Year 5 Wrap-up

April 13 - 20, 2008

Sunday, April 20, 2008 - Vero Beach Municipal Marina, Vero Beach, FL
By Tom

Well, it's a week now since we're back in the U.S. What can I say? It's always a bit of a culture shock to come back here after any length of time, especially when it's been two years, but we've pretty much adjusted to all the people, all the food, and all the congestion.

We left Lake Worth last Monday and proceeded to motor up the ICW and clear the 7 (yes 7) draw bridges that we must pass in the first 22 miles heading north. The engines behaved pretty well, but there were a few tense moments where one or the other decided to take a break from actually running while crossing under a bridge.

After a lot of adrenaline and more than a fair amount of cursing we arrived off the Jensen Beach bridge and decided to anchor for the night. Tuesday found us continuing north beating in to 25 knots of wind and averaging a whopping 4.5 knots to the good.

A long day got us through the remaining draw at Fort Pierce and we managed to get our wounded bird onto our assigned mooring in Vero Beach. We shut off the engines and breathed a huge sigh of relief. The engines held together long enough for us to get here. Sweeeet!

Currently, we are bobbing happily on mooring 13 at the Vero Beach Municipal Marina. We had another catamaran side tied to us for the first three days, but he left yesterday and now we are alone on our mooring.

We've spent the last several days trying to catch up to the pace of life here in the states. It's not as easy as it sounds, but I suspect we'll survive.

So that about catches you up. We'll be hanging out here in Vero for a while. First up on the list is to get some new engines ordered, delivered and installed. Tomorrow I am supposed to hear back from the Yamaha dealer, so hopefully we'll know a little more then.

In the mean time, I've started working on the 150 item, 6 page list of repairs we have compiled. I'd guess we're looking at least 4 months worth of work to get the boat back into top form.

Now that we won't be traveling as much, I'll probably drop back to a once a week update on the website. In the next update, I'll post the list of repairs and upgrades that need to be made so you can follow our progress (or lack there of) from home.

Fear not dear reader, we are going back out cruising, it's just going to take some time to get ready. Talk to you soon.