There comes a point when you feel like you are so far behind on something it seems like you can't catch up, well the blog kind of feels that way. For the longest time it became really hard to write about our daily lives as we worked, and lead almost normal lives in Boot Key Harbor. You can only write so much about going to work, potlucks and daily stuff. Rather than try and fluff things up I pretty much vanished and the blog got tossed on the back burner. Well I'm happy to report there are several things that have changed and I am writing this post from Morgans Bluff, on Andros Island, Bahamas. Rather then write a chapter book, I'm going to hit the highlights..
S/V Thin Line is paid off.. After we returned from Bimini I got licensed, insured and started a boat bottom cleaning business in Boot Key. My clients were almost exclusively moored boats in the harbor and Colby was my partner. Cleaning boat bottoms isn't exactly glamorous work, as a matter of fact it's dirty, hard work. Between the cuts, shrimp and critters crawling around on you, while trying to get into your ears, to the physical labor involved with breathing compressed air underwater for hours each day. I'm happy to report that between that and the next piece of news, we were able to get the boat paid off quickly. Colby and I began to back off from the cleaning and eventually phased it out and turned our extra time and attention to working on the boat to prepare her for an extended trip.
Once again my music became a priority and both Ty Thurman and I were making a steady income playing music around Marathon. We have several people that come out every week to support us and we always had a crowd. There is talk of a trip to Nashville and a new CD this fall. You can check out our music page HERE Jessica continued to work at Burdines 3 days per week and one of those days (Wednesday) I played music. My work became music and working on the boat.
Speaking of working on the boat.. After a brisk sail and an incident with the prop vs my mooring line, it became necessary to do a haul out to replace my cutlass bearing and throw some bottom paint on.. Not to mention we wanted to get a good look at her out of the water. We scheduled a haul out at Keys Boat Works for a Friday. On Wednesday I had scheduled a fuel tank cleaning with a guy named Mitch, he came highly recommended. We had several issues with the grime and grit on the bottom of the tank fouling filters both primary and secondary when we got tossed around a little. During our Bimini trip it really became a problem. Mitch began sweeping our tank, within 10 seconds had clogged his massive centrifuge system.. It clogged several more times and he couldn't believe how dirty the tank was. "In 12 years, this is the dirtiest tank I've ever seen on a boat that still runs" He couldn't believe we even made it across the harbor, and to think we did our entire Bimini trip! We did consume massive amounts of racor filters though! There was some conflict with our haul out date/time and I ended up spending the entire weekend tied up to a courtesy dock at the boatyard, with a scheduled haul out on Monday. While at the dock, over the weekend I removed the entire fuel system, every hose, every clamp, every single twist and turn.. I spared no fitting and replaced the entire line, removing at least 25' of useless hose that did nothing but clutter the system and cause flow restriction. I even found a couple connections buried that had no hose clamps, that could have ended badly with my fuel pumping into the bilge!
Monday morning we hauled the boat, after a pressure wash it was time to get to work. The overall condition of the boat bottom wasn't bad, virtually no blistering, and what I did find were extremely superficial (thank you CSY) Thruhulls weren't great, however they were nowhere near needing immediate attention. However my prop, shaft, cutlass bearing were not in the same condition. Luckily I had the help of some very great friends to guide me in the right direction. I pulled the prop, was able to finally get the cutlass loose and removed, the shaft however was not a piece of cake! It was bent and the coupling that connects it to the transmission would not let it go.. We tried a torch and heating it, but ended up grinding it off and buying a new one (88 dollars). I had the shaft straightened, prop completely redone and repitched. It turns out the prop was entirely to big for the engine/boat and he took it down a couple inches and changed the pitch from 10 to 8, which also got rid of the large gouge that was in one blade. With all that in hand, and with a lot of help from Diesel Don, we realigned the engine and running gear as best we could. The problem is the engine install wasn't done correctly and the closest we could get was 1/6000 tolerance, we needed 1/4000.. Short of undoing it, lifting it and recutting the stringers down far enough I can adjust, that was as good as it was going to get. That is a project that will have to be done at a later date..
Grinding bottom paint is dirty work!
With the nice shiny prop, shaft, coupling, shaft packing and everything aligned. With the coats of fresh bottom paint, it was time to splash her in the water!
Jessica had been working at Burdines for well over 2 years and she put in her notice for April 24th.. While she would miss the people she worked with, and of course hearing me play on Wednesday nights ;-), she was glad to take a break and is looking forward to whatever lays ahead for her after we return from cruising. She had a going away party and was given a nice pie to the face by her coworkers!
I finished my gigs for the season and with most of the projects done it was time to get ready for our long awaited cruise. For more than 2 years we have waited for this, sure there have been little vacations, but a week here or 10 days there wasn't what we came here to do. We had done it, we paid the boat off in 14 months, completed a bunch of projects and still managed to save a little bit in our sailing kitty. Our plans were all over the place, from traveling to Cuba, to NYC, to anywhere in between. We finally settled on the Exuma chain of islands in the Bahamas.. With all the work we had done, much of which I didn't even mention like repairing our jib which was badly sun damaged, it seemed like a great place to enjoy our earned vacation and shakedown the boat, before heading off to some really remote exotic destination.
We left Marathon on Thursday May 7th with virtually no wind, except the breeze directly on our nose! We didn't make it out of BKH until 3pm and we set our chartplotter for the Channel 5 bridge, anchoring right at sunset on the southwest side of the bridge in what turned out to be a peaceful anchorage. We pulled anchor and got underway Friday May 8th at 4:30am with absolutely NO wind, headed for South Riding Rock and the Bahama banks. The crossing of the Gulf Stream was like glass, however we did encounter huge mountain sized rollers sent down from Tropical system Ana. They were massive, but so wide and smooth that we would glide over them effortlessly. We arrived on the banks right before sunset and were greeted by a huge pod of dolphins, the welcome wagon showing us the way.. The plan was to anchor on the Bahama banks, but the wind had picked up a little and the decision was made to shut down the engine and enjoy a casual sail through the night, putting us at Chub Cay in the morning. For the first time I was able to sleep several hours while Jess took the helm, she's starting to get pretty salty ;-)
We made Chub Cay around 11am and checked in with absolutely no problems, raised our Bahamian courtesy flag and spent a night at the dock. The next day we were set to head for New Providence, however the weather would have different plans..
Chub Cay
Next entry will be Mothers Day Sail to Morgans Bluff..
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