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Captains notes are in
black... First Mate's are in rust!
10/15/05 Back in the saddle...ICW north
to Charleston
Well now a year has passed since Ivan and the boat repairs are finally
complete. We have made our way north on the ICW and are finally in
"cruising mode" again. I'll begin by discussing our repairs and then
finish with our trip north.
As you know from earlier logs, we brought the boat to the Rybovich
Spencer yacht yard in West Palm Beach. We brought it there because we
knew the yard was one of the very few with the skilled craftsmen and
equipment to bring her back to "new" condition. In this regard, we were
not disappointed but repairs that should have taken 4 or 5 months
stretched on into October. We spent January through May at my brother's
house or in Virginia as we waited for the yard to finish the "shed
work" of deck carpentry and hull painting. The boat work was
accomplished very slowly as other boats got priority in our absence but
when they pulled her out of the shed, we were thrilled as she looked
just beautiful.
From there we were placed in a covered slip while the remaining work
began and we lived aboard in "the cave" for the next several months
while work went on around us. The work seemed to take 2 steps forward
and one step back as careless mistakes and fiddling around with
alternative ways to do things dragged things out....but at least with
us on board, we got attention. The stanchions went on, the pulpits were
fitted and reinstalled, deck gel coat and winch repairs were made as we
waited endlessly for word that our new mizzen mast had been
manufactured and shipped from Selden. In the course of the work in the
garage, the new paint job was scratched up or damaged in 5 separate
incidents through carelessness. It was amazing to us that world class
craftsmen who achieved such incredible results could be so careless. On
the plus side, the workers were not only skilled but unfailingly nice
and concerned to do the right job and we never had a doubt that
Rybovich would stand behind their work and not be satisfied until we
were.
Finally the mizzen arrived and we were ready to leave the garage and
get both masts back on and get the paint job touched up.
Well, now it was deep into hurricane season and preparations for 2
tropical storms caused further delays, then we spent 10 days fiddling
around with the touch up paint only to conclude that we could not get a
match. Rybovich agreed to re-paint the entire hull and so we hauled the
boat out for another 10 days while that took place. What a great job
they did.
At last the new masts were in place and electronics installed and our
final seas trial went flawlessly. Despite having no significant hull
damage, the total bill to the insurance company was almost equal to
what we had paid for the boat before refitting her. I want to thank and
recommend Markel Insurance and IMIS brokers for the way they stood by
us through the repairs and lived up to their commitments to us over the
last year. You only know how good your insurance is when you have a
claim.
In addition to the repair work we had some of our own work done at
Rybovich, the neatest of which is an upgrade to a powered Andersen
genny winch. Now at the press of a button I can hoist the mainsail, or
the dinghy aboard or send Jan up the mast. Since the work of getting
the sail raised and lowered is now so much easier, I think we will be
more likely to turn the motor off and quicker to reef down in heavy
weather.
One of our few frustrations with the boat pre-Ivan, was how slow it was
under power. Despite running the engine at nearly full RPM's we were
only able to cruise at about 5 knots in flat seas. This compares to 7
knots in the old boat which amounts to about 20 miles less a day and a
hundred or more miles a week and very slow progress in less than ideal
weather. I thought we might have an undersized or poorly pitched
propeller or perhaps a transmission gearing problem because we
certainly had a big enough engine to go faster. Anyway, Rybovich had
the prop checked at haul out for us and after writing to Tayana we
found that the prop was better than the originally specified model. The
transmission also checked out to specification. In doing some reading,
I discovered that the tachometer takes its' readings from pulses
generated by the engine alternator...and I remembered that we had
upgraded the alternator when we bought the boat, saving the original as
a spare. Sure enough....the pulley sheave on the original alternator
was twice the size as on the new one so each full pass of the drive
belt was now generating far more pulses to the tachometer. Rybovich had
a laser "counter" which they focused on my drive shaft and we found
that the shaft was actually turning at over 1000 RPM's slower than the
tach was reporting! The boat wasn't slow...the tach was wrong! It is
nice to be cruising at OVER 7 knots again!!
We got underway out of Rybovich in late September and began making our
way north on the ICW. We had intended to make a couple of offshore
jumps but bad weather due to ocean storms forced us to stay inside. I
did a lot of navigational preparation for the trip since we'd heard
about the ICW deteriorating due to the lack of dredging over the last
couple of years. I'm glad I did because there are far more trouble
spots along the way and several places where we needed tidal help to
pass through silted inn channels. (E-mail me if you'd like a copy of my
report to the SSCA on the navigational issues.) Nevertheless, we made
it north without bumping once and now sit in beautiful Charleston
harbor and watch as Florida prepares for hurricane Wilma....glad we're
out of there!
Since we've described this trip before, I'll just touch on the
highlights:
- Vero Beach remains a cruisers haven with cheap
moorings and free transportation. Friends Mike and Nancy Atkins of
Zoellyn have now moved there and bought a different boat but were not
at home on our arrival.
- We did manage to catch up with Pat and Marney on
"Best of Times" in Cocoa where they are living aboard till it is Bahama
time again. They are building a house there which is going to be great
and we enjoyed being able to hang out with them and Reese again.
- St. Augustine remains one of our very favorite places
and we found a great new place to stay there in Oyster Creek Marina. We
were able to walk to provision the boat, do the laundry and of course
we paid a visit to our favorite Havana Village Cafe for a night of
great Cuban food and music and dancing!
- Thunderbolt Marina near Savannah still brings the
paper and Kripy Cremes to your boat every morning, but the place seems
to be slowly deteriorating despite the friendly marina folks.
- We continue to love "Bewfort" SC and
Charleston....both for the ambiance and for the most friendly people
just about anywhere. In another "it's a small world" event , Chuck and
Brenda who are Irwin owners and have been following tis website for
several years, saw Camaraderie pull into the marina and recognized the
boat and we finally all got to meet!
I took the Amtrak back to Florida to retrieve the car we had bought
there ad good buddies Luciano and Joanne will be coming to visit this
weekend and will take it back to Richmond with them. The kids will use
it till we get back. We're looking forward to seeing our good buddies
again then we'll start back south if "Wilma" has cleared out. We'll go
to St. Augustine for a bit more and then do a road trip for a family
T-Day reunion in South Carolina. After that we'll head south and cross
to the Bahamas again for another winter of cruising fun and of
course....camaraderie! //GB
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