Hi Everyone, I haven't been very good at correspondence and as you might
not understand I've been extremely busy. I'll try to explain but first
I'll let you know that we are currently at a marina on a sub tropical
island called Jelyll Island in Southern Georgia. I just paid for one
month of docking fees. Its time for a break from traveling and time to
try to do some planned boat upgrades as opposed to unplanned repairs.
Our first planned destination was to go into Florida and find a marina
however we've met up with another family traveling with similar aged
kids who will be here for a while so we figured this location will do.
Also this island will be a great place for the kids to explore and play
on. Oh, and somewhere in there we'll celebrate the holidays. Also today
was the first day we felt temperatures in the high 70's, Most of the
trip we've been freezing

Life has changed drastically in these last few months. My first notion
of this is when we arrived at our first stop in Oswego New York and I
left the family on the boat while I walked off in quest of engine parts,
motor oil and a cell phone. By gosh I don't have a car anymore! North
American cities are not designed well for the autoless individual.
Nothing like a walk to the Walmart to discover that sidewalks are
scarce.

In the reading prior to this trip I came across the quote that "cruising"
(exploring places on a sail boat) can be defined as fixing your boat in
exotic locations. Well, we have not arrived at any exotic locations yet
however I feel that I haven't stopped repairing this boat after working
on it for almost 2 yrs in our driveway. I seem to be bombarded with
technical problems on a daily basis however the MRB team has been absent
with problem resolution although this has saved me reams on paper work,
just fix it or adapt without it. Just the other day I told Cornelia. It
seems all I do is fix fluid leaks. My new career here is a "fluids
containment engineer". There are about 10 different fluids on board.
and so far 9 of the 10 have repeatedly tried to escape to areas of the
boat where they are not suppose to be. I ve listed them with the number
of times they have violated their allowed habitat and in some cases I've
lost count:


• Fresh water - 10+ usually comes as rain through the deck, If I
had to compare the roof of a house to the deck of the boat you would
have to attach an additional 40 some metal fittings to your roof with
with an average of 4 through bolts each and then hope none will leak.
There are around 3 current leaks that we are aware of. Somehow I think
that this will be a never ending battle. Fresh water also gets to leak
via the internal plumbing system which was all replaced prior to leaving
• Salt water -6 , most of these are now under control, however I
think one of these is now causing a soft electrical short internally in
a pump
• Grey water - 1 , one of the kitchen sink drains has leaked since
the beginning of the trip however its been low on the priority list
• Black water - 4 , for those of you unfamiliar with the term
think sewage. Your nose lets you know when this system rears it's ugly
head
• Diesel oil - n+1, at least that's what it was at the beginning
of the trip its now under control with the exception of the 5 gallons
that escaped in the boat during our last refueling however that was
human error as opposed to just a mechanical seal, see future blog for
details!
• Engine oil - 5 or more, primarily under control now
• Engine coolant - the most persistent!!
• Transmission oil - 0 but I've probably jinxed myself now or I
just can't see it
• Hydraulic oil - 2 - this is the steering system which the new
leak here is on the new autopilot pump which is a major pain in the butt
when it doesn't work on the ocean on an over nighter!!
• Refrigerant -2 - fortunately both of these occurred prior to
leaving on the new refrigeration system however I was plagued underway
with a voltage drop problem that was finally linked to a bad contact on
a crimp



I still have numerous major systems to install before we leave the US
coast such as:

• Watermaker (makes freshwater from salt water)
• Solar panels
• Single side band radio (this will give us continuous email at an
amazing speed of about 5 Baud (If I took the number of days that we have
been on the boat and the so infrequent internet access then our
equivalent data rate would probably be less)
• New chartplotter and Radar. We have been navigating with our
little hand held GPS, it works but things could be better
• And more .......................

So am I griping? no, do I regret going? no, am I having fun? I try to
think so! I get to see and be with my kids every day, (the interior of
our boat is less than 400 square feet and there have been times when we
have not set foot on land for 5 or more days and we all still get
along). There is a southward migration of boats along the eastern
seaboard, most heading to the Caribbean so we get to meet some
interesting people along the way, sometimes more then once. We've
explored some interesting places and we get to worry about weather and
navigation but all and all its kinda neat.

Here I sit typing at the table that Gary Searle rebuilt for us and that
was reinstalled into the boat back when the boat still sat in the
driveway at our house except now when I get up and look outside our
house isn't there anymore, I'm in our new house and the scenery is a
changing!

Best wishes and happy holidays to all !!

Mike