Shaft Project, Days 6-8

Fort Pierce, FL
No LL

Yesterday was a day off from the project. We rented a car and drove to Vero for Libby's last doctor appointment for this winter. Ouch! The car rental fee was double what it was a few weeks ago. It has to do with Easter week and the end of the season. Florida car rental companies expertly fine tune their prices to charge the highest rates at the times of peak demand. I think that their prices vary as much as 300%.

Well, were on the down slope of this project. Today a mechanic came to help. He installed 4 new motor mounts. He aligned the engine. He installed my new shaft coupler, and a replacement drive saver flexible coupler.

In the process I learned that the shaft log was no installed quite square. It pinched one side more then the other and made the engine alignment difficult.

After the mechanic left, I pulled off the shaft log one last time. It had fit into the bore hole very snugly. Then I filed away a bit of the bore hole it fits through to give it a bit of play. Then I resurfaced the butt end with fresh Marine Tex epoxy putty, and also put putty on the log where it enters the bore hole. When I bolted it back on, it pinched the one side again. Aha! I backed off on the bolts, and the log aligned nicely with the shaft. I'll let the putty cure in that position before I tighen the bolts.

Tomorrow we'll put things back together. I think we'll splash on Friday morning.

I'll hold off on giving a summary and post mortem until we're back in the water and I see how smoothly she runs.

Relay: Crew Needed For Heron

Fort Pierce, FL

No LL

I know that many of you are experienced sailors and Westsail enthusiasts. Perhaps you may be interested in the following request that I'm relaying for the W32 Heron.

Our plan was for me to get off the boat in Fernandina and Don and 2 crew continue to Deltaville , VA - he is down to 1 crew and would like one more ( experience preferred ) to get them either to Beaufort, NC or all the way to Deltaville. We would of course pay expenses. Well have a car in Fernandina so could pick someone up. [ed: Heron is in Fernandina already, departure in a few days. Don says that with experienced crew they can make it an offshore passage.]

If you're interested, let me know. I'll relay your contact info back to Don on Heron.

I also learned from Don that our friend Greg on Argonauta is anchored here in Fort Pierce about a mile away. We'll try to see him to say hello.

Shaft Project, Days 4-5

Fort Pierce, FL
27 27.94 N 080 19.69 W

Well, we aren't going to be ready after a week, but we're closing in on it.

• The propeller shaft has been straightened. (Was that the cause of the problem? Possibly yes, but not conclusive.)
• The Max Prop propeller has been cleaned, polished, and checked for balance.
• The shaft log opening has been re-glassed with Marine Tex.
• New log-stuffing box hose and new hose clamps.
• Repacked the stuffing box.
• New shaft coupler, new drive saver flexible coupling, and 4 new engine mounts in hand and waiting to be installed.
• As soon as I get a mechanic to help install the mounts and do final alignment, and when I reinstall the propeller, we're done.

My new target is Wednesday.

By the way, after two readers provided considerable information on using a fiberglass shaft tube instead of the bronze shaft log, I seriously considered it. I finally decided it won't work. The problem is that with a shaft tube I could never remove the shaft, and maybe never the cutlass bearing.

I can't remove the shaft aftward. It hits the rudder, even with the rudder fully deflected. I can't remove it forward with the log installed, it hits the engine. The only way I can remove it is to first take the log off, and then angle the shaft out forward through the wide hole. If I had a fiberglass shaft tube, it would have to be cut off to remove the shaft. Also, without an extension to the shaft tube, where would the set screws go that hold the cutlass bearing in. Sorry, the tube won't work.

Opening with log removed

Shaft Log

Below: How often have you seen people post proud pictures of their toilet on their blog? I admit it's unusual, but it was so much work to completely renovate that Skipper head that I couldn't resist the picture before reinstalling it.

Shaft Project, Day 3

Fort Pierce, FL

No LL

On Thursday my only accomplishment was to finish disassembling our toilet. It was a bear of a job. In the end, I needed a gallon of muratic acid and the help of a neighbor with a pair of channel lock pliers as long as my shin to get it apart.

One point of acute embarrassment. Back in 2007 a critical part broke on that toilet. It caused us to have no functioning toilet on board just when our friend Pete flew down to Florida to spend a week sailing with us. I blogged about it. In the end I had to order a new part for $130 and to stay 4 days in an expensive marina waiting for it to come.

Anyhow, yesterday while pawing through my spare parts for the toilet I found a spare for that critical broken part. It was on board the whole time and I didn't think to look for it. Stupid of me.

-----------

By the way, a few months ago I remarked on an odd report that suggested that the Gulf Stream was slowing and causing unusual tide levels here in Florida. I'm glad to say that I found an article here that says no. A excerpt follows:

Here’s a brief update on the great heat-toting oceanic currents that at one time were thought to be at risk from human-driven warming of the climate. There’s been no slowdown at all through much of the past decade and probably none since the early 1990s, according to new work using methods developed by Joshua Willis at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

Shaft Project, Day 2

Fort Pierce, FL
27 27.94 N 080 19.69 W

We are waiting for the prop shop to check our shaft and propeller. Therefore, today we had to find new projects.

I decided to overhaul our toilet. We have a Wilcox-Crittenden Skipper toilet. The Skipper is known as the Cadillac of marine toilets. New ones cost about $1,000. It's solid bronze, built like a brick you know what. However, the gaskets, and seals are worn out. The toilet is 35 years old.

I've had a repair kit waiting for installation for a long time, but it's hard to find the situation where we don't need the onboard toilet for a day or so.

I started taking it apart. Jeez what a hard job. I got to a point where I'm stuck. I can't get the pump shaft out. I tugged, and banged, and heated it with a torch. No luck. Finally I called the manufacturer. They promised to have someone call me back. So now I'm waiting on them too.

