Decommissioning, Day Three

Discuss work orders with boatyard (most are DIY or not needed – or can wait until just before relaunch in October-ish). Dinghy washed – salt and crud removed. Outboard motor stowed on pushpit (the hell with servicing it now). Kayak also decrudded, left on shore in case The Ilona wants to go for another ride.  Ilona's clothing sorted (ship home, or bring in camper). Extra books packed for shipping. Most other books, cruising guides and charts packed and moved to storage locker. 30-mile road trip to Riviera Beach [West Palm Beach], to Boat Owners Warehouse [better price, inventory, and knowledge than Worst Marine], to buy replacement PEX tubing [too expensive and too long delay to have it shipped to Stuart where there isn't any available] and miscellaneous PEX fittings. While we were down there, lunch at Cod & Capers, in North Palm Beach – also scallops purchased for later. Also stopped at Home Depot, to buy stuff like step stool to help put cover on boat later. Second PEX tube replaced by threading it from the quarter-berth, under the stove compartment, and to the galley sink; we now have new hot and cold tubing for this sink.  The other two tubings (to the head sink – hot water is capped off, cold doesn't leak yet) - waiting for fishtaping and threading under the built-in head compartment, maybe tomorrow. Bilge drained, again – for another leak check. We now have water at the faucets (no hot in head). Still checking for leaks - this should do it, but then again it IS a boat! Raining lightly in AM; heavier in latter part of afternoon – good day for road trip and indoor work. Enough for one day.

Decommissioning, Day Two

Challah prepared by The Ilona as Eggy-toast for brunch - delicious! Sails rinsed with fresh water, dried and stowed.  Chain, rode, chain locker - also washed, dried, and stowed. Sunburn and heat stroke – in progress. List of repairs and projects for the boatyard and for us – prepared and printed. Snorkeling stuff (wet suits, face masks, fins, snorkels, dry bags, etc.) washed, dried, stowed.

Decommissioning, Day One

On the dock at American Custom Yachts, up the river from Stuart FL - Definitely, finally, found the water leaks! It's not the main fresh water storage tank. It's not the hot water heater.  There are 4 water lines that disappear as they travel through the boat: hot and cold, to galley (under the built-in stove cabinet) and to head sink (under the built-in head compartment).  One line gushes water - I replaced it. Two others have slow leaks.  Solution: Replace ALL 15mm tubing in the boat and be done with it.  Now to get the parts.  ALSO:  Six big machines full of laundry, preparing stuff for storage locker, shipping home, or into the camper van.  ALSO: Load number one went into the storage locker.

From water to land

Now we have it all - boat, camper/van, bicycles - and of course we can provision and travel without using dinghy and/or walking.  Nice.

Moved the boat up the St. Lucie River (aka Okeechobee Waterway) this morning.  Five miles. One hour. Easy motoring.  Now docked up at American Custom Yachts, east of Stuart, between the I-95 freeway and Florida's (not so free) Turnpike.  Arranged for mechanics to finally find and fix the damn fresh water leak next week.

Taxied to Indiantown and retrieved our van / camper. Checked out of the Indiantown Marina, said goodbye to some of the people who work there - we will miss the sailing community there, a little - but needed to find a place that can and will actually do the boat repairs we need. Closed the Indiantown climate-controlled storage locker and rented another, closer to this new boatyard. 

This weekend we get to transfer stuff from the boat to the locker or the van.  Then haulout sometime next week, and we become full-time RVers.  Checked out the local campgrounds - a couple of nice ones ashore at the St. Lucie Lock. 

We can sleep in our van (or boat) here at ACY, until haulout.  Accessible 24/7, locked and guardhoused gate. It's a boatyard, not a marina.

Today we motored (van, not boat) to Publix, etc. Restocked with beer, bought a challah - and hauled it home really easily.  This having wheels can really spoil us; forgot how easy people ashore have it.

Stuart!

Stuart! Done with up the ICW, got a mooring ball for tonight. Great meal at the Sailors Return (how appropriate!) Restaurant at the Sunset Bay Marina. 

Tomorrow we motor 5 miles up the Okeechobee Waterway to repair, decommission and haulout for the Summer. Will be sad to leave the boat, but then we get the camper/van and can see friends and sights in Florida, without having to take the dinghy. And then no weather worries.

Motoring up Hobe Sound on the ICW, between Jupiter & Stuart

The world is alive, with the Sound of Hobe ...

Boat repair while stuck in Fort Lauderdale

Still in Fort Lauderdale. Still waiting (a week now) for winds to subside so we can travel up the ditch to Stuart - and no chance before Wednesday. We need 3 days motoring to get to Stuart. Two days if we go outside in the Atlantic, but it better calm down a lot for us to go back out there again.

Will probably leave the boat somewhere in Stuart for the summer.

Meanwhile, we have been spending the last few days trying to find the leak in the fresh water system - it looks like it probably is in or under the 40-gallon fresh water tank, which is built in to the hull of the boat, is under the not-removable aft cabin wood under the mattress, and is made of unsealable plastic. Not in something easy to fix like the tubing or the water pump.

This could cost us a lot to repair. Got a guy coming to look at it today - might get it fixed here in Fort Lauderdale, or in the place we leave the boat in Stuart. Wondering if it would be cheaper at this point just to sell the boat.

You might say I am getting overwhelmed with the amount of time and money and work and frustration I am spending on boat repair. I, of course, can't say that - I have to look at the brighter side: I am learning a lot about boat repair and maintenance.

This is a lot like fixing an airplane engine while in-flight. We have to tear the boat apart while trying to live in it. So it goes ...

St. Urho's Day

Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen

Happy St. Urho's Day

Saint Urho - Saint Urho's Day March 16th

www.sainturho.com

St. Urho - Legendary Patron Saint of Finland

St. Urho was a Finnish lad,

A blue eyed, blond hair poika,

St. Urho, bashful suomalainen

Ate grapes and kala mojakkaa.

He chased those big green bugs away,

"Heinäsirkka, mene pois!"

He said it loudly, just one time ---

Tose 'hoppers had no choice!

And so the Finns are here right now,

To celebrate Dear Urho,

And sing and dance in temperatures…..

It's always way 'plo zero!

Then in snowbanks deep and rivers iced,

To our saunas we will go, oh!

Cuz' Urho is our hero, now,

As all good Finns must know!