1. Are we there yet?

2. Are our engine parts here yet?

3. Are all the parts we need here yet?

4. Have we broken anything new recently?

25th. Monday.

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies. Waste. Washup. Wi-Fi.

Walkies was a walk to Sammies for breakfast, then a mile or so jaunt to the BB&T branch. Waste was emptying the Nature's Head, as well as disposing of the diesel from the bilge. Washup was showers at the marina "not-to-be-named". Wi-Fi is available at the Red Eye Cafe. Sadly, there's nothing else at the cafe—it appears mostly closed, but it's in a great location.

Yes, I have 33 things on my to-do list. But it's a beautiful day to sit outside at a nearly defunct cyber-cafe. The bar next door is serving. It's almost beer-thirty.

Dinner was salmon and green peppers over couscous.

Maybe our engine parts will arrive tomorrow.

Travel

Attribute	Value
Arrive	Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W

26th. Tuesday

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies, Wi-Fi, Waste, Washup today.

Walkies and Wi-Fi was a walk to Sammies for breakfast. Waste was CA's trip to the used clothing store to drop off some things which were in "Boat Purgatory": we hadn't used them in the previous six months. Washup was showers and laundry at the marina "not-to-be-named" right near where we're anchored.

Waiting for the phone call from Hinckley Yacht Service saying that our package has arrived.

CA cut two blocks of wood to be lashed over the sharp points of the Danforth anchor. Just to be sure that no one gets hurt on the after deck wrestling with the mizzen in rough seas.

Dinner was curried cabbage and crab over rice.

Travel

Attribute	Value
Arrive	Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W

27th. Wednesday

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies and Wi-Fi was a walk to Sammies for breakfast.

Wash the cabin sole. Run the generator to charge the batteries.

Wait. Stop by Hinckley Yacht Service to see if our package arrived from ADC.

Wander around Port Salerno. Great-looking bars and restaurants. Oddly feeble beer selection: mostly the generic Budweiser and related A-B products.

Whip up new foods. CA invented a Red Ranger version of Russian Dressing that doesn't involve ketchup.

We're waiting as fast as we can. We can't wait any faster.

Dinner was macaroni and cheese with veggie burger balls.

Travel

Attribute	Value
Arrive	Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W

28th. Thursday

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies and Wi-Fi was a walk to Sammies for breakfast. Had a great conversation with various other cruisers and sailors who breakfast there. If this keeps up, we'll form our own liar's club that meets every morning at Sammies.

CA baked bread and worked on the sun-shades for the hatches.

I felt the urge to check with ADC on my parts. It's been a whole week. But really, how does it help to know that they're in the UPS system somewhere?

Dinner was a cheese and potato soup with broccoli plus, of course, some home-made bread.

Travel

Attribute	Value
Arrive	Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W

29th. Friday

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies and Wi-Fi was a walk to Sammies for breakfast. Again.

Then to Hinckley Yacht Service to get our parts.

Now to install the new fuel line.

And plan the trip north.

Beaufort, NC is 469 nm on a course of 034° directly from here to Beaufort. That's over 100 hours; at least 4 days. Cape Fear (Wilmington, NC) is 401 nm at 027°.

An alternative is to go in some jumps. It's 172 nm on the rhumb line to St. Augustine; 43 hours. We have to actually work our way around Cape Canaveral, making it a bit longer. But we can edge out into the Gulf Stream and pick up some speed.

From there, it's 360 nm to Beaufort. Taking it in steps adds 63 nm, 12-15 hours. Plus all the hours working in and out of the inlets. But it breaks up a long trip.

We're looking at the offshore forecasts for these zones in Florida: AMZ572, AMZ570, AMZ474, AMZ472, AMZ470 and AMZ374. North of that, we switch to high seas forecasts, which are a little scary because they're pretty far off shore.

Right now, it looks like this off the Florida coast.

