Start of the Holiday Road Trip

09-11 November 2017

We arrived in Tallahassee and proceeded to Costco to get some tires for Chelsea's Prius. They had been marginal when we handed the car over to her, and the trip out from Arizona was close to finishing them off. We had a nice dinner at one of their favorite places and talked, had breakfast and talked some more, then we finished packing up the car and hit the road to Birmingham.

There are no freeways between Tallahassee and Montgomery, so we were on back road highways the whole way. I'm glad it was light until then, and the countryside was beautiful. We had dinner at Urban Cookhouse in Montgomery, which was a small chain that I wasn't familiar with, and it was very good. This began our eating our way across middle America tour. Back in the car we went to the outskirts of Birmingham to spend the night.

In the morning we went to Big Bad Breakfast ("Lard Have Mercy!"), which lived up to its name. Kind of new Southern and very delicious. Back in the car we went, headed north. We thought of going to Dollywood, even though it was a bit out of our way, but the hours were so restricted in this pre-holiday time it really wasn't going to work out without costing us another day, which we didn't have. So off to Nashville we went. We had a late lunch, early dinner (linner) at Hattie Bs Hot Chicken. We drove by the downtown location and there was a line going around the block. We discovered there was another location so off we went, where there was more like a 15-20 minute line out the door.

While we were in line a local explained to us the origin and and diffusion of hot chicken throughout the Nashville area. The story may be apocryphal, but as they say it's too good to check. Apparently a cheating man was served chicken by his angry mistress, who had used every spice she had to make it as painful as possible. Of course he liked the chicken and it was then reproduced at one restaurant for years, gradually spreading through town as family members and restaurant workers moved around.

I had the medium and Heather had the mild. The medium was good but bordered on painful for me, but Heather's mild was a little too mild. Somewhere in between would have been about right for both of us. Forget the actual hot version, much less the "Shut the Cluck Up". We hit the road again, headed to the thriving metropolis of Mt. Vernon IL on the outskirts of St. Louis, while the hot chicken percolated through our unfamiliar digestive tracts.

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Holiday Road Trip Prep

03 - 09 November 2017

After we got back from Atlanta and Savannah we had about a week to prepare for our long holiday road trip. I had a handbook meeting the next week in Wichita, with Thanksgiving the week after, where for the last 50 years my family has had a picnic somewhere outside of Prescott, AZ. Heather had medical appointments back in Phoenix just before and after Thanksgiving, and I had an eye appointment. We looked at the airfare and rental cars required and it made at least as much sense to drive, even with Heather's Companion Pass on Southwest. After dragging a 12 foot trailer across the country with all of Chelsea's crap in it, another cross country road trip no longer seemed as intimidating.

Since it really didn't seem worth the effort to go back to the boat a week after Thanksgiving, only to return to Arizona and New Mexico two weeks later, we decided just to stay, spending most of that time at Heather's mother's in Las Cruces. This meant we would be gone from the boat for more than seven weeks, again a new record on the longest we had been away since we had bought it. Between moving Chelsea and renting the house and now the holidays we were spending way too much time way from the boat. We will have to make up for that when we get back just after the first of the year.

On Friday at the clubhouse there was a Coast Guard presentation on communications and safety that was mostly familiar. Our diver was scheduled for the next day to clean the bottom, and based on the noise inside the boat it was pretty bad. I got the dinghy in the water for the first time since we had arrived in Brunswick for another guy to buff the hull. We had had it done soon after we bought the boat in Houston but it hadn't been done since. Much to my surprise it was about half of what they had charged in Houston and it looked great. We'll have him return when we get back to the boat to do the topsides.

We finished arranging holiday airfare for the kids and refilled the water tanks. We cleaned the car and checked the oil. We emptied the fridge and the freezer and the pantry and cleaned them out. We finally got to the fuel dock for our pump out, and after much discussion and planning and preparation had a perfect docking back into our slip, somewhat making up for the first time. As our departure got closer we started cleaning and straightening the boat, including the catch-all nav desk and the dreaded back cabin which had not been gone through since we left Marathon.

On Thursday we finished buttoning up the boat and checking the lines and left for Tallahassee to see Chelsea and Travis on our way west.

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Savannah

02 November 2017

On the way back from Atlanta we were (quickly) passed by a series of Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis and such. There were lead and trailing Range Rovers who I guess were organizers (and bait cars for the speed traps). They stopped at a gas station up the road. They all appeared to be asian, with both they and their shotguns looking like they were in a Fast and Furious movie, or a music video. I'm guessing a whole lot of money that payed for a Cannonball Run like tour of the states.

We had some time, so we decided to stop in Savannah on the way back to the boat. When we had visited several years ago it had been really hot, and it smelled pretty swampy everywhere, but especially along the river (along with the delightful odor of stale beer). It was much cooler this time and very pleasant, shopping and noshing alongside the river. We took a spin around Forsyth Park.

We had dinner at a place called Treylor Park where Heather tried the Peanut Butter and Jelly Wings. About dark we bundled back into the car and headed down the road an hour to Brunswick.

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Atlanta Aquarium

01 November 2017

We wanted to visit places that were near the boat and the Atlanta aquarium had been on our list for a while. It seemed like a good time in this lull before the holidays so off we went.

For some reason the Japanese Spider Crabs really creep me out. First of all they are huge. The body can be bigger than a basketball, and the leg span 12 feet across. The crab in the picture below is tapping the glass. You can just see them looking at the people walking by and thinking - I would totally eat that. Why that is somehow worse than a shark doing the same thing I don't know.

We went to the dolphin and sea lion shows, but the main tank is the star. It is simply amazing, big enough for a few whale sharks and hundreds of other fish and such. A great place to hang out for a few hours.

W went to dinner at a BBQ place called Fox Brothers. We shared an everything plate which had sausage, pulled pork, brisket and ribs. The BBQ was good to great, but the best was the Frito Pie, a concoction of onions, melted shredded cheese and brisket chili all mixed up in and served in the Fritos bag. Heart attack on a stick (or rather in a bag).

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No Pump Out, No Pump In

23 - 31 October 2017

We dropped into a routine of visiting the grocery store and West Marine every day, and catching up on our laundry. We were starting to prepare for a meeting I had in Wichita the week before Thanksgiving, and given that trip and the holiday timing, planning on not returning to the boat until after the 1st of the year. We confirmed medical and eye appointments for while we were back in Mesa between the holidays.

One of the things on our list that was becoming more urgent was to pump out the holding tank. We really needed to empty it, and we didn't want to leave it full for the entire time we were gone. We checked the fluids and the batteries and cranked over the engine. We let loose the lines, Heather put the engine in gear, revved up the engine, and - nothing. We had no propulsion and were drifting away from the dock. I jumped onto to the dock with a line and pulled the boat back alongside.

Another thing that was on our list was to have the bottom of the boat cleaned. We are a mile or two downstream of the city's water treatment plant and the water is full of ... , let's say nutrients. When it was hot and the water was warmer things grew in the water at a phenomenal pace. While it was now cooler and things had slowed down, we hadn't had the bottom cleaned since just before we left Marathon. Since we couldn't drive the boat at all the prop must be covered in growth, ruining the aerodynamic shape of the blades, and perhaps jamming the mechanism that allowed the pitch of the blades to change. Another item for our startup checklist - before releasing the lines put the engine in gear and give a little tug against the lines. That and don't wait so long between bottom cleanings. As the bottom paint slogan goes, if you think having a dirty bottom slows you down, imagine what it does to your boat!

