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| Choices, Choices, Choices |
Leg 2, Day 7
Jacksonville, FL to Vero Beach, FL : Ice Cream! Leg 2 Complete
(12APR11)
Today is testing day … will the buzzer sound or not? With last nights strong winds, I ended up letting out 80 feet of chain, so today's anchor removal was more of a work out than usual. We had anchored in 6.5 feet of water.
As we took off, we held our breath and waited. No Sounds! I enjoyed the morning coffee while Val got out KJ and Dy's school books. 30 minutes into reading a story about Nan's Cat that sat on the mat, BUZZ!!! The horrendous, hideous, grotesque, vulgar sounding ominous tone of death started again. The glances to one another were thrown and Val got back on the phone, this time to a Honda dealership.
While they talked, I decided “F-It”, and rather than dropping the RPM, if I'm going to hear the damn thing, I'm going to throttle up and get us to Vero Beach Marina sooner rather than later. It was 25 miles away.
I pushed the throttle up to 4500 RPM, we hit 6.5 knots, and we buzzed for 3 hours straight! I envisioned all sorts of wonderful punishments I would have for the buzzer.
During our travels to Vero Beach, we did have some good winds along the way that came across the beam, so we put up the main sail and got an additional 0.5 knots. It was nice to be sailing some, even if it was motor sailing.
As we approached Vero Beach Marina we encountered the largest percentage of rude powerboaters we had since starting the journey down the ICW. These guys would blast past and create enormous wakes for us. I will also note that nearly all of them fit the profile of Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack, except they weren't funny … just assholes.
Docking was a bit tricky as the winds were blowing pretty good. We had heard over the radio that there was a chance of thunderstorms, so the winds were probably at the head of that system. I slowly walked the boat in, and the dock line handler from the marina told me that I had done better than most (extra $1 tip for that comment!) and that they've had a few folks hit really hard today.
Docked safely now, our first order of business was Ice Cream! Thank you Virtual Crew Members!
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| Dy enjoying chocolate chip |
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| KJ enjoying "Superman" flavored ice cream |
We will be here about a week; Val's dad will be coming out for a few days.
While we are in Vero Beach, Val will be replacing the main engine's thermostat. (one possible cause of the buzzer with no lights is that there is a very small piece of trash in the thermostat... just enough to trigger the buzzer but not the light …. this is what the mechanic and the Honda dealership shared).
Time to relax and explore Vero Beach.
