Wow! Boats are Expensive

Fort Pierce, FL, 27.46868 -80.32439

Well, we're back in business, but it was expensive. The engine is reassembled. It runs. Worse than before, but it runs. We're glad for that but we're also feeling down and feeling that we wasted money. This week was very expensive. $250 for the marina and $1075 for the mechanic. What we bought for that expense was the knowledge that we need to buy a new engine.

We could have cut that expense in half if I had been willing to put us in a dumpy boatyard with no showers and no electricity in a high crime neighborhood, until after New Years Day. Expense be damned, I wouldn't subject Libby to those conditions. That was no what she signed up for.

I fret that we have not been the best stewards of our own money. We invested more than $2,000 in that 30 year old engine before this week. A lot of that trouble and expense could have been spared if we had decided long ago to buy a new engine. Nevertheless, its hard to work up too much of a self indictment that holds water. There was so much I didn't know about diesel engines and about the cruising life. Self sufficient sailors who do their own work take years of practical experience to build up all those skills and that shrewdness.

We still have a choice in front of us. We can sail to Marathon and get Bud Taplin (the #1 Westsail expert in world) to supply and install a new engine for us, at almost no risk. The other choice is to stay in Very Beach and work with Fort Pierce Diesel for the new engine. Fort Pierce may be somewhat cheaper, but Libby and I both like Marathon much more than here, so we're electing the more expensive option in the interest of having more fun. Tough.

Today it's raining and we have no wind. Tomorrow it should be sunny and breezy. It sounds perfect for a 200 mile offshore passage from here to Marathon in the Florida Keys. That's what we're planning to do. If any of you are in Miami Beach tomorrow, wave as us as we pass by.

By the way, we love Florida. However, one has to admit that there are some strange people down here.

Here in Fort Pierce they have a foot fetish burglar. He breaks into houses late at night, sneaks into bedrooms and licks the toes of the women.

Also here is a man who said that he had a near death experience in which he met God. He said that God rejected him and sent him back, so the man burned a church to the ground for revenge.

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