I Can't Believe We Made It To St. Augustine

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS  We have finally left Fort Lauderdale and made it to St. Augustine, FL.  After quite an experience getting our exhaust system worked on, it was finally finished last week.  On Friday, April 17th, the exhaust was finished and we took the day to get fuel delivered and to Uber to the grocery store to provision for our trip north.  With all of that accomplished, we left Saturday morning bright and early for the Port Everglades Inlet and headed north. 

Keith was chopping at the bit to go fishing the entire time we were in Fort Lauderdale.  I captained the boat while Keith tried his luck fishing in the Gulf Stream as we made our way north to the Lake Worth Inlet in West Palm Beach.  Unfortunately, we did not have much success.  We only caught one Bonita (not an eating fish) all day.  We at least had a nice day off shore and got into the West Palm area and anchored before the storms came through later that afternoon.

Our view off the stern from anchor in West Palm

I was pretty tired by the time we got anchored and seemed to be developing a reaction to the medication I was on for a kidney infection.  I was so close to having taken all the medication I hated to quit without finishing; however that might have been a mistake.  By Sunday I was not 100%, but I drove again for Keith to fish on our way to Ft Pierce, FL.  Sunday's fishing was worse than the day before, as we did not catch a single thing.  By the time we got into the inlet at Fort Pierce, I was on the couch and feeling crappy again. 

Monday came and I was not feeling any better.  Luckily I took the last of the prescription medication  that morning.  Once stopping them, I began to come back around.  So thank goodness that now seems to be behind us.

The trip Monday from Fort Pierce up the Intracoastal Waterway was easy (I was on the couch).  The day was nice and we arrived in the Cocoa Beach area around 3PM.  We got a good anchorage near the western shore as it was predicted to blow a bit as some weather moved through during late afternoon.  The bad weather just missed us and we only saw a tiny drizzle.

View from our anchorage in Cocoa Beach Tuesday morning as we were preparing to pick up anchor

Tuesday was a very pretty day as we moved from Cocoa Beach to New Smyrna Beach.  We anchored at Ponce Inlet at another great little spot.  After a quiet night, we were off again before 7AM toward St. Augustine.

Anchorage in Ponce Inlet

Friends following us Wednesday.  It never gets old seeing these beautiful creatures

An uneventful trip Wednesday got us into St. Augustine by 2PM and settled into the municipal marina in downtown.  Unfortunately, we have more chores to do here.  The day we got in Keith and I spent several hours working on fixing our tank monitoring gauges.  The "Tank Tender" monitors our fuel, water, and waste.  It had been working fine, but decided to crap out during the trip from Fort Lauderdale.  I should say Keith fixed while I stood by handing tools and giving moral support.  Nonetheless it got done (after many curse words and multiple calls to the manufacturer in Washington State).  It is working as good as new again.

Keith is also working on a leak to the power steering coolers while Caterpillar will be doing a 3,000 hour engine service during our stay in St Augustine.  The Caterpillar service was planned.  The steering coolers; not so much.  Fortunately, Keith found the parts he needed online and had them shipped to the marina.  They arrived yesterday and he has already changed out the leaking steering cooler.  He rode his bike 4 miles to the auto parts store so he could change out the power steering filter as well.  All we have left to do is bleed the air from the steering system and we should be good to go on that front.

Finally, Keith had planned to change the oil and filters on the engines and generators while we are here.  There is a lot to do; however, I am pretty confident things will go more smoothly than the work in Fort Lauderdale.  All this maintenance should have us in good shape to enjoy the summer.

So that should bring everyone up to date.  Now that I am feeling better, I will make a bigger effort to get some pictures again for the blog.  I have been very lax in my duties lately.  Stay tuned, we will let everyone know how things are going.  Hoping to get done here in about a week then look for a weather window to make for Charleston, SC next.  It feels good to be on the move again.

An Update from Fort Lauderdale

I must apologize for not updating the blog sooner; however I have been under the weather lately.  Not Coronavirus, but I sure was thrown under the bus for a bit.  Being a bit concerned to go to a minute clinic here in Fort Lauderdale with all this Covid-19 stuff, I probably ended up worse off than normally.  Thank goodness for MDs in the family and digital prescriptions.   I am feeling back to normal now and so here comes the next installment.

Keith and I are still in Fort Lauderdale having arrived here from the Bahamas on March 14th.  This was where we had arranged to have a new exhaust system fabricated and installed on both engines.  As is always the case, our repair people have been total screw-ups.  The job was to be finished by April 3rd (3 weeks - agreed to in writing) and instead we may be lucky if it is done this week (April 17th).  We understand that things are not normal these days, but they have been working throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.  However, if all of their jobs have gone like ours, no wonder things are so late.  None of the pieces they have fabricated have fit and they are having to re-manufacture all the components.  Makes you wonder how these people call themselves "experts".  A tape-measure and some planning might have been helpful and less expensive.

Assuming everything gets put back together in the engine room at their most recently projected finish date (this is a big assumption), we might be on the move north by end of this week.  The plan is to make our way to St. Augustine, where there is a little more service work to have done (I hate to think about more work and how this could get screwed up).  Nonetheless that is the plan. 

It probably is no big deal that we are later moving north than we had planned.  Going to Canada for this summer looks like it is unlikely to happen since the border is closed.  Instead we hope to eventually make our way back into NC and out to Ocracoke on the Outer Banks.  We will probably spend the summer and fall there.  Right now Ocracoke is closed to non-residents, but hopefully they will re-open in several weeks. 

I do not have any pictures as I have only been off the boat twice to go for groceries since being here.  Hopefully once we start moving again I can knock the cobwebs off the camera and get some things posted.  Keith and I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.  Remember things may be tough, but this too shall pass.