The heat has broken

Greetings all,
The heat in St Petersburg seems to finally have broken. This week highs are supposed to be only 83 or 84. That is a welcome relief.

Since my last post we have been keeping busy with projects on the boat and time for some fun now and then. The weekend before this last one we attended the Seven Seas Cruising Association GAM here in St Petersburg. I have no idea what GAM stands for but it was a day of multiple hour and a half sessions on various topics. We attended sessions on Cruising the Bahamas, Crossing the Gulf Stream and Chris Parker's talk on weather. If you are planning on cruising the Bahamas or Caribbean, you need to know about Chris Parker. He is THE weather authority for cruisers.  At the GAM and the happy hour the previous night we met a lot of interesting and fun people.

Last week we replaced our water heater. It was the first time we did a project that went pretty much as I optimistically expected it to in regards to time and effort. It did not take 8 times the amount of time I anticipated! Yeehaa! And it worked and didn't leak. Bonus! We also replaced sending units in the holding tanks so we can tell when they are getting full. Very strange that both went bad at the same time. We found and fixed a leak in one of the water tanks but I think there is another. This could be a problem because it is the big tank where our water maker is going to dump freshly-made water. In the event we have to replace that tank, it is going to be a major undertaking. To get the old tank out and new tank in will require pulling the inverter / charger out as well as dismantling a good bit of the nav station. That's besides paying $510 for the new tank. I hope we can avoid that project.

The water maker is only a few small connections and one trip to Home Depot away from being done. I know, there is no such thing as one more trip to Home Depot. Yesterday we fixed the wiring problem made by yours truly. Other than getting the part we need we won't do any more work on the water maker until we get to (sea) water that is cleaner. Once we start using the water maker it will need to be run every other day or so.

This past weekend we motor sailed (tried to sail but not enough wind) to Egmont Key- a small island / bird sanctuary just outside Tampa Bay. We went with Another Life and new friends we met the previous weekend, Bob and Yvonne on Learning to Fly. Bob is not learning to fly, he has been flying helicopters for the US Army for the last 20 years. I think it's more they are learning to spread their wings and enjoy life outside the Army. It was a great weekend though a bit short. Because of the weather forecast we came back on Saturday afternoon. Besides several good meals together (beef fajitas Friday night and egg casserole Saturday morning) we managed a walk on the beach on the Gulf side of the island and some swimming and snorkeling.

Sunday it rained most of the day so we walked up to the movie theater an saw A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte. It was pretty funny. Amazingly the skies cleared in time to watch the lunar eclipse last night. This morning it is back to being overcast but I'll take it if it means a bit cooler temperature.

Here's a brief look at our plans. Somewhere around October 16 we'll leave the St Petersburg Municipal Marina and start making our way South with stops in places like Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Fort Myers, Naples, Marco Island and then some longer passages to get us to the Dry Tortugas, a national park 68 miles West of Key West. From there we'll figure out the best way to get to the Bahamas and make the trip across the Gulf Stream. The speaker we listened to on crossing the Gulf Stream kept saying "I'm not trying to scare you or make this sound intimidating", but he did.

I've rambled on long enough. I guess I need to do this more often so I don't have as much to say. Take care all.

Brian

Chillin' In St Petersburg

Hi All,
It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd better get you all caught up on what we've been doing. Most days we're still doing work on this or that around the boat, but also taking some time to relax.

After Erika was good and gone we moved back over to the mooring ball. We were there two or three days and then did the math and realized it would be less expensive to pay the monthly rate at the transient dock. What pushed it that way was the heat that made it pretty much mandatory to run the generator about 20 hours a day so we had air conditioning. Also factored in was our desire to stay in St Pete for at least a month to let hurricane season be mostly over. It is rare for a hurricane to hit here so it seems like a good place to be. Not to mention all the shops, bars and restaurants within walking distance.

Also, the marina is a bit like Waterford Harbor Marina East. Besides us on Good Morning Vietnam, Claire and Ted on Another Life, and our new friends Kelly and Nancy on Dance Aweigh, we have all at one time resided at Waterford Harbor. Also in the "it's a small world" category, this morning we met a friend of people on a power cat that is here for a week or so. He lives in Gun Barrel City. What are the odds of that? Gun Barrel City is our hailing port and is on the back of the boat.

A couple of firsts for us this last week or so was using Uber to get around and playing shuffleboard. We only rent a car when we have several errands (Home Depot, West Marine, WalMart) that we know we need to run over several days. Uber has worked out great. The first time we tried it the car was there in three minutes. The most we ever waited was 8 minutes. Can't say that is my experience with calling for a taxi.

Now for shuffleboard! What a blast we had Friday night at the St Petersburg Shuffleboard Club. Some new friends we met through Kelly and Nancy, Dave and Susan, live here in St Petersburg. Dave, Susan, Kelly, Nancy, Ted, Claire, Susan and I went to Friday night shuffleboard at the club. Oops, almost forgot our mascot Winston. The club was founded in 1924 and now has 84 courts. It is the largest shuffleboard club in the world.You should see this place. And you should see the number of people there. It's pretty much like a picnic, bring whatever you want to eat and drink and play shuffleboard from 7 until 11 every Friday night. Normally when I think of shuffleboard I think of old people playing on the deck of a cruise ship. The majority of the people there were under 40, I would guess. Check out their website http://stpeteshuffle.com

Here are a few pictures from Friday night...

Saturday and Sunday weren't as much fun. The weekend was spent replacing the majority of the "sanitation" hoses on the boat. Remember Susan's post on kaka?  This was kaka part two and three. Saturday we tackled the aft head and holding tank which took us nine hours to complete. That did include a trip to Home Depot in the middle of the day and while out we finally were able to get something of an appetite so we ate lunch. Sunday we spent six hours on the forward head. I cannot tell you how glad I was to have that job done.

