Port Canaveral

Somewhere along the passage to the Cape, it dawned on me that the immigration office would be closed on Saturday and Sunday — and there was no way I could make it there during office hours on Friday. That effectively confined me to the boat, flying the yellow quarantine flag. I allow myself brief trips to the harbor office, but otherwise follow the rules. Actually this isn’t much of a problem: catching up on sleep, cleaning the boat, doing the laundry, and getting some maintenance done fills the weekend easily. And Patrick arrives on Sunday evening.

Monday 9am I am at the immigration office of Port Canaveral and check in without problems. The customs authorities waive their boat visit, we are free to sail the USA. First mission: re-provision. The last full provisioning was in France and that’s a few months ago by now, the boat is pretty empty. We take an Uber to the recommended Publix Supermarket, which, as it turned, out is not ideal for purchasing large quantities but definitely more than good enough.

Patrick is super eager to get busy, so we break out a big project: paint repair it is! Aluminium is notoriously difficult to paint and add sun and salt water to the mix to get a never ending story. The tiniest of penetrations of water makes the paint blister and the blister growth won’t stop before you add ample oxygen such that a stable oxide layer can form. Typically corners, edges and holes are places where the blistering begins. Once we open the blister, the true extend of the problem becomes visible. Usually the paint is detached for a much larger extend already. Sand, etch clean and strip oxide with acid, wash, paint with 2-component primer. Done for now.

The forth coming weather doesn’t look perfect but certainly good enough to go for a first leap. A departure around noon on Tuesday should be good.Read more