Chapter 35: Still in Ft. Lauderdale

Log 35
6:00 am
Saturday, April 08, 2000

The date, and time listed above is the time I finally sent this log. As you will see, I have actually been jotting some of these notes as time went along so I didn’t forget the sequence of events.

3/25/00 (sitting in a hotel room in Richmond, VA.)
Deb and I are in Richmond this morning, (got here on Friday night, and will leave here on Tuesday) to meet all of the new management team (and their spouses) that we have hired for our new facility. We will all be going out to dinner together (54 of us) to celebrate the facility opening, and prepare for all of the long hours ahead. I had a minute so I thought I’d update my logs.

Captain’s note: Since log #33 I have talked to several of you, and many people have mentioned the repairs I was having done. (as one of my friends wife said to him “this can’t be any fun, all he does is work on the boat”) To my non boating friends, let me explain…..…..Boating is about working on the boat. Sure there are a lot of other things that make it wonderful, but working on it is part of the deal. A big part of the deal, and a major part of the expense of owning a boat. Deb and I have owned several boats, and whether they were new, used, or otherwise, we are always working on them. The thing that makes this different, is the fact that we are counting on all of the systems to get us through this trip, verses sitting at a dock most of the time. Also, I am documenting all of the activity. Had I kept a log on the other boats, it would look similar. Do I wish these engines, and all other systems, would run perfect? Yes, but I not sure if that’s realistic. The only thing you can do is fix things as they happen, and make sure you are doing all of your preventive maintainance, to keep major repairs to a minimum. Repairs or not, I love this stuff!
· When I completed Log 34, I was on a plane heading home from Jackson Marine. We had a good weekend, but also left Florida without getting the port engine fixed. What we did have though, was a plan to get that done.
· Once I got back home I got out my contacts list, and started calling people. Among those were the Detroit factory, and the head marine engineer. We had a good conversation, and he called the mechanic that was doing the repairs. After several conversations it was determined that we had 4 fuel injectors bad, and the engineer thought it could also be something else, so we planned on a sea trial with several pieces of diagnostic equipment hook up to the engines. This sea trial will take place April 7th. (this is a Saturday, and normally they would not do warranty work on overtime, but the factory has authorized these additional costs) Hopefully we will find out if there is anything else causing this engine to be low on power.
· 3/31/00 (on a plane heading for Richmond VA.)
Yes, I’m heading back to Richmond again. This time I’ll be here Monday, and leave Friday. The official start-up is just a few days away, and I’m here to work with the customer (Perdue Chicken), to make sure they are feeling good about everything we are doing. When I leave Friday, I’ll be heading back to FT. Lauderdale, for the weekend, to sea trial the boat again.

When I left Jackson Marine (3/20) I gave them a work order to pull the boat and check the props, as well as align the shafts (this was to check out the vibration the mechanic felt). As it turns out the props looked fine, but we decided to have them balanced to be sure they were perfect. (as I write this I haven’t heard if they were ok or not) When they were checking the shafts, they found them to be out of shape. The port shaft was 5/1000th off, and the starboard one was 7/1000th off. How did that happen? Remember back in one of the logs where I told you about crossing the Gulf, and at the end of that crossing we went into Clearwater? Remember that I took a wrong turn, got out of the channel, and ran aground just before we got to our marina? Well, I thought everything was fine, and I didn’t do any damage. I guess I was wrong! So we had to pull both of the shafts, and send them in to be straightened. The good news is, there shouldn’t be any more vibration. (I’m always looking for the bright side of these events) Anyway that’s where we are as of today. I’ll be on the boat this weekend, so hopefully everything will be back together, and in near perfect shape. We’ll see…………

5:10 am
Saturday, April 08, 2000
Pier 66 Marina
FT. Lauderdale, FL.

Well, we’re back on the boat again. Deb came in from Chicago yesterday, and I came in from Richmond. We met at the Miami airport, drove straight to the boat and got there at about 2 PM. (by the way, I’m watching the weather channel now, and they say today will be a wind chill of 1 degree. Yikes!)
When we got to the boat things were looking good. They had buffed, and waxed both the hull, and the top side, and as I said, it was looking good. I talked to the guy who put the props, and the shafts back in, and he said things were in great shape there as well. Our Detroit mechanic (Pastor) showed up and he was all set. He had installed a bunch of diagnostic equipment in the engine room, and he was ready for our sea trial on Saturday morning. (Annie…..I discovered this morning that we forgot to clean the coffee pot when we left last time, and this first pot of coffee looks like…….well……….let’s just say I threw it out)

After a good check of all systems, I fired up the engines, and Deb, and I headed out of Jackson Marine. Destination……Pier 66 Marina. (Darrell, and Dona. Wait till you see this place!) The weather, and the day were just perfect. 85 degrees, and mostly sunny. It was a great 1 hour cruise. Once we arrived, I worked on the boat, and Deb took a taxi back to Jackson Marine to get the car. By the time she got back, I had the boat ship shape, and we went over to the Pelican Bar so Deb could have one of those Pina Colatas (can anyone spell this?)she loves. The bar had a guy with a guitar singing Jimmy Buffet songs, and it was pretty cool sitting there watching these huge boats go by, and knowing just how lucky we really are.
Today is sea trial day. At 7:15 this morning Pastor will be on board to see if putting in those 4 new injectors fixed our problem. On one hand I sure hope so, but I don’t understand how that can happen all at once. I think there may be something else. Something caused these injectors to go bad, and we need to find out what it was. (or is)
The weather channel continues to tell me how bad the weather is at home. Darn, that’s a shame. We’ll just have to suffer with another 85, and sunny today. I sure hope the snow is gone by the time we get there.
Well, the third pot of coffee is now finished, and this one seems to be drinkable, so I think I’ll end this, and try to send it out. I have a new system for doing this. I found out that Sprint has a cell phone, and a system that you can hook to your computer, and send and receive e-mail. It works great. At least in areas where they have service. I’ll see if one of those areas is here in Ft. Lauderdale.
I hope this message finds everyone doing well.

BK.
Ps. Just as I was ending this, I heard a rumble outside, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I went outside, and found out the 85 foot boat next to us was running. They are heading 185 miles to Nassau today. I’ve got to go out and watch them head out. Is this a great place or what??????