Microwave
Gremlins
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Sunrise on our way to Fort Pierce
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The
weather gods were kind giving us a calm stretch to jump outside from St
Augustine into the Fort Pierce inlet for a nice rest in the Fort Pierce City
Marina. At the Krogen Rendezvous we won
three free nights here which we extended a few more to enjoy Super Bowl
weekend. The town is a mixed bag in many
ways with sparkling vintage and vintage-retro buildings next to open spaces
hinting of failed redevelopment. Nevertheless, the place is hopping – there
was a lively Friday Fest with food booths, music and great people watching,
followed by the best Farmer’s Market in Florida on Saturday as well as a Pirate
Fest also along the river. All this with a great Publix and other shopping a
short bike ride down US1. Our stop was made even better with good friends on
Hobo including us in their boater group happy hours…And then the historic Super
Bowl Game! Hopefully no one ever fears our cruiser life is tough.
From
Fort Pierce, we stayed inside on the AICW to a handy spot just inside the Lake
Worth Inlet. As we were getting ready to leave the next morning for an off
shore run of 10+ hours into Miami, our Microwave Oven provided a few spectacular fireworks
and gave its last gasp. So, on our offshore run we dialed up Amazon on the
smart phone and ordered a replacement.
Of course, they no longer make the same white one as we had – which
careful readers might remember we replace once already back on the loop in the
fall of 2013 under mysterious circumstances. Now we just had to buy a stainless
model. We also ordered the install kit
since no one could tell us if the newer model could use the kit we already had.
A premium was paid so that the order would be OVERNITED to a very kind marina
in Miami Beach. (We were planning to
anchor just inside the channel at Government Cut behind the exclusive Fisher
Island where no mail delivery was possible.) With the usual Amazon efficiency,
we got the order in before the deadline thinking at most we’d get a later start
toward Bimini. Well – in less than an
hour we received a nice confirmation – the bracket would be there overnite as
ordered but the microwave not until Wednesday before 8PM. After long hours with various Amazon call
center folks, Steve was told in rather rude terms that they would redirect the
shipment but could not stop it. Not our typical Amazon experience. We also
continued to receive the usual delivery text messages making us sure that the
items were indeed going to be delivered not redirected. After imposing on the marina to help us by
accepting our delivery even though we were not guests in their facility, we
opted to stick around and wait for the late delivery.
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| off shore North Miami Beach |
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| View from our Miami Ancorage |
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| Night visitor |
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| Reluctant to leave even with our cats |
One more thing on the weather. We are often talking about weather since it dictates what and when we can travel.
Our best crossing of the Gulf Stream would, naturally, have been on Wednesday
while we were sitting in the scenic spot off Government Cut. The run to Bimini
from there is only 7 to 8 hours for us and Thursday, although not ideal, looked
possible. The bad news is the next four
days would not be ideal for anything but sitting tight. On the bright side, we are now sitting
comfortably in the Bimini Sands Marina legally checked in with our new
microwave waiting for the next weather window to head across the Bahamas Bank and south. The next three months or so will find us wandering the islands with their clear clean waters. Postings will depend on the random luck of finding WIFI although we will mostly have e-mail when near a cell tower. 
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| Princess and her nip underway |
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| Daddio keeping busy underway |
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