Monday, March 18, 2024

Our Plans

 It has been a month and a half since I last wrote in this blog. I really don't have a good excuse. I have just been enjoying life in Boot Key Harbor. 

I really love spending time in a place with like-minded people. We talk the same language and have many of the same problems to solve. The difference between this place and many places I have been is the since of community. If someone has a problem, there is always someone there to help solve it. We communicate on our daily radio net. I have received a bunch of help from others in the past and love it when I have the opportunity to help a fellow boater. I wish the rest of the world worked this way. Boot Key Harbor is an amazing place and I will miss it when we leave. 

It is not the Bahamas, but look at that clear water. I have a small lobster in my hand, but I had to throw it back. Where else can you get up in the morning and decide to go lobster hunting today?

 
This is a great group of friends. The people that we have met are what makes Boot Key Harbor special. This was the day that Richard got baptized. He and his wife Theresa are on the left in this picture. Randy and Joni from South Dakota are in this shot also. 

Have to get this Kim on a beach shot. 

Our group in the picture above took a trip out to the north side of the Keys. An area that is referred to as the back country. We anchored off of a small Key called Tarpon Belly. We had a great time just exploring and enjoying each others company around our evening campfires. 

Sunset from the beach at Tarpon Belly Key. 

We had to bring our wood to burn, but it was a beautiful time. 

Interesting sky led to some overnight storms, but we only saw 25 knots of wind.

Richard and Theresa and their boat called "It'll be all right". Great friends and great people.  

We had an awesome sail back to Boot Key Harbor. She is a C&C Landfall 42. 

Our plan: We have been planning to sail back to Mobile Bay, Alabama and then take the Tenn-Tom waterway up to Kentucky Lake for the summer. We would like to sail our boat all summer without worrying about hurricanes. This is also about as close as we can get to our family, which would hopefully allow them to come and spend some time on the lake with us. 

The problem with this plan started in January when the lock at Demopolis, Alabama had a major structural failure. The lock is totally shut down. I am getting weekly updates, but at this point it looks like it will be at least June before it is open. We need that lock to be open to make it to Kentucky.

We have two events that we would like to attend in Missouri. The first being a friend's wedding in late April and the second being our granddaughter's graduation on May 18. We looked at lots of options before we decided what to do. We have decided to return to Gulfport, Mississippi. We first need to move the truck from the Florida Keys to Gulfport. That is a 14-hour drive. We will do that next week. We will then rent a car to get back to Marathon. Then we will watch the weather for a good window to head north. We will sail about 600 nm to Gulfport. What we can drive in 14 hours will take us about 3 weeks. Of course, we will stop along the way and check out some of our favorite places, but we will need to keep moving when the weather allows. So, that's it, Gulfport here we come. It will be a bit over 500 nm from Gulfport up the rivers to Grand Rivers, KY. 

Now we will have to begin saying goodbye to BKH. We have made so many friends here. I guess the only good news is that many of them have already left to go to the Bahamas or head back north. Some of them are still here and some even stay here in the harbor year-round. 

This is what I will miss the most. Those beautiful sunsets over BKH while sitting in our cockpit.

In my next entry, I will write about the beginning of our trip north. Come back to see how that goes. 

Monday, February 5, 2024

Our Life in Marathon on a Mooring Ball

 In my last entry, I wrote about finally getting on a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida. I wrote about the fact that getting on a ball was something that we were really looking forward to. Why is that so important? I will try to explain.

Last cruising season we made our dream come true and went to the Bahamas. It was beautiful as advertised, but the season was exhausting. We were on the move constantly and that requires significant effort and some stress. This year, we were really looking forward to being attached to a mooring ball and relaxing. We feel confident in the moorings in Boot Key Harbor and there is plenty to keep us as busy as we want to be. 

Each morning, we start off by tuning in our VHF radio to channel 80a and listen and participate in the "Cruisers Net". This is a program that is run by the local cruisers that tells us what is going on in the area and also allows the boaters to ask for help or offer it. We also have a swap meet portion and then we have a trivia/joke section. It last about a half hour, but is a great way to start your day while eating your breakfast. 

Many mornings, I then head off to play some Pickleball at the adjacent city park. I usually play 2 days out of the week. I then need a shower. It is warm down here in the Floriday Keys and I am soaked with sweat by the time I play for a couple of hours. It is a great work out. We have a very nice shower house with 12 individual shower rooms that are well maintained. 

