Sunday 19 January 2020
The crew of Sandals who invited us over last night for a farewell diner outdid themselves. A beautiful and delicious avocado and shrimp salad, Steak and kidney pie with mushrooms, and peaches, yumm! Part of me feels that it should have been us feeding them as they have made a lot of things much easier for us since we arrived with driving us to customs, helping get our dingy fixed just to name a couple.

We began today with a little over 995 statute miles to go to Norfolk and 37 days before our flights home depart. I will keep a running count on the blog to keep track of our progress. We'd like to save three days on the end to visit friends in Durham and we will need at least two days to prep and unload the boat so that means that we actually have 32 travel days. That means we have to make at least 32 statute miles per day. That doesn't sound like much but I would like to front load as much as possible so if we get storm stayed it won't be a disaster to the schedule.

Anyway. Up at five o'clock to have a light breakfast and to get Nellleke prepared to move and over to the fuel dock for a pump out and to take on water. All achieved except a final coffee from Gilbert's since it was Sunday and they weren't going to be opening until ten. By eleven O'clock we were passing by Fort Pierce and carrying on northward. When we came South last November we bypassed all this in the big jump from Beauford SC to the St Lucie inlet but now we are taking that all in again. We could have done this day offshore but wouldn't have made any better time since this part of the ICW is straight and since it is inland it is easier on Barb's stomach.

The vibration in the engine when we are coming up to speed in gear is still there. I have begun to wonder whether we might not have too much oil in the transmission. I seem to recall when we had the engine installed the mechanic told us that the dipstick should only just touch the transmission oil. If there's too much in there I'm wondering whether it might make the plates in the transmission too slippery and it catches and then releases, catches then releases causing the shudder until finally at higher rpm's the oil is pushed by centrifugal force to the edges and the transmission can actually engage. Tonight when we stop I'm going to pump the oil out of the transmission casing and replace it just up to the bottom of the dipstick and see if that makes a difference tomorrow. Regardless, the good news is that once we are up to speed and moving ahead there is no more vibration, the engine doesn't overheat, the oil pressure is good. Still, it would be nice to not worry about shaking the heck out of the boat.

We had forgotten that this was a long weekend and national holiday in the US - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so there were all sorts of folk out enjoying themselves on the water - fishing, picnicing on the spoil islands, water sports. Very nice to see. By two o'clock we were passing Vero Beach and by three we were on the hook at Wabasso Bridge. The first time we were here we stopped in the company of our friends Ken and Lynn aboard Silverheels III. Fitting the we stop here on the way back too. That's the bridge in the photo with today's post.

As it is today we, in spite of stopping early, we made 45 statute miles towards home. 943 more to go to Norfolk, ten more than our required daily quota.