02/08/2010, Palm Beach, FL
The last couple of days have been pretty sweet... for me at least. For example, yesterday I participated in the big regatta put on by the Palm Beach Sailing Club crewing aboard the 48' ketch rigged cruising boat S/V Karma you see in the photo above. Michele did laundry. The kids harassed Michele.
Karma is on a permanent mooring right beside where we are anchored, with the Palm Beach Golf course on one side and the Rybovich mega-yacht facility on the other. Lets just say the views here do not suck. Clint and his wife Reina live aboard along with their high school aged son and daughter. They had a commercial mooring company come out and install a permanent mooring and now they call this home. They have a local business and the kids attend the local high school. They park their cars at the sailing club and share 2 dinghies for getting back and forth. Karma is a very large and comfortable home and best of all the rent is free. Yup.... freedom my friends. Swinging on a mooring right off Palm Beach on Lake Worth may not be something the hooty-snooty Palm Beach elite like, but they cannot do anything about it. Yet. (then again... for all I know they love the view and consider the families anchored outside their windows sort of a personal reality TV show.... but uncensored)
Kirt and Reina plan on heading out long term cruising as soon as the nest is empty and they have a great boat for it. Karma is very beamy, has tons of room below and all the comforts of home. She is a great full time home. Of course this means she is heavy. She is less than 2' longer than Lillie Mae... but she weighs close to 20,000lb more. As you may be able to guess, Karma is not exactly the fastest boat around.
Well, so what. We raced her anyhow and had a hoot of a time. We missed tacking not once but twice! We were so far behind by the last marker in the race course the race committee boat was waiting on us to pick up the marker and go home. They radioed to tell us that everyone was calling it a day and we could just tell them our finish time when we got in. So, how did we do? We won! That's right, we won the ketch class.
Michele caught on right away: we were the only ketch rigged boat and the club did not have a ketch class.... but we had so much fun it felt like a win to me.
Laundry was not so bad either. Michele and the kids went over to Noel's super nice house and met her partner Kathy who was a big hit with the kids. She did a mountain of laundry and the kids went out with Kathy for pizza and ice cream.
We all met up back at the sailing club for the super bowl party which was lots of fun, the kids somehow morphed into giant Saints fans. We left at halftime because everyone was so beat.
Today offered probably the best weather we have had since moving aboard. Bright sunny and 75 degrees with very mild winds. The sky was so clear our solar panels had the battery bank back to 100% charged by 1pm.
We took the dinghy and motored a couple of miles south to the West Palm Beach city docks. From there we took the trolley to the Publix, did some grocery shopping and then came back to the boat. Overall a very nice trip capped off by great hamburgers grilled for dinner.
Oh.... and we have a Bull Shark swimming around in the anchorage.
Terry
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02/06/2010, Palm Beach, FL
We really had a great day!
We had a really bad line of thunderstorms and high winds blow through late yesterday evening and that prevented us at the last minute from being able to go ashore for evening festivities at the Palm Beach Sailing Club. The kids were very upset at this... but I did not feel comfortable leaving Lillie Mae alone with such bad weather bearing down.
So this morning first thing we all piled into the dinghy and headed over to the sailing club. Nobody was there except a few guys going sailing, but the kids didn't care. They played in the huge yard, ran around the clubhouse, waded at the small beach and had a blast. Michele and I enjoyed just watching them expend some energy.
We then met up with Michele's mothers sisters daughter, Noel. Is that a 2nd cousin? We don't know, but we are extremely grateful for Noel! She knows what we are undertaking haven spent a number of years living aboard her sailboat and cruising. She gave us a tour of the downtown West Palm Beach area so when we dinghy back we will know what is where. We also had lunch out downtown and then icecream... Taylor was in heaven. We will be seeing more of Noel as she is going to help us with some transportation and errand running plus we are going to have her out to the boat.
We came back to the sailing club and ran back out to the boat because we had plans to meet up on the water with one of my distant cousins Todd and his family. We had planned to have them come down by boat (they live by the water on Singer island a couple of miles north of us) and then all of us visit Peanut Island. We ended up putting this off for another day because the wind has been blowing so hard that conditions on the water are very rough. We got a bit wet coming back to Lillie Mae in the dinghy and I was hesitant to leave her again at anchor with the wind gusting to over 30 knots.
This is something I know I am going to have to get over. We anchored in 10 feet of water at high tide (tidal range is just under 3 feet) putting out our 65lb CQR anchor and 80 feet of chain plus our nylon rode snubber. That is overkill in ground tackle but I still worry about us dragging anchor. What if we drag anchor while we are off the boat? Oooops....
But since having dropped the anchor early Thursday morning we have swung peacefully and we have not dragged despite winds that gusted over 35 knots yesterday evening. By now I know the anchor is well dug in and the likelihood of our dragging is very low but that does not stop me from worrying.
I will be happy when the winds die down to something more normal. We will have continued very high winds through tonight and they will be pretty high tomorrow buy by Monday things should die down a bit.
