Ahoy!

We are back on dry land and once again aboard Odyssey, still parked at a friend's. There is much to recount about our time aboard the Miami Mermaid, which I will save for another post, perhaps tomorrow. Rather, for those not interested in our nautical exploits, I will herewith update our schedule:

Steve leveraged his extensive local knowledge and contacts to get us an appointment first thing Monday morning at Atlantic Ford Truck to get our leaky coolant hose replaced. This is a critical item; it's down low in the system, and so we can easily leak most of our coolant out here. Also, the hose is 20+ years old, and could rupture at any moment. We need to deal with this before we drive anyplace else. Consequently, we are here in Steve's driveway until Monday morning.

We've desperately needed to do laundry for a few days now, and Steve offered us use of his machines today, so that chore is now behind us. Louise marveled at how large residential machines have become, rivaling the large commercial ones she favors when we stop at the laundromat. Also, I called the Dania post office this morning, and my eBay-purchased computer parts along with two packages of our mail from Washington were all in, so this afternoon I picked them up on the scooter. That leaves us ready-to-roll just as soon as the coolant hose is fixed.

In other news, our good friends Martin and Steph from California have arrived in Naples, coincident with the arrival by truck of Martin's 43' Tiara yacht. The boat is on the hard now, but should splash Monday or Tuesday. As long as we are within striking distance of Naples (~100 miles or so), we will be heading over there after the hose repair to visit with them before they embark on a grand cruise through the Caribbean. I am hoping (hint, hint, Martin) that the boat will be in the water when we arrive, and we'll get to do a short test cruise with them. We've been on his boat before, and I am taken with the whizzy azimuth propulsion system.

So I expect the earliest we will be heading north is around Wednesday or so. I want to leave plenty of time for a leisurely drive to DC, with perhaps a visit or two thrown in. We skipped some folks on the way south due to schedule and illness. And, yes, we've read the increasingly dire warnings about driving into the DC region for the inauguration, and, no, we're still not telling anyone where we plan to park (or what backup options A, B, and C are).

In a few minutes we will head out to dinner with our hosts. Tomorrow I have a list of household cleanup items, and, with luck, I'll have enough time to post the story of our Trawler School Charter here.