Green Cove Springs to Jacksonville

It is so nice to be back cruising on the water! We left at 10 am and motored into a stiff breeze but got held up at the Main Street bridge in Downtown Jacksonville. It has been broken down for a day now with electrical problems but hopefully it will be up and running tomorrow morning for us to get past and continue our journey south. If that is the case, we may not do another blog posting until later in the week when we get back within Verizon range. In the meantime wish both Moshe and myself fair winds and following seas!

Splash Day

Today was a beautiful day for putting the boat in the water.

The dinghy is all pumped up, the water tanks are full and the batteries are all charged up.

We are planning to leave first thing in the morning and head up to Jacksonville and anchor  there tomorrow night.

Painting the bottom

I had my friend Moshe who will be sailing with me for a couple of weeks help me paint the bottom today.

After spending all day painting, the boat looks really good now. We changed the oil as well and are all ready to splash tomorrow.

Survey and bottom preparation

Awake and up at the crack of dawn for the boat survey. (OK you have to understand that crack of dawn when you are retired means 7.30 am.) Captain Steve Danzig came for 2 hours, charged me $416 and did a great job. He said and I quote.

The vessel is in Above Average condition given she is 41 years old. All systems, electrical, fuel, etc. if tested operated without hesitation. The care and maintenance of this vessel has been above the average usually seen in the industry. 

The one thing that I have to do, is replace the electrical receptacle in the head with one that is GFIC Ground Fault Interrupted. So now i should be able to get liability insurance from Boat US.

The rest of the day, I scraped the bottom with a scraper and then a drywall screen using the hose.

It is pouring with rain here in north east Florida but tomorrow is meant to be sunny so it will be perfect for painting the bottom with an ablative paint.

Saturday is splash day!

Day 3 in the yard

Another productive day. I want to splash the boat on Saturday and all I have remaining, is to scrape the bottom and paint it. This morning I fired up the Yanmar and true to form, she burst into life in a fraction of a second. If I get a chance I am overdue on a oil and filter change. Ditto, I can report success on a propane leak down test producing an excellent cup of morning Joe. I moved forward onto the monitor wind-vane re-installation.

I managed to overcome the bent boomkin by adding some shims and the result is  that the windvane is now vertical. I went onto painting some of my topsides that were scratched up during a violent thunderstorm back when I was docked in New Bern, NC. I  then transferred all my tools into a Husky tool bag that fits perfectly under the bottom step above the bilge.

Time for exercise, dinner and meditation.

Day 2 in the work yard

Got a lot of little housekeeping things done today. I arranged for a pump out here at Green Cove Springs Marina. They have a mobile pump on a trailer that pulls up beside your boat to pump it out.

I also set 4 bug traps. Even though I have seen just 3 cockroaches in the time I have had the boat, they were scary events and 3 too many. I have seen these sticky Tom Cat traps work and they are very effective so I buried 4 of them deep in the bilges where no man dares to go.

I cleaned the bilge and  filled up the water tanks.

I also arranged for a survey of the boat to be done on Thursday. Currently I carry no insurance but  want to get liability insurance just in case I run into a gin palace or 2 on my travels. BoatUS wanted a survey of the boat first, which is a good thing, in my mind. It will run $416, about the same as the yearly insurance itself. Tomorrow I plan on starting the engine, firing up the propane stove, installing covers over the house batteries, re-installing the windvane and getting started on sanding the keel.

Back at Green Cove Springs Marina again after a wonderful Holiday

I arrived back at the boat last night and fortunately the boat was absent any sign of water inside despite all the rain. It was rainy off and on all day and I have been running the heater to help remove that clammy feeling. Firstly I tidied up the insides and removed the shade cloth.

I ordered new bottom ablative paint, an Interlux Micron 66 that I had success with last year at keeping the barnacles at bay.

I also have to re-install my monitor wind-vane. When I was in Southport, NC,  I bent the gears on the paddle so when I drove out to California in November, I visited Scanmar in San Francisco, and they fixed it for me. Robert is holding the bent piece that was replaced.

The boomkin in the next photo is bent slightly, so that when I reinstall the windvane, I need to work out how to make it vertical.

Finally, I also have to fix my genoa port track, the front part of which which snapped back outside Savannah.

Garbanzo beans, avocado, veggies with blueberries, yogurt and Chamomile tea for dinner.