February 23-24, 2015 Ft Pierce, FL

2-23-15
Evidently, I need to start with an  apology to Richard and Tracy.  My sister and I were the ones that brought our illness to their house, not the other way around.  They were gracious hosts.

We had a lazy morning again to help get over our illnesses.  But it was a beautiful morning!!  When we left anchorage about 11:00, it was already 75 degrees and sunny.  I don’t know if it was the weather, or just being further south, but there was much more traffic on the ICW today.  We saw our first jet skiers of the season (not our favorite).  And several boats that didn’t know which side of the channel they were supposed to be on.  A little bit of Dave’s road rage rears it’s head on days like this. 

We also saw lots of dolphins frolicking in the warm water throughout the day.  Actually, we have seen dolphins everyday since leaving Georgia.  And we saw 3 different dirigibles.  They were being used for advertising. 

I guess there is a new Peanuts movie coming out

We figured we were about 85 miles from Lake Worth and the Palm Beach inlet.  That is where we plan to leave for the Bahamas.  I spent some time looking at where a good place would be to do our final wifi, provisioning, etc.  We decided to spend the night at Ft Pierce.  We met a couple in Marathon, Fl last winter that keep their boat here over the winter.  So we went to their marina, Harbortown Marina. 

We arrived about 3:30.  After tying up in our slip, we went to the office to check in/pay.  They had a fun tiki bar/restaurant.  So we stayed for an early dinner.  Then I walked about 4 blocks to Publix grocery store to hit our last provisioning of the few things I overlooked.  I took a taxi back to the boat instead of carrying everything.  Then I did two loads of laundry at $3.00 per wash and dry!  We were  spoiled with free laundry in GA. 

On the way here, our chart plotter started acting up.  So Dave spent the evening trying to download new charts and the upgrades  We had a  poor wifi connection, so it would leave out sections of the charts.  Very Frustrating.  We had trouble with this back in GA, too.  So he wasn’t sure where the problem was coming from, lots of variables.  Will sleep on it.  

our dock lit at night

2-24-15
We planned to leave today, but the chart plotter still wasn’t working correctly.  Dave talked to a technician at Raymarine twice.  They recommended we send in our chart plotter to be evaluated.  That would take 2 weeks.  So we decided to order a new chart plotter which can be here tomorrow.  Then we can send in this one for the repair and have it waiting for us when we return from the Bahamas.  It will be a back up, or we can use it as a chart from the interior of our boat. 

So after lunch, I cleaned the heads.  We also tested sending messages to a few people using our SPOT.  It is a small device that uses satellites to send preset messages.  We thought we could use this in the Bahamas to let a few people know we were OK.  It is what I use to show our location on this blog, too.  That is if I remember to activate the device.  Then as a reward, I headed to the pool.  I finished reading a book, checked Facebook, went for a swim, and then showered.  Ahhh, this is what I signed up for. 

Our SPOT

My niece, Heidi, shared a picture of her legs and the pool a few weeks ago in Mexico.  But this is all I wanted to share.

While I was gone, Dave dug into several things and when I returned, he said EVERYTHING WAS WORKING ON OUR BOAT!  Not only the chart plotter, but the inverter (which wasn’t working earlier).  So now we will have the new chart plotter as a back up, and possibly sell it if this one continues to work well. 

We celebrated by having dinner at the tiki bar again.  It was a beautiful evening to eat outside, still 80 degrees.  Walking back to the boat, we saw a sign in the cockpit of another boat that said “Drinking causes memory loss, or even worse, memory loss!”.

another view of the marina at dusk. we're almost at the far end