Happy New Year

We are still here in Marathon working on the SS radio and a Bimini. Everyone has told us that we should have shade over the rest of the cockpit. So today Warren is getting some tubing and will rent a bender from home depot. We hope to get the fabric on line, I should be able to sew it up. Hopefully it will all work out and we'll be able to leave on the next weather window. We had a nice Christmas, just wish we could share it with some family. The weather was great sunny and warm. Hope you all have a great New Year!

Thanksgiving in Paradise

This is the Tiki Hut where they had the Thanksgiving feast last night.  They also had a movie, Operation Petticoat. I love that movie, it's with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis...funny. 

Today the wind is blowing like crazy and tomorrow it's going to be the same.

The water police were out here in the harbor this week writing tickets to people who did not have all their safety equipment and registration numbers.  No numbers on your dink is a hundred and seventy five dollar fine. So we got the numbers on the dinghy and now we are finally legal.(figured we would do it before we got a ticket)  We had to paint the numbers on while we where at the dock,
because the water was so rough out at the boat.

So for all you are-tist types out there, here is the sun setting on our Mona Lisa.



Now Warren is waiting on the Single Sideband radio to arrive so he can get it in before we head on over to the Bahamas. So after our friends come and go in the middle of Dec, we will be waiting for weather window to cross over and the radio is really important.  We'll probably be here until late December or whenever we get some kind of southernly wind for a couple of days. 

In seach of the beach

The other day we decided that we wanted to go to a beach and chill out.  So,...here we are heading down the channel looking for Sombrero Beach. It's about 1 mile away so we just tootled along, looking at some nice, REALLY NICE  homes.The mangroves you see behind us are on a little island, that no one lives on anymore.

Sombrero beach is a nice man made park that has volleyball courts, bathrooms and a picnic area. 

As we walked along, discovering the beach, we found some really old brain coral. It was cool. I was sure glad I wore my nifty crocks because there are some pretty sharp edges on it. Of course there were not many people over here. So in my searching and discovering this new area, I discovered a small tidal pool.  I love to examine them to see what the tide has left behind. 

Here is one of those pictures like, "Can you find Waldo".   Except, "Can you find the fishie?"  In Alaska there where always crabs but all I could find here was one lone fish.  :(  It took me a little bit to find it because it blended so well with it's background.

Marathon

The Marathon City Marina is a pretty nice place. Here's a picture of the book exchange, you can bring in your old books and exchange them for books you haven't read. This is also where you can find business cards for people who can help you with your boat problems and guide books on what is going on in the Keys. 

Here is another one that shows how the mooring balls are constructed and work.

The Marina also has WiFi, TVs, work rooms and laundry facilities. The monthly charge is only $275 and that includes one pump out a week and full run of the place. One of the people staying here puts on a movie on Thursday nights with his computer and a sheet in an covered area on the grounds.  In the morning there is yoga in that same area.  We have decided to wait here for a weather window to cross over to the Bahama's and drive to the Seven Seas Cruising Gam if we still want to go. The Gulf Stream that runs up the coast of Florida can get pretty bad with any North wind and that is all we are having right now.
Marathon is not what you would call a picturesque town.  So I'll try and find other things to take pictures of.
We hope to take the dinghy out for a beach combing exploration ride tomorrow if the winds die down, they are blowing 18 to 25 mph right now.  We have had to walk everywhere but Warren met another CSY owner and he is letting us use his bikes. Boy it sure makes it a lot faster.  Warren made 3 trips to the West Marine store, I think he had his exercise for today.

This is Tom and Judy Johnson we met them at Marco Island they are sailing on a CSY 37. They left St. Petersburg the same day we did. They are super nice people!

