The Strongest Storm We Have Seen on the Boat

 We had been out of the boatyard for two days when we arrived in Vero Beach on June 13. We have stayed at the Vero Beach City Marina two other times and have really enjoyed it. When we arrived, we were given a mooring ball to ourselves for the first time. The other two times we were rafted up with another boat. We much preferred being on the ball by ourselves. Our first problem was, how would we get to land? Our dinghy was still being repaired and it was going to be Friday, June 16th before it was ready. We knew this might be a possibility when we left Missouri, so we brought our 14 foot inflatable kayak with us to the boat. 

The first problem was how to get the kayak inflated on the boat. Our big boat is about 40 feet long, so the Kayak is about a third of that length. I decided to start the process in the cabin. I would then shove it up and out of the companionway hatch as I inflated it. It was quite a process, but with Kim's help, we got it in the water. We were eager to get to shore to take a nice long shower. The only problem is that it was pretty hot, so the paddle back to the boat got us pretty hot and sweaty. Oh well, we were getting some good exercise and at least we were clean. 

We spent the next few days riding the free city bus all over the place. We spent the first day going to the beach, then did some grocery shopping. The next day, we went to the mall. We didn't buy anything except lunch, but it felt great in the mall and on the bus in the air conditioning. When we got back to the marina each day, there was usually a thunderstorm to greet us. We spent time in the air conditioned boaters lounge. The kayak was kind of a pain, because it did not have the carrying capacity of the dinghy and it was not nearly as stable to get in and out of, but we made it work. While we were in Vero Beach, we got hit with afternoon thunderstorms each afternoon. On of them was pretty strong producing winds of about 46 knots., but I felt confident being in a very protected space on a mooring ball. 

Just one more Km on a beach shot. This was a great day because the water and air was warm enough to spend much of the time in the water. 

Vero does a great job keeping up their beach.

My favorite bird, the Ibis.

 On Friday, June 16th, we finally got the dinghy back. We had to paddle over to the boat ramp and hook the dinghy to the back of the kayak and then tow it back to the boat. There we remounted the outboard and we were finally fully operational again. 

We were now finally ready to move north, but it was the weekend. We hate traveling on the ICW on the weekend. The amount of inconsiderate boaters make the experience very unpleasant, so we waited until Monday. 

As always, I had been watching the weather very closely. The pattern had been very consistent. Each morning was light winds and comfortable. It was getting up into the 90's by a little after noon and then we would see thunderstorms developing each afternoon into evening. Some were just rain, but others had big gust fronts on them with wind gusts up to 60 knots. The good news is the storms don't typically last long because they are moving fast. 

On Monday June 19th, we headed out of the Vero mooring field. We had a very pleasant 33 nm trip up to Melbourne.  I was watching the weather and it looked like we would get storms later coming in from the north west, so I opted for an anchorage by a bridge that had some protection from that direction. 

A nice calm morning along the ICW.

The huge houses go on and on in the area north of Vero Beach. 

Later that evening, the severe thunderstorm warnings started coming in. I was watching closely as the red blobs on radar would build and then move. Most were going north or south of us until about 10pm. A big one was coming right at us. The warnings on the radio and our phones went off warning of 50 to 60 knot winds. The problem is that the wind had shifted to the south. We now had no protection and we were being blown in the direction of a rocky shore next to the bridge. We put our lifejackets on and waited to see what would happen. We saw the blackness coming at us and then the wind shifted to the Northwest, just as I had hoped. The worst we saw was 35 knots, but because of the good protection of the land we had pretty mild waves. It was a bit nerve wracking, but all was clear by about midnight and we slept well. 

We were up early the next morning to make the 33 mile run to Titusville. We had a nice trip and were even able to get a sail up for part of it. We were very happy to arrive at the city marina in Titusville and hook up to a mooring. I feel much better being hooked to a mooring. These are inspected regularly and should hold in up to hurricane force winds. I always am concerned about the anchor dragging because I am not sure of what it is dug into. I always back down on it to test the holding, but it is always in the back of my mind. 