Libby finished waxing the hull, and also did some interior painting.

Tomorrow morning we'll have to find still more projects to work on.

Shaft Project, Day 1

Fort Pierce, FL
27 27.94 N 080 19.69 W

We got a lot of work done the first day. We got the boat up on the hard. I got the propeller and hub off the shaft. I removed the shaft log. I unbolted the shaft and removed it from the boat. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I see no evidence to support the theory that a vibrating shaft log was the cause of the problem. With the log removed, the shaft appears to stick right through the middle of the hole. That indicates that engine alignment was nearly perfect. However, I have to recheck it with the flexible coupler removed because the flexibilty allows the shaft to droop a bit. The shaft log hole, and the bolt holes all appear normal, not elongated.

That puts us in caution mode. The worst thing we could do would be to put everything back together without solving the root cause. Therefore, I'm sending the propeller and the shaft away to a prop house to check for straightness and balance.

We also discovered a new problem. I have a copper plate on the hull that forms our lightning ground. It is separate from the Dynaplate that is the electrical ground for the boat. The bolts and screws holding the copper plate in place appear to be eroding away due to galvanic action. I'll replace them with stainless which is more noble (less noble?) than copper.

I'm getting great advice from blog readers. Two readers suggest I replace the bronze log with a fiberglass shaft tube. However, two people in the yard advise the opposite. Situation normal, conflicting advice. I'm not decided yet which to do.

Libby is cleaning and waxing the hull.

Mechanical Woes

Stuart, FL

No LL

On Monday we're going to Fort Pierce to have Tarwathie hauled up on the hard. Here's the story behind this expensive and unexpected development. Warning: what follows is technical.

On our recent survey, the surveyor found that we had excessive wear on our cutlass bearing. That was coupled with a drastic increase in the amount of water leaking in around the shaft. What the H? The cutlass bearing was new 3 years ago when we repowered. It should last up to 20 years. How could it fail so fast?

I called Bud Taplin for advice and ideas. After describing the symptoms Bud said, "It sounds like your shaft log is vibrating." What the heck!!! How could that happen. Bud asked, "Are you getting any leakage around the shaft log?" As a matter of fact yes. Indeed, I wrote about it in a blog post last November including a blue print of the shaft log. Finally Bud asked, "Have you run aground or had any crab pot lines wrapped around the prop?" Bingo. As usual, Bud was brilliant. Just a few questions and he nailed it. I think.

Last summer on Lake Champlain we allowed the dinghy painter to wrap around the prop. It sank the dinghy and stopped the engine dead. It is possible that incident pulled sideways on the shaft so powerfully that it pulled the shaft log loose and elongated the bolt holes that hold it in place. Our current woes could be the result of undetected damage from that incident.

My first thought was to wait until we get to Deltaville, Virginia to do this repair project. Upon further reflection I conclude that would be really dumb. Deltaville is 1,000 miles from here and the severity of the vibrations and leakage could increase drastically converting a problem to an emergency.

So, what's the cure? How do we confirm the hypothesis and repair it if correct. It means putting the boat up on the hard, removing the propeller, grinding down the Marine Tex putty over the log. At that point the evidence confirming the hypothesis may be evident. Maybe not. Either way, I'll have to follow through the same way.

I'll remove the log. Then, I'll have to re-glass the bolt holes and bore new holes. Next I'll remove the Drive Saver flexible coupling, move the shaft forward, and re-bolt it in place. (With the Driver Saver in place, the shaft would droop and alignment is impossible.)

Then, adjust the engine mounts to align it so that the shaft passes exactly through the hole in the log. (I could do it the other way around; put the log on the shaft, then bore the holes to mount the log securely in that exact spot.) With the log firmly mounted, and the shaft aligned, install a new Drive Saver, put new Marine Tex putty over it to make it waterproof, and remount the propeller. That should do it.

We are allowing one week up on the hard to accomplish this project.

Comments anyone?

FLorida Cracker Country

Vergennes, VT

44 10.164 N 073 18.43 W

It's a rainy day here. We've done nothing noteworthy all day long. Therefore, here's a post that I wrote a long time ago but never published.

These are a few scenes from last winter's trip across Lake Okeechobee and the center of Florida. Click on them to enlarge.

Who needs a bigger fishing boat? Not him. Instead of one big boat to hold all their nets, local fishermen just tow a few skiffs behind them. Thrifty.

Apparently, Uncle Joe's Fish Camp is a very modest yet long standing local business. You see all the facilities in this picture. Uncle Joe is standing beside it.

The Hicpochee Lodge. This looks like something from the 19th century. Perhaps it is.

Central Florida was charming. It appears to be largely unchanged in 50 years. Compared to the hustle and bustle of the coasts, it is a very welcome contrast. Life here is on the slow track.

Surprises, Good and Bad

Stuart, FL

27 11,91 N 080.65 W

We're back in Stuart. The side trip across Florida was a fun diversion. We're really glad we did it, even if we did miss the Edison House.

Of course, we keep track of our cruising friends. We care what happens to them and we hope for the best. Today, we got surprising news about two couples; one good and one bad. I won't give their names or too many details of their stories because they may prefer to do the telling themselves.

The good news first. One of our favorite couples on a W32 had serious engine problems. I've been try to call them on my cell for a couple of days and got no answer. I feared the worst. I feared that they had to haul their boat up on the hard and to remove the engine to repair it. When we got back to Stuart today we asked other friends of theirs what happened to them. The news was that their engine is repaired and that they are on their way northward. Hooray.

