repainted with new antifouling paint. They hauled her out, set her on her keel and propped her up with jackstands to keep her from falling
over!! Always very unnerving to be on her propped up with those little jackstands!
They let us live aboard for the three days it took to prep and paint the bottom (many boatyards make you get a hotel room while they work
on the boat, something we didn't want to do). We had to access the cockpit by climbing up a tall step ladder. It is very inconvenient
living on the boat when she is "on the hard" as you can't let any water go down the sink or other drains. But we managed and the
boatyard did a meticulous job of prepping and painting the bottom while I was able to wax the hull (something that is very difficult to
do when the boat is in the water as we always are!).
Here is a photo of Enchantress with her new bottom paint and all polished up.
We were VERY happy to have her back in the water and to go back across the Intracoastal Waterway to "our anchorage" in Bradenton Beach. The gentle rocking of the boat meant we and Enchantress were back in our element!! We spent the next two days doing laundry, going to the supermarket for final provisions and filling the water tank and jugs to prepare for our trip south back to the Keys.
We left on the afternoon of September 27th and just went a few miles down to Longboat Key to anchor for the night to be ready to get going early the next day. We went to Blackburn Bay the first day, then on to Cape Haze the next. On the third day we anchored at Useppa Key and took the dinghy over to Cabbage Key to have lunch at the Cabbage Key Inn. It is accessable only by boat and is supposedly the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett's song "Cheeseburger In Paradise". I, of course, ordered a cheeseburger!! The walls and ceiling are covered with dollar bills left by patrons. We, of course, taped a dollar bill to the ceiling above our table with "s/v Enchantress and Larry and Linda 2009" written on it! :-)
The next day we sailed to Cape Coral to anchor in a favorite anchorage of ours. We had dinner at a great Italian restaurant with Roger and Sylvia, old friends who used to live in Connecticut. We are anchored at the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway and tomorrow, October 4th, we will head across the state of Florida on the waterway, 150 miles ending up on the east coast at Stuart. It will take us about 6 days.
Linda is concerned about alligators and 20 foot pythons (we will be in fresh water and swamps) and I am anxious about traversing the locks on the waterway as we have never done that. I know for sure that we will have to deal with the locks but time will tell if we even see an alligator and the pythons are very rare. :-) Stay tuned, we will let you know how it goes.
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