Mike
01/06/2008, Vero Beach, Florida

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.

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Mike and Kathy
01/03/2008, Michigan

January 3, 2008

Back in Vero...

We had a wonderful time visiting our families and friends in Michigan over the holidays. Sadly, we didn't get to see everyone we wanted, but I guess that is to be expected with everyone coming and going during Christmas.

We are preparing in earnest now for our trip across the Gulf Stream but the high pressure system that is controlling our weather currently will give us a few days to work. It looks like this system will hold on for at least four or five more days. The weather here is cold with temps in the mid 30's the last two mornings and constant north winds of about 20 kts.. Our propane furnace (which hasn't been used at all this trip) has been working like a champ.

Yesterday we stowed all the provisions that were purchased before our departure for Michigan and I finished the SSB installation. Last night we listened to BBC radio and this morning to the Cruzheimer's Net. We even checked into the net to test our transmission and ....everything worked.

Today we are going to attempt to hook up the radio modem which will allow us to send email via the radio.

It was very cold and mostly cloudy in Michigan. Mike took some pictures in of snow and we will post some in the gallery. We even went to the beach in Saugatuck!

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Mike
12/18/2007, Vero Beach, Florida

Actually, it wasn't bad at the beach today!

Ok...So most of have figured out that we are kind of in limbo here in Vero Beach and with no traveling it's hard to get fired up about blog entries. We have a long list of projects to be completed and I am happy to report that we knocking a few of them off every day. Some days we go to town which tends to be an all day proposition. ... making lists, getting our backpack organized for the trip, bailing the dinghy, pumping the dingy tubes a little because of a slow leak that I have been unable to locate, motoring to the marina which is about ¾ mile away, finding a place to tie up, waiting for the bus, taking the first bus to the transfer station, switching busses, then riding to Walmart or the Mall, shopping, loading our goods into our backpacks... and doing everything again in reverse order.

I have been up the mast with the "Top Climber" and learned quite a bit about it's operation. We have wired our new radio including copper foil grounds and ground plane ...and are currently waiting for the antenna to fire it up. We sold some things on eBay and have to get them in the mail tomorrow. Luckily there is a packaging store just down the street. I have been playing my new guitar and tonight played with some folks at the marina... it was fun and I kept up.

We do listen to basketball and monitor webcams in Lansing and Crystal... the webcams are like snooping but it's fun to see winter from a distance.

We are going to meet Kathy's cousin (who lives here) tomorrow (Wednesday) for a real tour of the town...and will complete our packing.

The first real cold front has moved through central Florida... with highs only in the 60s for a couple of days. It actually a pleasant change. I think that today we will walk to the beach and see if they have anything to sell us there....although it's doubtful.

I do have one interesting occurrence to report. One of our many projects where here was to ship our Navman units in for repair. During the last year the LCD displays have not been showing complete numbers. Sometimes they are fine, but sometimes only part of a number with be shown. The problem has been getting worse the last few weeks... so I called the listed repair number.

After a few missed attempts, I finally spoke with an associate and explained what was happening as well as our circumstance ... getting the repaired units back by the first of year was critical. She explained that she doubted that our time frame could be met because they were closing the shop between Christmas and New Years. She also mentioned that ours was not an uncommon problem and that I should speak with her supervisor . She forwarded my call to his office where I was asked to leave a message. I explained our situation again for the recorder and hug up.

Later that day I received a call from yet a third person with the news that the supervisor had ask him to call to get our address in Vero so that they could ship us new displays. He went on to say that there was no need to ship the malfunctioning units but to just toss them in the trash. There were no questions like ... where did you purchase the units, or when were the units purchased.... just ....we'll make it right.

We look forward to seeing some of you in a few days...bye.

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