Sure doesn't feel like Spring! Brrrrrrr

We had originally planned to leave Ma. on Sunday but we still have things to do and since the boat will not be ready to splash for a few more days we decided to stay an extra day or 2. 
BTW it may be spring according to the calendar by its still COLD here in New England.  We have been here for10 days it has snowed twice!  That sure makes yard clean up more difficult, at least it melts by noon.
Today, we took a trip to Newport RI (20 min ride) as they have the largest West Marine in the country.  At least it was when it opened last year.  Big Sale and since West Marine bucks came in the mail why not, we were looking for a courtesy flag for Canada and a Quarantine Flag, to my amazement they had Cuba, Panama, Honduras and some others but NO Canada very odd.  We had lunch, walked around town window shopping, Jim bought some cigars and we headed out.  We were really surprised at the amount of people there, as it was a windy cold day.  But a trip to Newport is always fun.

Engel USA customer service and a re-test

Well I will say customer service at Engel is prompt in contacting unhappy customers.  After sleeping on my unhappiness with the Engel cooler and posting on the Blog about it.  I decided I should give the company some benefit of doubt.  So this morning I e-mail Engel USA and within 10 mins I received a call from them.  They ask questions as to how I treated the beverages before placing them in the cooler and how I should prep the cooler prior to filling.  They then advised me on how to test for a proper seal as this may be a problem and the cooler should be performing better. 
Since I am home for a week,  when I return, I will test and do another review to my findings.  I will also do a repost.  In the end all I want is a cooler to still have some ice in it after 6 days,  as it is advertised to "keeps ice for 8-10 days" STAY TUNED!
http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/02/valentines-day-farmers-market-what-is.html

http://sweetpeatrawler.blogspot.com/2011/03/update-on-engel-cooler-fyi.html

FYI the picture of the cooler on the first post was the ice from the old cooler, the next day I drained the water and refilled the cooler (to the top) with fresh ice.  I say this I am e-mailing this to Engel USA to follow.

Update on Engel cooler and customer service July 4th,2011

Customer service

NONE so much for standing behind their product after doing the suggusted seal test on the Engel 123 a couple of weeks later I again contacted the company and told them the cooler was not performing as advertised "keeps ice for 8-10 days"  in fact it keeps ice for 4 days at BEST! 
Finally after threating them with the BBB I at least got a response.  I told them at this cooler was no better than the cooler I was replacing which was 10 years old and was 1/4 the price and I wanted my money back and an address label sent to my home so I could sent it back.  They said they would send a label and a box to ship it in.  All set, we were returning home for a short visit and hauled the cooler back with us in anticipation of recieving the box to ship the cooler back.  It never came and all my e-mails I got NO response.  After our visit back home we once again hauled the cooler back to the boat and are now STUCK with it.  on top of all this the hinge on the lid keeps slipping out and we need to knock it back into place about once a month. 
So there we are!  I DO NOT RECOMMEND ENGEL coolers and I would suggust if your looking for a high quality cooler to maybe try the YETI.  Or save your money buy a coleman or igloo and take the money saved and buy more ice.

Update on the Engel Cooler FYI

Back in Feb. we broke down and purchased the Engel 123 cooler.  We said we would update to let everyone know if it lived up to the hype of " keeps ice for 8 days".  Though a very nice cooler well built etc. it keeps ice for 4 days just 1 day longer than our old igloo.  I have spoken with another person that has the yeti cooler and they have had similar results.  Cooler filled with beverages then iced (25 pounds) ice is good for 4 days, granted we are in the cooler thoughout the day but no the ice does not last for 8 days.
I thought I would update as someone asked how we made out.  I am comparing it to the Yeti as these are the 2 highest rated coolers.

SweetPea gets hauled out in Jacksonville for bottom work.

 Today we are at Huckins to have SweetPea hauled for bottom work and inspection.

 We are very curious to see what her bottom is looking like.

 This is very nerve racking to me

 Her bottom looks better than we thought.  And the props, rudders and shaft are in great condition.

This is the first time we have taken on fuel direct from the truck,  but at $3.40 a gallon we figured might as well fill her up now!  Who knows how much it will be in 2 weeks the way prices are going up. ( The marina  next door is $3.80)
So now that SweetPea is safely on the hard we will go home while she is being beautified.  We will return around the 29th of March to resume our journey up the east coast.

Jacksonville Canvas and bottom work

As we sit in Jacksonville for the next few days it will be boat cleaning, rearranging and thinning out some STUFF to take back home that is not needed. Amazing how little you really need to live, granted we are not ruffing it by any means, its just everything is at a smaller scale and amounts but with all or most of the comforts of home. So anyway, off the boat comes my golf clubs, Jim will keep his, more pots and pans (too many), way too many clothes although it is tough to pick and choose, anything a little big goes, I have 4 purses on board why?, 2 coolers are going they are just floating around the boat. And an assortment of other things not sure what yet, but off they go.




