Easy Repair after Hurricane Irma

We were very lucky! The only damage that Eximius suffered due to Hurricane Irma was a broken Wind Transducer. Of course, that Transducer was at the top of the mast and a replacement cost $360, but compared to the damage that others suffered, we were very lucky!

A week ago, I climbed the mast to remove the damaged Garmin gWind Transducer, it's getting easier every time to get up the mast. This time, Peggy used our Electric Winch Handle to hoist me up the mast with the Main Halyard. The setup uses 3 halyards and 3 lines. The Jib and Spin Halyards were secured at the base of the mast so that they were taught all the way to the top of the mast, well, nearly the top, the Jib Halyard exits the mast just below the top of the Jib Stay, the Spin Halyard runs through a block on the mast head crane so that it sticks out forward of the Jib Stay.

I secure our Bosuns chair with 2 lines - 1 the climbing line goes from the seat waist strap up to a Prussic Knot on the Jib Halyard, the other line is a safety line that goes from the waist strap to a Prussic Knot on the Spin Halyard. A third line goes from my foot straps up to a prussic knot just below the other knot on the Jib Halyard. Finally, the Main Halyard is shackled to the Waist strap. So all Peggy had to do was operate the Electric Winch Handle to winch in the Main Halyard and up I go, moving the 3 prussic knots up as I ascend.

This Pic shows the damaged Wind Transducer, one of the 3 Prop Blades is missing and one of the vane tails is missing.

I discussed the damage with the very helpful folks at Garmin Support and we agreed that the most likely event to cause the damage was something hitting the transducer. Certainly the Hurricane Force Winds at the dock were likely to carry plenty of debris.

Garmin agreed that I could get a replacement at a discount if I returned the damaged unit. So Tuesday morning I took the packaged transducer to Office Depot for shipping, it would arrive the next Wednesday.

Further discussion with Garmin lead to them agreeing to ship the replacement upon receipt of the old unit. So the new item arrived at 10am Friday Morning - WooHoo.

Of course, the weather did not cooperate, so I was unable to go backup the mast until Monday.

Following the same proceedure, it took about 20 minutes to scale the mast, less than a minute to install the new unit, and 5 minutes to descend.

As always, I inspected the mast and rigging while up there, all looked ok, although I did notice that there are a couple of rivets missing from the Port Side Lower Shroud upper plate. An easy fix, but it's been fine for years, I'll fix it all the same.

Now that the damage is repaired, time to put the sails back on the boat. We got the Jib hoisted and that was enough for one day. Next day we installed the Cradle Cover and the Main Sail as well as the Dodger. 

Plan is to get the boat out on the water Thursday (that's tomorrow) and head up to Lake Boca for the HISC Oktoberfest. So we started the re-load program. Got the Generator on board, sorted out the cabin and basically got everything ready for a Thursday morning load and go.

Sure will feel good to get the boat back on the Ocean. Weather looks good so far, a big change from the Hurricane, and, compared to both land lubbers and sailors in the Keys and the Islands, we were Lucky!

At home, the only damage was a couple of screen enclosure panels ripped out and the Pool timer unit didn't like the electrical spikes we had during the Hurricane. The timer was easily replaced, the pool enclosure will take a bit more effort. But we didn't lose our home or our boat.

Grateful!

See you on the water, perhaps this weekend if you're in our area.

Paul

Another New Post

Port Side Vented Stanchion Post Replacement

We've had issues with the Holding tank venting since we started caring for Eximius in 2015 and finally got down to fixing the smelly woes. 

Ordered new Stanchion from CatalinaDirect.com - always good people to deal with. Delivery was delayed by Hurricane Irma, but that didn't matter, we had plenty on our plate to work on.

So today, Monday, we headed down to the boat to replace the stanchion.

There are a couple of issues with the old stanchion.

• It's corroded - that's a safety issue
• It  has been re-bedded before, but since then it has been daubed in Silicone to try and stem the leaks by a previous owner - that never works in the long run.
• The Silicone prevents water passage to the scupper (left in the pic) so we get that grotty brown stain forward of the stanchion.

The Silicone has started to peel away from the deck, so it no longer provides any water proofing.

I spent 20 minutes cleaning out the philip head screws in order to get a screw driver to bite so that we could remove the stanchion.

This is what it looks like below decks. It's an awkward place to reach, We had to reach over the Nav Table and then behind the cabinet bar which hides the wires. (The top of this pic is the inside of the Hull, the brown is the underside of the deck)

The corrosion is also evident on the vent tube.

Step 1. Remove the Lifelines from the Stanchion, this was easy as I had replaced the lifelines with Dynmea Line and all I needed to do was release the lashing at the bow pulpit and then remove the thimbles from the aft end of the lines and then pull the lines through the holes in the Gate Stanchion, that only took about 10 minutes.

Then, Peggy sat by the stanchion with a Philips head driver holding the screws still while I used a rachet and socket below to remove the nuts off of the 4 screws.

That took about an hour simply because they were difficult to reach and the corrosion hindered removal.

Initial clean up was by scraping off the silicone with a knife, wire brushing the surface and then spending the rest of an hour digging out the silicone from the none skid surface.

The good news is that when they were last re-bedded, the holes were correctly protected with a coat of resin, the deck was solid and no wet spots at all. Phew!

Those grey marks are probably a previous effort to cure a damp deck issue, they just drilled and filled with a very thin drizzle of resin.

After clean up and chamferring the holes in preparation for the application of Butyl tape on the base of the stanchion.

I also drizzled some Capn Tolley Crack filler into the thin hairline cracks in the gel coat.