We scheduled a bottom scrub for later in the week and decided to go to Atlanta to visit the aquarium. I had only been once years before and Heather had never been. This having a car available at any time was obviously going to our heads.

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Expanding Our Range

22 October 2017

After about 10 days we had run thru most of our food and entertainment options in the greater Brunswick metropolitan area at least once and were looking to branch out some. Over fall break in 2009 we took a southeast trip from Charleston to St. Simons Island and points between, which included looking at boats at the very marina where we were now ensconced. We decided to take a quick trip back over to SSI, having forgotten just how close it was. It was literally just a bridge away, but clearly on the other side of the bridge was where the money lived. For some reason it was a particularly jarring transition. Well, it is very pretty. We had a nice brunch just off the main strip then walked around. I don't remember the dock this picture was taken from being there before.

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Settling Back on the Boat Before the Holidays

10 - 21 Oct 2017

After we got back to the boat we still had a bit of paperwork left to do, mostly related to the house and taxes n'at. There was a talk about spares at the clubhouse Friday morning which boiled down to bring at least one of everything on the boat that's going to break - and everything is going to break. And when it breaks you also need to have the tools and know how to go with the spare to fix it, because there may not be anyone else around. That afternoon we drove over to Tallahassee for a quick visit with Chelsea and Travis. Mostly we ate and talked.

We came back to the boat the next evening and started working on family travel for the holidays. Neither of the kids was going to be able to get to Prescott for Thanksgiving. It was just too quick of a turnaround. This was also going to be the first for the kids where they had to brave the airports during the Christmas break.

The next Tuesday I was walking to the clubhouse I was joined by a little friend. It looked like a snake our oldest daughter had had when she was younger, an albino corn snake named "Clover". The snake did not respond to the name "Clover" and slithered across the parking lot to the deeper grass on the other side. That's not conclusive because Clover never liked me.

I had an exec handbook call Thursday. The following morning was another clubhouse talk, this time on spearfishing. Important safety tip - don't hand around with a fish wriggling on you spear lest something higher up the food chain shows up wanting to share - your leg.

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Boat Show

05 - 09 October 2017

We had driven the afternoon and evening before for as long as we could stand and made it as far as Rocky Mount NC. From here we could get in the car in the morning and be in Annapolis in a couple hours. We made it to the show a little late for good parking and we ended up in front of an elementary school on the grass (they use boat show parking for school fundraising). It was a lot of the same as past years, but we enjoy going back to our favorite places in Annapolis.

After a few days of being on other people's boats and looking at all the toys available we were ready to get back to our boat and stay for a while. We drove back south on Sunday, making it as far as the cosmopolitan Lumberton NC for the night. In the morning we finished making our way back to the boat, this time to stay for at least a few weeks.

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Hit and Run

04 Oct 2017

We headed to the boat in the morning. There was some hurricane damage in town as we drove to the marina, mostly signs and awnings destroyed. The sign below was from a chiropractor's office. They had lost their sign but not their sense of humor.

There were a whole lot of downed trees, some of which were clearly more than a 100 years old. There were cut up trees and brush piled up by the road wherever we went. We got to the marina about mid day and walked down the dock to the boat. To our great relief it was very dirty but little else was changed. We went below and the cabin was dry with no indications of damage. We unpacked our clothes, most of which were dirty, and then looked at each other. We could settle in and spend the night, or we could pack up some clean clothes and head up the road toward the boat show, which had just started in Annapolis. If we got going we could be at the boat show in the morning. So we did.

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Back to the Boat

30 Sep - 3 Oct 2017

I drove to Las Cruces on Saturday morning. With my early start the traffic was no problem, and I was there by mid day. We unloaded the Solara and started preparing to hand it over to Heather's brother. I hadn't had as much time to work on it as I had hoped, but it had spent most of the year in the garage.

The one sticking point was the title. I had developed the habit of putting car titles and such in an organizer on the desk, and the titles for the other four cars were present and accounted for. I had paid it off years ago and was sure I had it. I searched thru everything as I was emptying the house. I thought maybe I had put it in the Solara's glove box, but no such luck. And getting a copy was one of those things you had to be present in Arizona for. I was out of time and luck, so it would have to wait until next time. I handed over the car to Rex and kept our insurance active.

We reorganized what we had in Las Cruces and packed what was staying for now in a corner of a back room at Heather's mother's house. The bulk of it was cases of photographs going back decades. The plan was to scan and organize them over the Christmas break.

Another deadline that was looming was the US Sailboat show in Annapolis the next week. We wanted to go if we could even though we didn't have any immediate major purchases in mind. Just working your way through all of the vendor tents is educational, and we did have some needs that were going to become more urgent at some point in the near future.

On the 3rd of October we flew back to Jacksonville and picked up the car. It had been in the airport parking lot about three weeks longer than we had planned. Even with the half off coupon we would have been much better off getting 60 mile rides to and from the airport. Since it was very late we didn't want to go straight to the boat, just in case it was less than habitable. We spent the night in Kingsland about halfway between Jacksonville and Brunswick.

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Hurricanes 2017

Summer 2017

So our second season of dealing with hurricanes turned out to be the fifth most active since record keeping started in the mid 1800s. Growing up in the Southwest, hurricanes were a sort of curiosity that happened to other people. Now that we owned a boat that could be in harm's way, much less ourselves, it had a much more visceral feel for us.

For much of the season we were away from the boat, mostly in Arizona, but for more than a week hauling the trailer of Chelsea's belongings from Arizona to Florida. We tried to check the weather every morning and evening just like we were on the boat, but we missed those checks all too often. Every time we checked it seemed like there was another storm forming, or a worrying development for one of the already named storms.

We had done everything we could on the boat short of removing the sails. The conventional main sail was pretty secure inside a stack-pack type bag on the boom. There was little chance that the mainsail was going anywhere. The fore sail was a different matter. It's a roller furling sail. If it starts to unroll the newly exposed bit of sail can catch more wind and unroll it some more. This quickly becomes a runaway reaction. And if the wind was strong enough to pull the sail open there is little to be done but watch it tear itself apart or cut it down.

I didn't yet feel comfortable taking the jib down, so I secured the furling lines. For a little more safety I also tied down the drum that has to rotate to unfurl the sail. With everything else stripped from the topsides we and the boat were as ready as we were going to get.

Harvey hit Texas in late August, very near the boat's previous owner's home, and not far from where we had bought the boat and kept it during last year's hurricane season. Irma hit Cudjoe Key on September 10th, which is just south of the bridge from Marathon, where we had spent much of the summer. The area was devastated and we're very glad we had scooted out of there in July. After briefly heading toward the west coat of Florida, Irma started its strange march more or less up the center of the state. We had our oldest daughter in Tallahassee, our boat in Brunswick, and our car at the Jacksonville airport. Irma shimmied between our three areas of concern, with no more than about 50 mph winds at any of the three locations. The worst damage was to a side mirror on the car, which to be fair, was only held in place with a couple of zip ties and the end of a paint stirrer stick. We got back to the car late at night and the mirror was quickly repaired yet again, this time with a blue bungee cord. To my shame it's still there 6k miles later.