Tomorrow morning we are heading over to the sailing club early to get showers and then to have a fancy breakfast. They are having a chef and crew on site to cook breakfast to order (omelets and such) plus drinks. After breakfast they have a regatta on the schedule and I am going to try and pick up a crew position at the last minute if I can. The day will be capped off with a superbowl party and grilled dinner. Go Falcons!
We know there are going to be other cruisers with kids present so we are going prepared to assault them properly and kidnap all potential playmates for Jackson and Taylor.
Michele cooked a great dinner, the kids are watching a movie and I am going back to reading my latest Vince Flynn novel. Man, life is tough on the water in Palm Beach.
Terry
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CC
CC
I've had broken exhausts, broken throttle cables, and even one time got rammed by a fishing boat while anchored in Galveston bay. In the end it is about the story and the life... you'll make it.
And it let's you focus your prayers on something...
02/05/2010, Palm Beach, FL
John Straus from JAS Marine came out to the boat this morning and we ran through some test. He is a super nice guy and clearly very knowledgeable. He DID own the compression testing tools!
First thing, we changed the oil. On Wednesday night while on passage from Jacksonville we motor sailed for about 8 hours. Winds were very light and a northeast swell was running. We were broad reaching and motor sailing at 1500rpm moved the apparent wind back enough to drive the main such that the rolling ceased and everyone could sleep. Anyway, when we checked the oil we found PLENTY of fuel dilution. Before I left Jacksonville I changed the oil again and noted that the oil level was ¼" below the full level on the dipstick. When we checked it this morning it was almost 2" over the full level and clearly badly fuel diluted.
John says that the only way this could be happening on this level is a bad fuel injection pump. I tend to agree. We estimated that there was over 3 quarts of fuel in the oil in less than 10 hours of run time.
After changing the oil we ran the engine and cracked each injector. We ran the engine at 1800rpm and began at the front cylinder. The rpm's dropped a noticeable amount but on the next 3 cylinders the amount of rpm drop when each injector was cracked was significantly more pronounced. John immediately said we had bad compression on the #1 cylinder.
We did this same test in Jacksonville, but the guy from Mobile Marine Consulting did the test with the engine at 1,000rpm and the amount of rpm drop was not as clearly noticeable leaving us confused.
Next, we did a compression test on all 4 cylinders. The #1 suspect cylinder tested at 180-190psi. The other 3 cylinders all tested at 425-450psi.
We next looked at the valve gear and checked valve clearances, all were fine. So John tried rotating each valve and spring a bit for the #1 cylinder and we re-tested compression. This was done hoping that perhaps the compression issue was due to carbon being stuck on the valve or seat and perhaps rotating the valve would break it loose. We tried this 3 times and it made no difference.
Next we poured about 2 ounces of 40 weight engine oil into the bad cylinder and did the compression test again. The compression immediately jumped to 425psi.
We put it all back together and ran the engine. We tested cracking each injector one by one again and had the exact same results. The #1 cylinder is clearly down on compression.
Given that the compression jumped up when lots of oil was poured into the cylinder, the issue is not valves or top end. It is rings. Probably a cracked ring. As soon as combustion began again in the cylinder and the oil we poured in was burned or pushed out of the cylinder we again had reduced compression.
So the engine has 2 big problems: a bad injection pump AND bad compression on the #1 cylinder. The problem was never the turbo.
John is putting together some numbers on costs to have the injection pump rebuilt and to pull the engine apart and replace the #1 piston and liner with new items.
I am really pretty pissed about being sold a turbo. Without doing a compression test, back pressure test or even correctly cracking the injectors as a poor mans compression test it was announced that I had to have a new turbo. When that did not fix the problem it was insisted that there was nothing wrong with the engine and the problem was the prop (oh, so why did I need a turbo again? ). When the prop turned out to not be the problem my phone calls were no longer returned.
I am weighing having the worked done to this engine against going with a full repower. I am going to speak with the Mastry guys (Regional Yanmar distributors) and see if I can get some sort of credit for this turbo. That or I may try to return it completely.
Anyway, that's where we are. It is MUCH nicer here in Palm Beach than it was in Jacksonville and there is tons more to do. I am sure we will be laid up here for at least 2-3 weeks getting this sorted.
Tomorrow we are going to Peanut Island so the kids can play. We are also going to try and hook up with a distant cousin of mine and visit with some of Michele's relatives.
We found a really neat sailing place - the Palm Beach Sailing Club. For a very small fee we get to become "visiting yachtsmen" and use their dinghy dock plus showers and other facilities. They have a big clubhouse and giant front yard area for the kids to play and they are located just across from where we are anchored.
The City of West Palm Beach has recently built some very nice city docks and we can run down there and tie up the dinghy for free. From there we have walking access to lots of great shops, movie theater, restaurants, a library and more fun stuff.
So... we will be keeping busy while getting this engine stuff sorted out and being where it is WARM is sure a nice thing!
Terry
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02/04/2010, 1 mile south of Lake Worth inlet
We got into Lake Worth this morning at 7am, Michele timed our arrival perfectly so we entered the inlet right at slack water... or at least it was her watch so she gets the credit. :)
We ran 4 hours watches and that seems to work well. Michele stood watch 9pm to 1am, I did 1am to 5am and She was back on from there. We tend to nap on watch using a 15 minute timer. When it goes off... sit up and carefully scan the horizon and seas, if nothing new its back to dozing for another 15 minutes. Jackson also stood watch with each of us but he has a tendency to fall asleep, though while awake he is very enthusiastic.
