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.