FL: Riviera Beach

Monday March 12, 2018
No boat travel.

Given it was Monday, we used Lyft to get to Enterprise to rent a car as we thought that would be more expedient. We left from Enterprise directly for our drive to Riviera Beach in search of our replacement starter battery for our starboard engine. Google Maps predicted the trip to be one hour long.

After picking up the battery, we hoped to hook up with a couple who used to be our neighbors in Boca Raton. Unfortunately, we did not know if they would be available or not for a visit. While we waited for a return phone call / text from them, we killed some time in the Riviera Beach area first by visiting Publix to pick up non-perishable supplies and then heading over to a nearby park to eat the sub we bought at Publix for lunch.

We found a place called Ocean Reef Park via Google Maps that looked like a reasonable place for a quick picnic lunch.

Beach at Ocean Reef Park

View from Picnic Tables

Mosaic Park Bench and Metal Dolphin Sculpture

Just before we ran out of ways to kill time, Clark got a call back from our friends in Boca Raton saying we should come visit. The drive to Boca Raton turned out to be a little longer than expected, and since we had such a good time reconnecting with our long-time friends, we got a later start back to Fort Pierce than we had scheduled.

Fortunately Bob, who agreed to help us install the new battery, was flexible and agreed to come to our boat after 5:00 to work with us. When we finally got back to the Fort Pierce City Marina, Clark and I managed to move the 140 pound battery from the trunk of the car to a marina cart and bring it to the boat. As we walked to our boat with our "prize", we saw Dan from Melody in C, who volunteered to assist.

Clark and Dan moved the new battery from the cart into our cockpit. Then Dan helped Clark move the old port side battery out of the hold into the cart for us to take to recycle in the morning. When Bob came, he worked with Clark to take out the failed starboard engine starter battery and replace it with the new one. Afterwards they walked the cart with the two old batteries up to our car for the trip to recycle in the morning.