Summer Winterization & More...

Since we've been back at Legacy it's been a flurry of activity on board Tourist. It actually started on Tuesday shortly after we pulled into the slip and hooked up the power. Draining the oil from the generator and both engines while they were hot. As if I wasn't sweating enough from the 90 degree outside temps! Fortunately Tourist has a built in pump that with the flick of a switch sucks the oil out. All I have to do is make sure the discharge hose is pointed into the drain bucket and hold on. Reverse the process with fresh oil and the engines are full. A nice feature found on most diesel powered boats nowadays.

While I was messing around in the engine room Pam was creating turmoil on the inside. If you know Pam then you know everything has its' place, so for her to have the clutter sitting around as seen in the picture took quite a few sedatives!

Once the engine room work was done (oil, filters, clean sea strainers, suck up water with shop vac) I headed to the fly bridge to start cleaning. From our travels we had picked up a little salt spray along the way and it was time to remove it. From there I went through the overhead hatch and started cleaning from the top down. Not my favorite place to be when the boat is rocking!

One of the problems with summer storage is humidity. Awhile back Pam saw an infomercial for a product called Space Bags. You put the item inside, zip it shut, and suck the air out (with a vacuum)! We found them at Wal-Mart. The pictures show four of our pillows before and after air removal. Amazing! Bedding, towels, anything that might hold moisture or rust was put into a Space Bag.

On Sunday we picked up our rental car from Hertz and started to pack it full. By the time we were done the back bumper was only a few inches off the ground! It looked like we had every earthly possession in that car!(a.k.a. Beverly Hillbillies). Once loaded we took the car to River Forest to await our arrival in Tourist.

On the way over we passed this "Chain Gang" working along the highway.

Tuesday came and it was time to turn out the lights at Legacy. With our departure the place looks like a ghost town. Only a few permanent residents left. We had a nice ride across the Caloosahatchie through a few bridges and 2 locks before arriving at River Forest Yachting Center. Tourist is getting the hull polished before getting tucked into one of the two massive buildings for a rest. At least she'll have company as 3 other boats from Legacy are in the same building!

Where Tourist will reside for the hurricane season.

Soaking wet from sweating Pam & I packed the few remaining items into the car and headed north. Since we've been slackers for the past few months we decided our first night should be spent in a place that would replenish our mental capacities. You guessed it. A Holiday Inn Express in Haines City, Fl. Boy did that shower feel good! Oh yeah. I'm now a rocket scientist!

We spotted this sign at a rest area along I-10. Not sure if they mean the serpents or the motorists?
As you can tell by travelling on I-10 we went a bit off the normal route home. Reason is we stopped in Iuka, Ms. to look at a 53' Selene Ocean Trawler. Hmmm! We both liked it. Now what? Well, gotta close out for now. Pammick just spotted a dead mouse in a sticky trap out in the garage!