Wednesday, November 20. /

The morning started out cloudy and a little cool. Phil noticed a water leak yesterday close to exhaust so went to work first thing in the morning. Until we know if he can fix it, we won’t know if we can leave tomorrow for Daytona Beach or have to stay here long, Lucky for us, Phil was able to fix the leak and then our friend Ken from S/V Sail Away arrived and showed up at the boat about 1030am.

In preparation for leaving, Ken and I decided to ride bikes to Winn Dixie. The Marina has 3 bikes and one adult trike bike with a basket between the 2 rear wheels. By this time it had starting raining and by the radar it looked like it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. So we put on foul weather gear and rode to the store. Good thing the basket was so big, because between the 2 of us but mostly me, we filled the basket. I guarded the bikes while Ken got a few items at West Marine just down the strip. Back at the boat I filled the water tank since my gear was wet already then go the provisions put away.

Tonight we are having Harold and his wife Jackie along with Ken over for dinner. I made brownies with pecans, chicken and rice in the pressure cooker and fresh green beans with dehydrated Forest blend mushrooms. Both Jackie and Ken brought appetizers and red wine. All the food was good, but the rice was a little liquidy. I’m having a hard time getting it right. Either it’s scorched on the bottom from too high heat or too wet. I’ll keep working on it. We had a very enjoyable evening with much laughing. Harold was very impressed with how quickly Phil diagnosed and then had fixed the problem with our engine. Jackie will be leaving on Saturday for,Newfoundland to take care of their business while Harold gets the boat prepared for cruising before he goes back for Christmas. They hope to leave in April for who knows where yet.

Both Ken and we will be leaving at first light about 7am for Dayton Beach via the ICW. That’s the easiest way and no worries about increased wind and waves if we went outside on the Atlantic.