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at 2 we play Bocci Ball for a couple of hours. A social Happy Hour follows at one of the local restaurants. On Wednesday, we play Mexican Train Dominos at one. I have kind of become the organizer of the dominos. I make a radio announcement on the morning net and encourage others to join us. We have made a number of new friends while playing dominos. 

We have a music jam session at our Tiki hut on Tuesday evening starting at 4. We have some very talented musicians in the harbor of over 200 boats. 

Here is a shot of one of our jam sessions. Great music and everybody in encouraged to sing along. It amazes me how much equipment people carry on their boats.

We also have Cornhole on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. I have only joined a couple of times, but I am getting better and hopefully will play more. 

With all of that going on, we still find time to do our normal domestic stuff like shopping, laundry and taking care of the boat. It really is as busy of a week as we want. The best part is all of the friends we have made. 

There is live music at many local watering holes. We made it out to see local "Trop Rock" legend Ty Thurman at Dockside one night. He was great as always. 

Ty Thurman on stage all by himself. He plays stuff kind of like Jimmy Buffet would have.

We enjoyed the evening with Geoff and Marsha and Mike and Debbie. Great times!

Our normal weekly activities keep us plenty busy, but there is more. During January, the Celtic Festival comes to the City Park. This year we decided to volunteer. We each worked a 3 hour shift helping park cars. For that we got a free T-shirt and free entry into the festival for the weekend. 

This is a shot of the stage. There were bands from Irleand and Scotland. The music was great!

Our great Friends Geoff and Marsha along with Kim sporting our "free" T-shirts. 

This is Jonathon. He is an interesting story. He wanted to volunteer, but needed a ride in from his boat. We were happy to go pick him up. He spent the day with us. He was a great guy and reminded us of our son, Scott. I promise there was tobacco in that pipe he is smoking. 

I was sitting on deck last night as the sun set thinking about our life here. There are days when the weather is perfect and days when it is windy, but this is an awesome place to spend the winter. To spend time in the Keys in an RV will cost you about $4000 per month for a space in a parking lot. We spend a little over $400 a month to moor our boat in Boot Key harbor and that includes our dinghy dock and shower/laundry access. We love it here. 

This was my view on this calm night. Look at all of those masts.

There are over 200 boats in the harbor.

That is what our life looks like here in Marathon. In my next entry, I will write about some other activities I like to do that can only be done in this area. I will also write about a visit from some special friends. 


Sunday, January 21, 2024

We Made It!

 In my last entry I wrote about our time in Sombrero Marina in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida. The problem was that our time there was coming to an end. We had to be out of our slip on January 1. We had moved up the list for mooring balls at the Marathon City Marina, but we were still waiting. There are places to anchor in the harbor, but they are all full of other boats, many also waiting for a mooring ball. We really did not want to anchor there. 

While we were at Sombrero Marina I had been going for daily walks. Much to my surprise, there is a golf course just south. I was able to walk around the perimeter of the golf course and get in about 2 miles. I was planning to get in a round of golf, but the rain and bad weather did not make that possible. While I was on my walks, I noticed a small basin of water. There were a few boats anchored in the basin including 4 sailboats. There was still plenty of room for more boats. I looked at my nautical charts and found that we should be able to get in there by traveling through a maze of manmade canals. It looked like a great spot. I checked with a number of the experienced boaters in the city marina, and they confirmed that it was possible. The only downside was a half hour long dinghy ride to the city marina to use the facilities there. That is also where we would move the truck. 

I took this picture of an Ibis while I was out on one of my walks. This one is for you Mom.

Just a couple more Ibis walking by a house under construction

Lucky for us the weather got very calm on New Years Eve. This made it much easier to move the boat. 

We were up early on New Years Day. We had a very calm morning and that made it easier to move the boat. We disconnected all the lines and backed out of the slip without incident. We then motored through the canals on our way to the basin that I had seen on my walks. I watched the depth instrument closely as we cruised along at about 3 knots. Most of the way it was around 8 feet deep, which is plenty for our 4.5 foot draft. 

Once we arrived in the basin, I was shocked to see the water got much deeper. We had over 15 feet of water where we decided to drop the hook. We were able to lay out 100+ feet of chain and the anchor set on the first try. We settled in to life at anchor and we loved it. It was very calm and quiet. A far cry from the noise in the marina. This is much more to our liking.

