Monday, January 29, 2018

Time to Start Looking North

Viridian has reached the end of the journey south on America's Great Loop.  The Florida Keys was the only place where this year's long arm of winter had a hard time reaching. 



The crew of Viridian is within one week of departing our comfortable slip at Stock Island Marina and making our way north by way of the Gulf of Mexico, back to Ft. Myers and across the Okeechobee to the AICW.  The six-week stay here not only kept us in warm weather and allowed us to explore a unique part of the US butwe also met some of the nicest folks you could ever encounter.  Once the thrill of being in a new place fades, it's the friends you make along the way that mean the most.  Another benefit of staying put for a while is being able to get some things done to Viridian that needed attention.  Things like: replacing the lower shift cable, replacing a bank of batteries, polishing the Strataglass on the fly bridge, start on rebuilding the fresh water plumbing/pipe system, defrosting both freezers, deck maintenance, boat safety inspection and a good cleaning inside and out.  By the time the next weather window opens for our departure, we will at least have our boat in shape, but leaving our new friends will be a bittersweet event.

That's the news and here are some views:

A visit from a Manatee

Turtle Tub

Front yard decoration Florida style  

Momma hen with hatchlings

Lunch with friends

Stepping out of a picture

An evening in Key West

A chicken helping bus the table

2 comments:

  1. Rebuilding fresh water plumbing system! That sounds like a major job.

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  2. Alan, were it not for pex pile and clamp fittings it would be a major job. I replaced the valves on the two freshwater tanks and replaced the polybutylene pipe with 3/4 inch pex pipe up to where the main water line goes to the pump. This only took about an hour to complete. More time was spent unloading and loading the junk back into the lazarette.

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