The Shake-down Cruise Nov. 12-20, 2010

Wow!   Of course we should have been taking notes along the way so that some of our followers could share in the pain and discovery.  But we didn't have an air card for our computer and the wifi access was spotty along the way.  In retrospect we could have written up our notes in WORD and then posted to the blog when access was available.  Frankly, we were exhausted by the end of each day so I'm not sure if that would have worked. either. Certainly our days were much longer getting the the boat home than it will be when we do the Great Loop.  So getting an air card might or might not be in the future.  Depends how dependent we feel we need to be on the Internet.

So let's get started.

Friday, November 12 - We arrived at Tiger Point Marina about 9:30 am, loaded up the boat with our stuff (fenders, lines, clothes, bedding, tools), went over the repairs that had been completed with the mechanic, and then it was SPLASH time.  The deal was that the boat would be lowered in the water and then it was our baby.  We quickly corrected the marina personnel's thinking and they brought the boat over to the dock where we could get underway the next morning.  We didn't even know how to start it.

The rest of the day was spent getting acquainted with the boat and the boat yard was good about coming over whenever something didn't work.  The generator needed a new diaphragm gasket and they were able to fashion one out of something they had in the shop.  The windlass (anchor) wouldn't move until the 2nd button was pointed out.  Seems there were other minor things. 

Once things were put away we headed out for a quick bite to eat at Sony's BBQ and did a shopping run to Winn-Dixie.  It was early evening and we were ready to call it a day.  Slept on board.

Saturday, November 13 - The shower on board worked great - thank goodness.  Our new Raritan PHC toilets are easy to use and I don't know what the fuss about manual toilets is all about.  A few more groceries were purchased, the one way car rental was returned, our broker Mike and his wife Mary got on board and we were off.  Rusty had performed the engine room checks earlier in the day. Rusty was on the fly bridge helm with the Mike, and Mary showed me how to release the dock lines and pull in the fenders.

We fueled up at the Fernandina City Docks and pumped out.  The deal with dock hands is that you tip them $5 for helping with the lines, fuel, & pump outs. Cheap insurance.  Because we have saddle fuel tanks, it was important to know that both tanks needed approximately the same amount of fuel.  They did.  And so we were balanced.

By the time we were really underway it was close to 11 am and so it would be a short day. At about 4:30 we decided to anchor out (after all we needed to learn how to do it).  It was fairly easy to find an anchorage with the help of the chart book and navigation guide.  Mary showed me how to bridle the anchor chain with a piece of rope.  By 5:30 it was getting dark and our thoughts turned to happy hour and then dinner.

We prepared dinner using the grill and the indoor 4 burner propane stove.  Dinner was pretty good.  There was some discussion about our need for more ice cubes and shouldn't we consider an ice maker.  At $1,000 a crack, the two ice cube trays will work fine.

As we were getting ready to do the dishes, the faucet began to hiss and spit.  There was enough water to finishes the dishes, and then there was none.  No showers that evening.  Fortunately we had bottled water on board.  Fortunately the toilets are flushed using seawater.

Sunday, November 14 -  We estimated how far we could cruise and selected a marina in that vicinity, again from the cruise guides.  It was the Marina at Harbor Beach and they quoted $2.25 a foot.  We kind of gulped but we needed a place.  And what a place it turned out to be.  We called ahead to let them know our water problem and a mechanic by the name of Rupert called back to say he would be available when we got in. The dock hand/manager helped us with our lines, there is a no-tipping policy, the showers were spa-like, free pump-outs, and a free shuttle to the ocean side.  Rupert diagnosed the problem.  The pressure thing on the fresh water pump was damaged.  We opted for a new pump and he went to buy one at the local West Marine store, he installed it, all for $65 labor.  Turns out he knows the Perkins engine and was very helpful with advice on how to keep it humming.  So now we have to get the pressure thing replaced on the old pump and it will serve as a spare.

By 5:00 pm everything was back in order, we had had our showers and it was time to get dinner on the grill and stove. 

Monday, November 15 - Another early morning start (7 pm).  We made it as far as Titusville and anchored about 4:30 in the afternoon.  The markers on the ICW are easy to locate and to navigate.  The chart plotter has not been working from the time we began our trip so we have relied upon the charts.  We had an opportunity to go under and through a number of bridges and got used to calling the bridge to request them to open it for us.  Everyone so far has been very helpful.  The only annoyance we have had is from boaters that don't know the "slow pass" procedure.  We have started to figure out that it's best to hold on when the faster boats come up behind  and then pass.

We settled in the for evening, got supper on, and then heard a pssst, grind noise accompanied by a thinning stream of water.  We wondered if the fresh waster pump installed the day before had gone.  Guess what - no showers that night or the next morning. Oh, and the anchor light didn't work, so we kept our spreader light on all evening.  The other spreader light was dead.  Thankfully we had new house batteries and it was not a problem with the heavy draw down of the remaining spreader light.