Here we are cruising along the ICW with the genoa up and helping us out. 

We had one pretty strong storm hit us about 35 knots of wind while we were in Titusville.  

I shot the video above during an afternoon thunderstorm. It wasn't too bad. There was a scheduled rocket launch from nearby Cape Canaveral on June 21st at 3:30am. We got up for it, but I found on line they had scrubbed the launch because of a technical issue. It did go the next day and we were up again. This time there was no disappointment. It was the first Atlas rocket we had seen fly. It was worth the lost sleep. It was so dark that I could not get any pictures. 

We left Titusville on June 22nd and made the 43 nm trip to Daytona Beach. I decided to anchor on the north side of town to get us closer to Saint Augustine, which was our next stop. We thought we found a good spot and the anchor hooked well. We knew that storms were once again predicted, so we put out 125 feet of chain and our big storm bridle that increases stretch and reduces yaw which should reduce the shock load on the anchor. 

We had a nice evening with a nice sunset, then storms started popping up all around us and many of them were severe. We heard that one was coming our way and it looked scary on radar. They were talking about 60 knot winds and baseball sized hail. We hunkered down in the cabin and waited. When it hit the boat had trouble getting her nose into the wind. The current was pulling one way and the wind was pulling the other. I heard a level of groaning in the bridle and the rigging I had not heard before. The first gust hit us with 50 knots! The waves were instantly about 6 feet and building. The boat was swinging violently. I was watching or position on GPS and it became obvious that our anchor was dragging. We went from 7 feet of depth to 5 and we had moved about 50 yards. The next gust hit us harder, but SHIFT had gained her position and handled it much better and the best news is we did not move and inch. We hung on for what seemed like a long time, but it was more like about a half hour and then...it was gone. We then had wind of 5 knots and calm water around us. It was surreal. It took us a while to calm down, but all was good. That was the strongest wind we had ever seen on the boat.

The calm before the storm. 

 

50.7 knots is around 58 mph. That is the strongest we have seen and the most I hope I ever see. I have to admit it was scary.

This was he following day. We decided to stay put because there were more storms coming. Thankfully they were not as severe and we were fine. That boat in this picture is another Island Packet called "Southern Cross" that had been traveling along the ICW at the same time. We saw them multiple times. 

On Sunday, June 25th we decided it was time to move on to St. Augustine and the safety of another mooring ball. That did not come without it's challenges. I will tell that story in my next entry. 

Leaving the Yard and Heading North

 We arrived at Mack Yacht Services on Friday, June 9th at 3pm. It was a Friday, and I knew that the yard crew would be getting ready to leave for the weekend. I also knew that the owner, Colin Mack, had not been there. He took his Island Packet to the Bahamas for a much needed vacation. 

When we first stepped aboard SHIFT, it was clear that they were not done cleaning up after the major surgery. They had to grind out the old plates that were embedded in the fiberglass hull. That process creates an incredible amount of  very fine fiberglass dust. It goes everywhere. The V-berth looked very good, but the rest of the boat had not been completed. We had no place to go, so we had no choice, but to finish the cleaning and then unload the trailer back into the boat. I had tried to communicate with the foreman that I had been given as a point of contact, but he was fairly unresponsive. 

One of the first things I wanted to see were the chain plates that had been removed from the boat. I wanted to see how bad they were and know if a failure was eminent. 

You can see some corrosion on this plate around the welds. I don't think they were about ready to fail, but they definitely needed to be replaced.

They replaced a total of 10 plates. I was happy with the work they did on that portion of the job.

The real question is what was going on under the surface. I did not see any cracks.

As we did the clean up, I started making a list of all that was left undone. I ended up with a page long list of stuff that should have been done before we arrived. 

After Kim did the first cleaning to make the boat livable, we started unloading was was needed to sleep on the boat that first night. The main concern was the power cord. We don't normally plug into shore power, but we needed air conditioning in the Florida heat and humidity. I had been able to get the staff at Mack to turn on the refrigeration before we arrived, so we could make a run to the grocery store before we had to turn the car in. We went out for a nice dinner and then hit Walmart. That Friday started in Valdosta, Georgia before sunrise, and ended on the boat in bed after midnight.

