The end of the Kluges -- I hope.

Feels like a Saturday -- ohh it is Saturday!! Ahh just rubbing it in.

Today was a work day. The dinghy has a dual hull and there is water trapped between them. I finally found a plug on the rear transom that will allow me to drain the water. The problem is it is so corroded it will take work to remove and I need a new one to replace it. I actually believed it was a barnacle for a long time!! Hopefully this is the last of the kluges to correct/repair on this boat. The boat was in excellent condition when we bought it and the survey was very good but there has just been a whole host of nickel and dime kluges that were done that when taken together has been -- frustrating. The worst being the nylon washers shimmed up the forward head toilet seat that came loose the first time some one used it in a seaway -- correction $20 for a new seat. Then the broken fuel fitting on the fuel tank for the outboard that was tied on because the clip was broken -- fixed for $3.49 but lost $5 worth of gas and the accompanying mess. There were many more -- just time and money but should have been repaired properly the first time.


I had to strip the dinghy of motor and fuel and then lift it with the davits onto the swim platform to get access to the old bug. Actually it was so deteriorated that it came out easily. I then re-suspended the dinghy and drained the water. Boy there was a LOT trapped in there. I suspect it is going to run better now that it will not have that unnecessary weight in the rear.

Once it was back together I hauled a couple of hundred pounds of water to the boat. Then I visited Wayne and Jill on ‘Born to cruise’ to view his 1000 watts of solar panel. Very impressive and a very neat installation. The controllers he has set up give you the true state of the charge at a glance. While viewing the controller at 11:15am he was charging with 30 AMPS!! That’s huge.

We went off on the noon bus to get some Pizza at a Pizza Hut near the Publix Grocery – once again disappointed. It is a delivery/carryout only!! I thought Chinese but no we went to a Deli Restaurant for Deli sandwiches. It was fine but not Pizza or Chinese.

Picked up a few groceries then beat it back to the boat. The bus service ends at 3pm on Saturdays.

Just relaxed for awhile then I took a bike ride to the top of the high rise bridge which overlooks the marina/mooring field here and took the cool pictures here tonight.

Back on Temptation I remembered I missed a sked with Jim Thompson to connect via SSB on the ham bands. I called Jim and apologized for missing and we tried it immediately. We could not connect on 20 meters but were able to connect on 40 meters – pretty good with just an occasional fade.

Quiet evening planned tonight – leftovers for dinner and maybe a game of pickup sticks. Hey it’s more difficult then you would think on a moving boat.

Thanksgiving -- Do Over

Yesterday’s Thanksgiving feast was very nice but in discussions today with Karen – we are still missing something. The Turkey was okay but kind of cool and picked over. So tonight we are fixing a Turkey Breast in the boat oven – wish us luck because it has proven cantankerous the few times we have used it. I attribute that to “just not being used”.

I looked for a Pecan Pie at the grocery today – but none to be had. They probably had 2 dozen pumpkin pies for a $1 each but I don’t need that.

Today overall has been a light day. It started cold – 44 degrees!! Sunny and warmed up but with the breeze it felt cool all day. Again no shorts.

Tomorrow I plan some dinghy work. I found a drain plug I didn’t know it had because it was so badly corroded. It plugs the inner hull which has water in it. I had to locate a new plug today (at West Marine) and will tackle that job tomorrow. It should run better with nicer trim once that excess water is drained out of there.

I had to attend to some personal business today and I took a little while to try and locate a bag of O-rings I bought last fall. I know they have been in 3 different drawers and 2 cabinets but I cannot find them now. Ohhh it is exasperating to lose something that you know is here but just can’t locate – lost in the clutter I guess.

And Yes Yes I have a very detailed inventory sheet (actually about 12 pages) but they did not make it on the list. Grrrrr

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving All!!

The cruisers put on quite a Thanksgiving Feast here today. My tummy is still a little sore and I exercise moderation!!

The weather was great although too cool for shorts, and the company equally fine. We dined with the crews from Diva, Rachel, and Fredonia. We also finally met the crew from “Born to Cruise” Wayne and Jill. They are from New Bern too. Percentage wise I’d say New Bern had more folks here than any other area.

What can I say the choices were magnificent – Anti Pasta, Pasta, more salads than you shake a stick at – plenty of Turkey and ham for those who wanted that. Not me – JUST TURKEY!!

I did miss sweet potatoes and Pecan Pie.. Can you believe about 10 pumpkin pies and only one pecan pie which was long gone by the time I got there. I just shot the ready whip directly in my mouth – just kidding – put it on a spoon then the mouth.

I think it will just be broth for dinner tonight.

Enjoy the pics. I especially like the shot of the Dinghy parking lot.

Just an Easy day

Sticking to our plan we stayed put today. Didn’t want to go near the grocery today – will go on Friday.

A large cruisers Thanksgiving is planned for tomorrow. At 10 am this morning there was something like 37 boats signed up. I think the feast will be grand tomorrow.

The boat smells great today. Karen has been preparing some pies and will fix a pizza tonight in the oven. Ohhh another cold front came through last night and we are in Long pants and sweats again today – high only about 65 but with the wind chill it is probably 59!! Good oven weather.

I’ll be fixing one of my specialties – not deviled eggs though but the other specialty – sautéed mushrooms Italian style. My mother’s recipe.

We took a few pictures today and the best were Karen’s idea so I can’t use them here – you will have to wait for her blog.

Now I did include the dinghy dock today. Pretty representative of how it looks most of the time but there are occasions where it is more crowded – like 3 deep!!

