The Things You Stumble on While Traveling....

We've done a lot of traveling since our last post. We left Daytona Beach on November 18th. We enjoyed our 'dinghy over for a drink' with friends, and they allowed us to use their shower facilities at the marina they keep their boat in. We headed out towards Titusville with the intention of spending a few nights to watch a rocket launch. On the way there, we had to go through New Smyrna again. We recalled the eventful time coming north through the area (you can read about that adventure here: 'Bailing From New Smyrna To Daytona'). We were making good time, passing a few boats, when all of a sudden we heard this really loud noise.

Our daughter said, "It's sounds like the anchor chain!" The Admiral went running up, and sure enough the anchor chain was dumping itself overboard. The Admiral quickly ran in and shut off the breaker. The Captain immediately dropped to idle and pulled the boat over towards the side. Fortunately, the Admiral had remembered the safety line on the anchor, so the anchor had stayed put, but a good 50 ft of chain was hanging under the boat. The windlass would not work properly, so the Captain and Admiral quickly pulled the chain up by hand. With the crisis temporarily averted, we continued on. We realized that this would make anchoring at the next location difficult, so we got a spot in Titusville Marina to tie up. The Captain immediately went up to fix the windlass issue, only for there to not be an issue. That's right folks, the windlass was working flawlessly (and has been ever since). We decided that apparently New Smyrna does not like us (considering this event and the prior event going north) and vowed to avoid the area from now on. The weather was turning colder, and the marina was costly, so we decided to bail on the rocket launch and head to warmer weather in Melbourne.

We spent five days in Melbourne through the nasty cold front that came through. Fortunately it was warmer than it would have been further north, and it gave us the opportunity to get groceries. We left Melbourne in time to have Thanksgiving in Ft. Pierce:

It was not the lavish affair we were used to, but we did manage to whip together something decent. We had intended to remain in Ft. Pierce only long enough to get a window to go outside into the Atlantic to continue south. After spending a week there, with no window in sight, we decided to continue south inside on the Intracoastal.

We spent a midge filled night in Peck Lake before arriving in Palm Beach. Palm Beach turned out to be a very interesting place. You encounter interesting things while traveling. We anchored right near a city park that was decorated for Christmas. They deck out the park and have a nightly show for the city all through December (completely free to the public). We got to experience Sandi, a 600 ton sand castle decorated as a Christmas tree:

There were also other sandcastles, a mini golf course, an area where you could make your own snowman (out of sand), etc.

 

        

The whole park lights up at night and plays music for four hours every evening.

We knew we would have to remain in Palm Beach until a window to the outside opened up, as the trip south on the inside was very unpalatable. There were dozens of draw bridges and a 40 mile stretch of rough waters. Not that Palm Beach was devoid of it's own rough waters. On our second day there, while we were playing tourist on shore, our boat had a bit of a mishap.

We knew something must have gone wrong, when we arrived back at the boat, since the interior looked like the boat had been massively thrown around. We had a few broken items, and stuff that typically never moves had been misplaced. Confusion ensued until we got a message from the boat that had been anchored near us (and were gone when we returned). Apparently in the wind and wakes, our boats had collided. They immediately pulled up anchor and left after the mishap, having only gotten a minor scratch on their bow. We, however, had a nasty gouge in our bow that would have to be repaired prior to going outside. So, we contemplated looking for a fiberglass repair shop. Unfortunately, it was a Friday, and the next pretty window for going outside was the following Tuesday. So, if we waited to have the repair done, we would lose the window. The Captain and Admiral decided it was time to try and tackle a fiberglass repair themselves. So the Admiral set out patching the hole:

With the hole filled, solid, and strong we knew we could head on with our own schedule. The Admiral put gel coat over everything, to blend it in with the rest of the deck, prior to departure. She wasn't pleased with the final result of the gel coat (hence no pic of it), but it wasn't too bad considering it was our first time attempting such a thing. She intends to redo the gel coat after she's had a bit more practice making it look nice.

The following Monday we decided to pull up anchor and move north of the draw bridge we were anchored near, so we would have easy access to the inlet on Tuesday. The draw bridge only opens once an hour, so we aimed for the 2pm opening in the event anything went wrong. It was a good thing too, since when we pulled up anchor, we pulled this up instead:

Our anchor chain was wrapped six different ways around the bike. So we had to slowly motor over to the city dock, tie up, and spend an hour (and lots of bruises) untangling the chain and retrieving our anchor. We left the offending item resting on the public city dock figuring they could dispose of it for us as payment for the small amount of dredging we unwillingly did in their waters. We then made the 3pm drawbridge opening and anchored to await the morning.

We headed out Tuesday morning into the Atlantic Ocean to head south to Ft. Lauderdale. It was a perfect trip. The water was incredibly calm. The kids couldn't believe we were actually 'outside'. The Intracoastal had been rougher on us for the past few weeks. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale in a timely manner and anchored north of the Los Olas bridge. Again, the things you stumble on while traveling are interesting. Anchored where we were, right on the edge of the Intracoastal, we had front row seats to the Winterfest parade. There were over 50 boats, decked out with signs and lights, all passing in a parade right next to us. Pitbull was actually on the 3rd boat that went by! The kids were so excited! Here are just a few of the pics we got:

We were originally going to stay in Ft. Lauderdale until we got a good window to go outside (a necessity since it wasn't possible to take the inside route down) to Key Biscayne, and provision for our eventual trip to the Bahamas. However, Ft. Lauderdale proved frustrating to attempt to provision. All of the marinas and moorings were full, so we had no way to get mail, rent a car (nowhere to park one overnight), or have access to a dinghy dock past 4pm. A window for going south was opening up, and rumor had it that it would be the last window to head south until after Christmas. So, we decided to throw caution to the wind. We made a quick trip (via Uber) to the nearest Wal-Mart and got a few supplies. Then on December 14th, we headed back out into the Atlantic for a 28 hour trip to Nassau. Here is a pic of the water just as we left cell phone range outside Ft. Lauderdale:

The trip over was incredibly calm. The only mishap that occurred was our port side navigation light went out on us as we were leaving Ft. Lauderdale. The Admiral came to the rescue. She hung out on the bow of the boat, going 7 knots underway, with 1000s of feet of water beneath us, and rewired the whole light on the go so that it was working properly before nightfall. Even our cat Tiger found the whole trip uneventful. He's finally acclimated to it all:

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for a few hours overnight to sleep. Then, at around 2pm on Thursday, Nassau was in sight:

So, we've done it. We've finally made it out of Florida, and are enjoying the beautiful blue clear waters of the Bahamas. We are going to stay for awhile. However, we aren't making any real plans. Or rather, the plans we do make are in the sand at low tide ;-)

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Back on the Water and Moving!

