Ahoy there!
At last after several years of planning we’re on Paragon, our home and transport for the next couple of years.
Paragon is what in
Internally she has lots of wood – teak lined walls, white ash ceiling and a holly floor. The owner’s cabin is aft, with separate head and basin. The main cabin is open plan with galley, dining table and built in seats. A step down takes you to the salon area which can sleep four (at a push!) and then forward to the main head and huge anchor locker. Andrew is quite pleased as he can stand up in the engine room- quite unusual for sailboats - and has a small workshop area. The previous owners had done lots of cruising so we have quite a few extras including a freezer (ice in a G & T is so important!), water maker, solar panels and lockers full of spares!
So what's happened in our first two weeks?
For the first week we shopped, Sharon didn’t think she would ever get fed up with shopping but she did! Everything had to be bought - bed linen, pillows, plates, cutlery, cooking equipment and a workshop full of tools.
The first night on the boat came with an amazing electrical storm and torrential rain but it was still very warm and certainly not the weather we had left at home.
We took the hire car back last Tuesday so we could spend time going over the boat. Andrew seemed to spend most of his time with his head in lockers.. He has also become obsessed with the bilge and Sharon dare not let a single hair from her head escape or there will be a keel hauling! You’ve heard of ‘for a ha’porth of tar the boat will sink’ well this is ‘for a lock of hair the boat will sink!’
Andrew has been going over the whole boat with a fine tooth comb to see where every thing goes and what spares we have.
Sharon cleaned all the cushions as there was a faint aroma of dog, the previous owners had a rat terrier called Ty. We thought the cushions had a beige background but found that they were cream. Sharon finally plucked up the courage to put the seat covers on that she had made in the
This is one reason that we haven’t yet taken the boat out, the other reason is that Sharon had a hissy fit when she saw the American charts! They have a reputation for inaccuracy and you tend to buy chart books for an area as they are a more convenient size. But they are not consistent. As you turn to the next chart you may have changed from feet to fathoms or they may no longer be north aligned. Nearly everyone uses electronic charts and subscribes to Sea Tow or Tow Boat (like the RAC but on the water) who come and tow you off when you go aground. The local saying is that if you haven't run aground you're either lying or haven't gone to sea! So we've bought a new g.p.s linked chart plotter which is about to be installed. Something else to learn!
We have decided that Sunday's are non working on the boat days so we can explore St. Petersburg which is a very attractive town with lots going on. This weekend there was a huge outdoors art exhibition in the local park. There was a huge range of art from traditional to modern, photography was heavily featured and there were some stunning quilts. It was great fun and had live music all day so we sat in the shade under the palm trees, cooled by the sea breeze and drinking fresh lemonade - tough life!
There is a lot of animal and fish life around the marina.
Many of the boats have dogs & there is also a huge cat called Tugger. The fish habitually throw themselves out of the water to catch flies. On Friday we were sitting on deck with a beer and a dolphin swam past. Sunday was even better. We had been told that manatees come into the marina but we hadn't seen them as they are very rare but as we walked to the marina office we saw three - including 2 pups but we weren't fast enough with the camera.
We are lucky at the marina as we have a laundry area where we can wash & tumble dry - particularly as it's against regulations to hang your washing on the guard rail. It's also against regulations to drink alcohol but strangely enough not many people take much notice of that one!
The washing cycle takes 20 minutes and the tumble 30 (stay with us, this is relevant) and you have to stay in the vicinity. At first this was OK as there's usually an old sea dog hanging about who wants to talk to a new face but it can become a bit repetitive. Then Sharon noticed that within view of the laundry was the swimming pool, this could take care of the first 20 minutes quite nicely. Then she realised that the marina's deli & bar "The Old Key West Deli" has a happy hour from 2 -5 p.m when a bottle of Budweiser can be consumed for a dollar.
That was the next 30 minutes taken care of. Andrew couldn't work out why she was suddenly so happy with laundry duty so he came along on Friday and joined in!
We've decided that the Floridians talk more about the weather than the British. You can even buy portable radios that are permanently tuned into the weather channels. The weather seems to be quite cyclical, hot & sunny for 4-5 days, with the humidity building and then dramatic thunderstorms and quite strong winds. This clears everything but the temperature stays that bit higher than it was before. This week looks like being a bit unsettled as there is a front moving across Texas causing us cloudy skies and more chance of thunderstorms and higher winds. But still hot in the late 70’s.
We've been doing some maintenance tasks this week. Because of the strong UV it's best to varnish the boat regularly so Sharon has been doing this. The whole process is quicker than in the U.K because of the weather.
Andrew has been washing and polishing the freeboard and we employed a diver to scrub the barnacles off our bottom!
We hope that everyone is well and we look forward to e-mails coming in!
Warm regards
Sharon & Andrew