Working on the To Do List and Getting Ready for Christmas

11/22/15-12/21/15

ENJOYING FAMILY, FRIENDS and GREAT FLORIDA FOOD

Our Cocoa Village Marina stop has proven to be a good location for many visits with friends and family over our first month in Florida.  One day we traveled to The Villages, a community of 100,000 residents, in north central Florida to see Wayne's youngest brother and his wife,  We enjoyed hearing all about their new life in this unique senior citizens centered town..

Colleen presented Patty with the quilt that she had made for her.

The golf carts seem to outnumber the cars in The Villages.
Here are a couple of, believe it or not, golf carts.

Golf carts everywhere!!

One of the many town centers in The Villages

Another town square in The Villages

Statue of Harold Schwartz, founder of Florida's The Villages

On another day our old friends, Pam and Richard stopped in to have lunch, watch the tail end of the Cocoa Village Marathon and to take a little cruise on the Indian River.  Pam always brings Cheetos to Wayne and Publix white mountain bread for both of us.  Thank you Pam!!  On this visit she also brought us a poinsettia plant, which was a good thing as it's the only Christmas decoration we've had up for most of the holidays.

Richard, a very accomplished boater, was captain for most of our
Indian River cruise as Pam sat up front and enjoyed the view.

These are a few of the marathon runners near the end of the pack.
 Look closely at the guy on the right

 One Saturday our friends Roger and Marcy (I'm sure you feel like you know them well enough to claim them as your friends by now) introduced us to lionfish as a delicacy to eat.  These are very threatening-looking fish which have begun to invade the waters of the southeastern US.  Its spines look (and are) venomous and they have few natural enemies.  But, boy was it a tasty appetizer. Google "lionfish" to see some great images.

A lionfish mural near the restaurant Grills in Port Canaveral

Marcy digs into the lionfish appetizer.  That's
 not a grimace you see but a smile of anticipation.

Winter in Florida means art and craft shows. There's always a risk of an overdose of tackiness and what Wayne calls garage art. This one in Cocoa Village was well stocked with ocean-themed items, many of which were unique and interesting.  Wayne gives it a 3 and Colleen says it deserves a 7. 

Colleen and her dear friend Marla enjoying dinner at Cafe' Margeaux
in Cocoa Village.  The waiter's recitation of the evening's specials
 was so eloquent that it was almost impossible to make a choice of what to eat.

Of course, Marcy and Colleen look forward to
getting together to quilt.  We're working here
on a quilt for her son, Nick.

We went out one evening to a new restaurant in Cocoa Village, Pub Americana, with friends from near our home in North Carolina.  Just our luck, we were seated near a window and had a great view of the Cocoa Christmas parade.

Shrimp tempura - very lightly grilled and with a tasty sauce on the side

Our friends Dave and Nancy

Cocoa's Christmas parade

Wayne and Colleen traveled to Orlando with friends Roger and Marcy to have dinner with high school classmates of Wayne's.  Members of the Oak Ridge classes of 1964 and 1965 met for dinner.  About 20 people attended the event.

We enjoyed a morning with Roger and Marcy at Jetty Park near Port Canaveral.  Port Canaveral is now one of the busiest cruise ports in the world, 45 miles east of Orlando.  Many Disney and other cruise lines depart from here as well as many casino cruises.  The waterway is being widened to almost double what it was originally and we watched barges as they dug out the channel on this day.

The tug boat is towing a barge heavily loaded with sand out into the
 Atlantic Ocean.  We watched this action and lots of fishermen in the Canaveral Barge Canal.

A 700 foot ship coming into Port Canaveral

SOMETHING NEW

Colleen worked all during our first month on the boat on Christmas presents.  Since it's not Christmas yet, she can't show them to you.  Maybe in the next blog.  She did want to show you a new project she's learned how to do.  These little bowls are made by wrapping a thin strip of fabric around and around a clothesline.  Then you coil the wrapped clothesline around and around itself, zigzag stitching it on the sewing machine and shaping it into a bowl as you go.