As planned, we left in early October to visit family in Texas and Arkansas for several weeks. Our timing could not have been more perfect, as we left two days before Matthew struck. It was quite chaotic the day before we left, as we had to prepare the boat for a Category 3 Hurricane.

For the first time, we had to strip the boat. The bimini proved much easier to get off than we thought it would. So the bimini and sunshades all came down, were neatly folded, and placed in very large Ziploc Space Bags. The genoa also had to come down. We were very nervous about that as we'd never removed one of the sails before. But, we opened it up and down it came flapping in the breeze. We even got it folded perfectly for easy access to raise it later. The sail fit perfectly in its designated bag. All of the outside cushions were stored in the empty cabin. The bag of bimini was tossed into one of the heads. The sail bag was placed in the salon floor with the outside plastic chairs and cooler. The dinghy was kept raised without the outboard. While we didn't lash the dinghy down, we did tie it to the boat in six different directions to ensure it stayed put. The outboard was mounted in a separate place in the cockpit to ensure its safety. The kayaks were stacked and lashed to the center of the bow of the boat between the trampolines. We literally lashed lines through the kayaks themselves and around the metal walkway to ensure they would go nowhere. We took extremely long spring lines and lashed our main sail bag (which housed the dropped main sail) to the boom. We also took care to ensure every line was tucked and tied so that nothing was flapping in the wind.

With the boat stripped and strapped to the hard, there was nothing left but to pack and leave. We plugged in a dehumidifier, set out four damp rid containers (one in each cabin), packed us and the cat up, locked everything up, and left. As we were leaving, the yard was finishing putting the last boat they had room for up on its blocks. There was literally a line of boats through the parking lot, one in front of the other, all being strapped down for the incoming hurricane. We were in Alabama when the mandatory evacutation of St. Augustine began, and the tropical storm on the front end of the hurricane struck. We were in Texas when the hurricane itself struck. We spent the next few days watching social media and news stations for any word on the boatyard. No one was allowed back into that area (due to damage and flooding) for a few days. We finally got word, from three different friends of ours in the yard, that our boat made it through the hurricane perfectly fine. The only damaged boat, in the whole yard, was one small monohull that had been parked directly in front of our boat. It had decided not to get strapped down, so as the flooding came in, it floated off of its blocks. As the water receded, the boat laid over on its side away from our boat. Somehow the boat had manage to miss every other boat in the vicinity when it went down.

With a sigh of relief, we proceed to enjoy our time away. We celebrated the Admiral's birthday in Texas with the Captain's family. We drove to Arkansas to see the Admiral's twin brother and his family. Our children enjoyed spending a solid week with their cousins. We celebrated our daughter's birthday back in Texas again. We got to spend time with friends that we hadn't seen in almost a year. With the exception of the horrible traffic, we had a good time. We headed back to our boat in the first part of November to prepare for our travels.

We arrived back at our boat on a Thursday. Absolutely no water entry had occurred from the hurricane. We had no new mold/mildew of any kind. The boat smelled fresh and clean. She was sporting a brand new bottom paint job as well to make her look extra good. We had the bimini back on and the genoa back up on Friday. We unlashed everything and put the boat back together. On Monday morning, first thing, we were scheduled to finally go back into the water.

Now you must realize that we had been out of the water and on the hard for six months. We had been through every small area of the boat, and every system, multiple times across the summer for various repairs and refits. To say we were nervous of placing her back into the water is an understatement. Neither of us could eat and we wondered if feeling like you were going to vomit was normal. We watched as they slowly (we were thankful they went very slow) drove her across the yard and gently placed her into the water.

We hopped on board and immediately checked the bilges - dry. We check the new through hulls - dry.  Whew. We turned the ignition for the port engine and it fired up perfectly. We turned the ignition on the starboard engine and....nothing. We tried again.....nothing. As we were trying a third time, the starboard bilge alarm went off - oh no!

The Admiral ran down to the starboard hull and began pulling up the bilge covers. She followed the incoming water towards the bow. Upon lifting the third cover (which is where the vent for the lower water tank comes in), she thought "Wait, is it fresh water or salt water? Maybe it's just one of the water tanks leaking." She quickly tasted the water, "Crap, salt water. It's coming from outside." She proceeded further toward the bow and found water streaming in around the speed sensor. The Captain had removed the speed sensor prior to launching to clean it. It's a screw fitting through the hull. Apparently when he reinstalled it, it got cross threaded. It just had taken a few minutes for the water to run through the bilge and sound off the alarm. Upon being informed of the problem, the Captain quickly responded to correct the problem. Out came the offending item and quickly re-screwed into place to stop the water. Whew. Now back to that engine. The Captain turned the ignition and it fired up. However, the battery charge light would not go out. We could, however, at least move now. They removed the straps from us and out we went over to the south dock. The Captain maneuvered the boat perfectly. You'd had never known he'd not driven her in six months! With fenders and dock lines out, we tied her up to the floating dock, turned off the engines, and expelled a sigh of relief. We were back on the water!

Our cat didn't share our enthusiasm. He did not like the loud engines firing up, let alone the boat actually moving! After awhile he settled in and became his normal curious self.

"Is it over yet?"

We had already scheduled to have a few days on the dock to get things ready before leaving. We went down and opened up the intakes for the heads (toilets). The hoses had been removed to change out the through hulls. Apparently they didn't get put back on quite tight enough. Both heads had small leaks around the hoses. We tried the starboard engine again. The battery charge light was still not going out. Damn. Must be the alternator. The port side engine had been running long enough to charge the starboard engine's battery so it could start. But the alternator would have to be replaced before we could leave, and we didn't have a spare on board. We got the hoses fixed within a few days. We had the alternator checked to confirm it was indeed the problem (it was), which took a few more days. Then we ordered two more brand new alternators (a replacement AND a spare) which took a few more days to arrive. While awaiting for the arrival of the new alternator, our three month old water pump died (fortunately, we had a new spare on board). The water pump was also under warranty, so a rental car later had us another new spare in stock. After a few store runs to stock up on supplies, the alternators arrived. The Captain changed out the alternator and we were set. We proceeded to go around the yard and let all the friends, that we had met and been hanging out with for six months, know we were finally taking off. With all of their well wishes, we set out at 7:00am this morning.

