Wednesday, March 27, 2019

End of an era


End of an era

We often think about doing certain things someday.  Some of those things make it to the do it soon list.  As soon as we begin thinking of doing it soon, it seems to transition to do it now.

Situations conspired to move the sale of Submit from do it someday to do it now.  She is gone.  We are happy to report she is with a new owner who will love her as much as we did.

Anchors aweigh.

Monday, February 18, 2019

update


Good news.  The repair is done and we are back in the water.

Nothing was damaged.  There was an old crack where the rudder tube meets the hull and it opened up.  It has now been repaired and is stronger than the original.  The new Schumacher rudder we installed a while back is still just fine.

We launched last Thursday, Valentines Day.  We were delighted to have a visit from our Newfoundland friends Vic and Marilyn.  We did a little walking and shopping with them and later had dinner with them and their friends John and Joyce.

Friday and Saturday saw uneventful cruising down the AICW to anchor Saturday in Fort Pierce.  Yesterday we assembled the stealth dinghy and headed to Riverside Marina to visit Calgary friends Brian and Dawn Anne.  They are finishing projects on their boat prior to crossing over to the Bahamas.  We’ll stay here a few days and help if we can. On our way to Riverside, we took a little detour into Harbortown Marina. We did not go in the main channel, but rather through some pilings wy off t the side. It was pretty shallow. We were watching closely. It appeared that there was a large rock between two of the pilings, so we headed to pass between the next two. Then suddenly the rock was right under the dinghy. Turned out to be a very large manatee. It seemed almost a big as the dinghy.  It was close enough to the surface I was afraid the prop was going to hit it. That’s as close as I’ve been to one of those gentle beasts.

We’ve owned “Submit” for 10 years.  We’ve maintained, repaired improved and upgraded her.  She is a great boat and in much better condition now than when we bought her.  A couple in a power boat went out of their way to come along side yesterday morning to tell us “Submit’ is the most beautiful boat they have ever seen. I’m not sure I could go that far, but she certainly catches the eye. 

The time has come for “Submit” to find someone else to love her, hopefully at least as much as we have.  Our adventures with her are ending and we will be listing her for sale.  If there is anyone out there looking for a dream boat, let them know how to find us. 

Our boating attention will be spent on our other sailboat, Cal 27 T2 “Knot Ready”.  We will also join others on their boat or do some chartering.  This spring already offers a trip through the Panama Canal and sail up the coast to Costa Rica with friends.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Rudder or not


We anchored east of Jacksonville for the night of Friday, February 1st.  It was a quiet night and comfortable with just blankets.  Saturday morning saw us making the south into the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW).  As a reminder for those not familiar with the ICW, It is sort of a two lane water highway just inshore of the ocean.  It is made up of connected rivers, streams, canals, marshes, etc.  The two lane width is marked by red and green markers most of which are only visible in the daylight.  They perform the same duty as the solid white lines on today’s highways.  If you go outside the white lines on a highway, you’re in the ditch or worse.  If you go outside the ICW markers you are aground on mud or sand or rocks or….  Much of the ICW is dredged between the markers to give enough depth for boat traffic.

Around 12:30 pm, as we are motoring along, a faster sailboat contacts us on the VHF to say they will pass us on our port side.  I favor the starboard side of the channel and have sufficient depth.  And then I don’t.  A sand or mud bar has extended into the channel and we are once again aground.  It is a soft grounding but though I tried several times we cannot get off.  Timing is about half way between high and low tide with the tide falling.  We need 5.7 ft to float and the depth gauge shows 5.1 ft and dropping.  We could sit tight and wait for the tide to come back in to lift us but that could be 7 or 8 hours, by which time it would be very dark and not wise to be moving in the ICW.  So, at 1pm, I swallow my pride and call TowBoatUS.  In Florida, membership in their service is worth its weight in gold even if you never use it. 

We are told assistance will arrive in about an hour.  So, we have lunch and sit back to wait.  No rain, little wind and the temperature is almost comfortable.  The boat is sitting upright and solid, until it isn’t.  At about the 45 minute mark of our wait, she tips to the starboard side which is towards shore.  We would be rail down into the water if there was water on that side.  That is how our towing service finds us when he arrives.

