We’ve been sailing!

Sunset Bay Marina, Stuart Florida

Felicity

Greetings from sunny Florida! Yes, we are still in our familiar marina – almost three weeks later.”What have you been doing all this time? I thought you were going to put the boat in the water and go?” you ask.Well I was asking myself the same questions so I thought I would look back to see how much of the time was spent goofing off.

We spent the first week here on a mooring, so we were often running back and forth to the marina in our family car (dinghy) and parking it in the parking lot (dinghy dock). We have had a few issues with the outboard, making the trips exciting and causing us to catch up on our rowing the rubber dinghy skills. An inline fuel filter and a new spark plug seem to have helped, but Alan thinks it is because he threatened the engine with replacement that it decided to behave.

The first project on the list was the installation of our new Raymarine Type 1 autopilot. First step was to completely empty the aft cabin into the salon, including all of the mattresses. Alan had to install a core pack and replace the linear drive unit near the steering quadrant. The old drive unit will be kept as a spare because that part still works and it was a direct swap. Then there was the fluxgate compass to install in the hanging locker. More stuff emptied into the salon. The challenge with this is that it had to be at least 3 ft away from anything ferrous (like the engine), as low in the boat as possible, and not further away than the the cable provided would allow. That done, it was time to install the control head. Alan decided this would go in the cockpit near the helm, exactly where the old one was to avoid drilling new holes in the boat. These new displays are a combination of touch screens and buttons. They are easy to ready even in the sunshine.

You have to remember that each of these installations require a whole new set of tools that are stored in multiple places throughout the boat. It then became important to make sure these devices were all wired together. This necessitated the removal of the headliner (ceiling). The entire process took about 3 days. My job was to make sure we had a never ending supply of drinks, food to eat and a place to sleep at night. Oh yes and to fetch tools, put away tools, hold this, pull that and compliment on a job well done. All in all I am told the installation went really well. I do know that while being out on a mooring was sometimes inconvenient, it kept us focused on the job at hand.

At this point we were able to move our car from Indiantown to the marina in Stuart. We had been fortunate to find a couple to drive the car back to Canada, but it meant that we only had it for a few days and it was still full of crap ( did I say that?) that had to find a home on the boat. While we were pretty good at editing the belongings from our house, it seemed like we brought the entire contents of the sail loft with us – just in case. It was time to set some priorities if we were going to turn into “real” cruisers in a couple of days. The first trip was to MR Marine to buy caulking for the next project: pulling and rebedding two chainplates that we had discovered were leaking. Definitely a messy process to grind out the silicon we missed last time which was causing the caulk not to adhere. Alan’s hands were black for days after but he promises no leaks - haha

We decided that we would be able to get more accomplished if we moved into the marina. By coincidence we were assigned exactly the same slip that we spent most of the winter in 2 years ago.

We took a road trip one day. We stopped in Deerfield Beach to pick up our Strong track system from Tides Marine. Next was Bluewater Books in Fort Lauderdale to buy a new updated card for our Garmin chartplotter and some current cruising guides for the east coast of the US. We will still use the paper charts we have but cruising guides go out of date quickly. It was fun to see the charts and guides to places all over the world. I took time to look at a few such as Cruising the Baltic and a Guide to the Azores and a Guide to Vancouver Island. Perhaps one day we will see all of those places by boat. The trip back included a stop at Costco for provisions. Canned meat, butter, hot cooked chicken, mozzarella and cheddar, smoked salmon, granola, crackers, and many other goodies. On arrival back at the marina it was time to cart it all to the boat and find room for the groceries. The next day included many short trips to places like West Marine, The car parts store and Walmart for more groceries. The rest of the day was spent carting the remaining contents of the van down to the boat and dumping it in the next available spot.

Friday morning Alan drove up to Fort Pierce to pick up Geoff. He was to deliver Alan back to the marina and then head back to Quebec with our car when they were ready.

It was time to move on to rigging the boat. The wind had been blowing enough that it was unsafe to put the sails up at the wharf in a cross wind.. The first step was to install the mainsail track. It slides up the grove on the mast. and is pinned in place. It makes it so much easier to pull the fully battened main up and down even if we are not on an ideal point of sail. Since we have had issues with the sail jamming this is a great thing. The next day we waited until sunset when the wind dropped to put up the sails. Both of our new Hydranet radial sails  fit perfectly – thank goodness. Unfortunately we had run out of batten cars box when we were building the main and forgotten to transfer one from the old sail. A call the Mack Sails in Stuart quickly remedied the problem and they even delivered it. Great service.

The weather here has been warm – at least for Canadians – and the humidity high. We have been struggling to drink enough liquids as we work like “crazy Canadians” The Floridians cope with the heat by working at a slower pace. Smart. The boat is often over 90’ by the end of the day and with wind on the beam it is less effective at cooling.

At this point I have to admit to having a temper tantrum. I could not live in the disaster zone any longer. Alan grouched but we spent 2 days putting things away. This was a challenge as being sailmakers, we are carrying 6 headsails a main and a trysail. We managed to get everything away and even Alan admits that it is much more pleasant having a place to sit down and our sleeping area moved to the aft cabin.

In between we were able to take occasional breaks. The marina held an end of season Pig Roast for all the boaters that was fun. We headed up to Kilwin’s Ice cream one evening. We remembered taking our granddaughter Vanessa there. Drinks on the dock with our neighbours. A walk along the waterfront. A trip out to lunch for a burger and a shake. It was fun discovering another Hallberg Rassy 352. The owner sails the boat by himself. We compared the little details that make our boats different and looked for ideas to steal. He had a bookshelf in the aft cabin I really liked and shelving behind the salon settees.

This week we celebrated my birthday with a wonderful gift from our daughters. They arranged for a gift card for the marina restaurant, The Sailor’s Return. We sat on the balcony and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Alan had prime rib and I had a filet mignon and crab cake combo. We shared a piece of key lime pie. I washed it down with a Pusser’s Painkiller.

Yesterday was a big day. We managed to get everything together to go out for a shakedown sail. In time for the slack tide we backed out of our slip – first stop was fuel and pumpout. That went well but we discovered that the vent for the holding tank was blocked- not by the usual stuff. There was a nest in it. No wonder the head had been a little smelly. Something we should have checked before we launched. Anyway, off the dock and on to fun stuff. First task was to get the autopilot running. We had to swing the fluxgate compass by driving around in circles. The next task was to calibrate the autopilot to let it go through a series of manoeuvres all by itself. The linear drive can be installed on the port or starboard side. The set up assumes it is installed on the port side. It is installed on the starboard. side. It made for some interesting manoeuvres.  Well, panic as the boat went opposite to what is expected. That makes me a bit nervous in the confined spaces of the St. Lucie River. Something was not quite right so we found a spot to drop the anchor and have brunch. Alan got out the instructions again. After a break we upped anchor ( check – windlass working) and tried again. This time we were successful. Time for the sails. It was a great day with wind about 10 knts. Both sails were perfect. We tried every point of sail. Our new autopilot has a wireless remote so we can sail the boat from the bow, the top of the mast or the dinghy. I played for a while with this. Normally we would use the self steering under sail as it does not use any power but this was fun. Here is a picture of Alan back in his element.

We have a couple of days of small chores to clean up and then we will be headed to West Palm Beach and the Bahamas. Our stay in the Bahamas will be long enough to satisfy the US government (2 weeks) and then we will look for a weather window to go north.