What does one see on watch? No much. Tuesday night we saw a couple of shrimp boats and Wednesday we saw one ship on the horizon and that's it. Lots of sky and water.
The sail down went great, both kids had a fantastic time and were thrilled to finally be out of Jacksonville. We had seas 4-6ft the first night and then 3-5 for the rest of the trip though going downwind it was a bit rolly and last night we resorted to motor-sailing with just the main up to help reduce the roll and make sleeping easier.
Today we will splash the dinghy and run around the anchorage checking things out. We will also run up to Peanut Island just inside the inlet where there are trails and things to do. I am also doing research on what else we can do here in Lake Worth / Palm Beach.
We are anchored in 8ft of water right in the middle of the main channel (not the navigational channel... the ICW runs along the western shore). In front of us is Palm Beach. I am thinking of asking The Donald if he wants to come for lunch (BYOB).
The picture is of the gang hanging out in the cockpit about 20 miles off Cape Canaveral. The full enclosure (something we added in the recent refit) is super nice. It was chilly outside and the wind was blowing but rather than be bundled up or hanging out below the enclosure creates a greenhouse and it is very cozy and toasty.
Terry
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02/02/2010, Mayport, St. John River, Jacksonville FL
The forecast seems to be holding and though we know it will be a bit rough when we head out our plan at this point is to head offshore and south today. We hope to make it all the way to Lake Worth by sometime mid day on Thursday.
The rain is supposed to head offshore today and leave us with partly coudy skies and west winds 10-15kts. The winds will then clock around to the northwest tonigh, north tomorrow, northeast tomorrow night and from the east by Thursday. Seas today when we head out should be 4-6ft subsiding later in the day to 3-5ft and probably staying in that range for the whole trip. We shall see.... the forecasting lately has been pretty terrible.
There is no getting the engine fixed here in Jacksonville. The mechanics who worked on it already here will not even return my calls any more and everyone else I have spoken to about trying to help fix it here in Jacksonville either never calls back or is too swamped to help. Perhaps they have heard its a complicated problem and are scared or do not feel competent. Regardless, all options for getting engine help here are pretty much exhausted so we have to head south and try again.
The engine does run, we are not heading out without an engine or anything like that. At lower engine rpm's the smoking is not as terrible so if we have to motor will do so slowly but I hope to have enough wind to sail the entire passage using the engine only to get out the Jacksonville inlet and in at Lake Worth. If we run into any trouble or deteriorating weather, we will divert to either Port Canaveral or Ft. Pierce.
When we get to Lake Worth we will try and find competent help and dig into fixing or replacing this engine.
Terry
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MJ & R
What an adventure you are having. We have positive thoughts for you and hope things turn around.
01/31/2010, Mayport, St. John River, Jacksonville FL
There are 4 or 5 giant wrestler like guys with massive wet mops going absolutely berserk beating the snot out of the back of our boat. Or at least that's exactly what it sounds like from inside.
We are side tied to the inside of the outer dock here at Morningside Marina, just around the corner form the Jacksonville inlet. The river is fairly narrow here and thus the current really flies. There has to be 3-4 knots of current at times. When the wind is out of the northeast, like it is right now at a steady 20-25 knots and gusts over 30, it throws up a very steep chop on the river and this is pounding into our transom in a truly unbelievable manner. Sleep is pretty much out of the question. We have 7 dock lines out and all our fenders. The pilings on these docks must be capable of withstanding a nuclear blast.
The folks here at Morningside have really been great, but the bottom line is the dockage here for a sailboat with a 6' keel and a 65' rig is basically untenable. The boat feels like it is fighting for its life to be free of the dock with the current pulling and pushing continuously and the never ending wind howling through the rigging. We have to find some better shelter than this, I would rather go anchor out in a wider section of the river as that would be far more comfortable. We are planning to be out of here and motor back toward Ortega tomorrow morning bad engine and all.
Ahhhhhh "Cruising". We dreamed of sunny beaches, great sailing, lots of outdoor activities, meeting other like minded fun people and finding other cruising kids for ours to play with and beat up (in the case of Taylor). What we have found is never ending grey, cold, rainy, blustery and dreary weather that forces us all to stay below in a dank, dripping from condensation cave all piled up with each other suffering from cabin fever while plotting to kill one another. (I know Michele is planning bad things)
We have no ground transportation, there is nothing at all to do here, we cannot go anywhere with the boat as it is broken and un-fixable....
In short, WE ARE IN PRISON.
The truth is if we had a home to go back too we would be gone already. But we do not. We rented it out. We have no home but the boat, we have no job or career and the boat is eating what money we have at a shocking rate with no end in sight.
Yes, I am venting. It is my blog and I can vent if I want too.
If anyone out there is reading this and dreams of one day going cruising with visions of a lifestyle like the visions we had.... be CAREFUL. You just may wreck your life.
Terry
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