Back in Florida....but unfotunately still on "repair hold". May 18- 27

So after 4-1/2 weeks out of the water at this writing, Sum Escape remains on the hard awaiting parts.  The fabricator of the exhaust system had a family emergency/ illness and did not get it completed.  He was a couple days late on his three week commitment, pretty good considering.  So these parts are on board and awaiting install because....
The real issue is that the boat yard did almost absolutely nothing on their list while we were gone. The generator work, transmission leak evaluation and shaft seal work did not start until Thursday May 18, three weeks after Sum Escape went on the hard.  Yes, I know, after repeated promises that things would be complete while we visited Michigan.    I am quickly learning that you have to stay in town and be "in the face" of the repair facility.  I have the feeling that as soon as we drove off they began to think "great, they are gone and we can focus on A and B boats now".  The squeaky wheel sure gets the grease.  I spent Thursday (5/18) and Friday at the boat and did get a lot going by being "in their face".  And of course now major parts are needed for these (transmission oil leak was more serious than I thought...both port and starboard pressure plates were cracked with a piece broken out so they are both being rebuilt) so more delay...but this all could have already been accomplished had they stayed on task while we were gone. Just too little too late... regrettably, our Maine cruising is now scrapped for the summer.  We had planned on travelling with our friends Carole and DeVere (Job Site).  They were challenged with repairs too but are now travelling north.  We hope to catch up with them in the Chesapeake in late June.
Oh, and I asked the Twin Disc transmission guy if he had ever seen this phenomenon with pieces cracked out of pressure plate.  Here is starboard....port is almost identical damage.

In his 30 years, not on both at the same time.  Transmission serial numbers are sequential and he thinks it was a pressure plate casting flaw...just 8 years too late for the 3 year warranty.  And he also said they were quickly wearing other parts and the transmissions could have failed soon.  And the funny thing is he said this kind of damage comes from a grounding, major prop strike, or severe vibration over a period of time, none of which we experienced. 
I guess we are again blessed to not have an actual breakdown while negotiating a dock or tidal current, just a repair delay.
Also, "while the hood is up" so to speak,  we had the CAT guy inspect the rear crankshaft seals on the engines and he determines they are starting to leak. Given everything is out of the way with transmissions out of the boat, we will have these replaced too.
We are staying in an old but clean timeshare efficiency apartment in Vero Beach, the Reef Ocean Resort.  Road view originally, but we had to move to an ocean view....third move this week.

A rain storm blowing through

Our studio in not right on the beach but the facility has a pool, grills and convenient to shopping, restaurants, etc. We are taking nice walks around town but finding it is like winter in Michigan....no one goes outside but because it is too hot (in the 90's) not too cold!  So we take the walks early or late to try to beat the sun and heat.  Nice neighborhoods with live oak tree canopies, lots of beautiful homes and landscaping too.
We will  not be able to move the boat till at least June 6, a full 6 weeks from going on the hard and 7 weeks from our return from the Bahamas, given the delays by the boat yard and now the lead time on transmission parts and rebuild.  New ones were like double the rebuild price so we ruled that out.  It could possibly be later due to sea trials, etc.
Part of me wishes we had continued to run north with the maintenance needs and had these items addressed in August when we go to Michigan for Jordan and Eliza's wedding. But another part says we are lucky to have the transmission issue discovered and corrected before a failure at an inopportune time. Murphy's Law usually has these things fail in a tidal current trying to hold place before a bridge opening, while docking near mega yacht, etc. So we believe God continues to put His hand in things and keep us safe.
Lots to put back together...where are the transmissions, starboard turbo, exhaust risers and mufflers???

We had to modify our insurance policy to cover us south of 31 degrees N latitude after June 1.  We had to submit a written hurricane plan, of course pay an additional premium and the deductible for windstorm is 10% instead of the normal deductible in our policy.  Once we get N of 31 degrees our old policy will resume.
We went to the Riverside Theatre free concert series on Friday May 26.  A local band "The Jacks" were playing and were pretty darn good. 