Now several boats left today. Chris Parker called for a very nice weather window into the Bahamas tomorrow through Saturday but hole up by Sunday night – strong cold front coming in Monday/Tuesday. We are not ready for the hop yet but will look for the next weather window that happens after late next week. Will probably leave for Lake Worth and stage there next Thursday.

And the Canadian Invasion continues!! I would say at least 10 boats with Canadian flags arrived today. I need to ask someone how so many arrive in the same time frame. Enquiring minds you know.

CHOREBOY

Even the easy living needs a break once in awhile. Today was spent with the chores of laundry, filling an 80 gallon water tank via numerous trips with Jerri cans, and some consulting work.

Karen took care of the laundry – I just assisted with the heavy lifting. We had gone through our small 80-gallon tank of water so I refilled it with the 6-gallon Jerri cans – 2 of them. It took awhile and by overfilling them to 7 gallons it only took 5 trips. The filling is easy here because they have a spigot with a short hose right at the dinghy dock – you don’t need to lug the Jerri cans. It took about 5 trips and I measured the work in pounds rather than gallons. Each Jerry can with 7 gallons is about 56 lbs. Thus I moved 500+ lbs of water today!!

Had to do some consulting work today too and that felt good to get back into the swing for a bit.

We lost our Canadian Neighbors on 10 years After and gained a new Canadian boat called Pala with Jacque and Jane aboard. It is an 11 meter S2.

In fact it is an “invasion” of Canadians today. I would say at least 6 boats that I saw coming in today all had Canadian flags.

It finally warmed up today and I was back in shorts for the first time in several weeks. Even tonight we have the windows open with the screens in – haven’t done that in weeks.

Unfortunately another cold front – although mild – comes over tonight so the high tomorrow will only be 70 – acceptable. Possibly the weather pattern has finally changed for the better. I hope so.

Bus BOY

The Public bus here in Vero is cheap and convenient but you can sure kill the better part of the day by shopping via the bus. Then again this less than Elysian day might be attributed to us coming under the spell of the “devil”!

We have been talking about getting a Memory Foam topper for the bed. We are both developing backaches from our mattress. Well shopping online we saw where Wal-Mart had a 4” topper for $159 and Target only had 2” toppers for $129. We really wanted the thicker topper. So though we have not given any business to Wal-Mart since 1991 (most of have heard that story) our sore backs said “do it”. I tried to order it online but the best delivery was next week here to the marina and I don’t want to be “bonded” here that long. We decided to take the bus to Wal-Mart and buy it. Well Wal-Mart is a two bus trip – you have to do a transfer. We knuckled under and went. Now it first stopped at Target and the Veteran cruisers on the bus said it was just a short walk across the street, make your purchase and then catch the bus when it made it’s formal stop at Wal-Mart and you could be back in the same hour. We tried it. Ohhh those veteran cruisers (60 –70ish) women must be sprinters.. It was a 15-minute walk for us… We made it and found the topper without much trouble. We went to checkout and Karen read the label closer than I did. This 4” topper was actually 1.5” memory foam bonded to 2.5” regular foam – unacceptable. We left the merchandise and caught the bus. We then went to the Publix and did our shopping after the transfer. Thought we could get in and out in 30 minutes and catch the bus back. Good idea but that bus was on its way to the transfer so to make a long story short we left at 8:45am and returned at 12:15pm and ended up only doing grocery shopping.

Well after lunch we thought – “that Publix is going to be crazy with Thanksgiving shoppers so let’s go back and finish the shopping today. We caught the 2:00 pm bus and went to the Publix raced through and just as we were leaving with 5 minutes to spare Karen says – oops forgot the piecrust. Back in she goes. Two minutes later the bus comes early and we miss it. Now it is another 30 minutes for the next bus and it is going to the transfer station. Once again – left at 2pm – returned at 4pm. What a day, but the eating will be FINE for a while.

We plan to go to the cruisers Thanksgiving celebration and we will bring Pumpkin Pie and my mushroom specialty – I bought a bunch of mushrooms.

We plan on eating some fresh fish and salad tonight – no cruiser appetizer/GNTs to spoil the dinner hour tonight.

a Fine Sunday in Vero

Just a L A Z Y Sunday in Vero. No work today. We thought we would go shopping early this morning but then discovered the buses don’t run on Sunday. The bus instructions were quite detailed but no mention of Sunday either way. Well the bus does NOT run on Sunday.

We dinghy’d around awhile and thought about going top the grocery store via the Skipper Bob instructions – 5th canal but there was a lot of north wind – more than predicted and it would be a cold wet ride back. We just rode around the mooring field and eventual stopped at the 2 boats from New Bern and invited them over for Sundowners later this afternoon.

After lunch we went on a lazy bike ride to the beach from here along with George and carol Meyers from Traumerie. That was a lot of fun and the beach was beautiful. The Sand the water everything is very nice. The homes are well kept and everything is so clean here in Vero Beach. Just a great town from what we could see.

After walking the whole length of the boardwalk and me splashing in the shallow surf – no one else wanted wet feet in this cool ,windy weather – we retreated to an ice cream shop where I had a LARGE Raisin Rum. Karen had some chocolate concoction.

A nice ride back and we saw the coolest mailbox holder –- a manatee. I loved it.

We cleaned boat and got ready for the Sundowners at 4pm when George and Carol, Tom and Ollie, and our raft up neighbors Pat and Dave all came over. We had a great visit until 6pm. Ahhh this is cruising in its finest.

Just a quite evening planned tonight and planning on an early start to the store on the bus in the morning.

Enjoy the pics from the bike ride this afternoon.