Merritt Island December 10-22, 2013

Our route so far

So far this winter we've traveled about 350 miles by water.  The red path shows travel south from Jacksonville to Sanford, FL.  The green line denotes our travel back to Jacksonville then south to Merritt Island. We also have traveled 1100 miles by car since leaving home.

Docked at Harbortown Marina, Merritt Island, FL

Harbortown Marina.  That is Cool Change, the 4th boat on the left.

We hope that all of you are preparing to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends.  We've had a busy two weeks here in Merritt Island, from the highs of making Christmas cookies to the lows of starter troubles.  We always seem to have some repair news to report.  As I said to one friend who commented that Wayne always seemed to be fixing something - that's because I regularly break things just so he can keep himself busy fixing them.

 
First Stop - Rockledge Gardens

Within our first few days here we took a trip to a very special plant nursery, Rockledge Gardens in Rockledge, FL.  Judy and Doyle, Wayne's sister and brother-in-law, joined us.  I would willingly pay an admission fee to wander through the poinsettia and orchid garden, the beautifully laid out plant areas and the screened in butterfly enclosure here.  We hear that there is also a fresh vegetable stand across the road that's part of this same business but we haven't visited that yet.

Judy and Doyle

Just a few of the Rockledge Gardens orchids

A Rockledge Gardens butterfly in their butterfly house

Preparing for a Boat Christmas

Our first weekend here we also enjoyed a Christmas concert at the First United Methodist Church in Orlando.  The beautiful music of the choirs (both adults and children), the hand bell players and the full orchestra really put us in a Christmas mood.  Back to the boat and we were ready to decorate for the holidays.  We've set up our little tree which now is almost completely decorated with shell and nautical ornaments that we've been collecting over the past four Christmases. We also have lights around the boat railings and trailing down the aft ladder and great looking lighted scallops framing our back aft deck.  Added to that are a few cabin decorations so we are in the Christmas spirit.

Snowman made of sea urchin shells.  The white garland is also sea shells.

The gifts are beginning to accumulate.  There's not enough room under the tree anymore.

This guy will sing and dance for you when asked.  Gee, thanks, Marla.

Can't Forget About Sewing

Of course, lots of sewing is going on around here.  Marcy, one half of our friends Roger and Marcy, shares my sewing passion and we've enjoyed a few days secluded on her pleasant sewing porch and in my galley/sewing space.  I can't show you what she is making (a gift for a friend) or what I've made (a few easy gift projects).  We did go together to a three hour class at a local quilt shop, Sew Central, and I can show you a project from that - called a Petal Pouch.  That may end up as a project I can share with my YMCA buddies back in North Carolina.

A little drawstring bag.  Very easy to make in any size using two contrasting fabrics.

Roger and Marcy.  Easy to love these two.

Christmas Cookie Tradition

My sister-in-law, Patty, and I began making Christmas cookies together each year a looooong time ago.  When Wayne and I moved to North Carolina Patty and I were sad to see that tradition come to an end.  One of the best parts of our winter time here in Florida has been the chance to pick up our cookie making again.  We have a well developed routine.  Colleen mixes the dough - Better Homes and Gardens sugar cookie recipe times three.  That makes a lot of dough so she has to mix it in our only large container - a big pot we originally bought for Low Country Boil.  We transport it to Orlando where Patty and Harlan live and then the fun begins.  Colleen rolls and cuts and Patty decorates.  We're lucky to have kid help too.  Kaylin is Patty's granddaughter and, of course, our GREAT niece.  What do Wayne and Harlan do?  Of course, their job is to eat the cookies.  Kaylin's daddy, Kyle, helped with that too this year.  At the end of the day we don't have nearly as many cookies as we thought we were making, thanks to those cookie monsters, but we do have fun.

I love making Christmas cookies!

Wayne's brother, Harlan and his wife, Pat.

Kaylin and Pat, in charge of cookie decorating

 

 

 



Right at this moment her phone is ringing...her great friend, Marla calling.  Look at those hands. 
No way will she be able to answer it.

Wayne's brother, Harlan.   Where are the hot cookies?  This is his 5th run at the Christmas cookies.



A very small sample of the hundred plus cookies we made.
 These won't be here for long.

