July 4th .... special

Arrived at Bahia Mar marina midday Friday. We nailed the docking but, as is the rule,  no peanut gallery.

Several HISC boats already here, so after getting checked in, we headed up to the pool. If you are familiar with Florida's summers then you know how good it felt to dive into the pool. Coool.

Later that evening we joined Dale, Jacqui, Bill, Joan, Graham, Nancy, Paul, Diane, Jeff, Bob... and a bunch more of the HISC members at the Bahia Cabana Restaurant for dinner, at least, that was the plan! The power transformer across A1A blew and all of the block had total power failure, they could not even run their Credit Card machines (that needs a plan!)

So we headed across the road to the 'B' and had a great dinner facing the roadway watching all the walkers, bikers, skateboarders, stroller pushers, and all, go by.

Saturday was the 4th, so we pulled the flag to the top of the mast and later that day, Dale came aboard and climbed the mast. Ok, he didn't 'climb' the mast, we hoisted him up using a winch while Jacqui winced. Dale successfully threaded a halyard through the existing flag halyard block under the stbd spreader. So now we can fly burgees - another item to cross off the list.

HISC Round Table

At lunchtime we all headed up to the Tower on the West side of the Marina for a patio lunch. But somehow, Jacqui & Dale (hosts of the event with Bill) managed to get an upgrade. So we had an air-conditioned room for a private party. Pool, Sag Bags, Tumble Bricks, and great conversations.

I'm not sure that anyone other than myself noticed that the rug in the room was an abstract of the British Flag. Nice to see the UK represented even if it was underfoot.

Two J's

Dig in

Suzi in charge

Everyone was visiting the boats, including ours, and making plans for the evening to watch the fireworks from the beach. We're really not crowd types, so we planned to watch from the cockpit on Eximius. Several other members planed to do the same on their boat. A few adventurous types headed out to the very crowded beach (at least I was told it was crowded, looking that packed car parking areas, it was!)

So, we had a great 4th.

I'll add some video later.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

We've got Cards

If you hang around enough sailboat owners, someone will give you their card.

Here's our first Sailing Card

The insert pic is a selfie we took this past new years eve. For the past 10 years, we have celebrated the arrival of the New Year aboard our 25' Catalina on Biscayne Bay. This year (2015) the weather was not co-operating, and we did not get to go sailing. Instead, we took a bottle of bubbly on to the boat which was sat on her trailer at the side of our house beneath the tarp.

That pic is one of my favorites.

Here's looking to celebrating on New Years eve this December aboard Eximius, not sure where we'll be, something else to look forward to.

See you on the water.

We've got music

Peggy doesn't demand much, but she really enjoys chilling to her music and I wanted to do something that was just for her.  So today we picked up a new stereo from west marine,  well it was their 4 day sale.

So we stopped by the boat to drop off the stereo and speakers.

Not wanting to waste the trip down to the boat, I started to do the install. The cutout at the Nav Station was the exact same size as the original stereo but the wiring behind was a jumble.

Using my multi-meter, we figured out the wiring to the speakers ( + & - ), and then it was just a case of connecting the old wires to the new wiring harness. Of course, it was 95F outside and about 98F inside, and I was sweating like a ... why do they say 'sweating like a pig' ?? but I was. Testing the output at each connection, we had the new stereo speakers working and in place within an hour. Then a few minutes making up an AM/FM antenna, and we had Radio reception (all of those years in the Navy paid off ;)

So by the time we left the boat and headed home, we had music! Now Peggy has to copy her favorite tunes to either a USB flashdrive or to an SD card or we have to wire one of our phones to the stereo (we thought we had purchased the stereo with Blue Tooth, but it seems the choices were Blue Tooth or SD card, and SD card will always work even when outside of phone range. And with the choice of 32GBytes of music on the chip, we should be able to listen for the rest of our lives without repetition, (ok, at least a few years!)

Next plan is to take the boat back to Bahia Mar for Independence Day - maybe I'll get that oil change done mid week.

Renaming Ceremony - Video by Matt Dreiss

Matt Dreiss took tons of Video over the weekend. He was kind enough to create this YouTube video for us. Great Job Thanks Matt

Renaming Ceremony

Renaming Ceremony June 20th - 2015 @ 16:00hrs.

At the Bahia Mar Resort & Marina 

Fort Lauderdale Florida

Ahoy, Ahoy, Ahoy!

Gather round, Gather around: It's time to give graciously to the Gods to ensure this vessel plys the seas, safely on the top.

Following tradition, and being unable to find a virgin to wash the boat, we will break a special, highly valued bottle of bubbly on this fair hull.

But first, we must give homage to the Gods.

Let's make noise as we recognize these gracious Gods so that they know we are thinking of them

1st to  Poseidon - (Neptune)  - and his queen Amphitrite -(Make some noise!)

2nd (Make some noise!) to the Wind Gods:

• Boreas the North-Wind,

• Zephryos the West-Wind,

• Notos the South-Wind,

• and to Euros the East-Wind

And lastly, but not least, to Phartos God of the Wind from behind.

Raise your Glasses and give cheer To the Gods!

And now while you refill your glasses, to show the Gods that we have gone to no end of effort to appease them, I need you to give cheer, loudly and vociferously in recognition of our efforts:

Were you Welcomed to our Vessel with a drink or two? Louder!

