Since it is Friday we will move the boat!

The Barco crew has been very productive these past couple days; Yesterday we retitled two cars, Lunched at the Yacht Club with Mom, changed the brakes on the truck, "fixed" the old T-Bird, and passed a State Examination (I missed the first take a couple weeks ago by .7, bummer!). So how do we celebrate? We take the Barco to Lamb's Yacht center for a bottom cleaning and refueling.

After this morning? Who knows. Lots of food and wines available for the festivities.


Next weekend the Blue Angels will entertain Jacksonville and close out 2011 airshow season. Did you know NAS Jacksonville was the birthplace of the Blues in 1946? We will watch on the Barco, hopefully, my old Boss from London will join us, as they did eleven years back. The airshow is very nice on the water and I think part of why is because of the dangers present. The crowd on land is of primary concern so the aircraft are always over water and away. Right above the water traffic.

Livin' La Vida Loca, someone always says. What ever that means. I'm going to enjoy the show without having to be in traffic or worry about parking.

These images are all from the U.S. Navy and ripped off shamelessly from the Official Site

1946 F8 Bearcat

1956 F9F Cougar

1964 F11 Tiger

2010 F18 Hornet

UPDATE:

We cruised the Barco over to Lamb's and had a thorough cleaning of the hull and some new zinc's added to replace the dead and used up zincs.

There was a fair bit of barnacles on the props and the rudders, but not so bad as to be notable.

The bottom is really clean and ready to go. We took a little jaunt on the river to celebrate and it was a nice time.

When the Barco was being cleaned, Bruce and I went wandering the docks to look at the boats and we found this:

Wildebeest II. A 1982 Watkins 27 that we purchased in '94 and reluctantly sold in August of '95 when we had to move to London. The telling sign is the Bowmar hatch on the front which I installed in June of '95. This is one of our favorite boats and it is a shame that it is in decrepit condition. I asked the front office if this was a derelict and the lady there indicated it might be. As soon as I can chat with the owner of the yard, I will see if I might be able to acquire this boat (at a low cost, I don't need another boat!), I would really love to bring this boat back home...

I ordered a video to dvd device for Mac and will be able to upload all of our old sailing videos from the 90's. Wildebeest II is a big part of our home movie collection.

For the eye candy department;

This is the lovely Catarina Candoni of Candoni Wines, Italy. She is autographing the case of Pinot Noir's I purchased from the tent sale at the Navy Exchange, NAS Jax. Very nice, and I wish I was in her league. Imagine, a hottie who owns her own Winery...!  Click on the Candoni link. Nice family!

Have a great weekend and drive safe.