We started the day Sunday with a surprise visit from Don Lewland who lives here in Vero Beach. Clark and he sat on the cockpit and chatted away a good chunk of the morning. Most of the discussion revolved around boat repair and maintenance, so I only listened with one ear while I kept busy on the boat.
First, I decided I had had enough of deck brushes and boat hooks shoved into a corner just waiting to fall over onto the deck. On Sea Moss we had them organized by hanging them from hooks. Since Clark is not included to drill holes in the side of Sunset Delight any more than absolutely necessary, he suggested that I use Velcro.
Recently I bought a package of industrial strength Velcro, designed to support up to 10 pounds of weight, at Home Depot, so I used that. I ran a strip of it across the wall behind the door to the salon, and then attached the tools to it using Velcro straps. The test will be how it holds up underway. Sitting at dock, it seems to be holding quite well.
After completing that project, I moved on to some sewing I had lined up for when I had some free time. I pulled out my little Janome sewing machine to get that job done. By the time I finished my two projects, Don was saying goodbye. As he left he offered to take a picture of Clark and me standing on the back of our boat - a picture we cannot take by ourselves.
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| Ev and Clark at Vero Beach, FL Note Clark's new hat! |
Clark spent some time after lunch working on the water tank gauges that are supposed to tell us if we have full water tanks or empty. They, like many other things we have discovered on the boat, do not work. After his investigation, he concluded that there may be calcium buildup that is preventing the gauges from working. As such, this became an item that will have to wait until we reach New Jersey to receive further attention. Meanwhile, we have a work around and can stick our heads in the engine room and use the sight glass to see what water remains in the tanks.
Except for the brief time spent working on the water tank gauges, Clark spent the majority of the day talking to other boaters. We had a sudden influx of loopers that came into the marina, and it became quite a social event chatting with them all. As we talked with some of them, I suggested we have docktails at 5:00. Since the weather threatened rain all afternoon long, I offered up our boat as the venue. We have a nice covered cockpit and a large salon.
The couple on Compass Rose came to our boat just before the party was to begin and said they would have to miss docktails because they had discovered electrical problems on their boat. Clark volunteered to take a look to see if he could help them troubleshoot the problem. He grabbed his voltmeter. They told him that one of the two columns on their electrical panel had no power.
When Clark asked, they told him they had 50 amp power coming into the boat. Even though the porwer light was on, Clark thought they might have lost one of the two phases. They turned off the load and unplugged the boat, so Clark could disconnect the plug and check power at the pedestal. Both phases had power, but Clark observed that one of the receptacle slots on the pedestal was badly burnt. He remembered that the pedestal had a second 50-amp socket. He moved their power there, and the problem was resolved. Sandra and John were thrilled with the quick fix and that they could come to docktails after all.
The rain held off until precisely 5:00 when folks wanted to move from their boats to ours. What timing! Folks brought plenty of food and their own drinks, and we had a nice little docktails party. The women made themselves comfortable around the table in the salon while the men hung out on the cockpit. Since we women had the food, the guys popped in once in a while and then went back outside to continue their conversation.
With the time change, it stayed daylight for an extra hour. We were so engrossed in our discussions that before we knew it, two hours had flown by and folks said their goodbyes to go find their dinners. Sadly, neither Clark nor I thought to take any pictures of the crowd. In attendance, we had Compass Rose, Captain's Choice, Time Out, Follow That Dream, Satori, and ourselves.
Although he forgot to take docktails pictures, he did remember sunset pictures.
3/13/2017
Because we brought our own car with us from New Jersey, we have to keep moving it as we move the boat. So far, we have chosen to pre-position the car so that it is immediately available in the selected future port when we arrive. Today was a dreaded "move-the-car" day. We decided to move the car to Brunswick, Georgia this time with a round-trip driving distance of 560 miles and about 9 hours time.
To make this drive a one-day car rental, we set our alarms for 7:00 to make our rental reservation at 8:00 a.m. With the time change, this meant that we were up before the sun, which almost never happens! Walking back to the boat from the morning run to the marina heads, Clark and I both noticed the full moon still quite visible in the western sky.
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| Early-morning moon. Normally these sailboats are in our sunset pictures! |
Looking in the easterly direction, Clark managed to capture a sunrise picture.
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| Sunrise as seen from Vero Beach Marina |
We managed to pick up our reserved rental car and be on our way by 8:30. The rental car only came with 1/4 tank of gas, so the first thing we had to do was find a gas station. Then we set off for our four plus hours of driving to get to Brunswick, Georgia.
As I listened to the radio along the way, I learned from the radio announcer that today is "National Nap Day". That is a sad day to have to drive over eight hours. Since I desperately wanted to partake in the nap part of Nap Day, I ate my way to Georgia to stay awake. With the help of crackers, chips, nuts, sandwiches, candy, ... I managed to make it to our destination.
When I stepped out of the car in Georgia, the weather woke me up in a hurry. In Vero Beach the forecast was for high 70s / low 80s today. The temperature in Brunswick was 53 degrees. Clark and I were dressed in shorts and t-shirts. The Georgia locals wore long pants and winter coats. The wind coming off the water made that 53 feel a lot colder - quite brisk shall we say! I can only hope that the five or six days we take to get to Brunswick by boat bring warmer weather to the region.
We stayed in Brunswick long enough to meet the dockmaster, tell him where we put the car, and use the head. Then we were off again! I was ever so relieved that Clark drove for the trip back to Vero Beach. I know I nodded off for a part of the trip because Clark woke me up asking questions about exits.
Yesterday, Clark had made tentative plans to join a bunch of boaters from the Vero Beach City Marina for supper tonight at Mr. Manatee's for their $5.00 burgers. Unfortunately, since they had a large crowd going, the reservation at the restaurant had to be made for 4:30. I thought that there was a slim chance we could make it back to Vero Beach by 5:30, but no way on earth could we make 4:30.
After driving all day long, we pulled into the rental car parking lot at 6:15. They closed at 6:00. I banged on the door because folks were inside and dangled the key when they looked up. Someone came out to reclaim the key from me. We use Enterprise for their "We'll pick you up" service. Unfortunately, all their drivers had already gone home, so we used Uber to get back to the marina.
We almost made it back before the rains hit Vero Beach. Clark had rain on and off for the drive back, but we had a dry spot when we got to Vero Beach. Unfortunately, by the time the Uber driver appeared (only 4 minutes), the rain had started. When he dropped us off at the marina, we ran through the rain for cover. While we stood under the awning watching the rain pour down and looking for an opportunity to make it back to our boat, our looper buddies returned from their dinner at Mr. Manatee's. Thirty people had shown up for the get together. Too bad we had to miss that!
Because of the rain, we did not get a sunset picture tonight. Good thing we got the sunrise picture this morning instead! Tomorrow we are on the move again as we head to Cocoa Beach, Florida. One of the boaters here told us that there is a space launch tomorrow night, but looking on Google, I see that one is scheduled for a week from tomorrow, so I guess we will miss it this year. We got to see one last year as we passed through this area, so I am not too disappointed.
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