To free us, he ties on amidship on Submit and then cleats off to his stern, just 10 feet or so from us.  He then fires up his large engine, puts it in gear and uses his prop wash to wash away the mud under our keel.  It takes a while but eventually Submit begins to settle down into the hole he has created.  She straightens up and then heals to about 30 degrees to port.  After more propeller dredging and tugging at the bow we are free.  However, the dredging did not make it back to the rudder and there is a lot of pressure on the rudder.  Once free, everything seems to be working properly so we tip our rescuer, sign the forms and continue on. 

A couple hours later we drop anchor for the night and, after shutting everything sown, hear water running into the bilge.  It is not a lot, but it is a steady stream.  The source turns out to be from the spot where the rudder enters the hull.  The rudder shaft passes through the hull and into a fiberglass tube which is attached to the hull.  On many older boats the rudder tube/hull joint can be problematic.  Ours has not. 

We are able to easily keep up with the leak with our bilge pumps.  The bilge fills about half way over a period of several hours and then we pump it out.  Even so, having a leak in a boat is not good and it could get worse.  We decide to have it repaired, but it is not really an emergency and it is a weekend so we continue south hoping to find sunshine.

We have been very lucky with bridges.  We have arrived just in time to pass through each of the bridges which must be opened to let us through.  As we are congratulating ourselves on our good fortune, there is a notice on the VHF from the Coast Guard.  A bridge in the Daytona area has a fire on it and all vessels are prohibited from approaching it even though it is so high we could easily pass under.  We end up dropping anchor in the channel and having lunch while the problem is cleared, flashing lights everywhere.

Westland Marina in Titusville can put us in a slip Tuesday evening and haul us out Wednesday morning.  


Titusville friends keeping an eye on us.

The rudder and steering assembly seem fine.  Bobby is recommended as a fiberglass magician and comes to the boat Saturday morning.  He will return Wednesday to grind away the old tabbing, etc, and rebuild the joint heavier than ever.  Tentatively we will launch Thursday the 14th and being back in the water will be our Valentine’s day gift.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

A week in the life?


Oh, my, where to begin? I guess I’ll start at the beginning.

We finished up the necessary jobs and launched on Saturday as planned. Then we took the big motor home to town one last time. The plan is to load the rest of the things onto Submit on Sunday and pull out at high tide Monday morning. We need high tide to get out the channel from Gibson’s. It started raining about 3 AM on Sunday and continued to dump buckets until 5 AM on Monday. We moved the motor home next to the boat so we had a fairly short distance to haul stuff and bagged what we could to help keep it dry. Of course, wet was the rule of the day. It was slow going, so we didn’t finish. Monday was cold, but not raining, so we finished loading and put the motor home to bed and pulled away from the dock. We were later than we had hoped, but we were able to get out without touching bottom. The engine died partway out but restarted in time to keep us from hitting pilings.  We are on our way!

I think we mentioned in one previous post that water had gotten into the fuel tank. We made periodical checks of the filter and switched over to the second one.  We are making good time and hope to make it to the low bridge by low tide. But….the engine dies. We drop anchor in the middle of the St Johns River and start tracking down the problem. Sleuth Reggie determines it is the secondary filter. For those of you that know us well, this will be a surprise to you—we had no spare. (we hqve since acquired several) Reggie did something to a filter we did have on board to make it work for the clogged one and, after having lunch, we are under way again.

