Thursday, April 28, 2016

Barefoot Landing Marina - Last day so lots of cleaning, a CGA inspection and Greg Norman's

It is springtime after all
So it was all the usual stuff in the morning to get the boat looking halfway decent for the rest of the trip north. Spray 9 beats anything we've tried for spot cleaning (Roll-Off, Simple Green and everything else we've used). It came out ahead of all other marine cleaners in tests run by Practical Sailor. I use On and Off for getting rid of rust stains on fiberglass, it works like magic. Of course it's good for the ICW mustache too, its primary use. Our double coat of Fleetwax is still holding up without ICW staining after NY to Key West to here although there is staining on the back of the boat under the swim platform. Finally, Collinite Metal Wax is used for removing surface rust on stainless steel. It took all morning but we're done for now.

We keep meeting more couples that recognize Fleetwing and me as Bob423. Everyone said hi said they used the postings I made on Active Captain on how to negotiate hazards. It's good to hear that people find the postings useful. While resting in the cockpit two representatives for the Coast Guard Auxiliary came by to see if we wanted a free inspection, we said, "Sure". We passed but our fire extinguishers were close to failing. A trip over to Walmart fixed that potential problem.

Great Food
As is our custom, we dined at Greg Norman's Australian Grill on the last day of our stay. So I made reservations and we had the best steak I've found on the ICW. On the downside, it's not cheap but we do enjoy the food and we only do it twice a year.

We plan on leaving Friday morning at 8:00 am to give us enough time to make the 9:00 opening at the Little River bridge which only opens on the top of the hour, it's a temporary schedule while they're working on the bridge. We hope to reach Carolina Beach State Park where you can get a dock for $30 regardless of size (up to a max of 43 feet).



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