Panacea: November 2014

Friday, November 28, 2014

Pix

Cruise ship passing just off our slip

An early HH and picnic supper at the beach, sans dogs!!

Sea oats

BBQ at friend's home in central Ga

No sunset is ever the same

Morning walks on the beach

Suesea - our fav dock dog ready for Halloween

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Monday, November 24, 2014

The first week or so back at Jekyll was primarily spent getting Panacea cleaned up. It is amazing how dirty she gets, both inside and out during a trip. We cleaned every square inch of the outside as she was covered in salt along with a little good ole dirt! The isenglass was cleaned as well as all the stainless. We didn't work all day, every day as it took almost a week for us to feel rested up. We would work about 4 hours a day and then just relax. Most of the old crowd is still here along with some new folks. The restaurant on the premises has changed hands and the food is very good which is a welcome change. Every Thurs nite they offer free beer to the marina so most of us go up and enjoy a good meal together. One of the couples on the dock hosted a Cajun Boil (she is from New Orleans) at the picnic area. It was a really cold evening, but there was a fire and the boil was delicious! Yes, we have had the cold weather, too! It's all relative, but for here it has been very cold for this time of year. Looks like it will be another one of those winters!! One of the dock couples have a home about an hour from here and one Sunday we all drove out there for the afternoon to BBQ. They have such a beautiful spot in the country with their own pond that they stock. The men all brought their guns and practiced shooting. Guns are VERY BIG down here. A couple of them let Alan use their guns. It was a great afternoon. The are not far from Okefenokee Swamp - a must see, I hear. Hmmmmm........they say that alligators roam the parking lot. Seriously? I am going to have to think this one over!! Our friends here, from New Hampshire, just purchased a trawler (they say it is our fault!!) and arrived yesterday to spend a couple weeks on her. They are so excited and yet overwhelmed. Exactly how we felt. We have spent the last week stripping caulk from around the windows, sanding the frames and recaulking. We finished just before the rains started. Once the weather breaks for awhile we will paint the frames. There were a few areas that needed to be addressed and we just felt we might as well do all of them now, rather than later. No different than a dirt house folks - same maintence issues!! That will be the last outside job until spring. Now we will move inside as there are always projects there, too. I'm going to attempt to publish some pix, so if you don't see them you will know why?!?!

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Let's hope this works!!

Well, folks, it has been awhile. My blog program was/is really jacked up. It APPEARS that the problem has resolved itself (certainly nothing I did). I am going to break up the blogs into smaller consecutive sections as I don't know that it has not be saved until after I have published it. It will say it has been published and saved, but it LIES!! Anyway, I will begin with a short synopsis of our trip down "the ditch" to Jekyll. I think I left off about a week or so into it. All in all, it was a great trip. Much easier than the first trip - learning curve getting smaller and comfort zone getting larger!! The last 13 days we had great weather windows so decided we better run with it. We would leave at the crack of dawn and pull into a marina around 4-5 pm. Mostly 9-10 hour days. After arriving the routine was to secure the boat, get the doggies to shore to take care of business, back to boat for HH and dinner, take dogs out again, take a shower and hit the bed. No time for anything else as the days are shorter now, and besides we didn't have the energy. By the end we knew we were getting pretty worn out and it was a big relief to arrive at Jekyll. Scott was good enough to put us on the face dock again, per our request. This marina is getting busier and busier and they have added/upgraded a lot of amenities. We had a really good feeling upon completion of this trip - learning all the time, but actually taking the time to relax and enjoy the trip. Panacea performed flawlessly and you can just feel how happy she is to be back out on the water. The boys were angels, including Alan!!

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