November 4, 2019
Ft. Pierce, Florida
27.28.029 W
80.10.591 W


Today began with a rude awakening about 6 am when a loud thud hit the side of our boat, right about where my head was laying.  Our first impression was that we had been hit by another boat but it was the wrong side.  Then we thought that our fenders had shifted and we were smashing against the dock.  We later saw that it was actually fish hitting the boat.  We learned that it was a common event that fish, about 18-24” long go crashing into boats all the time in this marina.  We saw a dolphin later in the day and wondered if it was chasing them.  We considered that the bottom of our boat is painted black and maybe they just didn’t see us but wow! Talk about an eye opener!  The rest of the day was spent running errands, getting a rental car, and continuing the saga of the temperamental anchor windlass. 


When we left off, the Tweaker in Chief had decided to chase all of the electrical connections and clean them thinking the possibility of corrosion creeping into various parts might have been the problem for the on again, off again situation.  Which he did.  Then he ran the anchor up and down a couple of times, just to make sure everything was working as intended.  The last time leaving the anchor itself dangling just below the waterline to wash off the accumulated mud.  Once the mud had dissolved, he pushed the button to retrieve it and, . . . nothing!  OK, now things are getting serious.  So he called the number on the wiring diagram only to learn that the original company had been sold to another.  He contacted that number and talked to “Dave”. 


Dave was regaled with the history of the misbehaving mechanism and offered that he thought it was bushings in the motor starting to go bad.  His company didn’t actually sell a new motor but he offered a couple of places that did.  When the discussion of price came up, it was discussed as to whether it might be better to order a new windlass instead of just a part.  We were both surprised when Dave was adamant that no, no, no, we actually had a workhorse of an apparatus and the newer models weren’t anywhere as beefy as the one we had.  He also offered that with our long range plans, taking an extra solenoid would be advisable as they had a nasty habit of quitting too.   


Sometimes, it feels good, when another tells you that he’d love to take more of your money but you don’t need to spend that much, so why don’t you just keep it.  There may be hope for this world yet. 

November 3, 2019
Ft. Pierce, Florida
27.28.029 N
80.19.591 W


Our anchorage was less than comfortable last evening, so between the rocking and rolling, wind howling and worrying about what had happened to the anchor windlass, it was easy to be up and moving at 7:00 this morning.  I say 7, as we had not taken into account that it was the change back to standard time, so we really woke up at 6am.  Doesn’t matter, the sun still comes up when it wants. 


Of course, the first thing Dale did was check to see if the windlass had miraculously healed itself during the night and pushed the button to see if it would work.  Nope!  Still broken. 


As I mentioned yesterday, we learned a few tricks the first time we made this trip, so I laid out a cloth for Dale to drop the chain on as he grabbed another type of snubber to keep the chain from falling back into the water from its own weight.  Then I went back to the cockpit and slowly advanced the engine, so that all the pressure was taken off the chain.  Except for having to flip the anchor around, he hand hoisted it back up without incident and much quicker than either of us expected.  Once again we were heading south and really hadn’t lost any time in the process. 


We made Ft. Pierce by 12:30 and were met by the smiling faces of Gerry (Tinkering Consultant) and Nicky (She Who Must Be Obeyed), on Opal of Queensland, our buddy boat for the remainder of our big adventure.  Gerry met us on the fuel pier and then grabbed our lines when we finally tied up along a pier just across the channel from them.  The guys were soon noodling around the possibilities of what possibly could have gone wrong with the windlass. 


The four of us grabbed a quick bite, we collected the mail they had picked up for us and then the Tinker Twins were in high gear.  Each gathered their multimeters, Dale provided the schematics and diagrams of the offending motor, they donned radio headsets and while Gerry was down below, Dale went above to attack the dang thing from two different directions.  You can imagine their surprise when, for grins and giggles, Dale tried it again, and presto! It worked.  After much discussion, it was decided that as there was some noticeable corrosion on the outside of the motor, so the theory is, that it’s possible one or more of the connections needed to be cleaned on the inside.  Guess what Dale is doing tomorrow!  Just to be on the safe side, he’s going to run the chain up and down a few times just to make sure that it continues to work “under load” and that its not just a trick to get us into some remote spot to die again. 


