Vero Beach

Apr 1 thru Apr 3

—Blogpost written by Bob

Sunday, April 1

It’s Easter morning, not that it means much to me, and April's Fool Day.  It is very calm this morning—no one seems to be moving about in the mooring field, including Pierre and Micheline, our raft-up neighbors on s/v Troika from Montreal.

Vero Beach City Marina is the only place I know of where
moorings are shared. Our raft-up neighbor added
pool noodles to the mooring lines to keep
them from wrapping around the
base of the mooring buoy.

With our galley faucet still broken, doing dishes this morning was an interesting exercise. I heated up water in the teakettle and poured it into one of the sinks with some dish detergent and then added some cold water (again with the teakettle) to reduce the water temperature. Then I washed each dish in the warm soapy water and rinsed it in the sink in the head. It all worked out fine except for the trail of soapy water between the galley and the head. I can’t wait to get the replacement faucet!

Today was completely uneventful. I guess, putting it another way, it was very relaxing (but very lonely).  During the afternoon, I reorganized my light bulbs and fuses, akin to organizing one’s sock drawer for a landlubber.

I finished reading Chris Matthews book, Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero. It was a nice reminder of a U.S. President with leadership, intelligence, and principles—the complete opposite of what we have now. (Speaking of which, I ordered a t-shirt from Amazon.com today which says on the front “SCIENCE IS NOT A LIBERAL CONSPIRACY.”)

The sunset from the north mooring field on April 1.

Monday, April 2

Another very calm morning awaits.  I’m hoping that we can wrap up all our projects this week and start heading northward on the ICW early next week.

According to Weather Underground, it looks like we
will have relatively good weather this week.

My goals for the day are rather modest: (1) to (singlehandedly) empty a 5-gallon jug of fresh water (which is now in the dinghy) into the forward water tank from on the deck, (2) to pick Maggie up in the dinghy when she arrives from Sarasota and go out for lunch, and (3) to do some much needed provisioning in the afternoon.

Well, I managed to get the 5-gallons water jug on deck using the spare jib halyard.  I also picked Maggie up at the dinghy dock around noon and we went out for lunch (Riverside Cafe) but we never got around to the provisioning—this will have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.  We have established that we will be leaving Vero Beach next Tuesday morning (April 10) and head toward St. Augustine as our next stop (probably four days away on the ICW).  Of course, anything can change when traveling by boat...

Tuesday, April 3

Even though we had our insect screens (which were sprayed with insecticide for no-see-ums), I got a few bug bites last night. This is common in the far north area of the mooring field where we are surrounded by mangroves but far less common in the southern part of the mooring field.  Too bad this was the only mooring available when we arrived.

The morning started out with overcast skies (again) and a light drizzle. A very light, almost nonexistent, breeze was blowing out of the north, providing some slight cooling effect. 

This is our view looking south from our mooring 
with overcast morning skies again.

The wind is starting to pick up and clock around to the east as the morning progresses. The sky is clearing and the sun is now shining brightly.

At midmorning Mike arrived at our boat and repaired the antenna cable—now the VHF radio works great.  In the afternoon, he came back with Pete to do the work at the top of the mast: changing the VHF antenna and repairing the wiring for the masthead light.

  

Pete up the mast replacing the VHF antenna and
doing the masthead light re-wiring. 

We got the anchor light working properly but it was clear that we have to re-wire the mast this summer--this will be a job for the boatyard during our annual haulout.  All the wiring is original to the boat, about 35 years old and it is not tinned wire because it wasn't available back then.  Consequently, we had to remove a couple inches of wire on each end where it was badly corroded.

We have a lot more things to do before we leave early next week...stay tuned...


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