Once Around the Barn– October 29, 2022, Palm Coast Marineland, Florida USA

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Sally

Once Around the Barn – October 29, 2022, Palm Coast Marineland, Florida USA

Today, we turned in our trusty steed. We have had our little rental car since April, and she has been great. Officially we have been carless for the last year, but it’s nice to only have to rent when you need one and not pay all the time.

Amazing to think but we put more miles on the car than it had on it when we picked it up. We started with 6,000 and ended with over 19,000. Here’s a fun fact…Sailing Hubby and I have travel over the circumference of the earth this year. The circumference of the earth is ~24,000+ miles. We have traveled 9,000 miles by motorcycle out to the west coast, 13,000 via car to Ohio visiting family and back to Florida, then 2,000+ nautical miles back from the Bahamas.

Anyway, after we dropped off the car, we decided to catch the Ohio State vs. Penn State game for the afternoon then headed home. All was fine and OSU won (yeah!), except when we came home, the bilge light was on, and something was running. Uh Oh!! Turns out I think we had two issues. First was we are on the T dock and must have gotten a bad wake that triggered a faulty bilge switch. There was minimal water and no additional coming on. So, since Hubby determined it was electrical, he swapped out the faulty sensor and we were good to go. Whew! It is never a good feeling to come back to the bilge light on – ever.

This light should be called the “oh shit” light

Then we found out our friends, who were staging at the Jekyll Island Marina, had gotten hit by someone trying to dock without their full engine controls! Crazy. No damage to them or their boat but that would be awful! Another close call.

While I am sure we could fix things on the boat forever, the time has come, and we are on the move again. It’s time to leave our little haven in Marineland. For day one we passed Daytona and were now trying to time the tides to get under all the bridges on the Intercoastal. So far so good but the closest one we scraped on last year was in Vero Beach. At least we had dolphins to kick off our trip again this year!

Saga Isn’t Over – Palm Coast Marineland, FL, USA – October 28. 2022

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Sally

Saga Isn’t Over – Palm Coast Marineland, FL, USA – October 28. 2022

Ron started asking himself – what’s my time worth? We spoke too soon, and our chart plotter isn’t fixed. We have tried multiple cards, Sailing Hubby has taken it apart multiple times, and it still only works intermittently. Not good when this is what is driving our auto pilot and keeps us from not only running aground but also hitting other boats. It’s time to cut bait and invest in a new one. Sadly, if we get a new chart plotter, we must buy a new radar too. Ugh! This is a multi-thousand-dollar expense we were hoping to avoid but it we are spending cash, at least it is on the stuff that keeps us alive and this is it. The hitch is the charts for our new chart plotter are sold out everywhere…great. We finally found one to purchase with the charts included and although it was a bit more, we really had no choice as the charts are not optional.

And since the fixing never ends, the engine on the starboard side has had difficulty starting. Sailing Hubby has figured identified the issue and it’s a doosey. Our starter was only attached with one bolt since it had fallen out and it broke the bracket! At least we had a spare of this already and he was able to fix this pretty quickly. Now that we have one that actually attached it works just fine. Insane.

Then we tested the dinghy engine and of course, it needs parts too. It needs a new fuel filter after nearly getting stranded in the middle of the intercoastal.

At least we got a break one of the days and got to drive up and see a couple of Caribbean Friends we had met this past season to have lunch which was awesome to see them again. They are getting ready to launch from a boat yard in St. Mary’s GA. In addition, Ron found a guy selling very reasonably priced scuba equipment. He got a weight belt and a new mask, and I got new fins and a new mask. He hopes to do a lot more spear fighting (as we hope to head to the Berry Islands) for actual fish this year and not just lobster so this will help him. He also bought a longer spear on Amazon to make this easier as well since you can’t get as close to them as you can the lobster. We both struggled with our equipment last year and knowing it’s something we really like to do and want to do more of it will pay off having better equipment. Hopefully this will also lower our grocery bill since Ron won’t need to buy much meat if he catches more fish.

Over the next few days, we finished up our provisioning, Ron scrubbed the entire boat with the power washer, I got all our provisions repackaged (cardboard = cockroaches so it had to go!) and put away on the boat, and as he installed the new radar and chart plotter, I learned how to hoist him up the mast!

Our list of project is quickly coming to an end and now we just have to get gas for the dinghy, refill our propane tank, and we found out one of our hatches on the starboard leaks so we get to fix that. We are also waiting on a couple Amazon deliveries (read into this spare parts) and we are out of here on Monday!

Happy Splash Day! – October 20, 2022, St. Augustine, FL, USA

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Sally

Happy Splash Day! – October 20, 2022, St. Augustine, FL, USA

I feel bad since lately everything Ron has touched is broken. First off, chart plotter decided to crap out (which we verified on our float down to our new Marina today). Sailing Hubby initially thought it was the card with our Florida charts that was corrupt. So, he located another card 2^nd hand we went to pick up locally (luckily!). However, our new card was only working occasionally which means it truly is our chart plotter. A nice expensive thing if this is the case. Sailing Hubby is not one to jump to the most expensive fix of buying a new one right away and like all things, he simply takes it apart to fix it first. He’s amazing and thinks he fixed it. We get to test it out on our next leg of the trip. Fingers crossed that this is the end of the saga.

