4/15/05 - Just moved her from a friends' (Jed) dock to her new mooring.. Consists of a 200# concrete wedge connected by 1/2" Galv. chain to a 70# Danforth anchor to another chain of 3/8" up to the mooring ball. What a job (and expensive)! Hopefully, this will be home for a long while.

She now sits at the North end of the Old Rosevelt Bridge near downtown  Stuart, Florida.   Click the picture on the left to link you to a Maptech chart of the area and showing her location. Very Cool. 5/05 Had to move her about 100' to the east as I was TAGGED by the City of Stuart for illegally anchoring on city property. Contacted Buzz Billeau, the harbormaster for Stuart, and gave a time frame for which she would relocate. He was helpful in showing me where it would be legal to moor - just a stones' throw from where she was. Talked to Phil of Stuart Harbor Marine who represents the private owner of this area who gave me the green light. Hope this is it for awhile!

7/05 Got back from the island of Eleuthera with the family. Had a great time! I finally got my kids and my parents to come where we had a wonderful relaxing time. Pics: ...first a secluded beach then the rental house gazebo....

8/05 - Mad dash to do a bottom job and some other maintenance items in hopes of sailing down to Palm Beach to honor Pete Firehock and attend his Memorial placement ceremony off Port of Palm Beach in 90 feet of water. Unfortunately, I found a recurring diesel leak after an hour motoring south and had to turn around and limp home. I was able to go with a friend on his powerboat the next day. Thanks Rich.

10/24/05 Hunkered down here at work in Delray Beach for Hurricane Wilma. I hope the boat will survive. Theses are powerful winds and I fear that even with all the precautions taken I will find Eleuthera in sad shape.

10/31/05 Either my concerns were not well founded or I'm just lucky, probably the latter. She came through with just a few scratches and a mess down below. I did find a troubling problem with barnacles covering the bottom. I just came out of the boatyard with a fresh 2 coat bottom job. I used Petit Pro CSC but it looks like I've no bottom paint at all. Will need to contact the boatyard and Petit to get this one resolved.

Before Wilma

and after...

2/2/06 - Moved the boat and the home made mooring once again. It seems the area I was moored is being leased to someone who objects to any boats in the water. Their perogative but it highlights the growing problem for boaters... dockage has skyrocketed and land dwellers are feeling superior to boaters (not that they have riparian rights or that they even have an issue. They seem to just want their view unobstructed. Anyway, the mooring held the boat through hurricane Wilma so I can trust that it will hold up to any kind of blow.

11/1/05 - I thought I should make an entry here of a non-sailing note. Today is my last day as a firefighter for the City of Delray Beach, Florida. I am retiring after 28 years and 8 months. While it has been rewarding, it takes its' toll. I am ready to move on. That's me on the right (the old one with the gut).

3/20/06- Just got out of the yard from another bottom job and minor repairs. Had a beautiful sail back to the mooring making 6 1/2 knots with only the main up.  Big news... Got an offer to help get a friends' boat over to the Bahamas in May. Going to Marsh Harbour where his wife will join him and I'll fly home from there.

Just returned from the trip to Marsh Harbour... Great Trip! Pushed hard for three days then took it easy into Hopetown. Left @ 3AM from Lake Worth Inlet and arrived Port Lucuya about 2:30PM, cleared customs, etc. . Day 2 was a long push to the Berry Islands, Day 3 took us under Abaco and up to Little Harbour. Day 4 was to Hopetown on the inside where we waited for morning to get to Marsh Harbor for my flight.

Can't seem to load any more pictures other than this one of Hole in the Wall Light at the south end of Abaco. If you enlarge it, you can see the light right over my head. Well it seems I had run out of available memory on the free site. Just upgraded to the Geocities Plus so viewing and loading should not be a problem. 9/18/07 - Nothing to new to report. Went for a sail on Thursday last week... it's my simple small tribute to the 9/11 deaths. I remember a statement made by a sailboat race official about continuing the race around the Statue of Liberty right after the attacks: I can think of no better a tribute and and affirmation of freedom than to go sailing. Since then I've tried to go on the 11th every year. This year the weather did not cooperate. Better late than never.

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