Kaimusailing

When I was putting up the wind turbine on deck the front which contains the stator and the blade assembly came loose. The threaded holes for the mounting screws were stripped and I needed longer screws that could grab on threads deeper in the screw holes. After finishing the installation we had enough wind that I expected the turbine to start charging the engine battery. There was no charge current displayed on the meter. After further trouble shooting I found only 6 volts coming from the turbine. I suspected that something got damaged when the front of the turbine came loose.
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I had to wait for a lull in the breeze to remove the blades from the turbine and then take the turbine down, mast, mast supports, and all. When I removed the front of the turbine I could see at least one of the stator leads had ripped loose from a rectifying diode.
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I took the turbine apart and found two of the stator leads had ripped loose. I tried to solder them but the leads are soldered to the rectifying diodes that are directly mounted on a heat sink. This keeps them from getting hot enough to resolder, at least with the soldering gun I was using. I ordered a butane mini torch that can blast over 2000 degrees. That ought to do it.
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I continued organizing stuff for the boat delivery. I checked in with passage weather .com and checked both the wind forecast and the path of the Gulf Stream. It looks like we will get a big boost after we pass Jupiter Inlet. Then the fastest course is not the direct route to St. Marys Entrance, but to go directly North for 200 miles. We should be able to manage 10 knots with the help of the current.
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Because we would be traveling on Monday, Pizza Night, I decided to make pizzas a day early. There were only 4 of us to feast on 4 pies, two mushroom onion pies and two Hawaiian pies. The Hawaiian pies had Kahlua pork and crushed pineapple. One had cheddar cheese and the other edam cheese. One mushroom pie had swiss and the other mozzarella. I donated any leftovers and also, after packing up on board Kaimu, donated perishables.
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We left early in the morning with a ride to the airport with a friend of the boat owner. I was wondering why we had to fly and go through two airports, both in high corona virus risk hotspots. Plus flying. I no longer enjoy flying. The ordeal in crowded airports, baggage restrictions, the security rat race waiting line, I can do without all that. The driving time down to Ft. Lauderdale is about 5 1/2 hours. We had left at 8 am to go to the airport.
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The airport was shockingly empty. There was no one waiting at the TSA checkpoint. At the boarding gate the announcement for boarding went along rapid fire. First Class, Boarding Group 1, etc., all reeled off in almost one continuous blurb. The flight attendant motioned us to board. We were half of the passengers for this flight.
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Once we were on board I could sense that the flight crew was eager to get this flight over with. I reasoned that the plane was much lighter than normal, needed less fuel, and was probably as light as it would ever be for a commercial flight. I sensed that the pilot was relishing having control of a good sized jet aircraft that would be performing above normal specs. Maybe he likes videos games. The jet took off like we were heading to sortie to shoot down bogies. Up, up, and away.
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We landed and had some trouble finding our economy rental car, a good daily rate but located off site from the airport. Once more the terminal was almost empty. The rental car company sent a driver who sped us back to pick up our car. He drove extremely fast through streets with very little traffic. It seemed everyone was wearing facemasks. We found it was mandatory to wear facemasks to shop or pick up food. We did a lot of shopping and picking up of food. The boat had to be provisioned and also there were safety items and boating gear needed. The boat owner spent a lot of time gathering fishing gear.
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We spent time conversing with the diver who had cleaned the bottom of the boat. He asked me how fast I thought we would be going at sea. I said, well, 8 knots hull speed, 3 or so knots of push from the Gulf Stream, we could easily hit double digits. He scoffed at that and said in reality we probably wouldn't. He had taken up a good chunk of our time and also had given us some useful information, but some information was exaggerated.
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I was feeling uncomfortable that we were done with our provisioning day and had much more to do. We needed to get underway and clear a whole bunch of drawbridges just to get out to sea. It would be best to have the last of the flood tide coming in so that as we powered into it, we could idle the engine and come to a stop at a bridge and still have control with the flood tide flowing past. Also we would have deeper water.
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The owner had to return the rental car, return some excess purchases, pick up items we had neglected, and he also said he would get some lunch sandwiches. All this and return before 10:30 AM so we could get underway at 11. I had my doubts he would do it, because of all the previous delays, but he came through including the sandwiches and we were on our way almost on time. We went through 6 drawbridges and missed the opening time of the 17th street bridge at the Port Everglades Entrance. It was a 20 minute wait and we were heading out to sea.
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My plan was to head East to the Gulf Stream, about 15 miles offshore, follow the Stream as it follows the coast, then where the coast falls away to the NNW at around Jupiter Inlet, head due North and stay in the Stream for about 200 miles, then bear off to the WNW to the St Marys sea buoy, about 70 more miles.
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It was Tuesday morning and we could hypothetically pull into St Marys/Cumberland Sound during the day on Thursday.
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We motored NE into the breeze which was 10-15. The water was rough as it is when there is a wind with a North component against the Gulf Stream. The forecast was for the wind to slowly clock to East then South. At the same time the Gulf Stream would turn the corner at Jupiter and head due North. Conditions then would be ideal to reel off big speed over ground numbers, double digits, 200 miles plus in 24 hours.
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We raised sail, rather, rolled out sail. Both the genoa and mainsail were on roller furlers. The mainsail furler was sluggish and required stamina and strength to crank the winch and deploy the sail. We decided to sail with the amount we had rolled out, a lot less than full sail, but we probably needed to have reduced sail due to the wind gusting to 15 and above. The genoa was rolled out and we tested our sailing balance. Although it was rough and hard to gauge when the sails were properly balanced, we arrived at an amount of genoa that left us with a touch of weather helm.
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I was enjoying the sailing. We were not heeled excessively yet we were making close to double digits over ground. The owner and crew were not as happy. Crew had to relieve himself of his lunch. He was not giving up easily. Yeah, I'm OK, he said. After a while the owner also chummed the waters. The boat was in good shape, steering on autopilot, running like a freight train. Another few hours and we would have better conditions as well as easing onto a broad reach, a more comfortable point of sail. The owner and crew talked of heading into a port and running up the ICW. What nonsense.
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Then the dingy broke its aft fall and was now dragging behind us by just the forward. We brought the boat to the wind and began rolling up the sails, motoring. I capitulated to the owner's and crew's option to head inside. The straw that broke the camel's back was the breaking of the dinghy's aft fall. At first I thought it was the hoisting line that ran through the blocks that had snapped, but it was in fact the piece of the dinghy's transom that had ripped out. With the owner and crew feeling sick and little chance of me having relief if we had kept on through the overnight, it was a no brainer to come in to port. The dinghy was our lifeboat and if we needed it and had lost it, I hate to think about it.
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The port was Port of Lake Worth. We motored in and anchored at about sunset. We had been at sea about 9 1/2 hours and had covered about 50 nautical miles. I made steak salad with blue cheese dressing and crumbles of bacon. The sick sailors devoured it. They said they felt good now. We slept.
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The photo is of our little anchorage at Lake Worth.