Monday, April 15, 2019

Bethune Park - at anchor, windlass jams, dinghy motor won't start

The iPad Pro 12.9 makes a great chartplotter! Here it shows both Navionics SonarChart and Aqua Map,
try doing that with any chartplottrer. 
We got off in good season from Titusville just by backing out all the way to the entrance. There was no future in trying to turn with a strong north wind but backing out was fine. Our dinghy with all the barnacles slowed us down. The dinghy was new this year and I used the usual bottom paint formulated for dinghies which I used before. What I think happened was the new fiberglass bottom still had mold release on it and so my bottom paint did not adhere. Without any protection, the barnacles grew wild!

Rockhouse Creek is open for business
Next came anchoring which resulted in a jammed windlass. It seems that the manufacturer lined the opening where the rope and chain descend into the locker with a plastic lining - to aid in a free fall of the rode. After 15 years, the plastic lining deteriorated and partially blocked the opening, causing the rode to jam. After a couple of hours of sawing at the tough plastic lining, I finally got it out. The opening is larger without the lining and the rode drops more easily.

Bethune Park dinghy dock is still not repaired after two years! I used a nearby sandy beach.
Then it came time to take Hoolie ashore. Pull, pull, no motor start. Pull some more, same thing. The spark plug looked dry when I removed it for inspection so there was no gas reaching the cylinder. Plenty of gas was coming in from the tank but it wasn't reaching the cylinder. Fuel filter? Carburetor?  It's my next project, fun, fun. I had lots of practice rowing the dinghy tonight.

A peaceful evening, St Augustine Tuesday
Ponce de Leon had been dredged so there were no problems there, at least 11 ft MLLW. Aqua Map Master with the USACE maps is a joy to use, super clear on the depths. If you have a route in, it will display the next lift bridge distance and ETA. It was handy today in not getting to the George Munson Bridge in New Smyrna Beach, Florida too soon. With a 2 kt current, you wanted to arrive just in time and not have to do donuts waiting for the opening.

Tuesday is St Augustine for two days to explore the town and, now, to get the dinghy back into shape and perhaps shave a few barnacles off the bottom too.

2 comments:

SV Puffin said...

Glad you had a good travel day. Thanks for the Pic of Rockhouse Creek. Not sure if Aquamap has all the features for android yet. I will update next month before we travel. On your dinghy motor, is there a fuel on/off valve on the motor? I learned this the hard way in the San Juan island when I forgot to open it. Fortunate my wife remembered.
Best of luck as you travel north. It always good to follow the trail blazers!

Doug Peterson said...

Hi Bob!
Nice trick with your new 12.9 iPad Pro! I can only do the Slide Over on my old iPad Air.
Are you able to use the Split Screen while traveling? I cannot do much with the "Slide Over" since the non-slide side goes pretty dim and if you touch the non-slide side, the Slide Over goes off-screen! :-(
If you tell me that the Split Screen actually lets you see and work perfectly with both apps at full brightness and full touch without either disappearing, well, then I'll prob be headed off to the Apple store Real Soon Now! ;-)
Have fun going home and Safe Travels!!!
Doug and Victoria on Thunderchild