Marathon city Marina

Well, we have left Shark River. All it was, was a bend in the river with lots and lots of bugs as the river exits the Everglades, except there were no bugs. (we got lucky) So we hoisted anchor about 7:15am and headed out into 15 to 20 knots of wind. Good sailing, except it (the wind) and waves were behind us. Cannot sail with the wind straight up the stern. So once again we are motorsailing the 41 miles to Marathon. Crab and lobster season opened here 2 Sundays ago and the crabbers have put out tens of thousands of pots with little Styrofoam marker balls out. You cannot move forward for more than a 30 seconds before you have to dodge a crab pot marker. If you saw one crab pot ball you know it had a sister or a brother near by, sometimes even a whole family. They even have them in the approach and exit of the bridge channel. Boy are they a hazard. The crabbers can teach the Navy on how to lay mines if they've a mind to.


As you can see in the picture we are approaching the Moser Channel Bridge. It is 65 feet high at high tide and we are just about 2 hours after low tide. There is some apprehension on our part about going under the bridge and shearing all my attachments off of the top of the mast as our mast is 63.5 feet. As we went under the bridge, the VHF antenna hit and bent but nothing else did. BUT WAS IT SCARY! We arrived close to 3pm in Boot Key harbor for our mooring ball.

Here in the bottom picture is a view of the boat in Boot Key on the ball. There are not many boats here right now. The harbor can hold 226 boats but I would say that there is less than a third of that here now. Next month the snow birds should be starting to arrive.

We were going to sail up to Melbourne to attend a sailing convention but the weather here is getting stinky again. And if we did go north, we would have to turn around after the convention and head back down this way against the Gulf Stream to go to the Bahamas and that wouldn't be easy. So...we have to make a decision on what to do.

To all our friends in the frigid north, enjoy.

Good weather returns

We are heading for Shark River this morning,after 6 days of high winds and rain. We met a very nice couple at Marco Island, they are sailing on Lone Star a CSY 37. We'll be sailing with them to Marathon. Tom and Judy have been sailing for many years so Tom is helping us with our confidence. More later

Up-date Marco Island

We're glad we made the decision to head into Marco Island.  The weather system that is covering us is very winding and rainy, it's over all south Florida. The anchor is holding really good so we went for a short walk to a shopping center. We bought a few grocery's, this is the highest price Publix that I have seen. We arrived back at the boat just in time.  It started to pour and the winds where 22 mph. It's been cloudy for 2 days so the solar panels are not charging the batteries much. We have the engine running and I am using the inverter for the computer. Here are some of the pictures I've posted on facebook.

Under the Sun Shine bridge leaving Tampa....... First sunset at sea

First morning

Change in plan

Thanks to AT & T for cell service 10 miles off shore, we checked the weather. There are going to be 25 to 30 mph winds in the keys this weekend. So we decided to make a detour to Marco Island and anchor in Factory Bay. Right now the winds are about 17 to 23 mph. The anchoring went OK for the first time just needed to let out more chain before backing down. There is a marina here and a lot of nice houses. We'll go a shore when the winds die down. We also had a hard time sleeping. I guess that is something we will have to get use to. Once we anchored we sleep like the dead. I feel so much better. We'll stay here until Thursday that's when all this bad weather will leave. There are stores in walking distance so we will take a walk about later.

* Marco Island first nights sunset, the picture doesn't do it justice it was very pink.

It's 11:30 thrusday night

We are motor sailing at about 5 kts, the moon is full. We love it. And we still have cell phone connection about 9 miles out. I am not able to post any picture, I can on facebook...

Sailing out of Tampa Bay

We are off for an adventure. Yippeeee
Heading for the Keys. We plan to sail over night. We will anchor off Sawyer Key it should take us 2 1/2 days. The wind is not blowing now so we are motoring.

Ready to Go

We are finally ready to head down south. WHOOPEE! At the begining of the week the winds were 10 to 15 mph.  Now they are 25 to 30 mph in the Keys and the seas are 6ft. So we are putting off going until the winds are a little calmer.  We don't need to put ourselves through that on our first trip.  We are going to try and make it to the Seven Seas Cruising Assoc.GAM in Melbourne Fl. by the 12th of Nov. So we will be sailing around the Keys and up the east coast. Please say a little prayer for us :)
I am excited and nervous and it's hard to believe that we are doing this!

