Nov 17, 2014

All crew has arrived and we are getting ready to leave.  John arrived from NJ on the 13th and helped with getting the board re-arranged.  Normally we use the forward cabins and the crew cabin as storage.  Now we have to find a home for all the stuff to allow them to actually use their berths.  Since Pat was not going along I decided to fill her side of the master cabin with the stuff (defined as dog kennels, dog food, diving gear, etc.)  The cockpit cushions that normally reside below were put into service in the proper place, in the cockpit.

The two Brits, Tim and Gary, from PYD (Professional Yacht Delivery), a company I have used many times in Europe arrived on the 15th per plan.  We then had time to go over all the systems on the boat as well as establish normal safety requirements and watch schedules.  Tim has been on the boat before so was familiar with most of the systems.  of course since that time I had changed a few but nothing of concern.  Gary was on his learning curve and fell right in line with the program.

Craig and Jonathan fro MazOcean came on time to replace the defective radar dome in the morning.  We needed this dome as soon as possible since a cold front was coming through Florida.  Cold fronts cause the winds to come from the north, against the flow of the Gulf Stream.  This make very rough conditions for crossing the Gulf Stream so we needed to beat that weather.  MazOcean came through and we had a new radar installed by 10:00 am.  One last check of everything was done and we headed over to the fuel dock.  Quickly fueled we headed over to the 17th Street bascule bridge for the 11:00 opening.