Then, we were scrubbing the dinghy getting it ready, and every time he used the power washer, it would trip the inverter and we lost power. That wasn’t fun but we finished the job. Sadly though, we must order a bigger fuse and he must rewire it again. After that, he went to start the generator and the pull start just came off in his hand. That required him to take apart the generator and restring it so we could have hot water to shower, and we had to test it anyway.

The good news is both engines start (although we are ordering a new alternator backup to take with us just in case), the dinghy outboard oil has been changed, and he fixed the shower drain on the starboard side (which we have had continuous trouble with, and I am glad it is not our main side shower drain).

All these fixes were not enough to keep us warm when we woke up yesterday and it was 49 degrees with no heat. The car was warmer than the boat, so we dressed quickly, and a donut & coffee run was in order! Time to get splashed so we can get to the marina and get some shore power to plug in our heat!! We were finishing up all the last-minute items to get in the water and for one of our Walmart runs, decided to do provision run #1 (and then went back for beer run #2 – hey beer is about $50 a case in the islands – it literally pays to bring it with us!). It was all that we could fit in the car, and no one even checked our cart as we left the store. Odd.

This brings us to today – splash day! Finally! It was a very chilly 53-degree morning and I found myself singing “Back in the Saddle Again” in my head. Boats don’t like to be on the hard and it was high time get her wet to see if she floats after taking out both sail drives.

The amazing news is – SHE FLOATS! No leaks and an uneventful run to our new marina down the street. Whew!! Just how we like it and let me tell you it feels REALLY good to be back on the water. My pet dolphins, Buddy & Biscuit even made a cameo to wish us well 😊.

Our splash date has moved so many times I have lost track. We are now to the point in Florida where we have cold fronts moving from the west consistently so this should lessen our hurricane risk and the 10-day forecast looks pretty good. Now that we are at the dock, we can finish the rest of our provisioning (where we have heat!) before we turn in the car. Once we turn in our car, we can head south and wait for our weather window to make the jump to Bahamas. It’s a happy day indeed!

Home Sweet Home – St. Augustine, FL, USA, October 14, 2022

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Sally

Home Sweet Home – St. Augustine, FL, USA, October 14, 2022

After a few days of relaxing in Jekyll, we made out way back to the boat and man, it’s good to be home. Staying in a boatyard on the hard isn’t really fun but I am happy to be back. The boat is a complete disaster, and our car could not be fuller! We did provisioning run #1 at Sam’s club with Mom & Dad.

We worked through putting the boat back together on day one just to make it livable, spent Sunday morning putting our sails and new sail bag up (which looks terrific by the way!), and Ron is working through installing our new AIS (which transmits and receives signals of boats nearby and let’s others know where we are.

Ron also bought another new toy, Starlink. We hope to be able to get rid of Iridium Go and use this instead with better reception and less cost. He set it up and is testing is now. The speeds, even in Florida, seem to be screaming fast!

We have about a week worth of work to do which hopefully includes majority of our provisioning and then we splash. We wanted to give it another week since there is a cold front coming through and with luck, we will get a weather window to head down the intercoastal after this. In a perfect world, we would be in the Bahamas by Nov 1 but sailing never seems to have a schedule. Time will tell on this one.

Land Lubbers – October 11, 2022, Loss Creek, WV, USA

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Sally

Land Lubbers – October 11, 2022, Loss Creek, WV, USA

Well after an exciting hurricane week we were headed back to Ohio to see the kids one last time for the season and then back for a few days at the Parent’s Resort. We got to see all the girls. Daughter #1 was waiting on her visa to head to Spain on Saturday, Daughter #2 was doing great in Cleveland, we had a quick dinner with Daughter #3 before she headed to Florida on vacation, and coffee at the crack of dawn with Daughter #4. Whew!! A couple of happy hours with my sister and we headed to West Virginia to see Ron’s sister.

Trying to fit everyone in before we head out for a year was tough, but I am glad we took the time to do it. When we were in West Virginia, we decided to drive over and see Seneca Rock. The leaves were starting to change and although it was colder than we are used to, it was quite pretty.

It was unfortunate that Ron’s sister ended up with cellulitis in her arm the day we left, and she ended up in the ER to get antibiotics. She is OK but I am sure it wasn’t any fun. We hung out with my parents for a couple days since I am unsure how much we will get to see them before we leave. Ron helped my Dad move his water heater and re-plumb the water lines for a water filtration system. We took advantage of having an address and ordered our minute packages from Amazon. Not having an address can be an issue.

Now that we are rested and relaxed, it’s off to the boat we go. We have about a week’s worth of work to do to get everything ready for our splash date which is currently October 20^th. The final weather forecast will solidify our plans to take off and we would like to be in the Bahamas by November 1^st.

Cement Donkeys

Monthly Archives: October 2022