Chapter 36: The Final Sea Trial

6:45 am
Sunday, April 09, 2000
Pier 66 Marina

Between the weather channel, and your e-mails, it seems this is the place to be. 68 degrees now, and the forecast calls for lots of sun, and upper 70’s to the lower 80’s.

I’m siting here this morning, having a cup of coffee while I write this, and looking out at the intracoastal. It’s a great sight, (even though it is still dark) to sit here, and look at all of the boats heading out for a day of fishing, or heading for points unknown. The “points unknown” is truly amazing. These boats come from, and are headed to, everywhere. I think we’re on a big trip, but this is just routine for some of these folks. It’s exciting to hear all of the stories.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Our mechanic (Pastor) showed up at about 7 am, with another mechanic in tow. After a quick check of his equipment, we went out to the Atlantic. (by the way, one of the reasons we are staying here at Pier 66 is because it is so close to the ocean. From our slip we can be in the ocean in 5 minutes) Once we rounded the bend, and got a look at the Atlantic, it didn’t look too bad. The swells looked to be 1 foot, or so.
Wrong! In fact the swells were so bumpy that the table in our salon fell again, and this time it didn’t break the base, but it did break another hinge. I can’t believe we let that happen again. That’s the last time.

Engine wise, we have good, and bad news. The good news is the port engine runs fine. All of the diagnostic equipment showed that everything was normal. The bad news is it still smoked more that I thought it should, and I didn’t feel it had the power it used to. Although I will say that I’m used to running in a calm river, not an angry Atlantic. Pastor says everything is ok, but we still we need to clean the “aftercooler”. So my plan is to do that, and we should be good to go north.

The rest of the day yesterday was spent doing some clean up, and minor repairs. Deb got some groceries, and started to plan for our return on May 11th. The last couple of visits we have had to totally empty the refrigerator, because the boat would be out of the water, without electric. This time, even if we have some more work done, the boat will stay in the water, so we can start to stock up.

I cleaned the boat, and the dinghy, and by the time all of that was done, it was time for a dinghy ride. (always one of our favorite things to do) The ride was fun, as usual, but cut short because that cold front that has brought all of the bad weather everywhere, finally made it to south Florida. The front brought with it strong winds, and rain. So we made it back to the boat just “after” the rain started.

Pork chops on the grill……..Overboard, on the TV, and we made it an early night.

Like I said, a good day.

What’s up for today? I’m not sure. I still need to get in that engine room, and clean. When we had the bottom done, a lot of dust, and dirt got in there, as well as dirt from having the mechanics work on the engines, so it’s a mess, and that bothers me. But if the day is as nice as they predict I may have a problem staying in that engine room.

What I do know is that I need to end this log. The sun is bright now, and I can’t keep my mind on writing this. I need to get out there, with a fresh cup of coffee, and walk the docks. I’m sure there is someone with a great boating story that I need to hear.

I hope all of you have a great day…………..

BK.