Worse things happen on land!
10 March 2016 | Green Cove Springs, Florida
Belinda and Kit
Picture shows the St Johns River looking toward Jacksonville.
We flew back to the sunshine of Fort Lauderdale on 29th February, picked up a rental car the following day and drove up to Green Cove Springs.
Never having left Quilcene for so long and in such a humid environment we were a bit apprehensive about what we’d find, so popped into the yard to take a quick look before heading to a trailer that we’d rented for a few days.
Clambering up the ladder the first thing we saw - or didn’t see - was three of our cockpit winches! Just empty spaces. They’d been stolen whilst the boat was in storage - we were gutted; thousands of dollars to replace them and we take a 30% hit on the insurance, plus the hassle involved dealing with local Police, the insurance claim and sourcing new winches.
At least the thieves unbolted our winches – several other boats have been damaged. Some of them were also broken into and had hatches left open so the insides were trashed by weather. That hardly makes us feel lucky but it could’ve been much worse.
Apart from the missing winches Quilcene is OK with not too much mould. We had to replace 3 dead batteries, and are waiting for a new cutlass bearing which fits behind the prop.
The trailer was basic but OK for a few days whilst we scrubbed, cleaned and began servicing things on board. Initially the cabin was so full of stuff (liferaft, sails, windgen, lifebuoys, sprayhood etc.) that you’d never believe we could live in it but gradually we’ve cleared space and refitted the deck stuff so now we've moved onto the boat albeit high and dry! We're keeping the car for another week as the yard is so far from anything and we'll need to stock up our store cupboards.
It's been mostly hot and sunny (around 26C) in the daytime except one day when the temperature dived to 17c had us shivering! It’s cold at night; sometimes as low as 5C but the forecast says warmer every day, with highs up to 30C by the end of the week (I have to stop and convert Fahrenheit to Centigrade here as the US still uses Fahrenheit!).
People in the yard are friendly and helpful, so many of us all working on our boats to prepare for the big splash!
We can't wait to launch, the river looks so lovely and we just want to be out there.
More soon – Y’all take care now and have a great day!!