On Anchor off Apex Marine

...anchored out, our first night...

Immediately after we launched yesterday, we had to drive out of the Hinckley Marina because they had no slip for us. This was really unusual, but we are fine with it. We drove the boat about 8 miles around the town of Stuart Florida and dropped the anchor off Apex Marine. This is one of the marina yards where Mack Sails works on yachts. So we decided to drop anchor off the marina and deal with stowing and organizing all the stuff onboard. We have no dinghy running, we have no car here yet, we are out in the middle of the creek and you know what.....that is just fine with us.

I made a quick LED anchor light as ours was burned out

We are monitoring the presidential election on our 32" Samsung HDTV with digital antenna. We receive 40 digital stations, of course, most are junk, but we get ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS. We are living off solar and wind power, with no need to run the engine for power because the wind is blowing 15-20 and it is also sunny, so we have lots of power. It is a simple peaceful day with lots going on and with no where to go and no way to get there anyway. Imagine that.

Lifting the dinghy off the deck with the jib halyard

Today we needed to rerun the halyards, jib, main, staysail, and spare. These were all pulled down in May and run with cheap chase lines, allowing us to pull them back up now. The reason you take down your halyards is to protect them from UV damage and also to reduce a little windage for storms. With the halyards now rerun, we used the jib halyard to lift the 120 lb 10 ft dinghy off the deck and over the side. This is our transportation and we need to get it back in service. It is our car, our ride to shore, the grocery store, the cocktail parties, it is the way we all get around out here. So, we lifted it off the deck and pushed her over the side and lowered her into the water. BUNS II, as we call her, was happy to be splashed as well. She is a fun expedition explorer vehicle and we love taking her to the beaches and the reefs. Fun times ahead for sure!

A new bubbly to try. We like Gruet from New Mesico or Moet & Chandon from France.
This is reported to be similar.

We will see if this new bubbly is any good

This is an AB 10VL dinghy. It is 120 lbs 10 feet long.
It fits on the foredeck of an IP35 fully inflated.

We added padding with life jackets on top of the forward hatch.
The dinghy seat rests on this spot, so it is perfect.

Radeen assisted as we lowered  BUNS II into the water.

There we go, the foredeck is clear. Now we can see forward and we can work on the mast.

Buns II in the davits with new "trucker straps" 

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Radeen designed new bed quilt comforters for the v-berth bunk and the aft quarter berth bunk and I did the sewing on our Sailrite sewing machine. They are much lighter in weight, since we are going to warmer climates. Now, she is in search of new rugs.

V-berth as arranged by Radeen

V-berth as arranged by Hayden

Why is it so much fun just messing around with a boat? Why? I am not really sure, but it is. We are out here on anchor with no real easy way to get off this boat and we are loving it. We have power, internet, TV, food, water, wine and best of all CHAMPAGNE which gets popped tonight. Year #6 is off to a great beginning. Thanks for sharing this with us. It means so much knowing our friends and family are along.