New Electronics all working - $$thousands

New House Batteries - $$hundreds

Peace of mind - priceless

Yes, I was enjoying a cup of coffee this morning in the cockpit of Alibi when I saw dolphins swimming nearby. Not everyone gets to enjoy something as nice as that! Roxy was down in the cabin but you can be sure that when she sees them, she is on alert!

We went sailing yesterday and the day before but the weather was less than cooperative. We had rain and more rain so we came back home - drowned rats!

We are about to have all the electrical issues sorted out on her. We are ready to tackle making a new dodger. All her documentation and paperwork is in order. Need to do some work on the windlass - it seems that Ann put it in a bind the other day and probably blew a breaker or something. Anyway hauling up an anchor and all chain rode is not exactly Darrell's idea of fun - HA! Enjoy the pictures of another sunset in paradise.

OK here we are with July almost over! Summer has been HOT and BUSY! A good problem to have - right? We had a wonderful time showing our appreciation to the staff that helps keep our divers safe and happy on July 4th. Some pictures here.

Update on Alibi. I had forgotten in the last couple of posts to mention that Captain Al and Darrell installed some gauges in the cockpit so we can monitor temperature, oil pressure and volts. After driving dive boats that had these, we felt they are pretty important. They look real nice and they took up some of the space where the old electronic instruments were.

We have all new electronic instruments including a color chart plotter, radar, sonar, and satellite weather at the helm. It took us a few days to get it installed and working - in fact, still have a glitch with the radar to sort out but it looks real nice. Will get a picture of it after we get the teak trim finished.

New bimini top is almost completed (just a few tweaks left) and the dodger will be the next major project. Darrell is a great seamstress helper! It seems that the lighter color may make the cockpit a few degrees cooler. The company where we bought the materials for the new bimini and dodger recommends that we replace the sails when we get ready to change the canvas on the two foresails. They said that it is a lot of work and if the sails are old that we would be more or less wasting all that effort soooooooo - new sails are on the horizon but not right now.

This morning I was sweeping and washing down the cockpit and I was thinking: How nice is it to have a living room that can be hosed down. After we get this canvas replaced, we plan to add zippers on all sides to put up shade cloth. That will help make the cockpit cooler in the evenings and possibly deter some of the mosquito population.

We had a visit from Jason (Ann's favorite fishin' buddy) and car chief on the #20 car. He did some diving and some fishing while he was here. Sorry Nicole couldn't come but she's out of comission for diving right now with Baby Ava still in the oven. Great times, Jason! Thanks for the fishing reel!

We were given a lovely thank-you gift by Jerry and Sandy (the ones we went sailing with in June). They gave us a set of Tervis Tumblers with S/V Alibi and our names on them. For those of you who don't know - they are insulated cups that save on ice down here in the tropics. They're great! Thanks Jerry & Sandy!!!!

We have been preparing the Island Ventures crew for us possibly taking off in September for a trip to the Dry Tortugas. It is a destination we have been wanting to do for a while and the dive business slows down considerably then. Keep your fingers crossed that we have the weather to do that.

Middle of July! Where has the summer gone? Whew!

Well the updates are as follows:

1) We bought a new dinghy because the old one was leaking both air and water - no we didn't fix it when we did all the work shown in the last photos.

2) We got new electronics installed but it is not functioning yet - still have to figure out what Darrell and Capt. Al didn't do or something.

3) I have an office full of fabric and parts/pieces of a new bimini top and new dodger (the pretty cloth and vinyl that keep us dry in the cockpit). We took off the old bimini yesterday and installed some new hardware on the ends of the bars and have it positioned right now to begin making the patterns to cut a new one. We're moving it back farther to shade the helms person and we're going to install a "connector" between there and the dodger to give more weather protection. Instead of green we're going to make it khaki so perhaps it will be a few degrees cooler in the brutal Florida sun. We have our work cut out for the next several days/weeks!

We had a staff appreciation party on July 4th. We rafted one of the dive boats to Alibi and filled coolers with beer, rum punch, and had plenty of snacks. Front row seats for the fireworks were great! Roxy even was pretty calm for all the commotion (doggie downers are great).

The pictures of Roxy getting a bath are take at the shop - our dive gear rinse tub. She was none too happy about getting a bath in public! Hope all of you are having a safe and wonderful summer - we are.