No 5: One Day more

Manatee Pocket overlooking the mooring ball field.

 One of my favourite musicals, show, movie, CD is Les Miserable. I don’t know how many times I have seen the show, movie or played my CD, I just love the music. Well since last time I wrote, I have been singing the song from Les Miserable – ‘One Day More’.

One day more for the engine to be finished, one day more for the wind vane to be completely finished, one day more for the never ending boxes that were first stored in the aft cabin and then migrated up into the cockpit, to be emptied and taken off the boat, one day more staying in the Fort Pierce City Marina, one more day swinging on the mooring ball in Manatee Pocket, Stuart watching and waiting for a good weather window to cross over the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas.

 This is what has been happening since I last wrote. We eventually left Riverside Marina on Wednesday 13 March, with the main shaft of the Wind vane securely attached and in the correct position. We can honestly say that we were extremely happy to be leaving Riverside Marina. Let’s just put it down to one of life’s experiences that we hope and pray not to repeat again. It felt so good being back in Fort Pierce

Riverside Marina.

City marina in amongst our new friends we had met while staying there. This time we were planning on only staying there for a week, so we were tied up on L247 in amongst the multi million dollars motorboats. WOW – full houses on water. Our aim for being back in Fort Pierce City marina was to have the engine serviced. The next day, Thursday, after arriving back at the marina, Pierce and Eli arrived to work on the engine. These two young guys were so polite and enthusiastic to be working on an engine. They were thorough and eager to let Mel know if there was anything out of the ordinary that needed to be addressed. By Thursday lunch time the engine was in a few pieces as Pierce and Eli took the heat exchanger and raw water pump away to attend to and said that they should be back to finish the work on Monday of the following week.

In the meantime, we hired a car to do another huge shop and to buy the never-ending list of spare parts. We also filled up our gas/propane tanks for the oven. Let’s just say that it wasn’t as easy as we would have liked as there was a slight issue with our new gas tank which led to us having to drive in circles, literally, getting a new gas tank from West Marine, as the faulty one was still under warranty and the only West Marine that had another gas tank was where we had been, literally an hour before. Anyway, by that evening, we returned to the boat after 9.00pm with two full gas tanks and enough canned/tinned food to last us for 4 - 6 months.

Mel continued to work on the windvane and the new autopilot, while I continued to clean, sort out the food stuff and do the odd bit of sewing. There is always another cover to be made.

On the sewing front, I have completed the main sewing projects I intended completing before we leave the States. The new hatch covers and mosquito nets, plus a cover for the windvane and adjustments to the pedestal cover. For the next few sewing projects, there is no rush to complete – rope bags, and new fender covers.

Monday arrived and Pierce phoned to say that he would only be able to come back to our boat the following day. That was fine as he knew we were only leaving either Wednesday or Thursday.

By Wednesday evening, 20 March – almost exactly 2 months since arriving back on the boat, we felt that Passages was ready to sail into the sea. Yes, there are the odd things that still need to be addressed but these were living issues. For example, the lighting in the main saloon/living area and galley/kitchen has never been great. We bought some new lighting to be put up. This can wait until we are somewhere else, we have lived with this situation for over 10 years.

We said our “Good Bye’s” to the wonderful people we had meet during our two months stay at the marina. It was rather sad. However, it was time for us to get going, even if it was back south, down to Manatee Pocket in Stuart where we had stayed for quite a while last year, 2023 and where Passages had spent two months (November/December 2023 and part of January 2024) having her chain plates replaced.

So here we are, swinging on a mooring ball in Manatee Pocket waiting for a decent weather window. At

The full moon setting over Manatee Pocket.

the time of writing this, the window for us to cross is Tuesday, however the weather forecast is changing rapidly, which might mean another few days more to wait. In the meantime, there is always something to do – reading, sewing, cleaning. Mel and I have found since we have been here on the mooring ball, we have felt quite tired. It is understandable as since March 2023, since leaving Guatemala, we have been working on Passages, preparing her to leave for the next big adventure. (I am apprehensive as it’s a HUGE step going out into the North Atlantic for so many days).

BTW – last year Manatee Pocket did not have mooring balls but as I mentioned in two blog posts last year, many lovely anchorages are now becoming mooring ball fields run by the local council for a fee of course. This is, we think and have heard, to prevent live-aboards and rust buckets from taking up the space. With the price of houses here in the States, many people can only afford to live on a boat – see blog entries No 9 and No 10 from 2023.

