Last day preparations

Seafever
Sat 13 Feb 2010 12:06
Today is our last day before leaving, and aside from the lingering phone debacle, all is going well. We're calm and busy.

Still waiting for my serial cable to arrive. Each day I go to the post office expectantly. Wednesday . . .  nothing. Thursday . . . nothing. Friday . . . nothing. But today, Saturday, I have high hopes. The mail arrives around 10:00 – in 3 hours – but who’s counting?
     Then, even if the cable arrives and fits and successfully connects our USB adapter to the phone, we may find that the problem is a fault in the modem circuit of the phone itself. At that point, we would rent a phone, which can be done on fairly short notice. Or, if the cable does not arrive today, I can go to a computer store in Miami and buy one. But I’m hopeful that all will come together and the phone will dial a data call today.

The rest of the day will be spent loading the boat, cleaning the house, getting everything ready for an early start tomorrow. We have a lot of clothes still go on board. More food, plus making the pile of “not freezable” food right by the door for quick loading into the car tomorrow morning. Pots and pans, our large collection of sunscreen, a couple of small boxes of gadgets and cords. . . . We need to pull the dinghy out of the barn and tow it over the snow to be strapped upside-down in the cockpit, last of all. I've loaded my "trailer toolbox" full of spare bearings, light bulbs, wrenches, jacks, the grease gun, electrical wire, etc. We have extra oil and transmission fluid and wiper fluid and the tire pump in the car. . . . The list of little things to *not forget* seems endless.

I have to go scrape as much snow off the hill part of our driveway as possible. I’ve run our plow truck over it repeatedly, but the big plow tends to scrape the center crown and leave an inch of packed snow in the tire tracks. So I’ll clear that by hand, and lay down sand as necessary to make sure we can descend without losing control.

We’ve been watching PassageWeather.com to see how things look for a crossing of the Gulf Stream.
Here’s what is looks like for today: YIKES! No thanks.
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But the 20th, a week from today, looks promising. We’ll have to see if this forecast holds. Predicting weather a week away is not a very exact science.
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While we wait for our weather window, we’ll probably sail around Biscayne Bay, and if we’re delayed by more than a week, we’ll sail down among the Keys for a while.

But first . .  we have to finish all our packing here, and then get to Florida!