07/10/2009, Key Biscayne, Florida (United States)
Total Distance: 18 Miles Under Sail: 17
Average Speed: 4 kts
Conditions: Cloudy, 95-100 F, Wind Southeast at 5-10 kts, Seas 0-1 ft
Dinner Cruise-
It has been a month since I last took Rhapsody in Blue out of her slip. Part of the reasons I haven't been down to Miami much due to commitments here in NJ and the weather hasn't been real nice in Miami. The days I went down to check on the boat the weather has been horrible, with rain, thunderstorms and no wind.
My continue maintenance issues is a battle with no end in sight. I have been doing some small projects inside because of all the rain. As I was getting ready to leave for my flight back to NJ, I notice my battery monitor system was showing negative amps. For you non-tech folks that means the boat is drawing DC power off the battery. Not good when the boat is hooked to shore power. The DC (battery) side gets it's power from the battery charger while hooked up to shore power. I quickly checked-out the battery charger and sure enough it is not working. Not good at all. I need DC power to run the refrigerator and bilge pumps 24/7. I quickly ran to West Marine to buy a new one. NOT CHEAP! Installed it than went to NJ that night.
My refrigerator and air conditioner hasn't really been functioning properly since I owned the boat. For the second time I called a mechanic to come out to look at them both. Well, he came, when I was in NJ, to report back that all is well with them. Fast forward one week later, I arrived to the boat with the refrigerator not working and the air conditioning only being able to cool the boat down to 82 degrees. My boat stunk to high heaven because of all the spoiled food on the boat. After cleaning it out, and a quick call back to the mechanic that looked at it I was pretty mad. So I decided to troubleshoot the dam refrigerator myself. As I was doing that my brand new battery charger quit working, There was a strange noise of a rely chattering coming from the settee where the battery charger lives. If I was mad before I am spitting nails and ready to sink this damn boat in the slip. A quick call to ProMarine technical support confirmed the charger is bad. He said to ship it to me and he will have another one shipped in 5-10 days. Unacceptable! In talking with my dockmates, I mentioned that the charger was bought at West Marine. Well, thank god, West Marine has a no questions asked exchange policy. After a quick phone call to the store, I had the new charger install in less than 2 hours. Now for the kicker. All three chargers were those smart chargers the knows the battery type and has three charging scheme; fast charge, assumption and trickle. In all these months of owning this boat, I never paid attention to the charging scheme, only watching that the batteries were getting charged. Well, when this battery charger went to the assumption charge the voltage went up to 14.7 volts. Those batteries have never seen that kind of voltage. I freak out!! After a few hours of research, that is normal. That is what the batteries should have been charging all this time. When the charger went to tickle charge the voltage dropped to 13.4. So a lesson learned here. Big time lesson. The big question still is why did the first two chargers quit working? No idea and if anyone has any please comment. I am also concerned now, with 4 year old lead cell 4D batteries, will they be able to take the assumption charge to desulfate them. My guess is NO! Time will tell.
With the charger taken care of back to the refrigerator. With manuals in hand, I (NOT the dam mechanic) troubleshot what broke: the thermostat. It only works in the full on position. So it starting working again. It also doesn't shut off. Umm maybe that is why the damn thing uses 125 amps a day. A new thermostat is ordered and should arrive sometime next week.
As I was contemplating sinking the boat, one of the small chores that needed to be done was clean up the thru-hole plumbing. The galley sink bronze thru-hole was showing sign of corrosion. With a wire brush, all the thru-hulls were cleaned up, painted and corrosion sprayed. I didn't have the heart just yet to cut the hoses to sink her. If fact, the boat got cleaned, polished both inside and out. We had a company coming, the next day my most favorite cousin is coming for a dinner cruise.
My most favorite person in the whole wide world is my cousin Sandy ( CUZ). Her husband Andre' isn't bad either. CUZ came down today with Andre' for a dinner cruise. For some that follow this blog, you will remember my first cruise with this boat was down to Islandmorda Keys where they have a house there. I was real nervous all day because the weather wasn't all that great. The sky was cloudy, with rain threatening and little wind. Rhapsody and I wanted to show them a good time. Both of them have only been sailing once before on their honeymoon a few decades ago. We launch out of the slip at 3:30pm. Raised sails once cleared the marina and low and behold we were sailing at 4 knots in 8 knots wind. It was a grand sail. The boat glide through the water on Biscayne Bay with my two most favorite people on board. After 3 hours of sailing, we dropped the hook at Nixon's Point. Like a good skipper, dinner duties were divided up. Dinner was fresh caught Red Snapper, saffron rice, tropical salad and fresh baked brownies. Dinner was served in style in the cockpit with a nice bottle of Pinot Noir. Great company, great dinner, great sunset on my boat. Life doesn't get any better than that!