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Back in the Mesa House for Last Time

17 August - 30 September 2017

After flying from Jacksonville we got back to Mesa on the 17th of August. It looked like a bomb had gone off in the house. We had left in a rush and while we were gone the painter had been shoving the piles of debris and furniture around to get at the walls. Once the inside of the house was mostly done painting of the outside of the house and the yard walls got underway.

We had lived in the house for a long time. While we had made a lot of improvements we had some to do items that were up to 15 years old. We continued to sort and pack and donate and move things to the storage unit. We also had a small 5 foot by 5 foot storage space beneath the condo in Scottsdale that we had kept separate from the rental. This was slowly becoming our place to stash spare tile and such from both properties and tools for maintaining them.

This went on for weeks. We made progress every day, but some days we identified more new items to do than we completed. We blew past the three week mark, which is how long we originally thought this would take, but we started getting potential tenants walking through. The good news was we got a tenant who wanted to move in beginning in October. The bad news is we now had a hard deadline for everything.

By mid-September Heather had completed most of the tasks on her list and was helping me with mine. We soon got to the point where she had little left to do and couldn't help me much with the tasks I had left. After some frustration with that we agreed that there really wasn't any reason for her to hang around and we arranged for a flight for her to El Paso so she could spend a week with her mother. I'd follow the next week driving the convertible, which we were selling to her brother.

The tenant wanted to use the weekend to move in, so we agreed that she could on Saturday September 30th. By the time I had made my final trips to Goodwill and the storage units, then some last minute cleaning, it was well after dark on Friday night. I gave up and inflated the air mattress again, sleeping until about 4a on Saturday. After a quick shower I packed up the last of my stuff in the convertible. There wasn't even room left for another passenger, so it's just as well that Heather was already there.

Now that we were done, the house was nicer than it had ever been. We might even want to live there again, someday. I locked up, closed the garage door, and drove away just as the sun was coming up.

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Pick up Heather, Last Quick Boat Visit, Back to Mesa

16-17 August 2017

When I returned to Chelsea and Travis' place in Tallahassee they had made a lot of progress unpacking and moving in. Heather and I crashed on the air mattress for a couple nights while the shopping and decorating and trying out new restaurants continued. After a couple of days of that we drove back to Brunswick for one more night on the boat.

We swapped out some clothes and such, repacked, and made some more slight boat preparations for hurricane season. So far nothing that bad had happened, but we're still pretty new at this extreme weather business. In the morning drove to JAX for our flight out. We only planned to be gone for about three weeks so we parked in the off-airport lot in the covered section. Had we thought a little harder about what might be coming, we probably should have sprung for a garage during hurricane season, at least the second floor, as close to the center as possible. As you'll see, we were gone much longer than we planned and there were a lot of storms to agonize over.

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Final Leg - New Orleans to Tallahassee, and a Quick Trip to the Boat

10-15 August 2017

We were leaving New Orleans, next stop our final destination of Tallahassee. We picked up the Land Cruiser and trailer at the off airport parking. The attendant apologized for having to charge me for two spaces. I was just happy that the trailer was still there and to have not been visited by Homeland Security. Off we went down the road.

We arrived in Tally about dinner time. Unbeknownst  to me Travis' relatives in town had arranged to feed us, but I (and the pets) were done, fried. I apologized and traipsed off to the hotel we had arranged and got the pets situated.

We picked up the keys to the duplex in the morning, which was in a typical university kind of neighborhood, with all the good and bad that that entails. We quickly emptied trailer (funny how that is so much faster) and returned it with time to spare. Then the dreaded unpacking of boxes and organizing began. There was only so much of that I could take, especially since my opinion didn't matter for any of the decisions.

I was just bone tired of the whole moving experience, so I drove to Brunswick on 13th. Heather stayed at Chelsea's and organized and arranged and decorated. Each to their strengths. I got back to the boat, which was thankfully still intact and afloat, and slept for a couple days, with some eating in between somewhere. At some point I had the energy to take down bimini, since we were still deep into hurricane season, and adjusted the lines some more. I added a second diagonal strap to hold the dinghy down on the forward deck.

Well rested, and with the boat a little more prepared for possible hurricane unpleasantness, I drove back to Tally on 15th.

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Back in New Orleans

08-10 August 2017

Well, we were back in New Orleans for a couple of days. This was our first major stop after leaving Houston in the boat almost a year ago. We were sitting the pets while Travis and Chelsea were out on the town, paid in beignets administered once or twice a day. We slept and watched a lot of Netflix because we had been going non-stop since flying to Arizona two and a half weeks before, draining the dogs in the yard every few hours.We went to one of our favorite BBQ places in the country, called Blue Oak ("Vegetarian Free since 2012").

It was a nice little break, over too soon.

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Third and Fourth Leg

07-08 August 2017

The next day we were headed for a suburb of Houston where Heather's sister Holly lives. She and her husband Scott were kind enough to take in our circus troupe for a night in their lovely home, feeding us and plying us with Tequila.

Our fourth leg was from Houston to New Orleans. Here is where our travel plans broke down a little bit, for multiple reasons. First, the whole traveling with pets thing is a huge pain and really limits your options. Finding places that would take two dogs and two cats was difficult and expensive. Second, Chelsea and Travis wanted a little time to themselves in NO, so we were staying for a couple nights. I searched for AirBnBs near the airport and found a little place that would take the pets and wasn't outrageously expensive. Unfortunately I didn't pay too much attention to how near the airport it actually was, as in not. It was in a place I was previously unfamiliar with aptly called Center City.

When we pulled off the freeway near the dome and into the neighborhood we were greeted by 55-gal drums with cozy looking fires in them. We pulled down a side street following the GPS directions only to encounter a hole that spanned more than half of the road and almost as deep. No barriers, markings, cones or whatever. WTF? If we had pulled in during the pouring rain a few minutes earlier I might have driven right into it. The trailer wheels cleared it by less than a foot.

The 2-bedroom house was actually a nice little place with its own driveway and parking, but I didn't want to venture out on foot after dark, or for that matter, before dark. I was flashing back to an encounter while lost in Delaware a long time ago (pre-GPS) and episodes of The Wire. We talked about leaving, mostly because the trailer with Chelsea and Travis' every worldly belonging was going to have to be parked in the street for two days. I wasn't sure it would still be there, or at least still full, by the time we left.

I was tired after driving all day and maybe not thinking too clearly, but I got the idea of parking the trailer at the airport. On the drive there my head cleared a little and I envisioned how parking a clearly heavily loaded trailer at the airport might quickly attract another kind of unwanted attention. I decided to try the largest off-airport parking lot across the street. They either didn't notice or didn't care why a U-Haul trailer would be parked at the airport. Welcome to New Orleans.

