Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Off we go !

On Monday Feb 4th, I drove down to Coca Beach, home of Gary Johnson (The swedish navigator) who offered to help me take the boat down from Jacksonville to the Keys. He had asked if we could take a friend of his, which of course OK.
So on Wednesday, we left Melbourne with Gary and Dave and drove back to Jacksonville. My car chose to give me a scare just as we were about to get to Jacksonville (as we were getting on 295 South). I died altogether, but restarted immediately and did not acted up any more that day. We got to Jacksonville in time for a nice dinner at the SteakHouse near the Ortega Marina and settled in the boat.
Next morning, we left around 8:00 a.m. to make our way down the river before going out to sea. That first half hour outside was quite eventful.
First, the main halyard got wrapped up around the radar reflector, and I had no choice but go up there and clear it. Once back on deck, I realised that Dave was severely sea sick. Actually, he spent most of his time on board, with his head in the head.
Since we had problems with the alternator and the genset, we decided to stop in Cape Canaveral, which was quite a relief for Dave. We arrived of course too late to get a technician come to the boat, and since it was Friday, it looked like we might get stuck in there until Monday morning, at $100/day.
So, I decided to try my best and change the alternator belt and the impeller on the genset. On Saturday, Thom and Sarah drove down from Jacksonville (5 hours drive) to help me out. This is quite incredible and I don't think there are many owners out there who would do such a thing, after they have sold their boat.
Thanks to them, we were good to go, and we left on Sunday morning, leaving Dave to go back home and recover from his ordeal.
Monday morning, we got into Fort Lauderdale and went up the New River to stay at the River Bend marina. This was my first time up that river, and I found it quite a stressful experience. Wind and current were at my back and we had a lot of traffic going the other way, including a convoy of 4 big cats that took almost all the available space. We finally tied up into River Bend, having to back into a very tight space, and we were glad the day was over.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

you were in melbourne......i have a very best friend and her husband that live in melbourne from high school.....should have known you then, also have a great contact with the national weather service there....oy vey
hold fast
grits