Run Aweigh Home

It’s hard to believe we have been in St. Thomas for five months…on one hand, it’s paradise. But the challenges have been many. I’ve neglected my responsibility to inform and it’s time to catch up on this story. Starting today I will fill in some “blanks”. Promise I have been recovering from a particularly nasty staff infection on my leg and what the doctors say is a dose of the Zika virus.

Started as a bad bruise but began growing very quickly. Several heavy duty antibiotics that kicked my but for a week, nauseous, body ached all over, could not eating thing for a week…..without….

All I wanted to do was sleep.

Return to Doc to discuss my side effects and after an examination, she announced that I might be her first Zika virus case of the season……great just my luck. She took blood samples to verify at the lab, but there are no labs here that test for Zika – have to be sent back to states and results would two weeks coming. I would be over it before I knew what it was. She assured me that it would not be damaging in anyway and I would never contract it again. Flu like symptoms for a week maybe and I’d be fine.

 

 

Two days after Thanksgiving. 0430 EST. We are raising anchor preparing to head 5.1 nm north to Port Everglades and out to sea…….we have two bridges to deal with and we need to make the first one by 0500 and the second by 0530.

Out to sea. I’m excited, nervous and to be really honest – a little nauseous. This is it, the moment when this adventure gets real.

We made the bridge scheduled openings and approach Port Everglades and am alerted of an incoming Cruise ship. We hold off and wait for him to clear. We get clearance by 0600 at start out. Sea conditions are as predicted – east winds at about 12 knots waves about 2.5 ft. The prediction is that the winds will drop all day and stay through the night. Hope that holds too.

I have Roger and Alan get the feel of the helm before we engage the autopilot as we head into the sunrise.

The plan is to cross the Gulf Stream and enter the Great Bank north of Bimini and to reach at least Chubb Cay and maybe Nassau if the weather holds.

As the day wears on, the winds drop and the seas flatten. We reach the Bank by 1245 and couldn’t have wished for any better sea conditions.

 

A 32 year old boat always has projects to be done. I can’t really complain because I don’t have yard work to do any more, don’t have a job, don’t have a car anymore…..I guess we’re almost homeless.

Traced down two new leaks and caulked them. Replaced a navigational light and started developing a course through the Bahamas…. The anchor line snubber I fabricated is not working the way I envisioned. I need to replace the “clam” with a hook to secure the chain. In Loggerhead I decided I needed a heavier anchor. I purchased an 88pound spade anchor and it arrived in a huge box.

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Roger and George helped me install it as that was the time I was having a lot of back issues…..

Roger used his dinghy to connect the anchor to the chain.

I don’t know how I would have done this without them….

I marked the chain with a four color paint scheme in order to determine him much chain I had out…..

We need to find a place to top off fuel and water. Water in the Bahamas is 25 cents a gallon….and we have a 700 gallon water tank. I running low on rum and we have trash we need to unload. The rum issue is the most critical…..We talked a couple guys into bringing a couple bags of ice from the mainland which they did and refused any money.

Susan is still making gourmet meals and I’m gaining weight again….every night she is trying recipes to prepare for our guests.

i love being the Guinea pig…..

When we arrived in Key Biscayne Bight, I noticed that the starboard rudder post was leaking….pretty bad. I had packing added last September when it was hauled, but the starboard side has needed frequent adjustment. I thought I had it under control by the time I got to Loggerhead but I was wrong. After we anchored there was a steady stream running to the generator room bilge….

I called a couple yards who where busy trying to get boats ready for Memorial Weekend. But what I learned was that it was not essential to pull the boat out to add stuffing…would never have guessed. Called our new friend Benjamin for suggestions. He found a guy that could come out Wed. to help us. I need to see how this is done…could come in handy in the future.

So we are living on the hook. Which is good practice. We are cycling the generators off and on to see how long we can go without power before we loose stuff in the freezer. So far we have gone 5 1/2 hours with no power and not lost anything in the freezer.

This has been our first time anchoring and staying on the boat. I was nervous the first night and kept getting up and checking to make sure we weren’t dragging anchor…I think I was only up twice last night….beginning to trust our ground tackle.

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Susan and I have made several dingy trips around the anchorage to explore…..

Just to the south of our anchorage is a sandbar which is quite popular on weekends and holidays. The were at least 100 boats there on Saturday and over 175 on Sunday. Mass hysteria. Oh and two or three Coast Guard boats and the Miami Dade Police. Too many different types of music blaring for my taste…..must be getting old.

 

since I have not been blogging, most folks following us probably thought we had dropped of the map. I have been in a frustrated mood about our issues with our boat that have continued to delay our adventure. I thought it appropriate to fill in some of the blanks. This will take several posts to complete the story.

We left Delray in mid March and found Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood Fl. Arriving I find there was a misunderstanding over the monthly slip rental rates.  We almost left but the dockmaster worked with me and discounted what he could so I bit the bullet and paid the 2800.00 for the first month there.

This was an excellent experience. Lots of live aboards – both full time and seasonal. We did potluck dinners, happy hours and generally hung out with some really great people. Bruce and Sheila, Bill and Ninette, George, Prince (yes that’s right), Benjamin and Joseph, Bryan and Mink, Jim and Nancy, Richard and Eden, Steve and Carol, Dave and Sher, Russ and  Claudia, Barbara and Gary, Julie and her husband, Roger and Marilyn. No last names included to protect the innocent…..

We have so many really great memories and we will never forget how the group “took us in” when we arrived there.

Almost every night we hung out at an area along the docks we called the “table of knowledge”. The longer you stayed, the smarter you got. Roger brought out his blue tooth player and Susan hooked up her playlist and we sang along with the tunes. Several nights security was called  because we were too loud (evidently)….and one night the police showed up….

We were told that had never happened before we got there.

are we talking about a “bad seed”? ….or “seeds” I this case…..

no pictures now…maybe later

 

after months…..we have started again. We left Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood Fl. This morning at 7:10. Headed south through Miami and headed for No Name Harbor on the southeast corner of Key Biscayne. It is just off the ocean and a good position to take off to Bimini when the weather clears.

Small craft warnings with winds gusting to 25 kts out of the northeast. We were detained by two bridges about 30 minutes each.

Auto pilot worked great. Used stabilizers for a while in the open water below Miami.

Arrived at No Name about 11:30. Small harbor with about 8 boats already anchored and it was tight to find room to drop anchor. After a couple tries decided to look elsewhere.

The southwest side looked promising. Anchored in 13′ of water and after two tries made fast. In process the windlass stopped working. We made our second attempt at anchoring and I went below to attempt a fix. I had recently bought a larger anchor. The thought of trying to physically lift the anchor and 150′ of chain was not pleasant….

The 120 volt breaker was not tripped….then I found a control box in the anchor locker. Took it apart and found a reset button (which had a reset on the exterior of the box that I didn’t see). All is well now, windlass is working and I cleaned a fouled connection which could have been the culprit.