Another couple that we see several times per year had switched from crusing on a boat to land cruising in a RV. We joke about them going over to the dark side. Well, we got an email from they today. Their RV was destroyed in a fire! Oh no! They lost the RV and all their worldly possessions all in a few minutes. What a disaster. Fortunately, the local folks where they are have responded with great generosity and aid. Also fortunately, nobody was injured. However, just the fact that they could be wiped out so quickly is stunning.

Tomorrow I'll explain our mechanical problems.

Beauty Along The Waterways

Caloosahatchee River, FL

26 47.52 N 081 14.14 W

Now my mind is turned to migrating northward once again.  That reminds me of a blog topic I've been meaning to write about for some time -- the different flora and fauna we see up and down the east coast.  From North to South:

In Lake Champlain and in Maine, the shore lines are rocky and the terrain is mountainous.   We see a lot of  red cedar and maple trees by the shore line.  Proportionately fewer maple the more north.  The twisted and gnarled cedars are wonderful.   They appear tough enough to last for a millennium.  The maples make for spectacular colors in the fall.   The Vermont Tourist Bureau will never admit it, but the finest fall foliage is actually in western Massachusetts, near Williams.  

Along the Chesapeake we see an assortment of deciduous trees and only the hint of a few hills.   The scenery there is not very  interesting.   The best thing to see there are the osprey that seem to be everywhere.

From the Dismal Swamp south to South Carolina the waterways are lines by wonderful cyprus swaps.  The cyprus trees are beautiful and the swamp environment is very peaceful.  Mind you that we've never been there in the height of summer and thus we avoid the bugs.

South Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida down to St. Augustine are marked by spectacular swamp marshes.   We think that the marshes are very beautiful but it's hard to explain why.   Mile after mile one sees nothing but flat land,  waving grasses and meandering  creeks.    What makes it beautiful?  I'd say the subtle colors that I find impossible to describe or to photograph.   I'm reminded of Sweden.  The Swedes are specially fond of the kind of reeds they call vas.   Vas too shows very subtle and very beautiful color variations.

From St. Augustine to Vero we see a mix of palm trees and palmettos and many non-native trees.   A few spots are very nice but most of nature is drowned out by heavy development and houses.

Starting around Vero, and all the way South, mangroves dominate everything.  Mangroves are remarkable plants.  They suck up salt water and convert it to fresh water for their own use.   They are tough, hard to kill and hard to uproot.   Their root network provides shelter for all sorts of marine life.  However, mangroves are highly repetitious, almost featureless and they grow were the land is flat.   Therefore, there's not much scenery at all in mangrove country.  In the Everglades, the mangroves grow so big that at first I thought they were some other species.

A special treat, seen from North Carolina all the way down to the Keys are live oak trees.  We don't have live oaks in the northeast and it wasn't until we began cruising that we learned how great they are.  The most majestic and beautiful live oaks are on Cumberland Island, GA.   I have no idea how old they are.

In the Bahamas, the real attraction is the water.   The water in the Bahamas is marvelously clear and it takes on wonderful shades of blue and green and white.  

So, what are the most beautiful places according to Libby and Dick?   No surprise there.  Lake Champlain, and especially Valcour Island are by far the most beautiful.   Our runners up (in order) are:

1. Otter Creek leading to Vergennes, Vermont.
2. Cumberland Island Georgia. 
3. The Hudson River from Hyde Park to Manhattan.  
4. Moore Harbor, Isle la Haut, Maine. 
5. Manjack Cay, Abacos, Bahamas. 
6. The Pasquotank River from Dismal Swamp to Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

A Bitter Sweet Moment

Caloosahatchee River, FL

26 42.81 N 081 35.83 N

It is a semi annual event in Tarwathie's routine to decide that we've traveled as far south in winter (or as far north in summer) as we're going to get, and that it's time to begin the migration.   It is a bitter sweet moment in all cases.   Bitter because we had fun in the past season and we hate to see it come to an end.  Sweet because we love the migration itself and because we look forward to the next summer/winter season.   So is the case today.  We were in Fort Myers.  Now, we reversed course and we're heading northward once again.

We planned to stay several days in Fort Myers.   It has  a good anchorage, a free day dock, and it seems to be a nice town.   We are a little disappointed though.   We went ashore this morning and the only thing we found within walking distance was office buildings, a Starbucks, and many yuppie lunch restaurants.  We found the Chamber of Commerce office and went there looking for tourist info.  There isn't much.   The only thing reachable was Thomas Edison's winter house.   I called there and learned that they want $20 per head for a visit -- too rich for our blood.    Therefore, we changed our minds and cut the visit short to 1/2 day.

We also have a mechanical problem.   Our cutlass bearing is worn out and we suspect that the shaft log is coming loose on it's mount.  I'll write more about that another day.   The key is that we had planned to stop in Deltaville, Virginia on the way north to put the boat up on the hard and repair it.  However, it now appears that the problem is growing worse day by day.   It would be very imprudent to set out on a 1200 mile voyage, or to travel offshore, with that fault.  The problem could suddenly become catastrophically worse and create an emergency.   Therefore, I'm going to try to arrange to go up on the hard in Fort Pierce next week and we'll address the problem directly.

Two weeks from now we need to be in Vero for Libby's final doctor appointment this year.   Four weeks from now we need to be in Fernandina Beach to meet our grandkids, Nick and Sara who are going to fly down to spend a week with us.   Dear oh dear, there's nothing worse than time schedules to put a sailor in worry mode.

Call 911! Yes? No?

Caloosahatchee River
26 42.84 N 081 46.06 W

I used to be a volunteer fireman. I've responded to many 911 calls; some real and some false alarms. Today, we were faced with the situation from the other side of the coin -- should we call 911 or not. Here's the story.

