We are getting underway again after
about a month here on the St. Johns River in northern Florida. It
has been both a wonderful time and a very exhausting time as well.
The marina is a laid-back and friendly place, and its location close
to shopping was perfect for what we needed to get done. Linda's
sister, Dale, and her husband Steve live just 35 minutes south of the
marina. They came to see us right after we arrived, and we went to
their house for Easter dinner, and Linda also took a couple of days off the
boat to stay at her sister's. Enterprise Car had a
weekend special going at $9.99 per day, so we were able to have a car on
weekends. We also just recently rented one for a week and made two
trips to the Daytona area with it. We first went down to see our son Dan
and his wife Lesli and and our grandson Thomas. They were
vacationing in Ormond Beach, which is just north of Daytona. It was a
cold and slightly damp day, but we did manage through one round on
the putt-putt golf course and had a great day with them. We returned a second time to Daytona and
spent a weekend in a condo that Linda's sister, Darlene, had reserved
with her RCI points. Then on Monday, Linda's sisters, Darlene and
Lois, arrived, as did Dale a short while after. After sharing a couple of pizzas at the condo, Steve and I, who had brought Dale and me, were on our way, leaving the four sisters for their week together. They had a
wonderful time and kept quite busy. Besides just enjoying the sun and the beach, they also visited a chocolate
factory, a botanical garden, the speedway, and went to a luau, among
other things.
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| Darlene, Dale, Lois, Linda |
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| Darlene, Lois, Linda, Dale |
Now, the exhausting side of our stay
here. Let's just say working on the boat is getting old. We
stripped the exterior teak again down to bare wood and refinished it.
That actually consumed one-half of our available work time. We
touched up all the bright metal, which was in great shape when we left
Mexico, but we now added a protective coat of wax. We cleaned and waxed
the hull and topsides, which were really showing the stress put on them
by the tropics. We cleaned the bimini and dodger and sprayed them with a
protective coating. We also built a new clear vinyl connector between the dodger and bimini. Inside, we re-oiled the teak and, of
course, gave it a good cleaning. Repairs were few and inexpensive. I
can't believe I am saying our boat repairs were inexpensive, as that is
almost an oxymoron. Anyway, we repaired a leaking pump on the head,
replaced a failed part on the watermaker, and repaired the generator
without any new parts other than changing out the air filter. The
generator had been hard-starting. An expert at Massey (Massey
acquired Entec West, the manufacturer of our generator) suggested
the air filter could be clogged by mold, but also suggested
re-torquing the head bolts and checking valve clearance. I did all
three, but the filter was probably the culprit since the generator sat idle
in a rainforest for several months. The filter looked normal, so I
didn't suspect it. We did many other small things, and Ariel is now
probably in the same condition as when we began cruising six years
ago.
The weather was a little cooler than
we anticipated. We knew it would be cool at times, but for the first
two weeks here, it was actually running about 10 degrees below normal.
All and all, it has been very pleasant with very little rain.
Our plan is to go offshore from the
mouth of the St. Johns to Charleston and then stay on the inside on
the ICW to Norfolk, Virginia.
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