Getting the boat ready

Modern sculpture? No, it's new zincs. The blue was recommended by my diver to insulate the area contacted by the bolts holding the zinc on. Otherwise, the zinc could corrode and fall off 

I turned the car in today to get the much cheaper weekend rate of $10/day. As it turned out, since the car did not need any maintenance so they just let me keep the same car without having to trade it in for a compact model to get the $10/day rate. That saved about $60.

We went to Walmart as usual for provisioning. The one in this area has good groceries and the best prices of any supermarket in Titusville. We won't be near supermarkets again until Marathon at the earliest and maybe not there if we skip the crowded anchorage and just head on to Newfound Harbor, one of our favorite places by Picnic Key. We usually anchor at Marine Stadium on the way south but this year the Miami Boat Show has commandeered the anchorage area for their yearly show in February while their Miami site is being remodeled.  As a result, they've prohibited all transit anchorage for the duration starting Feb 1. Even before then they're driving pilings with all the attendant noise during the day, not good for a quiet anchorage so we're skipping Marine Stadium on the way south this year.

I have found that after a little over two months sitting idle in a marina in Florida, the bottom needs maintenance. Usually it needs a new zinc or the prop needs to be cleaned or the bottom scraped. Stuff really likes to grow in stagnant water.I've used Don Brown for diving services for the past five years and found him to be very reliable and fairly priced. He's coming over Saturday. When we head south, we need to make at least 7 kts to make the  bridges without having to wait. We usually cruise at 7.3 kts unless the bottom or prop is fouled.

Meanwhile, we'll hang out here until the time and weather is right, it's only $0.33/ft per day at the monthly rate.