Tuesday, November 16 - We all were up by 5:30.  Our broker had started the generator so we could get the coffee maker going and then we decided to do some problem solving.  We knew there were three water tanks and we surmised that perhaps the tanks were not connected.  Sure enough.  Up went the mattress on our bed and we peaked in the guts of the boat and saw that the valves to the water tanks were shut.  We had been working on a smaller 60 gallon tank and it was dry.  The valves were opened and we had water again.

That evening we stayed at the Vero Beach Municipal Marina.  Our broker and his wife said adieu and we were on our own.  Our only dinner out happened that night and it was not nearly as good as eating on the boat.  We spent some time looking at the charts and figuring out how to make our next destination.  We called ahead to Indiantown Marina and they had space for us.  Only $1 per foot.

Wednesday, November 17 - An early start again - 6:30 am.  Rusty eased the boat out of the slip, used the bow thruster to get into position and off we went.  It was quiet for at least a couple of hours.  Truly a beautiful time of the day.  I had been a little apprehensive about the routing as we turned at Stuart, FL to enter the Okeechobee waterway.  It seemed complicated in the chart book.  It ended up being a piece of cake, except for one little accident.  The binoculars fell from the seat and from there on we had double vision.  A real pain when trying to locate the next marker.

Another first that afternoon was the lock.  We called ahead as we were instructed to do and told them it was the first time for us.  Do you think that made any difference?  Heck no.  It was comedy time for the worker bees.  Our boat was first in the lock and we had a port tie up.  Other boats were starboard and behind us.  The surge hit us like a torrent and I was losing the battle to hold onto the line.  At that point I could not imagine going through 150 locks in Canada.  The comedian lock master eased up on the lock opening so that Rusty and I could switch places. None of the other boats experienced the surge.  Lesson learned:  be the second boat into the lock.


We arrived in Indiantown about 4:30 and had an easy starboard tie up.  The dock hands were so helpful.  They pumped out the boat and taught us to flush it out again with fresh water.  Then we moved over to the fueling dock.  It was a space of about 40'.  We are 36'.  We reminded them that we were new to boating and they said, "no problem".  Rusty went bow in and I fed them the bow and stern line on their boat hooks and we eased into the slip.  Needless to say we stayed there for the night. There was something strange with the fueling.  One tank was still full and our two tanks should have been going down at the same rate.  We found out when we got home that there was a lever on a hose connecting the two tanks and it needed to be in the open position.  No wonder we felt a little lopsided.

The air conditioning pump groaned so we turned it off.  

It was the first marina in the four nights that had working wifi so I was able to do some computer work.


Thursday, November 18 - We were up way before 6 but had to wait until daybreak (6:30) before we could leave.  We were going to cross Lake Okeechobee today (25 or so miles across).  About 8 am we noticed that the Raycor fuel filter gauge had moved into the red zone and there was some white smoke. It was time to change the filters so we anchored. Rusty switched to the other filter first to see if that would work but it didn't.  So then he proceeded to change both filters, drained the gunk, primed it, and off we went.  The white smoke was still there so we anchored again and thought maybe it had something to do with the main engine filter.  We looked at the engine manual for the procedure to replace this filter.   During the whole time we were in email contact with our broker. Just as we had the main engine filter removed, the email came through that the broker doubted it was that filter.  Happily we put the filter back and resolved to get a diesel mechanic to look at it when we arrived home.   Underway, we noticed that the smoke had disappeared and never returned for the rest of the trip.

It took almost three hours to cross Lake Okeechobee.  The distance between some of the markers was 7 miles.  As we travelled, visibility decreased and we encountered waves of fog.  Fortunately Rusty has a GPS chart plotter on his iPhone and we were able to follow the magenta line .  We even found the markers.  Our radar was kaput so we used the handheld GPS radio to broadcast our position and had an obnoxious sounding horn to warn others we were there.  Fortunately traffic was virtually non-existent.  We decided that we needed a break and called Rolands Marina in Clewiston for dock space.  We arrive early afternoon and did some replenishment of groceries.

We called the manufacturer of the air conditioner and they suggested it was probably an air lock and we needed to flush out the line in reverse.  We glanced at the exit hole and realized that without a dinghy that wasn't going to happen.  We had also  been in email touch with the previous owner about various things and he had provided some information on the air conditioner - loosen the three wing nuts on the pump until the water flowed.  It was a five minute job and it worked.

Friday, November 19 - Another early morning, a few more locks, and a very pleasant cruise along the Caloosahatchee.  It was a good time to get some cleaning done on the boat as we travelled along.  We arrived at Ft. Myers Yacht Basin late afternoon and Rusty did an amazing dock procedure between two mega boats with some verbal instruction from the salty deckhand.   A nice meal on board followed by a walk and it was time to call it an evening.

Saturday, November 20 - Another early departure and we were soon on the home stretch.  The waterways out of Ft. Myers are tricky with narrow channels going in different directions.  We took our time.  It took almost -7-8 hours to get home.  It takes one hour to drive.  A few hours before we arrived it was time for me to go through the boat and pack things up, or throw things in the garbage. By the time we docked at Calusa Marina, we were ready to go home.

It was an amazing trip.