Cool Change Travels & Adventures: November 2012

COOL CHANGE PREPARES TO WINTER IN FLORIDA

We are finally underway for winter 2012 - 2013, having left home on Nov. 17th. However, we are luxuriating at our marina in Palm Coast, FL until tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th. Yesterday was the first day that we could wear shorts and T-shirts. So the boat finally got a good washing including the hardtop roof 15 feet above the water.

Need we explain why we have stayed here for 10 days?

We had planned to spend the four day Thanksgiving weekend 20 miles north of here in St. Augustine on a mooring BALL that the city maintains. High winds and colder than expected weather caused us to reconsider leaving our protected berth here in Palm Coast. Instead we travelled south by car to Merritt Island and spent T-Day with our wonderful friends Marcy and Roger and their family.

Marcy and Samantha and dueling sewing machines

Let's stay in the marina!

No driving on the beaches today thanks to an unusually high tide and high winds.

Looking north on Flagler beach Thanksgiving Day - cold and windy

Here at the marina we've busied ourselves visiting with old friends and making a few new ones. Pam and Richard, old friends from our Orlando boating days, came by to see us and joined us for supper out with Margaret and Larry, who live in a house here at the marina. We know Larry from former Florida boating days also. Last night we joined new acquaintances, Ron and Marilyn and Tracy and Rupert for cocktails. We loved Ron and Marilyn's roomy boat, a Silverton 45. This morning as we looked around our cluttered salon we concluded they are a floating condo and we are a floating RV.

Pam, Margaret, Larry, and Richard visiting before heading out for bar-B Q.

Before we left North Carolina I (Colleen) arranged for us to present a program on quilting afloat in Florida for my quilt guild when we get back. So now I'm committed to lots of research on quilt shops, quilt guilds and quilt shows over the winter, something I'm looking forward to doing. Last week Wayne joined me for a field trip on which we found and visited two nearby quilt shops, The Sew and Quilt Shop in Bunnell and Byrd's Nest Quilt Shop in Ormond Beach. Wayne is willing but not necessarily consumed by quilting interest. I emerged from one shop to find him sleeping in the car, head thrown back, mouth wide open, snoring up a storm. Sorry I wasn't able to get a photo of that before he woke up.

Finally - Heaven found!

I wish the weeds had grow tall enough so we couldn't find the shop's sign. (Wayne)

Yawn!!! Where can I take a nap? (Wayne)

We did go up to St Augustine by car last Saturday to attend the after Thanksgiving artfest. When we lived in Florida this used to be an annual family trip from Orlando by trailer and then from Daytona Beach up the Intracoastal waterway by boat for the long weekend. The artfest has really grown in the number of booths, changed locations and attracted much larger crowds. We saw everything from the sublime to the ridiculous. What used to be an arts and crafts festival has evolved into an arts festival. The quality of the art speaks for itself in the photos we took. We've decided to take that off of our list of repeat things to do in winters to come.

Glass and metal sea life made with found objects

This booth speaks for itself

Art is "In the Eye of the Beholder"

After the art show we spent a few hours wandering around St. Augustine. Colleen's grandfather's family came from St. Augustine and we knew from trips in the past that there were Leonardis living in the area. His name was spelled Leonardy but, when we saw a plant nursery called Leonardi's, we stopped to visit and learned that Leonardis were among the earliest Majorcan settlers in the city. A statue in the St. Augustine Catholic Church courtyard has this name among those of several other of the first Majorcan settlers carved in the base. We still don't know if we're actually related though.

4th from the bottom, Leonardis pioneered old St Augustine

On the way back to the marina we stopped at the Baliker studio, home of the artist who made the bronze sculpture that sits at the marina entry on the waterway. We enjoyed seeing wonderfully crafted sculptures and carvings from driftwood and cast metal!

Bronze sculpture similar to the one at the marina. 1 of 6 that he produced

Look carefully at this driftwood sculpture

Bronze sculpture at the marina, an old guy telling a "fish story" to a kid

REPAIRS

We have replaced the carpet on the aft deck and bridge. After getting quotes ranging from $1300 to$1900, we found the marine high grade carpet for about $500 in a 12 ft by 16 ft piece. Wayne made his own pattern and cut it to fit and then had to get it bound. Luckily Rick's Custom Canvas is just a mile from home and he changed his work schedule and got the carpet completed just in time. Thanks Rick. Rick is a fellow Power Squadron member and is located at 19400 Statesville Rd, Cornelius, NC ph 704-879-1672

I finally washed the boat in preparation for our journey. I replaced the water filter as our water began to just trickle from the faucets. What a chore - remove linens from master cabin bed. muscle the mattress out of the way thus blocking off the cabin door, disassemble the water filter canister, carefully remove the messy filter and reinstall all with a new filter. Then replace the bedding. Fun!

My other fun job was repairing the spotlight on the front rail of the boat. Fun because the only way that I could reach with both hands into the anchor locker to do the final repair was by sliding in with my hands over my head. For the two years that we have owned the boat, that light would only turn port and starboard, it would not tilt up or down and the flood light selection would not work - only the spotlight side of the toggle switch worked. Well, after disassembling the spotlight assembly, I found that the bulb was only capable of spotlighting and did not have the filament or the wiring for floodlighting although the dash controller had a toggle for floodlighting. I also found that there was no current getting to the tilt motor. We had power at the bridge and power at a midpoint connection in the anchor locker. But there was no current at the light jus 4 feet away. The culprit was bad crimp fittings in the anchor locker - a big wad of black electrical tape is always a giveaway as to the problem. The problem was just covered in my recent US Power Squadron electrical course. The installer had used a cheap, one-jawed crimping tool and the connection was no good. A few good crimps corrected the problem. If I had not been upside down with my body trapped in the locker, I would have cut out all 8 crimped wires and soldered them all for a permanent cure! Now I know where to look when the problem occurs again - and it will someday.

I also installed a new CO monitor in the main cabin. Our original, just two years old, had failed and I sent it to Fireboy to see if they would warrant it. Well they lost mine and sent me a FREE replacement. I never get this kind of break.