Landed Life

The Indian River, N28 00 W80 33
December 23, 2005
Now we’re thoroughly spoiled. We’ve just had four days of enjoyment ashore in the area of Melbourne Florida.

Tuesday we put in to Melbourne Harbor Marina. I didn’t want to do that but Libby rebelled. “I want a hot shower,” she said. I had to admit that it has been a long time, 12 days since we were last in a marina, so I relented. Soon after we got settled in the marina my brother Ed and his wife Sally called and invited us out to dinner. We all went to Red Lobster and had a fun evening.

The next day was the time for errands and projects. Ed graciously took the day off work to volunteer as a helper and chauffeur. I wanted to replace the bushings on the Monitor self-steering system, and to go grocery shopping, and to buy a fuel filter, and to change the oil, and to restore the backup of my old computer onto the new computer, and to go to West Marine and exchange a boat battery that I thought was defective.

Poor Ed; he didn’t realize that he got himself into so much. Everything turned out to be harder to accomplish than we thought. The West Marine project alone turned into a nightmare involving 4 trips to the stores plus three trips to the boat. Late in a very busy day we got back to Ed’s house where Sally had a nice spaghetti dinner waiting for us. Later in the evening, Libby and I did a slide show using the pictures on the computer.

The next day we left the marina and anchored out in the river. We were treated to a great show because there were three guys paraboarding near where we were anchored. The sport could also be called kite skiing. The boarders stand on a small surfboard, and hold on to the tether to a large kite. The kite is formed into the shape of a parasail by battens. The wind was 15-20 knots and the parasailers were rushing through the water at 20-30 knots. Wow were they fast. Every once in a while an extra strong gust of wind would lift them up in the air. They would soar 3 to 4 meters above the water and do flips and somersaults. I’d love to try it, but I think one needs the athletic body of an 18 year old to be good at it.

In the evening our friend Dave Hackett picked us up and took us home to his wife Jonnie. We had dinner and a very nice evening with the Hackett. We have a lot in common. Dave and Jonnie, like Libby and I, were high school sweethearts. Dave and I both spent our careers in the power industry and we have a lot of friends in common. Libby and I pumped their brains for lore about fishing gear. It’s crazy for us to live on a boat and not fish. Dave and Jonnie were very gracious hosts and we had a wonderful time with them.

Yesterday, I imposed on Ed and Sally one more time. They took me to Wall Mart where I bought fishing gear. It was the last shopping day before Christmas and very busy. After shopping they took me to Ozzie’s biker bar. Ed and Sally go to Ozzies every Friday where they serve a free lunch. They must be very popular because when we walked in everyone shouted, “Hi Sally.” When I got back to the boat there was just enough time to rig up one of the fishing poles, and to bait it with a piece of shrimp. Like magic, in less than 10 minutes Libby caught a very nice catfish. She thought it was a shark. This is the first time we caught a fish since 1962.

Thank you Ed and Sally and Dave and Jonnie. We had a great week.

Our next goal is to work our way down to Fort Pierce and then to Fort Lauderdale. In Lauderdale, I must visit Blue Water Charts, the foremost store in America to buy nautical charts and books. They can help us to plan our passage to the Florida keys, Pas Christian Mississippi, then Panama, Hawaii and Valdez Alaska.