On Saturday morning we were up early to keep the process moving. I had a turn in time for the car of 8 am. After driving the rent car to the agency office, I took an Uber back to the yard.

At that point I just started bringing as much stuff on the boat as possible. Kim focused on cleaning and putting things away. I was soaking wet from sweat in 15 minutes of work in the Florida heat and humidity. We amaze ourselves when we really go to work, how well we work as a team. By about 5 pm, we had the trailer emptied, and most of the stuff put away on the boat. I then started looking around the boat to see if I could see anything wrong. I did find one major issue with the furler for the genoa. They had removed it as part of the job, but had put it back on incorrectly. 

We had a visit from Josh from the yard. He did much of the work on the boat and stopped by to check on us. That was very nice of him. 

We spent all day Sunday cleaning and fixing some other problems we had found. 

On Monday morning I was up early to find the Foreman Paul to meet him and let him know that I could not leave until the furler was fixed and I wanted to make sure the rig was properly tensioned. I was expecting that would take much of the day, but by 8:30 I got a visit from a rigger from sister company Mack Sails and he told me the furler was fixed and the rig all was good to go. At about 9:00, we were asked to leave. They needed our spot as they had another boat coming in. We pulled out at about 9:30 and motored 7.5 miles to the Jensen Beach mooring field. We picked up a ball there.

While we were underway, I had noticed some noise and some strange feeling from the steering and autopilot. I wanted to take a look at that before we proceeded. I also had an issue with the transmission shifter that was very stiff. As it turned out the transmission was not a Mack issue. The linkage is right below the sea strainer and it got some salt water on it at some point and it had some rust on it. I lubricated it and it was good to go. 

This is the view of the mooring field at Jensen Beach. It is very open with very little protection, but that is nice in the summer to get some breeze to cool off the boat. Lots of space available this time of year. It is always full during the winter cruising season.

The bridge at Jensen Beach. Look, no dinghy on the back of the boat. 

When I opened up the steering compartment to check out the noise, this is what I found. All of that white dust is fiberglass. I had to clean it all up and lubricate the gears. I checked the autopilot. Mack had removed the shelf that the drive had been attached to and replaced it with a new one. I think it is now out adjustment. I did a recalibration to see if it would improve.  

Another look at the white powder. That stuff is very hard and will destroy a gear surface in short order. 

 We then decided to motor on to Vero Beach. That was about 25 more miles. We had a good weather day, so we took advantage of it and made the trip. We pulled into the marina fuel dock and topped off the fuel tank and filled our water. 

I will take a minute here and write about my experience with our Chain Plate Replacement. I am glad we had the job done. I feel much better knowing that our rig is solid. I feel confident that the main job was done correctly. I am disappointed about the clean up and the problem with the autopilot and steering. The attention to detail was just not there. Was that because Colin was not on site? Maybe. We spent more that $16K to do this job, and I was hoping for better. Will I contact them to let them know about my concerns? No. If they really want to know, they will contact me. I really don't know what they could do at this point anyway. This blog is not read by enough people to concern them, so I don't feel writing this will impact their business in any way.  

We had one major issue that we still needed to get resolved. We still did not have our dinghy. Offshore Rafting is located very close to Vero, so we would wait for it there. That was really OK with us. We were tired from the past few days and we like Vero. The only problem was how would we get to shore without a dinghy? We had a plan. I will tell you how that plan worked out in my next entry. 

Two Trips back to Florida

 We had been in Missouri for about three weeks and it was time for us to head back to Florida. We were heading to Disneyland to see our Granddaughter,  Isabella play with her High School Band. The plan for more than a year was to rent a VERBO Condo and make it a full Disney visit. The crew going was, Shannon and Brian and Will and Amelia. Kim and I, and we were very excited to spend some time with our son Mark and his wife Callie. Mark and Callie decided to do the full experience and they were staying at the Dolphin on the Disney resort. 