And so the fun begins; also known as:  fixing your boat in exotic places. 

November 2, 2019
Melbourne, Florida
28.04.826N
80.35.850W



Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?  After the sun went down last evening, it began to calm and it was a very peaceful night.  No darting for an unknown sound during the night and we were in the same place when we arose this morning.  Although it started off a little chilly, it warmed up well into the 70’s. 


We hoisted anchor and were underway by 7:30am and except for looking at the scenery for the next 10 hours, there was nothing extraordinary to tell you about.  I don’t remember so many  mobile homes near the shoreline; you’d think the developers would have bought up all of the scenic property.   There were more dolphins in the ICW than I ever remember too.  Most were babies, frolicking near the shoreline.  I did see one manatee.  Lots of herons and seagulls. 


There was certainly more traffic on the ICW but for a nice Saturday, not as many as you’d expect.  We thought we were going to have entertainment at one point when a power boat would hail vessel after vessel, signaling he was going to pass them, but would just say “southbound sailing vessel, this is Flykt, the vessel behind you”.  Although a couple of people tried to tell him he needed to either call the vessel by name, give a marker, or at least identify what body of water he was in (so that every vessel in a 15 mile radius of his radio heading south, didn’t have to turn around to see if he was on their stern) he never picked up on the hint.  After he had passed us, we heard part of a heated exchange that dissolved as quickly as it started.  Someone ahead of us had clearly had enough of his less than clear communications. 


No, the excitement came when we pulled in to anchor just to the south of the Melbourne Bridge.  We pulled to the east as our guide had directed and dropped anchor.  We backed down on it, got a sharp tug indicating that it had set securely, and Dale proceeded to put a bridle on the anchor (this takes the strain off the anchor windlass and puts it on the cleats designed take the pull).  Unfortunately, when he returned to let out more anchor to put the strain on the bridle, nothing happened.  No click, no pop, no grind and NO motion.  So for the next hour, we let out the remaining length by hand, Dale got out his trusty multimeter and started tracing electrical connections.  The long and short of it is, something’s broke.  We will make our Ft. Pierce destination tomorrow in any event, where we have marina reservations.  There he and his tinkering consultant can start sciencing things to get it to work again.  What this means though, is first thing tomorrow morning, we’ll hoist 50’ of chain by hand back onto the boat.   We know a couple of tricks learned the hard way to making it easier. 


Sort of a comical sidenote: when we took off for our sabbatical back in 2005, our anchor windlass gave us grief all the way to Puerto Rico.  Dale got quite the workout back then hoisting the anchor several times when it would falter.  We’re not going to do that this time.  I’d rather buy a new one now, than start putting bandaids on this one for the next 3-4 months. 

November 1, 2019
New Symrna Beach
29.03.669N
80.55.875W

Who turned off the heat!!  Holy smokes!  We went to bed last evening grateful for the power to  the AC.  This morning Dale got up, got dressed and went outside.  He was back inside within 30 seconds, completely changing clothes saying that it was 60* outside.  A good time to head south. 

We had scheduled a 7:30am appointment to have our boat hauled for the out of water survey.  Dale went up about 7:15am to make contact with the manager as no one had responded to my text from the night before.  He came back about 7:30 saying that there was a whole new group of people there and they were having a meeting at 7:30 to discuss the day.  My impression was that as soon as our surveyor got there, they would know exactly how it was going to start. 

About 7:45 a man with his hands stuffed in his shorts and wearing a flowered shirt looking terribly cold came walking down the dock looking for us asking why we weren’t heading for the haul out.  I explained that we were ready but were waiting for the meeting to get out.  He went looking for Dale, who had gone looking for the surveyor.  I turned on the engines and waited.  Sure enough, here comes Dale, circling his finger as in fire it up, we’re going. 

