Tuesday 1/9/2018

Today was the first day of a warming trend (in PA) that would end highs below freezing.  It was a good day to fly and my flight from Harrisburg to Sanford FL was flawless.  I arrived at about 1:15pm.  I had arranged for a woman (Tammy) to pick me up from the airport and drive me to Vero Beach.  She is the owner of a Senior care giver business in Vero and lives near Sanford.  She drives back and forth a couple times a week and (very infrequently) takes passengers for about half the price charged by shuttle services.  Tammy is an amazing young woman.  Here day job is managing a scholarship fund for astronauts.  About 30 years ago, a number of astronauts started the fund designed to find and develop the some of the brightest and most promising minds in the US.  The fund draws from 40 colleges across the country and provides scholarships to about 10 individuals a year.  She has a team of about 12 who manage the fund and, along with a board of several current and retired astronauts, select new scholars, hold fund raisers, etc.  I was fascinated hearing about it.  Her part time job involves the Seniors Helping Seniors franchise she and her husband purchased about a year ago.  Tammy was a care giver for her grandmother for several years and care giving is her real passion.  She wants to focus more on the business in the future. 

Unfortunately, it rained the last half of the drive to Vero Beach.  Tammy dropped me (and my luggage) off at about 4:30pm.  It stopped raining about 5 minutes later and I was lucky to have one of the marina office staff give me (and my luggage) a boat ride back to True Blue.  By the way, I can't say enough about the management and staff at the Vero Beach City Marina.  What a great place to stay.

I won't way I was surprised but waiting for me was one dead and one very sick battery.  The dead one read 7 volts and the sick one read 10.2 volts.  Much to my surprise, my trusty Yanmar engine started - I know, it is hard to believe.  I did have a backup lawn and garden battery but didn't have to use it.  I wasn't surprised about the condition of the batteries because my new friend Bruce Dandt had dinghyed over from his marina 2 miles away (2 weeks before) to check on the boat and told me the batteries were low.  I had prayed things would be better but those prayers were not answered.   I ran the engine for 45 minutes and was able to get the one battery up to 12.2 volts.  Needless to say, the remainder of that night was spent in the DARK.