"Bienvenidos a Miami"

That's right we are Miami bound! Let the maxing and relaxing finally begin. We left Cocoa Village Marina three days ago and it feels wonderful to be on the move again. While we were there James' parents were able to come and visit us - it was great to see them and that they could check out the boat! We spent a lovely morning exploring the town of Cocoa and sampling some seasonal local honey.

Miss Kelly, my favourite Marina Manager

It was a throughly exhausting month at the marina but well worth it - we finally love our boat and it feels like home :) The list of what we accomplished in the month was pretty impressive - no wonder we're currently sleeping 10 hours a night! We attended a marina potluck a couple of nights before we left and everyone rushed over to us when we arrived to comment on the "twenty hour" days we had been working. I think people thought we were crazy. Many nights people wandered over to the boat saying "you guys are gonna kill yourselves you need to rest"! I've included a list of what we did simply because it makes me feel good to look at it ;)

1. Waterproofed, taped, and stiched back together our canvas enclosure so now when it rains we stay dry - how novel! We tried to get the whole thing replaced but there was a 6 month waiting list everywhere we tried.
2. Changed out all our sanitation hoses and installed a new septic tank - smells like a dream in here now.
3. Re-bedded the hatch above our bed so now when it rains it doesn't leak and we can still sleep in our bed!
4. Removed the old name from our boat and put our new name on! Goodbye maroon and mustard yellow cursive on our transom and goodbye to all the Highland Light problems - we are officially NOMADS now!!  
5. Cleaned the dingy and applied our Transport Canada Registration number so we are now legally driving that thing around. 
6. Fixed our captains chair so we no longer take our life in our hands when we hit a wave.
7. Sanded down the teak around the cockpit rail so it's no longer cracked and multicoloured - just need a coat of finish on there now
8. Installed screens for all our hatches - the Georgia swamp inspired this.
9. Painted our cowling vents white
10. Used an actual deck cleaning product and scrubbed the hell out of the deck - it looks clean for the first time.
11. Replaced the blower for the engine so we don't have to motor with the engine room doors open and can now hear each other speak when the engine is on
12. Installed a new starting solenoid so we don't have to start the day by hitting the engine with a screwdriver
13. Replaced the automatic bilge pump - now if we spring a leak the pump will automatically come on like it is supposed to and alarm to let us know it's pumping water
14. Replaced the manual bilge pump
15. Rebuilt the fresh water pump and tightened all the connections and replaced some of the hoses meaning the pump can now pump water from our water tanks so we have a reliable source of fresh water - very important
16. Replaced the faucets in the galley (kitchen) and both heads (bathrooms). They all leaked and were very ugly. Unfortunately this "simple" project turned into four days of hell.  The Endeavour is one of the boats that were built with polybutalyne pipes - a product that is no longer on the market and the company has long since been out of business since many home owners sued them. Basically the pipe fittings cracked as we took the faucets off and we had to buy new pipe and run them in some impossible to reach areas.
17. Became Amazon Prime's best customers for a couple of weeks. We fully stocked this boat with supplies, home decor, material to repair almost anything and lots more!
18. Had our "New York Storm Night from Hell Ripped Jib" fixed! 
19. Changed all the bathroom accessories from yellowed plastic to chrome - not sure how long that will last in the salt air but it looks pretty now. Hung shower curtains and towels and made a real bathroom.
20. Finally attached our swim ladder so we can have guests over without worrying they will break limbs.

The "GuestBathroom"

Guest Shower  

New Bathroom Fixtures and Freshly Oiled Wood

We finally have our own Identity!!

There were honestly so many other little things I can't even remember them and I'm sure you all stopped reading at bullet point three anyway. There are many, many, many other things we have on our "to do list" but the pressure is off and we can whittle away at that list when we need a break from the beautiful beaches in the Bahamas ;)

Manatee at the Marina 

Fellow Nova Scotian's Waving us off from the Marina:)

Leaving the marina - no more dodger vinyl blowing in the wind

Relaxing Boat Dinner

Early morning fishing

Swimming at Fort Pierce

The plan now is to spend a couple of days in Miami: yoga, beach, shopping and gorging ourselves on Cuban food are all on the agenda.  We were hoping to reach Miami this evening but the current has been against us the past two days and we are making terrible time so we may not arrive until tomorrow. We ordered some new cockpit cushions online and we are picking them up when we arrive - very curious to see how they turn out! From there we are just waiting out some favourable winds and weather to make the crossing to Bimini, Bahamas!

Clouds and sunrise near Melbourne, FL