Our anenometor clocked 20-knot winds almost directly on our nose at anchor in Melbourne, Florida.

We’re not too keen on sailing or even motoring into strong winds, so we waited a day in Melbourne. 

Lotus blossom tile mosiac Maryann amde and gave is for good boat karma, a symbol of new beginnings. It’s the first piece of artwork that went up on s/v Gallivant. Thanks, Maryann!

Productively, Wayne sorted through all the parts Don and Maryann left aboard for maintainance, and tracked what we need to add to our collection before we leave the US until May.

Even after arriving in Vero this afternoon, Wayne can’t resist digging into his to-do list. Here’s he’s troublshooting how well our shower sump-pump works. “Don’t use more than 5 gallons,” he insists.

My tasks: 

Whittling down my stuff so our v-berth is a guest cabin instead of a storage area. . . 

>Paperwork—finally admitting, I really no longer need my Hewlett-Packard performance reviews ending in 2005 and nor are my Birkman test results relevant anymore either.

>Photos—more of a sort, continued shedding of my past life and yet another promise to scan and discard more photos.

I also worked getting all my tax data together, making sure I capture all the deductions for my freelance writing and editing work.

Combined, these tasks score only slightly below getting a colonoscopy, a root canal or a pap test in my list of favorite things to do.

This to-do list keeps growing. Spreadsheet time!

Meanwhile, our initial stream-of-consciousness list quickly took on amoeba-like proportions, doing its best to burst beyond a full notebook page. “You gotta divvy that out by type of store were going to.” Yeah, spreadsheets.

Our Prius stuff from when we returned from Florida in May 2019. This time the RV was our moving storage unit, so the Prius got off easy. I bought the car in 2017 for $10,800 with 117K miles and sold it for $4,000 with 162K miles. I will miss it. It averaged over 50 MPG and was trouble-free.

I sold my beloved Prius Friday, February 5th to a Craigslist buyer I thought would see it in the morning and didn’t show up until 1 pm. By the time the whole process was done, it was after 4 pm before I returned to the boat. Since I completed my second shingles vaccination the night before, I was dragging after a relatively sleepless night from its side-effects. That also delayed our departure  from NAS JAX by a day. Our buyer graciously gave me a ride to the bank to cash her cashier’s check for my car, and back to the Naval Base where our boat was docked.

Our initial plan to get our stuff done was to go to Stuart or nearby Manatee Pocket, where we could anchor for free and some friends of ours volunteered to play chauffer. But Stuart area’s relatively shallow anchorages were a bit of a challenge for our 5’10” draft; we rubbed the belly of our smaller 4’3″ Pearson in prior years.

After spending 3 months in Fort Pierce, we liked the idea of staying there. but our choices were between relatively unprotected anchorages, strong currents or a marina at $100/night.

Instead, today we left Melbourne in pouring rain and lightning storms to for Vero’s Municipal Marina.

Wayne descends off the back of our transom to bail the rainwater-filled dinghy we trailed before we take off for Vero.

My Macintosh Powerbook in our oven to protect it in the lightning storm. After the lightning storm I took it out, lit the oven and baked us biscuits while underway.

Once here, Vero’s over-full marina accomodated us by allowing us to raft up with another boat to share a mooring ball for $20/night+tax. We’re hoping to check off the critical items on our extensive list in the next three days here, and invite our friends from Sunnier Palms to visit (about a 1/2 hour drive away and a short, sheltered dinghy ride to our boat).

From Vero, it’s off to Miami once the southerly winds die off enough for us to head south to Miami, await the results of our COVID test as required from Bahamas Customs and Immigration and the right weather, then make 40 mile jump from Miami to Bimini in the Bahamas. 

We’re getting closer—really! It just doesn’t seem that much like it yet. Soon, though. We are so looking forward to clear waters and shorter to-to lists.

Location Location

We’re currently on a ball at Vero Municipal Marina. I’ll post a better photo of our boat, rafted to another sailboat to share a mooring ball.

Vero Beach municipal Marina, 27 39.445N 80 22.276W.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Photo credit: Jamie Street, Unsplash.

We’re taking a raincheck on our celebration, though we wish you a most excellent Valentine’s Day today or whenever you celebrate it.