I have been trying to get the boat in order since we boarded her on Friday. I am very frustrated at the moment and a large part of my frustration is just situational. As I have said before trying to provision and clean is difficult. However, I keep finding little “surprises”. This morning when I started cleaning at 4:00 am I found a cabinet that was full of damp/wet clothes. Now this cabinet has NEVER been anything but dry as a bone. During the crossing from Corpus the forward hatch on that side was not closed properly and that side of the boat took on a lot of water. I’m sure that’s what got everything in the port hull wet. When we boarded you really couldn’t tell except for a slight musty smell, most of it had been cleaned, but we are still fighting the smell and probably will be for a while. Lysol and Fabreeze are our new best friend. We both have developed a bit of a cough.
Rusty here: Right now the sun is beaming into the open hatches, I changed plugs in the dink so it idles like a champ, I bought some 1″ wide webbing to repair the mainsail attachment points. I bought 2 new boat bumpers so we will have enough again, I lost the rubber welting that pads the bottom of the Dinghy motor cowling long ago, and today I found a good replacement here in Islamorada at Caribe boat sales so the hood fits nicely again. I need a new shifter cable for the port engine.. they have it here at Carribe… but it’s so expensive I may wait until I can get to a West Marine… How scary is that… waiting to find a West Marine because it’s cheaper!
Man I think I found a new trick…. I haven’t filled the generator in days! Using a special cap with a quick connect on it and a squeeze bulb fuel hose, I figured out I can stuff the open hose into to a 5 gallon can of gas sitting on the back seats and it will siphon into the generator as it needs fuel. This will be extraordinarily awesome when it gets hot and we run the AC all night. No more 3AM get ups to refill the generator.
I totally reorganized the “garage” today. Everything has it’s place, it’s all clean and the water that gathers in the hulls on big wave passages is all sponged out. Tomorrow I want to bring the watermaker to life…. flush it out / change the primary filter and make sure it’s A OK.
I suspect tomorrow morning we will pull up the Manson, go in and buy fuel here in Islamorada, top off the water tank and head to Key Largo 18 miles away. I just ordered a new battery for my handheld VHF at West Marine in Largo, the cable that’s $64 here in Islamorada is $45 at West Marine. Our final shopping in the US will be via taxi in Largo then it’s just sailing North a few miles to stage in Angelfish Creek for a Friday night gulfstream crossing to Bimini.
The only thing left to do here in Islomarda is dingy into the local beer joint (Lorelei’s) and buy me and my daughter a tee shirt. It’s 4PM here on the east coast….. I think I’ll get that done now and settle in for the night.
Sea Yawl Later !! Rusty