With the new props, our like new boat drives like a dream. She makes 8-9 knots with the engines now and doesn't shake or rattle like before. She drives very smooth. We came upon the north end of the Matanzas inlet (the area of our grounding, that caused our original stop in St. Augustine six months ago). We had left early to ensure an arrival through the area on a rising tide. This time, we flew through untouched. We stopped for gas in Palm Coast. Again, the Captain handled her like he'd never been away from the helm. Our first destination heading south this evening is Daytona Beach. We owe a few friends of ours a 'dinghy over for a drink.' It's our turn to host, so we are prepared with burger, brats, and beer. We are finally on the move again, and it feels great!



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Work.Eat.Bathe.Sleep.Repeat

I know... I know... It's been too long since I've posted anything. I have thought about making a post many, many times. However, to be honest, not much has changed since the last post. We're still on the hard in St. Augustine, FL. We're still spending every day working our butts off to get the boat ready to go back into the water. Work, eat, bathe, sleep, repeat. That's how we have spent the entire summer.

Okay, maybe a few things have changed: School started at the end of August, so our children are back to working hard (or rather sometimes hardly working) on their schoolwork five days a week. The boat work is officially finished. Which means we could put her into the water at anytime. So why the heck are we still here? Well it's certainly not the location or company. After all, we are headed into month five here, and the sight and sounds of a working boat yard have long since lost any and all appeal.

I mean, who wants to walk at least a block across gravel and rock to go to the toilet several times a day (especially when you have to walk past several workers gawking at you as you go)? Did I mention that out of the three accessible toilets, one is perpetually clogged, the other is always out of toilet paper, which means the third is generally occupied? Not to mention that two of the three toilets host mosquitos parties every evening. Since you weren't invited, you had better be careful hanging any pretty parts over that bowl of water - spend more than a second or two and you'll have plenty of bites to remind you why you don't use those. Did I mention those two toilets happen to also be the closest ones to us? Which means a longer walk to the generally occupied toilet, to then wait your turn and hope it's been cleaned recently.

How about heading to the single shower every evening (still at least a block away across rocks and gravel) and wondering if it will be occupied, or if you'll have to stand outside being a feast for the mosquitoes while you wait your turn? Speaking of the shower (a single shower used by both men and women, no toilet or sink, just a single shower stall), you should definitely wear your shower shoes and don't touch anything while you're in there. I'm pretty sure the years worth of mold and mildew are looking for a way out of there, and I'm not interested in giving any of it a ride.

Ahh, I know what you're thinking. At least we have a great view of the river behind us and the wonderful smells of the ocean. The view of the river typically includes a variety of ill behaving boaters yelling loudly at one another and speeding through a minimum wake zone. The smell of the ocean is obliterated by the foul odor of the water treatment plant down the road. In general, one tries not to smell anything when outside. Yes, even the sounds are drowned out by the various equipment, vehicles, and machines working in the yard. If you're really lucky, you get woken in the middle of the night by the large lift preparing to haul some poor chap's boat that's taking on water. At least the newly damaged vessel gives us all something to gawk at for a few days afterward. In case you couldn't tell, we are sick to death of this place. So again, then why the heck are we still here? The answer is relatively simple: Colin, Hermine, and Julia.

When Colin came through, we bailed to a hotel room for the evening. When we returned, the starboard aft end of the boat had managed to sink into the mud. They brought the lift over and set us right (well, mostly right - we haven't really been level since then). We had the boat strapped down for for Hermine. Actually, we strapped everything down. Then we sat and waited while Hermine shot north doing nothing to us but dumping some rain. Julia caught us totally off guard. While the boat remained strapped down, we were completely unprepared. We got a lot of rain and a lot of wind, but we came through it just fine. One of our kayaks managed to blow a few feet, but otherwise all was fine. We're heading into October - the middle of hurricane season. Our boat is already on the hard and strapped down. Now would not be the best time to hop into the water and start traveling again. Unfortunately, we're better off staying put until November and then stage for the Bahamas. So, staying here is killing us slowly, but we don't want to risk a quicker death by heading back out just yet. That means it's time for a vacation.

Since the boat work is finished, there's technically nothing keeping us here. Since we have four to six weeks until we depart, we decided it would be a good time to go and see family. We've rented a minivan (groan - I know - but it's the only vehicle that will house us and the cat comfortably for hours) for three weeks in October. We will be running from here to see family in Texas and Arkansas. We leave in less than two weeks, and that window can't close soon enough. It will give us some much needed to time rest and relax. We will also be able to reset a bit and look forward to moving on in our travels. The sheer volume of work that we have accomplished this summer on the boat is staggering. She is all but a new vessel now. We will be immensely happy and proud when we launch her again in November. I have not included a list of all of the work we have done to date (since it would be pages upon pages for you to read through). Many of you out there aren't really interested in specifics like that, so I didn't want to fill this post with long drawn out specifics. However, I realize that some of you DO want to know all of those specifics, so I'm attaching a .pdf at the end of this post that shows all of the work done to date. That will give you some idea on how busy we've been ;-)

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Here's the .pdf that shows all the boat work:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0PUO-NSdonTWEdBeEdneE1SQk0

Still Here

I cannot believe it has been almost two months since the last blog post. So much has been going on, that time has just been flying by. For starters, we are still in Saint Augustine, Florida. We are also still sitting in St. Augustine Marine Center, on the hard. I must admit that we have almost forgotten what the sway of the boat feels like on the water. However, a whole lot of stuff has been going on to keep us going.

In the previous post you have probably read how we grounded the boat. We managed to lose a prop and bend the rudder. Turns out, we also cracked the bottom of our keel (which is one of our four water tanks). The good news is that it all added up to an insurance claim (which means cost wise we will only be out our deductible). The bad news is that the repairs have to be paid 100% before the insurance will re-imburse us all of those costs (minus the deductible). Needless to say, we did not have that kind of cash/credit laying around. So, we availed ourselves of the only option we had - a boat loan. We bought and paid for our boat with cash. Now, she has a loan attached to her. The good part is that we took more money out on her, than we needed on the repairs. That means we can do a few other things on our "wish list." With the loan application filed and the insurance claim made, all we had to do was kill time for awhile. So we played tourists in the beautiful city of Saint Augustine.

We prowled through the fort, we wandered the museums and shops, we visited St. Augustine Beach, we went on a ghost tour, we bought trolley passes to get a tour of the city, and we played lots of mini-golf. There are at least three mini golf courses in the vicinity. We have been to all of them multiple times. In fact, our son's fifteenth birthday rolled around at the end of May, and you guessed it, all day mini golf! Definitely not a bad city to get "stuck" in!

