by miami | Jan 14, 2014
Hello everyone! It's your favorite blog post writer! Me! Today, you will read about my daring experience climbing to the top of the mast to fix the broken wind indicator. (That I totally didn't break going under a bridge a wee bit to short for us.)
Now, standing from the nice, safe, stable boat, one could have some pretty bold words. For example. “Climbing to the top of that mast will be a sinch.” I'll come back to this statement explaining how I was wrong.
So I strap myself in to the bosun's chair. (If you are unfamiliar with one it's what Donald Duck sat in when he was painting his boat.) Now I started to be hoisted. As I reach around 40ft up I was begining to have second thoughts about my boastful words. None the less, I reached the top.
The wind indicator (that tells us the direction of the wind.) was about 3inchs out of my reach. Since I was lifted up as far as I could be lifted I had to tie a line around the two shrouds to create a makeshift step. Never in my life did I need as much courage to stand up. For when I stood up I came out of my chair. Not only was the wind indicator to high for me. It was also to far out. I had to tie a line around my chest then the mast, so I could lean out far enough to reach this thing. I was REALLY regretting those words now. After some fighting with it I was able to get it off and send it down for reparis.
After 5 or so minutes it was hauled back up to me. Kinda good as new! So I bolted it back to its rightful place. I was then dropped like a useless stone all the way to the bottom of the boat. So ends the great mast story. The moral of the story is. Buy a shorter boat.
Here is the view I had at the top of the mast! I did my best to edit out the fear of heights for you guys!
by miami | Jan 10, 2014
We are back to cruising! But better prepared than before.
The last bridge we made it through can be seen between the lights…
Last post we had made it out of the yard and just far enough down the New River to get caught between bridges in Ft Lauderdale 5 pm traffic where they shut down the bridges until 6. Instead of trying to find somewhere to anchor in the dark, we just stayed put, went out for a nice celebratory dinner, walked back to the boat and crashed…
Yesterday we were up early, and took advantage of water at the dock to thoroughly wash the boat. The boys took outside, the girl inside. We shut her up in there with closed hatches and scrubbed for two hours and two bottles of comet…
After the first hour, we checked on Shelly to find her singing away to her work music turned way up loud. She was really hot in the shut boat, so we turned on the air conditioning that works great with the newly repaired generator. Woohoo! A happy first mate makes for a happy boat for sure…
We 'bent' on (the old nautical term for installing) the newly repaired genoa on the just adjusted roller furling and it worked very nicely. After paying $20 more than the $30 we were quoted for the dock the night before ( sorry he was wrong when he quoted you that…) we got underway in threatening rain showers and overcast sky.
It felt great to be getting underway again, with the generator and engine seemingly running great.
It was a short 24 mile run to Miami but there are tons of bridges we had to go through. Then it started raining.
So the crew abandoned the capt and ran for cover. The capt actually had a good time in the rain, motor sailing in between all the bridges. We were actually sailing along at a steady 7 knots with the wind abeam for a very nice ride.
Nearing Miami the sun began to peek out and the crew was called to help steer. The first bridge we went under with Ryan steering we hit the top of the mast. The dumb navigator/capt did not read the fine print to see the bridge was a very unusually short one, and thank the heavens it was not a foot shorter or we would have crashed into the mast instead of just bending a wind indicator. Now we know exactly how tall our mast is!
There will be images soon from the top of the mast as repair crews are hoisted up 54.5 feet…
Goose seems to like the sailing except when we roll and there is lots of noise. Yea well me too Goose.
We anchored just inside of Key Biscayne about 2. The joy of being able to start the generator was short lived as the generator would not start.
Sometimes I think the universe wants to see just how much patience I really have.
It took replacing a fuel shutoff solenoid, finding and repairing a broken wire in the hi temp exhaust cutoff switch and the some sheer will to get it running again. (Knocking on wood) the generator has run great both times today.
It was Ryan's night to cook. He spent most of the afternoon making an awesome broccoli cheddar soup and Shelly helped him make bread bowls from scratch to serve it in the cockpit under a beautiful evening sky. Yum! This is what it is all about.
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Then this morning after a conference call for paws4people on gotomeeting we put up the mizzen and the main and sailed off the anchor. Then out came the genoa and we were sailing along at 7 knots in about 15 knots of wind. Very nice! We sailed the four miles across Biscayne Bay to a Dinner Key/Coconut Grove to do laundry and wait out this next cold front.
So here we sit, having to decide what to do next, where to go and when to go. We are talking about heading over to Pennekamp National Park and doing some snorkeling on the reefs.
Here is where we are moored for the night with Miami in the background…
And where started today.
Stay tuned!
by miami | Jan 6, 2014
Wow! 6 degrees in Atlanta tonight? Holy icycle Batman! We feel for all of you dealing with this obvious result of global warming.
It is forecast to drop all the way down to 48 here in Ft Lauderdale. We got out the silk underwear and the spare space heater just in case.