After cleaning up dinner, I tried to talk them into spending the night on the hook. Since both had commitments the next day, we did the next best thing, sailing for 2 hours at after sunset with downtown Miami in the backdrop. Did I mention we saw a pod of dolphins too!! Priceless! The maintenance issues were just a bad dream.
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06/14/2009, Key Biscayne, Florida (United States)
Total Distance: 40 Miles Under Sail: 30
Average Speed: 4.44 kts
Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 85-90 F, Wind Southeast at 5-10 kts, Seas 1-2 ft
Day on the water - Angela called me up after she left George's party to tell me she left her sunglasses on Gills boat. I told her I would sail to her marina in the morning and bring them to her. After getting up at the crack of dawn ( still cannot sleep in), coffee made, I lift up the anchor motored over to her marina. There is zero wind this morning and stayed that way until noon. Angela moved her boat (Hatteras) to Dinner Key Marina last March. It was a sad day when she left my marina for this one. Once I figured out how to enter the buoys to get inside the marina it was an easy motor over to her boat. I back Rhapsody into her stern end of her boat, handed her glasses to her and left. Easy pease! Never touched her boat!
After leaving her marina I headed south towards Elliot Key. It was a motor sail for the next 2 hours due to no wind. There was no real destination in mind, just want to be on the water, relaxing, enjoying the morning with coffee in hand. The afternoon thunderstorms start to build by now, so I turned the boat around and head back north. This time I raise the big Asymmetrical sail (A-sail). With around 5 knots of wind I was able to get around 3 knots boat speed. I was impressed. As the afternoon thermals started to kick in, the wind speed increased to around 12 knots. Being brave, crazy and sometimes stupid, I decided to see if I can gybe this sail alone. Something I have never done. Having seen a few video clips on how to do this, I had the lines all set-up. First the mainsail was sheet in. Than I starting turning the boat downwind . With the working sheet in one hand and the lazy sheet in the other, I slowing let out the working sheet as the boat went dead downwind. The A-sail flew straight out as the video clips shown. As the boat continued around to the new heading I pulled like a crazy woman on the lazy sheet and low and behold the sail gybe over. I than let the mainsail back out. That was too easy. Beginners luck I said. So I did it again to perfection. I must of did this 6 times. I couldn't believe how easy it was. This sail is beginning to be my favorite.
I went back over to Nixon's place to see who was still around. George was still on the hook. I stop by to say Hi! A perfect heave-too along side his boat. We chatted a few minutes before sailing the next 3 hours on the bay having the time of my life enjoying wind, sun and water. It only ended due to a thunderstorm rolling in over downtown Miami!
Docking story! I haven't really had any up to now. As I was backing down Rhapsody in Blue down the fairway, a STUPID DUMBASS POWERBOATER pulled out the slip across from me. He did not give way to me. I was pissed to say the least. I had to reverse course to let his boat out. With the wind blowing due the thunderstorm over Miami I wasn't about to take any chances of arguing with him while my boat crashes off the boats dock. I did have a few choice words when he passed me. I really hate powerboaters. One day I am going to go postal on them.
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06/13/2009, Key Biscayne, Florida (United States)
Total Distance: 12 Miles Under Sail: 12
Average Speed: 4.8 kts
Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 75-80 F, Wind Southeast at 5-10 kts, Seas 1-2 ft
Georges Going Away Party- Finally, I am here on a weekend and going to be able to attend a going away for one of our long time dockmates George. He is going to sail to Europe the coming week after rebuilding his Vagabond 47. He is the last dockmate to leave us.
I launched out with Gill on Alden 50. Winds were great in the 12 knot range. It was a nice beat down to ex-president Nixon's summer house on Key Biscayne. The water front houses here are those mega rich and famous houses. It is also where the famous Sandbar is located, where all the local power boaters (stink-pot) come to play in the water. There can be up to 100's of boat's here during the weekend. The sandbar is less than 2 feet deep. With any kind of wind blowing the stink pot, drunk, and don't know how to drive the boats nor anchor always get into trouble. Tow Boat US and Seatow always have a boat here to get these folks out of trouble when the drag anchor into the sandbar. What is even more funny, their fellow boaters don't help them out. They all just sit and watch the show.
After dropping my anchor next to Gills boat it was time for a little bit of work before play. So I donned my scuba gear to clean the bottom of Rhapsody. It took me over an hour to scrape the bottom clean. It was a lot of work. I noticed that I have white showing and lost one of my zincs. This means I will have to haul out the boat soon to put a new bottom on her.
Now that the works was done, George, Jay, Angela and few other of George's friends showed up in their boats for the party to begin. George picked me up in his dinghy where we went over to Gill's boat for the going away party. It was a nice party.
After the party I spent the night on the hook.
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