Finally doing sea trials

Today we went out and did sea trials, you might not believe it(we don't)but everything works and we had no problems. We need calm winds to finish the auto pilot calibrations so we'll try again tomorrow
We did a hat in the water drill.......wait that wasn't a drill, Warren wanted his $40 hat back. It took us two tries but we retreived the hat. It was good practice for man over board.

Last Nights Moon

This is last nights moon right at dusk, it was so bright.  And looking to the west the sun was orange and pink. I wanted to take that picture too, but to many obstacles were in the way.

........Warren finally called for a electrician today:)
I am hoping he will come out before the week is over.
  The weather is great.....sunny and no rain.  Great for sailing.............away!

Electrical Issue

Warren found an issue with the start circuit, that he wants fixed. And since electricity is his worst subject I don't know how long it will take. He wants to figure it out without calling someone out to tell him it was something really simple and paying them $300 bucks. No hurricanes out there that can effect us :) I still have the dream...........:)

Back in the Water

Let's see........ we are back in the water, everything is fixed that we needed to do while we where out of the water. We thought that the prop shaft was bent so we took it out and got to use a tool Warren made last year and it worked great.  The shaft was only out by .006 in the middle so Warren had it straightened anywise.  It was the prop shaft coupling that was wobbling. So we got a new coupling, had it faced and installed it.  Warren did replace the stuffing box seals for the rudder.(stuffing box is a large threaded tube that a shaft of some kind passes through with a cap that has a waxed type of flax rope in it and the cap tightens down on the tube preventing water from entering the boat where shafts go through the hull.) While he was taking that all apart. He noticed that the auto pilot arm needs to have a key way added to it because the actuator arm will pull it out of position due to its torque. So we sent it to Dad so he can work his magic. We should have it back in a week or two. Then we hope to go sailing! 

 And when Warren was working in the engine room on some wiring his hand bumped the air conditioning wires and they were very hot.  He just thought that the size 12 wires were not big enough.  So he got some number 10 wires, got it ready, ran it to the air conditioning relay box and when he went to remove one of the wires it  was hot, burnt and not even crimped into the connector.   Warren says that we just narrowly missed an engine room fire. 

<burnt wire it was really hot!!!!

Hurricane Irene is past, there is another one out there. And it will start with a K, I hope it stays out to sea. We just might have to wait and see were it goes.

A pain in the neck

Have you ever thanked God for a week long sore neck? We are!! When we took the boat out last month I went down to get Warren some aspirin. That's when I felt the vibration. At first Warren thought the engine might be out of alignment, then maybe the shaft was bent. We took the boat out of the water today and removed the shaft and it looks fine. So we are taking it and the drive shaft coupling to a specialist to fine out if it is bent.  There is some crevice corrosion in the shaft so that may necessitate replacing the shaft whether it's bent or not.  We could have trashed our transmission if we hadn't caught this now. And that would really set us back! So thank God for needing the aspirin!!!!

The picture below is a cutlass bearing puller Warren and Dad made from the idea and plans of a Mr. Ron Sheridan, another CSY owner. The puller will allow you to remove and replace the cutlass bearing without pulling the boat out of the water....that is if your not pulling the shaft.  And this made it soooooo much easier to remove than the first time. Just in case you are like me..... and don't know what a cutlass bearing is. It keeps the prop shaft centered in the shaft tube so it doesn't wobble. I don't know how long this is going to take, but I'll try and keep you posted. :)

The mystery is Solved

It's not a mystery anymore we found out why the engine was over heating. So we went for a short ride today. The engine passed the test! Now Warren just needs to align the propeller shaft because I told him that I think its vibrating. We didn't notice this last time because we were concentrating on the engine getting to hot. We started a few more projects while we were waiting and we are just about ready to go. I am almost afraid to say that. Every time  I said it before something went wrong. But God willing we should shove off soon.:)

Here's a picture of the channel we have to go out.

