REPORTS FROM THE RIP: Done with pirating now its time to head south

ARRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

The weeks leading up to a departure date is a mind bending time. You prepare and prepare and shop and fix and refinish but it never all seems to get done till the very last second. For the last week we have had the boat down at Galati Yachts in Anna Maria Island painting the bottom and getting her ready to go. I can't say enough good things about bringing the boat here. Everyone is so friendly and professional. We hauled the boat last week and Mike Galati was right on schedule for me.
The week before that we had the boat over at Tampa Yacht club Preparing for the Gasparilla Pirate invasion. The actual invasion consists of hundreds of boat following a huge pirate ship loaded with conquering pirates across Tampa Bay to the city of Tampa. The day went with out a hitch and there was plenty of pirate booty for all.

I had a bunch of Refrigeration work done on the boat over the past few months by Peterson marine. After completion, Pat Peterson called me and asked if I would be interested in Beta testing a system that tracks either my air conditioner or freezer compressor pressures. A guy named Rob Mathews has a Product that is a transducer that broadcasts via Blue tooth , the pressures of my freezers to my IPHONE ( I opted to do my freezers. ) They came to the boat and did the very basic quick install of the transducers and now I can see more than just what the temps of my units are operating at. Its pretty slick. I can see the pressures on my Freezers and if the pressure gets low it will even alarm my phone. You can contact Pat Peterson ( 813-854-2252 Peterson Marine) to talk to him about this product by Transducers Direct.

As I was saying before the weeks leading up to leaving are a whirlwind of Preparation and loading of tackle and supplies. Matt and I have every compartment and freezer packed to the hilt on the Blue Heaven. Preparing a boat to travel from February till August is fun but it will turn your brain to mush.
As I sit here writing this my brain is going over lists and checking them twice.
We depart tomorrow morning for the Dominican Republic with out first stop being Miami. I have a spot secured at Miami Beach Marina for the night but if I arrive early enough, I may just shoot over to Bimini. We will make our way south through the Bahamas over the next week. Our next cold front is pushing in by Thursday night and I would like to at least be in Nassau by then. These back to back fronts have enormous north swells pushing through the islands. We will just have to pick our weather windows and make time when we can.
I am looking forward to sharing the trip with everyone as we begin this next season.