Neal will chortle and others will shake their heads...

This isn't a log, just a snippet. I haven't written a log in months, out of
disgust and frustration, not to mention lack of motivation.

This is a reply to friends in Georgetown, who say the bunch there misses us:


I just can't tell you how distressing this past 15 months has been.

Every time we move the boat, some gamestopper breaks.

On the way to our mechanic in Stuart (ICW, yuck, run from Vero), our 4-154
FWater pump gave up the ghost, leaking coolant until it got down to that
level, which resulted in overheating.

Limped in, docked, plugged in, mechanic did his work and broke a line
getting it off; workaround achieved, and 8 days later, we're back in
business. In addition, while we were stuck, I found 3 sources of
NEW-from-Perkins, in stock, no-problem water pumps, where the word on the
street had been that they were unobtainium. All set for when we get back to
Vero.

Not so fast, bucko.

Our 4 L16HC batterie$ gave up the gho$t at the dock, and will no longer hold
a charge overnight. PS our new $ea Fro$t refrigeration is struggling, too,
maybe batteries, maybe the water pump with gunge from our grounding.
Cleaned out the filter, backwashed the line, bled the pump, restart.
Batteries, I sincerely hope, because I don't think I can deal with
refrigeration again so soon (total replacement after 4 months of
troubleshooting, etc. and 10 weeks of fiddling to get this one installed and
set up right, including 2 replacement temp probes, starting over on the
evaporator plates, and a replacement constant pressure valve - the only
significant component not replaced was the compressor, from NEW).

We sailed on staysail alone (did I mention that the furler line failed on
the last trip; new line is waiting for us ashore today) to Ft. Pierce where
we went aground in the channel under Causeway Island. Lots of shifting sand
in there, apparently.

No problem, we were going to get a tow to Vero, anyway; let's just do it
now. TBUS arrives, we're immediately under way (very soft grounding), and
30 minutes into it comes the NOAA 40kt/tornado interruption on the VHF.
Around we turn, and back to the anchorage, scheduling for the next day.

Which went well, until we got to our mooring where we'd left the dinghy to
assure it was available, on the advice of staff, $till paying for it, and
found someone else tied to the mooring with our dink streaming next to it.

No biggie but we had to go forward, secure to an open mooring there, get a
ride to the boat behind us, remove our mooring line from their boat and the
mooring and install theirs, remove our dinghy and returned home. Whether we
can browbeat the staff into abating the rent for that time remains to be
seen; that was a preferable float and a preferable location, so to require
us to pay for the space when we couldn't have it would only add insult to
injury to our gymnastics required.

And that was just yesterday; the entire 15 months has been like that.

See you as soon as we can, but likely not until next season...


This, too will pass, but it's very tire$ome.

L8R

Skip
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Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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- Dr. Samuel Johnson