Not the best Birthday

Birthday Weekend - cut short

We set out from the Dock Saturday Evening before 6pm to motor down to Lake Sylvia for the start of Peggy's Birthday Cruise Weekend. Plan was to anchor overnight Saturday at Lake Sylvia, then Motor out of Port Everglades Sunday Morning, Sail up to Hillsboro Inlet and then Motor up to Lake Boca to anchor overnight, Monday reverse but going from Port Everglades directly to the dock.

Weather has been steady the past few days, either storms in the morning or just after lunch, hot blue skies in between. To make sure we dined well, I made Fresh Whole Wheat Bread and a Bacon and Swiss Cheese creamy Quiche on Saturday, and we packed plenty of food, wine, rum and snacks.

Our grand daughter's other Granma was scheduled to have her birthday celebration with family on board the Jungle Queen Saturday evening - 6pm departure, family had planned to come from all over, so we contacted JQ as soon as we heard them navigate up the river on the VHF #16 and them to say hi as we passed. We often meet and pass the Jungle Queen, always courteous and their skippers know our boat by name as they do most frequent travellers of the New River. JQ agreed to say Hi which basically meant they would sound their horns as we passed. We had our little biddy horn ready too (nowhere near as loud as JQ's).

We expected to pass JQ just upstream from the Tunnel so we were prepared. As she came around the bend, they saw us and blasted their horn in a cheery melody. We reciprocated with several tweets from ours. Peggy was stood on the cockpit seat waving to everyone on JQ, we looked for our family but could not see them among the couple of hundred folks on board. But they all waved back, it was fun. But apparently, the family didn't make it to the JQ but we didn't find that out until Sunday Morning. Still, it was fun to Meet & Greet with JQ. Thanks Guys!

Lake Sylvia was not as packed as past weekends, we found a suitable anchor spot and dropped our 35lb anchor and 70' of Chain, backed down with enough speed to dig in but not enough to pull the anchor back out. 1st time! Anchor secure! It only took a few minutes to hoist our Anchor Day Mark and secure the Anchor Snubber to soften any sudden movements of the boat against the chain, not a frequent event on Lake Sylvia, but we like the quiet of the snubber compared to the crunching of the chain when we swing around due to wind or current.

The boat, Patagonia, was off our Stbd quarter, I was pretty sure they were club members but were out of hailing range. I watched the skipper inflate his dink on the foredeck, his boat was about the same length as Eximius. He put it in the water, mounted the outboard and took it for a spin around the lake. While I was making dinner - ok, serving dinner as it was the still warm Quiche - Delish! I saw them depart their boat in the dink leaving Patagonia at anchor.

We enjoyed the Quiche, some wine for Peggy and Rum for me. Weather was forecast to be quiet overnight and we ran the AC for a couple of hours before turning in for the night.

Sunday morning we realized that we (me) had left the Butter and Olive Oil at home, bummer! I had planned on making Eggs Benedict with Sausage, Tomatoes and Fried Toast for Breakfast - So we had poached eggs (egglets) sausage and Toms instead - not as fancy, but a nice breakfast. Our plan was to leave around 9am so that we were not trying to get out of Lake Sylvia at low tide - there are plenty of skinny parts both in the lake and in the canal entrance to the lake. We hoisted Anchor without seeing the crew of Patagonia nor their dinghy.

We motored out to Port Everglades, the bridge was already up for it's O'Clock opening, so I hailed the bridge to advise them that we did not require the bridge open so that they didn't hold it.

Passing under the closing bridge, we saw the new Ship USS Paul Ignatius which had only been commissioned the day before (Saturday) Very smart looking ship. As a 25 Year Navy guy, it was nice to see a really modern ship in port.

Motoring out of Port Everglades, Peggy cocked her ear at what she thought was unusual sounds on the boat, but we didn't thing much of it, depending upon the current in the river and port entrance, the engine can be under different strains each time and we often hear noises from other passing boats resonating through our hull. We should have been more mindful!

There was barely any wind and the seas were calm, so we motored out to three miles. I know, it was supposed to be a Birthday Cruise, and we were heading out for a dump! At 3.5 miles out, we dumped the tank, and re-secured the discharge valve. The wind picked up to 5knots from the East, so we actually hoisted the sails. We were managing 4+ knots through the water with under 6knots of wind, not shabby, especially as we were not working at it. The Auto Pilot was keeping course, it was a beautiful day for a sail. Then we heard the noise! a regular Screeching sound coming from the propulsion system when the engine was off and in neutral. Oh Carp! 

