Gone Cruising Again

Well Sonja and I made it to Marathon the 19th after departing Panama City December 16th. It was a hard sail for the first 24 hours across the "Middle Ground" but at least we did not have to play tag with the fishing fleet at the Appalachia sea buoy like we have in the past.

Lucky for me I have a first mate that can cook at sea and we enjoyed our regular hot meals, snacks and hot coffee through the entire trip. What could be better than hot meals at sea. The next 24 hours found us hard on the wind enroute to Venice where we planned our first stop. Venice is a delightful stop with a first class Marina just passed the inlet entrance. I timed our arrival so we would be the first boat on the fuel dock when it opened at 08:00. The friendly service at Crow's Nest Marina always makes for a welcomed stop and their long lay-a-long dock makes for easy overnight dockage for an exhausted crew.

A quick three hour for the Captain and off to the Crow's Nest Marina restaurant for a great seafood lunch. The Marina offers free bicycles for hearty souls to cruise the main streets of Venice, but the crew decided they wanted to walk and stretch their leg muscles after sitting for two days straight. From the Marina it's a short walk to the Inlet Park where their is a jetty extending out into the Gulf about 150 yards. The top of the jetty is paved so people can walk the entire length and fish from either side. When we were there the bait fish were coming in on an in-coming tide and the Mango Snapper and Lady fish were being caught left and right.

The next morning the crew was up early preparing breakfast and tiding up the ship for another 24 hours at sea enroute to Marathon, Florida. I wanted to arrive in the Florida Bay at dawn in order to navigate around all the crab traps. The wind was light out of the east and we brought out the jenny knowing full well the wind will fade the further out to sea we went. After a couple of hours under the motor and jenny as predicted the wind fell to 5 kts. The day was beautiful with a rosy red sky for a sunset and it looked like we were right on schedule. Latter that evening the wind piped up to 10 kts and again the jenny went out until around 4:00 AM when I saw that we were going to be too early in the Florida Bay so back came the jenny and we slowed to 6 kts.


Day break found us right on the edge of the shallow water (10 ') and the beginning of the constant lookout for crab and lobster traps. All went well for the first two hours then all of a sudden I felt a thud and my speed through the water starting decreasing. I knew instantly we had snagged a crab trap. I cut the throttle and we slow to a stop and dropped the anchor. The crew fished the remnants of a line floating to lee and gave it a yank. Nothing, so I slowly put it in gear to see if we ad the line wrapped around the shaft and sure enough the line lurked out of the crew's hands, so I took it out of gear and shut down the engine.


The first mate was the first to volunteer to dive down and cut the line. What a girl, she cooks, she dives, she catches fish for dinner, what more could I ever ask for in a first mate. I help Sonja get her diving gear on and outfit her with a sharp knife. Over the side she goes and makes a valiant attempt to cut us free. Unfortunately she is not able to hold her breather long enough to cut the line wrap. i summoned her back into the boat and called Tow Boat US. Two hours latter the diver on Boat US had us free of the tangle and we were on our way to complete the final 8 miles to our destination, Boot Harbor Key in Marathon.


Arrived in the Harbor around 2:00 PM and received our mooring ball assignment from the friendly staff at the Boot Key Marina since I had filled out the arrival forms on the Internet prior to departing Venice and emailed the forms. We grabbed a ball, got Conch Clipper bedded down and grabbed some shut eye. All is well in Marathon, Florida.

Boatyard Blues

On Friday December 5th I finally got word from the Boatyard the work on Conch Clipper had been completed and they are ready to splash the boat back into the water. Finally Sonja and I will be able to sleep in our own beds rather at my son's home sleeping on our grandson's bed.

The yard closed at 4:00 PM and I was told to be there at 3:30, well as luck would have it some last minute errands had to be made and since I was planning on leaving Saturday evening the trip to the bank was essential. Unfortunately when I arrived the boat was in the water and I did not have an opportunity to see their final product, but as before, I took their word for the job and paid the tab.

The boat didn't seem to be sinking so a quick look around to make sure all seacocks were closed and we fired up the engine and took off. A friend of mine volunteered to come with me to handle the dock lines on the other end and the fifteen minute trip from the boatyard to our dock went uneventfully.

Once back at the dock I took a better look at the yards work and discovered a terrible mess of plumbing associated with the forward seacock installation relative to the Fwd AC unit. It was now about 5:00 PM and darkness was approaching. I took a deep breath and ordered a sundowner with Sonja instantly agreeing. Here's to another wonderful day in Paradise, bottom's up.

Saturday I woke at 06:00 with the thought of finishing my departure checklist and cutting the dock lines at 12:00 midnight. That's when everything started to go down hill. First item on the agenda was to open the sail envelope (stack pack) and put a reef in the main sail. Sounds easy enough but when I the Sail Loft installed the sail pac and lazy jacks two weeks prior they reminded me the reefing lines were disconnected.

So with a gentle wind from the stern, I raised the main to the reefing point and attached my lines. Problem was; now I can't lower the sail because somehow the leach of the sail wrapped around one of the stays and refused to come down. I summoned the first mate and between Sonja pulling on the halyard and me tugging on the leech of the sail we finally were able to overcome the 5 kt wind and bring the sail down into the sail pac, but not without a struggle.

With that struggle behind us I left for my office to finish shipping the final sale items that sold on eBay Friday. I packed the accounting information that I would need to process my taxes and closed down my office. One more trip to the bank for final deposits and back to the boat I went still with the thought of leaving as late as 03:00 AM Sunday morning.