Reggie was on the helm and Barbara was below putting away everything that had been unceremoniously temporarily “stowed” on the V berth. She then decided to let Reggie go below and warm up, so she took the helm. Reggie was standing in the upper salon rearming our life jackets. Barbara checked the depth sounder, 17-20 feet. Then she scans the river for a channel marker. Suddenly Submit comes to an abrupt stop, her bow dips and the shallow water alarm goes off. We are in 5.5 feet of water. Reggie falls backwards like a tree that has been cut down in a stiff wind. Barbara calls out “Reggie! Reggie!” No response and he is not moving. She reduces the engine to idle, shifts the transmission to neutral and goes below. His eyes are slightly open, he is breathing heavily and making a groaning, gurgling noise. He does not respond to Barbara voice or touch. Then blood starts coming out of his mouth. Time to get help. Her hands are shaking too much to push all the buttons on her phone to call 911. She grabs the VHS “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.”  The coast guard answers immediately, “What is your situation?” She answers all the million questions and Reggie starts to come to. He wants to get up from the floor. Barbara wants him to stay down, but she has to go out to the helm to get their location. The Coast Guard contacted Fire Recue and ordered an ambulance and a boat to come get him off Submit and on shore. They also contacted Boat US to tow us off. Barbara thinks she also talked to the Sheriff. It took 20 to 25 minutes for the boat to arrive and by then Reggie was sitting in the cockpit. He was unstable on his feet and wasn’t real sure what had happened, but he knew we were bouncing on the bottom and needed to do something. He had bitten his tongue, hence the blood. He was able to climb into the rescue boat with assistance. While they took him to shore and to the waiting ambulance a fire rescue member and Barbara prepared the boat to be left. Barbara thought she could get Submit off the sandbar as the tide had come it a little. Then she dropped bow anchor, collected needed items, turned off GPS etc.  When the rescue boat returned to take Barbara to shore, they hauled our stern anchor out and dropped it, too, to help keep Submit in place.  By the time Barbara got to the ambulance Reggie was almost fully alert and all vital signs were good. They still wanted to take him in to make sure there were no broken bones in his shoulder and no bleeding in his skull.

The ER visit was typical. Lots of questions and waiting. CT scan of head and neck and x-ray showed no fracture or bleeds. He has a concussion and sprained shoulder. Prescriptions for pain meds and a muscle relaxer were given as well as a sling. The only unusual thing that happened was two heavily armed uniformed men walked in, “Mr. Good?”  Oh, no, what now? They were from the Florida Wildlife Conservation. It turns out that they must investigate all boating accidents. They were very friendly and we had a nice chat. It turns out that there are only two sand bars on the river and we found one of them.

It was around 6:30 when Reggie was released. We were miles from the boat and it would have been possible to get there, but then what? There was no way to get out to Submit. Boat US had been working on a solution to getting us back on board. However, their boat was two hours away and if we were, in fact, no longer grounded, we would not be covered. We were exhausted and decided to take a taxi to a motel and work on logistics for getting back aboard Submit next day. All we had with us when we checked in was two life vests and some cash and cards Barbara grabbed from Submit before leaving.  Because we checked in with our life jackets we figured we would be safe.  The desk clerk did make a comment about how we pack lightly. They took pity on us and gave us tooth brushes and paste and a comb. Neither of us, but especially Reggie, wanted to move.  Barbara cooked in the room by ordering in pizza so Reggie could have food for taking his first dosage of meds and sleep well. The motel offered breakfast the next morning and then friends came to our rescue.  Larry and Barbara picked us up to take us to Harry and Darla’s because they have a fishing boat and live not far from where Submit went aground.  

We are grateful to the Coast Guard, sheriff’s office, Fire Rescue, Boat US, and of course our friends.

We were not sure what we would find.  Would submit have drifted away?  Would she have been stolen?   Did she sustain damage in the grounding and took on water and sank?  Would she have been vandalized? 

Submit was still in place hard aground and sitting about 8” higher out of the water than usual.  We were able to board from Harry and Darla’s nice fishing boat.  We hoisted the bow anchor and were able to drag the stern anchor aboard.  We tried to back off the sandbar but she would not budge even with their boat trying to help.  There really wasn’t much else Harry and Darla could do for us, so, after carrying our stern anchor out to deep water for us to use as a kedge, we said our goodbyes, thank you and sent them home.  We would set an alarm for high tide in about 5 hours and settle in for the evening. 

Water depth said 5.1ft.  Reggie hauled in as much slack as the stern anchor would allow and we went below to have dinner.  Barbara was all set to cook a nice hot meal when we discovered the propane system would not work so no cook stove?  What to do? No problem!  We had been carrying, for YEARS, a supply of military MREs (meals ready to eat! Yum!)  So, out of the depths of a storage compartment came a chicken fajita dinner with seasoned rice and tortillas, and a pasta primavera dinner.  Just stick the primary portion of the dinner in its self heating pouch, add a little water and in about 5 minutes a hot dinner.  Other parts of the meal just needed small amounts of hot water.  Sorry, no propane means no hot water.  And, after 30 or 40 years, self heating pouches don’t.  We managed to eat some of the dinners cold and didn’t die!