It's never SIMPLE

We found out that the engine can run without building up pressure.(The mechanic that we talked to didn't know what he was talking about! The engine does need to build pressure ) So now Warren is replacing or rebuilding everything that is involved with the cooling system. We also found out the best place to get a new fresh water pump is in the U.K. This engine is really a British Leyland built in England and Westerbeke just added some components and put their name on it. If you try and buy a Westerbeke part here in the USA they charge you an arm and a leg plus your first born. So now we are waiting on the pump.....and we paid way less then half of what Westerbeke ask. Warren was researching this for two days. I am really really really hoping this will fix it. The fun is going to happen someday I promise!!! Even if I have to get there in the dinghy!!! :)

ON THE WATER....FINALLY

Today, with the help of Capt. Roland Briere we took Sea Notes out on our first sail.
Capt Roland did a great job of setting aside our worries about handling Sea Notes, she is a very steady vessel. The winds where in the right directions leaving port but on the way back it was on the nose. We started up the engine, and we where watching the temp gauge very close. It didn't disappoint us, our temp was rising. The heat exhaust manifold cap was leaking pressure, we think.  This will not let it build up the pressure like it is suppose to and then it over heats.  Exactly like a radior in a car. Hopefully we can get a new one tomorrow. And that will fix that, and just 2 other things to do to on the mast and one on the rudder we should be set to leave.
We want to thank Capt. Roland for his patience!

It's hard to believe, it's finally happening!!!!

A Day off the Boat

While we are waiting...... we decided to check out the place where we are going to store the car. Warren really thinks that since we will be in the Keys we should keep the car just in case we have problems. We found a place for $25 a month in Punta Gurda, 100 miles away. It was a beautiful day for a drive.  On the way we stopped at Gamble Mansion it's the last sugar plantation in Florida. Here is a web site if you want to know more http://www.thegambleplantation.com/component/content/article/39-rokstories/55-southern-antebellum-mansion

front view

side view

Well at top and kitchen bottom         

RV and picnic area

We also stopped at Emerson Point Park, this is where the Manatee river and the Gulf meet.  That's Warren walking I tried to get a picture of is pony tail for all you a home. But I don't think you can see it very well. Sorry, I know its hard to believe, since he aways had a military cut.

New name needed!

This is our new yellow dinghy. We decided to take it out for a little spin and check out the channel that we will be leaving through. I don't know if it was the bow pointing to the sky or the white foam trailing behind the boat. But we attracted some company.
Some nice men in a Law Enforcement boat stopped us.
We where going to fast and we had no whistle.
So after a warning about our speed they let us go.
What a nice way to break in the boat! I think the new name should be "C ME GO FAST".  :)



A BIG THANKS to Tony Flores from Alaska Series by Gary Kings for taking care of us. We hope this one will take us thru out our travels.

This is one of our problems, we have been waiting for the stainless steel guys to come out and do some
welding. A previous owner decide to cut out a section of the bale so his anchor would fit. The bale's purpose is to stop the anchor from falling out of the anchor tray in rough seas. These guys should have been here so many times I have lost count. Today was one of those days. I don't know what Warren will do now.  Also the air conditioning unit has a leak, now we need someone to come out and fix that.
My new motto is "NOTHING IS EVER EASY"!!!!

Waiting

We have the engine running good, the injector pump being rebuilt took care of the RPM's. Now the problem is with the temp gauges. Warren has replaced all the wiring on the temp gauge, new buss bar, new sending units, new gauge and still has to much resistnace in the circuit and reads 200 degrees when it is really only 170 as verified with a older mechanical gauge.  So because its required that the temp gauge read correctly, he ordered a mechanical gauge. It should be here Monday and then we are just waiting on the glue for the dinghy.  While we are waiting, we are installing a deck wash down pump. You use this to keep the mud and sand out of the chain locker.
On a previous post we were getting the inflatable(dink) fixed.  The dealer was re-gluing the patches that hold the oars, and rings on.  So about a week after he returned the dink we went out to drop the dink back into the water to go for a ride and we noticed that several of the patches and rings were coming off again.  So I called the dealer again and let him know and he said that he did some research on why the heat down here is making the glue come off.  And this is the honest to goodness truth that he told me;  our dink was made in Korea and was the last batch made in that factory before they moved to a new maker in China.  Anywise, there were two manufactures of glue, one factory is "Ding Dong" which makes the glue that lets go when it gets hot and the other(I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!) is "Dong Ding" which makes the permanent one.  So he was telling me that the factory was using glue from Ding Dong and not the one from Dong Ding because the factory was having problems with the Dong Ding and decided to go with Ding Dong instead. So I'm on the phone listening to this story and thinking that this guy is stringing me along with a good yarn.  So he is now trying to convince me that he is telling me the truth with Ding Dong and Dong Ding and in the process we both degenerated into fits of laughter to the point we couldn't talk anymore. And that is the truth and I'm sticking to it.

