Harbortown Marina, Merritt Island, FL, December 26-January 3

Our month on Merritt Island has flown by and we're preparing to continue our trip south this coming Thursday or Friday. We've had so much fun catching up with friends and family and the past week has been very busy - enjoying a traditional seafood feast and movie (The Time Traveler's Wife) with Roger and Marcy on New Year's Eve; undecorating Marla and Al's Christmas tree and going to dinner and a movie (The King's Speech) with them tonight, taking Roger and Marcy's family for a boat trip and on-board lunch last Sunday, traveling with Marla to our old home town of Windermere to have lunch with long-time friend, Mary and, at least for me, working on a variety of sewing projects. More about those later.

Florida finally decided to deliver some balmy weather and the past four days have been lovely. It should continue for about five more days. Wayne had shorts and a T-shirt on all day yesterday. After breakfast at Denny's on Cocoa Beach yesterday, we took a walk on the beach. I stuck my toes into a chilly Atlantic Ocean but felt absolutely no itch to take a swim. It was also nice enough on our back deck today for me to move my sewing machine outside to work on a quilting project. I decided that we needed some place mats about a week ago and have been working on those. The pattern I selected was a traditional one, called Storm at Sea. Seemed an appropriate choice for place mats we'll be using on the boat. I've also been working on the border for a big quilt that was part of a year long class last year at The Quilter's Loft, my favorite quilt shop in Mooresville, NC. Running a close second place, though, is a shop Marla took me to in Rockledge, The Quilt Place. Other projects - Granny photo pockets, little snap closed purses, Christmas aprons from dish towels, baked potato pockets, and, of course, doll clothes for the grandgirls.

Storm at Sea, our new place mats.
I like the way the red triangles and diamonds (all straight lines) suggest a circular shape

Boat news - Wayne did the first oil change on the port engine, which was the hard one to do. It took 15 quarts of oil and major furniture moves in the salon to get to the below-floor-level engine. After experiencing some limitations on removing the oil, Wayne has purchased some hoses to make the job easier and cleaner when he does this again. He also found a third overhead light in the bilge which makes it much easier to work down there after replacing a burned-out bulb. Our repaired bow thrusters performed flawlessly on our Sunday trip with Roger and Marcy. When backing into our slip in the marina, we were able to control the bow of the boat as the high wind of the day continuously pushed the boat out of position. What a difference the thruster made in this maneuver!

We ran into a problem on the Sunday trip down the Indian River when we began to raise the anchor. Roger was at the helm and Wayne was on the bow to assist in the event of a problem. And a big problem we did have. As Roger switched on the anchor windlass to winch in the anchor chain, the chain began to run out uncontrollably Watching the anchor chain rapidly going overboard put Wayne into action. He had earlier made up a four foot line with a 10 inch eye in one end and a chain hook in the other so that when we're at anchor he could use this contraption to take pressure off the windlass. By quickly looping this rope onto the bow cleat and then catching the chain with the chain hook, we were able to prevent all of our 100 feet of anchor chain and 200 feet of anchor line from going out. With all temporarily secure, Wayne had time to figure out how the windlass clutch worked and to reset the tension of the clutch to regain control of the winch. It was a very steep learning curve that day. We do not want to be asleep at anchor without relieving the pressure on the windlass clutch. We will implement measures to prevent this from happening again and to have a backup in place to secure the anchor if it does occur.

It's been a fun month here but we are about ready to move on. Our next stop is Vero Beach, where we'll visit Wayne's oldest brother, Howard and his wife, Donna.