We made our daily trips to the city marina to play either Bocci Ball, Pickleball or Dominos. We also made it for a Friday night Happy Hour that is the social event for the week. 

A beautiful night in our little basin. 

The best part of our lifestyle is reconnecting with some great friends. We had met Geoff and Marcia back in 2019 and it has been so great spending time with them again. 

A day on the Bocci Ball courts. 

Our last night in our beautiful little basin

We were on our way to the marina and saw this catamaran looking for a place to anchor. We stopped them and told them about our little slice of heaven. They joined us and stayed for a couple of weeks through some strong storms.  

On January 3rd, we were up in the marina main building, which is a large room which houses the marina office and a bunch of tables. That is where we play dominos. I had asked the person working the desk about any progress on our mooring ball and she told me she needed to talk to the manager. While I was sitting there playing dominos, she gave me the come here finger sign and I sprang to my feet. She gave me our mooring ball assignment. What a huge relief. We had some strong winds coming in the next few days and even though I am sure we would be fine in our little basin, I would much prefer to be on a ball. 

The forecast was for very light winds the following morning. We were up early and moving to our new home. We attached to ball C-12 and then let out a huge sigh of relief. It felt like the end of a long journey that had started on October 31 in Brunswick, Georgia. The goal all along was to get to Marathon and enjoy the months of January and February on a mooring. We were here and now let the games begin!

Why were we so looking forward to getting to Marathon? I will tell you all about our life here in my next entries. 

Monday, January 8, 2024

Major Storm Coming

 In my last entry, I wrote about our trip down the Florida coast and then down the Florida Keys to Marathon. I had been watching the weather closely and knew that a major storm was coming. The expectation was winds to around 40 knots that would last for almost a week. We arrived in Marathon on December 6th and the storm was expected to arrive on December 11th. 

When we arrived, we went into the harbor with SHIFT and looked for a place to anchor. The problem was that the mooring field was in a state of disrepair. We heard that a major storm about a month prior had seen two moorings fail causing the boats that were attached to be set free to be sent into shallow water. This event caused the marina management to fire the company that was maintaining the moorings and hire a new one. The new one had to go to all 200+ moorings and inspect them. Many had failed the inspection, and they were now fixing enough moorings to move the existing boats around to safe places. This left the new arrivals to find a place to anchor. 

I did not feel comfortable with any of the anchor spots inside the harbor. They were overcrowded and that left no ability to let out enough chain to ensure good holding. We decided to leave the harbor and anchor on the west end of the Key. We had decent protection from the North and East but were totally exposed to the South and West. We stayed there for 4 days. We went to shore and discussed our options with other boaters. Our close friends, Richard and Theresa were going home for Christmas, so they decided to bite the bullet and get a slip in a marina. They told us that there was another slip available in that same marina. We decided to check it out. We went by Sombrero Marina and saw the slip. We would be right next to the restaurant/bar. They have live entertainment 7 nights a week. They play until 10 pm on weekdays and 11 pm on weekends. The cost would be $1500 for three weeks. We would have to leave the slip on January 1. I was unsure, but Kim was adamant that we should stay outside and ride it out. On the 9th, Richard and Theresa invited us to their boat for dinner. The slip was still available and I decided that we should take the slip. Kim told me "NO!". She rarely does that, but for some reason in this case, she was sure. We went out to our boat and the water was rough with a good swell out of the south. We had a lengthy middle of night discussion on the subject and decided that we would take the slip the following morning if it was still available. 

I called the marina the following morning and was very relieved that the slip was still available. We were ready to move on in by around 10 am. Richard and Theresa were there to greet us and help us with our lines. It felt great to get the boat secure and have access to water and power. Kim got right to work washing all of the salt off of the boat from our "sporty" sail down from Rodriguez Key a few days before. 

Here is a shot of SHIFT in her slip at Sombrero Marina

You can see that the restaurant is right next door. This is an open-air restaurant/bar, so there is not sound protection for us. 

Our first day in the marina was also the lighted boat parade. The judges were in the restaurant right next to us. The restaurant is called "Dockside". 

They have lights in the water. It is cool to see all of the fish that swim by. 


Here is a shot of our solar powered Christmas lights in our cockpit.

Here is one of the better boats

This one was pretty good. It made for a fun night.

The following day a friend named Roland, who has been coming to Marathon for the season for a very long time celebrated his 87th birthday. He got up on stage to dance and sing. He always does. He invited us to his 83rd birthday 4 years ago just as we arrived. It was a fun time and great to see a bunch of old friends and make a bunch of new ones. 

