11/14/2009, Vero Beach, FL

November 10th, 2009 Vero Beach, FL
We walked to breakfast this morning in temps around 80. There is a nice little breakfast place on the beach a couple of miles away that we usually dinghy to, but after last night's dinner, everyone agreed that a walk was in order.
On our return we took care of some banking and then went to shore to borrow Jim and Nancy's car for yet another provisioning trip. We stopped at a vegetable market , Home Depot, Walmart, West Marine, and Publix before heading back to unload.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent adding our purchases of the last two days to our manifest and finding places for them on a boat that is already low in the water.
Barry and Susan arrived in Florida yesterday to work on "Night Hawk" in Ft. Pierce. It's only about 15 miles to the south so they drove up to have dinner with the four of us. We haven't seen them since last spring when they headed for Cuba. They have about a week of work before they launch.
The weather is still not very conducive to crossing the Gulf Stream. Chris Parker doesn't really see any good opportunities in the next week.

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11/14/2009, Vero Berach, FL

November 9th, 2009 Vero Beach, FL
With the weather in question we decided to remain here until the end of the week which allows us to get some boat projects finished. Steve and I met Jim at his dock for a trip to get propane and a stop at the hardware store.
On our return, I went to work on replacing the boom-vang bracket. I had to re-tap the mast and drill the holes in the bracket a little to make things fit. It took a while to get everything lined up, but eventually the job was done.
Kathy made some lunch and then we headed to shore to make a provisioning run with Nancy. We returned with a dinghy full of food at around 4:30.
Steve had purchased a standing rib roast a couple of days ago and had it in the oven. He said that it looked too good to eat it themselves and invited us over for dinner. We made a salad ... and joined them.
It was the best beef we've had in months.

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11/14/2009, Vero Beach, FL

November 8th, 2009 Vero Beach, FL
While we were drinking coffee below, we were hailed by Kim and Steve to check out the rat sitting on the transom of our dinghy. I grabbed a dock pole and tried to knock it off, but instead it crawled into the plastic cowling that wraps the lower unit.
I started the engine go try to get him to move, but it didn't work. I left it alone and went on to work on the boom vang that needs to be remounted.
Steve took Kathy and Kim to shore to meet up with Nancy for a day of shopping. When he returned, we used his motor lift to haul our outboard off the dinghy and then lower it to the point where the area where the rat was located was under water. Nothing happened.
We returned the motor to our dinghy and I removed the cowling and there was no rat. He must have made his escape at some point in the morning when no one was watching.
Since I had the top off the motor I decided to remove the carburetor for a cleaning. It took about 45 minutes, and seemed to idle much better when I was finished.
By then I was hungry and made a chicken salad with the grapes we purchased yesterday.
After lunch I took the dinghy to shore for a good scrubbing. There is a landing area for kayaks that worked well, except that I had to haul water for rinsing.
On my way back to the boat I stopped for a visit with Jim on "Solitaire".
By then the afternoon was spent and I returned to the boat and read... waiting for Kathy to get back from her shopping trip. The shopping trip was wonderful, by the way.

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