Moving in

Just arrived from France, I packed whatever I thought I might need for the first few weeks and drove down to Jacksonville and arrived there on the 24th of January in the afternoon.

I was very depressed the first night aboard. I felt that the only item I could fit in was my tooth brush as there was stuff in every compartment, drawer, cabinet that I opened.

Then later, I gradually started to learn the ropes with the wonderful help of Thom and Sarah. I also rented a storage space to off load the equipment that I am pretty sure I won't need and which is quite heavy,

I took off 160 feet of ch

ain, one Bruce anchor, the 9.9 Yamaha engine, the Village Tech watermaker, lots of spare parts, ropes, diving suit and belt, etc. . .

By the time I had done all that, I had gained more than 1 1/2 inches on the waterline, but the boat was now quite a bit by the stern. I moved as much weight as I could from aft to foreward and put the 160 pounds Caribe dinghy on the foredeck.

Until it was time to leave, I spent most of my time trying to find the right place for everything (this will take months) and also trying to learn the electronic part of it.