Still in Fort Pierce

Bear and Bligh

Since meeting up with Keeling Time, we have been in this marina. We were waiting for parts, both crews. Ours arrived yesterday and we repaired and installed the prop. Keeling Time is waiting for wizbang 100 amp battery charger and it has not arrived yet. We plan to "buddy boat" (sounds sort of whimpy huh?) with them at least to the Florida/Georgia line. We are told that the Georgia coast is, with few exceptions, something we can skip offshore. Fort Pierce is about a third of the way up the Florida coast. We now know that we will be following hot weather north for the rest of the summer, so there is no expectation of sleeping much with the hatches open. The surprising thing is that we have yet to get really "buggy". Our guess is that they are digging in along the Carolinas waiting for us.

It is getting brutally hot here with very little breeze. That means that Bear has knocked out about a book a day sitting below in the cool. I manage to continue to do topside stuff as long as the Gatorade holds out. Hydration in this climate is a must in port. At anchor, the impact is lessened since whisps of sea air keep arriving.

Early yesterday morning, we heard something exhaling under our boat. It did it twice and then bumped the hull. It was a manatee we think because it took it's time wollering along the hull under us. Or, could it have been some sea monster sizing us up?


Once underway again, we expect to make the Cape Canaveral area fairly soon, perhaps two days. Then we anticipate stops in Daytona Beach, St. Augustine and Jacksonville before leaving the state with endless coasts. We remember with fondness those places now under seige by oil. Most of the ports we visited were almost fully recovered from the hurricanes and looking forward to an active tourist season.

Wrong Parts and Peaceful Sunday

The biggest Hinckley I ever saw. I am wondering if at $15K per foot or so, how long it took to pay it off? The UDT/ Seal Museum of Fort Pierce. Small but complete.
The harbor restaurant and bar that is crowded at sunset.

Crew of Keeling Time at market days, Fort Pierce.

We pulled the Autoprop yesterday and was eager to repair it with the parts we received from the vendor. All went well until we found that one of the parts did not fit, the bearing. While we can use the prop now adjusted again with the old parts, we will wait until we can get the right part and then install the prop. That way, I only have to rig for diving one time vs two.

Early yesterday afternoon, the crew of Safari called and said they would be passing our way on their road trip from Texas to Miami where Safari is docked. We had dinner and a very good visit with them and the crew of Keeling Time last evening at the harbor restaurant here. It is always good to see them. Keeling Time was most entertaining with their tales of the Abacos. They have some great shots of underwater stuff from there. Rick mentioned that they seldom anchored in water over about eight feet and it was always very clear. We very much look forward to visiting the islands in the fall. For now, we must make our way up north for hurricane season.

Speaking of that, we were watching news this morning when a bonehead weatherman expressed excitement at the new disturbance in the Atlantic. Said he looked forward to a very active hurricane season. Gee, I wish he would come to this, or any harbor, and say that out loud at happy hour. Then again that is how it affects those not in the zone.

We are docked next to several other boats that have fuel cans, solar panels, and general cruiser clutter. It is always interesting to walk the docks and see how others have solved, or attempted to solve issues such as storage, dinghy handling, cockpit comfort and the like. The thing we miss the most is a comfortable way to sit in the cockpit. Still, the cheesy bean bag we have is the best so far as long as one does not have to move quickly to get around it. That thing can be sitting there looking fairly stable and if you step on it, plan to go anywhere other than planned. It is like stepping on a bag of marbles. Don't even think of stepping on it with refreshments or food in your hands, lest ye paint the cockpit with them.

Sunday is our day to call family. Most of the time they are out doing stuff so it is a game of tag. We are told that Skype is a useful tool to communicate with family but we have not tried that yet. Maybe we will catch up to the 21 st century soon. The question of the day is who stole all those moon rocks?