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Second Leg to Nowhere TX

06 August 2017

After arriving in Las Cruces we had dinner at my favorite place, Nopalitos, which has great green chile and is situated in an old church. When we came back to the house the dogs had jumped the wall and were in the neighbors yard, which fortunately no one had noticed yet. We got to sleep and then we were back at it in the morning. I had almost an hour head start since we had a full day of driving scheduled.

I hadn't made any long distance car trips east of El Paso since I was a kid, so much of this was new. El Paso roads were kind of a mess with construction, and I found myself in the wrong lane before the road split. I made it across, but almost without the trailer. It took a few wiggles before we were back on the same frequency. A little too exciting.

After that there was a whole lot of boring. I had heard a lot about driving across west Texas and it was true, except we were crossing after some significant rain and everything was supposedly much greener than normal. Sure. Really boring interspersed with some seriously ugly landscape. At least the Land Cruiser was doing well, especially since it was 22 years old with well over 200k miles on it. Other than having to down shift a few times on bigger hills it kept on trucking at or near the speed limit.

We spent the night in the middle of nowhere known locally as Sonora. It took a while to drag the pet crates up to Chelsea's second story room while mosquitos drained us.

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Tallahassee Bound, 1st Leg

05 August 2017

Somehow we got everything of Chelsea's packed up. Chelsea and I were in the Land Cruiser for this first leg because I was afraid that an animal wrangler might become necessary. We left a while before Heather in Chelsea's Prius and Travis in his car. The Land Cruiser was never meant to be a high speed highway car and the trailer wasn't going to make that better. I was guessing that the trailer had at least a few thousand pounds of crap in it. This kept me at or below the speed limit, so if we were going to meet up later for lunch or something I needed a head start.

There were four other passengers in the car. Chelsea's dog Leeloo was in her crate. Heather's dog Cally was going as well, her harness tethered to a cargo hook in the floor. We also had the girls' two cats that they had gotten when they were in elementary school in a smaller crate. We had tried to find another home for them in the valley but we were unsuccessful. With all this already in the car there was barely room for things like luggage and human passengers. I knew I was in trouble when I started to sympathize with Mitt Romney having the family dog riding in a crate tied to the roof rack.

Our first leg took us to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Heather's mother lived. Since the only trips we had taken the pets on were trips to the vet they were a little anxious at first. Once we got started and boredom set in the animals calmed down, and remarkably, stayed that way. After the first 20 minutes it was as boring a drive as ever, interrupted only by some dog walking at the McDonalds in Benson. I had to downshift the Land Cruiser going up Texas Canyon, slowing to about 50 mph. As it turns out, that was the worst we saw for the entire trip.

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Back in the House

01-05 August 2017

At the beginning of the month we were back in the house, which made the commute much shorter. We thinned and packed and donated and moved and cleaned, then did it all over again. These were very long days, but not very exciting. You can fill in the blanks.

Despite our hard work and progress, on the Friday night before our scheduled departure at 9a the next morning it was not clear that we were going to make it. We started discussing alternate plans. Chelsea was supposed to pick up the keys for her duplex unit the following Thursday in Tallahassee. Chelsea and Travis had a goodbye party with their friends Friday night, then came home and kept packing. After a nap I got up in the middle of the night and got back at it, and by about 5a it seemed like we might make it.

By about 8a we had packed all of Chelsea's items except a makeup table and such that we might be able to move later (Ikea Rule addendum).  The trailer was completely full, but so was the Land Cruiser, Chelsea's Prius, and Travis' car. We couldn't have cut it much closer. We were less successful in packing us up into the storage unit or getting the house ready to rent. Much of that would have to wait for our return after moving Chelsea. One thing at a time.

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Park Model AirBnB, and the Ikea Rule

30 July 2017

Our last AirBnB was a park model, a little prefab place that was nothing more than a small trailer that wasn't meant to move much more than once. It had a little add on TV room and a carport, and was in one of those huge retirement complexes in Mesa. It was a different take on a rental because I also had the ulterior motive of getting Heather to try one out. After a couple of days Heather admitted that a month or two in one in a nice, entertaining place wouldn't be too bad.

I don't know where I picked this up, and I certainly had had little opportunity to use it, but somewhere along the line I encountered something called the Ikea rule. I think it had to do with storage units, but I think it applies to moving in general.

The gist of it is that it is not worth putting anything from Ikea, or anything similar, into storage. People stay in storage units way longer than they planned. That was certainly our experience when we moved from Tucson up to Mesa, and why I had nothing to do with storage units since. The girls had conned Heather into getting one "for a few months" during one of their condo moves. That one lasted for at least a couple years. I prefer not to know exactly how long. By the time you had a storage unit filled with Ikea for a while you would have paid more for storage that it would have cost to buy a new one of everything from Ikea.

We did allow for one small addendum to the Ikea rule. Many things like storage units are not continuously sized - you jump from one size to the next, with no options between. Our compromise was to identify things that fell under the domain of the Ikea rule, and if they pushed us to the next size unit then they had to go. If there was a little room left in the unit that was not needed for more legitimate items then their day of reckoning was deferred. This eventually caused some heartache on my last trip to the storage unit, but somehow the door rolled down. We'll see next time if it will roll back up.

We had to apply the same rule to the trailer for Chelsea. It was a big financial step from their biggest trailer hauled by the Land Cruiser to the next level, a truck or pod or something. When it was sitting right in front of you it was difficult to remember that it wasn't worth paying another grand to move a $200 buffet, literally from Ikea. At least I wouldn't have to put the next one together.

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Boxes of Boxes

28 - 30 July 2017

So before packing is (should be) thinning. I could only take a couple hours of the should I stay or should I go game before I had to do something else, like take a load to Goodwill or the storage unit. It was exhausting to look at each and every thing that you own and decide if it was worth keeping for at least a while longer. Or even what the hell it was.

We started off buying office boxes at Costco. Standard size boxes pack easier, and I had played the game of filling a large box with books and such heavy things before. My back couldn't do that again.

We started buying three boxes of 10 boxes each every day. We knew we were getting closer when we only bought 2 boxes of 10. By the time we only bought one box of 10 for the day the house was looking pretty empty.

Did I mention that we had lived in this house for 26 years? We had done a little too good a job stashing stuff in every nook and corner.

Our next AirBnB was a little studio apartment that had been finished on the second story at the back of a house. The place was bordered on two sides by one of those little man made lakes. It had an outside entrance via a set of stairs so it was pretty private, and it had obviously been done pretty recently. A nice, quiet little spot which was a little better than our first place.

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Storage Units and Trailers

28 July 2017

Assuming that boxes would eventually be filled, we needed a storage unit and a trailer to put them in. We decided to set aside our optimism and focus on a 10 foot by 10 foot storage unit. We could always move to a smaller unit in the same complex if we were wrong, and after we take another pass at what remains of our belongings. Because we had pictures and papers and such we wanted the unit to not be subject to the worst of summer heat and monsoons, as the last unit had been. Once we started looking for storage unit places we started seeing them everywhere.

We finally settled on an indoor place with a freight elevator down in Gilbert. It was pretty new and clean, and while I couldn't say it was cool, it was not steaming hot like it was outside. It was a few minutes farther from the house than I had hoped, but it was reasonably priced and checked most of the other boxes. In addition, it was on the second floor, so instead of a 7 or 8 foot ceiling it was more like 12. That would become important.