June rolled around with a visit from the parents. They drove over from Texas to see the boat in person. They thrilled us with a few days in a hotel to get a break from the heat. Our boat did not come with air conditioning, and summers in Florida are hot (not Texas hot mind you, but hot). They ended their visit with a few boat warming presents. One was a portable air conditioning unit for the boat - a wonderful break from the heat and cool sleeping nights! Another was two more foldable bikes, which means we now have four foldable bikes for transportation! They also managed to provide some non-cotton apparel for the admiral. Any woman will tell you that cotton is not your friend in the heat! The admiral is feeling much better these days!!! Needless to say we had a wonderful visit and the parents had to leave way too soon.

Within a few days of the parent's departure, the loan application was approved and work began. While the Marine Center began work on the stuff for the insurance claim, we began our work as well. We started with obtaining enough water hose and fittings to correct every "hose over hose and clamped" spot we could find. We were sick to death of water leaks from poor repairs, so we went through and fixed them all. The water pump is nice and quiet these days! Not to mention a dry bilge too!!!

We've decided to convert the boat from 230v AC to 110v AC. That means that everything from the inverter to the shore power cable (and all wires in between) have to be replaced. We decided to add an AC panel on the nav station, next to the DC panel. We had some additions to the DC side that there wasn't room for, so it was time to modify the nav station. We took out the old equipment that was no longer working, and the baby tv. In their place we constructed a new AC control panel for the AC breakers and for the DC additions (on separate ground buses of course). The nav station even has a nice vent up top to help with the heat. We obtained a new wi-fi extender (the existing one didn't work) and a new AIS transponder (since the one we had didn't work well and wouldn't send our location - only receive others). Needless to say the nav station is much less cluttered and everything on it actually works. The addition of the custom made hull ID plate (made by the admiral) looks great.

We've decided that every cabin should have it's our source of DC power, so every cabin will be getting a new DC outlet (with USB's as well) located next to their new fans (previously installed a few months ago). New AC outlets will be going in every location that currently has one, along with a few additions in the salon. We will be pulling out all of the old outlets and wiring, and replacing it with new. We are currently surrounded by several hundred feet of wire. It'll be nice when it's all finished.

Every boat owner will tell you that storage is one of the biggest challenges. The admiral has taken it upon herself to remedy the "storage" inadequacies of our boat. She had already made shelves in the port hull for all of the kids school books. She had also made some covered shelves in the salon to hide some of the clutter. She has added a galley shelf, to double the storage space, where the old broken microwave used to be. She has completely modified the master cabin hanging locker. It now holds three to four times the clothing it used to, with the addition of all of the shelves. She has removed an old non-working tv in the master cabin and converted it to a cabinet with shelves. The table in the salon was too short, so she modified it and raised it. Underneath it now has a cubby, soon to be modified into a large flat drawer. She is now preparing to add a medicine cabinet (that she's custom making to fit) into each head, along with a cabinet over the toilet (again custom made - and waterproof too). She's been getting her full use out of the craftsman bolt-on power tools given to her as a gift from her father-in-law (and added to by the captain). She's always painting or staining something, if she's not fabricating.

Everyone is getting new mattresses (and the master cabin is getting new bedding). The sunshades on the sides of the boat have been replaced (the old ones were ratty and stained). The thrown together screen on the interior of the companionway, made by the previous owners, is being replaced with a fully functional version that zips (keeping all the bugs out). We decided to pull out all the anchor chain and mark it, only to discover how badly rusted it was. So a new 200' chain and Rocna anchor have been added (and the chain marked). We removed the salt water deck wash and re-plumbed it for fresh water. Now the new chain and anchor can be rinsed with fresh water. The line and track slides holding the bow tramps are severely deteriorated, so they're getting all new line and clips. We're even adding stuffed animal hammocks to our daughter's cabin to hold all her plush friends (lots and lots of plush friends).

We are paying to have all of the through hulls in the boat replaced. They are original and in sad shape. We decided not to take our chances with one of them breaking and sinking the boat. It was discovered (with the first big storm here) that the large salon windows leak. Apparently the previous owners liked to just add goop around the windows instead of properly removing and re-bedding. We will be having them removed and properly re-bedded so they don't leak. We'll be replacing the crazed plexiglass with new at the same time. It will be nice to actually see out of the windows! We also purchased two kayaks because there has to be some fun in there somewhere!

As you can see, we have been very busy. We get up early, work all day, shower, and collapse into sleep. However, in the end it will all be worth it. We regularly ride our bikes into downtown for dinner, as we're usually too tired to cook. The kids did finish school on time. They both finished with all A's. They spend a large part of their time biking, swimming in the community pool across the street, or vegging out on the TV in the Marina's lounge. We sent them to camp at Marineland last week. They had an absolute blast. Marineland is a sort of aquatic sanctuary. They take in marine life that is injured and re-habilitate them (or give them a permanent residence if they cannot be returned to the sea). They have all kinds of marine life, including dolphins. The camp was an educational camp that taught the kids a lot about marine life, habitats, and ecosystems. The kids studied various marine life, hiked in maritime forest, made EED's (toys) for the dolphins, helped return a previously injured sea turtle to the ocean, played basketball with dolphins, snorkeled in the lagoon, dissected squid (and drew with the ink), cleaned up the beach, canoed in the intracoastal, played and body surfed in the ocean, learned dolphin signals, and swam with the dolphins. They had an incredible time  and made new friends with several of the other teenagers. They would not have gotten to do that if we hadn't been stuck here.

 

 

Our time here, while long, has been productive and fun. We still have a lot of work to do, but are getting closer everyday. All of the insurance repairs are finished, except the painting of the keel. As soon as that and the through hulls are finished, we should be back in the water. We will still be here, until the salon windows are replaced, but hopefully floating rather than occupying space on the hard!

Oh, and for those of you wondering about boat cat Tiger - he's doing just fine:

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Grounding in Matanzas

They say there are two types of sailors: Ones who have grounded, and ones who haven't grounded yet. Well, we have officially moved from the second group to the first. It happened just before lunch on Wednesday, May 4th. It was a dreary, cloudy, cold rainy day. We were approaching the Matanzas River Inlet just north of Rattlesnake Island. We had left Daytona Beach early that morning planning on reaching Saint Augustine by dinnertime. We even had a mooring ball reserved for us when we got there. We were headed north up the ICW at about six knots. There was a monohull ahead of us doing about the same speed. So we were essentially just following him.

