On The Move Again!

As you can see from our last sunset in Boot Key Harbor for this season there are plenty of empty mooring balls. Most of our fellow cruisers that travel have already left for the trek North. tomorrow morning we will let loose our mooring lines and head North ourselves. Larry has cleaned the bottom of the mother ship and the two dinghies. I've provisioned for food and supplies and we are itchy to get under way once again. We plan to take our time heading North waiting for it to warm up a bit but we can't take too long we have to be in Charleston for a mast replacement but I'll break here and let Larry tell you all about it.

LCH When readying the boat for the trip north, I decided to check the rig tuning. I found that the mast had a compression at the base of the goose neck (where the boom attaches) at the mast. I first called Hunter to see if this had been reported by others. They gave me a name at Selden, the mast manufacturer. I explained to them what I found, sent pictures and within 48 hours they got back to me with a plan forward. I pay for a slip for a couple of nights, Selden will unstep the mast, move the standing rigging and wiring to a brand new mast and then step the new mast and retune at their cost. You will see the issue on the left. We expect to be in Charleston the first week of May for the work.

It never ends. I now have to watch the bilge. When we got to Islamorada last night, I checked it and we were full of water. The bilge pump switch failed. That is the third one to fail in 3 years. I had replaced it the first time at no cost under warranty. The 2nd time replaced at no cost due to there being a manufacture recall, just 9 months ago. This switch should still be under warranty. Luckily I had a spare switch which I installed last night. Don't like the water on the wrong side of the boat!

This morning we let loose of our mooring around 8:30 and headed to Poncho's Fuel dock for diesel. We then took a left out side of Boot Key Harbor and headed to the ocean. The winds were less than 5 knots and the swell was 2 to 4 feet with a few larger ones. It wasn't an issue until we turned to go West. When we made our turn the waves were on our starboard beam causing us to roll from side to side and with the lack of wind we had nothing to help level us out. The further we went the bigger they seemed to get. I was getting tired of chasing things around the cabin and the last straw was when the coffee pot half full hit the floor. Fortunately the grounds we contained in a filter. I don't know if it was my anger or lack of things to chase but the waves seemed to calm down after that point. If the waves hadn't been in the wrong direction for us it might have been very pleasant out there instead of sloppy and uncomfortable.

The picture is of the Channel Five Bridge where we entered the ICW and traveled to Islamorada to anchor off Lorelei's for the night and next day and night. When we dropped our hook the water was inviting and we went for a dip and a shower before dinner. We had a pleasant night along with several other boats motor and sail for the night.