Life Aboard Carpe Diem: Summer Road Trip Comes to an End

Since my last update to this blog, we have done a bit of travel while the boat has remained in Vero Beach once again. Although we were away from the boat for about a month and a half, it has seemed like a much longer time. In part, this is probably due to our busy schedule while on the road. We visited friends and family at seven different stops while also spending a week camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains with enjoyable hiking and exploring around Asheville. We did some hiking in New Hampshire while visiting Sam and her family and spent two+ very enjoyable days on the Maine coast. It was another great trip, but I am glad to be back home once again – even if the weather here in Vero Beach is much more summer-like then we needed. (We've also found that this is called the rainy season here.)

Of course, “home” has come to take on a different meaning for us. We spent most of our lives thinking of home as “a house in a particular place”. We continue to struggle a bit with the reality of this common definition of “home”, since our current definition no longer seems to have a particular location attached. The boat certainly feels like home. After all, we've lived in it for nearly seventeen years – much longer than any other dwelling. As far as “place” is concerned, it is currently Vero Beach, but will soon become Marathon for several months, then who knows...

Our plan has been to spend the month of September here at a slip. We knew from last year's experience that we'd want power from the dock for air conditioning. We also knew we'd have a few projects to tackle, and those tasks would be more easily accomplished with the boat at the dock. The resources we'll likely need are easily accessible – most of the time. We expect to stay long enough for the weather to begin cooling just a bit and for the greatest threat of hurricane season to be over.

One of the projects was to either rebuild the raw water pump on the engine or replace it. Since I hate to waste that which is still serviceable, my preference is to rebuild the current pump. Unfortunately I've never done this before, so I hired the local mechanic to do the job and allow me to watch, so the next time I could do it myself. This turned out well. The parts cost less than $30. The new pump would have cost 10 times that amount. I bought extra bearings, so the next rebuild will cost nothing but my time and perspiration.

Upon my return I learned that the battery charger no longer worked, so I had to replace this unit as well. It wasn't something I could have rebuilt, and it was nearly 17 years old, so it owed my nothing. My only challenge here was to buy the correct replacement unit. In the process, I learned that the sales people from whom I bought it don't always know as much about the units they sell as they think. At least one suggested that I call tech support at the company prior to installation. That was a good suggestion, since I had purchased the wrong unit. After at least three trips to West Marine and three different chargers, I finally had what I needed to install the appropriate new charger. Glad I had the car here to make those trips, since West Marine was about 15 miles away.

While I was tackling these and other projects, Sandra was getting the boat's interior back in shape and dealing with some of the teak finish work. Together we will manage to get the boat ready to leave Vero and head further south by early October.

We're looking forward to that trip. There are a few stops we especially like such as Peanut Island near the Lake Worth Inlet for snorkeling, South Beach, Miami for some people watching and a stop at Whole Foods while we are there, Key Biscayne for some beach walking and pleasant paths at the state park along with the trip down through Biscayne Bay before heading to Marathon. Once we arrive in boot Key Harbor in Marathon, we'll get to see friends connected with the marina and Tai Chi class while we await boating friends who will arrive a bit later in the fall. You see, if geography is important in the definition of “home,” then Marathon has become one of several homes for us. We spend enough of the year in other places to really enjoy coming back once again.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob

Summer Photos