Virgin Gorda, BVI

Great sail to The Baths for lunch and a jaunt on shore. With full stomachs and happy hearts we were off to The Bitter End Yacht Club on Virgin Gorda. Great wind and less swells today, so the trip to BEYC was terrific. Arrival celebration at the Pub Crawl was mandatory. 

The Baths, BVI

Left Roadtown in a light rain to overnight at Marina Cay. Nice glass of wine and a fabulous Paella onboard last night. 

Now on to the Baths!

Roadtown, BVI

Spent the afternoon getting provisioning together for our week charter on the catamaran Martha R out of Roadtown, BVI. Then it was off to Pusser's for a late lunch. 

All that food showed up at the dock at six, and the bucket brigade began. An hour later we had it all stowed and moved on to happy hour. God knows where anything is, but we will figure that out tomorrow. 

Elite Resort at Citrus Valley, FL

Lazy Days gives a thirty-day warranty on their used coaches. Since we will be out of town a good part of those thirty days we thought it prudent to get the coach out of storage and spend a few nights in it. The state park we had hoped to do this in a week ago is full, so we elected to try a nearby upscale resort with owner-owned sites. There were good reviews on-line for Elite Resort at Citrus Valley. It is only a few miles from home so we thought to give it a try. Being close it would allow Barbara to continue seeing her mom daily.

We found the park to be immaculate, with nice facilities, and very friendly people.

All the sites have paver pads, which look nice, but unless you purchase a lot and develop it further the pad really is only big enough to park your coach and another vehicle.

There is no patio, table, or fire ring. I had hoped to have a little room to bring things out of the bays and start reorganizing to make better use of the space and sort out the things that could be left off since there is less storage in this coach. Unless I spread everything out on the sand and grass I was not going to be able to. As is happens it has been rainy and wet the whole time we have been here and that has kept us indoors. So, the lower storage bays will have to wait for another time.

For those that have purchased lots here it is a very nice park. To be useable, the normal sized lots need to be completely paved to allow you sufficient space for outside living; otherwise your sitting area is in front of your coach with the toad. There are very nice larger lots, mostly on corners, but those are owner occupied.

There has been a recent jump in lot prices since demand evidently has risen with the returning economy. For the prices I have heard I would not purchase the remaining lots for the reasons listed. There are some nice looking homes with RV ports adjacent to the park. I would consider one of those over the spaces in the park, but that’s me. Everyone has unique wants, needs, and desires. I am sure the remaining lots will sell because the amenities are very nice, and so are the staff and neighbors.

As for the shakedown, we have a list of things that should be addressed. Chief among them is this:

While drying the stall after my morning shower I heard splashing and a high rate of water flow. I opened the shower door to see the coach being flooded by a broken line under the bathroom sink. Barbara ran out (she who was actually wearing clothes) and saved the day by turning off the water at the outdoor faucet. We then began mopping up. Luckily we stopped it quickly and I do not think any damage was done. Barbara was able to get down in the reduced space under the sink to see that a crimped on water line had come loose from the hot water manifold. It is hard to get to, so we will have Lazy Days fix it, and check all the others as well. We were lucky enough to get an appointment for January 26^th, so stay tuned.

By the way, this is New Years Eve, and I am missing some good football. We have not installed a satellite receiver yet, so no ESPN. We get plenty of over the air channels, though.

To get cable at this park we need to place a cable box at each TV, and since these are flush mounted TVs that are pre-wired I am not going to that trouble. However, I am certainly going to get home tomorrow for the big games.

Out with the Old. In with the New(ish).

We have been at Lazy Days RV Center here in Seffner, FL since Wednesday when we traded our Winnebago Journey for a pre-owned Tiffin Phaeton. The Phaeton was traded in for a 2015 Tiffin and our sales person, Dana Philp, contacted us and told us it was coming in. We gave her a deposit to hold it until we could come down and see it. That was last month. She knew this was one of two coach models we were interested in. (The other was a Newmar)

We wanted a newer coach that was a little shorter than the Journey to make it easier to get into state and national parks, and at 36’ this one fit the bill. It also had the other key elements we were after: tile floors, leather-like upholstery, and a residential refrigerator.

