Vero Beach, Jan. 10-16

VERO BEACH LIFE
We're wrapping up our first relaxing week here.  Our friend, Roger, picked Wayne up last Thursday and took him back to Cocoa so he could bring our car to Vero Beach.  We walked around here for a few days but, once the car arrived, we're not so eager to be pedestrians.  We need to get over that because there are some beautiful neighborhoods for walking around the marina.

Our resident heron.  He patiently fishes from the same spot near our mooring every day.

One of the many lovely buildings in Vero, this one with a climbing bougainvillea adorning the front

Our activities over the past week - dinghy tours of the area, several notable meals out  (especially good were the Ocean Grill and 2002 Restaurant), seeing the movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (be sure to take a brain with you; it's a very complicated plot), and the Vero Beach Saturday Farmer's Market. 

One of my favorite activities of the past week was a couple of visits to the Vero Beach Book Center (www.verobeachbookcenter.com)  This is a book store the likes of which you won't find in many places.  They have one building that houses any piece of current and classical adult literature you could hope to find.  Another large building nearby is devoted entirely to children's books on the ground floor and has an enormous well-organized selection of used & discounted books on the second floor.  Authors are regularly scheduled to come in and speak.  I could easily spend the day.  On the subject of bookstores, another exceptional one that we've encountered is Hattie's Bookstore, located in Brunswick, GA (www.hattiesbooks.com).  Hattie's has several different book clubs running and a resident dog, Mr. Wiggles, who can be counted on to join the customers on the comfortable couch.

Of course, lots of sewing has been going on in my cozy sewing center on the boat.  I wanted to share with you a quilt top I started last spring and finished today.  This is done with a technique called paper piecing and is sort of a sew-by-number sewing project.  The final quilt top is so big, about 6 feet by 5 feet, that I can't finish the quilting on the boat but will have to take it home to complete.  I'm pretty pleased with it.

Beach Cottages quilt

Repairs & Maintenance

This anode was easy to get to.

 This week we replaced the sacrificial anodes on the propulsion engines' heat exchangers.  The diesel engines have heat exchangers that cool the engine blocks and the transmissions.  Seawater enters the heat exchangers (radiators in car terminology) and removes the heat from the engine coolant and also the heat from the transmission oil.  The seawater then exits back to the river.  The heat exchangers are made of iron and brass and are very expensive to replace.  Both of these metals erode away electrolytically in salt water.  Actually they erode in any water.  In salt water that erosion is rapid. The anodes are plugs that screw into the heat exchanger assemblies and are made of zinc and other metals that are less noble than iron or brass.   In that way the anodes erode (disintegrate) rather than the actual parts of the heat exchangers.  The anodes are each about $10; while replacing the heat exchangers would be hundreds of dollars for each engine. 

A partially eroded anode

The anode is on the far end of the round heat exchanger.

Six of these sacrificial anodes are required and five of them were easily replaced.  However, the sixth and most difficult one to replace would not thread in.  With much careful coaching, that sixth one finally was installed and we are good for maybe another year.

Wing door catch.

We also replaced some cosmetic items.  The two chrome plated brass door stops on the aft deck wing doors were heavily corroded.  We found exact replacements at Marine Connection Liquidators in Ft. Pierce.  MCL is a favorite place to visit (for hours) for Wayne. Think of Colleen's reaction to the above mentioned book store.  We also replaced the door stop / latch in the forward cabin.

The anode to the right is new. The one on the left is totally eroded.