21 May 13

Jason finished all the paint work on the starboard side, re-glassed the blister on the rudder, and installed the new thru-hull fitting on the transom locker. Brent picked up the new alternator after lunch and we got it installed by 16:00, although the pulley is smaller than the old one, so we are going to have to change that out tomorrow. Finally splashed about 17:00. The chart plotter works (position and SOG), and the depth sounder works, but no speed from the log. Also, the oil pressure and temperature alarm lights are on, although the audible alarm did not sound. The oil pressure and temperature gauges, on a temporary hook-up, seem to be working. I motored over to Stock Island Marina Village and Terri drove over and met me at the dock to take in the shore lines; Med-moor with a bow line to a pre-installed mooring ball, with the stern to the quayside - they have a short floating finger pier on the starboard side, so it is easy to get on and off the boat. This is a nice little marina, and easily the least expensive in Key West.  

The boys are mad at me for calling them up twice during their 3-hour lunch/parts pick-up, so they have invited me to stay out of their way during the remainder of the installation work. I was furious, but kept my cool because I need Brent to finish the electronics work; somewhat spoiled our otherwise good working relationship. Anyway, back in the water at last. Slept in our own bed for the first time in 12 days.

22 May 13

Jason and Brent worked inside on the nav station electronics all day, while I sweltered in the heat up in the cockpit. Brent took the pulley off the old, dead alternator and moved it onto the new alternator and we fired the engine up; the alternator is delivering 14.2 V, as it should, but the alarm lights still light up on both the battery light and the low oil pressure - this confirms that the alarm unit on the ignition panel is also toast, so Brent ordered a new one. Terri drove up to Marathon to pick up a delivery from Land’s End (new underwear for me, and very welcome it is). The boys got the replacement indicator lights on the DC electrical panel installed and working. I changed the oil in the outboard engine and puttered around the cockpit. We checked the starboard boot stripe and it is totally submerged due to our starboard list; we are going to have to get some ballast onto the port side to balance the boat better. Also, the next time I get the bottom paint re-done, we are going to extend it up another 2 or 3 inches all the way to the red boot stripe and just do away with the lower blue boot stripe.  

Terri and I got the headsail down to inspect the upper furling gear roller; it is fine, but the UV protective strip on the sail needs a bit of repair work on the stitching. We spent the evening until dark working on repairing the stitching with my Speed Stitcher.  

Sam and Pat on “Longhawk” left Marathon this morning headed up the coast. We will have a tough time catching them up, unless they stop for a spell somewhere.

We had dinner aboard for the first time in a couple of weeks; what a pleasant change to have a healthy meal with modest proportions.

23 May 13

Terri and I finished the stitching repair on the headsail and got it back up the forestay with no outside help. The boys showed up about 09:00 and carried on below; got the SmartPilot, AIS, antenna splitter and various Raymarine SeaTalk wires and connectors hooked-up below the chart table. This is a much better location for the SmartPilot, which was previously, inexplicably installed in a corner of the starboard lazarette locker (not exactly a cool, dry place); it looks very nice and professional and will be much easier to get to for any future diagnostics. During the lunch break, Terri and I hoisted the dinghy (loaded with an extra 60 pound of ballast, to make a total lift weight of ~200 pounds) up on the end of the boom and then swung the boom out until we got the boat properly trimmed. It trimmed up perfectly with the center of the dinghy 8.33 feet from the boat centerline, so, if we can place ballast 5 feet from the centerline, somewhere inside the boat, we are going to need 333 pounds of the stuff.  

The replacement alarm receiver unit for the engine ignition panel was delivered today and Brent got it installed. The engine alarms are all working correctly now.

Dinner aboard again; bliss.

24 May 13

Brent and Jason carried on with the electronics systems reconstruction. We are getting there. Hope to do sea-trials tomorrow. Our new iPod Touch arrived today; historical note: our old iPod got fried, as well, during the lightning strike, but I did not figure it out until early this week. So, we had to buy a replacement. We originally got a 5th generation iPod, but it is not physically compatible with the new stereo unit on the boat, so we had to send it back and get the 4th generation version. Anyway, it all works now. Terri and I are ready for this to all be over.  

We had dinner aboard again; so nice to be out of the coronary restaurants which are apparently the mainstay of the American south. Or maybe it is common throughout Generica.

25 May 13

Finally got everything all hooked up and tested at the dock. Jason went up the mast and replaced the blown anchor and steaming lights, and the Windex and anemometer. The Windex metal bits showed definite signs of major heat/electrical charge. While he was up the mast, Jason also checked out all the standing rigging (all apparently good) and changed out my old radar reflector for a much better one (so say all the pundits). We also took the opportunity to add oil pressure and engine temperature gauges, rather than simply rely upon the alarms. We have also upgraded to DSC VHF and AIS transceiver (now the big boys will be able to see us as well).  There has been a silver lining to this cloud, although we have blown through several months of the cruising kitty.

And here’s the big news - brace yourselves, we finally made it away from the dock with all systems restored. Between thunderstorms, we went out on sea-trials and calibrated the flux-gate compass and auto-helm. Everything seems to be working fine, as far as I can tell. Of course, it will take a while to get used to all the new stuff, because it does not work quite like the old system. But, it has a lot of really cool features that are vast improvements over the old system. We have a couple of improvements to take care of, but may leave those to Marathon if we can get that far.

