Category: Boat Trips

After spending the night on the sailboat in Sunrise Bay New Years Day night, I returned home and checked the NWS marine weather forecast and found it was calling for SE wind at 10-15mph. Prepare for a trip north! Stock the boat with food, ice, water etc.

On New Years Day the weather was cool, so I anchored in Sunrise Bay, about 1/2 mile from my house “as the crow flies”. I rigged the inflatable and dropped it in the water at George English Park near my house. Parking is scarce at the dock so I typically take the trailer home and ride my bicycle to the park. I lock it up and leave it there and jump in the dinghy and run up to the sailboat at Oakland Terrace condos. I then have wheels at the park when I return in the dinghy. Logistics-R-Me !

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

I was worried that the part of the broken alternator bracket bolt that was left in the engine would not be accessible, but it was. I was able to get it out thanks to good ol’ vise grips.

The rest of the alternator bracket is a little wonky so I’m gonna work on that and get a new and hopefully stronger bolt.

Now that I finally have my blog set up I have engine problems due to the broken bolt above so I’m limping at 3 miles an hour to Capt’n Butcher’s Marina in Sebastian where I will tie up for a month to work on the engine. It’s probably a simple fix but I might as well stay a month and explore the Indian River around here it’s gorgeous

Monday, December 9

After staying overnight at anchor for the previous couple of nights, I stayed at the Titusville Municipal Marina to get fuel and supplies, as well as do laundry.  The marina is pleasant with a nice gazebo with BBQ grill and VIP lounge and screen in patio with a big screen TV.  After doing laundry, I got a Lyft to Publix for groceries and ice. Left about 9:30am.

 

Pleasant weather, not as cold as earlier in the trip when it was in the 40s or colder at night. This sunset photo was taken at the park next to Titusville Marina.

Sunday, December 8

Saturday December 7

Flagler Beach was a nice spot to anchor, in a lake near the Sea Ray factory. It was nice to have the lake to myself, except for a few folks fishing on the shore and in some small fishing boats.

New Smyrna Beach was an adventure, a stupid bridge tender held me up for a half an hour. The bridge is on a schedule, opens on the hour and half hour. I got there right on time, but instead of using the official name of the bridge, I was calling on the VHF for the New Smyrna Beach bridge (the only drawbridge in town). By the time I looked it up and called on the cell phone, it was a minute after the hour and he make me wait 1/2 hour which put me at my anchorage around dark so I couldn’t see very well and bumped the bottom. Grrrrrrr fortunately I was able to get into deeper water and motored to a better defined location and stayed overnight on the hook.

Friday, December 6

Friday, December 6 – got up and finished up the oil change mess from the previous day and straightened up the boat and then left around mid day from the Anchorage south of Saint Augustine and went past Marine land marina which is very cool because if you tie up there you can walk across A1A to the ocean plus the rates there are pretty damn cheap buck and a half a foot maybe so that would be a cool place to hang out for a month! I am now anchored near Flagler Beach in front of the sea ray boat factory in a weird little lake that they seem to be filling in or something I don’t know but I’ll take it around tall

I ran until around sunset and started to become concerned that I wouldn’t find a place to Anchor but I could’ve anchored out in the ICW in a white spot but spotted this little Anchorage on the chart using a Navionics and here I am hopefully I can get a an early start tomorrow and hopefully make it 60 miles or so tomorrow unless I go outside at new Smyrna Ponson let in which case I would have to go out and around Cape Canaveral

Thursday, December 5 – slept in and left figuring to go down the ICW. Added a half quart of oil to the engine, the dipstick is a bit wonky but it appeared to be at the low end of the range. The charging system does not instill confidence and plus the wind is forecast to drop so I decided on the ICW as the next inlet is a long haul. As I wend by the inlet at St Augustine, the engine accelerated on it’s own and let out a big puff of smoke. After a few tense moments, it settled down. I returned to Camachee Cove marina and checked the oil, it was overfull. I drained all of the oil so I could add the specified 3 quarts and got a better understanding of the oil levels. It’s a long story but because the crankcase is sealed it’s hard to get an accurate oil level reading so evidently some oil found it’s way in to the cylinders and caused the unexpected sudden acceleration. After searching the internet, I found the exact same thing happened to another boater with the same engine. So I will monitor closely the oil level but feel good about the engine now. The only question I have now is the charging system, I need to fiddle with it to make sure it does charge for sure at least the engine starting battery.

