Tag Archives: Intercoastal

Clearing the Cobwebs – Vero Beach, FL, USA – November 3, 2022

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Clearing the Cobwebs – Vero Beach, FL, USA – November 3, 2022

I have to admit, we are a little rusty. However, after 10 days in the water (4 of which we have travelled), 20 hours on the engines…Sailing Hubby’s honey-do list has only gotten longer. It’s to the point of silly now since we have things breaking that I didn’t even know we had. For example, there’s this thing that regulates the water pressure on the boat and makes it easier for you to adjust the hot and cold water in the shower and not get scalded. Yep, ask me how I can tell you that’s broke! Apparently, we need a new “accumulator” since ours has a large hole and no longer pressurizes. Then we found out we might have a leak in one of our diesel tanks, if that turns out to be the case Ron gets to syphon out all the gas in both tanks and weld them with JB Weld (whatever that is apparently fixes it). It’s not cheap to leak diesel and not really safe to have fuel in your bilges. One of the tachometers needed rewired, our speed over ground(SOG) isn’t showing up on the speed display since we changed our chart plotter, our chain snubber hook for the anchor bridal doesn’t work (and we get to replace that), and the list goes on……and on.

On the positive side, it looks like due to weather, we will need to stay in Vero Beach for about a week and will have time to do this stuff.  We can get our necessary parts shipped to the marina, we are still in the states which means we don’t have to pay import tax on anything we need to fix stuff, and my magically handy husband knows how to do all this crap.  As far as the weather goes, we are watching a storm that is going to pass through starting Friday-Sunday and hoping it isn’t a tropical storm.  We are all tucked in a little marina on a mooring to wait it out just in case.

We also got to see a launch as we headed down the space coast which is always very cool.

See it?

And after 10 days, the boat routines are starting to feel familiar again.  I drove a good chunk of the intercoastal to try and get some experience and learn the new chart plotter.  We have anchored a few times to test out our new chain (which is how we know it’s broke), docked a few times, and picked up a mooring so we are dangerous enough now to head south when weather permits.  A crossing window may be upon us after this storm goes through but will need to wait til we get closer to see.

For now though, Vero Beach is a cool little town with walking trails, beaches, and a terrific farmer’s market on Saturday.  We also have friends heading here in a couple days as well so I am sure we will find something to entertain us for a while!

Once Around the Barn– October 29, 2022, Palm Coast Marineland, Florida USA

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Once Around the Barn – October 29, 2022, Palm Coast Marineland, Florida USA

Today, we turned in our trusty steed.  We have had our little rental car since April, and she has been great.  Officially we have been carless for the last year, but it’s nice to only have to rent when you need one and not pay all the time. 

This car actually drove itself.

Amazing to think but we put more miles on the car than it had on it when we picked it up.  We started with 6,000 and ended with over 19,000.  Here’s a fun fact…Sailing Hubby and I have travel over the circumference of the earth this year.  The circumference of the earth is ~24,000+ miles.  We have traveled 9,000 miles by motorcycle out to the west coast, 13,000 via car to Ohio visiting family and back to Florida, then 2,000+ nautical miles back from the Bahamas.

Anyway, after we dropped off the car, we decided to catch the Ohio State vs. Penn State game for the afternoon then headed home.  All was fine and OSU won (yeah!), except when we came home, the bilge light was on, and something was running.  Uh Oh!!  Turns out I think we had two issues.  First was we are on the T dock and must have gotten a bad wake that triggered a faulty bilge switch.  There was minimal water and no additional coming on.  So, since Hubby determined it was electrical, he swapped out the faulty sensor and we were good to go.  Whew!  It is never a good feeling to come back to the bilge light on – ever.

This light should be called the “oh shit” light

Then we found out our friends, who were staging at the Jekyll Island Marina, had gotten hit by someone trying to dock without their full engine controls! Crazy. No damage to them or their boat but that would be awful! Another close call.

While I am sure we could fix things on the boat forever, the time has come, and we are on the move again.  It’s time to leave our little haven in Marineland.  For day one we passed Daytona and were now trying to time the tides to get under all the bridges on the Intercoastal.  So far so good but the closest one we scraped on last year was in Vero Beach.  At least we had dolphins to kick off our trip again this year!