Are We Ever Going to Leave?

Current Location: Jacksonville Beach, FL

Hi everyone,

I know you must be wondering what is going on since you haven't heard from us since we announced the blog. Well, we are still on land and have not begun our sailing adventure. Thanks to Mother Nature and equipment problems, our adventures have started before the trip has started! Although we are disappointed in the delay, we are realizing that there is some good in all that is happening.

It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature...
We were supposed to leave last week, but couldn't because of the northeaster that descended on us for nearly 6 days with wind gusts up to 50mph and approximately 12 inches of rain. The terrible weather affected the entire state of Florida, so we are certainly glad we had not left yet because it would not have been good to be on the boat weathering out the storm.

The good news: 1) we desperately needed the rain (well, maybe not that much), and 2) the high winds and rain exposed leaks in our rental house so we have been able to address the problems before we leave.

Equipment woes...
On Saturday, the rain began to subside, so Capt. Jim began to ready the dinghy for the trip. As our luck would have it, Capt. Jim found that the dinghy motor was not working properly, even though the motor had been serviced only a month ago! For those of you that don't have dogs for First Mates, let me explain that a dinghy is very important because it is how I take shore leave (potty breaks). So, our departure was once again delayed while Capt. Jim tried to fix the dinghy motor.

On Sunday, Capt. Jim tried to see if he could fix the motor, but had no luck. On Monday, Capt. Jim couldn't find anyone willing to work on the motor on Memorial Day (can you imagine that?). So, we have had to wait until today (Tuesday) to get someone to fix the dinghy motor... and we hope they can get it fixed today.

The good news: we are glad we found this problem before we left so it could be fixed. I imagine Capt. Jim and Admiral Sandy wouldn't enjoy having to paddle our 9 foot inflatable dinghy to get me to shore!

Note from Admiral Sandy: Orders have officially been issued for First Mate Coconut to learn to use the "poop deck" so we don't have to worry about getting her to shore!

Final preparations... keep your fingers crossed!

In the meantime, final preparations for our departure are continuing: Admiral Sandy is stocking the galley, Capt. Jim is loading up the boat and I am dreaming (scratching) of life on the water away from (scratch) all the horrible Florida fleas (scratch). Thanks to the drenching rains, the fleas have come out in numbers (scratch, scratch, scratch) and I am miserable trying to fight them off. So (scratch), I hope the next post you read (scratch) from us will be the post (scratch) announcing our (scratch) departure!

Please keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and we will be shoving off soon!

First Mate Coconut (scratch, scratch, scratch)

You may join my Yahoo group by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coconutandcrew/