Before we get to work, the view from the office really is not so bad. Every morning I try and take a moment to enjoy the surroundings. I have been a little disappointed that have not seen the alligator again.

As I started the week with installing the antenna for the Single Sideband antenna I discovered a couple mounting holes needing to be filled. A little Marine Tex to fill followed by a little sanding. While I was sanding I decided no time like the present to knock another thing off the list and that was getting ready to paint over the green with blue…thats another day though.

The antenna went in fine and the radio is working perfectly! In other news…I walked past the sewing room the other day. The canvas guys had taken Annette’s stool out with the rest of the cushions for re-covering. This is what I found in the sewing room. A true Seamless Sailor does not let a lack of stool slow her down!

The big goal for the week was get the cabinetry work done around the refrigerator and have that installed. The surround and the door panels were cut from a single piece of veneer.

Our carpenter Ray did a terrific job. He executed out vision perfectly!!!

We are really happy with the outcome. It definitely brightened the galley!

It really cooled right down too! Now for the geeks among us…The fridge we selected was the Nova Kool RFU9000. It runs on 120VAC or 12VDC drawing just 5.2 amps. We have both modes wired and will use DC when we are on the hook and way from the dock.

In addition Magnolia received her first thorough bath this weekend.  We have not made time to giver her a good scrubbing so it was about time. She is going to need at least two more before she up to snuff!

We also removed the old name and are working on the lettering for the new name. We are looking to use similar lettering as was on sailing Magnolia. 

Giving her one last rinse before calling it a day

Up this week is getting a real start on the electronics installation.

Its hard to believe it was only a week ago that Irma was in town visiting us…actually we left town and she followed us up the western side of the state. Even with the Irma on the other side of the state our friend Ray at the yard sent me this as the water started to come up…as you can see water is just over the docks at this point and went up another couple of feet after.

We can not express enough the appreciation to our friends Ty & Suzanne for taking us in on short notice. Their kind hospitality sure did a lot to relieve some of the anxiety of where to go and what to do! Besides, the view looking out at the Oaks and Spanish Moss over my morning coffee was not too tough to take!

By midweek the though it was time to get on back to Stuart and thankfully the power was restored at the same time. This is the view of Magnolia upon our arrival. We went right to work moving the extra boxes back to the rental house and getting Magnolia resettled.

The house we are renting is a cute little place about 500 yards down the creek from the boatyard. Its right on the water. It really is a lovely location.

View from the porch towards creek

Looking up the creek to the boatyard Magnolia is moored right behind the boat photo bombing the picture!

My grill area needs a little post Irma clean up but it will do nicely

A Capitol Grill Steak knife can only mean one thing for dinner!!! We gong to be easy to be here so if you have a day or two, think about trip down. We already have our first guests coming next month and very excited!!!

Even with a short week a few things got done. The Refrigerator below was dry fit with the new cabinet. I also got the galley exhaust fan installed along with some only hardware removed from the top side decks and the holes filled. Have some big goals for the coming week! Oh, yes, we did get some bad news in the Main Engine PTO Coupler we were having made was delayed and now the delivery date for that is delayed 30 days. That hurts but there is mush to get done!

Have a great week! Be Safe! PS Thank you again Ty & Suzanne

We are now appreciating our previous visits to Maine during hurricane season. We knew we might be facing this eventuality being in Florida during August and September…more on that in a minute. Annette and I had been staying in this little AirBnB for the first two months. We both needed an upgrade so we rented a house near the boatyard. To celebrate our pending location we declared date night for a terrific evening out!

We spent the Sunday moving into our new place, more on that….Monday though got right work installing a power connections for the Single Side Band Radio (left fuses) and also the Outback Solar Charge Controller (right side black box)

Then there was Tuesday and Irma starting making threats to the east coast of Florida. As a precaution the boatyard workers started to make some preparations.

Wednesday then we make a quick trip down to Palm Beach to a friends condominiums to pull the hurricane curtains.  Keeping in mind this is our first hurricane experience.

A real rookie mistake was made….if we were more experienced we would have known to pull the table and planters inside..completely amateur.

So after moving all our stuff from the AirBnB and from our storage unit into the new house we had a wonderful two days there. Then Irma got serious and since the new house is on the water. My dear angel wife, known as the Admiral re-packed everything back together so we could stow it on the Magnolia-M. See the house is right on the canal shore and with talk of a 7 foot storm we thought best to have everything on the boat. Hence this is how the sewing room now looks!

The master suite…

The Galley….

All the while Annette was packing the house, I was getting educated on the industrial level storm shutters at the boat yard.

The question is always if you leave a hurricane threatened area you might head towards a more hurricane threatened area!! As the decision had been made to head north-west the phone rings and my friend Ty says come on up to the Villages! It was a was the perfect call at the perfect moment..so we were off! On the way we passed Mount Dora, one of the highest points in FL….its like 150ft!!

The drive should have taken us 3 hours but with most of South Florida heading towards North Florida so the trip took closer to 7 hours. Along the way we had plenty of entertainment!

Hurricane preparations continued in The Villages with a work party to get the outdoor furniture in.

Now, going back to that part about going into the storm rather than away…well we managed to pull that one off as well. In our efforts to avoid the storm we have in fact lured Irma well away from Magnolia-M as the storm track has shifted well west. It was funny to me that these guys had no furniture to move, no preparations to make except for another round of golf…kinda surreal….

Meanwhile back at Stuart Yacht Magnolia-M is starboard tied with and spider webbed to the other side of the fairway waiting for Irma to pass on by.

If all goes well we will be back aboard by mid week.

Weeks like these with the challenges, physically and mentally make us second guess our choice of this lifestyle. At least I do. Annette is such a trooper you would not believe. She puts her shoulder into it and gets it done. When I am at my worst she is at her best. Feeling lucky..be safe and will write when we are back aboard. We have gotta get this girl Magnolia done…too many adventures await!

9/11/17 – We obviously came through the storm fine. Now we are just waiting for power restoration so we can get back aboard and get to work.