What Holiday?

Monday afternoon - Sorry, somehow this never got posted after I added my comments.

We had planned a nice dinner out for Thanksgiving.  Had a reservation made, took showers, were all set.  Then Richard decided that, since we had most of the day free before going to eat, it was a good time to work on the water heater, which had been leaking.  It's leaked enough to start discoloring the floor and rotting out the access panel in the floor in front of the companionway, so it needed to be done.  He was hoping to be able to fix it after removing it.  However, Tartan apparently built the interior around the water heater, making its removal very difficult.  It involved removing the access panel, disconnecting the coolant system from the engine that heats the water when underway, disconnecting wiring to the propane sniffer, disconnecting plumbing, removing a shelf above the heater, unscrewing the water heater from the floor (four screws, only two of which were accessible), cutting off some fittings, then wrenching it out (it was slightly bigger than the opening).  There were tools and water everywhere, and lots of swearing.  We finished up about 6:00, having started at 10:00.  Our dinner reservation had been for 6:00, the latest the restaurant was serving, so we missed Thanksgiving dinner.  I was angry, he was apologetic.  Now we have no hot water and it turns out that currently manufactured water heaters are 1" taller than the one we struggled to remove, so we're not sure how we will replace it.  We'll probably be heating water on the stove whenever we need it for the remainder of the trip.  The good news was that the hardware store in town (Cocoa, Florida) let us dispose of the old heater in their dumpster. 

We left Cocoa the next morning and motored to Melbourne, only about 14 miles further south.  It was a 20 knot headwind and we got tired of fighting it.  Another boat that we had met earlier in the trip, Hairball, had said they would be in Melbourne for Thanksgiving, so we made contact with them and ended up anchoring near them.  (Richard wanted to get a picture of the name for all the people who thought he had made up the name.)  However, their anchorage was in a small creek that was very shallow and we grounded twice (in soft mud) before finally anchoring in a spot with just over 6 feet of water.  Now we are in Vero Beach, on a mooring, rafted next to a Catalina 36 from Wisconsin. Vero Beach has free bus service to shopping areas in town.  We had just tied up the dinghy and were going to go exploring, thinking we had missed the last bus of the day when one pulled up.  Turns out she was going past the grocery store and then returning there in 20 minutes, so we had just enough time to grab a few items and get back to the bus.  People sometimes call Vero "Velcro Beach" because cruisers get here and don't want to leave.  We'll see... 

Sue was a little miffed because I spoiled her holiday -  I pointed out we've been on holiday for over two months...  and things seem to keep breaking or wearing out.  She didn't mention that when we got in the dinghy to dispose of the water heater and buy a pair of adjustable pliers to replace the ones that broke getting the durned water heater out the inflatable floor has started to leak.  So now you end up sitting or standing in any water that finds it's way into the dink.  Sue doesn't want me to start any more projects, so I assume she will come up with a fix.