Dale had warned me that the wind and current were opposed to each other, so be careful.  I backed out like I knew what I was doing.  That’s where it ended. 

Heading to the slip, Dale had said to swing wide, that’s the last I heard.  As soon as I started my turn, it became extremely clear that the current was much stronger than I anticipated and as I slid past the slip, three different men were yelling directions at the same time as the AIS started beeping a warning of a dangerous target in the area.  I wondered if it sensed it was me. 

Ready for the out of water survey

What many of you may not know is that I am a private pilot.  One of the things my instructor screamed in my ear (and there were many) was that you shouldn’t try to save a bad approach; its better to go around and line it up better the next time.  I fell back on that lesson as soon as the yelling started.  So I reversed engines and backed my catywompus angle back into the current.  The next time I approached heading into the current which was much easier to control; that time I pulled in reasonably straight.  The line handlers did the rest; they’d seen enough.  Jim Campbell, our surveyor, saw the whole thing.  He was sweet saying that anytime you come in without damage, its good.  Similar to my flight instructor who said anytime you can walk away from a landing, its good. 

We came out of the water about 7:50; Jim did his work, we paid him for his time and effort and we were back in the water by 9:15.  We had to back tract to refuel but we were on the road again (so to speak) by 10. 

Our journey south wasn’t a miserable day but it wasn’t a chamber of commerce one either.  It was overcast, dreary and cold all day.  However, it kept a lot of boaters off the ICW.  There were a few and generally most were polite as they approached us and slowed to knock down their wakes that can give us a nasty rocking. 

As luck would have it, I was at the helm when we went through the Mantasas Cut.  This is an area that has notoriously shifting sands.  They actually keep a dredge permanently anchored there.  Today was no exception.  However, today, they were actually working in the channel which required some serious navigation to get through.  Dale was standing by my side as we heard the boat ahead of us asking for directions.  We followed behind him until he did a complete 180 and started heading back towards us.  A voice on the radio called to us and said to stay put until the little boat leading the one ahead of us returned and then we were to follow him.  OK, I can do that. 

When it did return, a man came out on the deck and motioned for us to come towards him.  I was concerned that we were going to hit him as our boat doesn’t exactly stop on a dime.  He then gunned the engine forward and he again motioned for us to follow.   This forced us to do a hairpin turn, which appeared to take us back out but then he cut back in within feet of the dredger before doing another hairpin turn in front of the dredger.  I grant you, we got through without mishap but man, what a serpentine route!  You’d never get through that on your own.  There were 3 more dredgers along that strip but thankfully, it was Dale’s turn.  He was fortunate that 2 were anchored and the last one was clearly on one side of the channel. 

The remaining part of the day was spent staying in the obscenely narrow channel for such a wide expanse of water making steady progress south.  In fact, originally we had hoped to make Daytona Beach before dark.  We actually got there by 4pm, so we elected to continue on to New Symrna Beach.  Dale picked out an anchorage from a book we have on such information, and when we reached it, had only 2 boats in it.  We anchored in the center and backed down.  We got the sharp tug that indicates we’re well set and started to settle in.  Within 5 minutes, it became clear why there were only 2 boats here.  We were in a cut between the ICW and the beach which caused us to swing 180* on a regular basis.  We guessed the other boats had thrown out a stern anchor to keep them into the current but what happens when the tide turns?  Dale didn’t want to chance fouling two anchors.  As we plan to be underway at first light, we elected to let out more chain, roll up the side curtains to our enclosure to lessen the wind factor and keep checking.  It did seem to help.  We kept a close watch for about an hour and a half until sunset and appeared to be doing well.  Since sunset, it seems to have settled even more.  Every once in a while, we’ll feel the tug on the anchor and Dale jumps up to go check again. 

Let’s hope we have an uneventful night.  Every time, something happens, Dale is quick to say “Well, its something for your blog!”  Please!  Some things I don’t need to experience.