May 01-09, 2000 -- We're Never Going To Get Out!

May 1-9, 2000 -- We're Never Going To Get Out! On May 1, I started doing laundry, and discovered that our washer/dryer stopped drying. After talking with Splendid, we performed some checks and discovered that the dryer wasn't blowing air. We took the deck box off, and then took the washer/dryer lid off. We took off the dryer motor and discovered that the squirrel cage had sheared off! We ordered a new one. Since laundry could not be done, we focused on our teak. On May 2, the Fredrickstad was pulling out while I was lowering our sonar. We decided to check it out, and discovered that the sonar was offset by 36 degrees. After discussions with Wesmar, we were informed that there was a software fix that could be performed and that took care of the problem. On May 3, we had Henri and Anne over for Pizza. Their work has been completed, so they are planning to pull out sometime in the next two days. Our squirrel cage came in, but we were unable to get the tip off the motor. We put WD40 on it, heated it, freezed it, beat it, and cussed the hell out of it! Totally unrelated to this incident, I developed an ear ache. On May 4, we took the motor to the machine shop where they were able to remove it, by cutting the old spindle then prying the sections apart. Henri and Anne came over in the morning and said good bye. They then headed toward Vero Beach. Henri called us each hour to see what the range on his VHF was. On May 5, we decided to rent a car for the weekend. We needed to do some running around and get more sandpaper, perishables, a new fender for the boat (for some reason we seem to only be able to keep two or three at time, it seems that every time we turn around one is biting the dust). On May 6, we did quite a bit of running around to get the items we wanted to pick up. On May 7, we had cocktails with Paula and Bill on Wave Dancer. They had returned Thursday. On May 8, my ear ache still wasn't getting any better, and we were going to register the boat & dink in Florida. Since we have a Florida address, this would make life simpler than keeping it registered in DC. This did not work out since the place we had to go to, was closed on Monday. We started looking for a DOC in the box for me. Instead we found a doctor and I saw him right away, almost first thing in the morning. We talked a bit about cruising, and he asked what drugs we carried on board in case they where needed. I made a second appointment so we could talk with him about a med kit. The freezer guys started the freezer install. On May 9, we registered the boat and dinghy in Florida, then went to the doctor's office. He prescribed the necessary items we were missing for our med kit. We came back to the boat, put a load of laundry on, and found that our washer/dryer still isn't drying. Perhaps we (meaning me) hooked something up wrong. The freezer guys are almost done with their install! Since we knew that we were close to leaving, we (meaning me) sat down to plot our courses from West Palm Beach to Norfolk, with the various potential stops we could make