A walk on the beach

After a frustrating two weeks of trying to work on the boat and Murphy poking his head in everytime something seems to be working out ok, we decided to take an afternoon off and just lounge around.   After a nice rain this morning we figured we would go down to the beach and enjoy walking in the Gulf water.  Here,  Kathy is enjoying a walk along the water line at about half past seven in the evening. The water is warm, the company is great and everything seems just right.   

Here is a great shot of the sun going down close to quarter after eight.  It was wonderful with a slight warm breeze and a spectacular view of the sunset.  Couldn't ask for much more from a lazy evening off.  Tomorrow I will install the injection pump, lines and purge the air from the fuel system and perform an ops ck(operational check for those of you who are not familar with military techno bable) of the engine rpm's.  More to come.

Tarpon Springs

 We had a nice drive today to Tarpon Springs. It's

about 30 miles north of St Petersburg straight up hwy 19. We stopped at this nice sponge shop and I bought some Greek soap and olive oil lotion.

    

We also had lunch at Hellas a nice Greek restaurant, they have a great Bakery. We couldn't pass up the Baklava ....it was delicious!  I also took a picture of the sponge docks....where the few boats that still sponge dive tie up.  It was a really nice day.
Warren is going to change all the fuel filters ......( which I mentioned weeks ago)  and he hopes this might help with  the RPM problem. We'll try the easiest things first.  I am keeping my fingers crossed :) I
I am still waiting for something to go easy. Warren says if it was easy we wouldn't appreciate it. HA HA
                                                   


Hellas



Sea Trial

The sea trial was short......Very low RMP and 20 degrees to hot. Now Warren is researching what is causing this. So we'll be here!  The weather is great 86 degrees and blue skies. We are taking a drive up to Tarpon Springs tomorrow to get a RTS, (remote temperature sensor) for the batteries. This will keep them from over charging. I'll show some pic's of Trapon Springs, here is a brief low down. Tarpon Springs Sponge Industry helped build a Greek Community that is now famous not only for the worlds finest sponges, but for some of the finest Greek Restaurants, Markets, and Bakeries in the Country.
 This will be a good break from the boat. Did I say Warren is getting frustrated.........just a little :)

We found it!!!!

We are almost ready to start sea trials and what should happen??  The beast of "one step forward, and two steps backwards" rears it's ugly head.  After getting the battery box ready for the new batteries, I repositioned a bunch of wires, installed a new fuse for the engine starter and just tidied up the area from the mass confusion of existing wiring from previous owners.  In the process I removed a grounding wire for the fuse box, reinstalled it and didn't get it back tight enough, thus causing the refrigerator to go into ground fault mode.  It has taken me a week to track down the faulty ground and then when I found it, it wasn't the wire I was looking for.  Lucky me for touching all the ground wires on the buss bar and finding it.  So far tonight, the fridge has worked without going into the fault mode and the batteries are keeping up with the load.  A few more nights with it working like this  and we'll call it good.  You should have seen Kathy do the "We found it!" dance.  Hilarious!  I do need to take some kind of electrical course so I can at least tell my butt from applebutter. :)  Just a couple more things that are safety concerns to complete then its on to sea trials.
TTFN

New Batteries

The batteries are in, we have to monitor them to make sure they are charging and everything in working right. Warren feels very weak in the electrical department, he his still having a few issues with the start battery. He says he is retired so he's not going to work around the clock.  He wants to enjoy working on the boat.  He just said he is having a blast. I wish I was:)
Now that it is getting late in the season, we are thinking of just sailing in the Keys this summer.
It will help build our confidence and we will still be near things if anything doesn't work right. I really really hope we can do some sea trials sooooon!!!!!!!