For those of you unfamiliar with the ICW, it is sort of like a boat highway. It's a channel that is marked with red signs on the west side, and green signs on the east side. If you stay in the channel, you can be assured of a clear passage. Headed north, you would keep the green signs on your right and the red signs on your left. Now, it's not always signs. Sometimes there are red or green buoys instead of signs. The signs are generally spread out so you can see the next sign way ahead of you at about the time you clear the last sign. If there is a particular place that you need to be sure of a more precise route, the buoys will be there (closer together) so you can navigate safe passage. We always, always, always stay inside the signs/buoys.

As I said, we were following a monohull up ahead of us northward. Just as we were coming around the northwest side of Rattlesnake Island, the monohull suddenly turned about 90 degrees to the left. Then he spun 180 degrees and stopped. He was blocking the channel. He had gotten too close to the edge of the channel and grounded himself. Since he was blocking the channel, we couldn't see anything on the other side of him. We went past the next green buoy (on the inside), and then proceeded around him to the right. We could see the next green sign ahead of us on the other side of the inlet, so we pointed the boat that direction. Just as we cleared getting around the monohull, we realized there were two green smaller buoys on the other side of him. We had inadvertently left the channel! About the time we realized this, and started to turn back towards the channel, it was too late. We hit hard and completely grounded ourselves. No matter what we did, she wouldn't come off the bottom. The tide was going down and we were an hour and a half from low tide.

We knew we would simply have to wait until the tide came back up to float us free. The tide change in this spot is large. In the hour and a half we had left to low tide, the tide would drop at least another foot. We called TowBoatUS (of which we are members) to assist us when the tide came up in case we needed it. They agreed to see us in a few hours. In the meantime, we continued with our lunch and watched the monohull repeatedly ram his boat with his dinghy, trying to free it. He did eventually free his boat about thirty minutes before low tide. We also watched a whole pod of dolphins fishing right outside our boat. As the tide dropped, our boat settled backwards on the port side. So the starboard keel was stuck fast with the port side closer to the water. The interior was literally slanted as we walked around. The more the tide dropped, the more the boat settled and dropped her stern. We could see almost a foot of space between our starboard sugar scoop and the water. All we could do was wait.

As low tide came and went, we began to plan what direction to go to get off the ground. Google earth showed that we were in the middle of an arrow shaped area full of shoals. We could not go forward, or directly left or right. We would have to go backward to get into deeper water and then proceed back to the channel. As the tide raised to the level it was when we grounded, the tow boat showed up. Even his shallow boat couldn't get to us from the front, and he had to go around to the back to get to our boat. We had felt the boat lift on the port side as the tide came up and were again level. However, the starboard side wouldn't budge. We waited longer figuring the higher the tide, the easier time we would have to lift free. The tow boat finally decided he should go ahead and try to help us get off the ground. The water was high enough that we would easily float if we could just get unstuck.

It took more than we all thought it would to get us free. She was stuck really hard. Once free, we realized something was wrong. The starboard side engine would not engage in forward or reverse. When attempting to steer, she wouldn't respond correctly. The wheel had to be hard right in order to be neutral. There are two ways to control our boat: Steer her with the rudders, or use the two engines. We had neither. As we simply drifted, we were glad we had had the forethought to have the tow boat there. He tied lines to the front of her and towed her to Saint Augustine. It was not how we had planned our entrance. We called and found a boat yard that had a lift large enough to haul her out (turns out this is the ONLY place with a lift large enough). We also called and cancelled our mooring ball reservation.

The tow boat put us directly onto the dock and left us for the evening to sit and lick our wounds. That's what we did too. We went no where, said little, and let our imaginations run rampant with what kind of damage had been done. Fortunately, she was not taking on water. So whatever had been damaged, it hadn't compromised the hulls. We had already spent all of this year's funds on the other repairs, there wasn't anything left. We knew it would be an insurance claim, but the deductible was still fairly high. What were we going to do?

We slept poorly and were awakened at 7:30am the following day with the arrival of one of the boat yard's managers. Still in a sort of daze, we went into the office and filled out paperwork for the dockage along with discussions on costs for a haul out. The boat yard doesn't work directly with insurance companies. We would have to pay them directly and get a reimbursement from our insurance. Before work could start, 50% of the estimated repairs were due along with payment along the way.  With the haul out estimate in hand, we returned to our boat and called our insurance company. We filled out their claim form, sent it off,  and then simply sat, staring out the window. We had the same questions floating in our minds. How bad was the damage? We won't have the 50% up front to begin work. How much would the insurance front (if any at all) and how long would it take? What if the insurance won't pay all of the costs? We have no vehicle and we have no place else to stay. Again the question: What were we going to do?

Looking back on it, I guess we were both somewhat in shock. We had met several people on the dock already, and they had all said the same thing: "Matanzas gets everybody." That didn't make us feel any better, nor did it solve any of our problems. At some point, I finally snapped out of it. I realized that no matter what happens with the funds, she would have to be hauled out. Fees on the hard were cheaper than fees on the water. We had enough credit to haul her out and pay for a month on the hard. If no other decisions can be made immediately, at least lets make decisions that cost us the least. Staying on the boat on the hard would be difficult, but cheap. We would have to use the yard's facilities as we would not be able to use any water on the boat. We needed to get to a grocery store, but it was too far to walk. So we decided to rent a car for one day, enough to get groceries for a couple of weeks, so we could bide our time. I decided if we couldn't immediately make things better, at least lets not make them worse.

Castillo De San Marcos Draw Bridge

That evening we walked the mile to downtown. We saw the monohull that had grounded in front of us. He was tied to a mooring ball where we had planned to stay as well. It was really hard not to have bad thoughts about him. Technically it wasn't his fault, but had he not been in the way, we wouldn't have lost our way. We decided to stop thinking about it. It was in the past, and we must move forward. We had dinner and walked all over Castillo De San Marcos National Monument (a very old fort). Saint Augustine is the oldest city in the nation. We wandered around looking at all of the plaques and monuments. We decided that it wasn't a bad place to be stuck. At least we would have plenty of time to see the city. We arrived back at our boat after dark feeling much better. The boat yard really wasn't all that bad. There were several projects on our to do list that required the boat be out of the water to do. So this could be seen as an opportunity rather than a tragedy.

The tow boat arrived at 10am this morning to tow her to the haul-out slip. The wind was strong, along with the current. Without any kind of steerage, we could not control her at all. Fortunately, tow boats are used to this and knew what they were doing. All four of us (and boat cat Tiger) vacated the boat for them to strap her in and haul her out. We were anxious, all of us. But as we had told ourselves before, our imaginations on the damage were all we had to go on, it was time to really see what was wrong. Usually, your imagination is always worse than reality.

