or two driving along South Ocean Boulevard where some of the most amazing houses are situated. Click here, click Bird's Eye and zoom in to see the kind of modest homes we drove past!

We dropped into Cobb's Landing for a late lunch and a brew.  While there a video crew set up outside and then in the bar entrance.  I asked the apparent subject of the screening who he was and he revealed he is Rob Siedlecki, running for Florida's State government and was taking a few videos while he had the chance.  Here he is doing a walking shot talking to the bar's owner.

Seemed like a nice enough guy for a Republican but, then, they do don't they?

The heat is on!

With apologies to Glenn Frey and those back home having a less than perfect summer, every day is the same at the moment.  We awake to 84 degrees F and the temperature quickly rises to 90+ degrees in the afternoon with thunderstorms rolling in around 4pm.  It was over 100 the other day.  So a noontime cold brew of Sweetwater 420 at Riverside Restaurant is very welcome.

You learn something new everyday.  Who knew (not I) that there were crabs that would drown if you put them in the water.  This is a Blue Land Crab

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Piper Aircraft factory.

For fun I bought a Canada-US friendship flag on Amazon and put it up this morning while I was washing the aft deck hard top and measuring for solar panels.

Off to get some herb plants so Jo can restart her on-board herb garden.

Nice CB formation as the set sets...

I applied solar film to two of our five forward windows today.  Seems to help with the almost vertical sunshine.  Hopefully it will save a bit of a/c power.  I will do the other three windows tomorrow in the morning...when it's cooler.

To Bradenton to renovate Jon's boat helm.

Jon's new display came in so I headed over to Bradenton via Ft Myers with Jo to look at a 49' Gulf Star which didn't work for us.  The Gulf Star was too much put into too little length.

We got to Jon's at 5:30pm.  We went to Jon's to install a new chart plotter at his boat helm because the old one had displays that were failing. This is the old config:

We removed the old displays, cut the panel and made a new panel to take a new 12 inch display in place of the previous two 8 inch panels.  We also installed an NMEA2000 bus, remade many interconnecting cables, replaced the old sonar, installed a new engine interface and re-installed the autopilot controller.  A very long 12 hour day resulted in the new configuration:

Looks pretty good.  Then we hit the road for a 3 hour trip back home to Vero Beach. A very tiring weekend but I think Jon is happy with the result.

Life at Loggerhead

We have just watched a very good 4-part series from History channel called "The men who made America" that Jon recommended.  I endorse his recommendation.  Excellent.

The last few days have been kind of quiet while we watched how Jo's leg would behave.  It has swollen a bit more and we will make an appointment to have it looked at again tomorrow.

In the meantime we had a sumptuous supper with Jamie and Jennifer on their Hatteras in the marina last night and lunch with Eden and Ferman today at Waldo's.  Then we gave Spooky an airing on the dock.  Here's a few pictures:

I guess most of these marina pictures look much the same if you're not here.  Sorry!

We have a number of Canadian boats here.

Their owners are expected back in the fall.

Most days end with a thunderstorm.  Today the sky was pretty threatening but so far no rain. Just lots of lightning and thunder.

We'll see what the doctor says about Jo's leg tomorrow.