Chapter 33: It's March - and Leg Three Begins

Captains Note......
There are a few new people that get these "GCT Logs". Along the way people have asked to be put on the list, and others I have added because I thought they might enjoy the journey. If you don't want to be bothered by receiving these just let me know. If you are new, and have no clue what is going on....... or anyone wants to catch up on what has happened, we now have all of the past logs (and some pictures) on a web site dedicated to this trip.
Just go to www.greatcircle.homepage.com, and it's all there.
Don't forget my disclaimer...spelling, and grammar mistakes are to be ignored.

Now for the latest update;
6:00 am
Friday, March 17, 2000
Jackson Marine
FT. Lauderdale, FL.

It's hard to believe it is mid-March already. From a boaters standpoint, winter is over, and boating is just around the corner. I'm even luckier than that. I get to visit our boat during the "off season" and that makes the winter even shorter.

This morning we are at Jackson Marine, in Ft. Lauderdale. This the boat yard I took the boat to in January to have some work done, and store it for the winter. Most of the repairs are done, and we came down here to check the boat out, and make sure everything will be ready when we get ready to leave.

As I mentioned when we dropped the boat off, as a marina, this place leaves a lot to be desired, but as a boatyard, it's great. I have had good luck getting them to do the things I had requested.
I arrived here yesterday. I flew in from Richmond VA., where I spent a couple of days visiting our new distribution center we are going to operate for Perdue Farms. It's a very exciting, and complicated, project that is about 2 weeks away from star-up. Things are hectic, but going fine, and it looks like we will begin on time. Receiving our first load of fresh chicken on April 3rd. As I write this I almost feel guilty not being there. Years ago when I was running these type of projects, I would be on site a lot of the time. Today we have great experienced people running the project, and as Victor Yamada our facility manager told me recently, "Bob, until we get this place going, I'm not sure you want to be here, and I'm not sure we want you here." Both of those may be true, but I'll be there a lot over the next few weeks.

When I got to the boat things looked fine. There was someone on board finishing the washing, and it looked pretty good. I fired up the engines, and although they took some time to catch, they both started, and ran fine.

I also started the generator, and things looked fine here as well. The only problem was when I went in the engine room it was awful. They had covered the boat while they sanded the bottom, but the grit from the sand blasting had gotten in, and it needs a lot of effort to get it back to shape. That will have to happen over time.

Last night I drove up to West Palm Beach to pick up Debbie, and Les and Ann (Deb's sister and brother in law.) They came in at about 10:00, and by the time we got back to the boat it was way past my bed time.

Today, we will be leaving Jackson Marine early, and heading down the New River, through the center of Ft. Lauderdale, and to Pier 66 marina. We will be meeting a mechanic from Detroit (the engine manufacture of my boat engines) and taking a sea trial. If you remember, when we left Clearwater, I noticed that the port engine was not running the way it should, so I'm going to have it checked out.

6:15 am
Saturday, March 18, 2000
Pier 66 Marina
FT. Lauderdale, FL.

We picked up the mechanic (Pastor was his name) on the dock at Pier 66 marina. It was a short jump from there to the ocean for our sea trial. He went in the engine room and hooked up his computer to the engines, and we went through several different variations of running the boat. First 1000 rpm, then 1200, 1400, etc. It took about 30 minutes to complete his tests, and when he did, he came up to sit beside me on the bridge, and said "how do you like south Florida?" Fine I said, why? "Because, based on your engines, you're going to spending a lot of time here." My heart fell to my gut. He went on to tell me that the port engine needed lots of help. He showed me a computer print out of the results of his tests, and it showed that the injectors were bad, and that is why the boat didn't have it's normal power. (as well as a problem with the inter-cooler, whatever that is). He also told me there was a vibration on the port side. I don't know what that is, but we will have to have it checked out. (Boy am I glad I had this looked at now, instead of along the way somewhere) After a fair amount of discussion, and several phone calls, it was determined that the mechanic would get on the boat next Tuesday, when the boat was back at Jackson Marine. It would take a few days to repair, which is not a problem, but it will mean that I will have to come back here again to do another sea trial, to make sure things were fine. (I think the best thing may be to move my office here for the remainder of the winter, to make sure this stuff is done right) I'm sure we'll get through this, but it is becoming a logistics challenge.

The rest of yesterday was spent with the girls grocery shopping, Les cleaning the boat, while I helped him, in between working on Pro Source stuff. Late in the afternoon we took a long dinghy ride around the area.

This place is just unbelievable. Annie just keeps saying "oh, my goodness!"
As I said in previous e-mails, this is a boaters paradise. Every boat you see is nicer, and bigger than the last one. We all wish we could see the inside of some of them, but that won't happen.
The day ended with Annie cooking fresh tuna steaks on the grill. They were awesome! We all had plans to go to the Pelican Bar at the marina, and listen to the band, but Deb and I decided to stay on the boat and watch a movie.

(The River Wild)
Today the plans are for more boat cleaning, and then we'll see from there.
The only thing I do know is it is too nice now to sit inside here and write this log. Annie is up and eating breakfast up on the bridge. It's already 70 degrees, and beautiful. The forecast calls for low 80's and mostly sunny.

(The weather channel said in Chicago the wind chill is 5 degrees) I'd better get out there and enjoy this.

BK.