Mail and Old Friends

We heard that Keeling Time was back in the states from the Abacos. In fact, they made port just 20 miles up the coast from St. Lucie yesterday at 0730. We decided to take our Autoprop parts that arrived this morning at 0930 and sail to what we hoped would be cleaner water at Fort Pierce. It was an easy, albeit hot, very hot, day. We made it to Fort Pierce at 1430 and were assigned a slip only one boat away from Keeling Time. As we tied up, Rick came to the slip to help tie up. We have not seen him since helping push off in Corpus Christi almost two years ago. Much has happened along their way including a lightening strike that fried all ships electronic and electric parts and a mystery hand that stopped them mid Gulf. They have managed to put thousands of sea miles under her keel and do not look any the worse for wear, not does Keeling Time.

Poozak is kind enough to forward our mail, assuming we are in a place long enough to receive it. As we were going through the mail pouch yesterday, it occurred to me that this event is duplicated every day somewhere in the military. I remember eagerly waiting for the mail bag to fall from the sky and then distributing said mail to the troops. Bear and I were going through the stuff that needed shredding, those unsolicited checks that if cashed, subjects the dummy that did it to unbelievable interest rates, and separating the good stuff. The shredding, by the way, is the ships bilge coolie with scissors hovering over the trash can. Given enough of that stuff, one can get blisters on the scissor fingers, but the bilge coolie consistently cuts small random confetti. That's a good thing. The stories of ships passing at sea exchanging mail bags could not be more vivid.

Day Waiting For Parts

Ok, so plans do change. Due to the fact that I have little confidence in the Autoprop in it's current condition, we decided to order the parts to repair it. Since the machinist mate aboard WK did a poor job of installing old standby, we are stuck until the knucklehead gets the parts to fix our only "screw". Whilst waiting for said parts, the cost of which we do not know (more on that later), we decided to see some of this place, Stuart. I mentioned last blog that this is a cross road, so to speak, for the boating world. Half of the boats we have seen here have the swamp water grin on the bow and half look as though they have not left the dock since birth. Why Knot is in the former condition.

The city of Stuart has a tram which is more like a long golf cart. Said tram is without charge and if there is room aboard when it passes, one can get on an ride at will. We took an hour ride on it today during the Thursday Tour. Not only did we see most of the old town, we had a narrator giving local knowledge. Stuart has done a fine job of preserving the water front and building of significance dating back to the end of the nineteenth century. Mostly driven by pineapple groves in the early years, this place pays great homage to Henry Flagler who brought the railroad here in 1895. For that matter, almost every east coast town we've seen so far has a Flagler street. As mentioned, pineapples and fishing were king here through the Great Depression and WWII. Much of that is gone and pleasure boating has taken over. Seminole Indians did much trading here due to the Parks General Merchandise store still standing today.

WK has a few dings to the toe rail but we do have the stuff to bring it back to cutesie state but, in this heat, little enthusiasm for actually applying the Honey Teak. I got the bow rail and three stanchions waxed yesterday then decided that it was too hot to be devoted to the task. We are really starting to have a profound respect for crews that arrive from months ways with the boat looking as though it never left the dock (Querencia as an example). We have said before that we are amazed at the amount of dust and actual dirt that lands on deck. Birds are not an issue here and really have not been since getting to the pan handle of Florida. It is rare to see a Pelican and even more rare to see a seagull. I intentionally did not capitalize seagull since we think of them as "air rats". Anyway, the point is that as small as this boat is, it gets dirty and mildew is the constant war. Even with air conditioning which we do not run underway or sometimes at all during the day, mildew can grow fast. If we do not look at a surface for a few weeks, we can count on it having mildew of some type when we do. Some is black, some is green and some is yellow. So far, we win.

The water in the Saint Lucie river is just nasty looking. It was not always that way. Before the canal crossing Florida was built, this place had clear ocean water, Florida style. Now it is very ugly. There are signs posted that folks should not swim in the river due to some hostile bacteria that causes the flesh eating ailment. One would bet that one person got it and now the sky is falling. I talked to a professional diver today that has been scrubbing bottoms (boats that is) for two decades who said "Look at me. Do I have any weird skin stuff growing?" So, the question to meditate, cogitate and ponder is whether or not to dive the boat tomorrow and fix that darn prop? While thinking about it, we might just have to have a re-do on the escargot at Sailors Return tonight.