St Augustine - Windlass jamming, battery died, still need to string wires

Lots of shops to occupy us in St Augustine

So as I was operating the windlass to haul anchor, it jammed and stopped. Looking closer it appears the chain hung up with one of the links jammed against the side of the hole where the chain drops through. We're in a marina now, the St Augustine Municipal Marina and I plan on looking at other Beneteaus there to see what appears different with the windlass vs my setup. We use the anchor a lot, it's gotta work;

St Augustine also has flowers 

A couple of days ago, "What's that smell? It smells like burning rubber." The only thing I could think of at the time was the fan belt slipping and creating enough heat to burn the rubber belt. So I pulled the fuse from the charger (we were underway) and the smell abated. I reasoned that the strain was off the belt since the alternator wasn't providing any resistance and therefore no belt strain and therefore no slippage to produce the burning rubber smell. Sounds like a good analysis but it's all wrong! I was pulling wires yesterday and had to remove all the boards in the aft cabin, including the one over the aft battery. Lo and behold, the battery was cooked! The burning smell I noticed was not from the belt slipping but rather from the battery overheating. So make a note, if you smell burning rubber, don't assume it's the fan belt, look at the batteries too. (another example of "I make at the mistakes first so you don't have to")

Another example, growing along the side of the road

Now I am looking to replace one 4D battery which is buried in the aft cabin under the floor boards along with running wires for the VHF and looking at the windlass. Meanwhile the weather has turned bad with strong north winds with rain and thunderstorms for the next four days. With that we've taken a dock at the St Augustine Municipal Marina along with many other boats aware of the same forecast. As I look outside the boat tonight at 8:30, the wind is already blowing 24 kts out of the north. This is not the time to be on a mooring when the trip to the dock in the dinghy is a 10 minute ride north with a couple of miles of fetch. Hoolie and I both would be soaked. The weather is not due to break until Sunday when we plan on heading for Fernandina and then on to Jekyll Island. It's starting to sound like a repeat of the fall trip south. I hope not. 

Daytona - At the Bethune anchorage and running wires

All in a row, along the way to Bethune

The Bethune anchorage is placed just right for us, halfway between Titusville and St Augustine. The anchorage has a dinghy dock convenient for Hoolie relief and we're able to anchor right off the dock in 9 ft MLW.  We left Titusville around 8:30 and arrived at 2:30.

Our anchorage, right off the free dinghy dock

After anchoring I pulled everything out of the aft cabin in preparation of running wires. I bought a new VHF but now I have to connect the remote mic with the new VHF. Naturally the new mic is not compatible with the old wires. As a rule of thumb, whenever you buy something new requiring running wires, the time spent setting up the new whatever consists of 10% connecting and 90% running wires. On a boat space is at a premium and all openings in bulkheads are as small as possible for a new boat launching. There is no allowance for new equipment.

Sunset over Daytona

The mic mounts on the binnacle and so requires a circuitous routing through small openings. I tried for two hours to use the ones provided with no luck. Tomorrow I'll just drill new holes, I think. In the course of routing wires I found one of my three 4D's were bad and needs replacement. Our lead acid type batteries seem to last about three years before expiring. I heard people say their batteries last seven years but we use ours 9 months of the year which is equivalent to quite few summer sails.

On Wednesday we'll go north again and probably settle in at St Augustine for several days. There's a front coming through with lots of rain, if that's the forecast, we'll stay at a dock there.

Titusville - Last day, a new VHF and one last look at the Space X launch

Friday's launch - telephoto

I still can't get over the speed that Elon Musk's Space X has matured. Where's Boeing and Lockeed in all of this? How can a raw startup company like Space X succeed so quickly? Elon, the founder of PayPal, is also the CEO of Telsa, the electric car company and the man behind Hyperloop. He's a one man dynamo, he reminds one of Tony Stark of the Ironman films.

More down to earth are the mundane affairs of keeping a boat running. I had thought I ordered a Standard Horizon GX1600 with the RAM mic. I've always liked the idea of having a mic in the cockpit that controls all functions of the 25 watt VHF below in the nav station (with the antenna mounted high on the mast for maximum transmit distance) The mic arrived but the VHF radio did not. So now I was off to find one locally at a nearby West Marine 16 miles away. After making the round trip, I opened the box in the boat and discovered that although the mounting hardware for a free standing VHF was including, the hardware for a flush mount at the nav station was "optional", groan. So it was another round trip to West Marine and back so the mounting could look professional. I'm keeping track of all these discoveries under the heading, "I make all the mistake first so you don't have to". After all, why suffer through learning things first hand when you have someone so skilled in making mistakes first? Unfortunately, there are a lot more items in the same category which I plan on including in a special section in the future,

Always on the lookout for a nice sunset

Things look good for moving on to Daytona on Tuesday. We're due for a south wind of 10 kts or so which is perfect for going north in the wide bay above Titusville.

Titusville - Boat chores

There are still Manatees in the marina, here's a favorite fishing spot for the locals

We've met people who are not boaters that think 9 months on a boat is like a 9 month vacation. Well not exactly. You still have to do all the things you would be doing if you stayed at home like laundry, groceries, paying bills, doing taxes plus things you may not think of at first such as being the all around mechanic for the boat. Things break on a boat. It's a marine environment and along with the vibrations and stresses of sailing (think pounding through waves), things break or at least age more quickly than on land. So on this trip we had to buy a new outboard, the charger is acting up, the VHF is being replaced and maintenance was required on the fresh water system. I had to repair the A/C unit (it didn't produce heat, only cooling) by adding an switch to provide 120v AC to the reversing coil as opposed to buying an entirely new unit. Time on a boat is not always sunsets and wine in the evening. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's just that you have to be aware that you will be doing more maintenance than you typically do while at home.I might also add that there's no dishwasher on board other than the crew.

