Florida Sugar & Molasses Exchange

 So busy on the boat yesterday there was no room for me.  So I walked about.  In the Port of Palm Beach there is the Florida Sugar & Molasses Exchange.   Paul and I had seen huge flatbeds with great big bags of white "sand" being transported but could not figure out what they were transporting.  Maybe it was the dredged sand and they were selling it?  Yesterday I figured it out.  

Huge bags of sugar are loaded onto flatbeds 8 at a time and stored until time to export.  Apparently this is a large part of Florida's economy.  Grown in the muck of Belle Glade the raw sugar is transported to the port,  It is dumped and stored before being sent to refineries.  Best smell in the town when the trucks are dumping!  

The other end of the port is all containers coming and going.  The port operates 7 days a week and never slows down.  The port exports to all the Caribbean islands and has its own railroad spur that seems constant.  The red container movers, called straddle carriers, remind me of Star Wars as they move about without ever seeming to stop.

Meanwhile back at the yard work continues.  It seems every cubby has been disturbed to run wires but I am told everything is in place so when the batteries finally arrive they will just have to be placed.  The solar panels ran the entire electrical system yesterday despite it being a cloudy day!  This means no more running the generator if we want to use more than just the fridge/freezer!  Steve (electrician) has pulled more extraneous wires and replaced everything with a very neat and organized system.  All to be labeled with our new label maker!

Paul learned about the sail drives from Ben.  Peter (shown here) worked on sanding the bottom getting ready for the paint. Paul (buffer) continued working topside.  No one wears shoes on the boat anymore!

After stopping at O'Reilly Auto and Home Depot we headed back to the AirBNB exhausted.  The traffic is so awful.  But the sky was stunning!

And we touched base with all 3 kids yesterday!   First the videos of the girls skiing.  Brianna looks good (is this really only her second time?).  Emily didn't look too bad for her first time.  Did it really take her 65 minutes to finish her first run?  I felt a small pang of wanting to be there.  I loved watching my kids learn to maneuver down the mountain and riding up the chair lift pretending we were warm on a beach somewhere!  Of course now they outski me!

Kevin also called yesterday on his way home from work.  I love hearing his life stories, updates on his job and Isis and Maddy, and of course about his wedding ideas!  We could not be any happier for them!

Scott called on his way home from URI.  We love hearing about his internship and upcoming plans.  We are hoping he and Rebecca can visit before adulting takes over this summer.

We appreciate the time they all take to stay in touch and keep us in their lives.  Love to all of them!