Mike and Judy
11/26/2009, Stuart Florida

I owe you readers a long update on our continuing adventures but have been alerted to the fact that some may be worried about us because we've been in cognito for some time. Well let me backtrack a bit.

We left Fredericton on Friday November 6; Judy and I and Chopin went to Cinnaminson, New Jersey where Judy's family lives. Judy's brother Bob and his wife Heather flew down from Newfoundland to spend a week with us and Judy's Mom and Dad and brothers and sisters and children.

I left the next Friday by car to drive down to Florida where we kept Sea Sharp stored during the summer; Judy and Chopin stayed in New Jersey. On Saturday afternoon , as I reported, I arrived at Riverside Marina and boarded Sea Sharp. She was relatively clean and showed little degradation from the hot Florida sun. I was very pleased.

However, imagine our boat stuffed below with much of the gear that we took off the decks including the sails, the bimini, dodger, life raft and most of the clothes and other effects in large "zip lock" type bags. I got enough of this gear from below on to the deck so that I could stay on her. Remember now that the boat is not in the water but on the land which means that you cannot use many of the facilities on board including plumbing. A more fulsome discussion of marine plumbing would be necessary to better explain this but suffice it to say that Judy and Chopin may not be that happy to be on board.

Life on board, "on the hard" is somewhat difficult. It was very hot and dusty in the marina and I worked very hard at getting the boat ready to "splash".

On Sunday I did all the canvas work which included remounting and installing the dodger, bimini, sails, and associated gear. This may not sound like much of a day but take my word I was tired when it was over.

On Monday, I washed the hull and polished her. She gleams! I discovered that the stove would not work so knew I was in for a day's worth of puttering. A quick lesson on marine stoves; most operate on propane which is heavier than air so if there is any leak, even a minute one, the gas gathers in the bilge (the lowest part of the boat) and when there's the slightest spark, kaboom!!!! So the tanks are in a sealed locker in the lazerette (yeah I know, you're saying, here comes all of these fancy nautical terms again). A quick aside, you know that so many words we use every day have nautical derivations. I think lazarette, which is a locker or bin at the rear of the boat comes from the word Lazeratto which was a place where people with afflictions like leprosy were housed. I recall that there was a Lazeratto which operated I think in Caraquet not far from home until probably the sixties.

But, I digress. So the tanks are in a sealed locker with a device called a solenoid switch connected to a "sniffer" which essentially is a switch which can detect minute quanties of propane in the boat and will not allow the solenoid to open in such a case. Well to make a long story short, the solenoid was stuck so I had to first of all determine the problem, which meant hanging upside down in the aforesaid lazarette for hours in the hot sun with various tools, taking the stuff apart. Fortunately, I had installed this system so I know all the wiring and schematics so it wasn't too long before I figured out the problem; a stuck solenoid.

A bit of frigging and I located a replacement and after a boat buck ($100 US) I had the part and repaired the issue. This took the whole day.

I'll post this one now to allay any concerns from readers that we're drifting somewhere out in the Atlantic and catch up with the remainder of our commissioning and now floating stories.

Thanks for your readership.

Comments [1]

11/14/2009

Another quick note to say that I arrived at Riverside Marina in Fort Pierce, FL today around 2:30. I was very pleased with the condition of Sea Sharp. She's a bit dusty and cluttered (we left all of our "stuff" in big plastic bags inside) but in great shape. I sorted stuff out today and am gearing down then up for a big few days getting all my chores done to get ready to launch.

Even though we're "on the hard" meaning not in the water, it's great being back on my boat......

Stay tuned.

M

Comments [4]

11/06/2009, Fredericton

Hi Readers, it's November 6 and Judy and I are just about finished packing to return to Florida to resume our cruising. I will be resuming the blog so if you happen to read this stay tuned.......

We leave today, hopefully for New Jersey where we'll stay a bit a judy's parents'. Then to Sea Sharp in Fort Pierce Florida for launch, recommission and cruising,

Comments [4]

04/20/2009

Quick note to let readers know that we're back at our home. More to follow later.....

Comments [6]

04/17/2009

After our wonderful reunion with Ray and Patti from Whisper and a great meal with the fellow cruisers from Riverside Marina, we retreat to our hotel intending to start our long car drive home - but we'll be travelling at 70 mph, not the 7 knots we make on the boat. Our plan is to take two days to get to New Jersey, spend a few days with Judy's family, then return to NB. We hope the snow will be gone when we get home.

I find it hard to leave the boat; Judy and Chopin have turned the corner and are now looking ahead to our return. On our way home we stop at Daytona Beach to have lunch with Ray and Helen who you may remember from previous blogs as the wonderful couple who helped us immeasurably when we found out about John's death and prepared to return home. It was great seeing them again and we'll surely cross paths with them again in our travels.

The van is loaded to the gills and there's only a bit of space for Chopin, his cage and his kitty litter. But, he doesn't complain and is happy so long as he's close to Judy. The new vehicle works like a champ and we make good time to our interim destination of Florence, South Carolina.

Next day, we travel the rest of the way to Cinnaminson NJ where Judy's Mom and Dad and two of her sisters, a brother, and their families live. We run into bumper to bumper traffic around Washington and heavy rain. But, it's not too bad and we arrive here at about 6:30. The welcome as usual is warm and loving!

Comments [0]

04/16/2009

I finally had a chance to catch up on our posts. Note that the new ones go back as far as Nassau Redux. And for regular readers, I expect to do at least one more post as a post mortem so stay tuned

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