They especially did a good job with the blues set they played.  They played classic rock, Motown, and blues.  All were good, we may have to check out the bands next weekend too (free concerts every Friday and Saturday nights year around!).  They have a food and beverage offering right on site that was very good too.
We will continue to monitor boat repairs, try to keep renewing our stay in Vero Beach (moving from one available timeshare unit to another) and will post a quick update once we get moving again....the adventure of cruising continues....

A great visit with Mom during our trip to Michigan. May 4-18

So given the downtime for repairs, we moved north to spend a week with Mom after feeling that the repairs were all scheduled and well underway. We stopped to see Jim and Kathy (Jim Kat) for lunch in Palm Coast as we travelled north.  Had a great lunch at the Turtle Shack...not much to look at but just across the road from the beach and great burgers!  Jim and Kathy have a timeshare here and it looks like a great place to spend some time in winter.
As we continued driving we called our friends Tom and Vicki (Grand Baron) who at last check were in Brunswick GA.  But they had left port and were headed north toward Savannah.  This was our destination as well as we did not visit there on our way north last year.  Long story short, they invited us to stay aboard at a marina in Kilkenny, not too far south of Savannah.  So we did!  It was just like being "home" aboard our boat!
On our drive there we drove through a nasty thunderstorm.  We actually saw a storm chaser parked on a bridge to observe/video the oncoming storm.  Trees went down in the median and we could only go about 15 MPH due to visibility.  We drove in this for about 45 mins and then pulled off the highway at our exit for another 10 minutes.  Hey Brett, note the GPS/phone holder you gave me is in use....thanks!

Fortunately the storm missed Tom and Vicki and they docked without incident.

We had a wonderful meal at Marker 107 restaurant right next to the marina and a great time catching up with Tom and Vicki.  Thanks so much for the hospitality.  We hope to catch up this summer in the Chesapeake if our repairs are ever completed by the now we know unreliable boat yard....more on that in the next post.
We stopped in Savannah and had a wonderful 5 hours walking exploring the history.  It was worth the stop!
The Cotton Exchange

 For all you Girl Scouts!  Julie was a girl scout and leader for many years.

 And of course no visit is complete without a visit to the famous Leopolds Ice Cream Shop!

The Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, circa 1873.

 More photos of Savannah. Such beautiful parks (squares) and architecture.

Road trip...bridges and tunnels as we travelled S Carolina, N Carolina, W Virginia, Ohio

We stayed with our friends Paula and Rich (formerly Andiamo) in Farmington on Saturday night.  Paula fixed us a wonderful home cooked steak dinner (well Rich did grill them but I give all the credit to Paula) and we had a great time catching up with them and seeing some of the girls.  We walked to downtown Farmington for ice cream after the wonderful dinner.

Thanks so much for all the hospitality and enjoy your Harley trips this summer!  Be safe!
We went to Mass on Sunday morning and then visited my sister Pam and brother in law Steve.  It was great to see them again and get updated on all events in their lives.  Have fun with that sailboat in a slip this summer.
We arrived in Muskegon on Sunday afternoon and searched out some VRBO's and such for our stay in W Michigan for a week or so.  Well, we didn't find any great spots so we stayed at the Shoreline Inn, the hotel at our former marina.  The first boat on the right is in our old slip.

 Wish our boat was here...look at what the sign says!

It was a great home base and we were able to see some of our former dock neighbors too.  Two of the couples Colin and Krisi (Knot a Worry) and Amber and Mark (Off the Grid) have new babies so it was great to see the new additions to their families.  In the evening, Todd and Sherry (No Plans) joined us for dinner.  It was great to catch up with them too.
Another beautiful W Michigan sunset from our room.