REPAIRS from Wayne:

Starter Motor Ready to Fail

We have had a starter motor problem since heading out from Drs. Lake Marina on Nov. 18th.  The starboard engine starter motor required two or more attempts before it kicks in and starts the engine. We know that it will fail completely at the worst possible time....like when we are entering a lock on Lake Okeechobee or when we are backing into a slip at a marina in the pouring rain and high winds.  So it must be replaced while we are in Merritt Island for a month.  So I got with it, removed the floor panels and tried to locate the starter motor.  Of course the starboard engine is a duplicate of the port engine.  That is, all of the filters, pumps and the starter are on the side that is right next to the fuel tank with only 8 inches of work space. Upside down I went looking for the darned thing.  When I found it I wanted to curse...almost impossible to get wrenches in there to work.  After 3 hours I gave up and talked to the resident Cummins expert who works out of the marina.  He said that he had done the job many times and that it would take 2 to 3 hours at $95 / hour.  Plus the new starter motor.
He completed the task in 2 1/2 hours.   Total $503.

 

 

 

I know there is a starter motor in there somewhere.

 

Upside down and holding the camera.  There it is.

I could get the biggggg positive cable off.  But cannot get to all the mounting bolts.  I will next time.

Shower leaking AGAIN

The heading says it all.  This is the third go-around in three years with this problem.  I could not see bad caulk but water was coming from the shower base into the carpet in the master stateroom.  I started with the square shower drain assembly.  As I dug out the old caulk it became apparent that the "Tub and Tile" caulk had not maintained its hold on the fiberglass floor and drain.  When I removed the entire assembly I found water around the flange area below.  Wow, I really believe I found the leak!  I went back with 100% silicone caulk this time to get a better bond.

All back together and curing the caulk.

But after we showered the next morning, the leak was still there.   I decided to replace all the caulk below the 3 foot level.  I was glad I did.  As I dug out the old caulk I could see that the caulk here was also releasing its bond with the fiberglass.  Hopefully the silicone caulk will do a better job.  Or maybe I should just replace the caulk each year.

I wish this wall would give a bit....I just don't fit here.   Think what you do if you drop the soap!

 

 

Well..best to dig out and replace all the caulk between the floor and the walls.

 

 

 

Masking for the new caulk


Hopefully this problem is finally solved!!!!! 

Water inlet valve / pressure regulator

We had to replace the water inlet/pressure release valve at the back of the boat.  It had a quick connector that was leaking.  Unfortunately, the quick connector was corroded onto the inlet valve and couldn't be removed, even after repeated tries.  Small problem, easy cure - $46.


The photos for this task were lost somewhere in The Cloud.   So here is an after photo.

Man on Boat

You can tell just how much he loves it here.

 



Poor guy.  Now that Colleen knows just how handy he is with a needle
and thread, she lets him fix his own rip in his shirt.



This photo was taken a few days ago when we were having chilly weather.
Hard to imagine needing that quilt since we've had a record-breaking heat wave the past few days.

 

Merry Christmas to all of you from Wayne and Colleen 

 

 

 

 

Jacksonville to St. Augustine and Beyond. 12/5-12/9

Leaving Jacksonville. December 5


A HUGE boat in dry dock, five stories tall and around 200 feet long

We had expected heavy fog again today to roll in about 7AM but it didn't materialize so we were able to leave by 8:20 and made the trip to St. Augustine by mid afternoon.  Here we have Colleen's least favorite mooring field - crazy currents, unpredictable winds, short, hard to manage line on the mooring buoy. Again the field didn't disappoint.  We managed to slip past the buoy after snagging it with the boat hook.  Colleen was hanging desperately onto the boat pole trying to bring the rope up to the boat deck as the boat slipped steadily away from the buoy.  At this point her headphones began rolling off her head.  Calling, "Back up!" and several other unprintable statements, she let go of the hook and caught the headphones at the last possible instant.  As Wayne backed away, we could see the now bent boat pole floating still attached to the mooring ball rope on the surface of the water.  Wayne, smart captain and even smarter husband that he is said, "Oh well, I didn't like that flimsy boat pole anyway" and handed Colleen our second boat hook.  This time we managed to get attached with minimal drama.
Lessons learned - we have to approach the buoy heading into the current every time (we had been assigned to a buoy that we knew had shallow water nearby so we took an approach from the deeper end- WRONG) and we need to develop hand signals to use at mooring buoys rather than the headphones (or invest in much more expensive headphone sets that will stay put on our heads even when our heads are tipped downward).  The headphones are a valuable tool on the boat and make it possible for us to communicate with each other when one of us is out of sight of the other during docking and undocking.


Cool Change on her mooring buoy right outside Castillo de San Marcos.  We were "treated" to regular cannon firings over the course of our two days here.  We soon learned to cover our ears every time we heard the officer on the shore holler "Fire!"



