Depart: Vero Beach (Don's Dock) 9:30
Arrive: Ft. Pierce City Marina 11:30
Distance: 16 NM
We woke to miserable weather in the form of torrential rain. It came down in buckets! Looking at our Rainy Days radar app, we decided to wait it out for an upcoming break in the rain. Around 9:00 we saw a respite and started bringing in extra fenders and lines to get ready to depart. Thankfully, I had my rain gear on because as I worked to haul in the fenders another burst of rain came upon us. From rainwater pouring down the walkway on the side of the boat, by the time I got inside, my sneakers were saturated! The rest of me was totally dry. As we pulled away from the dock, we had light rain. Fifteen minutes later the rain had stopped for the day.
With the extra foot of water provided by high tide and navigating experience from yesterday, Clark maneuvered us out of Bethel Creek to the mooring field with no issues and, once there, found a clearly marked channel with deep water to pass behind the moored sailboats. Too bad we did not see that channel on our way in!
Initially, visibility on the ICW was low, but within an hour of leaving the dock, we had bright sunshine and clear skies! We had one questionable bridge to deal with on our way to Fort Pierce. Clark called me to come up to the upper helm from the galley area, so I could give him a second opinion on our boat height versus bridge clearance.
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| Hmmm!? Will we fit? |
Turns out we had oodles of space and cleared with no worries.
As we pulled into our assigned slip, I spied a boat named California Lady and thought, "We met someone with a boat with that name." I never guessed it might be someone we know. As we got ourselves settled in, however, the owners came over and indeed we did know them from time spent in Marathon, Florida in February 2016. Nancy and Mike! Yay! It is so nice to have friendly folks with familiar faces nearby.
Coming down from New Jersey through the Chesapeake and then the Carolinas, we have been bundled up and cold. Suddenly, today, Clark started to "boil over" and ran for shorts. Since this was the first time he could ditch his long pants for shorts, he declared it to be "the first day of summer"!
We spent a short time saying hello to Nancy and Mike, but today we were on a mission to buy our new house bank batteries. After a quick bite to eat, we picked up a rental car and headed off to Riviera Beach, Florida to buy our batteries. Two-and-a-half hours and many dollars later, we were back at the boat with 3 batteries weighing 160 pounds each! The shop clerk said, "I hope you brought a pickup!" We backed the car up to the loading dock, and found they had brought them out via forklift. After a discussion about the ability of the car to handle the weight and where the batteries should be positioned in the car, two hefty guys lifted them one-by-one into the back of the hatchback.
With my wonky arm, I could not assist in any way, shape, or form. Clark asked the dock master if anyone was around who could assist. The dock master talked to a local diver who came by and told us he had a couple of guys who could help. That sounded great until we saw the guys who turned out to be two skinny teenagers who each, most definitely, weighed less than a battery. The forklift option did not present itself at the marina. We had to find another way to transport them from the parking lot to the boat.
Using one of the carts supplied at marinas to move goods to and from boats, Clark and the guys brought the batteries from the car to the boat one-by-one and lined them up on the finger dock by our boat. So far so good, but now the really hard part - getting them on the boat from a fixed dock at low tide and then into the boat via the hatch in the salon (the one I fell through recently). Being far from thrilled to have that hole back in the floor to try to catch me unaware a second time, I carefully watched my step and tried to give it a wide berth!
Since the sun had set before we got to this part of the story, Clark did not want to disconnect all three batteries at once and leave us in the dark while the replacement process occurred. He always wanted one to be up and running. That meant the two guys and I sat around watching and waiting while Clark rewired the boat prior to each battery removal / replacement. If Clark says, "Hmm. This is complicated." You know it's hard, but of course, he managed to make it happen.
The hatch opening is only about 4-foot square. Two people could not fit in the opening together. However, it took two people to carry a battery. It became a logistical problem to figure out how to get the batteries down the hold without hernia or back injuries. Since Clark just had hernia surgery this summer, he sure did not want a repeat injury. Eventually they came up with a plan.
Clark climbed into the compartment and then twisted and contorted his body to crawl in behind the batteries (God knows how he did this!) Then, with one guy standing in the hole, Clark and he lifted the battery up onto the housing block and balanced it there. Then, after the guy climbed back out again, the two guys reached in and lifted it up onto the salon floor. After Clark crawled out, he put the hatch cover in place so they would not drop through the hatch opening while carrying the battery outside.
With one off the boat, they grabbed the new, replacement and brought it on board to feed it down into the hole. To do this, Clark climbed in first and stayed back as far as he could while the two guys lowered the battery down into the chamber. I held my breath during this part of the "show" as I worried what would happen should one of them accidentally lose their grip. Should that battery fall on any part of Clark, it could cripple or kill him (and they had to do this three times!)
Once the battery was in the compartment and balanced, Clark did the contortionist act and climbed in behind the battery boxes to help lower the battery into place. Then, he climbed out and did the electrical magic to allow another battery to be removed while keeping the lights on. I gather from his mutterings that it closely resembled solving a complex puzzle where failure resulted in total darkness.
Given this whole "remove one, add one" process was taking a long time, I offered the guys some food and drink, so while Clark sweated it out configuring wires, they sat sipping fruit punch in our recliners. They laughed when I told them I was "tired just watching" the work being done to replace the batteries. At least one of the two guys was quite agile. I got the impression, however, from his comments that he was very impressed with Clark's ability to climb in behind the batteries. I had to laugh as he called Clark "Pops" when talking to him. "Hey Pops! How you do that? Huh?"
After all three had been replaced, Clark checked the voltage on each of the old batteries, and each one registered good. It does not matter that a battery registers good voltage if it cannot hold a charge overnight. They had to go. Finally, the guys used the cart to transport the old batteries down to our car and loaded them in for us. Tomorrow, we have to find a place to dispose of them before returning the rental car.
Clark paid the guys for their work, changed his shirt, and since it was well past dinner time, took me out to eat at the Tiki Bar restaurant associated with the marina for a quick, I-didn't-have-to-cook-it dinner.
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