Our plan was to determine if the boat was going to be ready early. The original schedule was June 12th. If it was early, we would drive our own vehicle down and they just go to the boat. Now the problem was that the truck was still in the shop. The boat was not going to be ready early, so we decided to ride down with Shannon, Will and Millie in Shannon's car. We had a fun two day drive down to Orlando. Brian flew both ways to reduce his time away from work.

We got a great deal on the condo, so I was a bit concerned that it would be ok. As it turned out, when we arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised. It was very nice and had a deck overlooking a small lake that had many birds and other wildlife. We even saw an alligator.

We stayed in Orlando for 7 days. Shannon's family did all 4 parks as did Mark and Callie. Kim and I were very happy that we chose to only do two of the parks. After the first day at Epcot, where we walked about 26,000 steps, we needed a couple of days to recover and get ready to do Magic Kingdom. 

Kim at the entrance to Epcot. This is her thing and it was my job to do as I was told.

Kim and Will. We had a fun day with Will at Epcot. He hung out with us most of the day.

Will and I in front of the big golf ball.

Amelia doing a nice pose. She had a great time at the parks, but told me her favorite thing about the trip was the pool at the condo. 

Here is a shot of Kim, Isabella, Shannon, Millie and Will

We only got a quick view of the band, but here they are performing on main street.

My favorite ride inside the parks was the "Tron" motorcycle ride. Will and I got to ride side by side.

The fireworks show was amazing as always. The only problem was by then my legs were toast.

We finished the final day by riding the carousel. Kim loves those and maybe I earned an extra point for that.  

We took hundreds of pictures. I am just selecting the ones from my phone. This is Brian, Mark and Callie with Shannon and Amelia to the right. We were on the train. 

Disney World was an exhausting experience. I am sure everyone had fun and so did I, but it was a physical test. Isabella decided that she wanted to come home with Shannon. That posed a problem that was quickly solved. I rented a car and decided that the girls would go in Shannon's car and Will and I would drive a rent car. Once again the rates for one waying a car from Florida was only $40 per day, going the other direction is a different story. 

Shannon dropped Will and I off at the airport to rent the car. We went through the check out procedure as normal at the counter. We got to our normal mid size car and went to the check out gate. What normally takes a minute or two was taking for ever. As it turned out the car had the wrong license plate on it. I was getting a little miffed as we had a long drive in front of us. Finally, the agent told me to please take the car back to where we got it and go to the "Presidents Island" and pick any car. We chose a jet Black Chevy Camaro.

Will and I had way too much fun driving this car to Missouri. We got zero tickets, that is all I am going to say about that. 

We got back to Missouri on June 1. We now knew we needed to be in Stuart Florida on June 9th to pick up the boat. The biggest problem was that we still did not have the truck ready. I went through a daily issue with the guy working on the truck where he told me it would be ready and then I did not hear from him and then we would start over the next day. He finally texted me on Sunday the 4th and said: "It's Alive". After I clarified what that meant, I went and picked it up. It has run perfectly since then. 

We spent the next few days getting ready to leave. We got the truck packed and then got some more bad news. While the boat was in the yard, we decided to have our dinghy "reconditioned". It probably needed to be replaced, but this company told us they could fix it for around $1000. A new one cost around $5000. It was supposed to take a week, but it was now 5 weeks and it was still not done due to the large number of repairs needed. 

We had one final thing Kim wanted to do. We went to Amelia's cross over ceremony from a Daisy scout to a Brownie. That is a girl scout thing.

I just thought I would include this picture I took in Shannon's front yard of this 4 foot Black Rat Snake.

Shannon on the right and the 5 girls that she has led through Daisy Scouts. Amelia is on the far left.

 I was now ready to make final plans to take the truck to Brunswick, Georgia (where the boat will spend hurricane season) and then drive a rent car to Stuart, Florida. Remember what I said about car rental costs? They wanted around $250 per day to do that from Savannah, GA or any other place I checked. I did some more searching and figured out that we could rent a car inside Florida much cheaper, so we reserved a car just south of Jacksonville, Florida for $80 per day.