On Monday we went to visit Mom.  Julie cooked us a great chicken dinner at Mom's apartment and we had a good time walking, visiting and making plans for the week. It was so nice to see Mom again as the last visit was when we stayed with her in her Fort Pierce home in Dec/ January.
I went to the doctor for my right elbow (golfer's elbow flare up) and of course he wanted to prescribe physical therapy.  But we settled on a rest and an anti inflammatory regiment with some stretching and then strengthening exercises.  Hopefully this will work as boat maintenance will not go away with our lifestyle. 
Julie's brother Craig and sister in law Erin joined us for dinner at the Lake House on Tuesday night.  We caught up on all the events in their family (new grandson!) and their upcoming RV trip to Florida and N Carolina.  We last saw them in N Carolina when they stopped by our boat in New Bern last Fall.  Safe travels Craig and Erin!
We visited our new dentist...we needed repairs too!
We visited Mom again on Thursday.  Meeting with Comfort Keepers to set up a relationship in case mom needs any help other than that already graciously provided by my brother Larry and sister Deb who live in the area.
We had a great dinner at Snug Harbor in Grand Haven where a number of our friends met us.  Thanks Larry and Amy, Terrie (Tony was working hard out of town), Scott and Nancy, Todd and Sherry for joining us on short notice. It was great seeing all of you again!
Look at the Lake Michigan beach in early May it was flat every day we were there.
Friday my sister Deb and I attended a Mother's Day brunch with Mom at her apartment dining room.  It was a fun little event and the food was good.  We took her for a ride around the area, did some grocery shopping and she helped us find a VRBO rental for our trip back in August prior to Jordan and Eliza's wedding.  We were able to find a small cottage on the channel in Muskegon for mid August to Sept 1 and we have it reserved for our stay. 

Friday night we met Jordan and Eliza in Grand Rapids at Leo's for dinner to celebrate their engagement. They got Julie some nice flowers, chocolates (gluten and dairy free!)  and card for Mother's Day too. 

It was great to see them, especially since we had not seen Eliza since the engagement.  The wedding is not far off now!
Saturday after our long walk, we picked Mom up for lunch at Carmen's downtown Muskegon and took a little ride around town as well.  It is so nice to spend time with Mom.
We were fortunate to have come home this week as it was the regularly scheduled monthly Supper Club with our friends Mary and Kevin and Mary Beth and Jim. Before moving aboard and leaving the area we did this monthly dinner for about 7 years!  It was so nice catching up with all of them and the food was as fantastic as always!
Sunday we picked up Mom for Church and Courtney also drove from Spring Lake to meet us there.  Fr. Matt had a very nice message and the downtown Muskegon church continues to be a very engaging experience.  Later in the afternoon we picked her up again and went to my sister Deb and brother in law Don's for a great Mother's Day dinner.  Thanks Deb and Don for a great meal and all the hospitality.
Monday was another beautiful day so we picked up Mom and drove to Grand Haven and met Courtney for lunch at Snug Harbor to enjoy the river and lake view. They both commented it had been years since they had eaten there. Thanks so much for a wonderful lunch Courtney!
Tuesday we started back to Florida to see how repairs are progressing with hopes of re-provisioning and being on our way in a few days
We liked travelling the river near Chattanooga in this photo a lot better by boat back in the Fall of 2015!

And the car pool lane is OK but we would rather be on the water....

....more later.  Thanks for following our blog.

An Unplanned Vacation from Cruising...April 25 to ???

We took some nice walks around Fort Pierce before we moved over to Harbortown Marina. Here is the City Marina from the bridge. All these "islands" in the ICW are the result of rebuilding and re-engineering the marina after it was destroyed in 2004-05 by hurricanes.  And all the floating docks are new in the expanded marina.  Yes it was a cloudy day with rain until around 4 PM on Sunday April 23.

 Some artwork/sculpture on our walk.

