OUT FOR A SAIL. No blog unless we sail.

Finally took a nice day sail out the Fort Pierce Inlet, sailing about 4 miles east and returned in about 10 k of wind.  Nice gentle sail.

All brownish water and people walking on the Fort Pierce Inlet jetty

There was a line in the water (brown land side and blue ocean side)  I guess from the rains flowing from the Inlet runoff.

On our sail back in from our sail we hugged the north side of the channel in 30 to 40' of water.  Nice depth.  As we motored through the jetties,  BOOM we hit bottom like a wall...a sandy wall fortunately.  Drew twisted and turned the boat and slowly we plowed through the sand and motored off.  Evidently the channel is dug quite steeply from the sandy shore.  Going from 30' to 4'.  Not sure what our newly cleaned and painted bottom looks like now.  I'll have to wait for another day to swim/snorkel under and have a look when we anchor out.

We backed into the slip by 4:30. With no wind in the marina we did a pretty good job.  Usually we need tons of help in and out of these narrow slips, especially if there is a big wind.  We are getting better.

I checked back in our ship's log to see that in 14 months we have been out 5 times.  : (    So what do I love about the boat in Florida?  warm weather and sailing.  What does Drew love about the boat?  living aboard, warm weather , a little sailing and longer sunny days. 

 We watched THE SUPER BOWL on a huge outdoor screen set up by Sunset Marina in Stuart, FL where our good friends, Hayden and Radeen, (see their blog at svislandspirit.com).
 invited us to a Super Bowl party.
   Besides laughing heartily at the well done ads it was quite a show with many amazing first time plays.  40 to 33 the New England Patriots lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. 

Hayden and Radeen are just back in Stuart to have Mack Sails  replace their mast after their Island Packet was hit in the hurricane on Puerto Rico.  Read their blog to see their amazing story.
More when we sail again.  There is a rumor we might go to the Bahamas some day.

We are in Fort Pierce until tonight

We are at Harbor Town Marina, Fort Pierce, FL and will give a picture tour.  However, had to include Mazu who loves the snow in Maine.

We have traveled back and forth to New England for appointments, parties, and events through November and December.

On Shawnee the ladder is completed and fits perfectly.  The worker, Wallabee's Fabrication, Danny, finished it off perfectly.  A precise job and he did it on time, in budget, and it works!  Great welder.

We did get out of the slip and motored to the pump out dock.   Someday we'll go for a sail.

Lights around a boat and around my neck for a potluck dinner event.

 Below deck on Shawnee.

We visited Heathcote Botanical Gardens Light Night.  No Christmas trees or palm trees are lighted or decorated.

(My MAC computer is slowing down significantly so I think it's time for a new one after 5 and a half years.  I lose my CD port to modernity but rarely use it anyway.  The slow down is effecting my creative writing... good excuse.)

Onto the Harbor Town Marina tour.  Why we stay here is for: the price, convenience, and the facilities that we have not found in other places and access to many state beaches.  We learned yesterday that Harbor Town Marina is going to upgrade the place with a new pool, tear down the outside pavilion and increase the rates.  They are full and doing well.  We are on a dock with 4 other Island Packets, some of which are waiting for a weather window to sail to the Bahamas.


This is the horseshoe field that will be replaced with a new swimming pool because the old one is falling into the ocean due to drainage problems.

 

The pool is a great thing to have in "our" backyard.  Doesn't look like it's having any problems.

 The full bike rack

The outdoor pavilion where there are always people doing projects.  Also where they have monthly potluck dinners.  I'd love a ping pong table.

The wonderful covered walkway that leads to the boaters lounge, fitness center, laundry, restrooms, showers, office, boat broker.

The fitness center

New clean laundry. $3 per load.

The boaters' lounge - computer, TV, jigsaw puzzle

 

Nothing fancy.  There are maybe 15% of the boats have live-a boards or seasonal live-a boards.

