Adventure had been sitting on the hard in Merritt Island, Florida for a number of years when we bought her in February. A boat has to be sailed and, although she appeared in good condition, there were a number of failings that were brought to our attention during the survey and many more discovered on her maiden voyage north to Oriental in North Carolina.
First, a lightning strike had disabled much of the electronic equipment that had to be replaced. The rigging was showing signs of weakness so all new rigging was installed. While that was going on we tackled the less daunting repairs - oh how shocked Jim was when I took one of the engines apart to replace the elbows and clean the heat exchanger element with muriatic acid. All this work has to be done twice since we have two engines! We also replaced the zincs, cleaned and buffed the hull, tested the sea cocks, pumps and checked off items on endless lists readying the boat and us for her journey north for the summer.
I digress here. Lists - what would we do without them? Through this process I've become an enormous fan. Scraps of paper just didn't work. I'd find them in my pockets or purse, even stuck to my shoe! Quickly, we moved on to a notebook, which worked well and even though we've moved on to the second and third one now, we still have the first and refer back often. As well as lists, we found we could jot down tips we were offered by fellow sailors and technicians, and plan our days and purchases.
Every journey is an 'adventure'. Our first was no exception. It was our first trip up the Intracoastal Waterway and we'd planned to stop frequently to enjoy the changing scenery and quaint towns along our way. Only two hours in, the alternator on the starboard engine quit! Of course, nothing "boaty" is readily or easily replaceable. So we spent a few extra days in Titusville, stuck among the manatees that lazily scrounged drips of fresh water from the boats in the marina,. After leaving the Beaufort, SC area, a light grounding in soft mud as we entered the Ashepoo Coosaw Cut Off was fortunately nothing more than that, and we were able to back off the shoal without incident. Unintentionally, we allowed one of the diesel tanks to get too low and had a second emergency repair, this time in Georgetown, SC. Mostly in the late afternoons we anchored sometimes in a fairly strong current which presented its own challenges. Quickly we learned the importance of a bridle to help the boat sit to the wind. Nothing of this type was aboard so we jury rigged one with dock lines and an anchor hook. Another item to add to the list! Early tropical storms were on the warpath too. First, Alberto buffeted us about and gave us a rough ride in driving rain into St. Mary's, Georgia, a very pretty little town. Then came Beryl! We stole our way up Bull Creek, (North of Savannah, GA) and there, in the company of pods of dolphins, rode out the storm for two days in the changing currents with anchors fore and aft! Oh, how the windows leaked!
The list of repairs grew as we journeyed north. We discovered that the heads didn't flush properly and needed rebuilding, the windows needed re-bedding and the food in the ice box spoiled. It was clearly no more than a deep smelly box! Additions to our list kept growing: adding hand-holds for safety moving about the cabin, repairing the windlass that had seized, adjusting the companionway door which didn't close properly, replacing broken porthole handles, fixing the handles and replacing the bolts in the hatches, making longer dock lines, changing the weather-stripping in the foredeck and cockpit lockers, replacing impellers in the sea water pumps, adding external water reservoirs to the engines, trimming out the cabinetry, reupholstering the headboards and other projects to make Adventure ours inside and out. All this to do while selling two houses and all their contents, a boat and two cars in Maryland! We must be mad! Not to mention our main purpose for stopping in Oriental - the addition of a hard top bimini, canvas enclosure, and solar panels! But these are the subject of another chapter - Improvements.