We are headed for Fort Meyers on the Caloosahatchee River. We passed through the Franklin Lock at 0900. A few miles later we came to the Wilson Pigott draw bridge. We hailed the bridge on VHF 09. No answer. We called again and again. No answer. We approached the bridge as close as possible and gave several blasts with our air horn. No response.

There is a phone number posted on the bridge sign, so we called it. That brought us to Dave, the bridge tender's boss in Brandenton, FL. Dave promised to call the bridge. 10 minutes later Dave called back. He got no response either. Dave said the tender could be sick or be having a heart attack. I told him to call 911. Dave said no. I said that I'd call 911. Dave said, "I'm in Bradenton. I can't call 911 from here. Let me handle it. It will take me 30 minutes."

At that point I had a dilemma. It sounded to me that Dave was anxious to not create an incident that could get him or the bridge tender in trouble. I understand that. I also understand that 30 minutes can make a life or death difference for someone having a heart attack and waiting before calling sounded irresponsible. Should I ignore Dave's request and call 911?

I thought about flagging down a passing car. Not practical. I thought about trying to maneuver Tarwathie under the bridge so that I could climb up the ladder to the bridge. No no bad idea. That's not only forbidden, it is dangerous and a cardinal rule of rescue is to not needlessly jeopardize the safety of a rescuer. Finally, I noticed a little marina symbol on my GPS chart plotter. The marina was just past the bridge. Good. I got a phone number from the GPS, called the marina, and explained the situation. They promised to send someone to check on the bridge tender.

Just before the marina man got there, Dave called back. He resolved the mystery. Due to a mix up, nobody showed up for work at the bridge. He promised that someone would be there in 10 minutes. One minute later, the marina guy got to the bridge and confirmed that nobody was in the tender's house. There was no real emergency.

So what should you do when faced with a time-critical life-critical *potential* emergency? How much time should you spend to think of alternatives before calling 911? There is no fixed answer. All I know is that if I had never been a fireman, I might have dialed 911 faster and thought less. 30 minutes delay before receiving medical help can cost a life, but 60 seconds of deliberate thought before pushing the panic button can avoid a needless emergency response.

p.s. Just as I wrote this, the bridge boss's boss called me from Jacksonville to apologize. I think that demonstrates outstanding customer service on the part of the State of Florida. (Look in my blog archive for 2007 to see the opposite. A bridge tender near Montreal who was sleeping and wouldn't open the bridge and who was hostile when woken.)

p.p.s. Yesterday was terrible weather. There was a really strong wind from the west that impeded our ability to motor westward. The wind slowed us down to 2.7 knots. We spoke to another couple last night who traveled east yesterday. They said it was crazy, the Caloosahatchee River west of the Franklin Lock had 3-4 foot waves on the river. That's hard to believe.

Smart Readers

Franklin Lock, FL
26 43.39 N 081 41.46 W

I'm very proud of the knowledgeable readers who read this blog. Recently I mentioned two problems and I got instant answers from two readers.

I mentioned that I've been looking for four years for replacement glass for the fuel sight gauges. Reader Bill K responded to that post with the suggestion to search for "boiler parts." Well, with that tip it took me only 18 seconds on Google to find the parts I needed. Amazing. I had been searching for "sight gauge" all the time. The boiler parts supplier calls it "gauge glass." I would never have guessed that phrasing.

I also mentioned that I hated docking med style at Labelle. My worry was being blown into the dock by the wind. Reader Ken C immediately sent this reply. "I probably shouldn't suggest anything to an old salt, but I hope you will take this suggestion in the spirit with which it is given. Next time you get to use a Med mooring arrangement, place a block on the anchor line and run a second line from the stern (or bow if you change your preference) to the block and back to shore. Then you can adjust how close Tarwathie is to the dock from either the shore or the boat, with no extra slack at either end. Fastening the block to the anchor line is left as an exercise for the curmudgeon."

I've seen dinghies in Maine attached that way to their moorings where there are 10 foot tides. The owners can drive them on shore. Get out, then move the dinghy 100 feet from shore for storage. Brilliant.

In Labelle though I finally did wind up in trouble and in this case Ken C's suggestion wouldn't help. Over night the wind started blowing pretty strong from the west. That blew us sideways, not directly onto the dock. Still the anchor started dragging in the very soft mud bottom. The holding in this river is poor. I kept tightening the slack in the anchor line, but each time that reduced the scope. I started with 120 feet of rode out. It dragged 40 feet. Tarwathie slewed to the side. Fortunately there was an empty spot beside us so we didn't hit another boat. Anyhow, before I ran out of holding, it was morning and time to leave. We got out of there quickly.

I should have done what a power boat at the dock dick. He dropped his anchor in the river, backed in stern first, and tied the stern to the dock. Then he took two more lines from the bow to the dock at wider angles. I thought it was strange because doing so blocked the docking spaces on either side of him for other boats. The advantage though was that the two extra lines kept his bow from swinging in response to strong winds from the side.

No matter how many years we do this, we'll never learn all possible ways of boat handling.

Smart Readers

Franklin Lock, FL
26 43.39 N 081 41.46 W

I'm very proud of the knowledgeable readers who read this blog. Recently I mentioned two problems and I got instant answers from two readers.

I mentioned that I've been looking for four years for replacement glass for the fuel sight gauges. Reader Bill K responded to that post with the suggestion to search for "boiler parts." Well, with that tip it took me only 18 seconds on Google to find the parts I needed. Amazing. I had been searching for "sight gauge" all the time. The boiler parts supplier calls it "gauge glass." I would never have guessed that phrasing.

