Independence is great!

Today was a heck of a mixed bag!  After coffee we got right to work to take advantage of the relatively cooler morning temps, you know, with a heat index just below 100F.  In a major twist, the Captain and I switched rolls--he went up the mast to swap out the steaming/deck light and I stayed on deck to man the winch!  That was some hard work on both ends!

I cleaned up the dinghy and dewatered a hold while he was aloft, then the 2nd Mate and I went on a little dinghy ride.

After that rough morning, it was time for a refreshing trip to Pop Brothers.  This may be our favorite place in town!

And that was just the morning!  After lunch we bit the bullet, opened our wallets, and headed over to the carnival. The kids rode a few rides, but it was stupidly hot so we went to the splash pad.  Who cares if your clothes get wet?  

As if that wasn't enough, I decided to attack the barnacles on the hull when we got back.  There were jellyfish everywhere so I stayed in the dinghy and just hit the waterline.  It sucked and was crazy hot, but it's done!  Then we flushed the a/c lines and cleaned the filters before finally kicking back to relax.  The heat kept us from getting a ton done, but we made some progress!  And we think we've narrowed the forward a/c issue down to low freon.  More on that later--it's about time to enjoy the Gulfport, MS fireworks!

A holiday surprise

Well, we arrived at the boat to two surprises.  1--a freaking carnival was set up adjacent to the marina.  2--after a quick dinghy ride it was clear the a/c was not doing well.

So of course we listened to the bands while we worked on the a/c!  Kids weren't thrilled, but we spent the night clearing the strainer which was totally gross and full of critters.  The forward a/c still isn't really cooling, but the aft perths were great at bed time.  Free wifi--the kids survived!

Time to fix stuff!

We headed back to the boat today after stocking up on long dock lines and cleaning gear.  We lost a fender sometime in the past 4 days, so we adjusted all the lines, added a line, and fixed up the fender situation.  Between storm clouds I headed up the mast for an inspection.  It's always great to get a new perspective!

Now it's time to shop for replacement lights!  We also grabbed the scuba tank to get it inspected/filled.  It was a short trip, but we are happy with what we got done.

On the way home we treated ourselves to artisan ice pops (yes, it's a thing!) at Pop Brothers in Gulfport.  Oh man, that was good!

We're home!

After a rather easy day on the ICW, we made it! We are now officially "home" at the Gulfport Municipal Marina!

Monday funday--fuel, dolphins, and OPLATs

Today's excitement started during Frank's balls-to-04 watch (that's for all our SWO buddies!).  At about 0100 he woke me and called me onto deck (in my skivvies!) so he could investigate intermittent slowing of the engine.  Thankfully it was quickly resolved by switching fuel filters, made especially easy with our Racor dual filter system.  It always happens at night!

0400-0800 watch was awesome again!  Look at that sunrise!  We were offshore between Destin and Pensacola by this point.

Katreina joined me around 0700, just in time for a ton of dolphins to join us!

Just before noon we entered the ICW in Pensacola and began an afternoon on the water with Memorial Day boaters.  They were really quite good with ROR!  

This ICW is really nice--wide and deep!  We had some pretty big thunderstorms in the area, but they kept to the north of us so we pressed on.  After we crossed into Alabama the traffic got more commercial and we saw our first oil platforms.

We pushed on to an anchorage at the west end of Dauphin Island for the night. It was the first time we'd stopped the engines in 56hrs.  Yes, I know it's a sailboat.  But <5kts or 10kts on the nose aren't going to get us where we need to be.  Anchorage was great!  We enjoyed a few beers, I took a quick skinny dip in the insanely warm water, and we took showers up on deck.  And with the breeze it cooled off enough for a good night of sleep.  I've missed all of this so much.