Water depth was checked over the next couple hours and dropped to 5.0 ft and then 4.9 ft.  When it came back up to 5.0 ft, Reggie again took up what slack he could on the rear anchor line and we settled down to read and sleep until the alarm went off.  In about ten minutes, Barbara looks out the window and asks if those are airplanes or moving lights?  They begin to reverse their motion so it seems they must be lights.  Reggie heads to the cockpit to check depth and the anchor line only to discover that we are in 30 feet of water.  We did not even feel moving off the sandbar.  Quickly the aft anchor is hauled in, the engine started and we head directly away from the sandbar to mid river and drop anchor in 17 feet of water for the night.
Not our most pleasant night. It is bitterly cold and the wind is howling, the river is rough. Reggie gets up to tie the boom down so it quits squeaking and banging. Then Barbara get up to remove a gender that had been forgotten and kept knocking on the hull to be retrieved. Then it was Reggie’s turn again to reset the anchor chain lock because the anchor was banging every time we rode up a wave.

Wednesday morning dawns cold, overcast and a north wind blowing 15 with higher gusts and wind chills in the low 30’s.  And, we must head north into the wind and waves.  Neither of us was very hungry so we had a little snack and headed out.  Reggie donned long pants, long sleeve shirt and fleece top to wear under his foul weather jacked.  Barbara found his black watch cap with a bill and his supposed-to-be warm gloves and he zipped to his nose, put up his hood and started north.  Our hope was to make at least 13 miles to a bridge which we could only get under at low tide.

The north wind caused 3-4 ft waves on the river.  Bashing into them threw spray over the bow and occasionally into Reggie’s face.   The waves also caused the fuel in the tanks to slosh a little.  This dredged up some of the water which had leaked into the tanks.  It slowly began showing up in the Racor dual fuel filter.  After about two hours, there was so much water in the first filter that Barbara had to go down into the port lazarette and switch to the other filter.  In another hour and a half or so, the second filter showed almost at the maximum we could allow for water.  On top of that, Reggie had gotten chilled to the bone.  We pulled out of the main channel and dropped anchor.  We had a bite of lunch and then curled up below with every blanket we had to see if Reggie could warm up. This led to some napping. 

After the nap, Reggie warmed up enough play Whack-a-Mole and crawl down into the lazarette to drain water from the filters.  Decision time.  No way to heat anything to eat or drink, let alone a way to keep us warm, and there are freeze warnings out for tonight.  Thanks to the headwinds and waves and sometimes only making 3 knots speed, we still have about 4 miles to go to the too low bridge and it is nearing low tide.  Do we grit our teeth and just stay put for the night and shiver ahead in the morning or buck up and leave now?  The wind and waves have eased some.  Reggie remembers a marina not far past the bridge which has one slip which might work for us if we can get there before 5pm and it is after 3pm now.  Pile on clothes and blankets, haul anchor and away we go.  The possibility of electricity to run a little heater is too appealing.   We are able to make better speed now and are able to squeak under the bridge.  We arrive at the marina at around 4:30 and are able to fit into their tie up spot.  We decide to stay two nights since tomorrow is still supposed to be so cold.

The shore power cord just barely reaches the power outlet and the tiny electric heater starts to try to thaw the interior of the boat.  We gather up dinner fixin’s and are able to cook a hot meal in the community room.  A lady tied up near us sees us arrive and gives us four packets of hot chocolate mix to help us warm up.  After two, Reggie can feel his hands.  After three, he feels his feet.  We have a nice hot meal, head back to the boat to bed down with all the blankets plus the little heater.  The heater manages to warm the boat and us and we sleep well.  Next morning, we take breakfast supplies and coffee to the community room and have hot showers and a hot breakfast.  An Enterprise rental car helps provide a temporary solution to the propane issue and allow for a take-out lunch.  A later run covers lots of miles but is unable to solve any issues, but does allow for a dinner out which keeps Barbara from having to cook and wash dishes.  Perhaps on the way for an early drop off of the rental car tomorrow, we’ll get breakfast before returning to Submit to cast off lines and heading farther north to Jacksonville.

