Today we made it to Flagler Beach Fl. We are up a small creek next to a Searay motor yacht facility.

There were lots of fish jumping so Ryan got out the cast net and practiced catching some – but not enough for dinner.

Saturday we wanted to stop in St. Augustine and check out a place called Sailors Exchange where they trade stuff they have for stuff you have. We ended up taking the dingy around a creek to get to a Home Depot so I could replace the $200 battery drill I kicked overboard in Savannah.

We got to sailors exchange at 2:30 to find they closed at 2, Bummer. Back to the boat and listen to all the yelling and partying going on ashore.

We woke up early on Sunday, as I wanted to install an isolator oil pressure hose bought back in Brunswick. Although it looked like the pipe I was worried about breaking was about to make me disassemble the damn motor to get it out, it finally gave up and let me get the job finished. While I was in there, there was a small fuel leak from the high pressure fuel pump that was bothering me so I put a wrench on that and of course that pipe broke right off!

Sunday morning no less. And not just any pipe – a very special pipe. So we decided that we were glad to be somewhere we could get it fixed on Monday and just hang out for the day.

The problem was the day was yucky. Fog rolled in about 8 am and stayed with us the whole day. We walked around town in the morning, paid for an overpriced under tasting lunch, and went back to the boat at noon to untangle the mooring.

We decide to be positive and hauled Ryan up the mizzen topping loft to install a flag. It looks great, but we got so wet and cold from the wind and the fog we had to retire below for hot chocolate.

Not long after we noticed the voltage from the batteries reaching a low point that made the captain uncomfortable who then declared no more power usage – lights out and no internet.

OMG we had to actually talk to each other! Pretty cool.

Finally about 8 pm the low voltage made me realize I might be able to solder the pipe so, in a flurry of activity I had the engine running and charging in about ten minutes!

This morning we moved to the docks for a couple of hours, got the bikes out a pedaled all over town looking for replacement parts which were not to be found.

So the repair has held for the afternoon run here ( averaging 9 knots woo hoo!) and will continue to hold until we get down to West Palm Beach, or somewhere with engine repair facilities or we sat somewhere long enough to order one.

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Shelly and Ryan decorated for the holidays and we look all Christmasy!

It looks like we will be finding a place to dock Yume for a few days while we rent a car and go help the mother in law Sally as she goes through the pain of losing a life long partner.

Shelly and I talk about this and we know it is something we all must face as couples sooner of later but none of us want to… And it is hard as this leaves only Sally as the sole parent we have.

Life goes on does it not?

On a more cheerful note, it was fun exchanging texts with my fried Jim today who was stuck in traffic in Atlanta while we anchored, threw the cast net for a while, fixed a nice supper of pasta, fresh cheese and cold white wine, and caught up on emails and work for p4p!

Life is good.

On to Daytona Beach and beyond tomorrow. Forecast is 75 and sunny. Thank you God!