Fort Pierce after the Rendezvous

Friday, April 8.

Along with other boats, Greek’s Folly and C-life both left the marina early in the AM.  We really enjoyed traveling with and being with these two couples.  Hopefully, we will catch up with them later up or down the ICW.

Since the props were done we arranged for someone from the prop shop in Fort Myers to meet up half way to deliver them. John and I ran over to Moore Haven and met with coastal prop secretary Kim to pick up the props.

We took a longer way home and came up through Hutchinson Island so that we could see where Mike and Cindy Hulsebus spent the winter.  Stopped at a beach and ate lunch on the island. As soon as we got back, John helped Mark work on their toilets (heads in nautical terms).  The heads are what land lovers call bathrooms.  This is not a pleasant job but a very necessary part of the boat to be in working condition.

John called the diver back to install the props. The guy at the prop shop put Propspeed on the props instead of paint. It is very expensive process but it did not cover our extra expenses and it turns out we still have the high pitched whine at certain RPMs.

Saturday, April 9.

Woke up to bagpipes being played on the dock. A sailboat that had planned on going to the Bahamas since 1989, was finally making the trip and they were being escorted out up by the Vero Beach Drum and Bagpipe Corp.

After getting some great produce at the  farmers market in the morning, Becky and I went over to Hutchinson Island. We drove through the island and stopped at a couple of beaches.  There are a lot of beach pull offs on this island.  Each one has a different flare. One stop was quiet and lonely while the next stop was bustling with people attending a surf board competition.

In the afternoon, we had pedicures and went to the laundromat.  Doing laundry at laundromats is becoming quite an laborious weekly chore.  I will be thankful when we get the washer/dryer that we have on the boat going.

That evening we went over to Mark and Becky’s boat for the shrimp and crab cakes that we bought at the market that morning and started to plan for our next trip heading up the ICW. We have decided that we are going to travel together, making our way up north to Jacksonville and then explore the St Johns River together.

Sunday, April 10.

Went to the Methodist Church with Mark and Becky.  Right by the church we saw quite a few peacocks. It seems that they live in this area and the locals have even put up peacock crossing signs to warn drivers to slow down for them.  They are totally unaffected by people being around them.

 

We took the bikes out to spray some Boeshield on the steel parts to slow down the rust from the salt air.

We ran into this character. He walked around carrying a mannequin on his shoulders. This is what the bike folds down to.

That evening a college friend, Mike Kint and his wife Sandy, came down to visit us from Vero Beach. It was so great catching up with them.  We went over to Hutchinson Island to a restaurant called Archie’s, a good hamburger biker joint.

Monday, April 11.

Worked on emptying out the two side water tanks. Our boat has 3 water tanks.  The main tank holds 285 gallons and the two side tanks hold roughly 175 gallons each.  We use the main tank only and leave a little water in the two other tanks.  Since we are traveling from marina to marina we can take on water as we need it.  John put in a water purifier so we can drink the water from the tanks.  The couple that owned the boat before us went to the Bahamas and that is where we will use the extra tanks since you have to pay for water over there.  That evening, we got together with the last of the MTOA members at the captain’s lounge and listened to Vern (one of the MTOA members)  play some of his songs.

       

Tuesday, April 12.

Mark came by in the morning and ask us come over to his boat where we sat and really talked about when we are going to leave.  Mark realized that his screen material was not going to be here until probably Wednesday, and that the weather Friday and Saturday was going to be quite rainy and windy. Since we have paid for a month we decided to stay here until Monday, April 18th. This gives us more time to work on projects on the boat.

Wednesday, April 13

We took the day off of work and just did some fun things. Becky, Mark, John and I went to Marine connection, West Marine, some other shops and took a ride over to the Hutchinson Island. Had a beer and a glass of wine on the beach  and then met Tom and Coletta for dinner in Stuart Florida.  It was great seeing them again.

Thursday April 14 through Saturday April 16

More projects, Docktails, sharing meals, more rain, etc.

 

John checked out the washing machine and found that it was in good shape, so today we did lots of laundry in the washing machine on the boat.  You can’t put a lot of clothes in a load though.  It worked great but each load takes about 14 gallons of  water.  It is a washer dryer combo and the dryer takes a long time to dry.  I am going to love having this.  Mara Beel and Short Vacation went to a nautical Fleamarket in Vero Beach.  While we were there Becky found out about a Bird and Wildlife Photo Seminar that is going on around the same time that we were planning on being in St. Augustine.  She is really excited to learn more about this hobby that she and John like so much.

Sunday April 17

Mark and I picked up my friend, Mike Kint’s car and we drove his car and the van to Marineland Marina up by St. Augustine.  We left the van there.  It was about a 2 hour and 45 minute drive.  On our way down from Marineland, we picked up Jim and Ann O’Malley at exit 529 on interstate 95 at a McDonalds.  They had taken their car to their home port in Cocoa and needed a ride back to their boat.

That night we took Mike and Sandy Kint out for dinner at the Tiki Hut by the Marina to thank them for letting us use their car.

 

Monday April 18

WINDY, very windy.  We decided to stay at Fort Pierce one more day and wait for the weather to lighten up.  We want our first anchorage to be calmer than 30 mile hour winds as were learn to use this new to us anchoring system. That decision turned out to be good. John had an opportunity to take a closer look at our ground tackle (anchor and chain) and decided to change some things to make it stronger and easier to hook up the snubber to the chain.