Up the ICW

We carried on up the ICW for several days, basically driving during the day, and pulling over in the early evening to make some dinner and enjoy a peaceful evening at anchor.

An issue with our dinghy came up.  During Hurricane Irma one of the davit hooks we use to pull the dinghy up on the back of the boat came loose.  Jeff had epoxied it back on and it lasted for three years, but we noticed it was coming loose again.  We currently had the dinghy up on its davits but we knew that if we put it down to use we may not get it up again until we could purchase the required two-part epoxy kit and complete the repair.

So without a dinghy to get to shore for supplies, we were glad to arrive in West Palm Beach.  We pulled Gran Vida up to the free public dock so I could get to the store for a few groceries, very grateful for that well-timed convenience.  Jeff filled the water tanks, organized and took out days worth of garbage.  From there we spent the next few days just driving and anchoring somewhere off the ICW at night to sleep.

I read about an anchorage close to Merritt Island where you could dinghy to shore, tie up to the small docks at a bait shop and walk a couple of blocks to a West Marine.  Bingo!  Our epoxy kit could be purchased! We put the dinghy down and made our way there only to be frustrated as they were out of stock.  Ugh!  Now we couldn't get the dinghy back up and would be towing it from here on until we could find what we needed for the repair.  That meant we would be need to be taking it easy with the dinghy under tow and keep the rpms down...  except, oh yeah, the tachometer had just recently frozen up.  Yikes. Enough already!  We'd have to judge the rpms by the sound of the engine.  Things just didn't seems to be going well.

They were predicting a storm one night.  Looks like it's coming!

And here it is!  Wash all that nasty salt off our boat!

The other issue we had was that nasty exhaust leak that Jeff  had so cleverly McGyvered together in the Bahamas was coming apart.  We had the proper clamp on order for that repair and had arranged to have it delivered to a marina in Daytona Beach.

Also, as we were travelling we noticed that we were having water pressure problems in the faucets.  On investigation Jeff found that our hot water heater had rusted out the bottom and was in need of repair.  So we ordered a new one to be delivered to the same marina in Daytona.

It was one thing after the other and I was aware that all of these mechanical problems were falling squarely on Jeff's shoulders.  Mechanics are his department.

I scoured the reviews until I found a marina that had a hot tub, figuring my hard working captain really needed to soak that sciatic leg which was bothering him.  With parts scheduled for delivery, hot tub lined up, epoxy repair kit for the dinghy found and on hold up the road in Jacksonville to be purchased in a few days...  things were looking up!

We were almost at our marina when the oil pressure suddenly dropped.  Wha?!  Why?  I slowed right up and Jeff went below to feed oil to the monster. We limped into our fancy marina, tied up and shut the engine down quickly. We saw that we were leaving a bit of an oil slick on the water.  Not good.  Not good at all.  Something was very wrong.  We parked right in front of the pool and hot tub.  We would investigate and deal with it, but later.  Our exasperation had to be dealt with first.

My entrance wassns't quite as spectacular

We spent a glorious few hours sitting by the pool and then just relaxing in the hottub, until a local guy joined us and decided he wanted to sing the praises of the Trump administration.  We kept our cool and tried to keep our opinions to ourselves.  When he kept at it in a loud, brash manner and kept asking for our opinions as Canadians we tentatively expressed a few and politely pointed out gaps in his logic/facts (Trump has apparently made him lots of money in the stock market these past ten years and Obama was bad for the economy, which of course doesn't make sense... blah blah etc. etc.).  It didn't go well and he soon stomped off and hung a giant Trump support flag from the back of his boat.  We really were trying to have a civil adult conversation and were being conscious of keeping our opinions subdued.

A dinner out and a quiet evening was spent on the boat.

Then, as we were turning in for the night, I realized I had lost my phone/wallet.

Our moods sunk even lower.

The next morning, after a sleepless night worrying about where I had left my phone/wallet, I located it at last night's restaurant (cards and cash in tact!) while Jeff checked the engine.  The new problem was bigger than he thought.  With the engine running we were spewing oil out of somewhere.  But where?  We couldn't operate the boat like that.  A large knot formed firmly in the pit of my stomach.  This could be serious.

A bit of research, a few phone calls and we had a mechanic lined up a mile down the channel and tow boat U.S. coming to tow us there, with our tails between our legs.

Getting towed in "on the hip"

The timing was all wrong but Gran Vida was demanding a maintenance pit stop.  We were towed in on a Saturday morning with a promise that someone would be by to look on our boat on Monday.

With the weekend to fill we decided to rent a car and drive to Fort Myers for a much need moral support visit with friends and to pick up our truck.  If we were going to be stuck in Daytona Beach, at least we'd have wheels.