I also mentioned that I hated docking med style at Labelle. My worry was being blown into the dock by the wind. Reader Ken C immediately sent this reply. "I probably shouldn't suggest anything to an old salt, but I hope you will take this suggestion in the spirit with which it is given. Next time you get to use a Med mooring arrangement, place a block on the anchor line and run a second line from the stern (or bow if you change your preference) to the block and back to shore. Then you can adjust how close Tarwathie is to the dock from either the shore or the boat, with no extra slack at either end. Fastening the block to the anchor line is left as an exercise for the curmudgeon."

I've seen dinghies in Maine attached that way to their moorings where there are 10 foot tides. The owners can drive them on shore. Get out, then move the dinghy 100 feet from shore for storage. Brilliant.

In Labelle though I finally did wind up in trouble and in this case Ken C's suggestion wouldn't help. Over night the wind started blowing pretty strong from the west. That blew us sideways, not directly onto the dock. Still the anchor started dragging in the very soft mud bottom. The holding in this river is poor. I kept tightening the slack in the anchor line, but each time that reduced the scope. I started with 120 feet of rode out. It dragged 40 feet. Tarwathie slewed to the side. Fortunately there was an empty spot beside us so we didn't hit another boat. Anyhow, before I ran out of holding, it was morning and time to leave. We got out of there quickly.

I should have done what a power boat at the dock dick. He dropped his anchor in the river, backed in stern first, and tied the stern to the dock. Then he took two more lines from the bow to the dock at wider angles. I thought it was strange because doing so blocked the docking spaces on either side of him for other boats. The advantage though was that the two extra lines kept his bow from swinging in response to strong winds from the side.

No matter how many years we do this, we'll never learn all possible ways of boat handling.

Smart Readers

Franklin Lock, FL
26 43.39 N 081 41.46 W

I'm very proud of the knowledgeable readers who read this blog. Recently I mentioned two problems and I got instant answers from two readers.

I mentioned that I've been looking for four years for replacement glass for the fuel sight gauges. Reader Bill K responded to that post with the suggestion to search for "boiler parts." Well, with that tip it took me only 18 seconds on Google to find the parts I needed. Amazing. I had been searching for "sight gauge" all the time. The boiler parts supplier calls it "gauge glass." I would never have guessed that phrasing.

I also mentioned that I hated docking med style at Labelle. My worry was being blown into the dock by the wind. Reader Ken C immediately sent this reply. "I probably shouldn't suggest anything to an old salt, but I hope you will take this suggestion in the spirit with which it is given. Next time you get to use a Med mooring arrangement, place a block on the anchor line and run a second line from the stern (or bow if you change your preference) to the block and back to shore. Then you can adjust how close Tarwathie is to the dock from either the shore or the boat, with no extra slack at either end. Fastening the block to the anchor line is left as an exercise for the curmudgeon."

I've seen dinghies in Maine attached that way to their moorings where there are 10 foot tides. The owners can drive them on shore. Get out, then move the dinghy 100 feet from shore for storage. Brilliant.

In Labelle though I finally did wind up in trouble and in this case Ken C's suggestion wouldn't help. Over night the wind started blowing pretty strong from the west. That blew us sideways, not directly onto the dock. Still the anchor started dragging in the very soft mud bottom. The holding in this river is poor. I kept tightening the slack in the anchor line, but each time that reduced the scope. I started with 120 feet of rode out. It dragged 40 feet. Tarwathie slewed to the side. Fortunately there was an empty spot beside us so we didn't hit another boat. Anyhow, before I ran out of holding, it was morning and time to leave. We got out of there quickly.

I should have done what a power boat at the dock dick. He dropped his anchor in the river, backed in stern first, and tied the stern to the dock. Then he took two more lines from the bow to the dock at wider angles. I thought it was strange because doing so blocked the docking spaces on either side of him for other boats. The advantage though was that the two extra lines kept his bow from swinging in response to strong winds from the side.

No matter how many years we do this, we'll never learn all possible ways of boat handling.

Booms and Busts

Labelle, FL

No LL

We were going to leave Labelle yesterday but it was rainy.  We were going to leave this morning and its really rainy.   Oh well.  That gives me a chance to reflect on what we see.

Labelle obviously is built on the economic model of an agricultural hub.  I suppose that such hubs are numerous in plains states like Kansas, but here in the East there are very few left.   What do I mean by a hub?  I mean that it is the only city for many miles around.   It is surrounded by vast tracts large scale agriculture.  Further, this particular agriculture is the kind that needs human labor more than massive machines.    It is a local agrarian society; a rarity in modern America.

So, the people who work on these farms earn money.  Where do they spend it?  Labelle in part.  Last year when we were here we saw numerous school buses that brought Mexican workers to town to shop.   The local stores thrived on their business.  We are thrilled by the wonderful selection of common foods that the local supermarkets sell.  It is so different than the yuppie menu items at the Publix store in Vero.   Almost all businesses have signs saying habla espanol.  Many offer services to send remittance money back to the mother country.   It seems that everyone benefits and it is a happy arrangement.

This year, the economic activity is dramatically lower.   I believe that the culprit is not the recession.  Rather it is the cold winter.  I heard on the news that local crops of fruits and vegetables are down by as much as 70%.   That means 70% fewer workers and 70% less money to spend in Labelle.   

So where did the workers go if they aren't here? I'm sure that is known but not know to me.  I have no idea.

The bad news is that agriculture is inherently boom-bust in nature.  The good news is that it can recover in a single season.   For example, a new crop of post-cold tomatoes will be ready to pick in a couple of months.  Other boom-busts like oil fields in Texas take decades to recover.  Still others like decline of mills and heavy industry in the Northeast rust belt take a century to recover.  

