18, 19, 20 December, Beautiful chilly mornings in Carrabelle

18th.
Kim aka POC birthday.  Chilly this morning, working the little electric heater.  Strong gusty north winds coupled with strong winter low tide has the water very low.  We never touched bottom, but got pretty close.

Walked around town.  About 1.25 miles one way to dollar general, then post office on return.  Supplies, goodies and parts arrived.  Quiet day in Carrabelle.  Made pasta and salad for birthday dinner onboard.  Candles in a slice of Key Lime pie for substitute birthday cake.

Veterans memorial 

City Clock

19th
Clear sky sunrise, 36 degrees outside.  Warm fresh brewed coffee and the little electric heater adding comfort.  Ace hardware to get a new radiator overflow hose, replaced old cracked one and cleaned overflow tank then reassembled. Added 50/50 antifreeze.

Second hardware store in Carrabelle

Nice

Walked around town--very nice Carrabelle History Museum  and docent.

Carrabelle History Museum 

Art gallery too.   Egg Tempera

Pricy, but interesting water color and Egg Tempera style paintings

Vintage map on store wall

20th
We had breakfast at the free buffet provided by the marina--scrambled eggs, fresh sausage, muffins and juice.  Not the most healthy, but heck it was pretty good.

Continued boat tasks; cleaning, preparing for the crossing, and tightening up loose stuff.  A very friendly town to be holed up in.  Library, IGA grocery, ACE hardware, dollar general and many little shops and coffee shops and the usual waterfront bars, restaurants, raw bars and dive bars.

I have spent considerable time setting up and on long phone calls with technical support getting my new Spot X two way satellite messenger with SOS function to work.  Was getting pretty frustrated and was ready to send it back, cancel the subscription and demand my money back.  But two great people at tech support have been the best I have ever experienced.  I am hopeful that after this mornings session of returning to factory settings, hard reboot and reload most current software the messenger is now functioning as it should.  Will try a few more test messages and a test SOS with the tech guys later today.  Previously, the device would go into sleep mode and would not wake up, could not turn off with out a hard reset--reminded me of the old dos/windows days of control/alt/delete nonsense.  Anyway, SPOT X is working as it is supposed to, and wakes up from sleep with any button push.  We purchased this device for our long open ocean crossings coming up, we will be out of line of sight communications with cell phone and VHF radio.

SPOT X two way messenger w/SOS

Winds and high, higher and really high waves are forecast for the next two-three days.  So we are not going anywhere.  Suspect we remain here until near Christmas; perhaps fair winds may arrive.

20 Dec forecast

22 Dec forecast

23 Dec forecast