As soon as they had her in the air, we could tell one big problem. We had thought having no forward or reverse on the starboard engine meant all kinds of nasty things with the transmission or something. But it's hard to tell if there's anything wrong without any props. The prop on the starboard side was gone. No wonder she wouldn't go at all. The rudder on the starboard side is bent as well. There are lots of scratches and dings. We don't yet know the full damage, but I will say she looked a lot better on the bottom than we thought she would. They put her on blocks and provided us with actual steps to get onto her. We returned boat cat Tiger to his residence and proceeded to go get the rental car. We don't know how long we'll be here, but we're determined to make a good time of it anyway. We're already talking about the things we can do downtown, or how the kids can leave the boat and ride their bikes during the day. This will simply be another one of our adventures out of the many that will end up in our memories.

Bailing from New Smyrna to Daytona

We started the morning anchored in a quiet spot in Port Saint John, Florida. We were on the northeast side of the Addison bridge on Nasa Causeway. We had spent two nights there because we didn't really want to travel up the ICW on a Saturday. The idiots come out on the weekends, and finding an anchorage can be more difficult. So we enjoyed our Saturday in a nice quiet spot. We decided that we had wanted to travel all the way to Daytona Beach in one day rather than taking two days (as originally planned). So we got up bright and early Sunday morning, pulled up anchor, and headed north.

It was a beautiful day, sunny with a nice breeze. I sat reading in the salon, the kids continued schoolwork, and the captain sat up top in the cockpit driving us northward. After a few hours, we entered the southern area of New Smyrna Beach. It was really pretty (despite the hoards of fishing boats scattered about). We began to see dolphins. They were racing and playing in the wake of our boat. The kids and I all vacated our interior prone positions to relish in the sights of the sea life. Not long after the dolphins had dropped back, we began to see the manatees. The whole area is a manatee zone, so we were going fairly slow. The manatees were everywhere. We could see the swirl of water right before they would break the surface and show themselves. We even saw a whole family of them break the surface right next to us. We were fascinated, and having a great time. The captain even had to steer around one that popped up in front of the boat. As we exited New Smyrna Beach, the sea life went quiet, so the kids and I went back inside to continue our previous engagements.

I was enthralled in a book, as the kids did schoolwork, when our daughter dropped her pencil on the floor. As she reached down to pick it up, she exclaimed, "Mom, look!" I looked over and my eyes almost bulged out of my head. There was water everywhere! It appeared to just be bubbling up from the middle of the floor! There was at least four inches of water engulfing the floor of the galley, quickly on it's way to the salon! Several things then happened simultaneously. Our daughter yelled the water was flowing out from under the galley sink, I yelled to turn off the water pressure, and the bilge alarm finally sounded off as I yelled at the captain that we were flooding. Several thoughts went through my mind at once: the damn wakes from the power boaters have cracked us somewhere, a water tank has ruptured, what do I need to turn off to stop the water, which of the two freaking bilges is going off, and there is no way we are going to sink! Ensuring that the fresh water pressure pump was off, with my feet wet, I ran to the port hull to ensure the salt water pump was turned off as well. My mind warned me a fraction of second before I leapt, but I did it anyway. As my wet feet hit the hull floor, they slid right from under me. I landed hard on my rear and back. My daughter yelled at me to not hurt myself as the adrenaline pumping through my system jerked me off the floor and on to the salt water pump switch. I vaguely recalled thinking, "I'll pay for that later" as I began to lift the panels above the bilges to look for the source of water. Finding none, I grabbed a bucket and tore myself back up to the salon.

Not knowing what else to do, I began bailing water out to the cockpit drains (fortunately right outside the cockpit door, where the bulk of the water sat). My mind was racing as the captain looked down and asked, "Is it fresh water or salt water?" Without any hesitation, I cupped a bunch in my hand and tasted it. It was fresh water. I tasted it twice just to be sure! Interestingly, this actually made me feel much better. If it was fresh water, it would eventually stop as the fresh water tanks emptied. Had it been salt water....well, let's not go there. I handed the bucket to my daughter and told her to keep bailing. I yelled at our son to go and make sure it was the port bilge alarm I was hearing (versus the starboard one, or both for that matter).

I wrenched open the cabinet under the galley sink and started emptying it's contents onto the countertop. Everything on the bottom shelf was submerged. As I emptied the shelf, I saw the source of the problem. A cold water hose, that had been carelessly clamped by the previous owner, had popped off the main line. With the engines to the boat running, we had not heard the fresh water pump running, as it dumped fresh water out of the hose all under the cabinet. Once the cabinet bottom filled up, it then began spilling over onto the floor. It went through two more cabinets on it's way to the floor, so with every bottom cabinet I opened, I was greeted with a new four inch deep puddle of water. With the fresh water pump off, no more water was coming in, but there was still a heck of a lot of water to get out! As my daughter bailed the floor, I began bailing out from under the cabinets. Our son ran to get buckets and towels, helped empty the contents of the lower galley cabinets onto the table, and ran around checking for additional water.

It was all cleaned up ten minutes before the captain informed us to prepare to anchor. Once anchored, I stood looking at the contents of the galley spread out all over the table and counter. I left the doors to the cabinets open to ensure they would completely dry out. I had informed the captain of the problem prior to anchoring, so he immediately went and obtained tools to fix the hose. The kids and I started hanging towels and the cabinets carpets out on the lifelines to dry. Then we made dinner and sat around the contents of the galley enjoying our meal. We put everything back together, and took the opportunity to fix the leaking sinks while we were at it. It was midnight before we had finished our showers and crawled into our cabins to sleep.

As Bob Bitchin' says: "Attitude - The difference between an ordeal and an adventure." So, with that in mind, chalk this up to one of the many adventures that have occurred aboard Liliana. We look forward to the many more adventures yet to come (let's just hope future adventures involve less bailing). 😉


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Where the heck have we been? Part 2 of 2

Entrance to Marina

While we waited on the fiberglass guys to begin work on the starboard holding tank, we spent a few days compiling a list of the things we needed to get done while tied to shore. Now, anyone with a boat will tell you that the list is a living breathing entity. You add stuff, you check other stuff off, you add more stuff, etc. The list never ends and there is always work to be done. The first task was to clean the ceilings of the boat again (the mildew seems ever present). I decided that it was time to take permanent action and buy paint to remedy the situation. I got a mold killing primer and five year mold/mildew proof paint to repaint the entire interior with. So with cleaning off the list, painting was added to it.

