Ft. Lauderdale on the ICW and the wait for a crossing begins

 Yesterday we moved the boat down to Ft. Lauderdale from North Palm Beach with the hope of getting into a geography that supports a more comfortable Gulf Stream crossing. Last year we learned that the wave heights taper off since more of the coast of Florida is sheltered by the Bahama bank. In other words, more of the Gulf Stream is protected by the bank the more South we move the boat.

 We were wishing we moved the boat down on Monday to capitalize on the Wednesday through Thursday weather window but there is no need to rush and this way we have a better handle on the boat and what it needs. As we settle into a rhythm and develop more confidence we have the boat issues resolved the peace of mind goes up supporting confidence in the Gulf Stream crossing. Looking out at the stream over the palm trees one has to wonder why we sat here in Ft. Lauderdale.

 So did we miss a window or avoid a train wreck?  Both. We could have crossed over today and made Bimini easily. We probably could have made Lucaya or West End as well. But considering the outlook towards the end of the day and a forecast that was shifting in a negative direction we elected to sit here in Ft. Lauderdale until the next window. Given the notion that the word "probably" entered the scenario, we bailed out. Over the last couple of years we have had weather windows slam down on us and the last thing we need is to have one come down on us when we are in the Gulf Stream. So we'll hope for a window that offers us a cushion of fair weather after our planned crossing. It's always better to leave some room in the itinerary for unexpected events.

 This is not a bad thing because we can focus on more preparations while we enjoy the sites and sounds of Ft. Lauderdale. There are much worse places to be stuck waiting for weather to improve. The area offers many places to dine, as well as a long clean beach to walk. Early in the morning there aren't so many folks on the walks but this is a far cry from the emptiness of the Bahamas and the peace that brings. No honking horns, or crowds to deal with. Since the Gulf Stream doesn't look as though it's going to settle down for a while we will be moving up the New River and closer to shops of necessity instead of curio shops.

Getting her ready and the trip to Lake Worth

 I know.

 It's been a while since I wrote about our progress. We've finally had some break throughs enabling Freedom to move on. It seems like we were in and out of the water 4 times before the shafts were finally straight enough to run with. Each lift is no small task and very stressful. To put it into perspective, think about someone coming along with a crane and lifting up your house every few days. Anyway after letting Freedom rest in the water subsequent to the last launching the dial indicator told us there was virtually zero run out at a point about 1 foot from the hull exit point. Finally, no drunken drive shafts wobbling through the hull.

 I have to hand it to the folks here at Indiantown.

 They took a loss for the sake of dignity at the expense of the shop that was working on our prop shafts. We are very happy with the folks here.

 So we took her out and ran her up. The Detroits screemed like 426 CID two stroke diesels do, and we plowed along at about 19 knots. It's not fast but that's good speed considering Freedom weighs in at 20 tons, we have plenty of the stores aboard, and a full load of fuel. I was surprised she wound up that fast. But in keeping with our luck up to that point the port engine sprang a fuel leak. Since this was a trial run for the work we had done the mechanics were aboard. After we turned around he ran up to let me know there was antifreeze everywhere on the port engine.

 Insert expletive. "Farque" works for me.

 I asked where the leak was and he said the aft most part on the inside of the engine. I said that isn't antifreeze and he said it was. He asked if we used the pink antifreeze and I said yes, but there is no way there is AF coming out of the engine there. So I went to the bilge and sure enough it was diesel. It's pink like antifreeze but easily differentiated from AF. Before leaving the helm to Deb I had throttled back so by this point the leak subsided. He indicated it was a cooler, and subsequently I pulled it out and had a look because it was soaked with diesel. It was NTF proven by a pressure test that was not required IMHO. My next guess turned out to be the correct assessment of where the fuel was coming from. It was a fuel pressure activated switch that turns on the engine hour meters and other trivia. Once replaced the leak was resolved and subsequently verified by throttling up Freedom at the dock in neutral. 

 With a sigh of relief since this was only 35 bucks and sweat equity to resolve we kicked back for the Saturday evening marina sponsored BBQ. It's a great time where the marina kicks in a main course and everyone in attendance brings a side and their own beverages. Lately everyone needs to relax because many of us here have been slogging through some major repairs. After eating, a married couple brought up their guitar and organ from their boat and began to play. They have done this for several weeks here and they are pleasant folk fun to listen to and be around.  

 But we heard yet another rendition of "Hotel California" that they like to play for the crowd at the marina. After hearing some of the repair stories people were going through we began to associate their singing of "Hotel California" with the plight of many of the boaters here. You know the lyrics "you can check out but you can never leave?". Many people were waiting on new engines, insurance claims and other issues. Every time they played that song it started to ring home adding to the incentive to move on.