We are not posting any pictures this time.  Between Barbara’s frightened shakes at seeing Reggie in the bottom of the boat unconscious and Reggie’s shakes from freezing half to death, all the pictures are too blurry to post.  (actually, we never took any!)

Thursday, January 24, 2019

update 24 January 2019


We’ll start our workday a little later today thanks to a storm.  Heavy rains in the late night hours leave things wet and messy and morning squalls with high winds are still passing through.

It has been a busy week here in Make Boat be Gone.  Jobs are getting crossed off Barbara’s to-do list.  We appear to be on schedule for a launch on Saturday the 26th of January in this new year 2019.  Some jobs have been pushed to a future date.  We could have done the hull repaint to change from the wrong color they sent us last year to the correct color we ordered originally, claret.  Or, we could keep the existing color and arrive in time to pick up Madeline, our granddaughter.  Fire engine red for this year it is!

Cruising friends Larry and Barbara from SV “Hoodless” came from St Augustine for a visit.  That created a nice afternoon work break and an excuse to go out for shrimp dinner specials.  If we head south on the Intracoastal Waterway from Jacksonville we would pass through St Augustine and may get to see them again.

A couple nights ago, Tommy, our host and boatyard manager, invited us and several others to his home for a low country boil dinner on the veranda of his home. 



It was our first and I hope not our last.  The food was delicious, the folks enjoyable and the after dinner music played on beautiful custom Kight guitars most entertaining.



One day the mail delivery person saw Barbara working on the bow and stopped to take this pre-bottom paint picture and send it to us.  



At the time I was in the anchor locker putting nuts on the screws Barbara is holding. I’m not divulging my secret for getting into that tiny space. Alice in Wonderland, perhaps?

While I worked on other projects, Barbara took on the task of painting the boat bottom with bottom paint to protect the boat from barnacles, etc.  She has applied two coats all by her lone-self and will finish up some final spots later today if the sun comes out.  She’s a great worker.

We are down to little tasks such as bottom paint touch up and applying the boat name, hailing port and registration numbers, and then getting the motor home ready for several months sleep.  One big task left to complete is moving everything aboard and stowing it.  Tools, spare parts, cushions, clothing, bedding, and boat supplies.  Going through everything and deciding which to take aboard, which to store for now and which to throw away takes lots of time and trips up and down the ladder.  

We fired up the behemoth motor home for a day trip through town to complete last minute tasks; laundry, mail a couple items, pick up 1 needed machine screw, pick up the boat name, etc., and grocery shopping.

Oh yes, provisioning and stowage of those provisions is a huge task.  Many items are unavailable in tiny towns near anchorages in the Bahamas and are often more than triple in cost if you do find them.  Wine is hard to find and expensive and how would we survive without a glass in the evening to toast the most recent beautiful desert island anchorage?  Therefore many boxes of wine, with boxes removed, find their way into various hiding spots.

Between jobs yesterday we hauled armloads of the $600 worth of groceries purchased on the day trip.  It is one story up the ladder into the boat.  All is not yet loaded and each armload must be carried about a block from the motor home to the boat.  Then, late in the afternoon, the UPS truck arrives to drop off the two day delivery order from online shopping at Costco.  Everything had to be hauled up and sequestered in the boat before the rain. 

A reward presented itself in the evening.  We sat down by the shore of the St Johns River to enjoy a rest and an evening libation and were joined by boatyard friends. We shared treats and stories and a cloudy sunset before the storm.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Progress


Progress

No mold!  Barbara was first into “Submit” and found no mold.  This was the first time ever there has been none.  She’s a happy lady.  Those of you who read about our visit to the boat last year will recall that we found the interior of the boat to be covered in black mold when we arrived.  A friend who had seen the inside thought we would take one look and junk the boat.  He didn’t know Barbara well enough yet.

Work on the boat progresses.  All lifeline stanchions and lifelines have been reinstalled.  A new replacement wind generator has been installed.  Toe rail bolts and other through deck bolts have been tightened and a couple re-bedded to eliminate tiny leaks.  The engine heat exchanger has been cleaned and reinstalled.  And the list goes on as other odds and ends are addressed. 