Evening time in Titusville

Regardless, we love cruising and intend continuing as long as we can. Your repertoire of boat knowledge expands as you gain experience, not voluntarily! It's necessity. At least along the ICW you always have the option of pulling into the nearest marina and seeking outside help although that can be very expensive if pursued often. The typical hourly rate varies from $100/hr to $160/hr. It's often less expensive to just replace a unit than repair it due to labor costs - unless you repair it yourself - your time is cheap.

We'll spend one more day here getting the boat ready for an extended trip north and head out Tuesday morning when there's a south wind predicted, good for going north. We plan on anchoring out at Daytona where there's a dock for Hoolie.

Titusville - Provisioning and and second thoughts on the old outboard

Titusville Marina is getting full, the word is getting out

In the morning I looked at the alternator. Nothing seemed to be amiss. I had been avoiding use the genset over the last few days thinking it was not needed. We ran the TV for a couple of hours and as the days passed, the batteries were getting progressively drained. That put a higher than normal load on the alternator and the belt that was driving it. I concluded the belt was overstressed and eventually loosened and started to slip, hence the burning rubber smell. I ordered more belts but in the meantime I retightened the belt to spec. I think I'll keep a close eye on it when we start north again on Tuesday rather than replace anything yet.

That gray box under the red stripe is the WiFi antenna for our area of the dock, 6 to 12 Mbps speed!

As for the outboard, the new one is working fine. I was thinking about the 10 year old one that quit on me and considered the fact that nothing had been done on it for 10 years other than oil changes. A mechanic highly recommended using a fuel additive called "Ring Free". Its function is to clean the motor of carbon deposits. Now consider, a 10 year old motor with carbon deposits plus Ring Free which is supposed to loosen those deposits. Where do the deposits go? Well, the only route out of the fuel system is through the carburetor and its needle valve. The 10 year old deposits, loosened by the additive, could well have caused a starting problem (I had just added Ring Free to my gas tank for the outboard about a week before starting the motor up after a two month stay at Key West). After all, the old gas tank and the old fuel line between the tank and the motor may also have deposits affected by the additive. So, a future caution. If you have an old motor and hear a recommendation to use an additive for the first time, be careful and consider the possible consequences.

We are now provisioned for the trip north, at least until Charleston. Well leave Tuesday and see how the weather goes.

Titusvile - Space X launch, charging problem

Up, up and away

We left at 7:00 am in order to reach the Causeway Bridge before the 3:30 closing until 5:00 pm. We reached the bridge at 3:15 so we just made the last opening but it was still a very long day for us. We had intended watching the Space X launch at 4:45 pm from the ICW but when we cleared the last bridge at 3:15, we decided to press onward to Titusville, reaching there by 4:10 pm. The winds were piping up around 18 kts and we headed in with me on the bow and Ann at the wheel. There's no secret to steering a boat, you just need a lot of practice to learn how the boat responds at the helm. Ann is at the stage now that she's had a lot of experience at the wheel maneuvering a 42 ft sailboat with one motor and no bow thrusters, even with wind, you learn to use the wind and not fight it. Meaning, Ann steered the boat to the left of the slip and let the wind push the boat into the dock since the wind was from the left to right as we headed in.

Space X made a successful landing on a floating barge at sea so the rocket is now reuseable

Since we made it to the dock by 4:15, we walked to the end to watch the Space X launch. It was a resupply mission to the space station. Right on time the rocket lifted up and we all had a good view. Later we learned that the rocket also made the return trip to the floating platform successfully, landing upright on a platform in the ocean.

During the day we noticed the autopilot acting up, swinging from left to right, not normal. Investigating further it appeared that the belt was slipping so we stopped the boat and I tightened the belt. Either I didn't tighten it enough or there's another problem. I ordered more belts and on Saturday I'll spend some time trying to diagnose the problem.One clue was the smell of burnt rubber, typical of friction between a pulley and the rubber belt.

Well, they do rent good cars... Regardless of the employees

I called for a ride from Enterprise to their local rental office and took out a car for the next three days for $40. The agency is so familiar with me now that I'm greeted by name. We'll provision for the rest of the trip north and visit Merritt Wildlife Refuge too along with picking up fresh grapefruit, a Florida special treat.

Vero Beach - Empty moorings

Hoolie's beach. Note the way the mangroves send roots right into the sand to expand their area

It looks like the northward migration has started, Vero Beach had empty moorings, about a dozen in all. We called the office but they had no idea which ones were empty so we found #35 and we're secure for the night. The mooring cost is still only $15 plus tax, one of the least expensive mooring fields in Florida. It is well protected from all directions with easy access to shore on their dinghy dock.

Scenes along the way, an osprey nest by the ICW

One of the unique advantages of Vero Beach are the free buses. Once an hour they will stop at the marina for a trip into town where you can shop at a Publix or West Marine plus other stores. If you're quick about it, you can catch the return bus for a total time of one hour. We won't take advantage of the service this trip since we're headed for Titusville Marina, one of our favorites of all marinas along the ICW. We have a car waiting for us at $40 for the weekend.

I continue to be fascinated by the Live Oaks. The limbs extend an incredible distance horizontally

We learned of a Space X launch scheduled for 4:45 pm on Friday (tomorrow). By leaving at 7:00 am on Friday from Vero Beach Marina we should be in position to see the launch from the ICW, a prime viewing area. The only problem is that the bridge south of Titusville does not open between 3:30 and 5:00 pm which will delay our arrival at Titusville. We'll just anchor out by the bridge to see the launch.