         

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I visited the The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach to hear a speaker on landscape design recently.  There's a 200 person waiting list to join this organization.  Very tony crowd. Excellent events around the four arts, music, plays, dance, art and more.

Here's pictures of their beautiful gardens.

Event pavilion

 Churchill and FDR statue

Now off to the beach with Mazu before packing up for a late flight out of West Palm Beach for Logan.  Next blog only after we actually sail.

Merry Christmas,  Happy New Year!

 

Fort Pierce, Maybe here to stay.

We are back and forth to New England a couple of times this month.  Thanksgiving was great with the kids - 5 grands make a circus.  Really fun with house hide and seek, exploring the woods, swinging,  pillow forts, art projects, RISK - the game, and general constant activity.  It was also Violet's fifth birthday.  We all cooked - turkey and stuffing by Drew and me,  Sarah contributed a fine apple pie, I made pumpkin pudding, and Dillon and AJ made all the sides.   Several ate none of the prepared meal - 2 bowls of yogurt instead.  One group toast was said, and I was a happy Grammy.

Me and CC dosing off after dinner.


We came back Tuesday after Monday volunteer organization meetings, MD appointments on Monday, work for Drew.  Boat looks great.
 We picked up the stern ladder at the fabrication place.  Lo and behold it works perfectly. 
 The ladder no longer hits the dinghy when we let it down to use it.  See, the ladder ends above the yellow dinghy.  When the dinghy is not there the ladder has another set of steps to swing down into the water for a swim ladder.

 Since the ladder was moved up the steel tube had to be cut out so the hinge swings the ladder up and the ladder fits on the stern cockpit between the lifelines.

 Back to the fabricator to finish off the rough places and we'll put it back on,  hang the motor onto the dinghy and be pretty much ready.
Yes, ready...

Every morning starts with a check of the inside/outside thermometer in the bedroom/forecabin.  (Took picture before I was even up.)

Sun all around us, blue skies, puffy white clouds, but over just our heads a grey bottom cloud with steady, yet on-and-off rain this morning.  We are opening and closing the hatches trying to get the nice 70 degree air, but then running to close up when the rain starts. 

Drew replaced a fan in the salon.  He'll also replace 3 more age-old fans that are vibrating.  These are solid state.  Should work better and quieter.

As we took our morning walk (walking Mazu) along the outer dock where the big boats tie up we saw a catamaran with this poster on the boom.  It would be fun to talk with these doctors.  The banner says seamercy.org  A group of doctors who go to the islands to give free medical care.

Currently reading:  The Rothchilds - actually just finished, 
Column of Fire (Kingsbridge series) historical fiction in 1558 by Ken Follett,   
After This by Alice Hoffman
Next on blog:  Tour of the Harbor Town Marina where we are staying,
  pictures of garden at Palm Beach 4 Arts Center where I listened to lecture by Jorge     Sanchez, landscape gardener.

Tweety, dinghy, back into the water

Drew spent the day cleaning the dinghy with Krud Kudder - THE best spray cleaner,  303 cleaner purchased from West Marine and lots of elbow grease.  I thought it was clean and went to the beach after restocking one of the flooded bins.  Drew redid it to his specs.  He's the captain.

After Drew spent the day cleaning her we lowered Tweety into the water.

Tweety in the water between our boat on the left and the neighbor on the right. Clean as a whistle.

At the beach:  I forgot my camera when I went to the beach to show you, but I am starting my walk on the beach with a new goal.  Instead of collecting shells which I have too many of, I am collecting plastic and trash.  The trash is almost all plastic.  Maybe by picking up a little in my bag I'll save just one animal in the ocean.  Hope you all share the goal of a cleaner environment.  Unfortunately, today, encouraging a cleaner environment is a political statement. In the past it was bipartisan.