Easy and fun!

Aren't these cute!  I'm eager to make some more.

REPAIRS and UPGRADES

New TV antenna - the white round thing

Hooking up the wiring for the antenna and removing the antiquated wiring became a chore as usual.
This easy installation took about a day and a half to complete.  Most of the time was spent taking the boat apart just to pull the wiring.

New "mesh" window covers that Wayne made for the front of the boat. 
This fabric blocks 80% of the
 sunlight from entering the cabin.

Another set of window covers that Wayne made.  These are made from
  Sunbrella canvas and block 100% of the sunlight.  We can trade out these and
the mesh covers depending upon how much light we want in the cabin.

This is the propeller shaft access to the stuffing box.  It is in the bottom of a closet where all the shelves had to be removed.  A steady stream of water was leaking around the shaft and into the boat thus necessitating an adjustment to the packing nut. We had never done this so we hired a marine service to do the task.  After two trips to our boat and two and a quarter hours of trying to loosen the lock nut, the technician had an "Ah ha" moment and realized that the nut was left-hand threaded.  The repair then was ten minutes.  The bill was for two hours at $95 per hour. Wayne had spent an hour trying to turn the lock nut the wrong way too!

Our wonderful 8 hp Nissan electric start outboard motor was sold.  Wayne finally realized that its 95 pound weight was too much to handle while stepping into and trying to attach it to the dinghy as the dinghy floated behind Cool Change.
Wayne offered it on Craig's List and sold it for enough $$ to purchase a new 4 hp motor
 that weighs only 54 pounds.

I know that the anchor windlass is in here somewhere.

The anchor windlass quit working in Cocoa after we had some issues with it last winter.  Wayne studied the owner's manual thoroughly and then climbed onto the front berth.  The front berth is like our storage garage so he had to remove a whole lot of stuff first, stick his head in the bow hole you see and then start electrical troubleshooting.  In the end he concluded the control box was not working and he ordered a new one ($150).  When the old controller was dismantled and on the work table, Wayne found that a wire inside the control box had corroded and broken connection.  A 2 inch piece of  jumper wire would have repaired the controller for free!

The dinghy patch held after the third attempt.
 The top tube has held air for over two weeks now. 

The new 15 inch GPS is finally installed.  This machine does
all kinds of electronic navigation things in a multi-function display and
Wayne is like a kid in a candy store playing with it.

I think that I can figure this all out.

Oh.  Here is the wire that I was looking for.

DECEMBER 16 - MOVING on to VERO BEACH

After a month at Cocoa Village Marina it was time to move on.  Our next stop is Vero Beach where we plan to dock at Loggerhead Marina for another month.

Our early morning departure with the sun coming over the horizon

Looking back at Cocoa Village Marina
We'll be back.

Most of today's traffic was sailboats.  We made an easy run
to Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach, fifty-five miles down the
ICW

The Loggerhead Marina loggerhead turtle welcomes us back.

Sunny Florida, You Say?  Guess Again.

We haven't talked much about the weather here this winter because we haven't had much of anything good to say.  We've had lots of high winds and, in our exposed position at Cocoa Village, we were rocking and rolling almost every day we were there.  Both of us seem to have developed a sailor's roll as we walk.  We've also had more rain than any other year and some of the hottest temperatures Florida's experienced in a long time - many days of mid eighties temps and muggy humidity.

These palmetto bushes did not grow naturally with a lean to the east.
On this day the wind was blowing at 15 mph and gusting to 30.  Getting
from the dock to the boat was quite a challenge.

Not much better in terms of the wind in Vero Beach our first few days here.
The waves at the beach were so rough the beach warning flags
were at the high hazard level.

We wish you all a happy Christmas.  Thanks for traveling with us.

Wayne and Colleen