We followed the same approach with the trailer. Having never done a one way moving rental like this before we went with Uhaul. Again we hemmed and hawed and finally settled on the largest trailer they had, 12 foot long. The thought of packing the trailer the night before and finding out it was too small was just too painful to contemplate.

So we had a week to pack Chelsea's life into a 12 foot trailer, and hopefully most of ours into the 10 foot storage unit. Well, we were maybe half right.

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First Full Day Back in Mesa

27 July 2017

Well, we were back in Mesa again. Chelsea had just put the finishing touches on her Masters thesis and was officially done with ASU. She had been accepted to multiple doctoral programs, including ASU, but the finances varied dramatically, as did the cost of living. After a lot of research and discussion she decided on Florida State in Tallahassee. As a bonus she would be a couple thousand miles closer to us, and working with a major person in her field.

Chelsea had lived in the valley her entire life. Once she went to college at ASU she moved out of the house into an apartment in Tempe for a year. After the housing crash we were able to pick up a centrally located condo in Scottsdale that was cheaper than the rent for her apartment. She lived there for a few more years, finally moving home again to save money. At the same time Chelsea moved out, Madi, her cousin Faith and eventually a couple more friends moved into the condo.

Last year when Heather and I moved onto the boat a couple of Chelsea's condo roommates (now married) moved into the house with her. Later Chelsea's boyfriend did too. We had almost everything we owned in one parking space in the garage, and the convertible in the other. Other than the computer desk and a couple closets we were out of the house.

We were back in Mesa to move Chelsea to Tallahassee, move us completely out of the house and to a storage unit, then prepare the house we had lived in for 26 years for rental to people who were not related to us.

This was the first official day of moving. We thought we had been clear on the difference between packing and moving, but Chelsea had never moved farther than a 20 minute car ride away. We were leaving for Tallahassee in a little over a week hauling a 12 foot trailer which had to contain all Chelsea's worldly belongings, and her boyfriend Travis'. Very few boxes, especially filled ones, were stacked about yet.

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To JAX then PHX

26 July 2017

In the morning we finished prepping the boat and packing for our trip back to AZ. We called an Uber to the Jacksonville airport because we were unable to rent a car one way from the little burg of Brunswick. It was surprisingly competitive. We had been using Uber a lot in Florida with good results.

We got to the airport and did the usual things. Chelsea picked us up at Sky Harbor and drove us to the house, where the Land Cruiser started right up after months of inaction. We drove down the street to an AirBnB, someone's nice little one bedroom apartment, since Chelsea's roommates had paid through the end of the month. I had decided to try out a few of these for various reason. It seemed pretty cost effective, but also I was curious about the whole process. We're thinking of converting the Scottsdale condo from a straight lease to a vacation rental.

The vacation rental idea was appealing for multiple reasons. We really didn't think we would be spending so much time in the southwest during the holidays, but flying back and forth didn't seem to make a lot of sense either. If we could block off the condo for a few weeks during the holidays and still at least break even during the rest of the year that would be handy. So we were looking at the process from the other side first.

The apartment was nice enough, but it wasn't tough to visualize the condo being at least as nice, given its location, the improvements we have made, its own parking and a view of the pool. We might be able to make this work next year for the holidays after the current lease is up. We had two nights there, then we moved on to another AirBnB.

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Prepping the Boat for Hurricane Season

22-25 July 2017

Heather had missed her originally scheduled flight back to Phoenix with our water pump delays. Now we were going to fly back together in a few days, which meant that we had a limited amount of time to prep the boat for our absence. We were in a good spot to ride out hurricane season, but still needed to be prepared for the worst.

I removed the radar reflector and the solar panels. We put on all the dock lines and kept adjusting them for days until the boat was in a nice cradle of lines. The fenders were positioned until all the hot spots were covered. The docks are floating, and they need to be, because the tides are about 8 feet here.

The marina seemed most concerned about the foresails unwinding in the wind. That seemed to be the most common problem, and if the wind was strong enough to unwind the sail on its own it was too strong to do much about it other than cut the sail down. Since I hadn't ever taken down a furling sail I snugged up and locked down the furling lines and tied off the drum for a little added insurance.

Down below we organized and cleaned and packed. We were just planning on being gone for a few weeks but this was only our second hurricane season and we were in a new place. We closed all the through hulls (holes in the boat) except the air conditioner coolant one, which we left on to dehumidify the boat. Because it was humid and hot. I took five steps out of the air conditioning and I'm already soaked hot and humid. Without AC on we were afraid we would come back to the boat and it would be a ball of mold below.

Because we wanted the AC to stay on we needed power, so the plugs and the cable were tied down and supported to keep them from pulling out if the weather got rough. Before we knew it time was up and we needed to go.

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Finally to Brunswick

21 July 2017

We let loose from the mooring in the morning and headed north again. We crossed over into Georgia and were behind Jekyll Island with a very low tide when Heather handed over the wheel to me for a break. You know something had to happen. Just past the bridge we went aground, and stayed aground, yet still slowly moving. We plowed through the thick mud for about a quarter mile, following behind a shrimper that was also heading up, figuring they knew the best way. Note to self, on the way back down we need to pass behind Jekyll Island at high tide.

We made it to the river, then headed upstream to the bridge. Just past the bridge we took a right up a little inlet, and a few minutes later we were looking at the Brunswick marina. Once we identified the fuel dock we came alongside and tied up. We topped up with fuel and pumped out, then headed up to Dock 7, which was to be our home for a while. Between the substantial tide and a little bit of wind we struggled to get into the slip, but we did eventually with no harm done.

We're finally in Brunswick! We had dinner at a cute little bar within walking distance called Tipsey McSways, located in the downtown area. Once back on the boat we were quickly down for the count.

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St. Augustine and Fernandina Beach

20 July 2017

In the morning we pulled up the anchor and headed for St. Augustine. We stopped by the fuel dock to top up and grab some ice. We made it quick and were still able to catch the 8:30a opening of the Bridge of Lions. We were back on our way north.

We got as far as Fernandina Beach, just a few miles south of the Georgia border. The marina didn't have enough water for us so we had to pick up a mooring. We had to drop the dinghy in the water, mount the outboard and zip across to the marina before it closed. The mooring was only $20 bucks a night, probably because the factory down the river smelled like it made the flavoring for BBQ potato chips.

We had a quick shower then headed over to the Salty Pelican (aren't they all?) for dinner. It seemed like a nice little downtown area, but we were out of there in the morning, headed for Brunswick. The view from the restaurant was better.

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Finally Out of New Smyrna Beach

19 July 2017

After much heartache and discontent with Al's Mobile Marine, 11 days after he had left our boat with our engine parts in hand, he finally came back with the replacement parts. He quickly had the drive gear installed and our old, rebuilt pump bolted on. The new pump we had bought in Dinner Key was also rebuilt and ready to act as a spare. The engine was repaired by 9a, and we departed NSB before 9:30p for parts north. Heather wasn't going to make her flight to Arizona and we were late getting up to Brunswick, but at least we were on our way. Despite our late start we made it almost all the way to St. Augustine, founded in 1565.

