Yesterday, after the day's post I had a reminder why we enjoy the cruising lifestyle. Yes, I know, most of my recents posts have had a sense of frustration, to say the least, but when you are at a dock and several other boats pull in to try to tie up in front or behind you and you can jump on the dock to lend a hand and meet new people? Well, that's what it's all about isn't it. One of them was a fellow single handling in a small powerboat who was starting the Great Circle Route.

We did discover that we will need to travel into Stuart again this morning to get a replacement pump for the shower sump. I can't be angry or frustrated as it is one of those pieces of kit that I have been jury rigging to keep it alive for the last ten years. Maybe its time has come. The old one seems seized up and the impeller truly is toast. I'm not sure if it can be repaired but in the meantime we have put a new more modern one in. The new one is installed and works fine. I am going to have to figure out a way to put a filter in line with the sump drains to block out the hair etc. That's the single major problem with the shower sumps. Human hair!

I don't know whether I have mentioned it or not but the other day when we launched the dingy from its spot on the cabin roof where it had lived for the last two years, by way of punishing me it flicked its transom and caught the strap of my Fitbit watch and broke it. More by good luck than anything else the watch landed IN the dingy but I can't wear it until I get a new strap and the design of the watch is such that any old strap just won't do. So, I went into Walmart and bought an el cheapo watch to do me until we can get home to send for another.

Today is our last day with the rental car so we are trying to get as much as we can done while we have it. Barb has gotten the rental all cleaned up and ready to be returned. She also put up the Nelleke privacy cloths on the lifelines in the cockpit so she is looking more like herself. The boat I mean, not Barb. She always looks like herself.

I am trying to figure out how to get from the airport where we rented the car, back to the marina. I have a lot of options

Once we get to Stuart we can walk to a number of places but I don't think that there are any boating supply stores within walking distance. I will say that after our stay here in Indiantown I truly do understand why people in the hotter countries such as here, Mexico, the Mediterranean tend to take breaks in mid day, or so I have been told. It makes much more sense working in the earlier hours of the morning and towards evening. Today, for example, although it was, I won't say cooler, but at least less hot than other days, after jaunting about shopping and crawling about in the bilge installing our new shower sump pump I was just about knackered. I downed tools and smacked up a whiskey ginger for both of us and waited until the sun lowered at least a bit in the sky.

The nice thing about the sun is that we are getting 7 amps from the aft solar panel. Nothing to speak of from the one over the cabin simply because the boom is casting a shadow over it. Other easy things I have tested are the inside station depth sounder (it works), the autohelm (it works, or at least it wakes up to the power. We won't know for sure until we are underway). We still have to test the anchor windlass and make absolutely sure that the chain has not rusted into one solid lump. I have poked at it in the chain locker and it slides around over itself as I would expect. Given the design of the boat I expect that any rain would come down the chain hosepipes into the anchor locker and the rain, of course, is fresh water. Hopefully that would preclude rusting, but we have friends who thought similar thoughts and had problems.

At some point during the trip home I want to calibrate the autohelm and wind direction vane to the other instruments. We will probably do that while stopped in Stuart on
a mooring. That would also be close enough to West Marine, BOW, or Lewis for an easy cab ride.

Barb just hurt my feelings. She says that I am probably putting everyone to sleep by now with the blog since we are just hanging out here in Indiantown and not DOING any interesting travelling. If so, I humbly apologize but I am continuing with the record keeping.