Back on the boat for another season in sunny warm Florida and repairs continue

We got in  (Nov. 14) after 3 days of driving 1300 miles from New Hampshire to Florida via West Chester, PA to visit Drew's siblings and a stop in Baltimore atop a 26 story condo on the Baltimore Harbor to visit our friends Molli and Reuben Mezrich (IP 380 "Priority").  What a view from that height over the entire city!

Shawnee was put in the water ten days ago.

At the slip.  You can see the stern ladder is missing.  The dingy is lying on the bow deck.  The jib and staysil will be hauled up this trip.

Not all the projects were completed, and we have work to do for the few days we're here before returning to NH for family Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately as much as we love Fort Pierce and Whitaker Boat Yard they didn't meet all 3 of my quality factors:
1. not done on time - we're waiting for the ladder and finishing the teak work - the first guy couldn't do the ladder to Drew's specs so he had to find another person.
They did do most of the teak, painted the bottom, and added a new propane regulator, new solenoid, replaced propane hoses,

put on rings around the exhaust pipe to protect the dinghy when we haul it up to the davits.
 
 The circles around the holes on the stern:

Whitaker refinished small floor space in fore cabin, made and installed a deflector plate near the rudder to keep off lobster pot lines from getting entangled. This was installed between the keel and rudder.  As the boat moves forward if it hits a line in the water (left side of picture) it will be deflected and not get caught in the rudder (right side of picture) or the propeller.

They put on new props for the bow thruster and painted on prop speed to keep off most barnacles.  Note the unusual shape of the blades.  It is supposed to be quieter and have more thrust.

  
2. They did meet the budget.
3.  The work was well done

But here are some of the weird findings as the projects unfolded.

The redesign of the stern ladder :  We don't want it to hit the dinghy and it must allow for us to get into the dinghy.  It is taking longer than we thought it would.  It's been so problematic that I frequently must climb over the life lines and swing into the dinghy from the davits when the dinghy is clipped on the stern.
  Danny is the guy who is doing the ladder now:  (Love that his wife is president of the company.)
 

The day he was supposed to try out the ladder it wasn't ready.  Next trip we'll try again.


We are putting up the sails after the hurricane: The jib and staysail. Mainsail stays in the mast.

The jib rolled up on the deck. It's a truly calm day that's good for putting on sails.  Drew getting the lines ready.

The lines for the propane tank that fuels the stove were replaced by Whitaker and in so doing the stove stopped working.  I don't understand how repairmen walk away from a job with the item not working.  Drew investigated over several days and fixed faulty electrical connections.  "There was not enough current across the coil even though I could hear the solenoid moving", explained Drew.  Here's the stove sign that shows the age of the stove, 1999.  We like this stove and it's no longer made (Practical Sailor Magazine's top choice) so Drew's restoring instead of replacing.

Another long time problem was a leak with an unfindable source.  We often had water in the bins under the galley and the salon closet.  Frequently I had to bail them out.

Well, Drew found the leak behind a wall where the propane locker sits. The propane locker is only accessible from the outside deck.  He found the water pouring in after removing a panel (not easily).  It came in from the hinge screws for the propane locker - he never thought that would happen.  The picture shows how much water came in after a rainstorm.  All the areas are now finally drying out.  He rebedded the screws in the locker door and watched nothing leak in during another storm.  We've had to wash out all the bins and take out all the supplies that were in those lockers and clean or replace the items.  What a mess.

The dinghy sat on the deck since July for storage.  We are now putting it back into the water onto the davits even though the stern ladder isn't on yet.

As we walked down to the Fort Pierce Farmers Market we picked up a brochure on  "Freedom Boat Club."  "No maintenance concern.  No repair worries.  Just boating at its best!"  Seems more like what I'd be up for.   These constant never ending "improvements, repairs and maintenance" are interesting.  All the people we meet trade fix-it stories and tales of how it happened.  Oh, well.

Mazu and I frequently take walks on the beach.
Here she is tired from a good run earlier.