Today first thing, well after coffee, we hopped on our bikes and off we went first to Boatswain Locker to see Bill and let him know we are back in town. He will start work Monday morning on the enclosure. Then down the road to check out a couple of boat yards for bottom work and a hull cleaning. The boat will be hauled out at Huckins for its annual checkup and beauty treatments. When the boat was surveyed back in June the bottom paint was just starting to peel off a bit, we knew then, we were going to need a bottom job in the near future. We don't think the last paint job was prepped properly so we will see what it looks like when she comes out of the water. And the props, shaft and rudders can be inspected as well. Funny, Paul at Huckins and Bill at Boatswain are natives of Massachusetts, we run into Ma. natives daily here in Florida .

Good Morning Jacksonville!

We left St Augustine yesterday for a 6 hour travel day to Jacksonville it was BRRRRRRrrrrr!  Hopefully it was the LAST day we will have to endure traveling without any enclosure.   The wind was in our faces all day.  But we made it, hoping at every turn that there would be some protection from the wind.  Not many pictures taken yesterday but we had a beautiful sunrise this morning.

Cocoa Village to Daytona Beach and on to St Augustine

So we finally left Fort Pierce on Monday at 7:30am and Landed in Cocoa Village at 3pm Monday night very windy and chilly.
We met a up with The Firestones on Grace Full also loopers its always nice meeting up with fellow AGLCA members.
 We left there 7:45am and arrived in Daytona (Halifax Harbour) about 2 o'clock on Tuesday a bit warmer and not as windy but still light jacket weather.  Once we got into our slip off with the jackets and down to short sleeves again.
Today we left Daytona at 8am, oh its bike week there,  and we are now in St. Augustine (2pm) again it was less windy and much warmer.  As we were preparing the boat (line fenders and such) to dock the wind really picked up for once the weatherman was on the money, We will see if they are right about tomorrows weather as of now they are calling for increased wind passing rain and thunder in the morning and more steady afternoon rains.  Looks like it may be 2 days here in St. Augustine.  The original plan was to be in Jacksonville between the 7th and the 10th for scheduled boat work.  Looks like that won't be happening more like the 11th. 
No pictures today the WiFi is not the best I will get them up on a separate post when we have a better connection.

Day 148 and counting.......... Fort Pierce

148 Days or 21 weeks WOW as long as that is, it is beginning to feel like we have been in Fort Pierce that long.  Well, maybe not I can certainly think of worse places to be.  Today, though still very windy, it would have been doable(?) however the captain had a tumble down the stairs of the upper helm last night in the rain.  Actually he never touch the steps!  He is ok, actually very lucky, just a very sore body and bruised ego.  Tomorrow calls for rain in the morning and 70% chance of rain/thunder/lightening in the afternoon, hmm a triple threat.  Guess where we will be tomorrow?  Just as well as it will lend more healing time.

Today was the famous FortP farmers market, yesterday was downtown Fort Pierce Day with food vendors a band and Irish dancers.  Tonight is a jazz and blues trio Oh! and last Thursday night was biker night which is every Thursday BTW they close downtown off to traffic and the street is lined with bikes. So there has been plenty of activities to keep us entertained.  All FREE and if you have your drinks in plastic cups you can walk the streets with them, even better.

Funny you know you spent alot of time in one place when the local boaters welcome you back.  And there was this very nice couple from Mass. we met last month at the farmers market, well they were walking by our boat this morning on the way back from the market, big hello, nice to see you back,when did you get in?  LOL then the big question? How long are you staying? UGH!!! best answer I had was "hopefully we will be leaving BEFORE you."  They are here until April 1st, they have a vacation home on the ICW.

Heres to hoping the next post is from somewhere north of here.

Fort Pierce......... Still!

 Great deal we picked up 2 (new to us) locking fenders got both for less than the price of 1

 The radar works! this is split screen radar on the left chartplotter on the right or you can overlay on one screen

 anchor and platform all beefed up and ready to go

 Garmin HD radar dome installed and working!  Captains been busy.

 What is that?  Meet Lolligag a custom design and build! AGLCA members from SD

 Happy smiling faces!  Matt and Sandee on their great adventure.

 More Loopers Mint Julep and Sassy 2 heading for the Bahamas

Our dockmate for the month also heading to the Bahamas for 4 months

The night before we left Stuart we had a problem with the fresh water pump, so we had no water for 2 days.  But, luckily, the captain was able to fix-it with a $40 part, we just had to wait on it. 
We hope to leave tomorrow but there is a BLOW going on so we will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings us for weather.  If the window opens we will head out, move up north closer to the Cape Canaveral area as we are hoping to see the launch of the Atlas 5 on Friday.