Bad news is that the wind is 20 - 30 knots on the nose for the next week, so I don't know when we are actually going to be able to get out of here. If it ain't one thing, it's another. It is good to have the "boys" off the boat for a change. They were starting to really get on my nerves. Every day, they would go on about how they were normally just handed the boat and told to get on with it and the owners left the boat and they were put up in hotels on full expenses, blah, blah, blah. But in the end, they have done a good job; it would have taken me months to do this myself. It has been 3 weeks and 2 days since the lightning strike and everybody I’ve talked to thinks that this is a remarkably short recovery time. Sure hope we do not have to go through this again anytime soon.

Dinner aboard again (baked chicken with spinach).

26 May 13

We spent literally all day cleaning up the boat; I scraped and scrubbed and rubbed 10 days worth of boatyard dust and detritus off the deck and Terri spent the day putting the salon and cabins back into livable condition. We were both spent at the end of the day. Dinner aboard again (barbequed chicken); I can just feel the pounds slipping back off (I hope). Forecast for tomorrow does not look too reassuring, but maybe we will get lucky.

27 May 13

We slept in, after yesterday’s (and the last 3 week’s) exertions, until after 8:30. The wind is already above 15 knots in the marina (15 - 20 in Hawk Channel with 4 - 6 ft waves), and just when I was about to think about going for it anyway, a line of thunderstorms developed to the SE of Marathon (our target for the day) moving NW (i.e., right into our path). That was it for me; we are sitting tight for at least another day; probably a week if the long-range forecast is accurate. I made a trip into town to fill up a propane tank and Terri did laundry. We spent the afternoon learning how the new DSC VHF works, playing guitar, and making matching turkshead ankle bracelets. I prepared a request for the final insurance claim related to the lightning strike and sent that off to Raul for approval.

Sam and Pat Crowder called in the evening and invited us up to Key Largo to join them in an expedition to Homestead to see the Coral Castle Museum. Having nothing better to do and tomorrow’s forecast looking wet and rough, we agreed. Dinner aboard again (orange ruffie).

28 May 13

Up early and hopped in the car for the 2+ hour drive to Key Largo. On the way we had torrential rains and wind gusts. We picked up Sam and Pat and drove on up to Homestead, arriving at Coral Castle at about 11:15. We toured the facilities, which consists of a bunch of structures and whimsies constructed wholly out of ulithic limestone quarried at the site by one Latvian immigrant. He did all the quarrying, stonemasonry, and movement of the quarried stones (many of which weigh as much as 13 tons) all by himself over a 26 year period. This guy stood 5’ 1” tall and weighed about 100 pounds, but he knew how to use levers and mechanical advantage. He was also really, really patient (and probably more than a little bit nuts). We all had Bar-B-Q in Homestead after the tour, which was fascinating. Afterward, we drove Sam and Pat back to Key Largo and hung out with them on “Longhawk” until about 17:00, when Terri and I decided we had better tackle the two hour drive back to Stock I. We will not be able to make it into the Pilot House Marina (where Longhawk is presently staying), as there is a 4.5 foot shelf to cross and the tidal range for the next week is only 1.0 foot. More rain on the way back to Stock I. We got back about 19:45 and were still full from the Bar-B-Q lunch, so we just snacked on peanuts and called it a night.

29 May 13

Weather forecast for today is still not favorable for traveling east, but tomorrow looks like it will finally improve enough for us to make it to Marathon. Brent came by about 10:00 to collect a check for the remainder of the equipment and his labor services. I could not convince him to come back after lunch and finish his final chores for me, but he promised to come back tomorrow between 08:00 and 08:30 and thought he could finish by 11:00. So we had a frustrating day hanging around the boat. Terri did a bit more laundry and made a quick run to the grocery store; I cleaned up the deck again and got everything all tied down topside ready for a quick departure. Bar-B-Q’d chicken and fresh vegetables for dinner; yum, yum.

30 May 13

Brent showed up about 08:45 to complete the installation of the instrument ground disconnect (which will hopefully provide some protection to the instruments in the event of a lightning strike) and a switch on the compass lights. After a bit of to and fro, we finally got finished by 13:30, which theoretically gave us time to make it to Marathon before dark. However, about that time a nasty looking line of thunderstorms developed about 10 - 20 miles east of us (i.e., directly on our line to Marathon), so, since we had already paid for the slip for a month, we decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and sit tight for one more night.  

But, fate was not finished with us. About 17:30, just as we started cocktails, the A/C packed in on high pressure. I changed the cooling water strainer, which usually does the trick, but this time there was very little water getting to the strainer, which meant there was a blockage upstream. With the intent of back flushing through the thru-hull, I attempted to remove the cooling water hose, during which effort the elbow fitting immediately downstream of the thru-hull block valve broke in two in my hands. This meant no more A/C for the evening, but was just a nuisance which could be corrected in the morning with a replacement part from West Marine. So, I proceeded to remove the broken elbow so it could be quickly replaced in the morning. Unfortunately, during this effort the pipe nipple below the block valve broke catastrophically, thus permitting the ocean to enter the boat - not good. I had a bung handy for just such an eventuality and we soon had the flow of water staunched to a few drips (actually, we measured it through the night at about 0.5 gallons/hour). To repair the thru-hull properly means we will need to get the boat hauled in the morning. Hopefully, we can get into the boat yard early and replace the broken parts in time to get underway. We had a restless night in the relative warmth and getting up every couple of hours to make sure the bung was still holding.