Monday May 28: Sitting in Welaka after Beryl Passes Through

The 21 mile travel from Palatka to Welaka (weird that the names of town around here rhyme with each other!) yesterday was very pleasant. Not sunny but no rainy which we consider a good day :-) On EVERY waterway marker (literally) there is an osprey nest and a pair of birds - along with some very small young ones. Good to know the waterway is home to so many waterfowl. Folks were out having a good time even though the weather wasn't perfect. Any sand bar seems to be a draw for the locals. The rain was coming, of course. We are about 70 miles south of Jacksonville so were keeping a very close eye on the weather because of of the tropical storm approaching the north Florida coast. We did great though - until of course we came to our dock for the night! Then the wind picked up and the rain let loose. It was really a challenge to get in and docked but we made it safely.

The sunset was really colorful - signs of things to come with the dark clouds?? The storm rolled in after dark - I was very glad to be tied to a dock here in Welaka. The winds blew all night and rocked us broadside as the winds turned from the NW to the SE as the storm passed north of us. It was impossible to sleep on my side as the boat was rocking too much! Steve thought he was going to be pitched out of bed at one point during the night! But all is well - storm is gone - rain is still around for a bit. We'll move on tomorrow.

Today (after out to breakfast at Shrimps R Us and More) we spent 8 hours doing what should have been about an hour job. It's just the way thing are on boats :-) We were rebuilding the raw water pump on the generator (fortunately we already had the rebuild kit - from ebay!) but tje new shaft with 2 bearings just wasn't going in right. Finally decided that part of the old bearing was still suck in the housing. Out came the handy dremel so we could grind part of the old bearing away and finally were able to get it to come out. After putting the pump back in and out probably half a dozen times we finally got to the point where the amount of water leaking out of it was acceptable (there must be something we are doing wrong!). Anyway we now have a working generator again --- off south again tomorrow but not sure how far.

b