We anchored just a few miles south of StA after inching our way to the back of the anchorage. Our problem was too much water rather than too little. We finally dropped the anchor and felt it grab hard on the mud bottom.

There wasn't much around so we stayed on the boat and had dinner, then called it a night pretty early. We had an even longer day scheduled for tomorrow.

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NSB Part 3

09 July 2017

Right across the street from the marina in NSB was a little park. The farmers market was on the other side.

But on this side of the park is a foundation which has apparently served multiple purposes over the years. There is a small plaque in the front.

If you blow up the text it says "This Coquina foundation rests within a shell midden from the Timucuan indian era. Mystery still surrounds the origin of this foundation." It's hard to see in the picture below, but the bottom 8-10 feet of the foundation is below grade. Obviously a lot of work with little defensive purpose. Interesting.

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NSB Part 2

08 July 2017

Well, we were going to spend some time in New Smyrna Beach, so we might as well make the best of it. We stumbled across a farmers market no more than a couple hundred yards from the boat on our first morning here. Small but cute, Heather went from stall to stall. I quickly went for the shade.

There was a cute main drag called Canal Street a couple blocks over with several restaurants and such. It was good to have some options within walking distance. They had a classic car show on Canal Saturday night. It seemed like a nice small town.

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Back At It

17 October 2017

OK, it's been a very long time since I've posted. I'll start catching up now, but that will clearly take a while, so first a quick status as of today.

As of a couple of weeks ago we're back on the boat. We're fine, and despite some scares the boat weathered the busy and active hurricane season well in Brunswick GA. The kids are good, but Chelsea is now going to school in Tallahassee. Madi's still settled in in San Jose. We're completely out of the house in Mesa and have tenants that aren't related to us living there. Everything we still own is either on the boat or in a very full storage unit.

That should do for now. I think it is officially fall. A storm blew in last night and the temperature finally dropped to a point where it is in no way hot. We have some time in Brunswick before there are any more major changes, and hopefully I can catch up before then. Hope everyone had a good summer.

New Smyrna Beach

07-08 July 2017

Since we needed repairs to our engine we wanted to be at a marina slip instead of on the hook as previously planned. We called the city marina and they were kind enough to make room for us on short notice.

I looked at the new pump and couldn't see what was wrong with it, so I took it apart and put it back together again. Still nothing. I had the idea of taking the old leaky pump off the engine and comparing the two side by side. Off went the bolts again and I pulled the pump off the engine, about an eighth of an inch. I pulled. I tugged. I started to pry and stopped myself. Something was clearly different because the pumps had always pulled right on and off, other than aligning the shaft with the drive gear off of the engine, seen to the left in the picture below.

We asked about a diesel repair guy and were told that their equivalent of Diesel Don was currently in the Bahamas. Our second choice was Al. We called and he was over that afternoon. He had never seen anything like it in 30 years of doing this, but it had to come off, so he advanced to the higher level of prying and pushing. It finally popped off and he observed that the pump shaft was chewed up. He looked into the engine and saw that the little drive gear for the pump was trashed on the inside.

We looked at the new pump and the shaft had some less significant rounding of the corners. The gear had failed and ceased to engage the shaft so it could be driven. It was nothing but dumb luck that when I slid the old pump on in Mosquito Lagoon it had somehow engaged with the damaged gear, but semi-permanently, which is why I couldn't remove it.

Well, we knew what the problem was, which was good, but Al had only seen this a few times in 30 years. It was unlikely that the gear was sitting on the shelf near us, if at all. He gathered up the pumps and the gear and went off to find new ones.

We were clearly going to be here for a while. We were supposed to be in Brunswick in a week, and Heather flew out in less than two. Maybe not.

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Mosquito Lagoon

07 July 2017

We left Cocoa Beach in the morning. There was little if any wind, and the water was glassy. The building below is I believe part of the NASA launch facility. It is miles away, so it is much bigger than it seems in this picture. We need to try and do the tour there on the way back.

We plugged along north under bridges, and then entered what is called Mosquito Lagoon. It was still mid afternoon and hot, so the mosquitoes were not out in force, but there were lots of bugs, big ones. There were also lots of manatees, mostly because we were in the middle of nowhere.

I was driving (why do most of the unintentionally interesting stories start that way?) and I heard a slight change in the tone of the engine. I started looking around and saw that we were no longer belching out water from the engine exhaust. A glance at the temperature gauge showed it was above 200°F and still moving higher.

I yelled for Heather to come up and drive, and we drove out of the ditch to the lagoon alongside. We oozed to a stop in the thick mud while I got the anchor out, then we quickly turned off the engine. The overtemp alarm hadn't gone off but it would have within seconds. We had turned into what little wind there was, and it was enough to slowly unground us from the muck, but at the cost of drifting closer to the ditch, which still had a fair amount of traffic. The hook set and we stopped right at the edge. Not too bad for an emergency drill.

Since we were far from much of anything we would probably not be able to get a tow today, which meant spending the night here. It was not appealing to wait for dusk and the namesake creatures to come out and play. I went below to try and figure out what was going on. The water pump had less than 50 hours on it. The most common issue with no raw water flow is a broken impeller, which is a little rubber waterwheel shaped thing that drives the seawater thru the pump. I took off the cover and the impeller seemed new, which is was. Okay, upstream or downstream.

I looked guiltily at the raw water strainer which I had never cleaned. I took off the lid, but other than a few twigs, some strands of sea grass and a little algae the basket looked pretty good. I cleaned it anyway with a small brush and put it back. I took off the intake hose and could blow bubbles underneath the boat, so no water intake clogged with a grocery bag or jellyfish or whatever. Water could get to the pump. Maybe the exhaust elbow for the engine was clogged, similar to the generator. I could blow in the exit hose freely, so nothing stopping water from proceeding downstream.

I asked Heather to turn over the engine while I watched the pump. The weep hole that was leaking on the old pump also allows you to see the shaft turning in the pump. The shaft wasn't turning even though the engine was. All I could think of to do is pull off the new pump and slide on the old pump. Better leaky than nothing at all.

Heather started the engine with the old pump on it. We were spitting water out of the exhaust again, and the engine temperature was back down where it should be. The old pump was still slowly leaking but should get us to our next stop - New Smyrna Beach, home of Bob Ross. That guy's soothing patter while he painted could put me to sleep in record time.

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Cocoa Beach

06 July 2017

We anchored just north of the bridge in Cocoa Beach, setting the anchor quickly in the thick mud and shell on the east side. It was too much trouble to deploy the dinghy for one night so we stayed on the boat and had dinner. It was a quiet night and we moved very little.

Up came the very messy anchor in the morning and we headed north to New Smyrna Beach.

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Velcro Beach

02 July 2017

In the morning we departed and headed north to Vero Beach. It has become a major spot for cruisers to gather, getting the nickname Velcro Beach because it is just too easy and pleasant to leave. While there is quite a bit within walking distance, there is also a little local shuttle bus to drive you to the grocery or the movie theater. They pick up, fill then return propane cylinders. Everything a cruiser could need.