All of these people were there for the party. We even had live entertainment. We only had to walk about 50 feet from our boat for the party.

Here is a shot of Kim on the right and our good friends Richard and Theresa. It was a fun, albiet a bit cool night. The storm arrived the next day.

The storm turned out to be not just one storm. It hit with winds over 30 knots, but we barely felt it tucked in our slip. You could hear the wind howling in the rigging and I even got Kim to admit that I was right, and she was glad to be tucked into this slip even though it set us back a bit. 

It stayed windy and it rained hard for most of the next week. One morning we had gale warnings and we saw some winds approaching 50 knots. 

That 47.9 maximum wind speed came on the 17th of December. We felt that one.

The truck was sitting in about a foot of water after the worst of it. 

On the subject of the truck, it had continued to start intermittently. I went over all of the sensors and even disconnected and reconnected the one that I thought may be the problem. Ever since then it has started every time. I am just hoping that continues. (That is as of this writing on 1/8/24) 

I spent much of my time in the marina doing maintenance to the boat. I also fixed the failed bilge pump switch. that failed in Jacksonville. I was very happy to find out they covered the 4-year-old switch failure under warranty. It was a very productive time. We are now ready to move north, when that time comes. I can now focus on having fun!

As we got closer to Christmas the weather got a bit better, but it was still much windier and colder than normal. We had a great Christmas dinner potluck at the city marina with all of the other cruisers. We made some new friends, and all is right with our world. It felt strange to go to and from the city marina in the truck rather than our dinghy, but that was just easier. We got right into Pickleball, Bocci Ball and Dominos. Not to mention the Friday night Happy Hours and other social events. We just love this place!

They finally started giving away mooring balls just before Christmas and many of our friends got one. We did not and when we checked with the office we were #2 on the list, but they did not know when they would hand out more. Our time to leave the marina was coming quickly and we were getting nervous. 

What would we do? Well, you are going to have to wait for my next entry to find out what we did. I will tell you now, it all turned out pretty awesome. 


Sunday, December 24, 2023

Offshore Passage to Marathon in the Florida Keys

 After getting back to Vero Beach from our very rushed time in Missouri for Thanksgiving, we settled in and started getting ready for our move down to Marathon. We had arrived back in Vero on November 24th. I started watching the weather and saw a great opportunity on December 3-6.

The plan was to motor south on the ICW on Sunday, December 3rd to the Fort Pierce Inlet and anchor there for the night. I was a bit shaken by the problem with the truck that I wrote about in my previous entry, but I really had no choice, but to head south when the weather allowed. This time of year the windows are few and far between. As I am writing this, we were right. There was not another window until after Christmas that would be at all comfortable. 

We were eager to go on Sunday morning. We dropped the mooring lines and said goodbye to Kurt and Libee. We went to the marina and filled our freshwater tank and then made the easy trip down to Fort Pierce.  We then had a pleasant afternoon watching the boats coming in and out of the inlet and the families playing on the beach. After dark the boat traffic stopped and so did the wind. We had a quiet night. 

A nice sunset at the Fort Pierce Inlet

Many other boats around waiting for their time to go. Little did we know that another boat was near us that we would later meet in Marathon. 

My calculations showed that we could make it to Marathon before dark on Tuesday if we could leave by around 5 am and then maintain 6 knots. So, we were up before 5 and got the boat ready to go. I raised the mainsail at anchor, so that I would not have to do that in the ocean swell offshore. The wind was light, so that was no big deal except it was very dark with no moon. We had current behind us as we headed out the inlet and quickly were moving more than 7 knots over ground. This is when I almost made a big mistake. When going out to sea, you should keep the red bouys to port and the green to starboard. There were two bright green lights that confused me. I was standing at the helm and not watching my chart plotter closely enough because it was too bright and was hurting my night vision. Those green lights were actually on range finders and they were on the north side of the inlet. Luckily I check my chart plotter and saw my mistake and did not run aground on the rocks. Those lights should be red, I have no idea why they are green. 

Fort Pierce inlet is notorious for rough conditions on the ebbing tide, but with the light swell and no wind it was a fairly smooth. Before long we made the turn south and we were on our way. We put up full sails, but only had about 6 knots of breeze, so we motor sailed at a little over 6 knots. 

