Tuesday morning was set aside for engine maintenance and a basic checking over of various systems. Westerbeke recommends changing engine oil every hundred hours but since we are piling on hours so fast I find I can run it a bit longer. I always make sure I have filters and oil in stock so we can do our service whenever and wherever required. Engine access is fairly easy since the motor is centrally located and a complete service takes about 2 hours, I spent extra time double checking any parts that had been removed during our repair in St. Augustine. It is always a challenge to dispose of the old oil, however, the marina here takes it for a $1 a gallon, which is great.

While I was working on the boat Bev went ashore and spent a couple of hours doing laundry and registering us for the potluck supper tomorrow. Once all our chores were done we took the free shuttle bus into town to run some errands. The City of Vero Beach Marina is a great example of what forward thinking town officials can create with a little imagination and hard work. Boats continue to arrive and raft up, we've met numerous people who come every year for this event and I bet the average stay is 7 days. There are some who stay the winter; there are numerous people that when they retired from cruising have bought houses and settled here, all because of the community created by the boaters and the town.

We had dinner with Craig and Sharon from NFLD who are leaving Wednesday morning to move their boat to Stuart where they will leave it while they return home for Christmas.