Walking down the dock towards the boat I realized that the dink had to be loaded on the bow, motor had to be stowed, deck box and extra chain locker all had to be stored, dock lines gathered, batteries checked and a whole host of other items that were still not complied with, had to be complied with not to mention that I really hadn't taken the time to inspect the seacocks that were recently installed by the boatyard.

So first thing was to inspect their work and that's when the whole plan of departing Sunday morning started to fall apart. The forward seacock plumbing was such a mess, so I decided to start there. When 5:00 PM came and Sonja finished with her pre-departure list I finally admitted I was no-where near departing and suggested it was time for a sundowner and Sonja quickly agreed. The pressure of departing on schedule was gone and another plan had to be made, but most important, the boat had to be prepared for sea and at this point it was not.

Well here it is Monday and we're still not gone, but I finally finished re-plumbing the forward AC/Heater, inspecting the other seacock installation and tie-up some lines. The only thing left to accomplish on the forward seacock installation is run the grounding (bonding) wire to the closest thru-hull which is fifteen feet away. I will use the 5/8" water line that brought the sea water from the old ball valve located at the companionway entrance as a conduit and connect the forward seacock ground wire to the new seacock just installed. It seems to be the easiest route and it keeps the grounding wire off the bottom of the boat and out of the seawater.

The following pictures in the order they appear are my able body crew sleeping on the job. The next picture is the aft seacock installation showing how little room I have to remove the seawater strainer, compliments of the boatyard. I will have to re-do the seawater strainer fixture in order to have enough clearance to remove and clean the filter. The last picture shows the completed re-do plumbing job of the forward seacock after I straightened out all of the snakes.

Let's tip our glasses to the next weekend and hope for fair weather and smooth seas.

Ball Valves

Now here is a stroke of luck. While Conch Clipper was on the hard getting the bottom re-done I mentioned to the owner that I noticed some white crystals forming around one of my thru-hulls. Since the boat was on the hard anyway, I asked him to change the thru-hull but use the same ball valve because it was operating freely. Yesterday I came back to the boat and the owner of the yard told me the ball valve snapped off in their hands when they applied effort to unscrew the joints from the thru-hull. Lesson learnt; always inspect your seacocks, ball valves and thru-hull for seepage which will appear as a layer of white crystals formed from the seawater evaporating around the joints leaving behind the salt deposits. Refer to the pictures and you can see the white deposits around the base of the ball valve, what you can't see is the small portion of thru-hull thread that was keeping the two joints together. The yard owner also told me that you should not mix thru-hulls and ball valves together because of the difference in the threads. One has tapered pipe threads and the other has straight threads. The two do not fit well together and tend to seep regardless of how much paste you use. I will do more research on this issue and revise this post when I find out more info on the subject.

Purpose of this Blog

Most generally Pilots and Sailors will come to this blog because they have clicked on my vast inventory of Aviation and Marine parts, equipment and supplies that are posted daily on eBay. This particular blog was created to answer questions or provide you with information in pursuing a career as a Pilot or an A/P mechanic. As you can see in the pictures, Sonja and I enjoy sailing and cruising in warm climates and would welcome questions about your sailboat projects and/or your future cruising plans and agendas.

Crusing

Pictured is Conch Clipper anchored in Boot Harbor, Marathon Florida in 2008. So now it's time to go cruising once again after a long hot summer in Sunny Panama City, Florida. The temperatures are reaching the 30 degree mark and the frost is starting to appear on the dodger glass. All of the upgrades accomplish this year are completed and we are down to the last 13 items on our departure list.

Currently our 1990 Irwin MK III that's 52' overall in the yard getting the bottom re-done. Strange phrase isn't it, yes after only six months in the water since the last bottom job the wing keel of Conch Clipper looked like a grass skirt and patches of barnacles sticking to the surface of the paint. No wonder I was losing speed, not only was the bottom of the wing keel covered but there were also large patches attached to the rudder and cutlass bearing support. The owner of the yard immediately agreed to re-do the bottom at no extra charge and contact the Trinidad tech rep about the paint.

The route we are taking goes from our dock in Watson Bayou in Panama City, Florida out the St Andrews bay pass to the Gulf of Mexico and direct to the Clearwater Municipal marina with winds anywhere except in the Eastern quadrant. If the winds are NE or East then a turn South more towards Venice, Florida will be necessary to keep the sails full and the speed up. Hopefully we will be able to have 15 - 20 knot winds all the way to the coast that should give us a comfortable 7 - 7.5 knots cruising speed and cut our travel time down significantly.

We'll stay a couple of days and dry out in Clearwater and rendezvous with our friends from St Pete and spend some quality time doing the downtown area. After Clearwater comes Venice and we'll stay at the Crow's Nest marina overnight or anchor out off the yacht club just around the bend in the channel. From Venice we go to Marathon in one leg. An overnighter but a beautiful sail off the coast of the Florida far enough out to avoid the crab traps that proliferate the Southern coast of Florida this time of year.

Once we hit Marathon we'll catch a ball in Boot harbor and stay for a month or two before heading to Miami and across the stream to Bimini. We have our bikes and plan on getting a lot of exercise touring the area. Since Sonja and I are tennis players, we really appreciate the fact that the tennis courts are right adjacent to the Marina's dinky dock.

More latter

Ron & Sonja enjoying our water sport

Sonja & Buddy in our Dink