Dawn in Punta Gorda on Monday, June 16.

First thing in the morning, we said our goodbyes to Christy and headed back to Kosmos in North Palm Beach. This time, we took the Highway 70 back, which, for most of the drive was a two lane highway. The road took us through several small towns and a lot of farmland. It was a nice drive, with a lot more character and local feel that we’d gotten from I-75.

When we arrived, there were already workers onboard. On the exterior, there were people detailing the boat, one finishing up the waxing and one polishing the stainless steel.

Inside, someone was working on the VHF radios. We’d upgraded the radios in 2024, but there was a buzzing when the battery chargers were going, which interfered with our ability to hear/be heard. DC to DC voltage converters were installed.

And a couple of other people were setting up the contraption to descale the air conditioning system. Descaling was something that was recommended to be done once a year in areas where A/C was heavily used. We rarely ran our A/C in San Diego, and we’d never done it before. Apparently, barnacles and other sea life can grow in the lines, so the descaling killed and flushed out any critters living in the lines. The filled a bucket with diluted descaling liquid.

There was a pump in the bottom of the bucket.

They attached hoses from the pump in the bucket to the A/C units, then pumped the liquid through the system.

The dirty liquid emptied back into the bucket, so we could see what came out. They let it run for a few hours per air conditioner. Surprisingly, even though we’ve run the A/C a lot over the last 6.5 months, not a whole lot of stuff came out.

Later in the day, someone came and adjusted the valves on main engine and generator. He also tightened the oil drain plug phlange on main engine.

Eric also got to work himself. He cleaned up the alternator and regulator wiring.

We forgot to mention that when Kosmos was in the boat yard, Eric also had them exercise and lubricate all of the through-hulls. We’d replaced most of them in 2024, and Eric was pleased to find that the ones that hadn’t yet been replaced were still in good shape. Yay.

On Monday night, we went to a Thai/Japanese restaurant for dinner called Thai Lotus. They had some unique sushi rolls. Christi got one with Hawaii Five-O roll, which had coconut shrimp, pineapple, cucumber, and cream cheese inside, topped with cashews and eel sauce. The rolls were good and surprisingly large.

Eric got an Ocean Drive, which had tuna, hamachi, avocado and cilantro inside, was wrapped with soy paper instead of kelp, and topped with spicy oil and lime juice. Keith got two small bowls of soup and fried rice. The soups were huge! We’d call them extra large, not small!