New Stanchion installed! This took over an hour and a lot of sweat inside the cabin. Just reaching the bolts in order to put the new Backing Plate, Fender Washer, Small Washer, Spring Washer and 7/16" Nut on each bolt was a pain!

But when it all tightened up and the Butyl tape oozed out of the sides of the plate and around each of the screw heads, it is certainly water proof.

After a final clean up, there's an appropriate gap between the stanchion base and the toe rail that should allow water to run into the scupper.

Final clean up requires that we take our Dyson Vacuum down to the boat and some new 1/2" Hose to replace the old hose that ran from the stanchion to the holding tank, 6' should do it.

The old stanchion:

Very pleased with the outcome.

Total time was about 3 1/2" hours, a quick trip back to the house and an well earned lunch.

Hurricane Prep - 2017 - Irma

Hurricane Irma - September 2017

Well here we go again! There are currently 3 Hurricanes in the Atlantic Katie (South of the Gulf) Jose (still out there East) and Hurricane Irma - looking to make a bulls-eye on South Florida. And Irma has been the Daddy of all Hurricanes.  Hurricanes are only categorized up to Cat 5 and Irma is pushing past that. The Islands are getting pummeled if not destroyed and everyone over here is doing what they can in preparation for Irma's wrath.

Of course, it could just as easily miss us completely, but I'm not putting my family's life at that risk.

House Prep:

 Crates of Water, but all water bottles are filled and cooled/frozen. Extra bags of ice are in the freezers. Spare Propane tank for the Grill, and 2 Generators and 20+ gallons of Gasoline. 

Yesterday my neighbor & I shuttered up my Son-in-law's home, our Neighbors home and our house (except for the living room front & back windows, they can wait). All phones, Tablets, and Flashlights (and our Dyson) are fully charged. All power tool batteries are also fully charged. Also our InReach is 100% charged so that we can send messages if the worse happens.

So we have pretty well done what we can at home.

Boat Prep:

Not our first time around this buoy. Main & Jib sails are down, folded and stowed in the boat, Dodger is removed, Sail pack is also down and stowed. Dink is deflated and bagged up ready to drop into the cabin during final prep. All drinks are removed, we'll have them at home if needed.

Today I'm heading down to the boat to triple up the lines and put out fenders on the outside, port, and stern. The dock posts are well built and have bumpers on them to prevent damage to the boat (unless the boat really gets banged up against them). I'll have lines fore & aft and springs that will allow the boat to rise 7 feet in a surge. Our dock is located in pretty much of a hurricane hole, my greatest concern is about the other boats possibly breaking free and slamming against ours.

We have pretty well done all we can to keep the boat safe.

When I complete the dock line plan this morning, I'll go help a buddy shift one of his boats. Several of our sailing friends have already left town. My Son has left and is heading over to Houston to help out a buddy over there that lost everything in Hurricane Harvey.

More later.

Stay safe everyone!

Planing Trip to St. Johns River or Closer

Trip Planning

I'm hoping for some input from local (South Florida) Sailors on this trip.

We took a driving weekend up to St. Augustine at the end of August (appropriately) and checked out the Anchorages, Moorings and Dock options close to the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, we also chatted to a couple of sailors that were visiting the area by boat.

So, we're looking at cruising North from Port Everglades with possible destinations of anywhere between here and Jacksonville (St. Johns River) 

If you have cruised in this area and have any input I would appreciate that. And yes, We have access to Active Captain, The Waterway Guide, Navionics, and Garmin Maps. It's the Local knowledge we're looking for.

Major Points of Entry in from Ocean to Florida.

Despite one of the highest boating densities on the East Coast of the USA, there are surprisingly few Inlets from the Ocean between Jacksonville & Miami, for our trip which will be from Port Everglades, these are the Inlets that will allow our boat passage (draft restriction of 5'7")

• Port Everglades - 11nm
• Hillsboro Inlet -  36nm
• Lake Worth Inlet - 52nm
• Fort Pierce - 30nm
• Sebastian Inlet - (Fixed Bridge) 10ft. 35nm -> 65nm.
• Port Canaveral - 58nm
• Ponce De Leon Inlet - 100nm
• St. Johns River Entrance

Total Distance as the Condor Flies to St. Johns River  - About 300 nm. But we'll add 20% to that for going around the corners. So about 360 nautical miles. If we 'Sail' or 'Motor' we'll be doing around 5knts or better.

Which will take about 72 hours of sailing and, realistically we would sail about 6 hours a day, so a 12 day trip if we didn't take any excursions, which we will!

We can look forward to a 24 day trip plus time off, let's say a month.There's a challenge. We're not committed to going all the way to St. Johns River, just going to Lake Worth would be a good start, but I do favor the longer trip. We have motored from Stuart to our Dock, but that was our delivery trip from the boat purchase to our dock in Fort Lauderdale, we really didn't have time to stop and look around any of the marina/anchorage areas on that trip.

A quick and dirty day#  plan: 

1. Home dock to Port Everglades to Hillsboro Inlet - 4 hours.
2. Hillsboro Inlet to Lake Worth - 9 Hours
3. Day at Lake Worth
4. Lake Worth to Fort Pierce 12 Hours (long day)
5. Day at Fort Pierce
6. Fort Piece to Sebastian Inlet - 7 Hours
7. Day at Sebastian
8. Sebastian Inlet to Port Canaveral - 9 Hours
9. Day at Port Canaveral
10. Port Canaveral to Ponce De Leon Inlet 13 Hours (long day)
11. Day at Ponce De Leon
12. Ponce De Leon to St. Johns River - 20 hours ( Overnight)
13. Day at St. Johns
14. Day at St. Johns
15. Return Journey

Any good ideas for things not to miss?

Paul