We pulled out of Miami Beach Marina around 1130 GMT. After we cleared the marina, we powered up the hydraulic generator to test its function underway. It seemed to function well so we proceeded out Government cut. After we cleared the cut, I headed below to power up the watermaker so we would have water until we went into Rybovich Spencer. As I powered up the water maker, the port engine began to surge as it had the day before. After a quick discussion with Mike, we decided to power down the hydraulic and run Ling-Ling. We put our sails out and motor-sailed from Miami to West Palm Beach. It was a relatively quiet trip, though I was mildly sea sick. Mike, of course, had the appetite from hell and proceeded to chow down. I refused to eat until he fixed a cup of noodles soup. At that point, I perked up and ate his soup, while he fixed himself another. I wound up finishing that one to since there was too much salt for him to finish it. Around 1900 GMT, we neared the Lake Worth inlet. We dropped our sails and motored in. It looked like we would make it in without meeting one of the cruise ships or cargo ships that frequent the Port of Palm Beach and always seem to be going in or out at the same time we are. Unfortunately, that was not to be! As we neared the narrowest point of the channel, of course, we saw the Contessa II headed towards us! This wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it sounds, since two cruise ships can pass in the channel easily; however, when faced with such a big ship, the channel never looks wide enough until they are passing with 100 yards to spare! We headed to our favorite anchorage, dropped anchor and celebrated a great motor sail and a return, albeit temporary, to our wandering ways.
February 9-14, 2000 -- At Anchor Finally Knowing that we had significant work to do, we started immediately to clean out our aft cabin to facilitate the replacement of our exhaust hoses. It was a good thing to since this wound up taking 6 days to complete! We knew that we would need a number of boxes to pack up the aft stateroom, so as we had been ordering various things, we kept the boxes the stuff was shipped in. By February 9, we had accumulated quite a few boxes. We started by clearing out the port hanging locker and shelving. We were surprised by the number of boxes that were used in packing everything up. This was where we stored numerous spares as well as canned food. By the end of the day, we knew we would need additional boxes. On February 10, we dropped the dinghy and headed into Riveria Beach. We needed to pick up some terminal ends, wire and a Loran antenna for our Weather Fax. We were fortunate to find everything we needed at the Boat Owners Warehouse. On our way back, we stopped at a small convenience store for milk and bread. While I waited outside, I noticed BOXES! After Mike came out of the store, I headed over and pulled 4 out of the dumpster. We headed back to the boat and continued cleaning out the aft of the boat. Everything went reasonably well. In short order, we had cleaned out the other 2 hanging lockers and were diligently working on the companionway storage when we ran out of boxes again. At that point, we decided to get some of the other work done. We got out the Loran antenna and found a spot for it to mount, and hooked it up. We tested the weather fax and found that it worked very well. On February 11, we again headed into town for more boxes. Again, I procured 4. I was being an optimist! We headed back to the boat and continued packing stuff up. Once we completed the companionway storage, we turned our focus to the clothing cabinets and the storage underneath them, and promptly ran out of boxes. This wasn't a problem! We now had access to our duffel bags. First, I packed 2 bags for us of things that we would be using once we moved off the boat for 2 weeks. Then I packed up the rest of our shirts, and we were again, out of boxes! The highlight of the day came at about 2:45 pm EST. The space shuttle Endeavour launched! We weren't very close, of course, but we could see it lifting off. It was a fantastic sight, and one we almost missed! The shuttle was supposed to launch shorlty after 2:30 pm. We headed outside and waited until 2:40 or so, and didn't see anything. We assumed that the shuttle launch had been delayed again. We headed inside and flipped on the TV just in time to see the shuttle lifting off. We ran outside and watched until it was out of sight. On February 12, we went ashore again and discovered that the dumpster had been emptied! Now where were we going to get boxes? I took a chance and looked in the dumpster and discovered that there were some boxes that I could grab. Unfortunately, I could only grab 3. By this time, I was praying that would be enough! We returned to the boat and continued packing. At the end of the day, we still had ½ of 1 box left, and 2 storage areas still to finish. On February 13, we dumped out the boxes that contained clothes to recycle them for stuff. That freed up 2 boxes and allowed us to complete emptying out the aft of the boat. After completing that, we dismantled the shelving in our storage cabinets and were done, sort of. We spent the bulk of February 14 chasing down wires that had been cut and left in the boat. We removed a good 5 bags of trash wire from the wiring harnesses on the boat! After that was completed, we wired up a VHF radio in the aft stateroom, which was something we had been wanting to do for quite some time. At the end of the day, we verified that we would be being hauled the next day at Rybovich Spencer, and found out that the would not be able to haul us in the sling lift. We were asked to bring the boat in to be tied up while they attempted to call Choey Lee Shipyards to get a blocking plan for our boat so it could be hauled on the Synchro Lift. Thus ended our blissful days at anchor in West Palm Beach.