Love Labelle

Labelle, Florida
No LL

Like Oriental, NC and Urbanna, VA and Vergennes, VT, Labelle, FL is one of our favorite stops. All those places are relatively small and quiet towns with a laid back life style.

Last night we went to Skeet & Sara's Log Cabin BBQ. Wow, it was great. Of course they have great southern BBQ. We had beef, pork, chiken and ribs. It came with some of the best baked beans we ever had, and great cole slaw. I may have to go back, the menu also had meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, peanut butter pie and numerous other scrumptious foods that I haven't eaten in many years. It compares favorably with the Hickory Barn BBQ restaurant in Sugar Land, Texas which IMHO is the best.

Look at their sidewalks. They not only make detours around trees, but they maintain the full sidewalk width for the benefit of pedestrians. Now that's really friendly.

Stuart, FL where we just came from must be the most pedestrian and biker hostile city in America. Labelle must be the friendliest.

By the way, we found another street with a huge live oak tree growing in the middle of the street. The city kindly made road detours around both sides of the tree.

The city dock here is free for up to three days. They give free power and water. They ask boats to come in Mediterranean style (bow in or stern in). An anchor out in the river keeps the boats from swinging sideways. Without extra pilings, I hate that style of docking. If a strong wind blew from the wrong direction, the anchor line would stretch and push the boats right onto the dock. Oh well, hard to complain about free docks.

We found a delightful nature park here. The foliage is so lush, but like most southern forests, so very very dry.

While Libby gathers pine needles, Dick tests the park facilities.

Dolphins

Labelle, FL
26 46.13 N 081 26.30 W

Pity the people learning English as a second language. Consider this sentence. We tied up to a dolphin to enjoy watching a dolphin frolic while enjoying our dolphin sandwich. That is not only grammatically correct, it is a believable context.

dolphin: n 1. A collection of piles bundled together. 2. A marine mammal, sometimes called porpoise 3. A fish, recently called mahi mahi.

Here you can see Tarwathie tied up to a dolphin. In the background is the infamous 49 foot lift bridge that causes sailboats so much anxiety. No dolphins or dolphins are visible.

The Okechobee Experience

Moore Haven, FL

26 49.44 N 081 05.80 W

My friend Chuck likes it when I paint pictures with words.  I can only do so when the vision I'm seeing inspires the words.  See what you think of today's vision.

Imagine sitting in a pool of water far enough from land that the shore is not visible in most directions.  The wind is calm.  There are no waves.  The surface is very flat.  Above is a pristine pale blue sky.  Not even so much as a contrail from a passing jet blemishes this pale blue sky.   Not a cloud is visible in any direction except that there is a dotted line of puffy little clouds exactly over the shore line of this lake.   No clouds over land, none over the water, just small clouds around the perimeter.  Such is Lake Okechobee this morning.

This lake is about 15 miles across but only 10 feet deep.  It sits in the middle of the Florida peninsula.  It is the headwater of the so called river of grass that flows south from here through the Everglades.    

It is around 9 in the morning.  Libby and I are finding our way across the lake lazily.   We're in no hurry today.  The weather is very pleasant.  Low humidity and the temperature around 70F (21C).  

Suddenly, we look to the south and we see a huge mushroom cloud.  Indeed, there are a half dozen mushroom clouds soaring up into the sky.  A nuclear holocaust?  Hardly.  It is the sugar cane fields burning off their waste.  They light big fires almost every day.  Looking still closer, I can see that one of the clouds is four dimensional.  What does that mean?  I'll explain.

As a plume of smoke rises it is blown at an angle by the prevailing wind.  The angle of the column is proportional to the wind speed while the angle of the column shows the wind direction.  Direction makes two dimensions.   This cloud didn't have a mushroom head.  Instead, at an altitude of about 1000 feet the top was flattened and cut off.  Downwind one could see a wisp of the smoke trailing away at that same 1000 foot ceiling.  Obviously this was the result of vertical wind shear.  At 1000 feet and higher there was a wind blowing that did not blow at the surface.  (One more dimension.)  Finally, I notices that this cloud was grey while the other clouds were white.  Further, the white clouds had mushroom tops much higher than 1000 feet without being cut off by the vertical wind shear. How could that be?  It must be then that the flattened cloud was older, perhaps it burned overnight.  The vertical wind shear was present at night but not at 9 AM.  There is Einstein's fourth dimension -- time.  That's why I call it my four dimensional cloud.

After a couple of hours we approach Clewiston on the west side of the lake.   Here the 20 foot high levy is very prominent.  There is a lock cut through the levy at this point that allows boats to get in to a marina *behind* the levy.  Remarkable.   

Why such a big levy?  To prevent flooding of course.  Duh.  But does the lake really increase from 10 feet deep to 30 feet deep?  Well, the level of this lake varies a lot.  That's true.  However, I suspect that another factor is sloshing.  Okechobee is 7500 times wider than it is deep.  Imagine a pizza pan that is 25 feet in diameter, has a 1/4 inch lip around the edge and is covered in 1/16 inch of water (7.5 meters in diameter, which has a 3 mm lip around the edge and is covered with 1 mm of water.) What would it take to make that water slosh over the edge.  How about if we set up a fan to blow on the surface.  I bet that would do the trick.   We know that Lake Champlain sloshes and Chesapeake Bay sloshes.  

I believe that because of the 7500:1 diameter to depth ratio of Lake Okechobee that sloshing is even more pronounced, hence the need for big levees.   I haven't checked my theory on the Internet yet, and it will be a few days until I'm online once again.  That gives you the chance to do your own Internet research to confirm or refute my theory before I get to do it myself.