Were you impressed by the amount of Silicone Caulk that was spread around the boat to keep her dry in all conditions before, during and after your visit?

Did we offer food enough to fill?

Did we dress this vessel so that it would be easy to find and bring some cheer to these weary docks?

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

We were asked many times about the Name of this sailing vessel, and how it was determined and how it was spelled, so let me tell you all at one time.

The previous owner, who shall remain anonymous, had done many things to this boat in order to give it's old soul longevity and encourage it's survival during many trips out on the ocean. After we visited the boat with the mind to purchase her, I commented to my fair wife that the boat is 'SPECIAL' and suggested that if we purchased this boat, then we should call her 'SPECIAL' However, Special is sometimes used as a platitude, like Isn't he Special! and Peggy exclaimed that she would not sail on a boat that had the name 'SPECIAL'.

Later that day, after we two agreed to try and purchase the boat, Peggy suggested we translate the name into Latin. We asked the God of the Internet (Google) how Special would translate in Latin. And thus the name was cast Eximius.

And now we call on the keeper of the Bubbly - our Commodore Suzi. Bring the bottle of very expensive bubbly to the bow and wash the bow to wipe away the old name.

Now head down to the stern and pour to wash away the old name from Stem to Stern. 

And thus we celebrate the new name for this fine vessel: 

EXIMIUS!

Let the Gods be praised and know that Eximius will travel on the seas with their consent.

Now let's raise our glasses (fill them if you need) and let the world know of this vessel's new name.

EXIMIUS

And in response to every bridge tender on the ICW,

that's spelled:

Echo, Xray, India, Mike, India, Uniform, Sierra

Eximius

Uncover the Transom

Cheers! to all, and we look forward to meeting with you on seas both near and far.

Welcoming the Gods aboard

 The Goddess ensuring all are paying homage

 Commodore 'Suzi' washing away the old name with Champagne

From Stem to Stern 

Unveiling the new name 'Eximius' 

Tina announcing to the Gods with her Conch Horn 

Very special thanks to  Pam & David (The Gods) 

Exhausting day

Peggy & I went to the boat today with a list of jobs to get done.

By 6pm we were exhausted and ready to quit for the day.

Accomplished:
12 Volt Fans installed at the Galley & the Head, that makes life a lot more tolerable.

Cabin cleaning: Peggy cleaned the cabin cushions and the wood work on the Stbd side Cabin cupboards. This was a big thing to get done. We purchased a Bisell Green Machine and it does a great job. The water extracted from the cushion wash was pretty awful. But all of the cabin cushions are done.

I worked on the Solenoid for the gas system. Tested the wiring, that works fine. Connected the new solenoid to the electric control and that works too. But the job needs some plumbers Teflon tape to make the gas connections leak proof. It's on my list.

Then I got the transom cleaned up. Used 1200 grit wet-n-dry to remove the residue of the old names. Then washed the transom down with Polyglow prep. By the time I finished, it felt good and was ready for the new name. I had studied an online video of the process to put the vinyl lettering on the fiberglass. Worked a treat, I'll take pics tomorrow.

At that point we were pretty beat. The sun was brutal today, and working on the transom was almost painful.  Fortunately, when it came time to put the new name in place, a short period of cloud saved me.

Peggy did a great job on the head. Oxyclean does a wonderful job. The head now looks really good. And with the new fan installed, it smells sweet, in a good way.

After deciding which things to leave on board and which to take home, that included the Head Shower Curtain - Peggy is going to try and revive it. So we closed up the boat.

Peggy helped raise the dink back onto the foredeck, and then worked on cleaning the cockpit area. I covered the dink from the brutal Florida Sun, and cleaned out the toerail scuppers.

After a final cockpit washdown, we loaded up the truck and headed home.


Sunday I'll head back to the boat to Polyglow the transom.

We left the house this morning at 9:30am, spent 15 minutes diversion taking trash stuff to the bulk drop off before heading down to the boat. We arrived around 10:30, took a 30 minute Burger King Chicken Sandwich lunch and finished around 6pm. But what we did get done we did well!

Closing stress

When we initially figured out the financing for the purchase of Eximius, we considered pulling money from savings or taking a loan.  The loan process was our most comfortable choice and we selected Essex Credit for the financing process. Mortgage companies require secure collateral so they want title to the boat. That means the boat has to be USCG documented. Turns out that process can take up to 12 months to complete. I'm not sure the seller would wait that long for closing.

After digging deep, I found that Essex could process the loan despite the delay in the documentation process.  Phew!

Today we finally got the good to go response from Essex. I expect Deke will get his final payment by Thursday this week.

The stress has been on both ends of the rope. Deke has been concerned about his liability and I have concerns about spending money on a boat that is not yet ours. Deke has shown his commitment by allowing us to bring the boat to Fort Lauderdale and he knows that we have shown our commitment by putting so much skin in the game.

After FedExing the final, correct docs to Essex Credit after work today, I'm pretty sure closing will occur tomorrow,  Wednesday.  Then we can start planning in a less stressful environment. I'm ready to celebrate closing. I'll feel much better knowing that Deke has been paid.

So today,  Wednesday, will be a great day!