Waiting for the weather window . . .
06 January 2008 | Vero Beach, Florida
Mike
Sorry-the Gallery was down when I tried to post the snow pictures, and then I forgot. They're on there now.
Jan. 3rd -Vero Beach
After our radio success of yesterday...both receiving and transmitting, we got a phone call from some folks who are moored here and had heard our transmission. Although we have never met, they invited us over for snacks in the afternoon to share our radio knowledge. Kathy mentioned to them that our radio knowledge was minimal at best, but their invitation stood.
A little later Bob and Deb (we shared a ride back here from the Orlando airport) called this morning to see if we wanted to go with them (they have a car) to finish our provisioning. So we were off at about 10:30 to Sam's Club and Wal-Mart.
After loading up on food and drink, we returned to the marina and transferred everything to the dinghy. The wind had come up and our trip back to the boat was not fun. By the time we reached the boat we were both soaked.
We spent the spent most of the afternoon attempting to find places to stow our newly purchased food stuffs.
Although the weather is still crumby, we did grill a steak for dinner before heading over to Surprise to talk radios
Jan. 4 ...
We didn't really accomplish much today. It was rainy and windy but we did go ashore for showers. Kathy did some sewing with the Speedy Stitcher, cleaned the boat, and I worked on the radio modem. We had Bob and Deb over for dinner and stayed up til midnight.... which is very rare.
Jan. 5
After coffee we headed for shore and caught the bus to West Marine and the Grocery to pick up a few things that we may need in the Bahamas. We had lunch with Corky and Sue from "Surprise" before shopping. Kathy spent the afternoon in the laundry while I hauled water to top off our tank.
Jan 6
I topped off our fuel tank from the jerry cans and then went to the Marina to fill the cans and to fetch 30 more gallons of water. Then we assisted "Surprise" with their SSB and after a few false starts, had Corky transmitting. Kathy spent the entire day sewing up covers for our jerry cans with a few breaks to winch up the outboard and the dinghy itself.
I know that most of you will be surprised to hear that our dinghy has been leaking both air and water .... we hoisted the worthless piece of junk onto the foredeck and searched out the problem areas... again.
I found an old patch that was leaking air... and two spots that may have been leaking water ... I am sure that we have solved the problem once and for all...(not really)
We chat daily with other boaters heading to the Bahamas, trying to decide if the weather window next week is good, or not. Hopefully we will be able to leave soon.