After we moved to Harbortown, the marine technicians showed up on time on Monday April 24.  That's the good news.  The bad news is the weeping of seawater I noticed on the exhaust system while doing engine room checks in the Bahamas all need repairing.  Yes, we could wait and just let them get worse before repairing.  But the 8" diameter, stainless steel exhaust from the turbochargers to the water cooled fiberglass portion of the exhaust system are definitely corroded and leaking.  And given this is where the cooling raw sea water is mixed into the system, one does not want it to get worse and have any risk of sea water finding its way back into the engine.  And 1000+ degree exhaust leaks prior to the cooling water is not a great thing either.  So best to get repaired.
The black at the top of the picture below is insulation around the SS pipe coming from the turbocharger.  You can see the rust stains and corrosion on the outside of the stainless steel here.

Here is the entire assembly coming from the turbo all the way to the fiberglass water cooled exhaust.

So after the boat was pulled from the water, (some of the repairs are below water line necessitating this) our diesel mechanic pulled off the riser/mixers and yes they are definitely corroded on the insides and will continue to deteriorate.  They cannot be repaired, they need replacement.  I am told it is not unusual to have to replace these at around 10 years of service as the combination of hot diesel exhaust and sea water is highly corrosive.  Yet another advantage you Michigan boaters have in that fresh water! 
So I investigate with Grand Banks.  Moki Marine in Singapore manufactured the original exhaust riser/ mixer assembly.  Yep, you guessed it, out of business so no chance of finding a replacement through GB.
The marine diesel mechanic and the boatyard both contacted individual fabricators and they are both out 3 weeks.  So Monday May 1, a fabricator in Stuart FL will start the process ordering raw materials, etc.
The inline fiberglass mufflers manufactured by Centek in Georgia also have some leaks.  Not sure if they can be repaired or will also need replacement, but hopefully those will be easier given an American OEM is involved.  You can see the pin holes on the left and the other diesel exhaust and sea water stains here...this is below the water line part that is necessitating the pulling of the boat.

The rest of the stuff is normal 2000 hour maintenance stuff....valve lash adjustment, cooler cleaning/pressure testing, genset 2000 hour maintenance, detailing the vessel, some canvas repairs from the windy Bahamas, etc.  All this will be completed while we await the exhaust fabrication so all we will have to do is put it together and sea trial and we can be on our way north.
Here we are awaiting the lift to become available to pull out Sum Escape.  We were on time but the marina staff was running an hour late due to a power failure in the morning.

 Signing the work order to be hauled.

So on Wednesday after they pulled the boat and we became homeless, we moved to a condo on Hutchinson Island.  We will stay here a week or so to be sure all the work on the boat is satisfactorily underway, and then we will take a road trip for a couple weeks.  Not sure where...it will depend on the length of the repair downtime.  Don't be surprised if we show up near you though...we can cover a lot of ground at 70 MPH versus our normal 10 MPH!!!

It is a great walking beach here.  On our first two morning walks we found sea turtle tracks and new nests both days.  The next day each of the nests were marked and "fenced off" for protection of the eggs.  Pretty cool!
Here are the tracks to the nest and the turtle patrol making notes and staking out the nest. The tracks were about three feet wide.  The next day's turtle tracks (sorry no picture) was even wider! The tracks you see on the left is where the turtle came ashore and the right is where she returned to the sea after laying her eggs up in the dunes where the person is standing.

Note how many hurricane shutters are already deployed...busy season is over and people have migrated north already.  We see more being closed each morning we walk.

We got haircuts, did some shopping, I went to a dentist to get my chipped tooth repaired (thanks Mom for sharing your dentist here!) and I received my replacement glasses lenses from my Michigan optometrist and had them put in my current frames by a local optometrist office.  Nice change from the defective lenses I had (crazed from heat and scratched from salt spray I guess....anyway it was a warranty claim)
We also attended the America concert, a 70's band from our era, at Sunrise Theatre in Ft. Pierce on Friday night. Great instrumentals but the vocals were a bit rough.   Age has a tendency to do that to musicians...  A very nice venue.  And they get some pretty good entertainers having reviewed some of the past performance information.  Completely refurbished theater built in the 1920's.  Here it is back in the day.