We left Missouri on June 8th and drove 14 hours to Valdosta, GA. Then we drove to Florida to get the car and then Kim drove the truck and I drove the rent car 1.5 hours north to Brunswick. The best news is the truck never missed a beat. I then drove back south to Florida and arrived at the Mack Yacht Services yard at about 3pm on the 9th. 

It was at that point that the real fun began. I will write all about getting out of the yard in my next entry. 

Our Time in Missouri was CRAZY!

 We were up early on April 29th. It was our last night on the boat for a while. The boat was almost empty, other than our bed and the things we would be taking with us to Missouri. I had reserved an Uber for 8:30 to take me to the rent car place. He showed up at 8:00. I learned a lesson...don't make a reservation. That cost me $10 extra dollars. Oh well, we don't do that much. The only problem was that the car rental place did not open until 9:00, so I had some waiting to do. We got the car and I went back to pick up Kim and our stuff. 

We started our drive north. We had a hotel reservation in Birmingham, Alabama. About an hour into the drive I got a text from my brother, Alan. He told me to watch out for the weather. He did not know we were driving, but he was warning us about a big storm out in the Gulf of Mexico. The bad news is it was heading north and would impact our travel. Kim started watching the Radar and changing our routing to a more north path to stay out of the worst of it. After an 11 hour drive we pulled into our hotel. The next day went well. When we left Florida the temperature was in the 80's with high humidity. When we pulled into a gas station in West Plains, Missouri, it was in the 40's. I had to pull on some sweat pants and a hoodie. Kim had no warm clothes, so she looked stylish in some of my clothes. 

We stayed at our daughters house for a night and our son, Mark let us borrow his car to go back to the ranch and get ours. All of our vehicles had been sitting for 8 months, so my first order of business was to get them running. The truck took a bit, but rumbled to life. The mustang did not start. Not sure what was wrong, but I just left it for later. I had my trusty Ford truck after all. I drove it 14 miles to the town of Ava to get fuel for both the truck and the mustang hoping that fresh fuel would help. After filling up gas cans and the truck I jumped in and it would not start. I tried for a while with no luck. I went to a local auto parts store to get fuel filters. When I determined that I could not change them with the tools I had, I was about to give up when I tried it one more time and it started. I drove it quickly to a local auto repair shop and called Kim to come get me. 

We also had to fill up both of our 30# propane tanks from our 5th wheel. They were full when we left, not sure if I have a leak or what. We picked up some food and headed back to the ranch. When we got there, Kim pointed out a soft spot on a wall in the 5th wheel. It turned out that we had a leak in the side of the trailer and it had rotted a slide frame and a main support to the wall below the water heater. That took the entire next  2 days to fix, but we got it done. I hate the cheap construction of an RV, but at least I can usually fix it. 

I worked on diagnosing the Mustang and determined that the fuel pump had failed. I looked for a place to take it, but the ranch is so far out in the country, towing it was going to cost a fortune. I decided to get started changing it. In the mean time, I was having a hard time reaching the shop that had my truck. When they finally answered the phone, they had not been able to work on it. I asked them if it would be OK, if I came down and changed the fuel filters out. It is a small town shop, so that was fine with them. It is a messy job, but I got it done and the truck started and ran fine. I also needed some brake work done, so I left it for them to do that part. I finally got it back a few days later and thought that we were good to take a trip to see our oldest son, Michael and his two sons in Arkansas. 

We stopped to see Amelia's last soccer game in Ozark and then took our son Mark's car back to him and they were headed to Arkansas. We stopped in a small town to get a bite to eat and that is when the truck failed to start again. Just as luck had it, there was a small one man auto repair shop right next door. I went over to ask if he had a suggestion for a tow truck and we got to talking about the truck. He knew a lot about Ford diesels. I asked him if he could fix it, and he said sure. So that is how my truck ended up in Reeds Spring, Missouri at a one man repair shop. 