After reaching Clewiston, the waterway takes us up a remarkable canal.  To our left was the levy.  To our right was 5-10 miles of marshes and wetland between us and the open water of the lake.  We saw a wonderful quantity and assortment of birds.  One can only imagine the wealth of wildlife living out there.   We saw only one alligator.  It's still pretty cold for them.  We saw no mosquitoes or bugs thank god.  The cold did them in too.  In the heat of summer though I bet the place really crawls with alligators and bugs galore.

I'm really glad we took this trip.  Even if we've seen places more exotic than Lake Okechobee, every new place we explore for the first time is a mini adventure and brings us new sights, sounds, smells, and experiences.

OK, You Can Breath Again

Lake Okechobee, FL
29 57.46 N 080 39.31 W

It was a gut clinching moment. For years we've heard about this infamous bridge on the Okechobee Waterway that had only 49 foot clearance. Sailboats had to find a way to heel over to fit underneath without striking the masthead on the bridge.

Of course we're chickens on bridges in all cases. When we pass under the 150 foot bridges on the Hudson it looks like we're going to hit. When we pass under 55 foot bridges we're sure we're going to die. The problem is that depth perception doesn't seem to work at all when looking straight up.

Another problem is that the 49 foot bridge is a lift bridge. It only has 49 feet of clearance if it's fully raised and there is no way for us in the boat to see whether or not it is fully raised. There is also no bridge tender to talk to on the radio.

Last week I went up the mast and removed our Windex, radio antenna and annemometor to avoid them from being knocked off. Then I measured it's height. I calculate 47 feet above the water line. We should have two feet to spare.

Yesterday we approached the bridge. Libby was totally chicken. She handed the helm to me and went below where she couldn't see. I crept up as slow as I possibly could. When the moment of truth arrived, we slipped underneath. Looking up (with my poor depth perception) it looked like we had two feet of clearance. Whew.

The natural environment here is alien. We're used to seeing only the salt water environment in Florida. Here the water is fresh. No tides. No dolphins. No manatees. No mangroves. Only a few pelicans and gulls. Only the ever present turkey vultures remind us that we're in Florida.

The veneer effect is very dominant here. We see banks along the canal raised by the spoils of dredging. Along the tops of the banks are palm trees, pines, and palmettos. What is behind the screen of trees is hidden from us. It could be wilderness, or cattle ranches, or fields with sugar cane or tomatoes. In a few places, permanent houses, vacation houses, or farm houses are visible, but most of what we see is nature.

We spent the night tied up to two dolphins near Port Mayaca. Dolphins? I'll explain later when I post the picture.

I'll write tomorrow about this remarkable lake.

Say Knock on Wood

Indiantown, FL
27 00.55 N 080 29.17 W

Perhaps I ought to be more superstitious. Last Friday I wrote that we intended to cruise more and to run aground less. I didn't write "knock on wood" when I said that. Guess what happened? That's right.

Less than two miles from our anchorage at Stuart we ran out of fuel. The engine just died suddenly. Of course Murphy's law applied. We had just entered a narrow channel; very narrow, only one boat length wide. It was much too narrow to anchor. As we lost speed, we lost the ability to steer and the wind blew us out of the channel. Within seconds we were aground in the mud.

Oh well, first things first. I had to get the engine restarted. I changed the valves to draw from the full port side tank instead of the empty starboard one. Next, we had to suck fuel into the engine and restart. Fortunately, our new Beta engine was unlike our old Perkins engine. It self-purges air from the fuel lines, making this procedure a whole lot easier. It won't however, suck enough to refill the fuel filter bowl. I had to do that by hand.

It wasn't the first time we ran out of fuel. I learned by experience to keep a jar with 6 ounces of diesel fuel stored in the lazarette next to the propane tanks. I fetched the jar and used the fuel to refill the fuel filter bowl. After that, I simply cranked the engine for about 60 seconds and finally it roared to life.

The next job was to refloat Tarwathie. It wasn't difficult. We ran into the mud at near zero speed and with a gentle wind pushing us so we weren't stuck very hard. I just gave it full speed reverse and we backed out without problem.

OK. Emergency over. Now to explain how I allowed us to run out of fuel by surprise. Just the night before I checked the oil and the fuel level. It looked fine. You see we have sight glasses on the fuel tanks. You can see in the glass how high the fuel is in the tank. It is similar to the sight glasses used on big coffee urns to show how much coffee is left. The trouble is that the inside of the glasses get stained by the fuel. When the tank is partially full I can discern the slight color difference between fuel and air. However, when completely full or completely empty the glasses look about the same. I looked at an empty tank and thought it was full. I also forgot when the last time was we refueled (11/13/2009 according to our log book).

Our remedy is to revise our standard procedure. We're going to add engine hours to our daily entries in the log book. Then we can estimate fuel remaining without looking at the sight glasses. 32 hours per tank and 64 hours total are the magic numbers.

Why don't we change the plumbing to draw from both tanks at once? Because if we did, when we ran out of fuel we would really be up the creek without an engine.

p.s. I've been trying for 4 years to find replacement glass, acrylic, or lexan tubes to replace the stained sight glasses with new ones. I've failed to find anything suitable. A few candidates turned sour because the material was unsuitable to hold diesel fuel. On one tank I put in clear vinyl hose to replace a cracked glass, but the vinyl turned brown in just a few weeks.

p.p.s. This is the first blog posted by SSB radio in many months.

Okechobee Bound

Stuart, FL
No LL

We feel wimpy for not ranging further this winter. Now we need to be back in Vero at the end of March and to be in St. Augustine in the middle of April. That doesn't leave enough time for the keys or the Bahamas.

As a consolation, we'll do something we never did before. We'll cross Florida via Lake Okechobee. One person described it to us as like the Dismal Swamp Canal without the trees. We'll soon see. We leave in the morning.

