Monday, April 22, 2013

Rainy Days & Mondays....

The South mooring field in St. Augustine, Florida

Well, we have almost made it to our final boat destination for hurricane season. We are back in a favorite place...St. Augustine, Florida. Last year we kept our boat here for the summer while we went home to Phoenix to work. It's a wonderful place & we love this town!! However, this summer we are hauling Malaika out of the water. A task that is not possible at our favorite Hidden Harbor Marina & is MUCH cheaper about 20 miles northwest in a little place called Green Cove Springs. It will take us 2 days to journey up the St. John's river to reach our resting spot for hurricane season. We plan on leaving in the morning....IF the weather gets better. The weather has been terrible for 3 days. We were able to leave our boat for the 1st time in 2 days today, thanks to a shuttle that is provided by the marina. It was too rough for the dinghy.

Jib on the shuttle pontoon boat. It doesn't look that rough but trust me...look at Jib's ears blowing in the wind.

 

Scott & our friend Nancy from s/v Pegasus on the shuttle basking in the warm weather of the "Sunshine State"

One project we needed to address these past few days was seeing what kind of shape our car was in. It has been safely parked at our old marina but...would it run? Remember, this car is 25+ years old. It has at least 180,000 miles on it...the odometer doesn't work anymore so who knows.

 

There she is...safe & sound. And dead as a door nail. P.S. this picture was taken several days ago...when the sky was still blue.

So, despite our friend's effort to recharge the battery...no go. After 2 days on the boat due to weather..today we said..who cares. Let's get off the boat. We have great rain jackets & a shuttle. Let's get the car running. Thanks to our friends Aaron & Greer @ Hidden Harbor Marina for lending us your car this afternoon. Scott did some research & the cheapest place to get our new battery was....

I wasn't sure if I was ready. We haven't been in an American warehouse of "stuff" in months. We've been in the little ma & pop stores of the islands...where you get what ever is available that week. Where romaine lettuce cost $6...if they have it.

Wwhhhaatttt??

 

SOOO much stuff...SOOO cheap!! Definetely back in the USA.

I was a bit overwhelmed...and thankful that since we could only buy as much as we could carry (in our backpack) I didn't have to make too many choices. Whew. Gotta ease back into this...slow...

Scott changing out batteries. Notice how in this old beast, the ENORMOUS battery is in the trunk?
Scott turning over the engine....YAY!! It worked!

The good news is that the battery seems to be the problem with the car! It still sputters a little but Scott thinks that's a fuel filter problem so we should be able to fix that too. Now....if we can just get that A/C working......

Love & Miss everybody!!

Michelle, Scott & Jib

 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you crazy? What the hell are you doing wearing a jacket?

Unknown said...

P.S. I'm in Jamaica. They have so much lettuce here they pretty much are giving it away. It's really delicious too!

Scott , Michelle Jesse, & Jib said...

It was cold Matt! Congrats on making it to Jamaca! Looks like you're having a blast. Happy for you.