In the meantime, work goes on. The bottom paint is done, Shelly's new navy blue boot stripe is very nice and makes us even more multicolored; the rebuilt generator is in (but not wired yet); the stuffing box packing has been replaced, engine room wiring cleaned up, and the bilges cleaned (for the umpteenth time).
The generator was a bit of a job. Especially while fighting a cold. The motor mounts had rusted completely through and the bolts had to be cut and chiseled to get them off. Challenging when you are hanging upside down in the small excuse for an engine compartment.
And of course the stupid hot water heater had to come out to get to the mounts on the front of the motor. I very much dislike the hot water heater in its current location but have few options at this point..
This is a motor mount that was cut out. It was once part of a four foot long by 6 inch wide by 3 inch high steel rail that was a sled for the generator. 30 years of neglect and this is what you get. The surveyor report said ” generator seems to be in working order…” Sheesh.
I used the main sheet slung from the boom through the hatch to pick up the 300 pound motor to get underneath it to clean the rust and debris, then install new motor mounts. That was one day. The only thing that kept me going was thinking that the yard would have charged me two skilled mechanics at $95 an hour each and they would have taken longer than I.
Not much room in the hole…
The two new front mounts can just be see under the red plate. All those hoses and wiring drive me nuts but will have to addressed another time!
This morning the plan was to get the generator in. Shelly sanded the boot stripe and painted her second coat, then she and Ryan packed up the dirty clothes and rode off on the fold up bikes to the laundrymat.
Before they left, Ryan helped get the generator housing and rotor into the boat, again using the main sheet which went a lot better than expected. We got it lined up and bolted on without too much swearing and scraped knuckles!
Goose is definately over this living in the yard thing!
Here is the hole it is going in. The old rear mount and rest of the sled can be seen in the bottom of the pic. The red motor is the Westerbek diesel that drives it. With the generator we have lots of power to run the refrigerator, freezer, and even heat and air if we want.
There they sit waiting to go in.
Down comes the housing. The rotor will be handed down and slid into the housing once it is in place. You can see the companionway ladder and the engine housing top have been removed for access. This means we climb in and out of the “house” all day long!
The rotor ready to go in. This thing spins really fast inside the housing and creates 30 amps of electricity like magic. It is sitting on the access panels to the engine compartment which have a sound insulation on them. It is lead sheets in foam with a heat reflecting foil. ( Hey some people are interested in this stuff…) It acts as a noise reducer and heat insulator all in one… You can never have too much of this stuff. If you happen to have any extra hanging around we would be glad to take it!
Here they both sit ready to be bolted. I quit taking pics about 2 today and got a lot more done after that.
We go back in the water in the morning. The genset still needs to be wired up, and the belt on the motor changed out before the hot water heater is reinstalled but all that can be done in the water.
So tomorrow we head back to the store for provisions, test the generator (please say a little prayer), and maybe get to head a little further south.
We just got our next deadline where I have to fly out of Miami on the 21st for two days of work, so we need to be in that area and Shelly and Ryan need to be more comfortable staying by themselves on the boat at anchor.
Let's go practice!
Stay warm and safe. (Maybe you might think about letting the water run in outside wall bathrooms?)
By the way, we were trying to get Ryan to Atlanta on Wednesday to the VFW post 5408 so he could deliver his 1st place Voice of Democracy speech, but it just can't happen. Nice job dude!
by miami | Jan 4, 2014
Poor Goose. We are hauled out in the yard in Ft Lauderdale, but still on the boat. Since we can't leave him on the boat all the time, we sling him up and down. He doesn't like it but seems to know it is the only way.
This is almost as bad for the rest of us. We hauled yesterday afternoon with the wind blowing a bit making it interesting to get to the haul out slip.
It took the yard an hour or two to haul us and move the boat to a place where they block it up. Not much for us to do until this is all done.
We started sanding the old bottom paint off around 5 and went until dark. We realized quickly this was going to a nasty job. Off to the showers to try and get some of the black sanding dust off of us. Remember this stuff is put on to kill things so they do not grow on the bottom of the boat.
We finished sanding, and wiping down the hull about noon today. Of course the weather changed , bringing in drizzly rain, so,, since two,of the thre of us have been afflicted with some sort of cold bug down time was called for while the hands either napped or just took it easy. We picked back up at 2 or so and got er done.
We did not take any pics while we were sanding as it was just too nasty, but we tried to get some of rolling on the paint… We are also changing the colors of the boat. The burgundy stripe above the tape line is called a boot stripe and will be painted navy blue tomorrow. Some idiot in the past used some sort of sears weatherbeater or something over gel coat and it just peels right off. This can be seen at the outlets of the bilge pumps to the right.
Someday we will sand and paint it all but not this week.
While the paint crew are fixing the boot stripe tomorrow the mechanic captain will attempting to reinstall the electrical end of the generator. Then we can put her back in the water where she belongs!
So for those of you jealous as you deal with sub freezing temps just remember it is not always hanging out on the beach here in our cruising life!
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