Five Years and Counting

Stuart Florida


Five years ago today I wrote my first post on this cruising blog. Now is a good time to review.

In the past 5 years Libby and I did the following. Most numbers are approximate.

• Traveled 20,000 to 25,000 miles on board Tarwathie.
• Migrated to the Northeast USA 5 times.
• Migrated south 5 times.
• Traveled to Mexico once and The Bahamas twice.
• Made 40 offshore passages averaging two days and two nights each.
• Slept overnight on board 1775 times and on shore 50 times.
• Never fell overboard, but fell off the dinghy three times.
• Pulled 100 dumb boneheaded stunts.
• Anchored 500 times.
• Hauled out of the water 11 times.
• Visited the coin laundry 200 times.
• Negotiated 175 locks
• Ran aground 20 times
• Collided with pilings twice, with other boats, never.
• Ran out of fuel four times.
• Posted 1418 blog posts, including this one.
• Visited Maine twice and Lake Champlain three times.
• Visited Oriental, Elizabeth City and the Dismal Swamp Canal 9 times each.

So, what about the next five years? We'd like to do more of the same, except run aground less, and visit new places more. Especially attractive places we'd like to explore are the Canadian Maritime provinces, Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, Belize, and Panama. Another high priority is to expand and maintain our circle of cruising friends. Oh yes, need I mention stay healthy. First and foremost -- have fun.

The Gulf Stream

Stuart, FL
27 11.93 N 80 15.67 W

The Gulf Stream is a powerful influence on our lives as cruisers. It's about time that I wrote a blog about it.

Between the Carolinas and the keys, The Gulf Stream is a constant part of our cruising lives. We see it almost every day. How? We see it because it is nearly always covered by a line of clouds. Those clouds remind us that it's there and give a visual indication of how far away it is.

In Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana said, "This morning the temperature and peculiar appearance of the water the quantities of gulf weed floating about and a bank of clouds lying directly before us showed that we were on the border of the Gulf Stream. "

In Miami, in the keys and in the Bahamas, The Gulf Stream is the dominant force affecting our weather. You see, the Bahamas are sandwiched between the eastern and western branches of The Gulf Stream. Many people don't know that there's an eastern branch called The Achilles Current. You can see it in the thermograph below.

The raw statistics of The Gulf Stream are amazing. It transports water at a rate of 30 million cubic meters per second near Miami, and 150 million near Newfoundland. Compare that to 0.6 million cubic meters per second for the combined flow of all rivers that flow into the Atlantic. It also transports 1.4 petawatts of heat, equivalent to 100 times the world energy consumption. Without The Gulf Stream Europe might have a climate like Siberia.

Sailing in The Gulf Stream is magic. Libby and I are enchanted by the impossibly deep deep sparkling blue color of the water. I've tried and tried (unsuccessfully) to photograph that color. We also love watching the flying fish flying fish fly. We are intrigued by the sea turtles and the Portuguese Man O' War. Those are stinging jellyfish that are the turtle's lunch. They are beautiful to see and mysterious in their life cycle. Our first time across The Gulf Stream, Libby and I didn't know what they were. We called them "baggy things."

Down Days

Stuart, FL
No LL

After all these years, someone finally asked what No LL is. My standard format for a blog post is to put the location byline as line 1 and our latitude and longitude on line 2. Then the text starts on line 4. I use that standardization to build up a database of past blog articles. When I'm not near the GPS to get our latitude and longitude, I just write No LL meaning "No Latitude and Longitude."

While cruising, we normally have a dozen or so down days in a year. On a down day the weather is so miserable that we don't move the boat nor do we leave the boat. We just read or do projects on board. Today was such a day. It blew 25-32 for much of the day and rained in the morning. The anchorage was thoroughly churned up and going in the dinghy would be very bumpy.

We had plans to organize a Balderdash game up in the captain's lounge this afternoon, but it was so thoroughly miserable that we cancelled that.

I sure wish that Florida would pay their heating bill.

Nevertheless, today is a bright day. I learned that two Nobel Prize quality scientific discoveries were announced today. One had to do with understanding how the molecule ATP interacts with other molecules in the body. Next to DNA, ATP is said to be the most important molecule to all live. Water molecules and the ATP molecules act together in a very special way.

Second was the discovery that water molecules in liquid form tetrahedral structures. Each with it's four nearest neighbors. The implications for physics, chemistry, nanotechnology, and biology can be profound.

Google for ATP and then for tetrahedral and you'll find articles explaining more.

Sunken Westsail?

Stuart, Fl
No LL

Some people on a neighboring yacht told us that a Westsail named Second Wind struck a reef and sank in the Bahamas, but that the people got off OK. What that heck! Westsails don't do that.

I decided to check it out. I looked at the discussions on the Westsail Owners Group site. Nothing. I did a Google search. That found a news article. However, the article said that it was a 43 foot motor sailor, not a Westsail. It also said that the boat was stolen and abandoned on the reef. So much for that rumor.

Westsails have been run on reefs, they have been rolled over, and pitch poled (rolling over end-to-end). They have been rammed by giant ships. They don't get holes in their hulls or sink readily.

I have heard of several Wesails holed and sunk when blown on shore by hurricanes. I also heard of one W32 that left San Fransisco, bound for Japan (I think) and was never heard from. In general though, simple groundings or collisions don't sink
W32s.

Libby and I read in a sailing magazine and account of a couple sailing in the Caribbean on their 47 foot yacht. At night, in gentle winds, they struck something, don't know what, while sailing at 7 knots. Their boat was holed, took on water and sunk. The cruising couple rescued themselves in their dinghy. Our reaction was huh? They should have had a W32.