It's hard to keep these things up-to-date, being that they require effort. :P Not much has happened on the boat…I’ve been considering making a blog on another website so I can post more in detail about or general life. It seems blasphemous to talk about our trip to SeaWorld here on SAILblogs! But indeed, that’s what we were doing most of June during the weekends (due to an excellent Florida Resident pass. $150/each for 14 days unlimited SeaWorld+Aquatica? Budget vacay!)
Things have happened though. It’s the heat of summer here in Florida and we’ve suffered for it. Our Mermaid Air Air Conditioner (brand and product, respectively) pumps water through the system for coolant. Normally this is very useful but currently the Eau Gallie river is 92 degrees. So our AC was overheating and shutting off. There are some idiosyncrasies with the way it overheats that Shawn could go into more detail about, but the point is “no AC = bad, how do we get it back?”
Shawn added some insulation (cut-up car sunshields) to the port covers. You’d think they wouldn’t do much, but we used our handy-dandy IR thermometer and checked the ports before and after – 120 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit! 20 whopping degrees difference, wow. And I think maybe it cost $20 max? Our next task is to figure out how to insulate the front-facing windows, they get pretty hot.
We bought some window covering material (a thin film) to put on all of our other windows that won’t support insulation well, but after opening it up and goofing around with it the material we got only bonds to glass – not plastic. Our ports are glass but we already insulated them. They offer a plastic-bonding film online but that has to be a separate purchase. If installed properly it’ll add a UV-reflecting tint to the windows on the side and front to aid with a cooler inside.
And as a backup, we sucked it up and bought a port-mounted AC that we’ll be installing soon above our cabin. The cabins get the hottest due to airflow and with one human and a hairy inferno it gets pretty hot in ours even with the AC on.
The big news is that everyone at our marina is getting the boot. There’s a gentleman who’s lived there for at least 10 years with a gorgeous potted plant garden on his vessel (not a sailboat…I think a trawler?) and he’s had to put them all on shore to prepare to move. Very sad.
The total story is that one day, our marina owner decided to take all of the bicycles from the bike rack without notice because there are a lot of derelict bicycles on the rack. The problem is that some people (not us) were actually using the bike rack, and were very angry their bicycles were stolen. One family called the police on him because it was frankly theft, and the marina owner found out and gave them the boot. With righteous fury they called up every relevant government agency and reported the owner to them, and they responded as a kicked hornet’s nest might.
They still don’t have their bicycles back.
Most marinas in Florida do not actually own the bottom of the water, they lease it from the state. And the state of Florida has a law against liveaboards staying for more than 6 months of the year in any water owned by them. You can stay 6 months in one marina with this, and 6 months in the other, but you can’t stay the full year. I understand why Florida might want to own the water under “resource of the commons” but COME ON! What the heck? This is a dumb law.
*libertarian screeching*
We may actually start campaigning for boaters’ rights. I’m serious. This is stupid.
Anyway, it looks like Eau Gallie Yacht Basin is so damn old it actually OWNS the bottom, rather than leasing, so we can stay there forever as long as we don’t enrage the owners. The problem is it has a very long waiting list and people don’t have to leave, so uh…good luck getting in!
I guess we have good luck though since a spot just opened up. We came in for a “boat interview” of sorts to ensure our little catamaran fit in the slip. She’s snug, but she fits!
I’m thankful for being in a Gemini right now as opposed to a Snowgoose…much as I loved the Snowgoose, that extra 4 feet would mean we couldn’t be here right now.
We’ll find out if we can get a half-month refund from our previous marina, and if so we’ll begin living here in EGYB. They have a wonderful little community with an unofficial yacht club named “Spuma de Terra”, or “Scum of the Earth”. I don’t think that’s proper Latin but whatever, I like the spirit!
Next post I’ll gush a bit more about our new home. It’s…more expensive, but absolutely lovely.