Engaging in S.K.I.N! What?

So a while back, a wise old friend said while in retirement, we should live by the motto of S.K.I.N or Spend Your Kid's Inheritance Now!  Spending money was never easy for me and Al has always said I saved us enough over the years so we can afford our boat and this adventure.  But in the past 8 weeks of being at Stuart Yacht, we have been seriously diminishing any chance Erik will inherit from us when we move on to heaven.  But the boat is in great shape and she looks fabulous.  We just have been sitting still too long and at this moment, because the auto pilot has been a booger to fix, we don't have a sail date as yet.

Besides our original work list for boat work, we have added several things and one very exciting thing is installing this new washer/dryer combo unit.  We have replaced parts and babied our old washer and had one too many times of it overflowing onto the floor so we finally went out and bought this beauty from an RV Center.

Installation was a challenge but nothing too great for the strong and clever guys that work for Stuart Yacht.  Yup, she was hanging on a crane!  

She was carefully guided over our beautiful teak rails onto the bow of the boat. 

From the bow, she was slid through the front window (removed for the process).

And carefully slid down a 4"x6" board to the Salon floor.  Then she was bumped down the 4 steps to the galley, slid down the hall to neatly fit into the tight space we call the "laundry room".  There is nothing these guys can't do to improve a boat which is why we are engaged in S.K.I.N.!!  When we are not spending our money, we have been busy preparing California Lady for her trek to Indiantown Marina for storage on "the hard".

So on Monday 2/27 we, with 2 other captains, Gene from Free To B, and John from Short Vacation made the 3 hour trip to Indiantown. 

It was nice to have 3 captains aboard to handle a boat that is not our own and not as familiar to us.  

We had one lock to pass through and again, it was nice to have more hands handling lines.  John took the midline, 

And Gene took the bow line and I just took pictures!!  

And now California Lady is out of the water and other than one more visit out there to check on her electric connection, that project is complete. So what else have we been doing while in Stuart?

I crocheted a baby afghan for my future Grand Niece who is due to arrive in the world sometime this week. 

The fun part was making this cute ruffle around the outside edge.  

We also had a lovely day cruise with friends from Firestone, Nancy and John Behr who have been avoiding the Michigan winter in Cape Coral and drove 3 hours to visit with us.  

While on this cruise we determined the "fixed" auto pilot was not fixed and still needed more assessment and calibration. 

Just as Nancy asked "have you ever run aground" Mr. Auto turned the boat to the right and nearly plowed us into the river bank!  So now a full week after that day cruise, we need a part that must be special ordered tomorrow before the auto pilot can be tested again.  Always something to add to the S.K.I.N. plan!! 

And every day we enjoy our walk past the turtle hole and many times are greeted by our new little friend. 

This is the prettiest part of our walk.  Yup, we are enjoying the eternal summer weather. 

Lastly, and of importance is the update on Al's eye.  We went back to Miami 2/22 for the monthly recheck and so far his retina is flat and attached and healing properly.  He is frustrated by the new, much slower to dissipate gas bubble because it impairs his vision much more than the previous oil bubble, but it is doing its job of holding the retina in place for healing.  But we are grateful for the wonderful medical team at Bascome Palmer Eye Institute.