S/V Sjokolade

I've been away from the boat for awhile and it has grown some mildew here and there. I've discovered that a headlamp in a dark boat makes the mildew glow as if it were the blood in a forensics crime scene. Wait until night to clean, then spray, wipe, and wipe again. I really wonder if this stuff is ever really defeated.

I leave Saturday south past many of the keys, until we get to Lower Matecumbe, where we will pass under a bridge under Highway 1 (aka "The Overseas Highway") and then head west and north, first up to the Tampa area, Gulfport most likely, and then to Pensacola. I wonder sometimes how many miles this entire journey has been, I will likely work out that detail someday, but meanwhile I don't seem to have much interest, still, in looking back.

Life on a mooring cannot be for everyone. I certainly am not entirely happy here right now. While it is true that our happiness need not be dependent up on our circumstances, sometimes a minor shift can generate dramatic results. There are two things I believe might make this life significantly better: dependable transportation and dependable power.

My dingy leaks air, although much more slowly than it used to. An old dingy of mine, still in use by its current owner, would take a fill in the spring and that would be it for the summer, until fall haulout. That's a valve and fabric that works. Not so with my current dingy. The starboard tube used to soften in about 3 days, but a new valve fitting has pushed that out to about 2 weeks, which I can live with if I have to. But it also lets water in from some secret hole, valve, or fitting, so that within 30 minutes of being put in the water, it has gathered a small pool of water at the aft end. I would like to leave it out tonight hoping it does not sink - unlikely but possible.

Considering a trip to shore means hopping in the dingy, starting the motor, untying and off you go. That's the happy place. But if you are worried that it might sink, you will have taken off the motor, so that has to go back on, along with the fuel and lock and life jackets. And if its been a day or 3 since you've used it, it is most likely on deck as well, and a pump-up of the starboard tube will be required. Today, from decision to departure from the boat, it took me 50 minutes. It makes considering going ashore a significant chore, which is itself already fraught with planning and details.

Power management is the other unhappy thing. I don't have a clear picture of how my system is doing at any given time. I have a battery monitor which includes very clear instructions to never put anything directly to the battery (thereby bypassing the monitor), and of course I have at least 6 wires directly attached, and a number of other things attached to the two banks in unexpected and inexplicable ways. This is partly from a previous owner, but also from my owner oh-so-hopeful and excited self who was oh-so-happy to have the radar and chartplotter work after hours of pulling wires, reading manuals, and tentatively connecting wires.

I do have solar panels that appear to be working to supply re-charging to the batteries, however, these are not sufficient to keep the refrigerator running all the time. The refrigerator is one of those components in the power management system that uses power, and it devours a significant portion of the batteries available amp hours over the course of a day. The popular and correct solution is to insulate it extremely well so it devours less, a project that everyone I've ever talked to that has done it reports it to be an overwhelmingly time consuming job.

Power management will come later, meanwhile, I run the motor daily and make plans, read, and listen to others. There is a cost for all this, and happiness will have a price in dollars when down off the mountain and in the trenches.

Arriving back at the boat after my first trip in to the store today, this time using the free water taxi, I felt very happy to have accomplished so much in the four hours I was gone. I went to two stores, spent no more than 15 minutes in the first and 45 minutes in the second, and returned to the boat. All that in four hours with the use of a car and the extremely good luck of finding parking right by the dingy dock. The second trip, this time in my dingy, included the same two stores, and only took 3 hours, also with the car, and including the lucky parking. The second 3 hours did not include the 50 minutes getting the dingy ready to go, and did not include removing the motor from the dingy, something which I expect I will do shortly, when I am done here. Meanwhile, I ran the motor for over an hour to recoup some amps for the batteries for the overnight.

So I am done here and have to get to that motor. I have two crew joining me tomorrow, Andy F and Pete V, and then Saturday it is fuel, water, pumpout and a 2 hour sail to our first overnight anchorage in preparation for departure down the Hawke Channel in a long Sunday trip to Lower Matacumbe. Dingy repairs and power management will have to wait, and I'll be off the mooring with no reason to go ashore, and will therefore I will be happy.