Wednesday 18 December, West Palm FL day 3:
We wake up to rain, plus yet another cold front is due through at midday. Despite our hire car sitting in the club car park we decide to stay on board to ensure Cloudy is ok when the strong northerly wind kicks in.
So it’s a lazy day. Well, as lazy as it ever gets – there is always a list of things to do on any boat.
With our interest sparked yesterday we research dive compressors. There is a good American built one that I like but a) it’s huge and b) they cannot supply with a 220VAC 50Hz motor for at least 6 weeks. So that’s out. Good really, because even though we found a couple of places we could install it, it still takes a huge amount of space (29x15x19” & 120lbs!). So we settle on a Honda driven Hookha system by a company called The Air Line. They deliver for free plus have a holiday special with a free SpareAir mini tank.
And while thinking of anything else we might need (while we are marooned here) we also order two watermaker membranes. We replaced ours 2 1/2 years ago now, so we’ll continue with those and change to the new ones at the 3 year mark.
And these items finally conclude our “items to buy while in USA” list. It was a looong list and while putting a dent in our budget these last weeks, all will be needed in the coming years when we are totally off-grid.
With the morning shopping done, I make a repair to our cockpit grating which decided to break these last few days. Glued and screwed this time.
Then the north wind arrives. It’s not as dramatic as the last cold front arriving in St. Augustine but we are still clocking 20-22kts. Trouble with this system is that it’s due to last the next 3 days 🙁
We had been debating whether we have Christmas in Havana or Bahamas, but now it looks like we may well still be in Florida. Well, there are worst places to be at Christmas time!
We had thought to go ashore this evening. The club bar is open or we drive down town. But the thought of a wet dinghy ride is just not appealing. So we are back to a snug evening in the saloon again.