One issue is some water in the fuel tank.  The tanks were virtually empty after having been reinstalled subsequent to repairs.  However, the fuel fill cap on deck was not tight and water found its way to the tanks.  I pumped out as much as possible but I fear some remains and will rear its head at the most inopportune times as the boat moves about after launching. 

The new-to-us motor home has been great as our boatyard residence.  We’ve been allowed to park it near the boat and have been quite comfortable.  It seems huge to us after Bev.  We are spending a little time addressing minor issues as we find them.

My current goal is to have the boat ready to launch by 26 January.  I want to be able to check her out before heading south.  We need to be in Palm Beach, Florida, by 6 February to retrieve our granddaughter from the airport.  Depending on weather and route the trip could take as much as 7 or 8 days.  Having a grandchild join us on “Submit” is a treat for us.  We hope she enjoys her stay.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

it only took 3 weeks


It only took 3 weeks, but we have arrived at Submit.  



Today we will climb on board and see how she faired, but first let us tell you about our last week on the road. We were anxious to get out of the freezing weather, even though we now had heat on board. 2019 greeted us with a temperature of 9 degrees and frozen water as well as blowing snow. The next two days were freezing rain and flooding. It rained hard enough that visibility was poor and that made it hard to miss the bumps in the rough road. Not the most fun driving conditions.  

Day four finally smiled on us with sunshine. We smiled back until we discovered our own flooding. The carpet was wet under two different windows, but worse than that, one of the basement compartments had flooded. Many of our books were water logged and trashed. One is still drying us on the dash.

We have had some fun, of course. We spent a couple days in Pensacola visiting friends. Some let us borrow their van to pick up parts for Bev’s replacement (still looking for a name), others let us park in their covered RV spot.  Good conversations and yummy food.  

In Texas we had to stop at a Buckees again. Buckees truck stops are way more than a truck stop and are notorious for extra clean and fancy bathrooms. And dozens of fuel pumps.  And all the treats in the world, such as fresh made on site fudge and barbecue sandwiches and honey glazed nuts and …..   We didn’t need anything, but a visit is always fun.

We enjoyed the Lafayette Science Museum. This is a well designed, hands on museum. Some of the displays were above Barbara’s head, but she enjoyed most of it and even learned some things. Reggie was amazed as he ‘swam’ in the virtual reality ocean 



Unfortunately, Barbara had a Jonas experience and was stuck in the whale’s skeleton.  

The other educational stop was the Infinity Science Center 



near Stennis Space Center. We watched a 3D movie about our solar system and well as a movie projected on a globe. We were buckled in for a virtual rocket launch. We walked through a model of a space station experiment module. The last experience was a virtual trip in a submarine. We were suppose to use joy sticks to navigate and fix a leak in an oil well. We had no idea what we were doing and left a little disappointed with that event, but overall it was fun.

The other two fun stops were at Harvest Hosts. It is an organization of wineries, farms, golf courses, etc which provide spaces for RVs at no charge. Our first experience was Brushy Creek Winery. Once we were settled in we went for a wine tasting. This is a very casual winery where we just sat and chatted with the owner and some of the locals. All the wines are made from Texas grapes. We tasted some new varieties and left with yet another box of wine, except this box had six bottles it.  

Hurricane damage was in evidence along I-10.  Even though we were not on the coast, there were downed trees and signs everywhere.  Residences destroyed by falling trees, roofs and outbuildings torn apart.  Several sections of forest had nothing left but snapped off stumps of all heights.  They  resembled fields of stalagmites.

Our last stop was at another Harvest Host, the Tallahassee Antique Auto Museum



 The gates close at 5 and we were not going to make it until 5:30, so we called to cancel. However, as luck would have it, they were staying open until 7, so we were able to get in to the grounds for our free overnight stay. In the morning we spent a couple hours touring the museum, looking at an amazing collection of dolls, Steinway pianos, knives, guns, jukeboxes, canoes, motorcycles, outboard motors and, of course cars.  An no stop in the south is complete without Elvis



First night at the boat yard, view out our front window 



we enjoyed our first sundowner with a beautiful sunset 



and catching up with some of our boat yard friends.