2014 #8 USA Again
01 April 2014
We did our homeward-bound crossing that Wednesday and arrived in Lake Worth/Palm Beach, FL, Thursday morning, March 20. An uneventful, calm, motoring trip of 28+ hours. A day and a half to rest, recuperate, clean fuel filters, and on Saturday morning we headed back out to go north to Fort Pierce, which would get us back to Vero Beach. However....., about 1 mile outside the inlet, having bounced on the way out in some heavy swell, the engine quit. Not a sound you like to hear. We found those white things, otherwise known as sails, were very handy to get us back inside, and into an anchorage area. Tom’s efforts to get the engine to continue running more than 30 seconds failed; diagnosis - possible bad fuel from the Bahamas; remedy - call the towboat and be towed into a marina which could arrange fuel polishing (running the existing fuel through a cleaning process to remove impurities and sometimes to also clean the bottom of the fuel tank; synonymous with $$$).
Fortunately, in his spare time on Sunday, Tom worked with the engine, changed the fuel filter, and then repeatedly bled air from the lines. The engine started and ran with no problems for over 30 minutes. This meant we could leave Monday morning, avoiding the costly fuel polishing.
So Monday, we departed, stopped for good old American fuel, and pushed our way north. We made it a long, hard day and pulled into Vero Beach Monday night about 7:30PM, just in time for rain.
And there we stayed until today. We were not lacking things to do. There was necessary shopping to catch up on and numerous boat-acquaintances to check in with. We had made arrangements to share a mooring in Vero with Dave and Tony of Sequence (now of Williamsburg, VA), and toward the end of the week were joined by Warrick and Wendy of Belum (of Northern Neck fame and Pittsburgh residence).
Today we headed north again, stopping near Cocoa, Fl, for the night. The plan is to get into St. Augustine on Thursday and spend some time there. We are looking for some indication that all that cold weather in Virginia is done for the year! Otherwise, we will find some more places that either we skipped on the way down in October and places that have just too much draw to pass by again.