No 3: Still in Fort Pierce – two steps forward, one step back.

Passages in her new home in Fort Pierce Marina.

 

We are still in Fort Pierce….. working on the boat. There are many times when we are on the boat that boat life takes on its own schedule. We plan our day hoping to achieve a few things, but at the end of the day, we feel slightly dejected when we haven’t achieved a tenth of what we intended. For example: Mel has been putting in a new toilet in our main head/bathroom. It has an electric flush. On the boat, the current toilets have a manual pump for flushing. It is a pain. Anyway, it took us over three hours to run an electrical wire just over a metre from one part of the toilet area, under the main floorboards to where the new electric toilet pump needed to be placed. Mel often looks like a contortionist as he dives down into the different areas under the boat’s floorboards.

I have been busy trying to make new covers for our hatches. ‘Trying’ is the operative word. My goodness, I have watched so many YouTube clips, plus felt as if I have done more unpicking than sewing. I have decided to do it my way and forget about how others of made theirs.

The highlights have been going to the local theatre – Sunrise Theatre and watching two performances: one by a Michael Jackson impersonator. The show was called the ‘Man in the Mirror.’  It was incredibly good; and the other to see ‘Floyd Nation,’ a take on Pink Floyd, which was equally as good, but I think Mel enjoyed it more than I did.

Like most Saturday mornings, we went to the farmers market, which is adjacent to the marina. We also hired a car to two days as we needed to go back to Stuart to collect a few bits and pieces. We have done a few HUGE shops, so I am now feeling a bit more prepared as the grocery cupboards are full.

I have put together a slide show of what we have been up too. Nothing too exciting! We have extended our time in Fort Pierce City Marina by a week. The marina asked us to move from Dock B50 to M220 on Sunday, however we moved on Saturday as the weather was very mild. Thankfully, we moved when we did, as the weather turned and became very windy and wild on Sunday.

👉Fort Pierce February 2024 

I hope whatever you are doing, you are enjoying yourself, surrounded by those who you love and care about.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

No 2: Fort Pierce - Cleaning, cleaning, sorting and more cleaning.

 

Unpacking the trailer.

I have often said that I clean more on the boat than I do at home in Perth. The boat is smaller, but boy can it get dusty. I am a bit of a clean freak – Mel says I suffer from CDO – OCD in alphabetical order.

 Well, as planned on Tuesday 23rd January, we packed Passages, putting everything back into her. What a mess! The people who worked on Passages doing the chain plates, did an amazing job cleaning her, but naturally I wanted to clean her myself and pack everything away in the correct places.

The new hot water cylinder arrived after lunch time on Tuesday so thankfully that was put in place. So, we planned to leave Stuart, on Wednesday morning at high tide – which was at approximately 10.00am and motor north to Fort Pierce along the boring ICW.

Putting the hot
 water cylinder

We left Manatee Pocket, Stuart just after 10.30am and arrived in Fort Pierce after 2.30pm but due to the awful current, we could not go into our designated slip, so we spent the next hour and half alongside the first dock. Even trying to tie up against this dock was tricky as the current slammed us against the dock. Thank goodness for fenders! What didn’t help was the wind as it was pushing us up against the dock.

By 4.30pm, we were tied up all secure in our designated slip and our ‘home’ for the next month while we sort Passages out.

 Thursday morning the cleaning and sorting started, and it has literally taken me a whole week to clean and sort her out. It also gives me the opportunity to update our inventory and rethink whether we need certain things on the boat.  Passages has many hidden storage spaces – for example, behind the seating in the saloon/sitting/living area, there are shelves, but below these shelves are added storage spaces. It is vital to have an inventory of everything on the boat as it makes life so much easier when looking for things. Many people living on boats have a story of an item they stored, thought they would remember where they had placed it and ended up having to purchase another one of the ‘missing’ item. A few months down the track while sorting something out, they have found the missing item.

In between cleaning and sorting, Mel and I have used our bikes and cycled to Aldi, which is about 2.5

The new Navpod.

kms in one direction and Publix (a big supermarket chain) about 3 kms in the other direction. Mel has been busy sorting out the Radar and our new Navpod, plus preparing to work on a few other huge projects. There is always another tool or fuse, or connector needed. Thankfully, ACE hardware store is a 5 mins walk from the boat and West Marine is opposite, Aldi.

We have also met our neighbours in the slip next to us, Sheila and David, on the Full Monty from Canada. They have a lovely little dog on board their boat, called Precious.

We haven’t done anything exciting, just working on the various projects on the boat. Oh yes, we did attend the ‘get together’ on the dock, a regular event on Wednesday evenings when most of the residents at the marina meet up for a chat and a drink.

On Friday evening, 2 February, there was Friday Fest along the main waterfront road in Fort Pierce. It was very similar to the Saturday morning Farmer Market, but this time a few more food stalls. Sheila and David joined us for the Friday Fest.

Well, that is about all for now. As I am writing this, the weather is awful. Grey rainy skies with the wind howling. Hope you are enjoying whatever you are doing?

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

Putting up our new sails.

Making some Beetroot chutney
and red onion marmalade