Second installment - Winter 2016-2017
We've had a busy winter this year, having a chance to see lots of friends and family members and do some fun things in Central Florida. The good news for us is that we've had a minimal number of repairs on the boat, although we know that when we do have repairs, it adds to the entertainment value of our blog for all of you. We're relieved, though, that repairs have not featured prominently in this winter's activities.
Winter with friends and family
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| Colleen, June and Sandra have been friends for around forty years, ever since we were Orlando neighbors. We haven't changed much?! |
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| Hal and Young are friends from North Carolina. We were so pleased that they came to see us while visiting Hal's sister nearby. The Korean meal we ate, featuring Korean barbeque, was uniquely delicious. |
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| Korean barbeque - cooked by Young at our table |
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| One night we got together with some treasured longtime boating friends from our Florida life - Richard, left, and Jim.. |
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| Pam, left. and Shaula |
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| Mary, Marla and Colleen - a nearly sixty year friendship. We have changed quite a bit since we met in 1958 in elementary school. |
We docked in the town of Sanford for almost two-and-a-half months. On February 25th we pulled out of Sanford's Monroe Harbor Marina and started on our way to move the boat to Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona, Florida. The trip by cafr is 39 miles. By boat it was a trip of 220 miles and 5 days. Cool Change is still on the market and we feel it will get good exposure in Daytona.
New dinghy photos and story of sale
In our last blog post we told about our new dinghy. Well, we have sold it after only two months ownership. We were informed by our boat broker and our prospective new broker that the new dinghy added little value to our boat when sold. It would just "Go with the boat". So...we listed it on Craigslist and sold it in three days. The dinghy was soon on its way to the new owner and the cash was dropped into the hole in our bank account.
The lift system shown here has been removed to be sold separately.
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| Finally got the perfect dinghy setup - NOW GONE |
Who says there have been no repairs! We have been chasing the cure for the port motor overheating when the RPMs are over 1800. It has rarely been a problem for us since we usually travel at less than that. Wayne began taking apart the seawater cooling system section by section looking for the cause, At the 4th stage he found that an old sacrificial anode had broken off and was lodged in the water exit atop the aftercooler case. This blocked about half of the water flow. No problem at low speed. But it was if we wanted to put the boat up on plane - problem.
That is the culprit lying loose in the cap in the photo with the correct anode shown also.. Lesson, when an old anode is removed and there is nothing left on the stud, remove the cap and look for pieces that may have broken off.
Meeting up with our old boating club at Hontoon Island
In mid January we took a weekend boat trip to Hontoon Island and met up with the Central Florida Cruise Club, our boat club for many years while we lived in Florida. Wayne entered their chili cookoff and won the grand prize! Friends Roger and Marcy traveled with us to Hontoon. Our friends, Jim and Shaula, joined us there and our middle son, Patrick from Boston, came to see us with his (and our) friend, Jason. Colleen took a several hour long hike with Jason and Patrick, all the way to the Indian mound deep in the island's palmetto jungle. What fun! Puff! Puff!
Wayne's winning chili concoction
Chili - 10 to 12
people
2 lbs ground meat
1 cup water
1 can chili beans
1 can Hormel chili
with beans
1 can pinto beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
1/4 cup taco sauceq
1/8 cup Olive oil
Oregano 1 tsp
Pepper to taste
Salt 1 tsp
Bay leaf 2
Minced Garlic 2 tsp
Worcestershire 2 tsp
Old bay seasoning 1
tsp
3 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
Bell pepper - red and
green
Chili powder 4 tsp
1 can Tomato sauce
1 large onion
Cumin 1/2 tsp
4 Yellow chilis
1/4 cup sugar
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| I'm sure you recognize them by now - our old friends Roger and Marcy |
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| Marcy knows there is nothing better than an afternoon nap on a boat beneath a homemade quilt. |
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| Wayne, Colleen and Patrick We loved having a visit from our boy. |
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| Jason - Patrick's friend and one of our honorary sons |
We mentioned last month that we have roots in this part of Florida. In early February Wayne dragged Colleen kicking and screaming to the Sanford Historical Museum. Turns out the museum has lots of information on Colleen's Leonardy branch of her family and the museum staff was thrilled to meet a Leonardy descendant. They generously shared their research. Colleen has also contacted the author of a book about this branch of the family. Latrell Mickler agreed to meet us in St. Augustine for lunch and we traveled there with two cousins, Midge and Tony, and all had a good time hearing and telling family stories.
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| Colleen's great aunt Herberta Hathcock Leonardy was the first woman admitted to practice law before the US Supreme Court on April 17, 1930. |
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| Farmers in Sanford first planted celery in 1896. The crop was so successful that a nickname for the city was Celery City. The columns on the Sanford Historical Museum are adorned with celery, sight we have never seen before! |
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| Colleen's cousin Latrell (fourth cousin, twice removed or something like that) graciously autographed copies of the book she wrote about our family, Gaspar Papi and Ana Pons Their Lives and Descendants. |
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| Cousins Midge, Tony, Latrell and Colleen |
You may recall that we were planning to visit The Central Florida Zoo and also wanted to take a ride on Sunrail, Central Florida's new commuter train system that runs through three counties in the Orlando area. This is a true commuter rail system.
Both excursions were well worth our time. The Central Florida Zoo in Sanford is well laid out and displays a large assortment of animals, many of them native to the state.
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| Anyone want to make the acquaintance of an alligator? |
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| The reptile house contained many beautiful snake specimens. |
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| Most of them were pretty active for snakes and fascinating to watch. |
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| The SunRail cars were clean and quiet. |
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| The trip took us through downtown Winter Park and Orlando from a perspective we'd never seen before. At the end of the line we walked to a Denny's for lunch and then rode the train back to Sanford. The southernmost stop is almost across the street from our business location and our Orlando home of 20 years ago |
Last year Colleen ran out of projects before she ran out of winter but this year it looks like it will all even out, to her great relief.
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| I quilted and bound five children's quilts for my quilt guild charity after guild members pieced the quilt tops. |
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| Foundation paper piecing if one of my favorite techniques. The back looks like a jigsaw puzzle when it's in progress. |
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| When all the pieces are sewn together it makes a complicated picture but it's sort of like a piece-by-number project and not very hard. |
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| This was to be a quilt and it's been a long time in the making. After I got all the blocks made (enough for a queen-sized bedspread) I decided I didn't like the way they looked together. This may be destined to be a UFO (unfinished object in quilt terms) or a lot of table runners, supplying me with Christmas and birthday gifts for many years to come. |
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| I made two table runners using this pattern and different color combinations. |
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| More paper piecing |
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| You may remember that in the last blog I said I was learning how to make chenille. It was not an easy task but it was interesting and I liked the results in this muffler. I made two for Christmas presents. |
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| Cousins Tony and Midge and Midge's husband Earl standing in front of Sanford's popular riverboat. |
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