Back in business!

Apologies for the lack of posting lately...too many errands, too little time these days! The pace has been frenetic in many ways, and not just boat-related! But...most importantly, Equinox is getting ready to splash! We are looking at this coming Monday for the big day -- I have to say, it feels like we've been out of the water forever, not just a couple of months!! Equinox is currently getting her bottom painted, and her running gear is freshly prepped for the water: cleaned, scoured, primed and properly Propspeeded! 

ACY guy doing his thing to make Equinox look fabulous!

Looking sharp and ready to make good speed!

Ron and I have made list after list of things to get done, and are down to the final details that still need to be accomplished, from small items to large. Since we're not taking Tingum in tow on this trip, we had to move a lot of the fishing and scuba gear off her and stow it back aboard Equinox. While we love the versatility of having Tingum along for diving and fishing, we feel that the longer open crossings we'll be facing would be accomplished more safely without a boat in tow. (I preferred near-perfect sea conditions in which to tow anyway, which meant longer waits in port for great weather windows!) While we will miss having her creature comforts, speed and range for diving and fishing, we will simply make do with our inflatable, Eclipse. Far safer and much less stress during voyages, especially when it will be just the two of us aboard. 

That being said, we actually got out in Tingum today. Ron dropped the boat into the water off the trailer, and I ran it down the St. Lucie River and up the Indian River to the condo, where I then picked him up. While the weather was a bit blustery and cloudy, we couldn't resist just cruising the ICW a bit, eventually going over to Shrimpers in Manatee Pocket for lunch before a leisurely ride back to Outrigger Harbour. It felt great to be out on the water again! 

As to other things that we've been busy with, we've gotten extra paper charts of the Turks and Caicos, double-checked the spares inventory and ordered needed items (making sure we have enough fuel and oil filters for routine changes, for example), double-checked the different routes through the Bahamas en-route to T and C, double-checked the entry requirements for Customs & Immigration (love Noonsite for that!) and are tweaking our food provision lists. Provisioning is always a work in progress until departure, although this time provisioning will be a bit tougher -- we cleared out the majority of foodstuffs aboard knowing we were going to be out of the water for two months. (Not to mention that the boat would be getting rather hot inside without A/C!) So...we have a lot of things to get aboard! Right now, we're trying to add a bit more variety to our meat list, since we got a bit tired of eating so much chicken and pork-chops last winter...! We're going to hit Sam's Club for most of the meat, so I foresee a lot of time at the vacuum sealer, repackaging the large family packs into smaller 2-3 serving packs for freezing and storage. We will have to buy things in a multiple trips, so that we don't end up with too much food and too little freezer space! Again, lists are imperative! (Especially since Ron is sometimes rather good at impulse shopping!) Guess I should add a bit of chocolate to the list to appease his sweet tooth...?