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!