Our granddaughter came and picked us up and our daughter let us borrow her backup car to drive to Arkansas. 

We had a great time in Arkansas with Michael and the boys. It was so good to see and spend time with them including their maiden voyage on their new to them canoe. We also had a rousing game of 2 on 2 football. I was sore for a week, but loved every minute of it. 

This was Amelia's last soccer game. She is the blonde in the middle of the picture.

Launching the canoe for the first time

Perfect for the three of them

Fishing was at the top of the list for Connor, so off they went to catch some bait.

Good looking strokes

Michael had to be at work early on Monday morning, so we stayed and took the boys to school. We had made contact with some RV friends of ours, Dick and Cathy. They happened to be in Russellville at a COE park we have stayed at many times. We had a nice, but short visit. Dick had to go to a doctor appt., so we said our good byes and they drove off. We got in Shannon's Prius and...you guessed it! It would not start. Then the craziest thing yet happened. While I was trying to figure out how a Prius worked, my phone rang. It was my brother, Alan. He wanted to get my son's phone number because he was visiting Russellville, Arkansas with his wife, Denise in their motorhome. I said, "in what park?". Some place by the dam called Old Post Park. As it turned out we were 9 sites apart. My engineer brother, who lives in Texas, that I have been working on cars with since I was 13 years old was there to help me. I was blown away. As it turns out, we just needed to jump the starter battery and all was good with the Prius. We had a nice visit and then headed back to Missouri. 

When we got back to the ranch, something else really amazing happened. I had jacked up the mustang and put the rear tires on ramps to get started dropping the fuel tank to change out the fuel pump. I don't really know why I did, but I tried it one more time and to my amazement it started. I yelled for Kim and she just laughed. At least we now had one car running. 

On Mothers day, Shannon and some of her kids and Michael came to the ranch. It was a great day because it is rare to have water in our swimming hole and it be warm enough to get in. The water was cold by Isabella and Will had a blast. 

You can see Isabella in the water and Will getting ready to jump. The water was about 7 feet deep. This is a beautiful spot at the ranch.

Is and Will enjoying the swimming hole natural water slide. 

We had this little visitor in the trailer one day

He let me pick him up and set him free

We had some wonderful weather while we were at the ranch in early May. I was able to get two great rides on my dirt bike with some old and new friends. I still love to do that even though the years have taken their toll on the old body. 

I was waiting to hear from the guy about my truck and a week went by. I finally was able to talk to him and he said he was having trouble getting all of the parts needed, but he should have them by the end of the week. The problem was that most of the family including us were leaving on May 22nd to go to Disney to see our granddaughter Isabella play with her band. We would be gone a total of 9 days. He promised to have it done when I got back.

I will end this entry there. It is long, but I can assure you that I have left out many details that also happened. In my next entry, I will write about our trip to Florida to go to Disney World and the crazy process of picking up the truck and the boat from their major surgeries. 

Life in Stuart, Florida

 I have not updated this blog in a while. It is hard to get excited about our life back in the U.S. after spending 2 and a half months over in the Bahamas. It all just seems so "normal". 

In my last entry, we had just made our crossing over from Great Harbor to West Palm Beach. We stayed in West Palm Beach for 2 days after making the crossing. It was needed to get rested up for the next leg of our trip. The next leg was a short 35 mile trip up the ICW to Stuart Florida. We left on a fairly windy day. It blew between 15 and 20 knots all day. That normally is not a problem as we cruise along the ICW. It was also mostly a tail wind, so that made travel fairly easy while we were moving. The problem was that there were a bunch of bridges in between. I did not count them, but there were at least 10 bridges that we had to open. We had to travel to each bridge and then wait for the next opening. Some of the bridges are on an opening schedule, so you have to wait a while if your timing is not good. Some are on request, so those are easier. You just call them on the radio and they will open fairly soon. Holding your position in 20 knots of wind and some significant current can be a challenge. It was a long day, but we got it done. 

This was our view on much of our trip along the ICW. There are lots of large homes on the water.