**Saturday: **Southeast winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet with a dominant period 9 seconds. **Saturday Night: **South winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 3 to 4 feet. **Sunday: **South winds 15 knots. Seas 3 to 4 feet. **Sunday Night: **South winds 15 to 20 knots becoming southwest 10 to 15 knots after midnight. Seas 3 to 4 feet. **Monday: **South winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. **Monday Night: **South winds 10 to 15 knots. Seas 3 feet. **Tuesday: **Southwest winds 5 to 10 knots. Seas 2 to 3 feet. Slight chance of showers.

Which could be pleasant for the first few days. By Monday, the forecasts from further N include showers.

The high seas forecast looks like this.

SUN S TO SW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING W TO SW 20 TO 30 KT LATE. SEAS BUILDING TO 6 TO 10 FT. MON W TO SW WINDS 10 TO 20 KT...BECOMING S TO SW 15 TO 25 KT LATE. SEAS 5 TO 8 FT. TUE W TO SW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT...BECOMING N TO NE 20 TO 25 KT LATE. SEAS 6 TO 10 FT.

The 6-10 ft sea state is intimidating. If, however, the wave period is loooong, then it's more like an elevator ride up and an elevator ride down. Closely-spaced waves slap at the boat and lead to an unpleasant motion. A long wave period is much more pleasant.

And 30 kt winds means we reef down to nearly nothing. We did that near the Bahamas, we can do it again.

The fuel line replacement?

Almost flawless.

Almost.

I broke the fuel leakoff adapter that connects the block to the fuel tank return.

So, we're now waiting for more parts. Specifically a 3E36.

Because of the super close tolerance between the fuel line and the fuel return, the 15/16″ diameter piece shown above doesn't fit well with the new (11/16″ OD) fuel line. The original design was two 5/16" pieces of tubing. Doubling the diameter of one and tripling the diameter of the other creates a problem.

Which leads to breaking the leakoff adaptor.

So I bought a bunch of parts to make an "extender" to the fuel leakoff line. This is only ½″ diameter, so I should be able to squeeze everything together. If no, I may wind up resorting to a bunch of hose barbs to rig something.

Dinner was was quinoa topped with a spicy broccoli stir-fry

Travel

Attribute	Value
Arrive	Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W

30th. Saturday

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies and Wi-Fi was a walk to Sammies for breakfast. We find that we like to have a breakfast club. A circle of folks who share their morning meal.

You don't chat randomly with strangers over dinner. But a counter-top breakfast in a diner feels like an invitation to chat.

Washing was a load of laundry.

Then, after lunch, even more walkies. We picked up a pair of local geocaches. CCJ0ZX and GC42A6J. We looked for GC48G70, but couldn't find it.

Part should arrive Monday (or maybe Tuesday) so we've got a weekend in which we're basically hanging out in the Florida sunshine.

Dinner was a Waldorf salad and some toast made from homemade bread. We had a big lunch at Pirate's Cove Resort.

31st. Easter Sunday.

Anchored at 27°09.252′N 080°11.748′W in Manatee Pocket, near Stuart, FL

Walkies and Wi-Fi was a walk to Sammies for breakfast. Easter morning with our breakfast club. Yum.

Said goodbye to Aweigh (Bob and Judy) who are moving their boat through the Okeechobee Waterway to the west coast of Florida.

More walkies to the grocery store. It'a about a mile to the Winn Dixie, so it's a good walk.

One for three on the geocaches today. http://coord.info/GC2ZW42 was fun. Could not find GC23BTC or GC2ZT1G. Overall, we're 3 for 6 in the area.

Phoned various relatives for some Easter phone chats.

Run the generator for two hours to top off the batteries.

A busy day.

Eastern Dinner on Red Ranger was asparagus with a cheese sauce over orzo. And a lot of chocolate. A lot.

Waiting, still, as fast as we can.

This Week

Engine Hours: 0. Diesel Gallons: 0. Water Gallons: 0. Miles Run: 0.

Books: Our Kind of Traitor: A Novel. Time Quake. Salt. The Lobster Chronicles.

Read Aloud: A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire.

Travel

Attribute	Value
Engine	0. h
Fuel	0. gal
Water	0. gal
Distance	0. nm