The welcoming entrance to the St. Augustine Municipal Marina 

Sights of St. Augustine
The first order of business was to replace the lost boat hook so we trekked the one mile+ to the Marine Supply and Oil Company.  Wayne loves to browse in this place - it has more marine supplies than anyplace he's ever been.  You can outfit any yacht or shrimp boat from their inventory.  From there we walked to Theo's, a small restaurant with high recommendations from a local commercial fisherman, and enjoyed shrimp for lunch.  They claim to be famous for their cinnamon roles but we got there too late to confirm that as the last big fat roll went to another table.

For the next two days we enjoyed the city and its annual Christmas parade, British Encampment and Grande Illumination.




Excellent breakfast spot on Saturday morning - Mary's Harbor View Café.  The locals tell us that you'd better be there by 8:15 AM or you will face a long wait.

St. Augustine was established in 1565 and is the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement
 and port in the United States.  It's an excellent walking city with lots of interesting places to see.

The Pirate ship



Flagler College, built by Henry Flagler as a fancy hotel as he promoted the railroad  in Florida



A front pillar at Flagler College

St. Augustine Christmas Parade

 

Large man and tiny Jeep

Notice the words on the front tag



Belly dancers at the parade

That's a snake wrapped around the guy and an alligator in the woman's arms
 

  Every year the city commemorates the twenty year occupation of St. Augustine from 1763 to 1784 by the British.  Re-enactors from all over the US collect on a large field just outside the old city and set up an authentic British camp over the first weekend in December.  They are very true to the times they represent, dressing in authentic clothing, showing life in the field and using and selling items from the eighteenth century.  We watched field demonstrations, changing of the guards and musket and cannon firing and enjoyed talking to the participants and browsing among the tents of authentic period goods for purchase.



Enjoying camp life



Most of the re-enactors stay in eighteenth century accommodations over the weekend,
 living in tents and sleeping on cots, rain or shine.



This lady was wearing my favorite outfit.  I couldn't get close enough to let you see just how utterly elegant she is.



The participants were serious about dressing authentically. When I referred to the things they wore as "costumes"
 I was corrected and told they were wearing "clothing."



Even the baby's clothes were from the proper period.
 I didn't have the nerve to ask if he was wearing cloth diapers or Pampers.
 Like the babies of any time period, fingers are one of his favorite snacks.



Our vote for the best-dressed Native American in the bunch



These soldiers marched onto the field in formation and then shot off their muskets and cannon at their officers' command.
Pretty impressive, especially when we realized they were all shooting their
muskets toward their RVs in the background.  Notice that Wayne captured the cannon just as it fired..

On Saturday evening we went back into town to watch the Grande Illumination and the Nightwatch Parade.  All the members of the encampment, around two hundred people, marched through the old city.  Members of the public were encouraged to join them carrying candles and they worked their way back to the Plaza de la Constitution where there were speeches, more musket firings and Christmas caroling.



The night view of the city from our boat.  All the buildings and trees are lit up  as part of the Grande Illumination

Good-bye to St. Augustine

Our water tanks are full and we've had our holding tanks pumped out.  However, we are beginning to get short on clean clothes and groceries so it's time to push on and try to make it to Merritt Island where we've arranged to stay at Harbortown Marina for a month.  Sunday morning we awoke to our most recent nemesis  - fog!  It hung around and hung around and finally cleared enough by about 10:30 that we could head out.  We made it to an anchorage near Daytona and, with an early start and some hustling and ten hours at the helm, reached Merritt Island on Monday, December 9th.  It was a good day to get here since it is Colleen's friend, Marla's, birthday.  We enjoyed a meal out with her and other friends, Roger and Marcy.  We'll deal with the piles of laundry tomorrow.



Whether we anchor out or take a mooring ball, we have to carry the water we use on the boat.
Wayne is the water boy, replenishing our supply with five gallon jugs that each weigh thirty five pounds.
He's worked out a nifty system for using gravity to siphon the water from the top steps at the back of the
 boat into our water tanks near the bottom step. He hauled seven jugs in two trips while

More photos

 

Jacksonville harbor at night from our boat



Leaving Jacksonville



Maybe our next boat - and where will the 3 million come from?



Carnival ship at Port Jacksonville



I-95 East bypass bridge



Commercial Port Jacksonville

 

 

Much of the passage was low lying land with housing interspersed



Ponte Vedre mansion.  One of many



All natural here



 



Flagler College (Flagler Hotel originally)



Ready for the parade

Wayne had to include a Vette



St. Augustine north mooring field.  There's another on the south side of the Bridge of the Lions