Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
That wasn't so bad. While we plan for a lot of things to go wrong, we try to make sure nothing happens. And in this case, almost nothing happened. Almost. It's about 100 miles. At 6 knots, that's just 16 hours. That means we can't really leave until 15:00 …
Checking the weather. Again.
This is from Zone AMZ650, Jupiter Inlet to Ocean Reef FL. It starts a little south of here. As long as we stay close to shore, it shouldn't be too bad.
- Monday:
- North northwest winds around 10 knots becoming northeast in the afternoon. Seas 2 to …
Rats! In the Bilge!
Ugh.
Small hints:
We found rat scat in the cockpit. Not much. A few little turdlets.
We found very little rat scat inside the boat.
Except in the shopping bag where we had the bread. We left it on the floor in the V-berth …
Here's the interim solution for a propane canister on the dinghy.
If we had a hard floor of some kind, we wouldn't need to be so careful. But with an inflatable floor, we need to keep sharp (or potentially sharp) metal objects away from the dinghy.
Like This:
Here's Ozzy roosting on the mizzen mast.
With a dead fish.
Ozzy needs to announce their presence -- with a fish -- on a perch. We have no idea why.
"You've got a nice fish," we say. "Why call attention to it? Do you want to start a fight …
Today was the day.
We don't have a car. So, this was complicated. CA prepared a minute-by-minute plan.
09:00 Stage the old stuff on the dock
10:00 Call for an Uber ride to a U-Haul place in Stuart …
Having a wonderfully low-key time in Stuart.
CA inspected the hose clamps. Which means lifting each cabin-sole board and reaching down with a tool to see if they can be tightened even a little. Any rusty ones are my problem to replace.
The USCG rules for fire extinguishers have changed …
Nothing much going on here. Still.
CA washed down the toe-rail with ammonia. It's a once-a-year job to keep the teak clean.
The idea here is to keep the teak clean so it can "silver" naturally. There used to be Cetol finish on the rail. It …
Nothing much going on here.
I've cleaned out the pile of Tohatsu/Nissan spares.
We remain docked at the Harborage marina in Stuart. 27°12.702′N 080°15.451′W. Slip J-38.
We placed an order about a week ago for a motor and …
It's crowded. And noisy. But. Secure and we can walk ashore. It's not what we had hoped for, but it's really helpful.
Docked at the Harborage marina in Stuart. 27°12.702′N 080°15.451′W. Slip J-38.
Ready for food and showers.
Then, tomorrow …
Check this out.
This barge came out to inspect and refurbish the moorings.
On a nice day with flat seas? Looks like it might be a fun outdoorsy job.
Today? With 2'-3' waves?
What a nightmare for this crew. They pointed out that we had …
We had a pile of problems today. Problems stack up from small to large. A kind of inverted pyramid of trouble. This left us feeling discouraged.
Today's problem #1: it's rough. The Jensen Beach mooring field is exposed to the East and South …
It's rough on the mooring ball. Breeze is in the teens, and gusting into the mid 20's.
The sea state starts to change at 17kt, what they call Force 5 on the Beaufort Scale. The key indicator? "Numerous Whitecaps".
In open water, this can mean …
12 years ago...
We'd bought a boat back in December. We'd fiddled about a bit in January and February.
Now, it's march, and she's going into the shed to have the foredeck (and some other places) rebuilt. Water had intruded and rotted the balsa …
Getting from New Smyrna Beach to Jensen Beach was a job and a half.
While the passage had its share of challenges, let's begin at the beginning.
This was not a lot of fun. It was about 90 minutes of dangerous, heavy labor. And the root cause wasn't …
The George Musson/Coronado Beach (SR 44) bridge, mile 845 is broken. CA found out today when walking back from the grocery store.
That changes our plans.
We'll wait here until the bridge is fixed and we have a suitable weather window.
Here's Red Ranger waiting. If you squint, you …
New Smyrna is nice. We'd like to see the keys, though, so we're waiting on weather.
Here's the far distant forecast.
FRIDAY...South winds 5 to 10 knots becoming southeast in the afternoon. Seas 3 to 4 feet with occasional seas to 5 feet.
FRIDAY NIGHT...South winds 5 to …
Been there. Know a lot of people who've been there.
Engine doesn't work.
Not us. Two fisherman who drifted through the anchorage.
We heard the faint beep-beep from a 75HP, electric start outboard that wasn't starting. They were prepared. Had an anchor. Seemed to know what they were …
Waiting for weather in New Smyrna Beach. Weather is pleasant. Anchor is holding.
This is the SafeAnchor app on the iPhone. It shows about 60' of movement between where I marked the anchor and where we are. In the SW corner of the circle, there's a …
The dinghy's name is Scout. Scout's original fuel tank was pretty beat up.
The tank was ancient — came with Red Ranger almost a decade ago — which means some of the plastic had started to crack. And other bits and pieces were starting to fall apart.
The …