 In spite of the dull drums this maintenance has driven home we were in Stuart on Saturday to visit West Marine on US 1. It happens to be relatively close to the airport where they happened to have an air show running this past weekend. It wasn't a very large show but it managed to draw an Airforce contingency that included an F-16, an F-18 , various transports, and private stunt planes as well as crowds. We pulled into the parking lot at West Marine and to our surprise we had a great viewing of an F-18 pulling slow passes, full after burner ballistic shots, and 85 degree banked atmosphere shredding passes that went right overhead. We could clearly see the air condensing over the wings as it passed about 300 feet overhead totally banked pulling "G"s. I saluted the pilot and I could clearly see the helmet that's how close it was to us.

 It scared the heck out of Debbie it was that loud but wow, was that cool. I wish I had the camera. Dang.

 And today we moved on. Finally. Freedom behaved within expectations and brought us to Lake Worth and the North Palm Beach Marina. Along the way we were met by two exceptional AH's. One plowed along right at us and refused to back down. It was a good rocking. Then there was the bimbo driving her boat right at us with her leg hanging over the side. Yes, she was alone in the boat. If she fell in, it was going to get ugly. Given we know several people that have fallen out of a running boat left unattended, she had us concerned. We're unsure what her agenda is but some might think she was advertising.

 I've created a new link off of the blog to the latest GPS data called "The 2010-2011 Voyage". It will contain the Google Earth compatible tracks so the trip can be reviewed. Depending on how you set up the tour play options it can be interesting. Particularly when reviewed from a higher altitude so you can see the properties that are along the ICW.

 Some people know how to live. We do ok, but some people REALLY know how to live.

 The first photo is Jupiter inlet. It looks placid enough but they are saying the Gulf Stream is still running high seas and it starts about 4 miles off shore lately.

I think I'd rather see dolphins next to Freedom

 Today we had Freedom hauled yet again. So far this commissioning has to be the worst we've ever experienced. Freedom has been lifted and re blocked in the work area, lifted and launched, hauled and blocked and launched, hauled inspected and launched, hauled and blocked and launched, and we anticipate this will happen one more time tomorrow.
 See something missing in the photo? In between all of the hauling, blocking, and launching etc., both sets of running gear found their way to a propeller shop. Today we removed some of this reworked hardware and brought it back in so the owner of the propeller shop could review the work.

 It did not go well. He was certain we would find the shaft was true, but much to his dismay that was not the case. I was able to observe some of the measurements. As they approached the problem area the dial indicator moved quite a bit and I looked at the owner, the team leader for the marina, and said, I think we are out of here now. That was as if to say we know where the issue is, the shaft is still bent.

 Not too much time went by before I heard the owner screaming at the employee. Right about that time I told the marina's team leader it was time for us to leave. Since Freedom had been re floated with a stub shaft installed we had a place to run to. If you click on the photo of Freedom you will see the bright spot at the back end of the intermediate strut. That's the end of the stub shaft we are using to keep Freedom afloat while the real shaft is repaired.

 While we were moving about taking care of the re floating details left unattended to while we went to the shop, a bit of company swam up to the side of Freedom.

 Ali was in town. Real stealthy. Not even a ripple in the water when it moved. Real peaceful looking as it slithered by. Unless you were looking for it it probably would have gone by with us thinking it was a log in the water.

 Hopefully we keep floating.

Another turn of the wheel.....

 All of the Kings Men have fallen on their faces. After pulling shafts, props, and couplings for all of the running gear, reworking it, and then reinstalling it, the same problem exists. I didn't even need to sea trial the boat to spot it and flag it again.

 So Monday we get hauled again and they go to work. If we are lucky someone will find out what is happening here.

 With that, I'm going in. LATER!

Back on the hard...

 As we reviewed the situation yesterday, we said out loud, "this is really gonna suck". Anyway it is what it is and Freedom is back up on the hard. We're not sure what the cause of the issue is, but it's better to get it resolved before we leave this marina and travel on risking more damage. Misaligned or bend shafts can lead to other failures that raise the cost of "poker".

 So what happened?

 At idle in gear tied down at the dock the port side propellor shaft was visably oscillating. One could look at the shaft seal and see it wooble quite a bit even at low speed. Good thing I checked it before we left.

 We're not sure yet but we suspect one of two things happened on the port side. The flange attached to the propellor shaft that mates the shaft with the transmission is warped or, the shaft is bent. I installed new shaft seals prior to the launch. That entailed separating the transmission and propellor shaft flanges, removing the flanges from the shafts, installing new seals, and then reattaching everything. The port side flange was a bear to remove from the propellor shaft. Quite a bit of pressure on the "gear puller" was required before it popped loose. That could have warped 1/2 inch steel. Tough to imagine I could do that with a few bolts while using a pattern of tightening to distribute the load but it's certainly possible. 

