We arrived back on the boat early in the morning to get her ready to launch. We had arranged for iFloat to be launched just after lunch to allow us enough time to get her ready to go. Louise and I started out by cleaning the flybridge seats so that we could replace the cushions. There was not a lot of dirt, but we did not want to put the cushions on a dirty surface, and it was super-easy to clean without the cushions in place. One we cleaned up, we moved all the cushions from the salon back onto the flybridge. When we put the boat away, here or back in Canada for winter, we put as much stuff as possible inside the boat. This minimizes sun damage and makes our stuff last longer.
Lots of spider webs on the boat. If you look close you can see this orb, which covered the whole stern to the swim platform. Louise did a lot of de-spidering with her spider tool.
Bottom paint is OK, but is starting to wear thin in some areas. Should not be a problem, as we will only be in salt water for less than two months, and will be moving during that time. Once we get back into fresh water, bottom paint is really not an issue.
Running gear all good, no wiggle in the cutlass bearing, no oopsies on the prop.
Sitting in the Florida sun for two months had caused our welcome mat to glue itself to the deck. This will be a fun project to remove....
Engine inspection. It was right where we left it.
Before we left the boat, I had disconnected all the batteries so they would not have any slow drains. Before we re-launched I had to re-connect them all, which required a bit of disassembly. We shifted a lot of storage into the engine room in January, to free up space in the boat in anticipation of going to Bahamas. This has been great for moving around the boat, but now getting to the engine requires some more gymnastics.
Rigging the travel lift to splash the boat.
iFloat is splashed. No leaks, but the engine battery was dead.
With the salon cleaned out, I re-connected the batteries, checked the oil and coolant, and turned on the fuel supply. I then went outside to inspect various things on the hull. Right around then Rich came by and we gave each anode got a once-over, and brushed a few of them to remove some scale. We checked the cutlass bearing, rudder, thru-hulls and overall general condition. All OK. Next, back inside the boat, all the seacocks were checked. We were now (hopefully) watertight and ready to launch. Right on time, as one of the yard hands came by to ask if we wanted to launch early - hell yes!
Trying to start the engine. Note the sweat-soaked T-shirt at 10 am.
The launch went well, everything was watertight. But, when I tried to start the engine I found that the starting batteries were dead. The yard broke out a jumper pack and got us started, then we trundled over to a slip. No issues, except the bow thruster sounded funny. mmmmm. Once in the slip, we got plugged in and got the AC running, it was only 10:30 and already 30 C outside. I ran the engine at high idle for about half and hour to make sure there were no surprises. Well, surprise! The alternator was not working. A bit of trouble-shooting found a blown fuse on the regulator. Changed out for a new fuse and we were back making amps. I spent the rest of the day turning on and testing systems, re-filling the water tank, and generally remembering where things were. By about 15:00 we were fully operational and ready to go.
Hydration break. I keep check lists on the iPad for various startup procedures.
While I was slaving in the engine room, Louise and Melanie went out for some "retail therapy" and got us provisioned up with stops at Costco, Walmart and Fresh Market. Louise dropped off the provisions on the boat, and then we went out to dinner to celebrate Melanie's mom's birthday (she is 92) with members of Rich and Melanie's family.
Pleasant evening at Holland marine. Great to be back on the water again.
The next morning we returned our rental car, which was super-easy since they used a tablet like the rest of the world. When we rented the car at Orlando airport, it took forever since they were doing it all on paper. WTF? One of the biggest airports in the U.S., which I'm sure handles thousands of car rentals every day, works on paper! The small rental place we dropped the car off at, which was in the middle of nowhere, had iPads. Go figure.
Back on the boat, I broke out the pressure washer and washed down the decks. The boat still needs a scrubbing, but at least I got the pollen and surface dirt off. By 10 am we were ready to roll. We unplugged the boat, started up, and set off. As we were leaving the dock, I noticed that the thrusters sounded funny - uh oh. As we got up to speed, I noted that our alternator was not working, voltage was low and no amps were flowing. Given our adventure the previous day, I suspected a battery problem. Louise got on the phone to the marina to see if they had any batteries in stock. They did not, and could not get us any until Monday (this was a Friday). Luckily Rich was willing to meet us to help us go and get some new batteries.
Low batt. Rich and I (you can just see by butt in the engine room) removing the old batteries.
Back on the dock, I did some trouble-shooting to make sure we were solving THE problem and not A problem. I had to replace the fuse again on the alternator, and the regulator came back to life. But, the batteries were totally flat and would not crank the engine. New batteries it is. After a few phone calls we found a pair nearby and Rich and I drove there to collect them. Back on the boat, with the new batteries installed, the engine fired right up and the thrusters now worked properly - no blown fuses. Thank you Rich for saving the day. The turn around time was only 4.5 h. In boating this is super quick!
Our alternator is a bit high tech. We have an external regulator, which is a small computer that controls the amount of electricity the alternator makes. The regulator measures voltage, battery temperature, alternator temperature and alternator belt load to calculate the proper amount of charge to create. It is programmed with the specifications of our house batteries, and provides the exact amount of juice to maintain our house batteries in top form. The alternator also charges the starting battery, as a secondary load.