April statistics:

Miles travelled:  Month: 267 / Trip to Date: 8043
Travel days:   6/ 176
Engine hours: 26 / 913
Locks:   0/ 47
Bridges opened:   0 /66
Days on hook or free wall:   7 /77
Gallons of diesel:  250 / 6513


More later....

Manjack and Green Turtle Cay and Crossing the Gulf Stream back to US. April 8-21, 2017

We left Hope Town a few days early so that we could get through the Whale Cut ( a short route "outside" into the ocean to avoid a sand bar on the inside in the Sea of Abaco) prior to winds picking up which can make the pass unnavigable.  It was fine on Sunday April 9 as we passed through on our 36 mile run to Manjack (Nunjack) Cay north anchorage.  We had picked this out as a good place to hide from the forecasted 25 knot winds from the E and NE for the next few days.  We also found on Facebook that Kim and Bryan (Freedom) were also anchored there.  We had not seen them since Staniel Cay in the Exumas in February.  And they said they rode out a 47 knot squall there a couple days prior so we knew it would be a nice spot to hide.  And the hiking, beaches and sea life were reported as fantastic as well.  And here is proof!  Our boat in the anchorage in the background.

Clear water.

The view of the beach from our anchorage.

Here we are laughing along with Scott and Brigitte and Kim and Bryan but missing DeVere and Carole to make the group complete...the big laugh was because I was originally on the swim platform and too short to be seen in the photo!  That does not happen often for me!

A short 15 minute walk to the Lagoon Beach where lots of day trippers come to feed the sting rays, sharks and turtles.  The cay inhabitants (there are about a half dozen houses) welcome visitors to their trails and beaches.  And they have certainly spent some time building the trails, signs, beach gazebo, etc. 

We spent five nights on the hook here and the highest wind gust we got was just short of 30 knots.  But the anchor held well and it was a really nice spot to “hide”.  The one hour hikes each day were great exercise and the scenery is so nice.  We saw sting rays, turtles and starfish here!  Julie even spotted a shark on our high tide dinghy exploration of the mangrove creeks one morning. Here is a photo of one of the sting rays on the exploration.

This is definitely an anchorage we will visit again.  One of our favorites in the Abacos! 

On Friday April 14 the forested winds kicked up even more (and are forecasted to continue for a few days) so we pulled anchor and headed to Bluff House where Putz’n Around had already gone on Wednesday.  It was 20 knots on the bow as we backed into our assigned slip, not my favorite docking scenario (it is usually best to oppose the wind or current, not let it push you).  But Julie does a great job with spring lines as we back in and the dockhands are there to catch the stern lines on the super short finger piers here.  And with a three foot tide, the ladder on the back of the fixed dock slip allowed us to use our swim platform to enter and exit the boat.  Not ideal with the three foot plus tides but doable and better than the set up the sailboats in the marina had to deal with. Nice beach at the marina too.

We took a golf cart to New Plymouth, the settlement on the cay, for re-provisioning.  Many things were not open due to it being Good Friday but one grocery store was open to get most of our needed items.  It was a nice ride into town with newly paved road for a good portion of the ride.  We stopped and observed a couple other marinas along the way to learn a bit for a potential stay in the future. 

On Easter Sunday we watched the St Andrews Cathedral broadcast from Grand Rapids on the internet.  It is so nice to be able to “attend” Mass this way in our old home town!  We even spotted a few of our friends from the community in the packed house that it was.  Thanks Fr. G!!

Our walks each day were great.  We discovered the north beach on Monday.  Another beautiful beach location.  About a one and a half hour round trip walk.  Here is a seaplane along the way....pretty handy way to get to ones vacation home!  It rolls right down onto the bay only yards away for take off and landing.

