Morning Tea, on the hard. Fort Pierce FL

Morning Tea, on the hard.

The morning tea posts are just my ramblings about what's on my mind at the time. When I do not have a blog post of any interest to myself I just dump my brain all over this page and see what happens. 

We're a long way from the islands.

We are cars, trucks. buses, trains and assholes away from the islands.

Enjoy your stay. Here's a ladder.

Grandma and Grandpa have to pass basic training to get home. This limits the amount of alcohol you would want in your system.

No one ever said, "this is the life" in regards to cruising. Wait. Yes they did.

When you are approaching a bridge did you ever think this is a bad time to run out of fuel? We did.

Having an engine die before a bridge will either make you panic, or freeze. We did neither. How did that happen?

Cool as a cucumber is a good way to be. Actually I'm more like a pickle. Short, seasoned, and briny.

This is "the life", at times. This is not the time.

On the hard is my least favorite position. Bet inmates feel the same way.

"Sure. Yep. OK. We can do that. Won't take long at all. We'll get right on it. You'll be in and out in no time at all." These are sweet nothings whispered in your ear while you are on the hard.

A boat yard is similar to an elderly care facility. They keep you here with just enough attention to think you are being cared for and then when the money's gone they kick you out.

"I'm Elmer J Fudd. I own a mansion and a yacht."
Something about sailboats that make people think whoever owns one is filthy rich. Except Florida, where they think you are just filthy.

Walking along the railroad tracks and taking a shortcut through a construction site to get to a bar probably enhanced our dirty boat hippie image.

When did walking get associated with being poor and destitute?

You don't have a car? OMG!!

Where are all the people driving to?

Florida. The strip mall state.

We visited The Villages in Florida. Captive Consumers.

Beans Beans the magical fruit...
There is a lack of protein in our diet and we are not supplement people. Deb is not fond of pressure cookers so I might get the dehydrated beans for our journey. No, we are not going to start eating cow parts.

Maybe I don't blog enough because I lack protein.

I'm terrible at meal planning.

Deb is an Irish girl who could eat potatoes for the rest of her life and not complain.

I think the chef can dictate what the galley provides. I could always cook a potato as a side.

Microsoft can suck it. This will be repeated every time I have to use this laptop.

No one told me there would be trains following us all along the ICW.

No one told me that most ICW marinas are near bridges. Noisy, heavily traveled bridges.

No one told me about a lot of things.

Dogs in bathrooms. No! Stop with that! I love dogs but I do not want to be petting one while on the throne.

Annual physicals. Mine was completed in 15 minutes. Nothing like a quickie.

ACA. Without it we'd be screwed.

I realize I'm not a marine mechanic, but then I see what they do all week and I start thinking, hell I can do that!

Cold at 70. I used to wear shorts when it reached sixty degrees in the spring. Now I put long pants on when it drops to seventy.

Debra can sew! Our dinghy chaps look excellent.

We have a leak in the dinghy.

I would not have high blood pressure if i worked in a boat yard.

Why do they take a break from work under our boat.

Sitting and watching money bleed form your accounts is not healthy.

In this age of climate change do insurance boundaries really matter anymore?

Liveaboard fees. Really? I'm solar powered and the only thing I take from you is your water. But now that you are charging me ten dollars a day I'm using the power as well.

When provided electricity at a dock you would think we would go crazy and play tunes, watch TV, make smoothies in our blender and run the vacuum cleaner. We actually forget to turn the power on.

In this whole yard there is only one bathroom with one toilet for each gender. Enough said.

When dropping the rudder I suggested a sling to lower it. "Nah, We dig a hole and lower it by hand."

It's amazing how fast 130 pounds can fall in such little space.

It's amazing how big eyeballs can get when surprised.

Its amazing how red your face gets when the boat owner is glaring at your empty hands above a hole with his rudder sticking out of it.

Our new rigging is so shiny and smooth.

Our new rigging will look even better when it's on the boat.

Two weeks ago: Here's a list of things I want done to the mast besides the rigging. Yesterday: "Mr Bryan did you want anything else done to the mast?"

For some reason I never get tired of talking to myself.

Boatyards are dusty.

"Did you put protein powder in this sauce? It's kind of gritty."

We made some new and fun friends in GA.

Some marinas are nicer than others.

I think a marina has an impact on the attitude and friendliness of it's occupants.

Sometimes nothing can help a miserable person. They just enjoy being miserable.

By far, the best marina we have stayed at is Brunswick Landing.

No see um's. Hate those biting little aliens from hell.

Not a fan of eight foot tides.

Mold.

Vinegar.

Our new toilet system works well. Knock knock on wood.

We also have a fully manual head.

New rudder. New rigging. Anxiety relief.

The engine still gives me bad vibes.

Our prop was incredibly coated with biology. Still is.

I paid extra for the diver to clean our hull.

Unless you are a diver yourself, how do you know what they are doing under there?

Spending so much time in a marina really dulled our seamanship. Now we're in the yard.

It's like riding a bike. Right. You heard how good I have become at that.

Bikes and alcohol. No. Don't do it.

Wish we had bikes right now.

There's a really nice bar across the creek.

Across the creek is a long way to walk.

A train that raced by honked the horn for us. It's still fun no matter what your age.

When transiting a cut in the Bahamas, Deb liked nothing better than a good rage as we entered. Kind of a yahoo moment for her.

When transiting the nations highways Deb is not a fan of the rage.

A middle finger can get you killed in the good ole US of A.

I have such a varied taste in music that I keep it to myself. Lets just say I'm not a top forty hits kind of guy.

Some people like to share their taste in music with everyone in earshot of their thumping speakers.
I like it, so you must to. Kind of like some people with religion.

Religion and politics never get discussed much with cruisers. This is good.

We DO NOT miss TV. At all.

While seated in the doc's waiting room I caught an hour of CNN. See previous line.

We will miss most of the election. Happy dance.

Tablets are way better than laptops unless you lose a file. Where did it go? Where was it saved? I had no wifi connection so it vaporized.

From now on I write out all my blog posts on actual paper.

I always wondered why logbooks and such were written out in pencil and not pen. Ballpoint pens apparently get rusty balls.

I had an awesome post on the Bahamas. It was vaporized. This put me in a severe slump when it came to writing. Hopefully I'm over it now. My seven followers will now have something to do at work.


That's all folks. I promise I will write some more. I had to drag out the old laptop to do this (Microsoft can suck it!) as my bluetooth keyboards keep failing. (ZAGG can suck it!) This also puts a damper on my blog posts. I'm ordering three bluetooth keyboards from amazon. This should get me through to the islands.

Cheerz!
P


Please do not get the impression that this life is not what we imagined. It is. Not all the time, but it is. Going back to land life would be really depressing at this point so let us count our lucky stars.
I tend to write how I feel and right now we are feeling a wee bit depressed because of the money bleed and the delays in getting things done. This does not mean we are not smiling! We know better than to think the alternative to this life would be much better. We are very happy to be out of the rat race and we find humor in most of our daily lives, even if we're sitting in a dusty boat yard.