Wednesday, December 4 – set up self steering system and sailed to get familiar with the rigging. Tied up at Camachee Cove Marina in St. Augustine, using the courtesy car to go visit mom and then hit the grocery store to get ice and a few other things. Washed and organized the boat until about 10pm. It was nice to plug in to shore power to have heat.

Wednesday, December 4

Tuesday December 3

Leaving in the St. Johns River, I had to have the bridge lifted.  You don’t want to break down here especially if the current is taking you and your mast toward the bridge before it’s lifted.

Tuesday morning – After I started the engine, untied and started to push off the dock, the engine died. Dumped fuel/water seperator and found water in fuel. Fortunately the engine has a bleeder valve that allows the electric fuel pump to fill the separator so air is not introduced into the diesel injectors which can be trouble. Cranked engine until the water was purged from the injectors and finally the engine started. Off to the races!

Until the engine ran too hot. Back to the dock at Orgega River Marina. The coolant leaked out of the engine due to a leaky hose connection. Tighteded clamp and added 2nd hose clamp and filled the cooling system and off I went.

I was considering going into the ocean at Mayport for a short sail to St. Augustine. As I put up the main sail in the St. John’s river nearing the ocean, the shift cable came loose from the transmission bracket and the engine would not shift correctly. Fortunately I was in a wide area of the river and there wasn’t much traffic. Diving into the engine hatch, I was able to shift the transmission manually. Then head upwind and drop the main sail. At this point all I had was forward gear (or shut down the engine, neutral sort of). I made my way to a marina at Jax Beach with a plan to stay overnight. After tying up, I was able to fix the loose clamp so I motored out of the marina and anchored nearby. It was COLD – temp was in the high 30’s. Maybe I should have stayed at the marina with shore power for heat!

Well, this was to be day 1 but the weather forecast was 25-35 and higher.
Stay put until Tuesday. It was nice to have an extra day to finish up some projects, like adding the battery isolator I found at Sailor’s Exchange in St. Augustine weeks earlier for $5 still in the original packaging. As it turned out, it didn’t work very well.

A few random notes:

Prior to departure, the engine ran hot. found impeller blade was blocking intake hose on raw water pump. Replaced impeller, now runs cool.

Charging system wonky, At startup, the voltage does not go up right away as expected. Bad alternator? While running boat to test overheat issue, the voltage crept up to over 13 volts. Not the 14 that I would expect but I’ll take it. Extra day allowed me to install a charge isolator to allow the engine to charge multiple batteries while preventing the batteries from discharging unexpectedly (specifically the starting battery). The system should allow the alternator to charge both house and starting batteries at the same time.

Sunday October 13

after reading over the literature about the boat I got up early Monday morning and left the marina and headed through great South Bay on my way to fire Island it was pretty foggy but yeah that burned off as I approached the inlet
I left fire Island and let the seas were home I left
departing fire Island Inlet on the south shore of Long Island I crossed over to New Jersey through New York Harbor approach I didn’t see Manhattan which was surprising I was about 20 miles offshore but it was a little hazy so I didn’t see the city as I made my way across to New Jersey and I realized it fuel on board was disappearing rather rapidly

Monday, October 14

Going from Long Island to New Jersey I found that the fuel was no one fast my plan was to make it to Cape May New Jersey which is about 180 miles the Ranger the boat was supposed to be 200 miles but halfway there I was down to a quarter of a tank so plan B was Atlantic City Absecon Inlet I’ll have to check my notes there’s a mixup there goes the first reasonable stop was up 135 miles there was one stop at 75 miles that I didn’t wanna get that right off the bat so I took off ended up in Atlantic City fuel about mid day

Leaving New York City about 2 o’clock and headed for either Keith Mary or Ocean City Maryland my electronics stopped working on the boat no depth finder no radar no GPS the GPS wasn’t a big deal because I was using my tablet and my phone which actually is ideal but in any case I have been talking to Michael yes in a little concerned but I had battery back ups for my devices so I don’t like her I was in pretty good shape the onions are running

After leaving Atlantic City about 2 PM I got to Ocean City Maryland about 6 PM and took on fuel and tied up and called an electrician came in and checked out the electronics it seems the battery in the house battery was dead because the boat was without power for a few days prior to my departure the King tides had caused problems with the wiring on the dark in Patchogue on Long Island it seems there was a breaker tripped for one thing and another

The battery was not charging because of a safety feature that prevents batteries from a charged under charged

another block

Me and Arch