2/22/18 We start again

David and I had a pretty nice vacation in Vero Beach, waiting for the cables to be replaced. We went to a small museum, played with Hunny at the HUGE dog park next door, walked to a restaurant one evening for dinner, rode our bikes to West Marine, grocery store, and a fish market, and generally just enjoyed ourselves. Got to know the resident parrot at the marina, and listened to the squawking from both her and the VHF nearby. Spent a lot of time doing some husband wife bickering about how to provide more shade on our fly bridge. All in all, pretty typical days.

James found the parts we needed, arrived Wednesday at 11 AM, and both were replaced by 2. David and I took one more bike ride around town, tossed the ball for Hunny, and prepared to leave the next day. David finally agreed to put up our “AGLCA” pennant–he was embarrassed to do so while we had engine trouble. No one doing the Loop ever has engine trouble, you see.

We left the slip at about 7:45 AM this morning, ended up going just over 60 miles, and pulled into Titusville at about 4. Then the show began. We had decided that, rather than staying in a marina, we would either anchor or tie up to a mooring ball to save money (it is amazing how miserly we’ve gotten since David’s retired!).  I gamely tried hooking a mooring ball, and soon discovered that our boat hook was just a bit too short to be able to snag it standing up. I was reduced to straddling one of the horns of our catamaran’s hulls, reaching down as far as I could without turning a somersault into the water 10 feet below, and trying to grab the tiny floating loop, called a “pendant”.  I managed to do so, but was not prepared for the strength of the wind and current, and the pendant was soon torn from my hands. In retrospect I should have had a line close by, ready to draw through the loop–“tuition is high in the school of experience”.  Finally, after several trips around the mooring ball, we were securely tied. However, almost immediately we realized we had 4 important problems to address 1) We were 1/2 mile minimum from shore 2) the wind, waves, and current were significant 3) we had a dinghy, but no motor (picking one up in St Augustine in a few days) and 4) Hunny hadn’t pee’d in over 10 hours and was looking at us with dark, imploring eyes, and we could tell she was desperate for relief. We tried to convince her to relieve herself on the deck, but she made it clear she was not that kind of dog. We “quickly” (a relative term) lowered and untied the dinghy; she understood immediately, and hopped in without hesitation just after it touched the water. David gallantly risked his life to row her in–luckily the wind was mostly behind him on that leg–let her jump out and FINALLY empty her bladder onshore. They both made it back safely after struggling for about 45 minutes, I made dinner, and we settled for the night. Our poor dog will have to hold her bodily functions for another 12 hours; we plan to take her to shore at first light, and have a fairly short sailing day tomorrow. We’ll have to figure out a better system than risking our lives so our dog can relieve herself more than twice a day.

Tomorrow we plan to stay in Daytona Beach, a relatively short ride of 42 miles.