Saturday 2009.12.04

We are back in our room after a fairly productive day...we seem to be progressing with the commissioning of the good ship Soli.

This morning we did bend on the mainsail without any problem, she is awfully heavy but we did manage, not so old and weak after all.

We had stopped at a Raymarine dealer on the way, asking for someone to come and look at our chartplotter/radar and they promised they would come this afternoon, which was reassuring….I was afraid they would say Monday and we want to try and leave on Sunday.

After doing the main we had a look at the radar screen again and after fiddling with it for a bit….voila we had ignition…all good and ready to go and it still knows its place, the unit at the nav table (mine) is the master and the one at the helm (David’s) is the slave!!!

The rest of the day was spent doing what I do best…coordinate (read: chase after people to get things done, or some may call it nagging but it works!!!) settle up our bill and say our goodbyes to the crew at TMI…hopefully we will not still be here when they return on Monday morning!

The inside of the boat is now looking reasonably clean and tidy, the fridge has been on and all systems are go to receive and swallow all the provisions I plan on making tomorrow…it is the scariest feeling to shop for food for 5 months and have to worry about WHERE you are going to put it away. I probably won’t buy as much as previous years, we need to support local businesses in the Abacos.

David is talking of “going outside”(on the Atlantic) for some legs of the trip down to save time …he is quite eager to get South as fast as possible…I am more partial to doing “the ditch” (Intracoastal waterway) as I fear it might get quite cold on the ocean in December…..we will decide later.

Well, we are off to get a bit of supper and an early night…TTFN

PS we are back from supper and I am ashamed and flabergasted to report that I DARED order the oldest item on the menu which was a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich grilled , dusted with ICING SUGAR with a side of RASPBERRY JAM for dipping....the waitress assured me i would love it and if I didn't she would change it...so here is frenchie and the french typically never mix savoury and sweet, daring to try this awful thing and I loved it!!!