So, we came down Wednesday and checked it out. No major issues, so we made the deal. As is usually the case there were some things that needed to be fixed and we had three accessories we wanted to have added. Lazy Days is very good about fixing any malfunctioning items before you leave and it has taken a few days to get them all sorted out.

We noted that there was an outlet that was not working. While troubleshooting the technician found this as the problem! The original owners were lucky they did not lose the coach to fire!

Moving in.

Just waiting for final fixes. They are closed on Sundays.

Peeking in at night. Sorry for the mess, its moving day.

We were supposed to spend this weekend at Lake Louisa State Park to run systems through their paces, but alas, we are still here. That is not too bad, though. The coach came with a two-year membership to Lazy Days Crown Club. We are in a nice shaded campsite and they are providing breakfast, lunch and a happy hour each day. Not bad at all.

Fort Wilderness

Despite breaking my foot two days before their arrival, we managed to get my son's family set up in our motor home in the 500 loop of Fort Wilderness, Disney World's fabulous campground.

I wish I had a good story to go with the broken foot, but I don't. I was walking up to the pool supply place and "POP". I have to keep all weight off of the right foot and I am wearing a boot cast at all times other than when sleeping. That placed the entire burden of getting ready, loading the motor home, driving it to the campground and setting up, on my hero of a wife Barbara. This was on top of her caring for her elderly mother and coordinating the fostering of dogs for Golden Retreiver Rescue of Mid-Florida. Busy lady.

This was her first time backing into a snug campsite and she did a magnificent job. She got it in on the first try!

Chris, Lisa and Jack (4 years) got two full days in the Magic Kingdom. With the end of daylight savings time the days are quite short right now. It was dark by the time they made their way back to the camp each evening. Still, we managed to grill two nice dinners and share each other's company. Bright and early Sunday morning we had to break camp and get Lisa to the airport. Lisa works for an airline and the family was traveling space available. Orlando is famous for full flights, and Sunday was no exception. They elected to split up with Lisa leaving first to get home to their other son, Ben (8 months) and relieve her mom who had come to babysit. Chris and Jack extended the adventure by renting a car and driving to Jacksonville to stand by for their trip home. It all ended well.

Lots of smiles!

For those of you that have not spent any time at Fort Wilderness I must recommend that you find an opportunity to do so, even if it is just for a few days. As you would expect the park is immaculate and the staff is friendly. There are plenty of activities for kids and miles of bike trails through the forested campground. The facility is very large, but the campsites are nicely spread out in the trees in several loops of about fifty sites each. You do not get the impression of being in as large a facility as it is. Don't have an RV or tent? No problem, they have many cabins as well.

KJ4FWN on the air!

Since we are not travelling much these days I have been participating in the local Amateur Radio Emergency Service supporting Orange County, FL. I have put together a portable radio station to be used in emergency activations, but also with an eye towards bringing it on the RV when we travel. Using this setup in the house with a limited antenna in the attic I have reached other amateur radio operators continents away. The furthest south was in Ecuador. The furthest east has been Ukraine. The way the antenna is oriented I have not contacted, or heard for that matter, anyone further west than Louisiana. My furthest north contact so far is Wisconsin, and that was on reduced transmitter power while on battery. I fully expect to make Canadian contacts from home when I have full power available.

Barbara and Nia followed me to Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake here in Orlando for an afternoon test run at setting up the station in the field and operating only on the battery I have built into the box. It was a wonderful afternoon, but a bit hot for spending too much time at the park. For the first time, Barbara got more mosquito bites than I did!

 

Thankfully there was plenty of shade.

For those interested, I am using a Yaesu FT-857D radio, LDG FT-100 antenna tuner, and Buddipole portable antenna. In this case, power is from the on board nine amp hour battery. The box contains a 30 Amp switched power supply for when 110v AC power is available. Automatic transfer from the 110v mains power to battery power is provided by a PWRGate PG40S, which also charges the battery when 110v power is available. This set up acts as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) similar to what many use with their computers.

Buddipole Vertical Antenna set for 20 meter band.