December 2008

We arrived in Florida on November 25th and inspected Passage at the Glades Boat Storage. She was in great shape inside, but sported the usual black, green and pink exterior. Five days of hard work handicapped by the chest coughs that we brought south with us rewarded us with a successful launch on December 1st.


We launched at 10:30 and motored 27 nautical miles to the Franklin Lock Marina, where we spent two nights recovering from our hard work, and sterilizing water tanks. There were five catamarans at the eight slip marina, including three Geminis.







We motored to Legacy Harbour Marina on December 3rd. and began rigging the boat by installing halyards, bending on sails, etc. We hired Eric to rub out the smooth gelcoat from the rubrail up and then we applied two coats of wax. Passage now looks as good as new. We also had an aluminum post welded to a base at the correct angle to mount to our transom. We then mounted our Track It TV device and Direct TV dish. The installation came out great!


During the rest of December we daysailed on the Caloosahatchee River, and visited with friends.

John Spencer and Brenda Carter on Some Dream, another Gemini, were docked near us during this time. We enjoyed many "happy hours" with them, as well as entertaining walks in the neighborhoods nearby.




We celebrated Christmas with our dear friends Craig and Helen Wilson and several of their invited guests on Christmas eve.
We continued to prep the boat, replacing the lenses on two of our hatches, changing the oil in the engine, etc., until we were ready to start cruising. In this way December passed into history.