We are enjoying our Starlink although with the cloudy days we are experiencing, we are monitoring how much power we are using.

While we are here in Manatee Pocket, Mel is arranging for a new mount to be made for the Starlink antenna.

So, I continue to sing ‘One day more.’. on the mooring ball as we wait.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

👉One day more 

No 4: Still the same – Delay, delay, delay.

 

Passages and it's a Boat Time (red tug).

Delay, delay, delay……. Without sounding too much like the 45^th and past President of the USA, it’s delay, delay, delay for us. I will elaborate further, but firstly referring to Mr. Trump; since we have been in Fort Pierce, he has been in town a few times.

The main federal court where he is under investigation for having classified documents, is here in Fort

Pierce. When we hear lots of sirens, and a helicopter or two flying overhead, we can assume that Mr. Trump is in town. In fact, the other day, Mel was out and about when he was forced to take a detour as he was reluctant to have to walk through a rather large group of Trump supporters who were outside the courthouse.

Anyway, back to us. Not much to report other than we were hoping to be on our way to the Bahamas by now, but we have hit a few snags.

After trying his best to put the windvane up by himself, Mel has realised that he needs help. We have asked Colin at Mack Yacht Services, where Passages had her chain plates done, to assist, but unfortunately, he is unable to accommodate us, so we have had to come up with another plan. We were hoping to leave for the Bahamas by Wednesday 6 March, however, when Mel checked over the engine, he wasn’t happy with a few things, so we have delayed our departure from Fort Pierce, until the engine has been sorted. We also found a boatyard here in Fort Pierce that would be willing to assist Mel with the windvane. So, we left Fort Pierce City Marina for the Riverside Boatyard. Let’s just say, at the time of writing this, we are unsure of whether we have made the correct decision but remain hopeful that everything will work out. It is a very ‘interesting’ place to say the least, as there are many different colourful characters around. I often think when sitting in the cockpit and observe the different characters, ‘What is their story?’.

 

Unpacking our new dinghy.

 We are planning on returning to Fort Peirce City Marina on Wednesday 13 March, where the engine will be serviced and hopefully by the weekend, we can start ‘staging’, the appropriate term for preparing for a voyage by watching the weather and waiting for a good/great weather window to sail to the Bahamas. In the meantime, we have been finishing off projects and have taken possession of our new dinghy and life raft. I have been cleaning and polishing the boat, while Mel finishes all the electrical and mechanical things that need to be done. We have marked our new anchor chain with red and yellow spray paint, in increments of 5 and 10 metres.

There have been times when we feel we will never get going, as there always seems to be something else not working or needs fixing. This is the life of living on a sailboat… there is always something to be done. We do feel confident, that once the engine is looked over and serviced, with or without the windvane, Passages is ready to head out into the great blue yonder.

An aspect of staying at the Marina, are the wonderful people one meets. Across from us, in our newish pen, were a wonderful couple from Wareham, MA, in their lovely tugboat called Boat Time, Susan and Dan. Across the way, was another couple in an Island Packet 485 (much bigger and newer than Passages) Ed and Anga, on their boat called Sweet Dream. Every Wednesday evening, we still go across to B Dock, where we first were to have Docktails and we see Sheila and David from the Full Monty, Scott and JoAnne on Folly Sq’d.

Last week Saturday, there was a ‘whipping parade’ through the streets of Fort Pierce. It was to celebrate

Our new life raft.

and acknowledge the cattle drives and the people involved in them. Apparently, Fort Pierce was a central meeting place for the cattle ranchers to bring their cattle into town.

This past Wednesday, Mel happened to be going passed the Sunrise Theatre, where he was offered two free tickets to see Tim Elton. He is a performer from the U.K. who sings Elton John songs. He was very good, and we had an enjoyable evening.

We hope that the next time we post a blog entry, we will be in the Abacos, Bahamas, enjoying the wonderful clear blue waters. Fingers crossed.

Until next time…. Take care, Keep well.

 Best wishes, always

Mel and Caryn

 

P.S. Our intention is to upload something to our blog every two weeks. We are busy sorting out Starlink, so hopefully this will assist us in downloading the all-important weather forecasts but also to put in our current position and blog entries. Fingers crossed.

Film clip to follow when we have faster Wi-Fi 😉