Waiting For A Slip – Florida Edition

December 14th, 2022

We are just three days away from returning home for Christmas, and we are sitting in Faber Cove, just to the east of Fort Pierce and waiting for our dock (tomorrow). This is a pretty tight little spot and there are a couple of other Canadian boats here with us (Cala II and Meshuggana) but it is also quiet. We are getting used to making friends underway and we have enjoyed some food and beverages with the crew. (Craig and Teri on Cala II have come up many times. They are from Tamworth and Sharbot Lake, we met on the water by coincidence, but we went to the same high school and have many other connections from 40 years ago.)

The weather has been a bit volatile here. Not bad, just wet, then sunny, then cool, then hot and we have mostly been hanging around the boat and working on projects, prepping for departure later this week and the aforementioned socializing. We don’t miss anything.

When our dock becomes available tomorrow we will tie up and begin final preparations for departure to Canada. We will rent a car and drive home so that we can take in an early Christmas with my sister Barb & Harvey and their adult children. Next up, we will head to Amherst Island where we will get comfortable for a Christmas on the island.

Since my last post, we have accomplished a lot. Among the big changes has been a recovering of the headliners on the boat (the ceilings are panels with a faux leather covering and they sag due to humidity after about 10 years). The difference is hard to show in a quick photo, but it is very nice from our perspective.

We also put on new chain (400′ of 3/8″ G4 High Test chain). This was a must do item as we depart for unknown parts of the world, and it will require a lot less clean up. We added to this work by making a new snubber that will use soft shackles. I could write a couple of pages to describe the work here and how this setup will be better and easier, but it is also boring. Overall, setting the anchor and cleaning up after should be ‘better’ now.

All the engines have new oil, new fuel filters and we even topped up fuel with the Palm Beach Fuel Barge. I can’t say enough good things about a guy who tops off your tanks for $3.99 a gallon and has a payment option that is Hookers and Blow. Unfortunately I didn’t have my Hookers and Blow with me (get your mind out of the gutter Paul. I don’t know what he accepts for payment, but I, me, I am referring to this. Hookers and Blow Save Christmas: Pepin, Munty C.: 9781777225100: Amazon.com: Books)

We have been shopping a LOT as well. New storage, new kitchen implements (ordered from the UK because ours is a UK boat and high power items like air fryers and hair dryers need a UK plug!) and many comfort items. We have new waterproof backpacks, new blankets and a new vacuum.

The living arrangements are getting more comfortable with a new Sonos speaker mount on the TV, soon new Sonos speakers mounted in the pilothouse and forward cabin, dramatically improving the sound from the cheap Sony speakers in the ceiling.

The boat had quite functional reading lamps at the port and starboard stern of the salon walls but they did nothing, perhaps detracted from the ambiance of the salon. We went on a search for a marine grade sconce to change that ambiance. The ‘cheap’ ones were $400 each, and not so pretty. In the end we decided to go to Lowe’s (hardware store) and get the $50 sconce that looked ‘nice enough’ and then I simply rewired them for a G4 back pin LED. It took a couple of hours to figure out the first one, but the second one was installed in a half hour. We think the ambiance has been significantly improved.

We have had the benefit of some great socializing. We spent time at the dock in Old Port Cove while our headliners were being recovered, and spent some time with Anita and Bob on N50 Isla Bonita who I had the pleasure of meeting two years ago in Fort Pierce.

After the work was done, the folks at Yacht Tech kicked us off the dock (not literally, just someone needed it more than us!) and we anchored out for a few days, where we also spent an evening with Alain and Helene from Mag-Alie, and that was just after reconnecting with Alex and Corky on Anodyne who we met in Georgetown. Corky’s great taste in cycling socks was the focal point of that initial meeting. We have the same cycling socks!

Unfortunately we missed Rich and Carol who crew Aura and are permanently docked at Old Port Cove, (more cycling and boating friends) but we will run into them again soon I expect. The owner of Aura is about to trade up to a 100′ yacht, so I am somewhat excited to see more about that boat in the future.

After all of that work we pulled anchor and made our way back north to Fort Pierce. We are now simply killing time until our dock is available tomorrow.

There is work to be done just the same. One task has been testing a number of new cleaning solutions. We are trying some ceramic coatings on the boat to keep it clean for longer. Currently we are using AWLCare to see if it stays on longer than wax and keeps the boat clean. It needs to be applied by hand so it is a lot of work, and the rain has slowed us down, but so far it looks pretty good. Another effort has been to coat the windows with RainX to keep them clean longer. After a run up the ICW and some rain over the past few days, the windows with RainX still look awesome and clear as day. All the windows will get that treatment before we leave.

We are also trying to get some new screens over our doors to keep bugs out when we are anchored near islands but want the doors open. The great outdoors is a lot of fun, but those bugs, particularly the little ones can be very disruptive and destroy a mood quickly.

The forward cabin is now chock full of stuff we no longer want on the boat and we are looking forward to loading it all in the car and getting back up to Canada for storage at the house.

This little bay has also offered us a bit of a natural treat with Pelicans and Dolphins around our boat, fighting for food. A short snippet is below. We enjoyed this display for about an hour yesterday, but my lack of skills with a camera resulted in a rather poor bunch of shots. Jinhee did get a decent bit of video. Enjoy if you wish. It was way, way better to watch in person. (The Pelicans sit on top of the water, watching the dolphins underneath and anything that gets away from the dolphins, they scoop up and enjoy. The interplay is fascinating to watch. They were at times 6″ from the boat as this interplay worked through.)

After the rain of course there are rainbows. The sun is going to remove my last excuse for doing more work . . . For those at home, see you soon. For those on the water, see you next year.