November 5, 2019
Ft. Pierce, FL 
27.28.029 N
80.10.591 W


This morning came as early as the previous one with a loud smash followed by a second and third at one end of the boat, then more at the other end before it seemed to settle down.  Today, we discovered that there may be other culprits involved; pelicans diving for fish taking shelter under the boat.  At this point I’m not sure who’s crashing into the boat, the fish or the pelicans!  They seem to have a strategy too!  A couple aces dive bomb the back of the boat while the rest of the squadron simultaneously attack from the front.  The poor fish don’t have a chance!   Still, couldn’t they start their war a little later in the morning and be a bit more stealthy in the process?  Instead they start at the crack of dawn with the loudest crash possible right next to my pillow! 


Doesn’t matter, we needed to be up early today in any event as we were taking Gerry and Nicky to the airport for their last visit to Gerry’s step-mom in Wisconsin.  They were none too happy that the temps in Chicago were predicted to be in the 30’s and they only have tropical clothing to wear.  They decided to layer as best they could and take their foul weather jackets as the final layer.   We found it humorous when they arrived and sent us a photo of their rental car equipped with a brush for wiping snow from the windshield with the caption “what’s this?” 


With the 4 hour transit back and forth to the airport, it pretty much took up the better part of the day, however, we did find time to visit the largest West Marine in Florida just to see if there was anything we couldn’t possibly live without.  Dale found a light to replace the one burned out in the compass and I found a couple of Velcro wraps for our electrical cords to keep them from tangling when stored. 


When we returned to the boat, we were just in time to watch a 50+ foot power boat pulling into the slip behind Gerry.  Opal is 52’, so when it comes time to get underway, it may be a challenge to maneuver his single engine, full keel, around quick enough to avoid catastrophe.  We walked to the end of the dock, where we are tied, stopping occasionally to chat briefly with those on their boats before boarding ours to attack the next project.  Remember?  Fixing your boat in exotic places! 


On our trip down the ICW, we had noticed that our ice maker, although it was freezing beautifully, wasn’t making ice cubes.  Thinking that it just needed to be primed, (he’s really showing his age here) Dale added water to the ice cube tray.  Nope, that wasn’t it.  So we continued by putting containers of water in the storage bin and making ice that way. 


The Tweaker in Chief was not happy with this arrangement, so today he tore it apart.  I was under the impression that we had forgotten to turn on some switch (because we had shut this boat down completely when we thought a hurricane was on our doorstep) but no, he found a burned out gizmo (I’m sure he told me what it was but I only remember that it sounded like it belonged on a spaceship) and proceeded to contact the manufacturer, for the name of the local distributer, to speak with someone in the technical department, to learn if he could order a replacement part.  The technicians had already left for the day, so this will be a continuing saga.  

In the meantime, all of our safety gear, which just happens to be stored in the same closet, is now on the settee in the salon with pieces and parts, manuals and notes, strewn across the table.  I was just starting to get the salon settled so that more than one person could actually sit at the table while eating. 


I have to keep reminding myself that I wouldn’t be on this adventure, if I didn’t have full confidence that Dale could fix just about everything on the boat, so I’ll be quiet while he’s working, and he can sit on one corner of a stool and I’ll sit on the other.