Dali Museum St Petersburg

We rewarded ourselves with an afternoon off and visited the Salvador Dali Museum - possibly the best art gallery we have ever been to. He was a genius ( he stated in his diary when 15 years of age that he was a genius and all the world would know) and painted in a wide variety of styles not just surrealism - he was a master painter - the detail in his many small paintings must have been painted with a solo hair paint brush! Museum is sited on the waterfront close to a magnificent marina.

The Fun Part

Couple of my Los Angeles Rides

Do I look Stressed

St Petersburgh - slow going

After 2 days in Dallas where we visited the JFK memorial museum and rested up we flew to Tampa where we picked up the rental car - a Dodge Journey. Colin quickly adapted to the right hand driving and has only once turned into the wrong lane at an intersection (unfortunately there was no on coming traffic - phew!). Everyone here has been great -customs officers, our good friends in LA, hotels, restaurants, the mobile phone company, Wells Fargo bank who have all our money and the marina sales people who still have the boat. The big fly in the ointment has been the boat broker who was dealing with the sale before we left Australia. He has become most unco-operative - not answering emails & ph calls, not answering questions, supplying incorrect information and confusing instructions. Buying a boat entails lots of paperwork - registration, deregistration, affidavit, insurance, safety issues & more. The staff at the marina have been great and eager to set everything right so we have bypassed the broker and are dealing only with the marina brokerage staff. They have invited us to a Mexican party tomorrow night with 60 other people. I have become partial to margaritas since I've been here so that will be a good fit. The boat deal is due to close on 28th. The surveyor recommended a list of suggested jobs but we halved this as Colin could deal with the minor ones. However when we were on the boat on Wednesday (counting the post & pans) there was a heavy down pour and we discovered a leak on to the mattress, and another in the bathroom and another in the aft cabin door (these weren't on the list). There were a few other items that we wanted done as well (not on the list or misinterpreted & left off). We were getting impatient and frustrated. The original fixes will all be completed tomorrow. But there is a bearing that necessitates slipping the boat, some extra wood finishing and cleaning and painting the bilge to be done that will take another week. We have decided that we need to make the boat comfortable as it will be our home for 8 months and it should add to the value. For the next few days we will do some touring of St Petersburgh (Salvador Dali museum)and then drive to Norfolk for the Loopers Conference early May for 3 days. We will try to post some smaller photos and not lose all the written work in the process (which just happened). Practice will make us better.

Stormy Dallas

Just a quick note, Tornado sirens are going off, 100kph winds ,pissing down, as the storm passes over us. Safe in a concrete motel.Never a dull moment, will sign off in case we loose power, Cheers.

Huge Gum tree demolished everything
took out power water and gas.

Noisy night in Orange County

Well we sure got an interesting welcome to Los Angeles, having drinks round the pool at 7pm, when crash bang whoosh, the ground shook and lights all flickered, There was no wind at all but A 60ft plus Gum tree had uprooted it self on the property above us and crashed thru the fences and a very large childrens playhouse, the damage was amazing. It had ripped out the gas and waterlines as well as taking out the neighbours powerlines. With a bit of luck a photo will follow.

Tomorrow morning 5.30am our mate Len is picking us up to go to Brisbane Airport. First stop Los Angeles where we will stay with old friends John and Darla, John was one of my Charterers back in the early 80s when I chartered my Launch Cara-Mia out of Whakatane New Zealand.
Hope we have a boat when we get to Florida as Survey report has shown several problems, current owner is going to have to come to the party and get some work done before I will Accept the boat,Stay tuned for more.

Follow us on our 6000 mile voyage, first leg from Florida to New York

Before we go

7th April 2015. We are now 7 days away from flying out - still discovering things that need to be dealt with. We've done many trips before but this is soooo long that it becomes a little scary and the excitement hasn't kicked in yet.