Northerly Winds Force Mechanical Repairs

What a week! We have spent six days and nights in Fort Lauderdale at a dock at Casa del Sol condominiums, the place where we spend two weeks outfitting our new boat right after purchasing her in April '06. Back then we learned that our "work" day stopped at 4:30 for cocktails and snacks on the patio by the pool, no matter how urgent the work to be done. Some of the friends we met then are here now and the same rule has applied: no work after 4:30!

Jim Powell flew in last Wednesday and we met him as we pulled Mystique into our slip on a beautiful, sunny, warm day (as they all have been). We had a few "mechanical opportunities" to attend to the next few days before the boat would be ready to cross the Gulf Stream for the Bahamas. The winds had been blowing out of the north at 15-20 mph since we got to Jupiter which prevented us from contemplating a crossing anyway.

When north winds meet the northbound Gulf Stream head-on flowing at 3-4 mph, the waves get stacked high and very close together and make for very rough and bouncy conditions. It's been described as a parade of elephants in a circus, or like putting a toy boat in a washing machine.

So I took every advantage of having an engineer aboard with tons of experience on his own boat, Chez Freddy, cruising full-time on her for two years from the US to Trinidad and back. Jim has been a fabulous helper and teacher for us. Because we were "stuck" in Ft. Lauderdale with a world of yachting stores and supplies nearby, we have been tackling a long list of to-do items, including but not limited to:
- repairing the forward (guest) head
- cleaning old broken pump impeller pieces out of the engine heat exchanger (see picture)
- fixing the shower drain sump pump using plan A, then B, then back to A to save $$ which still didn't work, to plan C.
- replacing the grounding zincs in the diesel engine and the electric generator
- fixing the water flow problem from fresh water tank #2
- repairing a broken drawer latch
- replacing a frayed reefing line on the mainsail
- rigging a lashing board to the side rail so that spare diesel, dinghy gas and water containers can be safely secured
- fixing the problem of a bent motor mount on the dinghy outboard caused by an attendant at the Charleston City Marina last spring
- finding out where the water goes from the new shower faucet in the forward head (into the bilge, not into the shower sump mentioned above!)
- blowing out the mud packed into water tank vents over the summer by bees
- finding spare pump parts and engine parts for the "tool room" inventory

So while the weather kept us in port, we've taken full advantage of these days to get the boat in fine shape for the upcoming cruise. Not that we've worked full time. We continue to enjoy cocktail "hour", have great food, enjoy meeting new friends and have also spent an afternoon at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show - probably the largest collection of super-yachts ever in one place. We went aboard one boat for sale that we could have had to call our own for $12M. Not including crew. We also enjoyed a great Halloween party here at the Casa. Jim went as a pirate with a cut-off airlines eye mask and a handkerchief, Jan went as a ghost using one of our sheets and I went as a Colorado skier wearing my ski mask, gloves and Gore-Tex jacket. Jim also brought his guitar and fantastic voice and repertoire so he's been entertaining the cocktail and after-dinner crowd here with his singing.

Sunday was another beautiful day and we took advantage of the need to untie our dock lines to change docks to orient Jim to actually moving the boat. We motored down the ICW through the maze of pleasure boaters and boat show boats, awaited 6 bridge openings, and actually hoisted and adjusted sails in the large basin at the entrance to Port Everglades which is the main ship channel from the Atlantic.

Now all the critical to-do's have been done and the weather has quited down so we're heading down to Miami tomorrow in preparation for a crossing Wednesday. Sailboats travel at around 7-8 mph and the Gulf Stream 3-4. So the Stream is a significant factor when vectoring a crossing to the Bahamas. We really cannot make for a point in the Bahamas which is south of our starting point in Florida because of the strong northerly current. Even to go straight east we must point the boat south east to counter the current. To make our Bahamas landfall just south of Bimini we therefore must leave Florida around Miami, where we're headed tomorrow.

Although we've enjoyed our time here at Casa del Sol and have crossed many things off our to-do list, we're excited to get to the Exumas and real cruising! We'll try to keep you posted as we go, but will be limited in our internet access in the remote anchorages.

Best Wishes,
Steve, Jan and Jim