Back to Harbortown

We had a great summer back in Minnesota. Along with seeing friends and family and enjoying our home, we did some really fun "bucketlist" stuff.  Saw the tall ships come into Duluth, went hot air ballooning (Liz only), paddleboarded, and rode on Segways.  One of our highlights was getting to play Harbor Host to Fred and Linda aboard their Great Harbor 37, Young America.  Not too many cruising boats make their way all the way up the Mississippi, so we were delighted that they did.  It was great to see them again and catch up on all their latest adventures.  Here's Young America cruising by our house on their way back downstream. 

 We got out in our 15' Boston Whaler a few times.  Here is our son Dan and his lovely dog, Aga, enjoying a perfect Minnesota summer day.

 Of course, there was plenty of boat projects along with home maintenence and gardening to do.We spent alot of time on our deck, watching the water, barges, tow boats and pleasure craft go by. 

 In October it was time to return to Shingebiss with van packed again to the roof ... this time we had to take the middle seats out to fit it all.  Stopped in Tennesee to see Jack and Nan and caught up with Brent and Susan at Green Turtle Bay.  Susan is an artist, she painted us a picture of our Roughwater last winter.  Just had to share this painting she did of abandoned boats in Georgetown, SC.  It's really amazing in person.

The boat was stored at Glades Boat Storage on the Okechobee Waterway.  Glades is not a marina, it is a boatyard and there is a difference.  Snowbirds store their boats for the summer, then have them moved into the DIY yard to get them ready for launching.  Steve sanded and painted new antifouling paint on the bottom.  Notice the old Chris Craft next to us. It was very hot, we spent half the day working, and the other half recovering. 

They allow you to live aboard in the yard, climbing up a 10' ladder to get on and off, with one 110v cord to run frig, and a few essentials.  There are some boaters there who have been building and/or restoring boats while living there for months to years.  Yikes !!  Here is Dirk, a refinishing expert and professional captain showing me how to sand the rust off a stainless steel strip on the hull of the boat.  Loaded with rust, I learned a new skill and it looks great now. 

 After a week in the yard, even Lucy was gazing at the waterway, wanting to get going.

 We got launched early one morning.  There's only a dock for a couple boats, so most folks fire it up and go.  We had a two day journey upstream on the Calusahatchee River, across Lake Okeechobee, downstream on the St. Lucie River, and north on the Atlantic Intracoastal to our temporary home in Fort Pierce. 

 

 We spent one night at Indiantown Marina, plugged into full power (and air conditioning).  It was a lovely cruise until we exited the St. Lucie Lock the next day and suddenly lost power.  For almost an hour, Steve tried everything he could think of to get us going again.  This Osprey put up a squawk as we drifted into his shoreline.

 This had NEVER happened with our old Mainship so I was trying not to "awfulize" when suddenly she started up again.  We were limping along, as she just wasn't sounding right, so we pulled into the fuel dock at American Marine to do more thinking and trouble shooting.  Steve had our fuel needs calculated to come into Harbortown almost empty because the biggest project this winter is to replace the fuel tanks.  The dipstick gauge was showing we had at least 40 gallons left, but it sure seemed to be out of fuel .... and oh, the generator wouldn't run either, same symptoms.  So we took on 30 gallons of diesel and voila !!!   All is well !!!  The boat gods were with us as we broke down below the lock rather than above, and then managed to actually get to that fuel dock without a tow.  Better late than never, we pulled into our new slip at Harbortown.  Our friend, Nigel, was here to meet us, he was the first person we met here last year, but most of the other snowbirds haven't arrived yet.  Last winter, Nigel and his first mate, Elizabeth, sailed their 41' sailboat all the way to Antigua/St. Kitts, so he's got plenty of sea stories to share.

The next day Nigel loaned us his van and we drove 2 hours back to the Glades to get our van.  We had been on the go since we left MN so took a couple of days to regroup and rest up.  Last night we took a swim in the pool, went up to the bar/restaurant to listen to steel drum musician and strolled the docks.  Today, I blogged and Steve started his first project, installing the refrigerator cabinet that he built back in MN.  There won't be any cruising news for a while, but I'll blog each week on what we've been up to as we continue "livin' the dream".