Waiting out the winter.

Ship's Log - March 19

Mark and I knew at the end of the Down East Loop Trip that we would definitely plan to do another trip. That has evolved into the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway of the East Coast) to either the Bahamas or the Keys. The plan is the Bahamas for the winter of 09 - 10, but boating things are always fluid (ha-ha). The next part of the plan was the boat. As much as we loved the Jarvis Newman (our red boat) it did not hold enough fuel or water for a longer trip. The shopping commenced almost before we returned from the last trip in 06. We shopped Maine. We shopped New England. We shopped Annapolis and finally Florida. There we found the next boat. She is an Eagle 40 Pilothouse Trawler and she arrived via truck in Maine in April of 08. During the time - oh, she is now AVALON - we have had with her we discovered that changes needed to be made to indeed do that long distance cruising and be able to stay "on the hook". She was set up to be a marina boat and we like to anchor out. ($$$!!! for marinas though occasionally it is a necessity.)

Since Mark is recently "retired" (only needs to show up occasionally) he has been hard at work on going over the boat from stem to stern replacing hoses and wiring, adding engine fire suppression systems, setting up computer navigation, collaborating with the yard on a stern door, designing dingy attachment equipment, overseeing power systems installation upgrading, sewing new upholstery for the cushions and on and on. I am still working so have not done a whole lot except to start studying the charts.

During last summer's cruising we spent some time at the dock at Billing's Marine in Stonington.

That's the guys hard at it installing a beefier alternator. All sorts of boats were at the dock there - absolutely gorgeous to how-in-the-heck-does-that-thing-float?












This summer will be shake down cruise time and hopefully we will be able to depart @ September 1. Right now AVALON is in Harpswell at Great Island Boat Yard awaiting bottom cleaning and painting.