Sorry, Its Been a While....

Welcome to our Blog. Our latest entry always comes up first... 
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning:
FIRST BLOG ENTRY
If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP
If you want to see the story of our trip from South Carolina
(where we bought the boat)
 to Lake Ontario Click this link:
  SOUTH CAROLINA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have been sadly reticent in our blogging over the last few weeks..... I could share a litany of excuses, but the truth is we have been really busy having fun....

Our friends, Mike & Margaret have taken some time off the island, so Shelley and I have been house sitting and helping out where we can at the dive shop....  We are now ready to move on from Cozumel.  On Monday we plan to finish our paperwork and leave Cozumel and then head for the Poco del Torros region of Panama....

On a sad note, we fried our SSB radio which was going to leave us stranded.  We use our SSB to communicate at sea, so it is a vital piece of offshore equipment.  After we discovered that the radio was sick, we found a service center in Florida, but had to somehow get it there.... Fortunately, Mike & Margaret were going to Florida and so we thought this should work out really well.....  So we thought...  The service center is located in Tallahassee Florida in northern Florida and they were flying into Fort Lauderdale, so they sent it via Fed Ex overnight with "priority" next day delivery before 8:30am.  

The next morning we called the repair place to learn the radio did not arrive!  After getting the runaround on the phone from Cozumel to USA, we learned that the idiots sent it from Fort Lauderdale to Memphis Tennessee in a snowstorm, where it got delayed with NO APOLOGY or compensation.....  Did I mention they charged us $148.00!!!!!!!! for an 11 pound small box...  In the end, it arrived on Monday (3 days later) and was quickly repaired but missed its ride back to the island with Mike & Margaret...  In the end, we shipped it to Oklahoma for $24 where our good friend, Terri was kind enough to bring it ith her on the plane to Cozumel this week....  The great news is, we installed it today and it is working fine....  FYI the repair cost almost $700 plus shipping.... All because a waterline blew a hose clamp near the radio..... We won't be letting that happen again...

On a happier note, we now have a fully functioning watermaker and now produce 20 gallons of water per hour.... cool... A few weeks ago, Mike and Margaret took a bunch of people out for an afternoon cruise on their boat, Winning Ticket....  A fine time was had by all....

 Our friends, Andrea and Mike....

 Troy & Denise

On a trip, I speared a good size Lionfish....

If that wasn't fun enough, Troy and Denise took us with Ann (his mom) to the fisherman's colectivo where we feasted on more lionfish and lobster heads...

 Last Sunday, Shelley and I took Dillan around the Island and we met up with friends at a "Doggy Day at the Beach"

 

Last week Kloster Beer went on SALE!  Troy bought half the "mountain"...  The price was about $2.75 for a 6 pack.... At home, the same 6 pack would cost almost $12.00

On the island we have a "Sams Club"  last week we went out for pizza....

But most days we just cook on the boat.... We do have a great back yard....

A few days ago, I set up my new flash system and took a few test shots.... Not bad... I think...

More soon.... Likely from Panama... Cheers!