WINTER BRINGS NEW FREINDS & PROJECTS

As per my last post, we are at the end of the sailing season, ugh. However, the transient boat traffic does continue at Green Turtle Bay Marina. Since owning 0 REGRETS, I have enjoyed touring the transient docks when at the marina in hopes of meeting new boatmen making their way South and beyond. The type and style of boat is as varied as the crew aboard. My latest encounter was with a young couple, Nathan and Jo who began their trip a bit late from Lake Michigan in a 26 ft. sailboat. Please vist and follow their blog http://www.chasing70.com/2012/11/stepping-mast-on-boat.html#!/2012/11/stepping-mast-on-boat.html as they make an eventful journey along the Great Loop.

Jo and Nat sail tomorrow toward the Tennessee-Tom Bigbee waterway with the goal of reaching Mobile Bay near the middle of December. They have been preparing their Elise for this portion of the cruise and provisioning their boat. They are very tired of eating Roman noodles. Just think, only heat is a small propane heater, 3 burner stove, no chart writer, small head, no shower and limited fuel capacity. Just another walk in the park for these two adventurers.

View the map of their cruise and you may have a better understanding of the cruise thus far for this small sailboat and young crew. http://goo.gl/maps/ntHIi As we said our goodbye to Nat and Jo and HMS Elise we are reminded of the many new friends we have made in our short cruising experience. For now we have to live vicariously thru others competing the Great Loop Cruise. This continues to be a dream of ours and we make progress each year in our boat preparations and our personal preparations to escape the terra firma and enjoy a water-way of life.

We continued our Saturday with a trip to the Purple Toad Winery near Paducah, KY. While the building itself is not so quaint the wines are good and they were somewhat helpful with the tastings. We of course aided the local commerce with several bottles of wine for stocking our new wine chiller. Yes that is correct we now have a wine chiller installed in the kitchen of our BLC (best little condo). While I prefer wine with a bit of chill, Denise likes the red wines at room temp. However, we are exploring some new white wines which are better with a slight chill.

Of course the chiller is not stocked but our trip to the winery today will help that vacancy. We have collected wines from many locations across the US during our motor home travels and this will continue via boat. Hopefully some new wines from foreign countries as we eventually venture to the Caribbean waters. I think they have more rum in those waters but manybe we can introduce wines to some long, lost island. I plan several winter projects on 0 Regrets in preparation for the next sailing season. These projects include new captain chairs, teak repair, refinish swim platform and other small projects. These will help pass the winter months knowing we are preparing for next season. I really feel Denise will be good with a heat gun and in stripping varnish from the swim platform. Happy Sailing, Adm. Denise, Captn. Barry, sailors Bella and Bailey.