A breakfast place we went to more than once was Mrs. Mac's Fillin Station. It was cute and good and cheap. I learned that you could grill a biscuit (along with everything else).

We stayed for a few days and I gave the freezer coolant a go. I had some trouble with the fittings and hoses, and am now convinced I removed more coolant than I added at first. I gathered some more hoses and adapters and gave it another try the next day. It took a couple hours, but I finally got it just right (filled but not overfilled) and the temperatures in the fridge and freezer began to plummet to new lows.

We were in Vero Beach for the 4th of July. There were at least five fireworks displays visible from the boat, with the biggest one just on the other side of the bridge.

And finally a public service announcement, an important safety tip. What is the most important sign in the picture below? That's right, the warning about the previously referred to crab holes. Enough said.

On the 5th we headed north to anchor near Cocoa Beach. Reaching Georgia before we needed to head back to Arizona started to seem within our reach.

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Palm Beach

30 June 2017

We headed north on the ditch for the Palm Beach area, leaving FtL behind. While there are not as many bridges heading north compared to south of us, there were still quite a few to clear.

It was also the beginning of the 4th of July long weekend, and there were party boats everywhere.

We ended up at a marina at a place called Riviera Beach. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant next to the marina and called it a day.

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North to Stuart

01 July 2017

In the morning we packed up again and headed back up the ditch toward Stuart. We got a slip that was a ways up the river from Stuart adjacent to a Club Med, next to a boat named "Broke & Drunk".

We walked around the Club Med but it didn't really seem worth buying a day pass for one dinner and there was very little else around. There were quite a few rabbits running around.

Back to the boat we went for dinner and a drink.

Once again we were back at it in the morning, enjoying making some progress north.

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Ft. Lauderdale

27 June 2017

We were able to start the engine right up in the morning. Over to the fuel dock we went. There was a powerboat in the way so we had some time to float around and plan our approach a little more. We topped up with diesel and headed back out the way we came, past the Cape Florida Light and back into the Atlantic.

We were going outside into the ocean instead of inside along the ditch through downtown Miami and such primarily because of the Julia Tuttle bridge. All new permanent bridges on the ditch will clear at least a 65 foot mast or so. Not the Tuttle. It mysteriously will clear 56 feet, not 65. The urban legend is that a dyslexic typo in the engineering resulted in this one different bridge height, but no one has ever fessed up. I've reviewed enough engineering drawings to believe it's possible.

Compounding this is the fact that we were not entirely sure what our mast height really is. After proceeding this far were were certain that it was less than 58 feet. Several bridge tenders had expressed doubt that it was even that. Even when you clear a bridge by a few feet, looking up from 50 some odd feet below it looks very close.

I didn't want to be the second person to drive this boat into a bridge. Not a typo - second. The previous owner, after a very long and stormy day managed to drive into a bridge on the gulf side of the ditch. That is why our boat was one of the very few 20 year old sailboats with standing rigging that was only a few years old, which was good. But our mast was no longer necessarily a factory configuration.

We had a good day sailing up to Ft. Lauderdale. The picture is of the Miami skyline from a mile or so offshore.

The Ft. Lauderdale channel is straight and straightforward, but there was quite a bit of traffic. A tug tender cleared the channel in front of a big freighter coming out. The first bridge we approached was new since I had been thru a few years before on the Bahamas trip. Although it opened it cleared at least 58 feet closed. We requested an opening of the bridge anyway on the VHF radio and the bridge tender kindly suggested we get a little closer and consider going thru with the bridge closed. As he said, it wasn't in his interest for anyone to hit the bridge either, and he felt that we were clearly less that 58 feet. We got closer and he said we would definitely clear the bridge. As we went thru he estimated we had more than four feet of clearance, putting us at less than 54 feet. It sure didn't look like we cleared by four feet watching from 50 feet below. But now we were confident that we were less than 55 feet, which is an important metric for boats and bridges on the ditch. We will continue to refine our estimated mast height.

We went further up the river to the Las Olas city marina. We had some difficulty backing into the slip with the current, but Heather hung in there after I would have bailed more than once. When we have to abort an approach or miss a turn or such we call it a victory lap. The piers were concrete and fixed, and the tide was very low. Heather could't even get off the boat until the tide came in some, but we were finally here.

We had a few tasks scheduled for FtL. We had been carrying a couple of sails all the way from Texas that we had very little use for at this time. There was a genoa that turned out to be a deck sweeping 170% (70% bigger than the distance from the bow to the mast). Kind of an old school sail at this point, and way to big for us to handle. There was also a spinnaker that the previous owner says had flown for about 5 hours total. We had never flown a spinnaker and weren't about to anytime soon. Each sail filled the biggest duffle bag you have ever seen. Since FtL is one of the world boating centers there were multiple businesses we could sell these sails to. We picked one, loaded them up in a rental car, and both sails were layed out in the loft. The spinnaker was very colorful and even had a snuffer to aid in deploying the sail and bringing it back down. We got several hundred bucks for the cruising kitty and a whole lot of space cleared up in our lockers.

We also thought there was someone here that could look at our freezer. Maybe that was just during the boat show. We called the manufacturer and there wasn't anyone here specifically to look at it, and he emphasized the coolant charge rather than the thermostat this time. I looked at his videos online and decided to take it on.

There was also a delightful french bakery just on the other side of the parking lot from the marina. The only business that was closer was a liquor store, which are usually not far from most marinas. We rented another car and topped up with groceries, visited Bluewater Books for some more cruising guides, and hit a Costco. After a few days we were ready to get on the move again.

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Can't Start - Again

25 June 2017

We had planned only a quick stopover in Dinner Key as we made our way north. We reluctantly prepared to leave, turned the engine key, and again were rewarded with the sound of silence. I poked around for a few minutes, but given that we had just replaced the starter and the battery I was quickly at a loss. I did find this one wire near the starter that was loose, but I couldn't for the life of me find where it went, even though that had to be within six inches of where I found it. Or maybe it was made redundant with the new starter.

As usual, it was a weekend. I asked at the office and they gave me a name of a guy in the mooring field. He was no longer doing boat work on the side, given a day job and a new baby. He referred me to another gentleman who was out in an hour or so, but quickly ascertained that he didn't know what the problem was. We started cold calling businesses but it was the weekend and nobody was answering.

Down the dock strolled an older gentleman rocking a pair of blindingly white jeans, Hawaiian shirt, mirrored sunglasses and the kind of hat hipsters had taken to wearing. I had the feeling he had been wearing one since the 50s. He was walking a bulldog with one hand, and had a poorly disguised beer in a paper bag in the other. We had seen him several times and exchanged pleasantries. He asked what the problem was. It turns out his name is Armando.

He listened patiently to my tale of woe, then he explained that he managed 19 boats here while living on his own. Once I explained that I thought it was an electrical problem, he recommended a gentleman named Carlos. Carlos arrived a couple hours later, on a Sunday, because he was already visiting a boat a couple down from us. Out came the multimeter and he traced the electrical path from the battery to the switch at the binnacle and back to the engine. He opened areas on the boat I had never seen before. After about 45 minutes of that he crawled under the engine and told us to try and start it. It turned right over.

