Today we went for a morning swim, Barbara finished the curtains for the living room and we decided to go out for the rest of the day. We drove down Route 1 to Fort Pierce and went to Heathcote Botanical Garden (http://heathcotebotanicalgardens.org/). The Garden covers about 2 acres and has many different types of gardens. As you walk from one small garden to the next you get a sense of the diversity of plants that will grow in Florida’s climate. In the back of the garden there is a replica of a 1880’s frontier cabin. In the one room cabin you can see the fireplace at one end and how they put a door on each side for ventilation. They also have a Seminole chickee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickee), it did not have the raised floor of a true chickee but we think that is because they do not want children to crawl under it. I liked the Japanese garden with it’s coy pond and the bonsai collection. I also found a clump of Tropical Blue Bamboo which was a new variety for me and as you can see from the pictures it has a blue tint to it. It took us just over an hour to walk through the garden and we enjoyed it very much.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
New Stove, Finally
Well today Barbara finally got her new stove and if you look carefully at the pictures you will see that there are cookies (chocolate chip) in the oven already. WOO HOO!!!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Barn Cat Sail
Today I went sailing with my Brother-In-law George on the Barn Cat, his cat boat. We started out around 9:40 AM and were in the water around 10:15. Then we had to motor down the St. Sebastian River until we got under the railroad bridge and the US Highway 1 bridge. Once we were on the other side of the bridges George got the mast and sail up. Once this was done we turned the motor off and tacked up the Indian River Lagoon heading north. We sailed back and forth across the Inter Costal Water Way always getting a little bit further north with each tack. Around 2:15 after sailing north all day it was time to head back south. The wind had changed from due north to more easterly so we had a straight sail on a broad reach (If you want to know what a broad reach is look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Points_of_sail) all the way back to the US Hwy 1 bridge. This took about 40 minutes, 2 hours to go north, 40 minutes to go south, which point of sail do you think is more efficient? Then it was time to start the motor and take down the sail and mast. Once we were back at the dock George got the Barn Cat back onto the trailer and we were on our way home. Back at Whispering Palms RV Park we rinsed out the motor and also got the salt off of the hull and deck and then parked the trailer back into it’s storage spot.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
New Stove and Used Refrigerator
Today I got up and got busy finishing up the work needed to be done for the new stove and refrigerator (ok the refrigerator is used, but it is newer then the one we have). First up was to put new tiles on the floor under the stove and paint around the edges of the cabinets. After finishing that I had to pull the old refrigerator out of the space. That was a bit of a challenge but I got it out, the old frig does not have wheels on it (I hope the new one does, forgot to check). After cleaning the walls and floor I put new tile down for under the refrigerator and painted around the edges. Tomorrow when the new appliances are delivered I will have to take the glass doors out again (This time I know were all the screws are) to get the refrigerator through it.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Ray Goes Sailing
Barbara and I arrived at Ed’s condo around 10 AM as planned and after saying good bye to our respective wives Ed, Joe and I were off to the marina. We boarded Ed’s 31 foot sailboat around 11:00 AM and after removing the sail and windshield covers and unplugging from shore power we untied her from the dock and we were on our way. Ed let me steer out of the marina and out into the channel on the river, it is a section of the inter-coastal water way that runs up and down the east coast. On the map below the top pushpin is were we started and the bottom one was our goal to get out the Ponce Inlet and do some ocean sailing.
We motor sailed (that is running under power with at least one sail up) down the channel to Ponce Inlet. On the way we saw many dolphins and other wild life. When we got to the inlet the tide was going out and with the waves from the ocean coming in we were hitting some 5 to 6 foot swells, nothing that the boat could not handle. Captain Ed said that if the wind had been out of the east instead of the north we would not have even tried to get out the inlet. Once we got into the ocean we set a course of 050 degrees, set the auto pilot and enjoyed the peace and quite after we shut the engine off. We sailed along for about 40 minutes until one of the crew (me) started to turn a bit green so we turned around a bit early and headed back toward the inlet. Once we got back to the inlet and the boat stopped going up and down so much the crew member made a complete recovery (with out losing his lunch). On the way back through the inlet to the channel a coast guard boat was coming back in and slowed down so I could get a good picture. We tried to sail back up the channel but the wind was coming straight at us out of the north so it was just a boat ride all the way back. Once back at the slip we tied up the boat and then put the dingy on the foredeck. We were back at the condo around 17:30 (5:30 PM). I totally enjoyed the whole day, even with getting a bit sick, the next time I will remember to take some Dramamine before we set sail.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Electric All Done
After climbing under the trailer about a dozen times I got the electric for the new stove installed.