We were heading to Stuart, Florida to have some work done on the boat. We had a scheduled appointment on May 1 to start the work. I had a plan to stay in the mooring field at the Sunset Bay Marina. The problem is the mooring balls are on a first come, first serve basis. So, you have to get there and hope there is an available ball. 

When we arrived on April 6th, there were no mooring balls available, so we had to go across the bay and anchor in a designated anchorage that was full of unoccupied boats. The next day, we finally went ashore. It was the first time we had been off of the boat in 5 days. We took the dinghy to a city park that had a free dock. While we were there, I could look over and see the mooring field. I watched as a boat dropped their ball and motored away. We quickly got back in the dinghy and went over and put a buoy on it and called the marina to let them know we were bringing the big boat right over.

Within a half hour, we were hooked up to our new home. Ball #6 would be our new address. We went to the office and paid our $479 for a months stay and got our access to the boaters showers, restrooms, laundry and lounge. We found out about the free shuttle to the local stores and local restaurants. 

This is a shot of our mooring field. That boat on the left is an Island Packet 35, just like SHIFT. The name of the boat is "Just Ducky" they are from Maryland. The crazy thing is they were at anchor right next to us at Black Point in the Bahamas. 

This shot was taken in downtown Stuart. It was a very stormy day with high winds. Our mooring field had much better protection from these winds. We did have a storm come through a few days later that brought some 46 knot gusts from a direction that we did not have good protection. We had 6 foot waves going right through the mooring field.   

This is an Ibis. I for some reason, like these birds. 

As we go for walks to the local parks, we go under this bridge that we went under on our way here. 

There are three bridges in succession. This is the railroad bridge that we had to open on our way in and we will have to again on our way out. They are closing this bridge for repairs for 16 days in May. We are planning to depart just before that closing. 

This sailboat broke free from its anchor during the strong winds in the previous picture. I am not sure how they will get it into deeper water, but it looks like it has not been cared for anyway.

This is a shot of Sunset Bay Marina. A very nice place. The slips run about $1500 per month for a boat our size. That cost is why we stay on a ball.

Sunset over the marina. They have a nice gathering area where we go to relax after our evening showers. 

Stuart is a nice little town that has lots of places to walk around and check out the shops and restaurants. We really enjoyed our time there. We got lots of work done on the boat including all engine maintenance and a number of other jobs that were needing to get done. It was some nice downtime after being on the move for the past 5 months. 

I took this picture from shore. SHIFT is right in the middle of this shot.

I just like this nice quiet shot.

After Just Ducky left, we had "Island Spirit" take mooring ball #7. Hayden and Radeen are from Pennsylvania. Hayden runs the Island Packet Owners group and a Yacht Broker. We enjoyed meeting them. They have been sailing her for over 20 years and have been to the Caribbean many times. Island Spirit is also an IP 35. One year newer that SHIFT. 

On April 28th, we made our trip the 6 miles to Mack. It was a slow trip because we had a lot of growth on the hull of the boat and propeller, but we made it and put SHIFT in a very tight spot. She will stay there for the next 6 weeks and have her Chain Plates replaced. This is major surgery, and will require the carpenters to remove all of the built in furniture. We will take this time to return to Missouri to visit family. Before we left, we had to remove literally everything from the boat and put it in a provided trailer. 

We celebrated clearing the boat out by going to a local restaurant for dinner. This heron was dining at the table next to us.  

Here is the very tight place that I had to maneuver into to put SHIFT to bed for 6 weeks. That roof over that boat to the right was a very close space that I had to make sure I didn't hit my mast. I have no idea how we will get it out of here when we leave. 

Here is a shot of the cabin as we left. It was a strange feeling to leave her like that. It took us two days to get everything packed into the trailer. It will be interesting how long it will take to put it all back.  

We are now up to May 1. I still have some catching up to do, but most of that is family time. As I write this it is June 5th and  we are getting ready to return to the boat. It has been a strange time in Missouri. I will write a bit about that in my next entry.