“Better late than never;” “If not now, when?” “Now or Never!” The Fort Pierce Christmas Boat Parade finally took place this weekend. Boats lit up like Las Vegas, decorated with Santa Clauses on surf boards, and sporting sound systems designed for communication with lunar stations paraded past the dock. Every kind of boat was represented from small fishing skiffs to tug boats to sailboats whose masts provided the perfect support for strings of lights. The parade was a good excuse for a waterfront party, as if an excuse were ever needed. We accompanied some of the Dock 6 Bubba and Bubbette club to Cracker Boy Boatworks where we joined Rich and Cindy on “s/v Shapa-ay” (gateway to the stars) and about 30 other people for smoked ham, beer-soaked brats and an assortment of other dishes. You can have your white Christmas; palm trees, warm breezes and beautifully decorated boats almost turned this Scrooge into a believer.

A couple of nights prior to the parade, we took in the “son et lumière” at the waterfront park. Multi-colored lights affixed to every surface were synched to Christmas music. The park was filled with people and children chased each other with squeals of delight. The whole scene, illuminated as it was with the lights and surrounded by music was truly magical. I must say, Fort Pierce knows how to do Christmas.

Yesterday was Sunday—all you can eat champagne brunch at Mangrove Mattie’s. We heard that they had “all you can eat” oysters on the half shell. We knew we could get our money’s worth; we can put away a lot of raw oysters. Five and a half dozen each is our record, but we know we can do better! So we figured we’d work on a new record. Wow! What a brunch buffet; salads, lox with capers, a whole smoked salmon, roast beef, salmon and grouper poached in cream sauce, raw oysters, steamed mussels, pastries, waffles, omelettes cooked to order. All of this was served with bottomless glasses of champagne (or Mimosas if you are inclined to desecrate a perfectly good glass of champagne with orange juice!). The shear variety of food soon enticed us to abandon our search for a new record and we stopped after two dozen each.

The “Spartite” is finally poured around the mast where it passes through the deck. I think it will finally solve the problem of leaks and will definitely keep the mast in place. The next project will be to install a new roller furler and then adjust all the stays. The work will be finished before Christmas and we can be on our way. However, we will stay until after Christmas in Fort Pierce where we have friends.

The Conga Line

Alas. A rained out boat parade. But never fear! There is another Saturday – next!!! It’s been raining all day. The mast is running water, big time. But my trusty Boy Scout read somewhere, sometime about such a situation (maybe not a mast) whereby you tie a line around the upright and leave a long end – the line catches the leaks and the water runs down the line into a bucket!!! Ah. Knew there was a reason I’ve kept him around for 38 years!!

Just talked to our friends, Jim & ‘conga’-Ellie, s/v FinniRish, and they are worn out!! 14 bridges from here to where they are 13 miles north of Las Olas. They are finished with bridges. But they have 6 more to go tomorrow! A stiff gin and tonic is helping unwind the tensions of the day! Must explain the “conga” . . . the awful thing about this otherwise really nice marina is the finger piers. Ours is only about 10 -12 feet long and starts out at the dock at maybe 2 ½ feet wide and narrows down to maybe 2 feet! And it is wobbly!! I am petrified of walking those few feet!! Ellie suggested going behind Peter (whom it doesn’t bother in the least – same with Jim) and hanging on to him. It works!! The other night we went to their boat for night caps and Ellie said “Ok, let’s form the conga line!” So we did!!! I am getting better and not gripping too hard – no wedgies!



Today is Monday and we have seen the sun all day!!! Our friend, Bill, on s/v Memento Mori from, you guessed it, Dock 6 arrived today! And according to observers, his single-handed docking was flawless. Another Dock 6 reunion (say, “dock party”) is in the works!!!

We are tied up in front of the Harbor Cove Restaurant--quiet by day but increasingly animated as the colorful stools fill up with patrons at the bar for happy hour.

Reunion

The Dock 6 Bubba and Bubbette reunion has happened. Several of us Dock 6ers gathered at the pavilion at Harbortown to catch up on everything important and everything trivial. It was good to see Dave and Lori, Don and Ann and Ray and Sandy. Dan and Nancy whose boat “s/v Maja” spent some time on Dock 6 a couple of years ago, joined us.

While we all enjoyed our sundowners and getting together again, we were joined by Gray, a short guy with a stylishly stubby kind of beard and a ten gallon straw hat properly curved down fore and aft. His shirt was unbuttoned to several inches below his Adam’s apple and grey, curly hair showed through. Gray was raised on a boat by his mother and father from Crossville, TN. He regrets that he cannot remember if his father ever put his arms around him. He describes himself as a coward. However, he related an episode from his high school days that reveals a hidden courage in his character. It seems that there was a boy in the school, Beau Gay by name. Poor Beau was the object of ridicule and bullying. One day, the bullies were demanding that Beau lie in the dirt and eat grass. Gray approached the bullies and said, “Mah name’s Gray. Ah live on a boat. You leave this boy alone or Ah’ll whup yer ass!” He never had to “whup their ass” and they never bothered Beau again.






