True story. If too long, glance at the Tips at least. Part One, Why do I make bad decisions when I’m tired? After a long day touring around Newport Rhode Island we were looking forward to a nice evening sundowner rest before an early departure. Since we were leaving early I did an engine room check: Oil, coolant, general overview, and check/cleaned the four strainers. All good. Fired up the gen and hoped to relax. After 15 minutes or so the generator abruptly stopped. I was pretty sure the intake clogged with something floating in the harbor, which turned out true. This is where clear thinking started to breakdown after two nice but tiring days in town. I tried to back flush the generator water intake to no success, wasting a bunch of our low water supply. With the strainer open and valve open, no water flowed. I looked around the boat for something like stiff wire to push down the pipe from strainer to seacock finding only an unused coax cable. But could not get it very far,...
Hello everyone, We are about 750 miles into our Loop trip. It has been awesome. The way the loop commonly works is by season. Our "late" start from Florida puts us way behind the majority of the Loop pack. Many are up in New York by now and we are still in South Carolina. While every part of the Loop has its beauty and interest Canada and the Great Lakes in the summer are definite high points. We are rushing north a bit, but mainly for the goal of getting away from heat and hurricanes common to the Southeast. Now in South Carolina and the temps are in the 80's. Much better than back in Florida. Since we don't want to rush our Canada experience this year we are going to go north as far as possibly Maine, then before it gets too cold come back down the east coast as far south as we want. There is a plan to go back home to Texas for the Christmas holiday period and spend a month there. Then, in late January possibly go to the Bahamas before going back north completing a...
As of Saturday 5/14 we are still in Ft. Meyers. Using the time to continue to provision and learn the boat, so not a waste of time. It does mean we are running "late" for a full Loop this year. No Worries. The latest, and hopefully final immediate issue-need an alternator rebuild. That should be complete Monday with a departure east for Tuesday. What has been done to the boat? There are two lists. One the mandatory repairs based on survey. That list was long and increased but I did a lot of the work myself. It included: New master cabin A/C New refrigerator. My tech said he is waiting on fridges for six months. But, I found one in Miami with an outfit that had 10. Was there the next day in a rental truck to get it. All new fuel filters and a fuel polishing. replace 2 batteries rebuild one alternator new horn new compasses: electronic for autopilot and analog for helm all new fire extinguishers Then there was the want to have stuff: find and purchase a used RIB (rigid inflat...
That's a lot of lighting!!
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