still in: Fort Myers, FL

We've been working on bringing Windom back into cruising shape. Most of our systems have been tested now, and we've at least bought parts to fix the ones that succumbed to corrosion or other ills. Of course there were several things that stopped working while we were cruising, and we put off fixing them "until we come back" - well, we're back now, and can't put it off any longer! So this morning Britt replaced the bilge pump float switch, which had stopped working while Windom was on the hard, and I crawled into the engine compartment and replaced the switch that allows us to combine our "engine" and "house" battery banks, which had broken a long time ago but which we'd never got around to fixing. (Lest you think that I'm some sort of mechanical whiz, I should point out that I usually just fetch and carry tools while Britt fixes things, but I do have enough know-how to wire things up to the specs of a diagram.)

We haven't yet put the sails back on, but we bought enough string to allow us to pull the lines completely out of the mast so we can take them off and wash them. Then we'll reattach them to the strings and pull them back into place. We haven't even looked at the dinghy outboard motor, which will probably need some work to get going. We aren't starting the watermaker up yet, because once we do we will have to run it periodically, to keep it from growing ick. But just about everything else is either working - or we're working on it!

In my opinion the most important system aboard is the refrigerator, and fortunately that's working fine. Once we got the RV we loaded up at the grocery store with enough supplies to get us going again. (Then yesterday I went to the local farmer's market, which is fantastic - bell peppers and cucumbers and grapefruit and strawberries, oh, my!) It's got me thinking about provisioning for our cruise, so I have been reviewing my old notes about what to take, along with the spreadsheet I made that uses assumptions based on how much we use of everything from rolled oats to candy bars, and calculates what we need. I remember making huge provisioning runs, loading up with a huge pile of groceries that looked as though they'd never all fit in our little boat. But some things go behind one cushion, some behind another, some under a seat and some under our bed, and pretty soon all the groceries are stowed.

Of course that's something else we have a spreadsheet for - where it all goes. Everything, not just groceries, gets inventoried:  spare oil filters, bleach, paper towels, beer. If we don't keep track of where things go, chances are we'll never find them again! Ok, that's a bit dramatic, but it's no fun to dismantle half the boat looking for something, since most storage areas aren't like cabinets in houses, where you simply open a door or drawer. No, to get something on a boat usually means removing cushions and lifting out panels, and of course all of the stuff that gets moved has to be set somewhere, which blocks access to whatever storage is there until you're done here, and so on and so forth.

Since we've been away for a few years we've forgotten where some things go, but our spreadsheets remind us that cookies get piled behind the center cushion of the starboard settee. We've changed a few storage locations, but for the most part we're sticking with what we had before. In between projects we've been busily finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place. Our aft head (bathroom) is still piled with gas jugs and spare lines, and the garage (that's the aft cabin, and if you're coming to visit we promise to have it cleared out by the time you get here) is a bit helter-skelter, but the rest of our house is fairly well in order now.

During the past few days it's been rainy (no doubt triggered by the arrival of our new solar panel! It's still in the garage, waiting better weather for installation) so these indoor projects are all we've been doing lately. Except maybe I'm getting a little bit of cabin fever, because I wrote a song.

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas
I've got umbrellas on my list.
Where the palm trees glisten
And children listen
To hear foghorns in the mist (blaaaattt...)

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas
Though it may seem an odd refrain,
Though there's snow from Michigan to Maine -
Here in Florida we're not shoveling rain!

Have a happy merry, whatever you celebrate. (We're celebrating the accomplishment of boat tasks and the prospect that we'll be cruising soon.)