Then, a couple of nights later, we all gathered at 12A Buoy for a fine supper. We were joined by Jim and Ellie whose boat “s/v FinniRish” spent time on Dock 5 this year. Then there were Chuck and Renee, “s/v Second Wind.” We met Chuck and Renee at the City Marina when we first landed at Ft Pierce. Chuck rushed over to greet us and virtually thrust his car keys into our hands saying, “Borrow it anytime.”



The bad news is that we will be in Ft Pierce for a while. The good news is that we could be stuck in worse places. The roller furler foil on our forestay is kinked at a joint indicating that the joining sleeve is broken there. All of our stays and shrouds are too loose. This is not a result of the problem with the mast. The shrouds are actually tighter now than before. However, I’ve always suspected that they were too loose. In examining the problem with the foil, the rigger said that everything was too loose. The fix will involve shortening all the stays. In doing so, the attachments will have to be replaced and the roller furler will have to be dismantled. In question is the availability of parts to repair the furler. They may have to come from Sweden or they may not even be available! Stay tuned for later developments.

Beethoven, step aside!

Sunday. Harbortown Marina.
Ahhhh. . . back on the water
It is so very nice to be back on the water.
The shiny new maststep that Joey at Riverside Marine made fit perfectly. And, with the help of a couple fellow sailors, the re-masting went flawlessly. A halyard slapping on the mast is an annoying noise. But it was music to our ears because it meant that our mast was back where it belongs and not lying across sawhorses!!! Beethoven, step aside!

Saturday morning we “splashed” at about 10:30 and by 11 were safely snug in a slip here at Harbortown Marina. A word about our stay “on the hard”. The yard name is Riverside Marina. It is huge. It is a family run do it yourself yard: Sally, mom, runs the office, Jason, son, runs the all important travel lift (that takes boats out of the water and ‘splashes’ them back in), Joey, son, is a welder. All in all really nice, helpful people. A yard to recommend in this area.

Yesterday was mainly spent just enjoying being here and on the water. We found 3 boats from our Brunswick Dock #6. Two will spend the winter here the third is as yet undecided. I’m sure a Dock 6 reunion is in our future! We went to the onsite restaurant for supper. We shared. The crab stuffed artichokes had too much breading but the artichokes were good. And the hamburger was good. This afternoon Ray and Sandy (dock 6ers) will pick us up and we will go to the Christmas parade in town. Should be fun.

We will need a couple of days to put things back in order. We have to tighten all the stays, put the boom back on the mast, hoist the sails and reinstall the radar. Then, we have to wait for decent weather for our trip down to Ft Lauderdale.

Alas. What a difference a day makes. Problems – big time! The forestay and shrouds all need to be shortened. Aggg. The rigger will be back this afternoon to take measurements etc.

On the Hard Again!

I guess Willie Nelson would say, “On the hard again.” The boat is not gently swaying with the currents and the wind just whistles and howls through the rigging—well not so tonight since the rigging is on the ground! We left Fort Pierce City Marina last Wednesday for Riverside Boatyard expecting to have the mast pulled on Friday. Riverside is a huge boat yard. There are easily 2 or 3 hundred boats here in various states of repair and disrepair.

At any rate, we expected to have the mast pulled on Friday after Thanksgiving. Then we learned that we could have it pulled on Monday or Tuesday. There were two or three other boats whose owners wanted to pull or restep their masts and there is economy in numbers. Economy only goes so far when you have to pay for each day you sit on the jackstands even when no work is being done. So, this AM, we contracted for a crane and the mast was pulled. It was a really painless operation completed in a matter of 30 minutes.

The unwelcome surprise came when Peter removed the original mast step and found it to be unsalvageable. So now, the welding shop is fabricating a new step, adding 3 ½ inches to its height to compensate for the corroded part of the mast that Peter cut off. While the mast is on the ground, Peter will move the radar further aloft in order to add track to the front of the mast so we can store the whisker pole on the mast. This is for Claudia’s comfort and pleasure when “scampering” along the sidedeck uncluttered by the likes of a whisker pole. Then, he will replace the incandescent steaming light with LED and maybe replace the coax for the VHF with heavier coax.





