It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd better get you all caught up on what we've been doing. Most days we're still doing work on this or that around the boat, but also taking some time to relax.
After Erika was good and gone we moved back over to the mooring ball. We were there two or three days and then did the math and realized it would be less expensive to pay the monthly rate at the transient dock. What pushed it that way was the heat that made it pretty much mandatory to run the generator about 20 hours a day so we had air conditioning. Also factored in was our desire to stay in St Pete for at least a month to let hurricane season be mostly over. It is rare for a hurricane to hit here so it seems like a good place to be. Not to mention all the shops, bars and restaurants within walking distance.
Also, the marina is a bit like Waterford Harbor Marina East. Besides us on Good Morning Vietnam, Claire and Ted on Another Life, and our new friends Kelly and Nancy on Dance Aweigh, we have all at one time resided at Waterford Harbor. Also in the "it's a small world" category, this morning we met a friend of people on a power cat that is here for a week or so. He lives in Gun Barrel City. What are the odds of that? Gun Barrel City is our hailing port and is on the back of the boat.
A couple of firsts for us this last week or so was using Uber to get around and playing shuffleboard. We only rent a car when we have several errands (Home Depot, West Marine, WalMart) that we know we need to run over several days. Uber has worked out great. The first time we tried it the car was there in three minutes. The most we ever waited was 8 minutes. Can't say that is my experience with calling for a taxi.
Now for shuffleboard! What a blast we had Friday night at the St Petersburg Shuffleboard Club. Some new friends we met through Kelly and Nancy, Dave and Susan, live here in St Petersburg. Dave, Susan, Kelly, Nancy, Ted, Claire, Susan and I went to Friday night shuffleboard at the club. Oops, almost forgot our mascot Winston. The club was founded in 1924 and now has 84 courts. It is the largest shuffleboard club in the world.You should see this place. And you should see the number of people there. It's pretty much like a picnic, bring whatever you want to eat and drink and play shuffleboard from 7 until 11 every Friday night. Normally when I think of shuffleboard I think of old people playing on the deck of a cruise ship. The majority of the people there were under 40, I would guess. Check out their website http://stpeteshuffle.com
Here are a few pictures from Friday night...
Saturday and Sunday weren't as much fun. The weekend was spent replacing the majority of the "sanitation" hoses on the boat. Remember Susan's post on kaka? This was kaka part two and three. Saturday we tackled the aft head and holding tank which took us nine hours to complete. That did include a trip to Home Depot in the middle of the day and while out we finally were able to get something of an appetite so we ate lunch. Sunday we spent six hours on the forward head. I cannot tell you how glad I was to have that job done.
Monday was a few errands and returning the rental car. Enterprise has a great deal on a weekend rate and we need the car to get the new sanitation hose as well as several trips to Home Depot. Is it possible to do a project with only one trip to Home Depot? I think not.
Tuesday was an interesting day. This is what a day living on a boat seems to be like most of the time. I wanted to order some extra oil filters for the engine so I opened up an access panel to look at the one on the engine and get the part number. I couldn't see it but in looking around I saw some oil pooled below the engine. I figured it was probably spilled the last time I changed the oil and filter. It was contained and couldn't leak out into the bilge but we wanted to get it up. To get at it with our electric drill powered pump I needed to take some sole plates (the flooring) up that we hadn't been able to get up before. We were determined to figure out how to get better access to that area. We took up sole plates that hadn't been up since the boat was built. We were finally able to get at the oil and pump it out. In the process we saw fresh water running into the bilge. Getting at the source entailed taking up more sole plates that were interlocking so they had to come out in the right order. Once that was completed we found a) that someone had put a screw through the top of one of the fresh water tanks and then pulled it out and b) that some of the fittings on the top of the aft holding tank were leaking. We just thought we were through with kaka. How happy was I when I thought I was done with this job? Not as unhappy as I am now that I'm not. And c) the water heater is rusting and starting to leak.
So that's it in a nutshell. I wanted to order some spare oil filters and 6 hours later I still didn't have the part number but had four new projects added to the list. Fortunately two of those four are taken care of now. This is how I spent a good bit of the day yesterday.
But tomorrow is a new day and hopefully one that will put an end to smelly problems.
Don't you envy us a little less now?
To end on a more positive note. The municipal marina shares the same basin with the St Petersburg Yacht Club. A long standing tradition there is still in effect today and it really is kind of neat. Every night at sunset they shoot off a canon. We're just close enough to hear them yell out something just before they fire the cannon but can't make out anything but the last part "Fire in the hole!"
Next big adventure? Bingo on Thursday night.
That's all for now. Take care.
Brian
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