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean

This is my favorite time of day to be at sea. 

A bit later we could start to see the nice sea state that we were just feeling up to that point. 

As we headed south the wind just kept getting lighter and lighter. By midafternoon, we passed the West Palm Beach Inlet. This meant that we needed to make a turn due south. This also meant that we needed to stay closer to shore. The Gulf Stream runs very close to shore from West Palm to Maimi. We did slow down to around 5.5 knots because of the opposing current. I found that staying about a mile offshore in 80 to 100 feet of water was the best we could do without getting uncomfortably close to land. We just set the auto pilot and motor sailed all day. At times the water was glassy. 

Sunrise over the Atlantic

We saw a number of Super Yachts during the day. Most were coming or going at the West Palm Beach inlet. This one is well over 100 feet long.

This was sunset along the Florida Coast. I think we were about Boca Raton.

We passed by Ft. Lauderdale in the dark. I have never seen the Atlantic Ocean that calm.

Here is Miami at night about 2 miles offshore.


After we passed Miami it got pretty dark on this moonless night. We had Biscayne Bay to our starboard, but there were very few lights to give us perspective. We could have gone into Biscayne Bay, but we were concerned about crab traps. We did not want to get caught up in one in the dark, so we stayed offshore. 

This is what a cruise ship looks like at night. We saw a number of large ships around Miami, but had no issue getting by them with plenty of space.

As we cruised south the wind started to pick up. I also now knew that we had not maintained the average we needed to make Marathon by dark the next day. We decided to make a stop at Rodriguez Key about 40 miles east of Marathon. I chose a place that I thought we could make it through the reef and into Hawk Channel that runs along the Keys. The problem is that we were going to arrive there before daylight. I decided to shut the engine off and just sail along at about 4 knots and wait for daylight. 

My plan worked perfectly. We arrived just after the sun gave us full light and I could see the channel markers and the crab pots. The only issue was the wind was now blowing at about 20 knots. It took us about an hour to weave our way through the reef and into Hawk Channel. We then turned and headed parallel to the keys. The wind lasted for about another hour and then died completely. We motored the rest of the way to Rodriguez Key. We got anchored and then I took a much needed nap. I did sleep for a couple of hours during the night, which is better than most overnights we have done, but the nap came easy. 

I did wake from my nap in time to catch this sunset over Rodriguez Key. It felt good to be in the Florida Keys again. 

I checked the weather and saw that we were expecting some wind from 15 to 20 knots the following day. The good news is it would be on our aft starboard quarter giving us a broad reach all the way to Marathon. 

We were up at first light and the wind had come as expected. I set the first reef in the mainsail and raised it at anchor. As I looked across the anchorage I saw another sailboat getting underway. They did not know it, but we were now racing to Marathon. The sailing was awesome. We unfurled our genoa to the first reef point and the boat felt very balanced and comfortable in the strong wind. The seas were a bit choppy, but because they were behind us, it was a comfortable ride. The autopilot handled the conditions well and we cruised along at over 7 knots average. We did have a few waves hit the side of  the boat and gave us a good splash in the cockpit. I got wet and Kim thought it was funny. The biggest issue we had was dodging the many crab pots. We were very glad that we didn't try to do this in the dark. 

We were about 10 miles to Marathon when I heard a radio call from the boat that was behind us. They had lost all steering due to being entangled in a crab pot. I asked if he needed us to turn around and render aid, but another boat was closer and stood by in case he needed help. We listened on the radio as he reported that he got his steering cleared and was then able to make the sail on down to Marathon and get the anchor down. He then got in the water and cleared his prop. Nasty things, those crab pots.  


We had great wind as we cruised down Hawk Channel. This shows us doing 7.6 knots SOG.

Here we are doing 8.0 knots. The heel is more than it was due to a passing wave. Look how clear our new dodger glass is. We love our new canvas. 

We pulled into Marathon and went in the inlet. We knew it was going to be crowded and it was. We were not able to find anywhere to anchor, so we went back out to the anchorage on the west end of the Key. It is not smooth out there, but we do have protection from a northeast and east wind. We do get some swell off of the ocean, but it is not too bad in fairly calm weather. The crazy thing as we were getting anchored, we saw another boat getting their anchor set. That was none other than Richard and Theresa on "It'll Be Allright". They had just made the trip from Mobile, Alabama and we arrived within minutes of each other. We then found that our friends, Geoff and Marsha on "Interlude" were also anchored a short distance away. It felt like we were home with friends. 