Here is Coco Bay, the "runway" for the seaplanes (There were two on the bay)

There are plenty of nice rental homes here too.  Might be a great destination for visitors next year!  Fly in to Treasure Cay marina and take a ferry to Green Turtle.  Ferries run like every hour.  Hint, hint…

Tuesday April 18 we cast off from Bluff House to start our trip back to the US. The weather forecast was suggesting Friday as a good crossing day back to the US.

So we cast off our lines leaving Green Turtle Cay on April 18.   Our destination was Allan’s/Pensacola Cay, a short 30 miles or so, a short day so we could enjoy the anchorage.

We took the dinghy to shore and found the hiking trail over to the ocean side.  Yet another beautiful beach.  And a “memento tree” where cruisers leave a sign with their names, boat name and date.  Julie found a scrap of driftwood so we went back to the boat and prepared our sign for posting.

The trail map.

We also explored a couple beaches with the dinghy and found a few nice shells for the collection.  Another nice stop and sunset.

On Wednesday we travelled 40 miles to the anchorage at Great Sale Cay.  We had hoped to dinghy around a bit but it was very windy and we just stayed aboard and read, etc.  A nice relaxing day. We are easing back into the workdays...AKA travel days!  30 miles yesterday, 40 today, 65 tomorrow and 100 on Friday.  Gotta ease into this.😊 
Only three boats when we arrived but approximately 29 by the time sunset arrived.  We are going to miss this water clarity....

Sunrise as we leave for West End.

Thursday we travelled 55 miles to West End, the Old Bahama Bay Marina. 
We will miss this clean clear water...a short video.

https://youtu.be/COUat6DfNRw

It was hit pretty hard by hurricane Matthew and still does not have power on the docks.  Not a great deal at $2 a foot and a $15 water charge and you still have to run your generator for power. But it is a great stopping off point for the trip back to the US.  Some damage to one of the neighborhood homes.

 

The facility is quite nice with a pool, a beach, some good walking around the developing neighborhood, a couple bars and restaurants, etc. 

The weather for Friday is not looking as good as it was Tuesday when we set our crossing plan in motion. We will have to make a “game day” decision on whether to leave or not.  It does look like it is time to head back to the US...look at our Bahamas flag after the winds of the last 11 weeks!

We hosted a “Goombay Smash” happy hour aboard Sum Escape for Scott and Brigitte and Karen and Ken (Island Girl) from Sarasota.  We met them in Hope Town a few weeks ago.  They are retiring in Sarasota from the Pacific NW.  But can you believe it took us almost 3 months to get into the juice and rums we brought to the Bahamas to enjoy them?!
So we got up at 5:30 AM to check weather etc as we would want to be on our way by 6:30 for the 100 mile trip to Fort Pierce Florida.  OK, a little more deterioration with solid 4 footers projected.  But the waves should be from the SE, so our travels NW should put them on our stern. So we decided to go.  If waves are worse than expected we can always turn back.  So we cast off at 6:30 AM.  We joined in the parade of boats leaving for the mainland, we saw about a dozen on the radar at one point.


A few miles out we bid farewell to Scott and Brigitte, our travelling buddies for the last 11 weeks plus. They are headed to Stuart Florida.

And passed a couple of the boats we had seen on radar.

The seas were as forecasted with about 4 foot waves  (occasionally a larger one) mainly on our stern.  So we had a push from the waves and the Gulf Stream as progressed NW toward Fort Pierce Florida. We made really good speed with these "pushes" and arrived in our slip at the Fort Pierce City Marina, 100 statute miles dock to dock, by 3 PM.  

Many have asked "where are you now?" along our Bahamas trip.  Here is a rough map of our 1109 statute mile route from Ft. Lauderdale on the 1st of February until our April 21 return to Ft. Pierce. 

We will be here in Ft Pierce a few days then on to a boatyard for some maintenance on the engines and other general items.  Gotta keep our "home" maintained. 

It's nice to have free water and reasonable electric rates back here in the US.  We paid as much as $50 a day for electricity in the Exumas and water was anywhere from 20-50 cents a gallon. 

More later as we start our trek north for the summer.....