Monday was a few errands and returning the rental car. Enterprise has a great deal on a weekend rate and we need the car to get the new sanitation hose as well as several trips to Home Depot. Is it possible to do a project with only one trip to Home Depot? I think not.

Tuesday was an interesting day. This is what a day living on a boat seems to be like most of the time. I wanted to order some extra oil filters for the engine so I opened up an access panel to look at the one on the engine and get the part number. I couldn't see it but in looking around I saw some oil pooled below the engine. I figured it was probably spilled the last time I changed the oil and filter. It was contained and couldn't leak out into the bilge but we wanted to get it up. To get at it with our electric drill powered pump I needed to take some sole plates (the flooring) up that we hadn't been able to get up before. We were determined to figure out how to get better access to that area. We took up sole plates that hadn't been up since the boat was built. We were finally able to get at the oil and pump it out. In the process we saw fresh water running into the bilge. Getting at the source entailed taking up more sole plates that were interlocking so they had to come out in the right order. Once that was completed we found a) that someone had put a screw through the top of one of the fresh water tanks and then pulled it out and b) that some of the fittings on the top of the aft holding tank were leaking. We just thought we were through with kaka.  How happy was I when I thought I was done with this job? Not as unhappy as I am now that I'm not. And c) the water heater is rusting and starting to leak.

So that's it in a nutshell. I wanted to order some spare oil filters and 6 hours later I still didn't have the part number but had four new projects added to the list. Fortunately two of those four are taken care of now. This is how I spent a good bit of the day yesterday.

But tomorrow is a new day and hopefully one that will put an end to smelly problems.

Don't you envy us a little less now?

To end on a more positive note. The municipal marina shares the same basin with the St Petersburg Yacht Club. A long standing tradition there is still in effect today and it really is kind of neat. Every night at sunset they shoot off a canon. We're just close enough to hear them yell out something just before they fire the cannon but can't make out anything but the last part "Fire in the hole!"

Next big adventure? Bingo on Thursday night.

That's all for now. Take care.
Brian

A day in the life

A post from Susan from several days ago.

So several people have asked me what it is that we “do” all day long and I thought I’d try to explain (a little).  Typical answers like, “Whatever the Hell we feel like doing” and “Not much” seem to cover a lot of it, but there are a few other things. 

This morning, for example, we did NOT get up early.  I have no idea what time it actually was since I quit wearing a watch when I quit work. When we got up we were treated to the lovely odor of sewage. 

We had been worried that the vent hose on the forward holding tank might be blocked and a little investigation confirmed that fear.  Need I tell you how disgusting this was?  Poor Brian pulled the vent hose from the top of the holding tank (which, incidentally, was full and spilled you-know-what all into the bilge- but more on that later) and cleaned it out as best he could from that end.  That didn’t fix it, so we attacked the other end (at the hull).  Now all that sounds pretty straightforward, right?  NOT!!  It’s a boat so nothing is easy.  In order to get to the holding tank, you have to move a ton of stuff, unscrew the floorboards and then move more junk- all of this in a 2 foot square hole in the floor.  It’s quite a trick when you’re 6’2”.  And to get to the hull end of the tube?  Even worse. You have to unload and remove an entire bookcase from the forward bulkhead and squeeze behind it.  Houdini would be proud. Fortunately, we did find a problem- the vent hose was kinked so therefore not venting.  We repaired that and removed a huge hunk of- well,uh- you know. That still didn’t fix it.  We also had a leaking (and stinking!) macerator pump.  That’s the pump who’s job it is to pump the poop out.  It was also leaking into the bilge (we’re getting to that, I promise) so we were off to West Marine to buy a new one which we replaced without too much problem. There was a whole bunch of other junk that had to get done in there, but nothing quite as exciting as cleaning the bilge since it was full of ka-ka.  What a joy.  We pumped it nearly dry then scrubbed the bottom and sides as best we could and then rinsed it several times with fresh water.  Have I mentioned how bad all this smelled?  I thought so.  By now, it was time for dinner and we decided that eating out sounded much more appealing than on the boat.  I must admit it smelled MUCH better when we got back, but after showers we were knackered and passed out. 

 

So, you ask, are we bored?  Are you kidding?  I would love to be bored.  Actually we have had some peaceful, relaxing, lazy days and are having a blast, but there isn’t a day that goes by that there isn’t some big or small boat project that needs our attention.  We’re learning a LOT and loving every minute of it.

Now Brian adding his two cents worth... The day Susan described is toward the yucky end of the scale and fortunately we don't have too many of those. That being said, I do believe that if you live on a boat you will have more maintenance to do than on a house and car combined. 

We're still in St Petersburg and really enjoying it. The municipal marina is right on the waterfront in downtown. There are more bars, restaurants and shops than you can count within walking distance. Thursday night our friends Ted and Claire went with us to a beach bar on St Pete Beach to watch the sunset. Unfortunately it was cloudy so we didn't get a great sunset but it was still nice. Saturday night the four of us walked around town, stopping at a few places for a drink and some live music and finally ended up at a Mexican restaurant that also had live music before heading back to the boat. Life really is good!

What's next? Well... There isn't a lot farther South we can go without putting ourselves in  an unprotected spot as it pertains to hurricanes, not unless we make a mad dash down to the keys and then around to the east coast of Florida. So we'll stay here for a bit longer, at least until the weekend, and then make our way south a bit. Marco Island is about as far south as we want to be before we're well into October. 

Stay tuned and we'll let you know what we're doing as soon as we know.

Take care.

Brian