CRUISING MODE

April 18,2012 -  It has not been even 1 week and we are making fabulous time. As Elle just put it "we have definitely gone into cruising mode"
Believe it or not we are in Georgia. Yes,that is what I said. GEORGIA. Not far into it , but in a wonderful anchorage right next to Cumberland Island where we spotted the wild horses which this island is famous for.
To back track just a little and bring you up to speed we left our anchorage in Ft. Pierce and had a good days run to Titusville,FL where we anchored and was able to see the the Space shuttle Discovery being loaded onto a 747 for her last flight to the Smithsonian in Washington,DC. The next day again we anchored in Daytona Beach for a good nights rest. You may be counting the days anchored and yes we finally decided we needed a marina where we can do laundry, get off the Summer Wind to feel land again so St. Augustine,Fl which we love, was our stop. The laundry was accomplished, showered andthen treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner in Harry's restaurant which was lovely. Going to finish some of it tonight!!!!
The weather has been delightful but the weather man is predicting some storms so we decided to make some tracks, but first the Summer Wind was getting thirsty. Stopped to fill up and after 206 gallons high tailed it to our present anchorage under threatening skies.
So here we are relaxing over some nice Chianti and a snack and mother nature hasn't shown her ugly head yet.
Think i will end here and let Elle fill in some pictures. Enjoy.
You can post your comments on here and we hope to hear from you.

Brush fire off the Cocoa Beach Coast

Space Shuttle Discovery ready for piggy back ride on 747 to Washington DC

Roseatte Spoonbills decorating the trees

 Leaving Daytona Beach

State Park along the Intracoastal

OOPS!!!

Wild horses at Cumberland Island

First Night in Georgia

PS: Haven't had good internet connection since this post was started. We are almost in Charleston,SC. That post will come ASAP......

Splash!! Heading North Take Two!

April 14,2012 - Finally all of our parts (prop,shaft,rudder,rudder bracket) came back this past week and the mechanics went to work promptly to reinstall all. The shaft turned out to be fine but the prop needed to be rebalanced,. The rudder, on the other hand, received the most damage. The rudder post was cracked and the bracket that connects it to the hydraulic system was cracked. The specialty shop had to fabricate a new post and bracket. All of that is what came back.

New Cutlass Bearing

 Installing the Shaft

Installing the Propeller

Installed the rudder with it's new Rudder Post

Coating the Rudder and Propeller with Prop Speed

Since we were up in the air anyway we decided to have the bottom of the boat repainted since it had not been done in almost 2 years. When it came out of the water it was in perfect shape with only a few barnacles on the bottom where we had run aground and scraped the paint off.

Summer Wind Heading Back to the Water

We were launched on Friday April 13th! Hey we're not superstitious..  With the service manager and mechanic on board we took the Summer Wind out for a sea trial. A few adjustments were made while underway and then back to the dock.
Now all we had to do was close up our home, return the rental car and put a lot of stuff away.
About 3:00 o'clock we left the marina and started heading north. Watching the waters very closely so not to ruin the expensive job just finished. Mother nature was not cooperating and we were not very far from the marina when the sky became black and the wind started to howl. we did get the fringe rains from a huge storm that we found out later on the news produced "water spouts" farther south. We dropped the hook in the north part of Lake Worth and had a good nights rest even though the winds were blowing all night.

It is now Saturday and we made it to a beautiful little anchorage in Ft. Pierce,FL. The winds have been 15 to 20 knots all day from behind us and I (Dick) had to hand steer all day because the auto pilot finds it difficult to keep us straight in wave conditions from behind.
Every thing is running beautifully and we are going to try and make some long days. We are missing the MTOA rendezvous but may get there the last day. That one we will be playing by ear.
Keep watching for the latest news of the Summer Wind and her crew.

ON THE HARD

We were hauled out of the water last Monday and here it is 1 week later and we are still on the hard. For all you landlubbers that means the boat is no longer in the water but blocked up on land.

To the naked eye everything looked okay. After the mechanics took a closer look they found the prop was a little out of balance so they had to take it off the shaft. It hadn't been off the boat for many years and it took the mechanic all day to finally free it up. They then had to take the rudder off in order to get the shaft out. All of those parts were sent to a specialized shop with obviously sophisticated equipment to check everything out. The main shaft was okay. the prop definitely needed to be rebalanced. The rudder post on the other hand had a crack in it. So here we are , still waiting for our parts to come back.

Luckily we are quite close to our new home, so instead of having to go to a hotel we opened up the house and moved back in. We go to the boat on a daily basis and have been dutifully cleaning and waxing as much as we can. From the water line up she shines. Since we are on the hard we made the decision to have this yard paint the bottom for us. Needless to say all of this is squeezing the wallet real hard.
Unfortunately, if we don't get back in and underway by Wednesday we may miss the MTOA rendezvous which we have been scheduled to attend in Fernandina Beach, FL. It is about 320 miles from where we are. That doesn't sound very far but at 7-8 miles per hour it could take us 5 days of daylight running. It starts next Monday!!!!!  Will let you know in the next posting so stay tuned.

April Fools Day!! Really??

April 1,2012

It seems like an eternity since our last posting about our adventure. Oh yeah, I should start by telling you this is not Elle but me, Dick. You read right. Surprised????? She will be doing the photography which she enjoys and I will try my hand at telling the tales.
We have spent the entire winter in Ft. Lauderdale which was not the original plan. Lots of things happened which I will tell you about but hopefully not bore you.
Got to our dock on the New River the end of December, 2011 and left today, April 1, 2012. Why,you ask???
I was having some problems with my left leg and after some X-Rays and an MRI they said I needed surgery to clean out my shredded Meniscus and drain a Baker's cyst which was initially causing my problem. The surgery went fine in Jan and after a few weeks started special PT to reduce the swelling. OK, let's make this short. Still having some problems but OK to continue traveling. Had a great nurse (Elle) taking care of me.
That took care of January, February and the better part of March. While doing all of this we started to do some house hunting. We have been talking about the possibility of having a land base. Well guess what, we found a lovely home and closed on it a couple of weeks ago.  Stayed there to kind of get acquainted for a couple of weeks and closed it up for the summer. We have a great house sitter, Thanks Jerry!

So this morning we started our journey north.We happily dropped the lines from the dock and headed down the New River. The boat was running perfectly and I love the new Garmin GPS chartplotter, it is amazing!
Our plans are to attend an MTOA Rendezvous in Fernandina Beach the middle of April,  then getting as far north as possible to attend 2 college graduations.

The New Garmin GPS Chartplotter

 Everything was running perfectly, we were making good time, and then the first mishap happened. All of a sudden heard a thump and felt the thump! Hit an underwater log right in the middle of the channel. Backtracked to the nearest marina and hopefully tomorrow we will be hauled out to check the prop and shaft.Have a shimmy at hull speed, so will continue when we know.Yes we know April Fools Day! Really?? Wish it was but ,alas, it is all true.......