We knew we had some kind of fresh water leak, as the starboard bilge seemed to always have water in it, and the water pressure pump would randomly go off without anyone using it. The bilge's alarm would occasionally go off to remind us that we needed to fix it. It turned out we had multiple leaks. The transom shower dripped out the fitting on the bottom, the hot water line to the starboard head's vanity (previously fixed badly by the previous owner) leaked, and the cold water t-valve under the starboard vanity (for an unnecessary wash out) leaked. Which one to tackle first? We started with the transom shower, as it didn't require squeezing one's self into tiny spaces. We thought we had it fixed, but alas the water pressure pump and bilge alarm disagreed. We ordered parts and properly fixed the hot and cold water lines to the starboard head's vanity. For two whole days we had a dry bilge on that side. Then a leak was discovered in the grey water drain from the same sink. So, with two leaks marked off, one more was added on. At least the bilge alarm was no longer going off (as long as I cleaned the small amount of water out of it everyday). We re-tackled the transom shower and replaced various o-rings. Again we think it might be fixed, but time will tell. The water pressure pump still randomly goes off, but not nearly as often. That could easily be any of the three dripping faucets we have as well (add those to the list).

It was time to defrost the little freezer in the top of the refrigerator again (this is a monthly thing) because the seal to the refrigerator is seriously inadequate. We have searched and searched for a replacement, but can't find one (that remains on the list). We decided to use our microwave (since we were plugged into shore power) to make popcorn for a movie. Alas, the stupid thing died on the second bag. We had a heck of a time removing it, but now I have a bit more space in the galley. We discovered a serious botch job on the wiring when removing the microwave (add re-wiring to the list).

Now, this whole time they have been doing the repair to the starboard holding tank. The tank was in, but the access plate kept leaking. As the days went by, a stench began to grow in the PORT holding tank (the brand new system we had installed when we bought the boat). We searched and searched, and could not come up with a source to the foul odor. The migraines began coming on again in the wife, so we finally had someone come and check out what was going on. This is where being new to this whole lifestyle can really bite you. We had been moved onto the boat for less than two months, so knew very little about the plumbing system of a boat. Apparently, the people we had put in the port holding tank knew about as little as we did. The hose runs to the holding tank were running up instead of down. This means that the 'stuff' that is flushed or pumped out can't really leave the hoses. There was also a loop in the vent line (instead of a straight run). So, we had a perfect recipe for a bad disaster.

The runs in the hoses allowing 'stuff' to stay in them caused the hoses to permeate odor very quickly. Odor in a holding tank is kept in check by aerobic bacteria, which need air to breath. Without them, anaerobic bacteria grow instead. So, with the looped vent, air couldn't get into the tank and the anaerobic bacteria took over, literally making the tank 'septic'. Without air flow, the tank also 'pressurized' causing a fine spray of 'stuff' all over the back wall of the locker. The shelf that was put in to hold the holding tank in place was not sealed in the back, so the ooze was falling down and puddling in the bottom of a locker that had no access. So basically, the whole thing was a terrible install (done apparently by idiots). So, as they were finishing up the starboard holding tank, we got a quote to redo the port holding tank. Did I mention we have zero working heads on board now? They gave us a decent quote, but couldn't start work for another week.

There was no way we could tolerate the smell for yet another week, so we took the entire system out ourselves. So the list got an emergency item added to the very top, and we would obviously be in Fort Pierce for the rest of the month. It took two hours to carefully remove and wrap multiple poo filled hoses to take off the boat. Not to mention, the pick up hoses in the tanks were too short, so we got to remove a sloshing tank (carefully wrapped as well) out the door. It took another two hours to break apart and remove the shelf, not to mention the time then spent cleaning it all up. It was an all day affair, and the worst job that could be had on the boat. At least the smell was gone, and the wife was smiling again. Let us never speak of this day again.

In the week we waited to begin work on the port holding tank, we installed cabin fans in all four cabins. We moved the port side electrical going to the port side head (to accommodate a new built in holding tank). We corrected the wiring left by the discarded microwave. We began to learn a whole lot about the entire electrical system on the boat. It was a good thing too, as it made it easier to understand things when the starboard side starter battery quit working. Apparently the previous owners had wired several things directly to the starter battery, and it finally bit the dust. So we re-wired that entire side to be on the proper circuits, and then bought and installed a new starter battery (another emergency item that went to the top of the list).

As worked progressed on the port side holding tank, the coast guard paperwork finally arrived for the boat (yes, we were there long enough to have some mail sent). So we made the required hull id number plate to permanently attach to the interior of the boat. It's a pretty wooden plaque with the required three inch tall numbers engraved in it, and then permanently attached with 5200 (permanent adhesive). We began work on some shelves in the salon to help deal with the clutter. We finally got around to cleaning up the two folding bikes that came with the boat. Turns out the derailleurs on both of them are bad, so they went back inside to deal with later (add that to the list). An entire day was spent washing and waxing the boat. We waited till the end of our stay to clean her due to the footprints from the workers and the other goo left by the pelicans.

Pelicans? Yes, brown pelicans. The area is riddled with them. As we were parked at the end of the dock, we got a great view of the mangroves and the entrance to the Intracoastal. The pelicans sit around on the nearby posts and rocks looking for a meal. Sometimes they could be found first thing in the morning casually parked in their own filth on our sugar scoops. I should also mention the jacks. The entire time we had been there, you sporadically heard something bang into your hull (very disconcerting). We were finally clued in that it was a predatory fish called a crevalle jack. It hunts it's prey by chasing them into the boats. It's quite a sight to see the chase. The little fish will zig zag as it runs and even fly out of the water sporadically to evade capture. The jack chases it while the brown pelicans zoom in to try to steal the meal. We enjoyed watching the show multiple times a day, and if you didn't see it, you certainly heard it! There were also manatees nearby. It's a protected manatee area. You could often see or hear the manatees come up for air. If you were lucky, you got a quick sight of the mother and baby living there. We also saw dolphins on several occasions, and even a shark. The single shark siting caused an absence in the jacks for almost a week (it was really quiet)!

