Florida at last.
We made it about an hour down the river when the starboard engine overheated. Quite a quandary to decide whether to return to the yard and be trapped for another month or just use one engine and try to sail most of the way. We decided to just go for it, as this is part of the reason we have 2 engines, along with 2 hulls and 2 rudders. Things went well for the next 4 or 5 hours sailing along in light air at aobut 6-8 knots. As the wind started to drop off and shift about, we started the engine and sure enough the steering started to go south again. Less than 6 hours this tiime, the worst example of fixed so far. We manually re-aligned the rudders and continued south. We discussed going into Brunswick, GA., but it would be dark before we could get there and we were about 30 miles offshore, so it would be late night entering an unfamiliar harbor. We would just have to align them by hand as needed through the night and contiue to St. Augustine. The wind shifted to the north later that night with temps about 10 degrees below what was forecast. It was a long cold night of motoring, adjusting the rudders 4 more times before arrival. We slowed to about 3 knots for the last three hours to delay entry until daylight, as the markers are moved according to shoaling and the chart plotter is not trustworthy in this regard. We were at the dock in the munipal marina by 10 a.m. The berth given us was not actually in the marina, but along the outer wall very near to the Bridge of Lions draw bridge. This allowed us to hear all the goings on of opening the bridge from about 20 meters away. Lots of noise and some wake from the boats going through. There is a strong cross current at the bridge and speed must be made to maintain control.
We had a local contractor come look the engines over and one of the belts was worn out and not turning the water pump. When it was replaced the water pump spun, but we had no tachometer signal. They took the altenator to a local shop and had it rebuilt and all was back to good in one day.
They also recommended a guy who knew something about steering. He mangages one of the local boatyards and offered to help in his spare time, which is in short supply as business is booming. We discussed the problem in detail and after some time agreed that the only wearing part we had not replaced was the bypass valves. He also put me in touch with the US importer for these steering systems. We discussed the situation and he called the french supplier, who told him they didn't stock the valves as they had no record of them failing. After searching high and low for any fittings which would allow me to cap the lines and remove the valves, I had to just take one off and hope all the fluid didn't leak out and make a horrible mess. I took the valve to a hydraulic supply store where they showed me new valves. I had a fitting from the boat with me and the threads didn't match up. I turns out that the fittings are BSPP (Brittish Standard Parralel Pipe thread), which differs from US standard in that the pipe threads are tapered here. He was able to give me the actual size designation for the valves, so I was able to order them from an online store in the UK. Since we were going to have to wait for them to arrive we needed to change from daily rate berthing to a monthly rate at the marina. The daily rate including electricity adds up to a months worth in about 8 days. A mad scramble looking for a dock that was not under the bridge was futile. There is another marina and motel across river who offered me a berth not under the drawbridge, but as we were leaving the dock, the harbormaster called up and told us there was a conflict and we couldn't stay there. We stayed under the bridge for a month and ordered more boat parts including a new refrigerator and outboard for the dinghy. The dinghy that came with the boat was too large to fit on the davits without banging the hulls and just wasn't going to work for us. We bought a smaller one at the Annapolis boat show after a dockmate in Hampton had offered to buy the old one. His wife overruled him and we now had two dinghys and a motor twice as big as reccommended for the lsmaller dinghy. I began to plan the install of the arch on the back of the boat only to discover that the pieces they shipped me in Savannah were not the right shape for the application on a catamaran. On a monohull they are wider in the front, but on a catamaran they are wider aft. I contacted them with a plea for resolution, and was surprised to get OOPS, we'll send you new ones asap. About parr for the course, I suppose. I also set out trying to get a hard top made for the cockpit.
The valves arrived from England and I installed them and meticulously bled the air from the system. Unfortunately, it takes lots of hours of use to discover success or failure with this system. We won't really know until we set out to sea for a day or so.
While we were just hanging out, I decided to get my eyes checked for the status of my glaucoma. The pressure was a tad elevated and the doctor decided to modify my drop application technique to see if it would change things for the better. After two weeks, we had lowered the pressure in one eye to an acceptable level, but the other required stronger measures in the form of adding another eye dropmedicine. I will see if the additional drops fixed me up tomorrow.
I recieved the arch pieces and proceeded to install them with the help of a local worker. It took two days, but they look nice and should work nicely. I built a frame to hold three solar panels and installed them on the arch. A little wiring and they will be online. We sold the dinghy on craigslist to the only person on earth that didn't want to send me a cashiers check from Nigeria or such, so it is all coming together. Our month ran out under the bridge while still awaiting the results of the eyedrops so we moved accross to the motel and marina, where the bridge opening noise and traffic is less, but the current is stronger. We had the first really nice weekend weather, and about 2 million motorboats churned the river up to a fine mess of bumpy waves both days. It may be time to go be somewhere else before long.
