Unintended early morning departure

Bergey woke us up at 6am.  "WE ARE AT SEA!"
Sure enough, the strong winds for the past 4 days apparently took its toll on our mooring line and chaffed through it.  Early morning fire drill to say the least.  We drifted at least 3 miles.
Lesson learned:  If the mooring system has two floats on it, you should have a separate line for each one, not pass one line through both!
Second Lesson relearned:  Check the lines daily for chafe.

A little more of Bonaire

We took a water taxi over to Klein Bonaire, an island off of the island of Bonaire to go snorkeling because it was too windy to take our own dink.  The snorkeling was okay but a good chance to try out the under water camera.  Diving must be awesome as the water drops off straight down and superior diving is what Bonaire is known for.  Leaving for Curacao in the morning to find a place to watch the Broncos, laundry and pick up our new crew.  The wind has finally let down for us to make the 41 miles passage to Curacao.

A little of Bonaire

Salt mining from sea water at the south end of the island.

Pink flamingos in the salt water drying ponds. 

Bergey making friends with the locals.

Bonaire is lovely!

Sharing photos since internet is sooo slow.
Simba lost his bracelet while trying to pick up a mooring last night in the pitch black so Bergey went to try to find it.  He located it but it took Bruce to free dive the 22 feet to retrieve it.  Yeah!

More pics when I have better internet.

Last pic before Bonaire

Light bulbs, batteries and filters.  Check!

The boys at sunset on Grenada

Engine is purring like a kitten, internet access good, water maker is the process of being tested; everything is working, so far!!

Another 70th Birthday pic

Bergey's 70th birthday!!!!

SPLASH DOWN AND IN THE WATER!

FRC is in the water!  No black smoke from the engine!  All fueled up, refers chilling down and we're looking good.  GPS and the new computer not working but "sparky" is coming Monday to figure it out.
Provisioning begins tomorrow at Hi-Lo.  Price Smart isn't open on Sundays.  Oh boy, now my work begins.

No SPLASHING today....

 All four injector pumps were frozen and therefore no engine.  We'll know by the end of the day if we can go into the water on a Saturday at the whim of the travel lift operator on over time.  And Bruce, obviously with fuel filter in hand.   The injector problem just set us a back one or more days.  What else are we going to find?

Mellow waxing the hull.

The Chicken on the hard, ready to launch tomorrow

Bruce says it looks in great shape since I typically won't go on the boat when its on the hard, but tomorrow will be a busy day.  Never know what you're going to find once it gets in the water!

Typical Bruce at LAX. Always held in detention.

Somehow, American Airlines is experimenting with pre verified people to go through TSA.  We were two of them at LAX.  No lines, didn't have to take off shoes (Bruce did because he triggered the alarm), light jackets and sweaters okay, as were belts and computers still in the carry-on's.  Sweet!   For those of you familiar with LAX, the lines are an hour or more long at certain times of the day and with someone with new knees and titanium in your back, you are sure to be detained and intensively screened.

Successful car trip from Colorado to California. Next stop Trinidad.

I made 40 cents an hour tonight!

I spent 2 + hours making a string a Christmas lights work by replacing burnt out lights before putting them away for next year.



Getting ready for Trinidad!

While we haven't personnally seen Baby Bear, here's evidence he still hasn't gone to sleep

In the paper on 1/3/14. 

FRC update:  Bruce and I will be leaving Colorado on Wednesday 1/8 to take the cats to California.  We will be leaving LAX Tuesday night 1/14 for Port of Spain, Trinidad to get the boat back in the water for our trip North to Grenada, then West to the ABC's, which includes Aruba. 
Back on the water again...Yeah!

Anyone know what caused this?

Acetone!  Last time I had it I was cleaning the wenches on Chicken Little about 10 years ago.