From the moment we arrived a few days ago here at the boatyard in Fort Lauderdale we have been busy either getting things done, or coordinating other people getting things done.  This is our last maintenance stop for many months, so we want to be sure that  everything we want done gets finished.

In addition, we are both traveling over the holidays back to visit family, so what would otherwise be a relaxed pace is pretty hectic.

After much back and forth with battery suppliers, who are themselves slaves to the manufacturer’s supply chain, we have decided to stretch our current batteries for another season and move that not insignificant number of dollars to other projects.

We have some basic repairs to the floors in the forward lockers which have some rotten plywood that needs replacing.  We are lucky to have found a local contractor who just finished the identical job on a sistership to Harmonie, S/V Lola.  Lola is still here in the yard so we had a chance to get to see the end result, and it looks great.  This was a job I was actually looking forward to doing myself, but Karen has correctly pointed out that my time is best spent on other things.  Lola also has some great looking sunshades that we are likely to copy because they look like they will bring us 90% of the utility of the full canvas cover but require 10% of the effort to put up.

At 10:30 tomorrow morning we get lifted out of the water.  I need to replace the seals on the prop shaft, inspect the bow thruster, and then the boat is turned over to the painters for fresh bottom paint. We should be high and dry for about a week.  Then it is vacation travel, then another week of projects, and then–we are off to the islands again!  Yippee!