We have been hoping all along that we would make it to the Carribean in time to haul the boat for hurricane season south of the area affected by such storms. With the advent of Covid-19, it appears pretty risky to just show up at some country and hope they will let us in. Ecuador has closed its borders/airports and no doubt a lot of other places are doing the same. We had heard of a few places that will admit you with a certificate of good health from your last port within the last 5 days. This would really be pushing our luck since it takes that long if things go perfectly and where would we get such a certificate here? It may be that we will head north again to check out the steering and perhaps haul the boat in Va. for the season. We could satisfy the insurance company by being in northern NC, but they seem to get slammed pretty regularly of late.
We had a local contractor come look the engines over and one of the belts was worn out and not turning the water pump. When it was replaced the water pump spun, but we had no tachometer signal. They took the altenator to a local shop and had it rebuilt and all was back to good in one day.
They also recommended a guy who knew something about steering. He mangages one of the local boatyards and offered to help in his spare time, which is in short supply as business is booming. We discussed the problem in detail and after some time agreed that the only wearing part we had not replaced was the bypass valves. He also put me in touch with the US importer for these steering systems. We discussed the situation and he called the french supplier, who told him they didn't stock the valves as they had no record of them failing. After searching high and low for any fittings which would allow me to cap the lines and remove the valves, I had to just take one off and hope all the fluid didn't leak out and make a horrible mess. I took the valve to a hydraulic supply store where they showed me new valves. I had a fitting from the boat with me and the threads didn't match up. I turns out that the fittings are BSPP (Brittish Standard Parralel Pipe thread), which differs from US standard in that the pipe threads are tapered here. He was able to give me the actual size designation for the valves, so I was able to order them from an online store in the UK. Since we were going to have to wait for them to arrive we needed to change from daily rate berthing to a monthly rate at the marina. The daily rate including electricity adds up to a months worth in about 8 days. A mad scramble looking for a dock that was not under the bridge was futile. There is another marina and motel across river who offered me a berth not under the drawbridge, but as we were leaving the dock, the harbormaster called up and told us there was a conflict and we couldn't stay there. We stayed under the bridge for a month and ordered more boat parts including a new refrigerator and outboard for the dinghy. The dinghy that came with the boat was too large to fit on the davits without banging the hulls and just wasn't going to work for us. We bought a smaller one at the Annapolis boat show after a dockmate in Hampton had offered to buy the old one. His wife overruled him and we now had two dinghys and a motor twice as big as reccommended for the lsmaller dinghy. I began to plan the install of the arch on the back of the boat only to discover that the pieces they shipped me in Savannah were not the right shape for the application on a catamaran. On a monohull they are wider in the front, but on a catamaran they are wider aft. I contacted them with a plea for resolution, and was surprised to get OOPS, we'll send you new ones asap. About parr for the course, I suppose. I also set out trying to get a hard top made for the cockpit.
The valves arrived from England and I installed them and meticulously bled the air from the system. Unfortunately, it takes lots of hours of use to discover success or failure with this system. We won't really know until we set out to sea for a day or so.
While we were just hanging out, I decided to get my eyes checked for the status of my glaucoma. The pressure was a tad elevated and the doctor decided to modify my drop application technique to see if it would change things for the better. After two weeks, we had lowered the pressure in one eye to an acceptable level, but the other required stronger measures in the form of adding another eye dropmedicine. I will see if the additional drops fixed me up tomorrow.
I recieved the arch pieces and proceeded to install them with the help of a local worker. It took two days, but they look nice and should work nicely. I built a frame to hold three solar panels and installed them on the arch. A little wiring and they will be online. We sold the dinghy on craigslist to the only person on earth that didn't want to send me a cashiers check from Nigeria or such, so it is all coming together. Our month ran out under the bridge while still awaiting the results of the eyedrops so we moved accross to the motel and marina, where the bridge opening noise and traffic is less, but the current is stronger. We had the first really nice weekend weather, and about 2 million motorboats churned the river up to a fine mess of bumpy waves both days. It may be time to go be somewhere else before long.
We have been hoping all along that we would make it to the Carribean in time to haul the boat for hurricane season south of the area affected by such storms. With the advent of Covid-19, it appears pretty risky to just show up at some country and hope they will let us in. Ecuador has closed its borders/airports and no doubt a lot of other places are doing the same. We had heard of a few places that will admit you with a certificate of good health from your last port within the last 5 days. This would really be pushing our luck since it takes that long if things go perfectly and where would we get such a certificate here? It may be that we will head north again to check out the steering and perhaps haul the boat in Va. for the season. We could satisfy the insurance company by being in northern NC, but they seem to get slammed pretty regularly of late.
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