The Auto Pilot is DONE!!!!

Everything has finally come together and Warren is done with the Auto Pilot .  The picture to the right shows the control panel....which almost became another whole story of  its own. 
Now we have just two more things to do ..Wait for Warrens spare glasses to come in and fix the battery problem. We had to break down and buy some new ones. We drove to Miami Friday, it's the only place in Florida to get Rolls batteries. They are the best deep cycle batteries on the market. When we got back to the boat we saw that one appears to have a small leak. So now we need to drive back to Miami and exchange it. 

He also finished the swimming platform!!!  Here a quick picture of Warren attaching the ladder that is used to exit the water. As you can see, it's a beautiful day, 80 degrees and clear skies.  Boy am I glad we are here and not in Fairbanks where it's only 36 degrees.

Other matters

While we where waiting for the AP parts that we didn't need. Warren worked on the batteries, the swim plateform, refrigeration and finished somethings on the mast. I won't go into all the details but needess to say he has been very busy. He even drilled the palm of is hand (ouch),while trying to finish the swim plateform. It still needs the ladder to the water.  I think he is going to get that done tomorrow. Hopefully with no more bleeding. I'm sure glad there are no sharks or alligators here, that hole he made in his hand was dripping so much it reminded me of the movie Romancing the Stone. The bad guy got his hand bit off, thats a big Ouch!
That never happens to the good guys.........which Warren truly is!!!!

The end of March

Well we have been trying to get the auto pilot in for the last three weeks. We thought they ordered the wrong controller for the cockpit but found out today that all we needed to do is just cut the end of a cable off and put a different one on. But Warren is getting frustrated and is taking today off.

We went to a nautical flea market today. We found what we needed a cheek block for only $10 they sell for $53. The flea market was at Echerd College, all the stuff is donated and the proceeds go to help their nautical programs. As you can see lots of people.
We meet Matt and Julies, v/s Coup d'Amout a few months ago. They have been working on their boat in Treasure Island, which is by the beaches. I meant to take their picture today at the flea market but they had a long list of stuff to look for and I forgot. They are heading down to Venice. We wish them all the best! They have a blog also

 http://matthewandjuliesail.blogspot.com/
Here are a few pictures of Venice beaches we took these a couple weeks ago.

We really want to leave here April 4 or 5 but I have stopped making plans. If Warren can get the auto pilot in and a few sea trials, All the rest of the projects we can do anywhere. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed. If I had anything else to cross I would!

The Auto Pilot

  This is what I like to refer to as the beast, the stainless steel bracket took two weeks to get welded. The arm on the shaft was made by Dad. Everyone thinks its just a little beefy, but if you know Warren bigger is better. Now he needs to finish the other parts and get it wired in. I am really hoping it goes faster, I want to get going!!!!!!

It is a beautiful day sunny with a little wind, only in the 60's because a front just passed through. The weekend looks great, in the 70's. I hope Warren gets a lot done:) This is my view as I bead, not to bad:)

Visitors from the North

  Pete and Barb from Fairbanks decided to take a break from the cold. They lived in Florida many year ago. It was great to see them, we went to dinner at the Crab Shack and showed them around the boat. It was great to see friends from home. Warren and Pete worked together for over 20 years, now they are both retired. Life is good. We thank God everyday!
 We have been in the water now for about three weeks. Our plans to leave in Feb. went kaput because the auto pilot is taking longer then planed, as usual!!!Next blog is the pictures of the auto pilot.

One step closer

This is Jason & Eric they really do a fantastic job. The swim platform looks great. We need to put the starboard across it still and the ladder to the water. I really hope Warren can get things finished up by the end of the month.  We'll paint the bottom this weekend and hopefully be back in the water Tuesday. This picture of the bow is for you Dad so you can see how the fitting fits. You did a great job, thank you so much! I don't know what we would do without you...OH wait, I know what, we would be boat poor! Machinists charge $100 hour here. 

We are still waiting on the titanium bolts. They should've been delivered by now, I hope they come soon and not hold us up any longer.