November- Down to the Nitty Gritty

The realities or practical details of a matter. (1952 )

Humm...I guess this will do. I guess "Nitty Gritty" is an individual thing. My definition is based on the Idea " Down to the Nitty Gritty". Well what do you leave to do last? I leave the most unfavorable thing to Me to do last. The Admiral has asked me to take care of a few things that would definitely make the boat better but they were not issues concerning safety or Fun! Since I had taken care of all the things I was concerned with I decided to tackle those less pleasant task just for the Admiral. The Nitty Gritty. After all it is much better to do this stuff in a familiar town where you have a car and know where to go to get the stuff you need to get it fixed.

November has been a non stop effort to address the 23 items found in Mike Firestone's Survey.
Each of the items were relatively inexpensive to accomplish individually but when you add it all up it has been the most expensive month especially when you add in the provisioning to go cruising with the Admiral. Wandr'in Star is loaded down and I joked with my dockmates we would be cruising a submarine that is Sloop rigged. I reminded the Admiral that we would not be leaving the US for the 1st year.....but I think she talked to a few previous cruising Admirals who each had their own suggestion of what to bring along.

Well Guess what, it is ok that we will burn a little extra diesel or go a sail a little slower...We are Going. If you happen to be one of our friends or family and can join us along the way please pack small...and you will be sleeping in the Salon since the V-berth is full of everything we need to do an Atlantic crossing.
Thanks to Dean and Aleta on S/V Adagio who made a recent cruise to and from New Orleans, we have a wealth of knowledge to begin our cruise. We learned that Skipper Bob's is the goto cruising guide. ActiveCaptin is essential to have on the Ipad for local information. SeaClear II is an essential for the laptop since you can download the most current NOAA Raster charts and do all your route planning. We have all of our electronics and backups up to date.
We also got a debriefing from Steve and Carol who made the trip on their Defeavor 44 and are now is Carrabel Florida. They drove back to CC for Dr. visits and celebrated with us in a little Bon Voyage party Wendy & Randy hosted for us. Man ... it is time to go, We hope to Go Wednesday but weather will tell. It will be all ICW to New Orleans, then after getting fat there we will move to Mobile Bay and eventually move slowly about around can Florida to the East Coast.
If you have our email let me know if you would like a link to our Spot. Or you can just find us on Facebook and Spot will update there. To busy to post pics on this post....see you on the GICW.