Vero Beach

We have been in Vero Beach for a week now and it seem to have been a very busy week. We found a local restaurant/bar at the end of our mooring field to watch the Superbowl.


At the beginning of the week we added another chapter to the mysterious battery charging problems on Bill's boat. We decided after trying three different chargers and eliminating cables as potential problems that the new batteries were faulty. The battery supplier agreed to replace them and we had to schlep them out of the boat and over to the marina office to swap them. Stacy and Ellen had a tea party while we were hoisting 130 lb batteries.


After the battery replacement day, we decided to tackle the disabled bow thruster. Bill noticed the bow thruster not working in the last lock we entered crossing the Okeechobee Waterway. I decided to get in the 60 something degree water and see what was going on. Apparently the propeller nuts had somehow loosened and one of the props was gone. We ordered a new prop and had it overnight with new nuts, washers, zincs and zinc screws. The next day I dove in again and found that the remaining prop was stuck on the shaft and we had to devise a tool to try to pull the prop. After breaking two hammers in the process and determining that his anchor windlass was now not working (we had planned to use the windlass to pull the rope for our "puller") , we finally admitted defeat and made our almost day long trip into town on the bus system to get a puller at the local NAPA store. The puller worked and we got the props replaced and the thruster seems to work well at this point.


We spent three night looking at Taplin home movies from the 60's and 70's. Bill and Ellen re-lived their past raising 8 children and we were amazed at the life they had and how Bill & Ellen could have the time and energy to do all the things they did. As with most home movies, most were Christmas and sporting events.


While repairing the bow thruster, I dove down and checked Bill's prop and shafts and noticed that he had lost the zinc on his prop shaft. This is a dangerous condition as it can allow corrosion of the propeller and shaft. Yesterday Bill got a new zinc and I dove under the boat and installed it.


Today we took my tank into town and had it refilled and picked up a new fuse holder to replace the one causing the anchor windlass problem.

We will be here through this weekend at the least. Stay tuned.