So far in Vero Beach.....

.....we have accomplished a bunch.

Yesterday our friends Chris and Mary joined us in the afternoon to talk boats trips etc and we had a great time comparing notes. They also have a great vehicle that is set up as a do all transportation/mobile shop that they let us use for running errands. Will likely do it again here before we leave later in the week. Heading over for dinner at their house later today.

Under close supervision.....

Also a couple of big projects worked on that have been nagging.

We had a slight catch in our steering that I noticed on the overnight. It turns out that with the help of the Passport Owners group, I figured it out and have a small part on order. The roll pin that helps to hold the gear mechanism to the wheel shaft had worked its way our over the years so no longer was flush with its housing. It was sticking up by 1/8" or so. It was then catching on the steering brake as the wheel turned. Could still steer but with that slight hiccup. I removed the old pin and ordered a couple of new ones from my friends at MacMaster Carr. The real help came from one of the guys on the forum that sent along a manual for the now obsolete Merriman pedestal and in it was my clue hidden in the parts drawing. I found the pin and realized immediately that this was my problem. UPS will deliver tomorrow and I hope to be all set.

Changing the prefilter on our outboard motor was next. Prefilters to rid fuel of junk and water are a must.....especially in the Bahamas where the fuel is not always top quality. I install the prefilter last year before we left and it has been a savior to keep clean fuel running into the pinholes of the carburetor on the Yamaha 2 stroke. I fashioned a container to catch the old fuel and filter as I unscrew it out of a soda bottle. The Listerine bottle serves as a holding tank for the fuel that comes out of the old filter. It is usually clean so can be reused to prime the new filter. On goes the new, prime the bulb and off we go. Works well.

Ernie's birthday in Wilmington NC.

A picture is worth a thousand words:

at Front Street Brewery.

Also headed over to the USS North Carolina - well worth the trip:

Diver Ross to the rescue

We lived too long at the dock at LightKeeper's Marina, so the boat bottom needed a good scrubbing.
Then we met Ross the diver with his gear headlamps and video cam. He gave us a video of the entire bottom cleaning process and we were able to see the condition of the bottom paint. What a great way for an entrepreneur to stand out and above others who are doing same or similar work.

Nice job. Might be worth a knot.

Chaps

Tried really hard last year to create chaps for the dinghy down in the Bahamas on beaches. Totally unsuccessful. So this year, the project got moved to the docks of LightKeepers Marina, and the boat deck for installation. Voila, success.

Chaps just cover the pontoons to protect from the sun and stay on while the dinghy is in the water. Handles have clearance holes and there are glue-on buttons inboard and fasteners outboard for holding the chaps in place.

Bette's beginners luck prevailed! So Cool!

Ernie is surveying my work.. whoot whoot.

St Augustine FL and 60 degrees at 12....

We left Winyah Bay in SC on Saturday morning bright and early and with a forecast of 48 to 60 hours of favorable winds influenced by a wonderful winter high pressure over Florida. While we did have to motorsail most of the way, there were some periods of perfect sailing in bright sunshine. We once again found our magic number...Apparent wind at 60 degrees off the bow at 12 knots. So for the non sailors...apparent wind is the combination of wind created by movement of the boat plus the actual wind speed. With an apparent wind at 60 to 110 degrees off the bow, Iemanja gets up and runs like a deer. Well maybe not quite but it sounds good.Ozzie our autopilot drove the entire way except for an hour or so where the perfect winds allowed for a great feel of the helm by me..

An overnight sail helps you work out the kinks after sitting at a dock for so many months which really makes you and the boat lazy.
We commissioned the watermaker and had a couple of leaks which need attention......not serious. A door latch to the head that now has failed so while we are here in St Aug, we will hit up Sailors Exchange...a great second hand store that will likely have a bin full of spares for that Perko latch. A slight steering glitch that I have to investigate.

So lots of running today to get part and food and stuff. Tomorrow we will fuel up early and head south down the ICW once again, as the next 3 days of weather outside will be with winds on the nose which we have had enough of for right now. So down the waterway we go with stops at night. Next stop  Vero Beach.

Away from the dock at last...

We departed our dock at 1005 on Thursday and have had a couple of great days heading south on the icw. 25 miles on day 1 landed us at a wonderful quiet and peaceful night behind Oxbow Island. This is what cruising is all about. Friday gave us another perfect day with light winds and favorable tides to bring us to Winyah Bay....our stage point to head outside today. Sunrise this morning looks promising..

Morning sunrise and ...

Last nights sunset.....

Our thought is to head out today and have a bit of windward sailing (not predicted to be too strong)today but as the time passes along we hope to see a shift to the west and nw overnight which should make for a nice ride down to FL. Not sure yet where check-in will be in FL but mother-nature will decide that.

Chris Parker our weather guru indicates favorable weather till Tuesday morning at least so off we go...follow us on SPOT. See the link in the prior post. I'll move that link to the side bar at some point soon...

Our SPOT tracker test.....

......looking at how the SPOT tracker works.

Oh btw.....we are in Little River. Getting ready now to head southbound next week at the earliest opportunity. We will catch up once again on what weve been up to. Lots of great projects so far here but now its time to move on.......next stop Vero Beach, Miami and Havana...Little River and southbound...