Audentes

Day Nine Following the North Star to Massachusetts We reached Belhaven and anchored in a pleasant spot outside of the channel. After taking the dinghy ashore, we walked to the nearest supermarket for lettuce and hamburger meat, a six-mile roundtrip. The town of Belhaven was pleasant, if isolated. People in cars gawked openly at us […]

We weighed anchor in Fort Pierce at noon on Monday, June 7th. Taking a picture in homage to the place that had been our home nearly we a month, we proceeded out of Fort Pierce Inlet and into the open ocean. The offshore passage lasted some 80 hours. We established a round-the-clock system of two […]

Day Two on the Open Ocean between Florida and Bahamas The family had a leisurely breakfast before weighing anchor and motoring through the Fort Pierce Inlet, out of the Intercoastal Waterway and into the Atlantic Ocean. After following the shoreline south in the early afternoon, we turned the ship southwest and bore toward the Bahamas, […]

Day Two in Fort Pierce With the Parents, aka Mom and Dad Ditching the swamp for the Intercoastal Awakening at 5 a.m. in the dark marsh of the Riverside Marina, it became evident that we would have to postpone our departure until the next high tide in the afternoon. We spent the day: 1) looking […]

A Day in Transit, a Night in Fort Pierce, aka Hell Driving, driving, solving Late last night, Aaron and I were on the highway, sides nearly splitting from the right-wing Christian talk show on the radio. It featured disturbing news stories about homosexuals wanting equal rights, Christians being arrested “merely because they’re Christians” and also […]

Half Day in Fort Pierce, aka Homeless Beach A long day began with changing our splash date (when the boat goes into the water) to today. We laid on the last coat of bottom paint in the morning and were done by 10:30. We went to the beach, where the water was surprisingly cold and […]

Day Thirteen in Fort Pierce, aka the Official Home of Those With Nothing Left to Lose Penultimate paint, AC, logistics, logistics, logistics The boat is beginning to look beautiful. The blisters and our patchings have now fallen under a thick layer of bottom paint, stylish black on the forward two thirds of the hull, and […]

Day Twelve in Fort Pierce, aka Isle of Mange Monotony shattered by visit of friend 10 am – 2 pm: Four layers of barrier coat. At one in the afternoon, long-lost Chris Calvert arrived in the wasteland that is Florida’s central eastern coast. This visit threw a wrench in the machinery of monotony that has […]

Day Eleven in Fort Pierce, aka Skid Rowmanson For want of materials, the day was lost Enough of this. Not enough of that. The need for a few (six) small canisters of brownish powder (barrier coat additive) could not be had at the Fort Pierce or Vero Beach West Marine stores, nor “The Boathouse” store […]

Day Eleven in Fort Pierce, aka Thumb Jockeyburg Short work, long evening We filled the holes in the hull. Tomorrow we will sand them. Also we will put on the barrier coat. The next day we will put bottom paint on the hull. The day after, another coat of bottom paint. Then we are gone. […]