Stay Over in Vero Beach
Dec 13 thru Dec 16
—Blogpost written by Bob
We were staying over in Vero Beach awaiting a weather window to cross the gulf stream to the Bahamas (from further south than here). We expected to stay here for one or two weeks and will be making blogposts every three or four days while here.
Friday, December 13
The sun was a pleasant sight this morning! The sun appeared for about an hour and then the clouds thickened and it disappeared again. (Later in the day it came out again.)
We had only three casualties for this trip so far: (1) a lifeline gate was lost overboard, (2) the failure of our dinghy running lights, and (3) the bottom step of the swim ladder came loose.
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| Our temporary jury-rigged lifeline gate (green and white rope). |
All in all, three casualties are not all that bad for traveling about 1200 miles. I thought that I could fix all of them while in Vero Beach. We'll see...
One of the highlights of our day was the hot showers we took in the morning! Later, having lunch out was another highlight of the day. After lunch, Maggie completed two loads of laundry--we were running low on nearly everything.
Fixing the dinghy running lights
After close inspection, I noticed that the rubber seal over the on-off switch was cracked. Refer to the following photo.
Fixing the dinghy running lights
After close inspection, I noticed that the rubber seal over the on-off switch was cracked. Refer to the following photo.
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| Note the age cracks in the orange-colored rubber cover over the on-off switch on our Navi-Safe-brand running lights. |
The cracks explain why the white stern light came on automatically during the heavy rain we experienced yesterday and why it wouldn't work today. The only practical repair was to order a new one, which I did today. (From now on, I will store the lights onboard Rainy Days until needed.)
Fixing the bottom rung of the swim ladder
When I fastened the teak steps to the stainless steel swim ladder I used stainless steel cap screws and plated tee-nuts (I'm not sure if this is the correct name?). During the past 3 or 4 years of use in salt water, the tee nuts on the bottom rung corroded and part of the tee-nut remained on the cap screw (as shown below):
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| The old cap screw with a portion of the original tee-nut (bottom of image) and a new tee- nut (upper part of image) for reference. |
I didn't realize that the tee-nuts were plated when I purchased them originally or I wouldn't have used them. (The base material is brass.)
I had to cut the original bolts using my Dremel tool in order to remove them. I installed two cap screws (with two different style heads because that's all I though I had and nylon-inserted stainless steel nuts as a temporary solution. (This was a few steps better than the duct tape used as a temporary solution up until now.)
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| Two new cap screws with two different type heads |
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| Nylon-inserted stainless steel nuts on the bottom of the new cap screws. |
Of course, all of this work was performed in the dinghy with the swim ladder supported by the dinghy. (I intend to improve on this fix by using cap screws of the same type and using new drilled-out tee-nuts as spacers. Later in the day I did exactly this--I couldn't stand the idea of two different types of screw heads on the same rung. Plus, I added castle nuts so that any exposed screw threads couldn't scratch someone's leg.)
The outside temperature got up to 74 degrees today for those friends and family still in the cold weather up North.
Saturday, December 14
We listened to the Vero Beach Cruiser's Net this morning (for the very first time) at 8:15 AM on VHF channel 68. There are hundreds of boats (mostly sailboats) in the marina at this time and most of them are cruisers headed for the Bahamas, the Keys, or other parts south. Most boats are on moorings, as opposed to in slips.
The best way to describe the weather today was temperature in the low 70's and partly cloudy with intermittent showers. At mid-morning we took our bikes into the marina with the idea of going to a farmers market near the ocean but a flat bike tire and an imminent rain storm thwarted our plan. We came back to the boat for our bike pump and decided to wait out the rain storm onboard. While onboard we ran the engine about an hour for the electrical power since there wasn't much sunshine to get solar power.
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| The fuel dock and the fixed slips that are part of Vero Beach City Marina. |
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| Most boats on moorings are paired with similar boats, in this case two power boats are on the same mooring buoy. |
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| This is the south end of the South morning field. |
I've been watching for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream (not that we are in any kind of a hurry) and there is nothing suitable for the next nine days. I'll keep watching but it appears like we will be here in Vero Beach through the upcoming holidays. (This place has the nick name "Velcro Beach" for a good reason! I also have a list of many little projects that I want to complete before crossing over to the Bahamas.)
Sunday, December 15
When we woke this morning the outside temperature was in the low to mid 50's--very comfortable! We got nice hot showers first thing in the morning and then we rode our bikes to the beach for breakfast at a restaurant we like called Cravings. This morning was very peaceful.
When we returned to the boat we emptied our solid waste container since our 16 days were about up though we haven't been counting. (I will spare you the photos of this endeavor.)
We were both scratching bites from "no-see-ums" this morning. It seems like the Avon Skin-so-Soft was more attractant than a deterrent last night. I took Benadryl this morning to counteract the itching. ("no-see-ums" are worse than mosquitos in my opinion.)
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We have plenty of sunshine today and the solar panels are putting out over 7 amps. They are capable of a lot more output but the voltage controller limits the output to that which the batteries can accept in their current state of charge.
Even though the winter solstice (shortest daylight of the year) is quickly approaching (about 5 days from now), there is about an hour more daylight here than a couple states north of here. Consequently, we get an hour's more solar power--this makes a big difference in our battery state.
Monday, December 16
The day started with bright sunshine and a 13 to 15 knot breeze out of the south. The outside temperature is expected to rise to near 80 degrees in the afternoon.
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The subject that has occupied most of my attention and efforts lately has been the "no-see-ums" (or biting midges) that keep biting us. Like any other subject of interest I googled it and learned more about them prior to my counter attack. Some of the information gathered is the following: (1) only the females bite humans (to get protein for egg laying), (2) they only bite at dusk and dawn, (3) they are only 1 to 3 mm in length, and (4) there are more than 5,000 species of "no-see-ums." Most importantly, it appears that the best repellents are the following (in order of effectiveness):
Since the regular Avon Skin-s-Soft acted more like an attractant than a deterrent, I purchased the second item on the above list (Avon Skin-so-Soft Bug Guard Plus Picaridin) on Amazon--it will arrive tomorrow.
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There are still no weather windows in sight for our crossing the Gulf Stream. Our weather visibility goes out into the future to December 24. It will take us about 3 days to go down the ICW to Fort Lauderdale where we expect to cross to Bimini.
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| Two pelicans wait for handouts at the Riverside Cafe |
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| s/v Rainy Days (on right) shares mooring #16 with a Westsail 32. |
Stay tuned as we further explore Vero Beach...
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