Are We Cruisers Yet?

We did it! 

We left Harbortown today heading south. We had been working on getting out of town since the end of February, but it seems like there was always something standing in the way. First, our engine quit and we needed to sort out what was wrong with it, then we all had the stomach flu, and finally, our bilge pump was malfunctioning. Our stars aligned and we did leave the dock. 

Last night we worked on storing our massive amount of provisions and finishing all of our todos until we literally could not stay awake, then woke up early for our pre-departure checklist. It seemed misty in the marina, but as we went out the channel we realized it was a pea soup fog. We could only see one marker in front of us and one behind. We have been regularly checking the fuel filter gauge since our engine quit a couple weeks back with clogged Racor and noticed that it was steadily climbing despite our two fuel polishing sessions, new filter and Jacob bleeding the entire thing. We pulled over and anchored and changed the fuel filter. It did look a bit dirty, but nothing too crazy, and unlike the last time we changed it, there were not any chunks settled in the fluid below it. We got underway but unfortunately the gauge continued to rise and rise until it was in the red. We pulled over in Jensen Beach and anchored again. This time, we took the dinghy off deck, went ashore and Lorelei and I took a taxi to the local West Marine for some 30 micron filters. The hope is that they will allow more fuel through and cause fewer vacuum problems.

We only made it 15 miles of the 200 today, but hopefully tomorrow will be more like a 50 mile day. Despite (or maybe because of) all of the snafus today, we are really feeling like cruisers tonight. We are anchored in a very pretty anchorage with a nice breeze blowing through while we have a glass of wine in the cockpit. Audrey was very excited that we were sleeping at anchor tonight for the first time, and today while she was working on a new blog post on the bow of the boat she said ‘this is a really great life for a 7 year old girl’.