Wednesday, January 29

Grouper sandwiches are the vision. Our journey south was punctuated with the phrase “When we get to Sanibel and the grouper sandwiches,…”

Now we are just 36 miles away from Sanibel and this Wednesday morning’s weather is miserable.  It’s cold.  It’s raining.  The wind is blowing 15 to 20 mph.  Though the waterway is mostly protected along our route, four or five hours travelling through cold blowing rain is not enjoyable so we will stay at Burnt Store Marina and take advantage of the amenities here.

Bob works on projects in the cabin and I do the laundry.  We eat lunch at the delightful marina restaurant and talk about our upcoming trip back to Arkansas.  Our plan is to secure the Traveler at a marina in Sanibel and drive home to take care of a few things there.  David will meet us in Sanibel with the car and we will all drive back to the Ozarks together (Beulah included).

Thursday, January 30

Over the last month our pat answer to the question “Where are you headed?’ was always “…to eat a grouper sandwich on Sanibel Island.”

At long last.

“Oh yeah! I’m all about a grouper sandwich feast too!”

You can see by the happy grins above that Thursday brings us to the completion of this leg of our Loop Journey.   After several sandwiches at Gramma Dot’s and on the flybridge amid white wine and dark beer, we pack up the car and give the Traveler a thorough cleaning.

The lure of Sanibel is the easy sense of island time. You leave anything more hectic than catching fish behind.

David wonders why we would leave this to return to the snow & ice of the Ozark Hills in January.

The marina. What you do not see in this photo are the porpoises and the osprey patrolling the canals looking for fish.

David packs the car before we head out.

David and I take an extended dinghy ride that I never want to return from – the temps are in the low 80s and a sweet breeze keeps me from getting too warm.  It is just perfect here.  Coolish at night and warmish during the day.  Sea birds and sea critters abound.  There’s lots of shells to look at and things move a bit slower on the island.  I can not believe that after slogging 1075 miles through the cold to get here we are leaving with only ½ day of paradise under our belts.  Poor Bob missed the dinghy ride because he insisted on defrosting the fridge.  Such is the life of responsible adults but he made up for it when he discovered a fellow-pirate.

Bob mixes it up with the pirates again.

We removed the engine hatches from the main salon with the intent of refinishing them in the workshop at home.   Time and sunshine have taken their toll on the boat’s woodwork and now we need to do a little maintenance work.  Well actually it is a lot of maintenance work.  The teak handrails and flybridge combings all need to be takken to wood and some type of varnish/polyurethane needs to be applied. Likewise for the cabin soles.

In early 203 we tested Coelan, a polyurethane product, on the Traveler’s teak brow.  We applied 7 thin coats and after one year in the Alabama sun, it looks like we just put it on.  It is purported to work well on handrails, decks and interior soles also.  Unlike the popular product, Cetol, Coelan preserves the teak’s natural color and beauty. And, although Coelan is more difficult to apply correctly, it lasts longer than comparable polyurethane products.

2014 will be the Traveler’s beautification year.

Farewell until we return in March…