Satisfied that he had found the problem, he explained that the loose wire was indeed from the starter. There was a coolant hose just above the starter that might not be OEM, and it seemed intent on occupying some of the same space as the starter, which was definitely not OEM. The conflict could be coming from the hose, the starter, or a combination of the two. Regardless of cause, vibrations from the hose were being transmitted to the top of the starter. Soldered to the top of the starter was a spade connector which you could now only see if your head was on the floor looking up. Sure enough, inside the connector at the end of the errant wire was the spade which had fatigued off.

After expressing some reservations Carlos trimmed the end of the hose so he could hike it up and get some air between it and the starter. He managed to do that without even removing the hose (and having to drain the fresh water coolant). Next he soldered a wire to the pad where the spade connector had been, and connected a new spade to the end of his wire. The two were connected and we were in business again - except.

Carlos observed that our raw water pump was leaking. It had had a minor leak out of the appropriately named weep hole for some time, probably since we had bought the boat, but it seemed that the rate was increasing. There was salt on adjoining areas. Carlos explained that while he would return to port with such a pump, he would not leave.

We decided it was time, and he was able to get a new Westerbeke pump in the morning. His assistant George installed it as I watched. I'm not just looking to have the boat fixed, but continuing education as well. It was a smooth, easy job to swap out. So easy that I thought I could do it next time. This turned out to be important. I wrapped up the old pump so it could be rebuilt and become a spare. The new pump spun and pumped with nary a leak.

By this time a Monday departure was shot, so we paid for another night and set our sights on Tuesday. Next stop Ft. Lauderdale.

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Don't Call Me Late for Dinner - Key

23 June 2017

In the morning up went the anchor and we departed Rodriguez. We were in the protected Hawk Channel for most of the trip north, but as you approach Miami the reef falls away and you are directly exposed to the Atlantic. It got a little rolly.

We were headed in just south of Miami, west in the channel which is south of Biscayne, then across the bay to the Dinner Key approach. South of Biscayne is what's left of what's called Stiltsville, which seems appropriate given the appearance. These houses have a great view but seem problematic to insure during hurricane season.

Into the Dinner Key marina we went, and Heather backed into the slip well even though it had been a couple months. When we were in boat shopping mode we looked at a couple of boats here, two or three years ago. It was nice then, and since then they have rebuilt the main marina building. Like most Miami new construction, it's up on stilts, about 20 feet or so.

It was nice to do laundry, take a shower, or even just go to the bathroom ashore without getting into the dinghy. Many of the benefits of civilization are just a stroll down the pier away. A short walk from the marina is a very nice little area with restaurants, and even a movie theater that shows more than one movie at a time. You can see the downtown Miami skyline in the distance. A couple days of this could spoil us.

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Leaving Marathon

22 June 2017

We finally managed to escape the clutches of Marathon. Since Miami and/or Bimini are too far for a day on a sailboat, Rodriguez Key is a popular anchorage for the night in between. It's a ways south of Key Largo. We hadn't anchored in a while and it took us four tries to really set the hook to our satisfaction. There were already two pairs of sailboats rafted up in the anchorage. Before dark they split off on their own anchors for the night.

In the morning one pair headed east to the gulfstream and probably Bimini. The other two headed south towards Key West. We headed north to Miami.

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Lazy Bird

18 June 2017

A couple days before we left Marathon it was very windy. Since our boat on a mooring points into the wind, the dinghy at the back is relatively out of the wind. One day we had a stowaway who needed a rest.

He was so tired that he wasn't scared off by me taking pictures, or even turning the generator on. 

After a couple hours he left  a present on the dinghy, which was thankfully washed off by the rain that night.

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Wildlife in our Back Yard

28 May 2017

We have seen lots of sea creatures in our time in Marathon. A good-sized ray jumped out of the water while we were in the dinghy and scared the crap out of us. Lots of fish I struggle to identify by anything but size and color. Sea turtles twice and dolphins pretty frequently. But we still hadn't seen any manatees.

Well one day right off the dock outside the office I'm looking down towards our dinghy and I think to myself - why is there unexploded ordnance in the canal?

After a second look, and then they pop up for some air, it looked like a baby manatee and its parents.

OK, now I get the name sea cow.

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Exhausting Elbow

2nd Week of June 2017

We were trying to leave Marathon but the boat had other ideas. The generator had been a little finicky more than once, and just before we were going to leave it started belching out black smoke again, then threatening to die. We didn't really need the generator while we were on the move, but we had a world renowned diesel mechanic, the aptly named Diesel Don, as a neighbor. As we proceeded up the coast who knows what kind of tech support we would find? As it turned out - good, but that's another story.

We decided to stay and fix it now. This thing is buried deep inside our starboard lazerette (normally under a ton of crap we have stored in there), which is in turn inside a sound enclosure. The valve cover is off in the picture below, and Don tsked the state of our valve adjustment, but moved on to our primary problem. This was a little gadget in the lower right hand corner of the picture, below the black hose.

Since people started putting engines on boats a fundamental issue has been what to do with the exhaust, which is at fire starting temperatures. There is the dry stack approach used for bigger boats, where you treat it like a chimney, and direct the heat out of the boat with as little loss into the boat on its way. Smaller boats like ours tend to use simpler process with one big side effect (well, two but that's for later). To cool the exhaust the raw (sea) water first goes thru a heat exchanger for engine heat, what would be a radiator in a car. Instead of transferring engine heat to a coolant then into the air, the heat exchanger takes the hot coolant and transfers it to a steady stream of sea water pumped into the boat for that purpose.

Anyway, after exiting the heat exchanger the sea water is warm, but it still has one more job to do. A cast elbow forms the first part of the engine exhaust. The sea water is sprayed into the exhaust, cooling it dramatically. Now you just have relatively cool exhaust gas and warm water that collects into a muffler, which then uses the back pressure to gurgle out the collecting fluid every few seconds. This is a pretty elegant solution except for the horrible life of that exhaust elbow. Exhaust at hundreds of degrees mixed with a very corrosive sea water and steam mix doesn't add up to a very long life.

In fact they're only supposed to last for 500 hours of operation or five years or so. Now that Don is taking things apart ours appeared to be the original with over a thousand hours and more than a decade old. Oops. After one of the nuts which had corrosion welded in place was surgically removed the elbow was off. Pieces were falling off, so we were just in time to prevent at least a big mess, if not a fire, as exhaust would start to find its own way out of the boat.

The picture below is looking from the engine side. You should see daylight from the other end, but it is completely clogged with corrosion products, exhaust residue, and who know what else brought in with the sea water. It's amazing that the generator ran at all. This is the classic banana in the tailpipe (Beverly Hills Cop). The engine can't exhale, so it can't breath.

Below is the shiny new exhaust elbow for the low, low price of of $330. Who knows where we will be 500 hours and or five years from now.

Installation went much faster than teardown, and after a quick valve adjustment and a swap out of the air filter we were back in business. The generator is actually much better than we ever knew, and with everything on the boat switched on, including the battery charger and two air conditioners, the generator chugs along just fine. Like many things, it turned out to be nothing that money couldn't fix. In Don's case, cash only.

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