Miami!
We’ve been underway two and half days and just like that, we’ve set up temporary housekeeping in Miami Beach. It’s a wonderful and strange thing, to travel from place to place with your home fully intact. Our routines, our possessions, our habits simply follow us. Like a turtle’s shell, John always says.
Spot is frustrating me with it’s odd inability to upload our positions automatically. But I will continue to work out the bugs. For now, here’s our map!
Tomorrow is a day off for some shopping and boat projects, in hope of making a long passage outside the Intracoastal later this week. We need the East winds to abate- universe, send us good vibes!
Speaking of which, we had a big karmic moment on Monday afternoon. We were trying to get off the dock and out to an anchorage, just to set ourselves up for Tuesday’s run. Just after four o’clock John tried to start the dinghy motor and it wouldn’t run. Diagnosis: a clogged carburetor (thank you, Ethanol!). He raced up to the outboard shop owned by a friend of ours, Eric, who we met on our trip south five years ago. We led Eric and his family through Biscayne Bay, and across to the oceanside via Angelfish Creek. As we retraced those same steps today, almost exactly, it reminded me of how the universe had paid us back. Our little bit of help was paid back in spades, as Eric took the carburetor apart and got us back underway in less than an hour. You never know. You just don’t.
Love from Miami Beach, and more soon.
Ah the ethananol! I know! It was killing us and our carburetor too. We found a local solution that may not be very easy while you are cruising but I will share. Airplane fuel. They don’t go by the same rules and have plain old gas without the gunk. So now when we need to top off the dinghy tank my husband pops it in the back of his car and drives out to the little local airport (small private plane airport/ airstrip) and fills up there. We were having constant issue with our outboard and they all stopped the moment we did this. So if you happen to be near one on the way up or if a marina can give you a lift to a small sirfield or something… think about it.
In the mean time, we would pull the fuel line right OFF the outboard before turning the outboard off itself. Then let the engine run just on what it has inside until it stops. You are running it dry and then the gunk doesn’t collect in there. I hope this makes sense??
Say Hi to Miami!
So great to see you guys underway! Enjoy the ride ~
Totally does- we run it out of fuel religiously now and onlu buy ethanol-free marine fuel. The airplane fuel tip is great!