On February 15, we moved the boat into Rybovich Spencer to start the second round of work that we needed to have completed. We pulled into the dock around 7:30 am. We checked in with the dockmaster and then checked in at the work office. We hoped to meet with our yard supervisor to review additional items we wanted to add to our work list. Unfortunately, that did not happen. We spent the day tidying up a few loose ends, and piddling around the boat.
On February 16, we met with our yard supervisor on a few key points that needed to be reviewed and felt comfortable with work getting underway. We decided it would be best to stay out of the workers way, but we planned to make sure that we were at the boat a couple of times each day in case there were questions.
February 17 and 18 we watched as the exhaust hoses were replaced. We discovered that the port exhaust hose was in far more desperate need of being replaced than we had first thought. The previous owners had not replaced it due to the modifications that would be required in order to complete that work. We authorized the modifications, essentially access panels being cut behind the galley sink, and the work quickly progressed.
February 19 was Saturday and it was spent sleepily doing next to nothing except wandering around the Palm Beach area checking out the marine stores. That actually isn't quite true. We did remove our old inverter and pull the wires that inverted the TV and stereo system back to where the new inverter was being installed. Once we had completed that, we decided to work on the rest when we were fresh instead of frazzled.
On February 20, we set to work on completing the inverter and Link 2000 panel installation. While Mike traced out the wires and connections, and identified the few final items we needed, I acted as gopher and researcher. Finally, around lunch time, I headed out with a list of items that we needed to obtain to complete the installation as well as a lunch order. Surprisingly, I found everything we needed at the Boat Owners Warehouse, and was back on the boat within 45 minutes with supplies and food. We worked the rest of the afternoon, running 2 sets of new electrical cables and wiring everything up. At the end of the day, we tested the new system and it worked. It was much easier to do than the instructions had led us to believe. We now had our new inverter/charger system up and running, and it only took 3 months to do it! Our inverter would power the following components: the refrigerator, the stereo, the TV, the computer, and soda machine.
On February 21 and 22, Rybovich Spencer began work on our freezer. On the 22nd, we saw why our freezer system was not working at peak efficiency! The freezing coils were on the outside of the box and there were a number of air gaps between the insulation and the freezer compartment. After discussing it with our supervisor, we decided to get an expert evaluation of the system before we decided precisely what move to make, though we were strongly leaning towards replacing the box and coils with something slightly smaller but designed more classically with cold plates inside the box.
February 23 was nothing special. Work progressed on the boat, and we were happy. On February 24, the plumbing in the galley, and the exhaust hoses on the engines were completely replaced also the water maker discharge was moved to its own thu hull. At this point we decided to start putting the aft stateroom back together. We were able to complete the port side of the boat. Unfortunately, we had to stop because the alarm system was not installed on the starboard side!
February 25 was the bad news day. We found out that the hatches that were supposed to have been received on the 20th had not been shipped from Lewmar yet, and Lewmar wasn't willing to give a ship date because they were "so back ordered." These hatches had been ordered in December! We also found out that Lofranz would not have a new windlass to us for 3 to 4 weeks. We debated this issue for a bit and decided that it would be better to wait for the new windlass since it was our feeling, as well as the mechanics that our windlass could not be salvaged due to the lack of preventative maintenance from previous owners. We could also envision ourselves having to pull up a 140 pound anchor by hand and with 100 feet or so of chain, this was not at the top of our list of things to do!
On February 26, we did nothing. It was nice!
On February 27, we decided to work on the washer dryer. If you remember, it had slipped an E-clip during the first part of February. We tried everything we could to get enough clearance access to work on it. Unfortunately, we needed 2 more inches of clearance to be able to do anything with it! We decided to hand this problem to our yard supervisor on Monday.
On February 28, we presented the problem of the washer dryer to the supervisor. He considered it, called in a second opinion and we came to the conclusion that we might be able to get a lower profile washer dryer. If that was the case, then we would do that. Otherwise we would have to figure out how to redesign the washer dryer access, or cut an inspection hatch in the fly bridge deck for it. Now that we had the time, we decided to add a few more items to the work list and have a door made for our new inverter, as well as framing in our stereo system. Lewmar still had not given a ship date for the hatches. As the current hatch are stating to deteriorate badly, and need to be replaced, we did not feel safe leaving the US without getting them replaced.
On February 29, a blocking plan was completed so the boat could be hauled on the synchro lift system. Our supervisor told us that the boat would be hauled on Thursday. He still did not know when the hatches would be in, so we took things into our own hands. We ordered 5 hatches from West Marine. The hatches would be in at the store Thursday.