The regulator does its job by energizing the alternator's magnetic field through a "field" wire. By applying a small amount of current to the field, it controls how much power the alternator makes. The regulator is powered by a fused wire that runs directly to the house batteries, and it was this fuse that kept blowing. What was happening was that with dead starter batteries, the thrusters were drawing amps directly from the alternator. To provide this much power, the regulator sent extra amps through the field wire, and to get those amps it drew them from the fused power wire to the battery. This exceeded the load on that wire, and the fuse tripped. With healthy batteries, the batteries supply the amps to the thruster, so the alternator does not see a sudden heavy load, but with flat batteries we were overloading the system. In the end it was good that it happened when it did, near a marina and a great friend willing to help us out.
So, we set off for Black creek to anchor for the night. We will likely be anchoring a lot more on the return leg of the trip to save some money. Louise went swimming it was so hot outside.
Next morning was awesome. Amazing to wake up at 6 in the morning, and stand on the back of your boat in shorts and T-shirt at the beginning of April! After breakfast we set off for the Sister's creek free dock. As we approached the dock, the wind, which had been light all day, started to pick up. By the time we were at the dock there was a 25 kmph wind and a 3 kmph current pushing us OFF the dock. Luckily there was lots of space available and another boater to help us, but it took a lot of pulling and rope work to get us secured. As the afternoon went on a few more boats arrived until the dock was full. Each docking was a challenge, and the wind and current were working against everything.
Passed by a cruise ship on our way out.
Rich and Melanie stopped by in their car for dinner. We had a nice visit with them, then turned in for a restful sleep.
Sunset at Sister's creek. Our last Florida sunset for this trip.
The next morning we were up at 6 so we could be off the dock at first light. The tide was going out, so we needed to be able to see to get off the dock safely. We were "parallel parked" on a linear dock with a heavy current pushing us forward, and the next boat in line was about 5 feet from our bow. Once the sun came up, we used a spring line to lever our stern off the dock to get clear and we were on our way.
After about 2 hours of travel, we crossed into Georgia and passed Cumberland island. This is a national park with feral horses living on it. These horses have been living wild on the island since the 1500's. As we were passing by, Louise spotted a small herd on the beach.
Wild horses on Cumberland island. We could not get too close due to shoaling in the ICW, but there are at least three horses in this photo.
This photo is a bit better. Instead of blobs of pixels, these actually look like horses - sort of.
Nuclear sub. There were lots of navy patrol boats hovering around, they are very serious about security near these things, and rightfully so.
Later we passed by a submarine base, which was being guarded by a few navy patrol boats. Just before our destination, we had to cross an inlet, which was somewhat exposed to ocean swells. Pretty rocky and rolly for about a half hour. We then pulled into Jeckyl Island marina, our stop for the next couple of nights.
Each inlet has at least one lighthouse.
This wreck was near a mooring field in St.Marys. You can see the mooring ball still attached. Someone did not maintain the chain I'm guessing.
There is a big tidal swing here, up to 7 feet, so we were a bit nervous about docking in the tidal current, but it turned out that the current was not strong when we arrived, but the wind was the big factor, and it was strong. A few white knuckle moments later we made it into the slip and got tied up.
Lots of bumblebees here. We had one "ride formation" with us for several miles down the ICW. Basically flew beside the boat without landing.
Lots of dry-stack operations here. They store boats in a special warehouse, stacked 4 high on big shelves, then use a special fork lift to launch the boats on demand.
The pool at the marina, overlooked by a porch which is part of the bar. The trees were covered in spanish moss. So beautiful.
Lots of nice gardens here.
Before we went to our slip, we stopped at the gas dock for fuel, and were greeted by Chris and Julie from Stulie. We had travelled together with them through western Florida, and were happy to meet up with some more looper friends. After we got set in, the four of us borrowed a golf cart from the marina for a trip around the island. We visited an old plantation that is now a hotel/museum, them went for a walk along the beach. There was a pretty heavy surf, but the water was really warm.
Some jellyfish were washed up on the beach, which other than the occasional jelly, was super clean. This is a really nice area if you like to hang out at the beach. The beach is well cared for, and the water is bathtub warm. Luckily Louise did not get some jelly-toe to match her dolphin-toe.
Walk quickly through this section of town.
All the trees here are covered in Spanish moss.
Selfie at The Wharf restaurant with Chris and Julie from Stulie.
Tied up in Jekyll island marina. We are kind of hard to spot, but if you look close you can see iFloat.
Back at the marina, we went to the hot hub for a while, then off to dinner with the crews of Stulie, A Loan Again, and Mackinac Passage III. Turns out that Scott and Leslie of A Loan Again are from Ottawa!
Key lime pie for dessert. This slice was 2 1/2 inches thick at least. We shared.
The next morning we started out with some chores to get the boat organized, then met with Chris and Julie to plan the next leg of our trip to Savannah. With that done, Louise and I borrowed a golf cart from the marina and went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Centre. This is a rehab facility for injured sea turtles. They had several in tanks recovering from various illnesses and injuries.
Having fun in the golf cart. The steering on this one was a bit loose, so it was a bit of an adventure to hold it straight.
Huge fossil turtle on the ceiling. The centre was in an old plantation building. This is their gift shop.
This guy was missing a back flipper. You can see where something tried to take a bite out of it's shell, or a propeller strike could have done it as well.
Back at the marina, we lazed around on the boat, and I'm pretty sure each one of us fell asleep for a while. After supper, we visited with Tom and Mary of Mackinack Passage III, our neighbour boat on the dock. There was a storm front due to pass through that evening, and the wind was REALLY whipping through, easily 40 kmhp. Just around sunset we returned to the boat, just before a heavy thunderstorm went through. Once the rain subsided, we turned in for the night. Tomorrow we are setting off north with Stulie.
Boat name of the day: Murder she boat
