After winning the TSA lottery and being randomly selected to go through the no-AIS line with only 3 people in front of me, then boarding the plane for Orlando, the flight ended up leaving 2 hours late thanks to a power outage at Frontier's head office. Dad picked me up at 2:30AM and we got in to Melbourne at 4. Thanks for the extremely early pick-up Pop.
We headed for Ft. Pierce at 7 Friday morning and found the vessel blocked and ready for the slings at Riverside when we arrived at 8. The seller and broker showed up shortly and Paul the surveyor came next. After rolling out the the main, staysail, and genoa and finding them all in surprisingly nice condition, I got to watch the Travelift pick her up and drop her in, which is something I've never gotten to see before.
We spent the next several hours aboard, poking and prodding her all over. The cockpit was really great, especially the aluminum frame and canopy. It was cool to see how comfortably it accommodated 6 people with room to spare. It was really cool to see the electrics and electronics lit up and running. The engine fired right up which was pretty amazing considering it's been in dry storage for a couple years. The air conditioning and refrigeration didn't work which was a bummer. The owner was certain that there were just minor issues with them, but we've asked him to resolve them or make some allowance for their repair.
I dropped in at the Dock Master's Office at Harbortown and found that they already had us penciled in
to slip 16 on the Fiji dock. We'd actually be even closer to the pool than we are in our current apartment here in CO, which the girls would love. Then we swung by the Fort Pierce City Marina, and I liked it even more. It's got a great location downtown in Fort Pierce right next door to the library and the Saturday Farmers' Market. So we have a couple great options there.
On Saturday Mom and Dad and I had a beautiful sail on Dad's Eumelia. After looking like we'd just be going for a nice little motor cruise, the breeze freshened right up and blew reliably out of the northwest for the entire 2 hours we were out. I guess that was actually the first time I've trimmed a sail in a number of years, but it was just as fun as I remember. That's good.
What a great visit it was all around, and a great milestone for our project. Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting and driving, and thanks April for soloing with the girls while I was off having fun in the sun.
