Well everybody, Christmas is over and we are now back in Marathon. What a difference this place is. From very few transient vessels to being loaded to capacity with every type of boat imaginable..... and of all sizes. here's a few of the more notable ones
Everyone is busy carrying out repairs of some sort in order to get on with their cruise.
In this photo, we were all wondering just how many people it really takes to mount a wind generator on a catamaran.
The whisker pole was donated by yours truly so they could create a boom to lift it with.
As for us .... we still have a problem with our power issues. The damn fridge just won't shut off and it's dragging down the batteries by 5 amps per hour. Yesterday Mel came over with his gauges and determined that there is a leak in the Freon system and moisture has gotten into the system. Therefore .... the decision was reached to purchase a brand new Aldler Barbour unit for a mere $1400 and get rid of the problem right away.
Mel drove Ron down to Key West to pick up the evaporator and the new compressor unit was ordered in through West Marine to be picked up today.
Sooooo, this being Saturday night, all the parts have arrived and Ron & Mel will install the new fridge tomorrow afternoon.....Right after we install the new water badder to replace the one that burst.
Did I say money? Seems that the old adage is very true when cruising. All this cruising thing is about is that you move your boat to a new location and continue to dump money into it.
As for the solar panel, we took the advice of others and rotated it ninety degrees to get it out from under the shadow of the radar. Instantly, we started getting 8 amps of current into the batteries when the best we could do before was 1.2 amps
Like I said ... Boot Key Harbour is full of boats right now. It's really funny sitting here listening to the net about how long ... for hours ... they complain and debate about some guy who shoots off a cannon at sunset. Everyone has to analyze it to death.
Well, I guess what keeps you going is friends and family and we seem to have plenty of both.
Yes Girls .... Mom still wears the bib you gave her so she doesn't drop food down her shirt.
In case you didn't hear ... Jan & I were baptized into the harbour last week when getting into the dingy. Ron was sitting in the stern and holding the boat in to the ladder for Jan. The current caught the bow ... Jan lost her balance and landed on Ron. The dingy immediately flipped upside down right off the stern of the boat. Only Ron's pride was hurt and his glasses were rescued the next day by the diver who was scraping the bottom of the boat.
Our neighbours thought this was a new way to clean the barnacles off the bottom of the dingy so didn't help. They might have clued in when they saw the propeller sticking straight up in the air ... duh !!!
The hope right now is that we get all our repairs completed in the next couple days and we're expecting a weather window by Thursday so we head back up to Miami and wait once again to cross over to the Bahamas, some 52 miles away.
Thursday and Friday are calling for Easterly winds 8-10 knots. Should be OK for the run up to Miami.
Scott H is also looking at doing the run up to Miami as he says he's getting tired of swinging from the ball down here.
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