SUMMER BREEZE: Week of March 18th, Maintenance and Cold Weather, Fort Pierce, FL

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The rain, wind and cold set in for south FL this week. Bummer! At least there isn't pollen or at least not too much of it. So far we are good there! As it is a quiet week, it is a good time to schedule some of the major maintenance projects and get some painting done!

Bella does not look happy on our face time call. She actually looks worried! Or mad?

Today is a 1 year anniversary of my last hair dye! One more cut to get the bits of bleached ends from my top layers. The rest is all grown out! The 1st 6 months were hard and I hated the transition but I am so glad it is almost done and am happy with it now. Now, about those wrinkles...

With the cold front and rain that came through this week, I had time for some painting.

This is Lucy. The snowy egret I had photographed last week here in the marina. I named her that because we are so very close to Port St Lucie.

Major maintenance project # 1. Have the water maker serviced! The membranes definitely needed to be changed out (9 years old) and our service guy and Bruce spent 2 mornings down in the ER doing the work. It is now all ready for us to be able to make our own good water once we go to the Bahamas.

Major maintenance project #2. Polish fuel and clean the tanks. Now I personally classify both these projects in the same category as buying new tires. Hate to spend the money but needs to be done, so bring out the fuel service guys. They were a bit dirty but nothing too crazy bad but did have quite a bit of water in the fuel, from condensation, we think.

This photo is how they flush the tanks and circulate the fuel at high volume to stir up the tanks and clean the fuel.

We enjoyed another great meal at a Fort Pierce Thai restaurant and as we were walking home, we hear music. We had heard of Rizzo's which is a coffee shop/tobacco/wine bar by day but at night, the small back yard courtyard turns into a music event. This night was open mic and several bands were rotating through. The 2 we listened to were from Boone NC and were definitely not our type of music but it was fun listening to a bit of it and enjoying a glass of wine. It was so loud that we resorted to texting each other to talk.

And if you dare to listen to the 5-6 seconds, these guys are fun. We plan on going back for jazz night this weekend. Drum circle is Thursday and Reggae is Friday.

Project #3: Diver down to scrape our bottom. Not a major project but one that needs to be done routinely. It's been at least 7 weeks since it was done at home, which is longer than we normally go. This guy has quite the set up.

Project #4. New docking lines! Ok, another one in the category of buying tires. They are bit larger diameter than our other old ones but most importantly, they are new and makes Bruce happy.

Major maintenance project #5: Took down, purchased and installed new cable and doubled the block purchase ratio to unload the winch for the dinghy davit. Bruce has been worried that the set up was getting old and perhaps not as safe as it should be. It looked fine to me but again, it's new and shiny and makes him happy. (Him making sure we are safe makes me happy)

Other projects. Purchased and installed a new fan and a pillow top mattress cover in the v-berth (guest room).

Attempting to replace the main cabin door lock and door handle. First attempt, not successful so ordered another one. Still working on that on that one today with and so far, so good.

By the end of the week, the weather is much nicer as in less windy and much warmer. It was nice enough to get all the sunscreens washed before enjoying the music and food at the Sandy Toes Festival just a block away from us. I bought an orchid and a couple more air plants.