Audentes

Day Eight in Fort Pierce, aka Fort Beggar Expensive white powder, more latex gloves, Vero Beach At West Marine, a haggard man placed his items on the counter. The woman at the register rang it up and announced the total cost. From here, it is unclear precisely what was said, but we believe it went […]

Day Seven in Fort Pierce, aka Vagrantshire Building a hull of glass, watching neighbors disappear, chimichangas By now the routine is set; we get up before eight, have cereal, and cover ourselves in potentially dangerous chemicals for most of the day. Heaven knows we’ve ingested enough acetone, acid, and aspirin to kill a family of […]

Day Six in Fort Pierce, aka Gypsy Gulch Manual labor takes a back seat to intellectual struggle Rain fell this morning, fortunately squelching any possibility of going to work on the blisters with mysterious chemicals. Instead, we went to the library (freer from mosquitoes than our boat) in order to plan the process of reconstructing […]

Day Five in Fort Pierce, aka Vagabond Village Grinding to a halt and driving to Miami and back I woke up at 6:30 am, and woke Aaron up at 6:45. We skipped breakfast and went straight to work, grinding away the last traces of the cancer in our hull and wiping the open sores with […]

Day Four in Fort Pierce, aka Drifter City Grinding in the morning, leisure in the afternoon We woke early, ate bagels with cream cheese, and set to work with industry. The large grinder left by the previous owner was a heavy and unwieldy weapon, but smoothed the gaping cavities in the hull like a dream. […]

Day Three in Fort Pierce, aka Trampton Whence our heroes discovered innumerable blisters in their beloved hull The day began brightly, with the sun, at 7 a.m. A breakfast of cereal and coffee led to a trip to the West Marine, where Aaron and Brian searched in vain for trisodium phosphate (TSP). Resolving to use […]

Day Two in Fort Pierce, aka Hoboville After a breakfast of the now familiar Kellogs’ Smart Start cereal, we got in the truck in order to run some errands. First, we offloaded the previous owner’s books at the Treasure Coast Hospice Thrift Store. Next, we returned a real marine current converter and a faux marine […]

First Full Day at the Boatyard in Fort Pierce, aka Bumtown We cleaned out the boat today, bow to stern, using a host of chemicals designed to banish bacteria and disrespect dirt. The first items of interest we found was a business card of the former owner, on the back of which was scrawled some […]

Despite often being the longest passage completed during a circumnavigation, many sailors consider the leg from the Galapagos to the Marquesas to be among the most enjoyable. The winds are supposed to be fair, the seas are said to be relatively calm, and a favorable current tends to add a couple of knots of speed. […]