 Part of the process of reinstalling all of this was to hand lap the shafts into the flanges again. They are a self locking tapered fit with a key. While this was a chore considering the flange weighs about 15 pounds it all looked good. I should have stuck a dial indicator on it though. We all believe this was not the source of the issue. The pros removing everything this time have no explanation.

 So the running gear went to a shop for examination with all sorts of high tech gear and lathes. While all of this is happening we are dumping the GFO packing and Buck Algonquin spud type seals for Tide Marine dripless seals. Even though we were only idling at the dock in gear I could not get the temperature of the packing fittings on the shaft below a very hot to the touch temperature. Perhaps with two coils instead of three we'd get the temperature down but all recommendations were for three. Even with a large gap between the ends allowing for expansion on the starbord side, they both ran hot at a very loose setting of the spud.
 Fortunately we have great people around us here at Indiantown Marina. I can't say enough about them.

Life on the road and at Indiantown

 We left NY for Florida last Wednesday setting aside three days of driving at 8 hours per day. Traffic was good and on every day we made great time down I95 towards Florida. There was only one major delay where a bridge was being raised to allow taller traffic on I95. Several of the bridges passing over I95 have been raised already but as fate would have it while traversing North Carolina they had both Southbound lanes closed at one of the older I95 crossings. All traffic had to exit I95 then cross an intersection and then get back on I95. It sounds simple but the traffic had to squeeze down to a single lane. We were lucky we left early in the day so we were only backed up in traffic about a mile deep when it caught us. 

 Arriving in Savannah, we had a great Sushi dinner out with Michele where we combined efforts to consume 6 rolls. Great food at Miyabi in Savannah.  

 We were lucky we left NY when we did because that got us to Indiantown in the early afternoon on Friday. If we arrived on Saturday we would have lost the ability to work on Freedom for two days because they don't run the travelift on weekends and the boat was not in the work yard. After driving 8 hours, we unloaded the car hoisting everything up about 10 feet onto Freedom, and then we helped move the boat and reconnect it to some power. A long day. 

 The boat made it through the Summer very well. Having a dehumidifier running aboard with an over side drain kept the insides dry. This kept just about everything free of mildew. But grinding off all of the scale on the rudders, trim tabs and propeller shafts was a 2.5 day chore with 40 grit sand paper on a 5 inch random orbital sander. It was like trying to sand concrete. This photo of the aft most strut displays the level of encrustation that was common to all of hardware under the waterline. At first blush it doesn't look dense enough to be a problem and that's what we thought. We know much better now. There has to be a better way that works for the EPA. Anyway the shafts are cleaned up and can slide through the cutlass bearings easily and that facilitates removal and installation of shaft seals which let go and started leaking water into the bilge back in the Spring. When they quit working we were traveling to the Berry Islands across the Northwest Providence channel (big, deep water) from Lucaya. While the Eastern opening of this passage is mostly protected from the open Atlantic, it can still get ugly out there. But we waited quite while for calm weather and it paid dividends plus. The water was very calm for that crossing.

 With four full days of work done we still have two more and if we keep at it Freedom will be in the water Friday! But we still have install new shaft seals, lap the shafts into the flanges, connect the shafts to the transmissions and repack the rudders before we wash and wax the hull. By hand of course. I have to work off all of the conch fritters I consumed last season in the Bahamas somehow.

 Once in the water we are thinking it will be another week afloat before we start moving again. With all of the work going into Freedom we want to make sure she hasn't sprung a leak or two. And there are all of the electronics to reconnect and check out also.    

Tropical "storm" Nicole and getting ready

 Nicole came up our way and left quite a bit of rain in the hills to the Northwest of Kingston. Given some of the roads up around the Rondout Reservoir and Askokan offer good scenery we opted to go for a ride.

  The roads of particular interest were Route 42 and 55A. The later was open for all we wanted and so was Route 46 leading to 42. But 42 was closed somewhere along the way so we could not traverse the entire length. We did go up the road from each end, and while traveling from one side to the other we were able to locate many waterfalls that were in full force. As you can see the leaves have not started to change much yet so perhaps we'll need another ride so we get to see them before heading South.

 Parts are coming in all the time and we have a mountain in the basement that has to fit into the car. By the way, I am hoping our new webcam will behave well when we are hooked up to hotspots that play well with it. As it turns out some hotspots don't allow people to sign into the cam so merely looking at the photo will have to do. I'll update the blog with the link to the camera when it's stabilized as much as it can.