Six Months in a Leaky Boat!

We've made it back to the dry dock for another voyage! In a few weeks we will be dipped into the St Johns river to begin our 5 month romp on Butterfly to Bahamas and Beyond!

Vessel Name: Butterfly
Vessel Make/Model: Columbia33
Hailing Port: Palatka FL
05 March 2012
29 January 2012
21 December 2011
21 December 2011
21 December 2011 | St Augustine, FL
01 December 2011 | San Mateo FL
01 May 2010
24 March 2010
18 March 2010
14 March 2010 | Ocean. Between WPB and Miami
18 February 2010 | Gibson's Boatyard
13 February 2010 | Gibson's Boatyard...still.
06 February 2010
04 February 2010
24 January 2010 | London Ontario
Recent Blog Posts
29 January 2012

Of Coconuts and Lobster

Most people have a highly romanticized view of sailing. "Oh how it would be lovely, to buy

28 December 2011

OH the days of the great lament!

Hope everyone had a nice christmas back home! We finally enjoyed our christmas dinner last

21 December 2011

Mods....

Inspite of my best efforts to keep electronics off the boat, we ended up with quite a few gadgets on board. As the saying goes, "If you can't fix it, it probably shouldn't be there". So the electronics on the boat are as follows:

21 December 2011

Inverters

There are currently only 2 surviving inverters on Butterfly and neither can run the wet vac;

21 December 2011 | St Augustine, FL

Heading South!!

After much toiling and also much waiting (for weather) we have at last made it the 60 mile stretch North up the St Johns river and are now heading south on the intracoastal waterway (hereinafter referred to as the ICW, or as the locals call it, "The INTERcoastal) "YAY!! We stopped in Green Cove Springs [...]

Back at it again!

01 December 2011 | San Mateo FL
Just to get y'all caught up on what we've been so busy doing....

After a rather uneventful 2 day drive (other than getting pulled over in Kentucky at 2am and swapping stories with a probable skinhead at a Georgia Waffle House) we set to work right away preparing the boot for our epic journey!
In the past 2 weeks we have accomplished the following:

- Rewired the electrical on the boat
- Replaced the propane fridge with a smaller more efficient electric fridge
- Mounted the wind generator on the mizzen mast
- Painted painted painted.... (Still more painting)
- Started the engine, yay it works!
- Patched the hole in the dinghy
- Acquired many items from Ebay including a brand new Katadyn Survivor 35 manual desalinator, LED running lights, non-lethal self defense gear, and a high output carbon filter to take the egg out of the water!

Along the way we've had some obstacles.......
- Any electrical work proved to be quite a challenge as Karl left all his heat shrink tubing and crimp connectors behind
- New electric fridge needed extensive cabinetry work done to mount properly
- As the wind turbine was mounted against the mizzen mast without it's tail, it will only produce power at anchor or when wind is coming directly from the bow of the boat. (We're still on land)....
- And there is much more painting to be done
- To ensure the ancient power plant gets the cleanest possible 2 year old diesel, the remaining fuel had to be siphoned from the tank and passed through coffee filters. The Karel's both endured a breakfast of diesel chased with a refreshing swig of Busch.
----- "Cold as a mountain stream, smooth as its name..." -----




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