There's a standing Thursday night party here at the Vero Beach City Marina. Fabulous. We got to meet many of the cruisers who are staying at Vero. Some are leaving soon to get south ASAP. Others are leaving eventually.
And more are showing up, too. Today, for instance, we added a fourth Whitby to the mooring field.
So far, Vero appears to be coffee-shop hell. After finding cool coffee shops in Green Cove Springs, Titusville, and St. Augustine, we're a bit grumpy about the lack of local coffee shops near the marina in Vero Beach.
We'll take a stroll down to the beach — about a mile from here — and see what we can find tomorrow. The issue is finding a triple-threat location: coffee, outlets and Wi-Fi.
On balance, though, the local GoLineIRT Indian River Transit is amazing. We're on route #1, and the bus goes straight to the big mall. The cost? A donation. Really.
The marina showers are nice and there are a fair number of washing machines. The trick is to get there early. Since CA is an early riser, that's easy for us.
Cooking and Cleaning
CA restored our cookie and beer supplies through some baking and shopping. We need to do a lot more cleaning. The mildew issue is excessive. All we can do is clean and clean. And open every hatch when it's nice out.
We're past the wickedly cold part of winter. So we think we might be able to do a lot of cleaning and airing over the next few months.
Repairs
I reconnected our rebuilt inverter today. Hopefully, this time I can get the connections tight enough to prevent the arcing and melting that happened when we plugged high-current electric heaters.
The wires passed the tug test. They don't pull back out.
The vendor — it appears — recommends ferrules. This isn't in the installation guide. It's just a thing they said in an email. So apparently, I need a wire ferrule crimping tool plus a handful of ferrules. The tool can be used when building weatherproof connectors for solar panels, too.
http://www.digikey.com/catalog/en/partgroup/terminal-block-wire-ferrules-phoenix-contact/5577
http://www.altechcorp.com/HTML/Ferrules-A.html
Sadly, we only need 6 ferrules for AWG 12 wire. It's hard to buy fewer than 100, though.
Tomorrow I think I'll look into the oil change.
Whitby Rendezvous
This mooring field now has Creola, Red Ranger, Dream Ketcher, and Fleur de Lys. And three of us (Creola, Red Ranger, and Dream Ketcher) are tied to the same mooring ball!
Yes, it's crowded.
Since we have different colored sail covers, we can tell the boats apart.
It's safe and secure. Red Ranger and Dream Ketcher are leaving for Miami in less than a week. We're both going the same place at about the same time. We'll probably travel with them.