Jensen Beach, Florida

Yesterday, Peter and I left home at 3:30 a.m. and flew to West Palm Beach by way of Houston. The man who helped us find a place to leave Mantra, Jason Lewis, a fellow Ocean Cruising Club member, graciously picked us up at the airport and drove us north to Jensen Beach, stopping at a Publix in Stuart to allow us to get a few groceries before going to the mooring field, The man who had been looking after our boat since mid-November, Forrest, was unable to transport us by dinghy from the dock to the mooring, but he had arranged for another cruiser, Chico, to accomodate us. Chico and his wife Stacy have four children and live aboard their boat full-time, having moved from Durango, Colorado. The three-year-girl, Ila, was very eager to help; she held the gate open, assisted with loading everything in the dinghy and accompanied us to our boat. 

Peter and his erstwhile crew had left the boat clean, but a closed-up vessel, even with a de-humidifier running, retains moisture in the air, which, when it rises as vapor, collects in miniscule droplets on the headliner (ceiling, for your landlubbers) and that becomes a haven for mold and mildew. Thus, little black dots speckled the headliner as well as the mostly enclosed pilot house up on deck. 

We were both too tired to accomplish much on Thursday after flying across the country. (I had only slept an hour in the night and another hour on the first flight.)  I unpacked the groceries, Peter started the refrigeration and we ate the other halves of our egg salad salads which I had made for us to eat on the plane. Bedtime for me was 9 p.m. and I immediately fell asleep. Peter was not far behind.

By 7:30 this warm, sunny (but blustery) Friday morning, both of us were up and ready to get to work. Peter got other systems up and running, and I started my thorough cleaning. I was dismayed to discover that the bottle of bleach, which eliminates those ugly black spots on contact, was nearly empty. Luckily, someone had purchased and left half a container of Lysol wipes with bleach, and those did the trick. But I missed the pungent aroma of bleach at work killing organic material!

Tackling the galley first, I started at the top and cleaned almost every surface down to the sole (floor for you landlubbers) with various cleaning supplies. In the process, I discovered that the drain fitting under one of the kitchen sinks was leaking, adding another job to Peter's long list. While I was waiting for surfaces to dry, I moved on to the pilot house, which had accumulated the most mold, mildew and dirt. Fortunately, I do have a good supply of Oxi-Clean, and that dissolved in a bucket of water enabled me to clean every hoizontal and vertical surface in the pilot house and the cockpit, including the truly filthy floor.

Ceiling of the pilot house with mold and mildew on the left and clean and reflective on the right

Then I moved on to the bathroom, cleaning absolutely everything in there. My next job was the drawers and clothes lockers in the main cabin, which only needed a light cleaning. Meanwhile, Peter was fixing things such as one of the cup holders and the spinnaker pole, ordering parts, getting the battens ready for when we hank on the mainsail tomorrow, launching the dinghy, studying the weather and making plans for getting under a 65-foot bridge (Our air draft is almost 67 feet.) and heading south. In the early afternoon, we took a break for a quick lunch--tortilla chips and queso blanco dip--and then returned to our tasks. I inventoried the food supplies in the pantry locker, which seems small from the front but is quite deep. I found that the majority of the provisions I had stocked for the guys when I left the boat in October were unused and there were quite a few cans of potato soup with bacon, chicken breast chunks, sardines, tuna, and pork and beans. Somehow we now have three bottles of Worchestershire sauce, two of them opened and more than half full, a lot of Goldfish snacks, and an enormious jar of extra chunky peanut butter, mostly full. (Unfortunately, I only like smooth, and Peter is not really a fan of peanut butter. I know of someone we will see soon, farther down the coast, who might like it.) The meat and fish based foods as well as the Worchestershire sauce and other sauces have been put in the most inaccessible bin at the back, ready for any omnivores who want to cook with or eat them.

We watched the sunset and then I tidied up my supplies and surveyed the cleanliness of the galley, pilothouse, bathroom and headliner in the aft cabin with joy. Peter got out the sail cover and put it on the boom while I made the first real meal we've had: ravioli, marinara sauce and sauted mushrooms. 

After dinner, after washing the dishes in the left basin of our two-basin kitchen sink (What luck that we have two!), I unpacked my suitcases. (Well, one was mine and one Peter and I shared; we managed to pack everything for a seven or eight month trip and have only two reasonable sized checked bags and one carry-on plus our personal bags.) I put all my clothes in my drawers and my hanging locker. The miscellaneous stuff has to wait until tomorrow. 

Now, it is approaching 10 p.m. and it's past my bedtime. The sun rises at 7 a.m., and I must be up and back to work with the daylight.