We got the dinghy down and headed to the marina to get on the list for a mooring ball. We were number 27. That means we had to wait for a while. We also knew that a major storm would hit the Keys in about 4 days. That set off a chain of events that was very unexpected. I will write all about that in my next entry.  


Monday, December 18, 2023

Our Very Crazy Time in Vero Beach

 We arrived in Vero Beach on November 10th. We love to spend time in Vero. This time around we had some things we wanted to accomplish. The first order of business was to go to Brunswick, GA to pick up the truck. We had come up with a crazy plan on our way down the ICW. My parents had decided to make the trip from Colorado to the Dallas area for Thanksgiving. This would mean that both of our parents would be in the area at the same time. That was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we planned to rent a car and drive it to Texas and then stop by Brunswick on the return trip to get the truck and then drive back down to Vero. Unfortunately, that did not work out. My parents were dealing with some illness and did not feel up to making the trip. We understood but were disappointed that we would not be able to see them. 

We decided to cancel the trip to Texas and just rent a car to drive up to get the truck. On Novermber 17th we took the dinghy to shore and met the city bus. We made one transfer to get to the Vero Airport to rent the car. When I tried to rent the car, everything changed. As it turned out my driver's license was expired! We quickly changed plans and Kim rented the car, but that would mean that she had to drive the car to Georgia and back. That turned out to be about 10 hours of driving. Other than driving in rain much of the day, the trip went off well. I was concerned about driving on an expired license, but I kept the speed down and had no problems. We were pretty tired when we made it back to the boat that night. 

During the trip in the car, I was working on how to get my driver's license renewed. It came down to the only good solution was to go back to Missouri. Thanksgiving was the following week, so we decided to see if we could get flights during that holiday week. Allegiant Airlines has direct flights from Orlando/Sanford to Springfield, MO. We were lucky and got two tickets departing on Monday, November 20 and returning on Friday November 24. We called the kids and let them know we were coming.

Our time in Missouri was a blur, but we did get the license renewed and were able to spend time with all of our kids and grandkids. My favorite part was playing football with three of my grandsons. I am sure I threw over 1000 passes in 2 days, but I loved it. 

When we got back to the boat on the 24th, all was well except we needed a ride out to the boat. The marina did not want us to leave the dinghy at the dock while we were gone, so they gave us a ride to shore in the pump out boat. The marina was closed when we got back, but Kim asked another boater and we now have some new friends. 

We rested after the whirlwind trip and started looking for a weather window to make the trip down to the Marathon in the Florida Keys. 


This is one of the mooring balls in Vero Beach.

Very calm night in Vero.

You can see the two catamarans that are rafted up on one ball.


I love it when it is calm like this. You just have to be aware of the bugs.


 After we were back for a few days, we also got a rafting partner. Kurt and Libbe on SV Epiphany were heading to the Bahamas. They were having some issues with their dinghy. I was able to give them a hand and in return they invited us over for an amazing dinner. Meeting interesting people is the best part of this lifestyle. 

I had been watching the weather for a while for an opportunity to sail south. We could do the ICW through Miami, but we knew there were over 40 bridges we would have to open. It would be slow and tedious. The weather looked great for a departure on December 4th and sail overnight and make it to Marathon on the 5th. We had some things to get done to be ready to go.

We went to Walmart to provision and got the boat ready. The day before we left, we decided to take one last walk on the beach. When we got to the truck, it would not start. The truck has run perfectly since we had it fixed back in June. We have put more that 5000 miles on it without any issues. I was frustrated and decided it would be best to take a walk and develop a plan. I walked by normal 3 miles and as I returned to the marina, I saw a guy working on a Ford Diesel Pickup. I stopped to talk to him and he offered to help. We tried lots of things, but without a good explanation it finally started. It ran perfectly and I moved it to where we were going to leave it. I tried starting it again and it started right up.  We took Omar and his wife Heather to lunch to thank him for the help. It was a crazy day. 

Our plan was to motor on December 3rd from Vero the 13 miles down to the Fort Pierce Inlet and anchor there for the night. I was very nervous about leaving the truck, but I had no good option. I also had a 2 day offshore passage to think about. It was one of those times when I had to focus on the present and pray that all would work out. In my next entry, I will tell you all about what happened next. The good news is that as I write this, we are safe and sound in Marathon, Florida.