Cravings. Coffee (good coffee!), Power, and Wi-Fi. A short hop from the beach in the posh resort section of Vero Beach. This appears to be called Ocean Side.

It's a pleasant 1+ mile walk from the marina. Perfect.

Good, fast Wi-Fi helps with our passage planning. We're looking at the coastal weather forecasts for our trip to Miami.

The resort area has cool-looking, expensive bars and restaurants. We're trying to avoid hanging around here too much. Just the minimum: coffee, power and Wi-Fi.

Yesterday we changed the oil. I'm getting better at this and didn't make as big a mess as I've made in the past. Also, I got back about 6 quarts out of the 8 quarts that went into the engine.

That's important.

Before replacing the oil cooler, I had some weird oil changes. One oil change only pulled about 4 quarts out of the engine. That was a hint that something wasn't quite right. After that shocker, I scribed a "full" line on the dipstick, took more careful notes, and started adding oil when the level got down.

Since replacing the oil cooler, the level hasn't dropped significantly. In the last 200 hours, I didn't add any oil. Yes, Mr. Lehman clearly ate about a quart. But that's a lot better than ever in the past.

Note to Self. Change the fuel injector oil every 100 hours. After 200 hours the injector pump was full of thin diesel, not think SAE 30-weight. It's only a few ounces of oil in the pump, and I now have a good funnel and bucket system that avoids splashing the old oil all over the water pump. There's no good excuse for ignoring the injector pump.

The bad excuse is laziness.

Cleaning

CA washed half the saloon with vinegar water to tackle the mildew problem. It now smells pickle-fresh.

Today, we'll tackle the aft cabin. Maybe on Monday we'll get to the V-berth.

We're thinking of replacing the little plastic windows on either side of the bar with sheet caning material. More airflow is essential. Much more air flow.

We don't need much sheet caning material (a foot or two of 24" width will do.) The awkward part appears to be prying the old backing strips off and nailing them back on again.

One option may be to remove the old window plastic. We can then cut openings in the plastic which is slightly larger than the openings in the woodwork. We can carefully tack or glue the caning material onto the plastic. Epoxy or even Gorilla Tape. Then we can put these back into their original spots.

I also need to actually clean the contacts on the starter relay. Been talking about it. Haven't done it yet. Too busy doing… um… you know.

Weather Window

We're watching the Atlantic Coast weather systems prior to leaving next week. We have three coastal forecast zones: AMZ555, AMZ650 and AMZ651.

The forecast synopsis includes this: "BEHIND THE FRONT, WEAK HIGH PRESSURE WILL BUILD IN FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE WEEK."

Yes.

Here's what we're seeing for AMZ555 for an overnight passage to Miami.

Tuesday: East winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. A light chop on the intracoastal waters.

Tuesday Night: East winds 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet.

Wednesday: Southeast winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Slight chance of showers.

This would be delightful if the weather works out as predicted. The weather around our arrival — Wednesday morning in zone AMZ651 — would be "Southeast winds 9 to 12 knots. Seas around 2 feet." S or SW winds would be right on the nose. SE winds might not be too bad. The wind down there will be in the process of clocking from NE through to S.

Dream Ketcher is talking about waiting until Thursday. Right now, that's beyond the short-term, reliable forecast horizon. We'll find out more tomorrow.