This month is exciting. So much is planned as we attempt to get ready to leave. Notices were given on the 1st for our 30 days for the RV park, the RV was sold and the notice to vacate for the stroage unit.
Andy placed the knee wall into the Aft head... ok Andy didn't do it... his son did. But hey, progress is progess. Nancy has one more week of work and then we are full blown mode to leave, contingent on the engine running and as of today... it's not.... This engine was smaller that the Frankenstien (a Perkins 4.236) so we had to add some new stringers and the now the prop shaft doesn't fit... If it's not one thing, its another. In any event, we will continue on with projects to get the boat ready, empty the storage unit, rv and make the final runs to the contrainer to keep what we want and get this boat ready to go... should have more info in a week on the engine.
Hooray! The engine is running! This was a rough time as we needed more parts to get this engine secured and working. The gauge cluster is now in so that is good. Final items to be installed and sea trail is now scheduled to see if there is any adjustments needed to the prop for pitch and any other adjustments.
Nancy was not able to make the sea trial on the 10th but watched the boat go out and come back in from the marina on webcam. Wow, can she fly now! At least that is what it looked like. Sea trial revealed that we needed to adjust the prop some so off it went to be re-aligned and adjusted for pitch. Have we mentioned how much more quiet this engine is? Also, the isotherm freezer is broken, luckily we had room in the portables for the food in the main freezer. Once the freezer is back and working we can fill it.
Final trip but north but it wouldn't be a stop without stopping at the freezer for some delicious steamed shrimp. We are exhausted and the container is a hot mess but that is a later problem for us to deal with. We need to keep going and get back to the boat.
The warranty repair on the freezer is done and we are now ready to fill this bad boy up. Final non-perishables were purchased from both Sams & costco. Picked up meat, chicken, lunch meat, cheese ~ all to be broken down into smaller packages and placed into the freezer. I had to play tetrus to get it all to fit in there and I may have purchaed too much... so once again, we are eating what I couldn't fit... I mean really, is that a problem, I don't think so!
Boat was emtpied of anything that could be washed. Towels, blankets, pillow covers, cushion covers, sheets, etc. I went the laundry mat and got everything wash, folded and brought back to the boat to put away. The puppies are happy once I get the boat back to order. They didn't like I how just took off everything.
Final run for liquor and fuel, both gas and diesel to fill the cans so we can leave. Also, walmart and Publix run for more items needed. Final produce run will be next week before we leave the dock.
Of course after, I purchased all of the freezer food, it's not freezing so we forced the warranty to do a full replacement because we didn't have any way to move the food and return the freezer for more warranty work with us leaving and no ETA for the repair. Tetrus again with the new freezer. I got most of it to fit back in but not all...
The girls are coming down from college so we can take them on a day sail now that the engine is running. We would like to get a least one shake down cruise done to see what is broken and what needs to be fixed so we can determine if we can still leave on the 25th or if we have to wait a week.
Kids are here and we are heading out on a day sail with them. The plan is to drop anchor and that is where we will stay for the next week to get some full systems testing done. That way if something happens we still have a week at the dock to do repairs. Not really how we wanted this to happen but it is what it is.
Shake down cruise ~ where do I begin.... All of the kids got sick and weren't having a good time at all. We just about lost the dinghy as the block broke from the davits, the sunbrella protection on the jib was shredded. I even think the dogs were kind of feeling squishy. After about 4 hours, we came back and dropped the anchor for our new home for the week so we can finish testing the batteries, solar and everything else. Made a list of what needed to be fixed and broke during that cruise.
D~Day - we are up at 6am as we leave Clearwater and planned stops for overnight in Venice and Marco Island before arriving at Marathon (or so we thought).
Venice ~ Super tight anchorage and some shift sand in the channel so be careful if you are attempting to go thru there. Anchored at dusk, quick dinner and to bed for the night, we planned on getting up at 3:30am as the next was going to be a long one
Marco Islandd ~ great anchorage, lots of room and plenty of depth. Wish could have stayed here longer. Looks like a fun little place to stay for a couple of days. Will do that when we come back along the gulf coast.
Marathon ~ Well we thought we were going to Marathon but our buddy boat had other plans to go to another anchorage and not Book Key where we assumed we were going. We attempted to follow him but the water was too shallow and we just couldn't get the achor to set so after about 4 attempts we headed back out the channel and into the bay where we dropped the achor for the eveing. By then it was very late, no sleep from either of us, we hadn't eaten all day and it was super rolly that we were getting sick but the desire to sleep was more.
The next morning, we got ahold of the city marina for a mooring ball within Boot Key Mooring Field so we can have some calm water, cook, sleep, and get the dogs off the boat since they haven't been off in 3 days. Plus we have a slew of items that are no longer working and somewhere along the way got broken.
So what will May bring us? Stay tunded to follow the adventures and journey!