The mast step



The bottom of the mast

We spent a somewhat uneventful Thanksgiving Day. Friends on board “Second Wind,” we met them at the City Marina, volunteered at a mission and brought us leftover turkey and fixings from the meal that was served there. Mostly we spent the day preparing to have the mast pulled; removing the mainsail, the lazy jacks, binding all the halyards to the mast, disconnecting wires, etc.
Before we left the City Marina, we had a night visitor, an osprey that was completely unfazed by the fake snake dangling from the bow pulpit of the boat next to ours. The osprey was equally unfazed by the flash of our camera and remained perched for well over an hour. The next day, he had lighted atop our mast and sat there for quite some time. Later, we saw him with a fish in his talons.

Yesterday, Peter took a walk from Riverside to Harbourtown Marina. There is a big citrus shipper about a quarter of a mile from the boatyard. If one were so inclined, he could help himself to Indian River grapefruits off a semi trailer. Then, the road is lined with bushes bearing gourmet pink peppercorns. Finally and of ultimate importance, about a half a mile away is a store that sells that all important commodity—RUM.

Exotic Flowers and Not So Elegant Mussels

Finally, the wind has abated. For thirty-six hours it howled in the rigging and the dock lines creaked and the boat rocked in the slip. By afternoon, the gray skies of morning and occasional drizzles gave way to bright sunshine and warmer temps. We took in the famous Ft Pierce farmers’ market. We really don’t need any provisions but it is fun to see what other things are being sold—crafts and the like. The market seems to have greatly expanded since last December when we were here. We took a fancy to a wind chime on board one of the boats in the marina. The skipper told us he got it at the farmers’ market. So, we looked up the vendor, a really nice guy named Jeff. His wind chimes are made of bits of stained glass, shells and glass beads. Hanging from Now or Never’s bimini frame is a tinkling wind chime of cobalt blue glass.
A bit further on, we came across a vendor who specializes in bromeliads and exotic flowers. We saw an air plant that we just had to have. A ball of greenery with a few patches of red beginning to show. We hung it from the dodger frame.
When we were here last March, we had a delightful meal at Yellowtail Grill—Thai Ginger Mussels, an interesting variation on the classic Moules Marinières and Ahi tuna with a wasabi cream sauce. We have been looking forward to a repeat performance. Unfortunately it was not to be. The mussels were not up to the standard that we expected and the tuna, while good, was not what it should have been. The bottle of Australian Pinot Grigio, however, was very good and we still had a pleasant evening out.

We’ve decided to repair the mast step here in Ft Pierce rather than risk the 17 or 18 hour trip down the coast with the problem. We expect to hear from the boatyard on Monday or Tuesday to schedule a haulout or a slip where we will await the haulout. It looks like we will spend Thanksgiving in Ft Pierce. Actually, the weather does not look good for sailing down the coast anyway, so maybe things will work out well.

Peacocks and Pelicans

After fifty hours and 33 minutes the first leg of our winter trip is complete. We left Brunswick on Saturday, Nov 12 at 9AM. We passed under the Sidney Lanier Bridge, cruised past St Simons light house and three hours later we were in the Atlantic and headed south—the two of us and a guest. Randy, a fellow sailor from Dock 6 joined us for the trip. He was a big help, a great crew member and fun to have on board. We spent two moonlit nights on the ocean and witnessed two glorious and very welcome sunrises. Monday afternoon, we pulled into Ft Pierce inlet with great trepidation. The inlet can be the “inlet from Hell” with huge, erratic waves that toss the boat about like a cork, especially on a falling tide. As it was, we approached the inlet 3 hours into a falling tide! It wasn’t planned that way; we were supposed to arrive before high tide but the wind just wasn’t cooperative. Luck was with us and our worries were for naught, the inlet was calm.
The only excitement during the trip occurred sometime Monday morning. Passing Cape Canaveral, we heard a heavy thud but couldn’t identify its source. We were sailing close-hauled in about 12 knots of wind and the rig was loaded. Peter noticed that the shrouds on the leeward side were pretty loose but attributed that to the fact that they were not really doing any work. Later, when he went below, he noticed that the base of the mast must have shifted since a bilge cover had been displaced. The mast was becoming unstepped! Furl the ginny and douse the main! Get the load off the mast!
Thankfully the seas were kind and didn’t toss us about too much, sparing any further stress on the mast. The problem was caused by galvanic corrosion between the aluminum mast and the steel mast step. We’d been monitoring the problem for quite some time but didn’t realize that it had progressed so far. So, next stop, Playboy Marine in Ft Lauderdale where we will have the stick pulled and repairs done.
Meanwhile, here we sit in Ft Pierce waiting for a weather window and watching pelicans dive for their dinner. Yesterday, Randy rented a car and chauffeured us from errand to errand. Once, all traffic on Orange Avenue came to a standstill in order to allow a peacock cross the road.