Being tied to the dock, down from the restaurant, allowed many people to wander up and look at our boat. We met and talked with so many people. Almost every time we came or went on the dock, we got stopped to talk to other people along the way. A trip to the bathroom could easily end up an hour long trip. We helped a German couple tie up their boat after they grounded it in the shallows nearby. It took them hours to get their boat off the bottom. We helped a women get out to her sailboat as she had come up in her row boat without a motor. The wind wouldn't let her row back out, so we dropped our dinghy and towed her out. We saw lots of boats come in to escape the churning seas. The weather for the month of April was crazy, so many boats got stuck waiting to go on to their destinations. We met a couple who had accidentally torn off their bridge deck when they hit something at full speed (using your smartphone and driving a boat doesn't work any better than a car). We were in Harbortown Marina for so long, we became 'regulars'. The dock hands and restaurant staff knew us by sight. The trip up and down the dock to the bathrooms and showers became routine. The trip walking to the grocery store hauling a wagon seemed normal. We could see how people ended up living in a marina. We had met several people that did just that nearby. We became the people telling others about the facilities nearby and the sea life in the vicinity. In other words, it was way past time to move on.

They finished the port holding tank on Wednesday, April 27th. After haggling over the bill the following morning, we finally left before lunch. We had spent so much time in one place, we were suddenly nervous. The port engine balked at the idea of being started up, but was finally persuaded (add that to the list). We began moving north again. There are several projects not yet done, and lots of work to get accomplished. But, with any luck, we'll see Daytona Beach soon! For now, at least, everything is working and we are feeding our wanderlust!


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Where the heck have we been? Part 1 of 2

I know what you're thinking: Where the heck have you been? I can't believe it's been over a month since I updated everyone on how the journey is progressing. The last you heard we were headed north from Tarpon Basin in Key Largo. I would like to say little has happened (which would be why you've not heard anything), but actually so much has happened that we've been crazy busy and time has just flown by! So, allow me to feed your curiosity and let you peek into our journey for the last month.

As you recall we were headed north to Key Biscayne with a somewhat repaired starboard holding tank. We were under the impression that as long as we didn't fill the tank up, all would be okay until we could have it properly repaired. We forgot to take into consideration the bouncing a boat can take from sailing (or wakes from other boats). By the time we reached Key Biscayne, it was obvious that the 'sloshing' in the holding tank (with very little in it, mind you) still caused the boat to smell like an outhouse. So while we were stuck in Key Biscayne for three days with rough weather, we were forced to completely clean out the starboard holding tank and only use the port head. For those of you with any holding tank experience, the problem was that they didn't fix the lid to the tank when they repaired it. They fixed the cracked bottom, but managed to separate the lid from the built in tank when they filled it with water to test it. They refused to remove the lid to fix the tank (because it was too much work). So, as things sloshed around in the tank, it allowed 'stuff' to escape over the wall and into the bilge (bringing massive stench with it).

While in Key Biscayne, we did get to enjoy the spring breaker's parties that happened nightly. The kids did some swimming, and we enjoyed watching the other boaters and the swimming/diving black scoters (a kind of duck). Our cat Tiger informed us, on the second day we were there, that something was not right up on the tramps near the bow of the boat. As I followed him forward (he had come to get me, meowing at me to follow him), I discovered what had caused him to get upset. Apparently the supposedly cute black scoters had decided to spend the night sleeping and enjoying their dinner on our tramps. All I can say is that ducks are really rather nasty! There were feathers, poo, and blood from their feast all over the bow and tramps. Needless to say, a lot of clean-up was needed every morning we were there.

From there we went north to Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale for a night. Arriving to anchor there on the last weekend of Spring Break (the busiest weekend of the year) was rather interesting. I think all of the boats there could actually touch one another all evening. The crowding was worse than anything I had ever seen! There was a section on the intercostal that had dozens upon dozens of boats all tied together in a huge bunch. We were happy to be on our way after only one night.

From there we travelled quickly up to anchor in Foster Park in Palm Beach/Riviera. We were only there for dinner and a night's sleep before we were back on our way north again. The last few days we had traveled on the outside rather than going up the Intracoastal because it's faster. Unfortunately the ocean was a bit bumpy and I had to medicate poor Tiger both days. Even our daughter needed some Bonine along the way. So we decided to continue our travel up inside on the Intracoastal to give everyone a break. It had been impossible for the kids to do any schoolwork, when they're sitting in the cockpit watching the coast line (because it was too lumpy to stay inside).

Tiger in charge!

So, we traveled up the Intracoastal to Fort Pierce. We had planned on only anchoring for the night and moving on, however we were set back a bit. Along the Intracoastal, in addition to many drawbridges that have to be navigated, there are crab pots everywhere. You see them in clusters (various colored styrofoam balls floating on the surface - informing you of a basket trap underneath), and you have to navigate around them if one breaks free and ends up in the channel. Along the way, we had moved over to let a larger sailboat by, and didn't see the lonely crab pot floating in our path till it was too late. We hit it dead on with our starboard prop. We smelled some burning plastic and thought, "Great, we just lost an engine." We stopped in Peck Lake to dive under and see what damage might have been done. But the water was too murky and dark to see anything. So we limped along on to Fort Pierce on one engine (port side).

We got caught in a nasty thunderstorm on the outskirts of Fort Pierce. There was zero visibility and lightening cracks happening very close by. We were driving blind by gps and radar. Why should we worry? After all, it's not like we were the only boat around with a huge aluminum stick reaching over 60 feet in the air! We unplugged everything and turned off every switch/breaker we could on the boat. Then we waited. As we were going through the last bridge to get to Fort Pierce, we heard a women on the VHF key up to say she was going southbound under that same bridge and couldn't see anything (basically a watch out if you're on the other side). We keyed up and said we were going northbound under the same bridge at that moment. Visibility was so bad, that we went under that bridge, to the other side, and never saw the other boat coming the other way. We made it safe and sound though. We were all standing in the rain getting sopping wet as we tied her up to the dock in Harbortown Marina. We dried off and went to their restaurant for dinner. Afterwards the wife and daughter went and did several loads of laundry, the son stayed on board to watch the cat, and the captain went to the bar and had several beers before collapsing into clean sheets to sleep.

We knew that Harbortown Marina would have people who could do repairs. So we had called them up and gotten a slip along our way through the thunderstorm. We also found a diver that could come out and check the prop the next day. Divers are way cheaper than having your boat hauled out! We figured while we were there, that we should have them give us an estimate on completing the repair to the starboard holding tank. The diver reported that the crab pot must have fallen away as there was no line in the prop, nor any damage to anything under the boat. The fiberglass guys said they could repair the holding tank the next week. Since paying for two weeks in a marina costs more money than staying for the month, we decided to pay the monthly rate and stay. We figured we could get some projects done around the boat while they repaired the holding tank. The marina had free wifi, great showers, a restaurant on site, and a heated pool. The grocery store was only a few blocks away along with a few more restaurants nearby.  So we settled in at the end of the dock for a planned few weeks of stay. That was Tuesday, March 29th......

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