Making "Plans"

Ruby the Vicious Pit Bull went to an orthopedic specialist yesterday.  It's not good news.  The knee that was operated on last November has to be done again, as well as the other.  The vet recommends shaving down each knee bone (which is connected to the shin bone, the shin bone's connected to the ankle bone) and putting in metal plates.  It's an expensive process, worth three months of our cruising kitty, but it needs to be done.  Getting one knee done at a time, the whole process will shut us down for four months.  The question now is when to do it?

My thought was to stay here in Savannah.  We really like it here.  The folks at Isle of Hope Marina are really nice, the neighbors are great, as is the weather.  We'd have to stay put until July, at which point we'd be free to travel in the sweltering heat of a southern summer. 

Pam wants to head back to the Chesapeake, like we planned, and then return here in the fall to get it done.  That would keep us here until March of 2013, at which point we could continue south.  Our goal is to eventually get to the west coast of Florida and then head along the Gulf, maybe getting to New Orleans one day.  If Rick Santorum wins the Republican nomination and then goes on to beat Obama, we'd be in an excellent position to continue to Mexico and then Belize where I'd live out my remaining days waiting for his term to expire.

Not much else to report yesterday.  We had to choose between installing screens on Drift Away's doors and windows or sunbathing with margaritas on the flybridge.     

While up on the flybridge, we saw a pair of dolphins feeding on fish, probably the 16" spotted sea trout that I caught and released the day before, the bastards.  It was curious.  They were swimming on their sides in a small circle and then breaching and diving.  Maybe somehow they were rounding up their dinner and positioning it to be eaten.  I do the same thing on my dinner plate, keeping my peas away from  my mashed potatoes.

And then we were off to a happy three hours at 5 o'clock at the marina pavilion, so we climbed down off the flybridge and went to that.

Today will be more of the same, only with excitement.  While at happy three hours, a tug pushing a barge with a crane arrived and anchored itself at the end of C Dock.  It seems they're doing some dock repairs today.  We C Dock Denizens will have to wander down to give the barge guys some advice as to how to do whatever they're doing better.

We're retired men.  It's what we do.