We discussed what it could be. It did not sound like a bag or line caught on the prop, but it did sound regular with rotation. As soon as we put the engine in gear the noise (and the prop rotation) would stop. Definitely something wrong with the shaft.

I emptied the aft berth in order to open the shaft space below, then, while I lay on the aft berth floor, Peggy put the engine in Neutral - No doubt now! The noise was clearly coming from the area of the Cutlass Bearing. NOT GOOD! Assuming it was the bearing, I did not want to run the engine and risk damaging the Bearing housing - that's big bucks. Needed a plan.

My decision was to go sailing! We could not get back to our dock until around 6pm Sunday evening due to the tides, and motoring was not an option except in an emergency. I figured that if we called for a Tow around 4 or 5 pm, we could get towed back to the dock near high tide. We could continue to sail around until 4pm - ish and then call Tow Boat US. After all, it was a beautiful day for a sail.

We turned North towards Hillsboro Inlet and Boca Inlet, just to burn some daylight. Sailing was great, Peggy was not happy - the boat is broken and we're about to spend a Boat Buck or Two on getting it fixed.

With plenty of time to think about it, my mind wandered through the process of replacing the Cutlass Bearing.

For those that don't know about Cutlass Bearings - The picture shows the cylindrical bearing housing along the lower edge of the strut through which the Prop Shaft passes. The Cutlass bearing is a tube that is lined with a rubber insert that has grooves running from each end. Those grooves allow water to cool and lubricate the shaft / bearing interface and has to be replaced every few years. (dependent upon the engine hours) We normally sail with the engine in Neutral which means the Prop is free to rotate, but it's normally silent and we are not aware of it's rotation. The pic was taken before refinishing the shaft, prop and installing the new Zinc last January (2018)

To replace the bearing requires the boat to be hauled (a diver can do it in the water, but there's not really any option to check the bearing housing for damage). Hauling the boat costs about $500 (haul, pressure wash, blocking, stands, and resplash after the repair) Once on blocks and stands, the prop has to be removed. Then using a bearing removal tool (rental and shipping) is used to extract the bearing, the same tool is used to insert the new bearing. Of course, with the boat out of the water, there are several other things that could be done to get the best out of the boat bucks, like: Prop Speed coat the Shaft and Prop, Clean and Polish the hull above the water. Our Bottom paint is in good condition so no need to repaint after just 18 months. It would probably cost about $1,000 to do the work myself, a lot more if I paid for a contractor to do it. Luckily it's all well within my skill set. The downside is that it's Summer! Doing that work in 100ºF is close to unbearable!

Meahwhile, as planned, we sailed down towards Port Everglades from North of Hillsboro Inlet, and I called Boat US on #16 at 15.25pm. After taking my details (and checking my membership and Gold Unlimited Towing) they dispatched a tow boat out to the Port Everglades entrance. Timing was perfect, their arrival would coincide with ours just inside of the PE Channel. A Cruise ship was leaving the dock, and the tow boat got us in tow before it came out of the channel. I asked Capt George to not go too fast and advised him of our nearly 6' draft and that we had a mast height of 54'. George confirmed our mast height so that we could pass under the 17th street bridge without opening. It was nearing high tide, but I was confident that we had clearance at the center of the bridge. So Capt George steered down the middle as we helmed the boat to go right down the center between the fenders, making sure not to twing the bridge lights that hang down a foot or so below the bridge center.

Tow Boat US did a great job in getting us back to the dock, timing was perfect, and our Capt was very considerate of both our speed and draft. We got alongside our dock close enough that I could step ashore and secure the boat while Capt George completed the Paper work (iPad).

As Tow Bot US headed away down the canal, we started to unload the boat and took a few minutes break to eat some more Quiche (delish even when cold). Peggy still not the happy birthday girl, I don't blame her. 

Monday morning we drove back to the boat and I used my Olympus Tough G2 camera, on the end of a boat hook, to take some videos of the Prop and shaft. FOUND IT!

The Zinc on the shaft has slid back as far as the Cutlass Bearing (the divers had left the old zinc in place when the installed the new one that is further from the Strut.

This is an easy fix!

Monday evening, the Divers went down to the boat, removed both zincs and installed a new one (I always keep spare zincs on the boat). Tuesday morning, I went down to the boat and ran the engine from slow all the way up to full throttle - no noise from the shaft! WooooHooo!

Now, all I have to do is figure out what I'm going to do to make up for Peggy's spoiled Birthday Cruise! I saved a Boat Buck (Bring On Another Thousand) 

See you on the water. - Pay attention to those weird noises!