All together now

Last Wednesday Sarah joined us from Chicago for a whirl wind four days of togetherness.  Thursday started out early with a visit from the resident baby manatee and her mother giving us a great send off.  We were headed south down the ICW all the way to Fort Pierce but first stopping at Vero Beach for a night. 

While at Vero we went in to the beach which turned out to be more of an adventure than we planned. While swimming we were surrounded by small bait fish, I felt a little uneasy and told King to come in closer to the shore after seeing to many big shadows in the water.  At about the same time I got an aerie feeling the life guards started blowing their whistles telling everyone to quickly get out of the water.  "SHARKS"!  We all quickly obliged and sat on the shore and watched the sharks stir things up.  As you can imagine we didn't get back in the water that day.

After a fun night in Fort Pierce we headed out to the Atlantic to sail all the way back up north to Port Canaveral. Within the first half hour we were greeted by three dolphins off our bow which reminded us all of the many times sailing with friends in Marina Del Rey. Unfortunately we didn't find much wind the rest of the way.  I was wishing for more wind the whole time but didn't get it.  We were all glad because the next day back in Cocoa Village we got the wind up to 40 mph and the rain followed. We were glad to be back at the dock.

Back in the states

On the 13th of July we picked up our daughter Michelle in Miami. She was returning from Guatemala after a 5 week stint teaching children in Santa Maria.  While there she saw and experience some amazing sites like the Pacaya Volcano where she roasted marshmallows and took a little "natural" sauna. She loved working with all the children now she'll spend some time with us on the boat.

Red Letter Day on Water

I decided to give this blog stuff a try (Cherie writing now.)  Yesterday was our best day on the water when it came to sailing since acquiring Pura Vida.  Everything was working well and we sailed for hours with great wind plus many hands to help tack this big boat. Captain Mike, of course, knows how to maneuver this big boy in the narrow and shallow Indian River like you wouldn't believe.

My sister Sandy and her family are in town that is why we had so many hands on deck (Minus Neil but he was our first guest who stayed on the boat.)  Sandy isn't to keen on motion and dramamine is her best friend when she is on the water but she wanted to come down and check out what the heck we decided to do with this boat business.  They got a room at the Hilton on the beach which was a good thing because the weather turned hot hot hot.  I think that is happening every where right now.  Hey it's summer!  Anyway, Ross and I have enjoyed the beach because I had the boogie boards on the boat so we have been boogie boarding daily and the water is warm, not like the Pacific.

After boogie boarding the first day she arrived we sat that night having dinner on our boat and watched the sunset while Ross played my guitar (Nice night!).  My brother-in-law Doug flew in the next day.  While Michael went to get him  I got things together for our 4th of July celebration on neighbor's Helen and Bob's 50 foot trawler.  About 20 minutes after Michael left the sky turned dark and it got that same look Tropical Storm Debby had shown us a few times.  So I zipped up the windows to the bimini and battened down the hatches, then the wind sped up to about 32 knots and the rain squall came quickly.  Michael and Doug had just pulled up to the under ground parking below the Cocoa Village Marina club house but all they could do was watch the boat as it tossed and turned blowing around and the power even flickered but within a hour it was all over and the sun came back out.  So the 4th celebration went on as planned and we had a great view of the fireworks from the top deck of the 50 foot trawler over the water which was picture perfect.

That brings back to yesterday which was a red letter day of sailing.

Plugged in and running cool :).

Back in Cocoa from our 4 day excursion to Vero Beach. Some call it "velcro" beach because you don't want to leave. Personally we had no trouble leaving and coming back to Cocoa. They have nothing on Cocoa! This was the test run for us unplugged from the dock. Boy did we miss the A/C !!! It was hot, hot,hot down below. Up top where the breeze was it wasn't so bad.
Lesson #1: Don't leave your 30amp cords behind. Without them you can't pull into a marina and plug in to run your A/C:)
Lesson#2: Don't stray to far from the home base in the summer heat.
Lesson#3: We picked the right sailboat design. The center cockpit is fantastic and it allows for the spacious cabin down below.
Mystery#1: What happened to 100 gallons of fresh water that disappeared between Cocoa and Vero Beach on the way down?
Mystery#2: Why do the battery loose over 50% of their power in just over 4hrs of use?
Discovery #1: The work is NEVER done on a boat this size and with sooo many different systems that need constant maintenance.
Discovery#2: The best purchase we made so far is the new bed:)
Fact #1: This boat is going to put us in the poor house a lot sooner that we thought:(.

Anyway Cherie's sister and her family are arriving today for a visit. They are staying in a hotel on Cocoa Beach for the week. Should be a good time. Gotta go pick them up at the airport.

Have a happy 4th of July !!!!.