Parade of lights and temps in the 80's

So we had a long weekend in Panama City this week. Although we planned on just relaxing and enjoying, we soon found ourselves piddling with stuff on the boat. Don't know why that always happens but it does. Dirk found himself literally up to his eyeballs in the chain locker. While re-bedding the bow pulpit he had found a few other items needing attention. There was only so long I could hold him by his ankles on his belly so he just climbed on in to work. Something to be said about being vertically challenged.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous with temps in the 80's during the day and dipping to the low 60's at night. Hardly seems like December with these temps but I'm not complaining. The cannonball jellyfish were out in force this weekend. Beautiful creatures, I read that they can be eaten. Why you would want to is another story. Guess that's why another name for them is cabbage head jellyfish. So if you find yourselves lacking a nice fish to toss on the grill, heck get the net and fish one of these bad boys out. The ones we were seeing were about about 6 to eight inches across. They are very fast swimmers as far as jellyfish go and they would just plow full force ahead till they would slam into the docks or the boat, bounce off and head the next direction.

Below is just a picture that Dirk took of a pelican.
Saturday evening we had the parade of lights come past our marina. We had never been to one so it was nice to see it. Not as big as I thought it would be, but some of the locals said its getting bigger each year.
A big paddle wheel boatHow many lights can we fit? Pretty sailboat
My favorite decorated boat as it depicts my favorite Christmas movie. A Christmas Story. After the parade we trolled the docks as many of the boats came back to our marina and hung out for the evening. Met some of our neighbors and spent the evening getting to know them. We both love the boating community and cant wait until we can jump into it with both feet for good. Sunday we were gonna sail, but along with the high temps also came calm winds/no winds. So it too turned into piddle day and Monday we headed home back to reality.

Time to take a break

Well we took this old flooring out of the boat for the last time this weekend. What a satisfying feeling as I loaded it up in the cart and took it to the dumpster. It served it's purpose and now its time to treat Tybee Time to her new floor. Seems like so long ago we started this project and it's finally come to an end. A labor of love and we absolutely love it. The hard work has definitely paid off.

Another project that Dirk has been working on was the engine control panel. As you can see it has seen better days. Instead of trying to purchase a new one Dirk decided to try and rebuild this one. He has gotten pretty good with fiberglass and epoxy, so he wanted to give this a shot.
First order of business was to reinforce the plastic panel. He put several layers of fiberglass and epoxy on the backside to cover un-needed holes and make the panel stronger. It was very thin and brittle. After he sanded and smoothed all the surfaces I put a nice white coat of paint on.
He then attached the panel to a frame. Believe it or not the frame was made of two plastic (marine lumber type) cutting boards. He routed the inside to accommodate a plexiglass panel that slides to the side for access, and keeps water out. Hard to see it, but its there.
The final product installed and ready to have Max (engine so named ) started up. And it did start right up. We had not had the engine running for about four weeks now and what a great sound that was. I have to give Dirk kudos on this project as I think he did an excellent job and he saved a lot of money that can be spent elsewhere. (On the boat of course)
This weekend at the marina there was a lot of hustle and bustle from boats decorating for the annual parade of lights to be held next weekend. So the marina is looking all festive with boats ablaze with lights and other festive touches. Our marina tries to get everyone in the mood offering a prize for just decorating your boat regardless of being in the parade or not. So we will take the camera down next weekend and see if we can capture some nice pics to post. This weekend will be a weekend to sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor.