Going Home

Vessel Name: 38 South
Vessel Make/Model: Lagoon 380
Hailing Port: Melbourne, Australia
Crew: Meryn & Rick Cooper
About:
We are cruising our way home to Australia and started in 2015. we have been exploring the Eastern Caribbean on the way north through to Jacksonville Fl and to and from the Bahamas. Our last trip was West Palm Beach to Panama via Cuba and Jamaica arriving April 2024 in Linton Bay. [...]
Extra: The final destination is Melbourne Australia, via TBA.......
06 February 2024 | West End, Bahamas
29 March 2023 | Saint Augustine Marine Center
22 July 2019 | Melbourne Australia/St Augustine Florida
13 October 2017
10 April 2017 | Green Cove Springs
08 April 2017 | Reynolds Park Yacht Center - Green Cove Springs
06 April 2017 | Reynolds Park Yacht Center - Green Cove Springs
31 March 2017 | Port St Lucie via West Palm Beach
27 March 2017 | Alice Town, Bimini
21 March 2017 | Allens Cay to Nassau across the Bahama Bank
20 March 2017 | Shroud Cay to Allens Cay via Highbourne Cay
19 March 2017 | Warderick Wells Cay – Boo Boo Hill walking tour and then to Shroud Cay
18 March 2017 | Thunderball Grotto, Pig Beach then to Warderick Wells Cay
17 March 2017 | Staniel Cay via Bitter Guana Cay
16 March 2017 | Lee Stocking Island to Little Bay, Great Guana Cay
15 March 2017 | Georgetown to The Caribbean Marine Research Centre, Lee Stocking Island.
13 March 2017 | South Point Long Island to Georgetown, Exuma via Nuevitas Rocks
09 March 2017 | Aklin Island to Gordons Beach, Long Island
08 March 2017 | Mayaguana to Attwood Harbour, Aklins Island
Recent Blog Posts
06 February 2024 | West End, Bahamas

Its not all Palm trees and Margueritas

we are anchored in a small abandoned canal development near West End, Bahamas. The weather is not conducive to crossing the gulf stream to West Palm Beach, winds are expected to top 40 knots from the north today and not settle until later in the week. we chose to seek shelter in this anchorage which [...]

29 March 2023 | Saint Augustine Marine Center

Two weeks back on the boat

Well we arrived back to 38 South exactly 2 weeks ago and have been fully engrossed in cleaning and upgrades since then. It took at least 2 days to have the boat clean and aired out enough to live comfortably and from that point on it has been a matter of listing jobs in order of priority. There has [...]

22 July 2019 | Melbourne Australia/St Augustine Florida

It can't be that long between posts

I cannot believe it has been so long since the last post. We have had some highs and lows since we parked at Green Cove Springs in 2017.

13 October 2017

Maintenance Time

Just an update on the status of 38 South. September was an interesting month with Hurricane Irma's path to be right across the top of the boat. It meant a quickly assembled trip across to further strip and secure her for the pending bad weather. As it turned out it was a glancing blow and we received [...]

10 April 2017 | Green Cove Springs

Out of the Water

Well we are now on dry land. This morning the mast was removed and the boat lifted from the water. we have now been placed in our "spot" until we return. we have been continuing the preparations to leave. The motors have been run on fresh water to flush the salt water from the heat exchangers and [...]

08 April 2017 | Reynolds Park Yacht Center - Green Cove Springs

Packing up takes time

Well the packing up seems so huge. there is so much to do. we have been getting organised with bags and such and will probably leave most of our stuff on the boat, clothes and the like. there only seems to be the souvenirs and my dive gear that has to come home. Our suitcases are like the russian [...]

It can't be that long between posts

22 July 2019 | Melbourne Australia/St Augustine Florida
Rick Cooper
I cannot believe it has been so long since the last post. We have had some highs and lows since we parked at Green Cove Springs in 2017.
Firstly, Reynolds Park Yacht Center was fabulous to deal with and we could not have wished for a more helpful and friendly place. Unfortunately, we had to deal with a different party to haul and launch the boat and that has been one of the worst experiences since purchasing our beloved 38 South.

As i had said in an earlier post I came back with my good friend JD and between us we managed to knock off a huge amount of work. Not only did we replace the rear cabin top hatches, we did the front cabin ones as well. we fitted new sumps with auto bilge pumps to the showers, cabled a new LED Tri-Color and Masthead light to the mast and we fitted folding mast steps tight to the top of the mast.
we arranged to have new Stainless-steel bracing fitted to the Bimini and Solar Panels and these were installed by a mobile Stainless craftsman named Thomas who managed to get rear steps up to the boom fitted as well. He fabricated a new anchor fair-lead to replace the old worn one and added one for a second anchor on the opposite side of the forestay on the front beam.
Even with the huge list of jobs we still managed a day trip to the Kennedy Space Center for JD, my second trip there and I still have more to see. I think we both went home exhausted but had achieved a great deal. certainly, I would not have achieved anywhere near the amount on my own and owe John a more relaxing trip next time.
The yard that hauled us had a mechanic if i can use the term so loosely onsite and we made the mistake of having him fix some oil leaks. The estimate was accepted and we left the boat in their hands. suffice to say the quoted amount came and went and we were left with a bill of twice what was quoted. Hard to believe it costs $2700 in labor to fix a stripped mounting bolt in an engine bed and that is only part of the saga. "read your contract" was the reply. The boat was there for more than 9 months and they chose a wet day to try and put the engines back in and bogged the forklift. they then charged me $300 to move the boat to a concrete pad so they could use the forklift in the wet and another $300 to move it back afterward. with any other of the 270 odd days to choose from they chose a wet day to do this work. seems we authorized them to charge whatever they wanted however I did have them refund those charges. I simply said that I had to pay for my mistake which was getting them to do the work on the motors in the first place but I was not responsible for paying for their mistakes. we were then treated like we were trying to rip him off. We were kicking ourselves for being so naive but put it down to a lesson learned.

We were going to have them sand and paint the hulls prior to splashing but after the experience with the motors decided that they could not be trusted with an estimate so i slapped a coat on in the interim. I could have ended up in a position of having to pay whatever they wanted as his word and estimates are worthless given the wording of the work contract.
The saga with the engines would not have been so bad but after we splashed the boat in March last year and left Green Cove Springs, we found that both engines were leaking oil still and i had both engine rooms full of oil after only a couple of hours. we were headed to Miami to pick up friends and and cross to the Bahamas for a couple of weeks which we did. every day I would lay out paper towels and clean up the oil once we were out of the Intracoastal Waterway and could sail, we had some reprieve from the mess. we had decided to return to the yard and challenge them on not doing the work that was (Over)charged for. essentially, they had removed both engines and stripped and replaced the seals and oil lines. funny that the one thing he didn't change was the rear main seal on both engines. That would be the ones he was told were leaking and needed to be replaced.
A year or more later and I still cannot reconcile the statement that "those oil leaks are not covered under any warranty as we did not replace the seals". How do you argue with that kind of logic. that's what they were paid to do
They offered, of course to haul the engines out and replace the seals. at around 2k extra. so the original $5,400 plus parts quote (estimated at $400) blew out to around $13,600, Parts were 2,500 of which more than $500 of that were new Racors that I had them add at the end. I also didn't include in that total the extra $500 I paid him to fix an oil leak at the injector pump also not covered by any warranty but I needed it done as it was a bad one. again, lesson learned.

As we were back up north again, we chose to move to St Augustine and hauled the boat at St Augustine Marine Center on the San Sebastian River. I must say it was a pleasant change to deal with some friendly and professional people again.
So there we are, we spent 3 months between March and May 2018 cruising and enjoying the sights of the near Bahamas specifically Bimini to Gun Cay and a leisurely trip back up north.
Our Cafe has interrupted the cruising for this year and we will be back to the boat hopefully in early 2020 to continue the journey. For now, we plan for our return and have a list of things to work on prior to leaving St Augustine. we suspect our next trip may be just around the Northern Bahamas and Berry Islands and back to St Augustine to store the boat again. We will head south to Panama the following year.
It feels good to have finally put pen to paper on this so to speak and laid out the trials with the so-called Mechanic and his boatyard masters.

On a lighter side, one job we did do was to install a new helm seat on the trip down to Miami. now we can both sit and relax at the helm and it is great to spread out on during a watch.
Once the list of jobs is settled and a date of return set, I will add some photo's to the album of our modifications and updates
Fair Winds
Rick
Comments
38 South's Photos - Main
In the yard for maintenance and upgrades
5 Photos
Created 29 March 2023
13 Photos
Created 10 April 2017
13 Photos
Created 7 April 2017
12 Photos
Created 6 April 2017
9 Photos
Created 31 March 2017
5 Photos
Created 27 March 2017
8 Photos
Created 20 March 2017
Thunderball Grotto, Pig Beach and Iguanas
24 Photos
Created 20 March 2017
Piano and Mermaid
8 Photos
Created 16 March 2017
9 Photos
Created 15 March 2017
Soufriere hills volcano, Plymouth, Little Bay
No Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Basseterre/ Marina Rivere Sans/Point-a-Pitre/Deshaies
8 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Portsmouth
3 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
The Pitons and Rodney Bay
4 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Fort De France and Saint Pierre
6 Photos
Created 25 December 2015
Blue Lagoon
4 Photos
Created 1 December 2015
Admiralty Bay, A fantastic place, probably our favourite so far. And found a coffee to rival Melbourne
3 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
Overnight Anchorage and some snorkeling. A marine park so fees applied. Barbecue Lobster on the beach for dinner if you wish
3 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
We have now left Grenada at Tyrrel Bay and have checked into St Vincent and the Grenadines at Union Island.
6 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
Anchored on the western side of Ronde Island just west of Kickem Jenny subsea volcano. There is an exclusion zone around the Volcano in place.
4 Photos
Created 30 November 2015
Sitting on the "Hard" while doing some necessary maintenance before commecing the trip
2 Photos
Created 9 November 2015
On the pick and hauled for the season
5 Photos
Created 14 October 2015

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