No Help 12/28

Fort Pierce Florida, N27 28 W80 19
December 28, 2005

Yesterday we sailed down to Fort Pierce. We needed to lay over here 36
hours to wait for the right wind to go out to sea. I also wanted to see
if we could get a diesel mechanic to help fix the oil leaks.

No luck on the mechanics. I talked to two of them and both said it
would be 2 to 3 weeks before they could work for me. One mechanic said
that we would have to haul the boat out and remove the engine and
transmission to replace the engine seal. The other mechanic said the
opposite, that he could do it in a few hours in-place. In any event,
we'll have to live with the problem for a while longer. However, the
amount of leaking fluid is much less than before, about 2 dl of oil per
3 hours of engine time. It must be that the leaking water from the
stuffing box was mixing with the oil.

Last night I decided to fish. On my very first cast, I caught a snag.
When I reeled it in I pulled up a length of rather expensive West Marine
5/8 inch braided Dacron. I pulled on the line and in a few minutes I
had a very nice Danforth anchor, and chain and 100 feet of rode. Now
we have a third anchor for Tarwathie. I'll use it as a stern anchor.
Nice return for 5 minutes of fishing.

What a pretty harbor this is. Sandy bottom, not crowded, lots of
dolphins swimming around and only 1/2 mile from the ocean inlet.

This morning I saw a big flock of birds to the east. At first I thought
it was crows or starlings because there were so many. Looking closer
though I could see they were soaring birds, most likely hawks. I never
saw so many hawks at the same time before. This nature is lovely.

I went ashore to buy groceries and oil absorbent cloths. At the West
Marine store the man told me, "Last night a man came in and bought all
the oil absorbent cloths we had; more than 150 of them." Wow. I guess
some people have bigger leaks than I do.

Tomorrow we'll go out to sea again. We can sail to Fort Lauderdale
overnight, or sail to Palm Beach tomorrow, and Palm Beach to Lauderdale
the next day. We'll decide based on weather.