Remember when I said that the more we accomplish, the longer our to-do list gets? Well this has proved to be true once again here at the Burnt Store Marina.

We made it out of the canal and through the lock into salt water on Monday afternoon. It was a perfectly uneventful first trip. The wind was on our nose, so we had to motor the entire time. We were in the middle of our 30 mile voyage when we got this feeling that we weren’t making any headway – with the wind to our nose at 20 knots, we weren’t! 2.5 knots is painfully slow, even if you are having a blast on your new boat. It turns out that our propeller was under sized and under pitched for the ratio of the brand new transmission in our boat. Add it to the list….

The next day we had Captain Ron’s friend Bill dive to remove our propeller so that we could take it to Coastal Prop Technologies Inc. for some advice. That morning our refrigerator started running non-stop and had stopped cooling!! Add it to the list…

Two big projects!? We thought we had just set off on our adventure! So we have spent the week running errands and getting things all fixed up before we head out of the marina. We shipped the car, got the propeller re-pitched, and drove to Ft. Lauderdale to buy a new refrigeration system and a wi-fi extender. We also went out on the water to do some sailing, watched Captain Ron play in his pool tournament, witnessed the loudest karaoke show right from our cockpit, and got through our first thunderstorm aboard. It’s been a week!!

Thursday we made it out of the Marina and got to sail our new boat for the first time. We were a bit rusty, but she sailed like an absolute dream. We are so pleased with the way she handles on the water. It felt fantastic to turn off the engine and fill the sails with cool moist gulf breeze.

The pace that things get done in the “boat world” is completely different than the two-day Amazon shipping world that we just emerged from. The good news is that we really like the way things work here. The relationships you build with people coming up with solutions to problems and the depth of understanding you obtain from investigating every inch of the boat is valuable and entertaining. We have learned that plans are just that – plans. The ability to be flexible is something we are getting better at by the day.

Today is Saturday and we have a lot on our plate. We are going to install our new refrigeration system ourselves and get the wi-fi extender mounted. If all goes well, we plan to sail down to Cabbage Key tomorrow. If not, then Monday, we are on boat world time after all.