When he arrived the marina had not serviced the boat as promised. NO power to the dry batteries meant no light. Good thing at the last minute John brought 2 mini flashlights. The refrigerator would not work, but why well not sure could be no power or uhhhh no propane. Time for a new refrigerator.
John hired a captain out of Miami to help him sail up the coast towards West Palm Beach where I would be meeting him to begin out voyage.... Along the way on the not so rough seas John fell on the table in cockpit and that was the end of the table but not the aluminum pole sticking up in the cockpit area which would remain until.......
I arrived on Dec 21st excited for our adventure. The plan for us to continue up the Atlantic to Sebastian. We left out before high tide the next morning. The sea was rough but we keep going. Once we motored out it was time to put up the main sail. John tried and it would not go. But I was also having a hard time keeping it in the wind. :) ... John tried several more times and I tried twice while attached to my lifeline scared of the high waves while John kept it in the wind :). On Johns 4th attempt his lifeline came unattached. Soon he realized his new life jacket did not have a lifeline harness so what was he attached to???...... So he put my life jacket on for the next attempt at raising the sail. The next day he bought a harness :).... Needless to say we could not get the main to go up. We sadly and slowly motored up the intercostal way to Sebastian. Arriving 2 days later having never sailed. While on our long motoring journey we were able to learn a lot about moondance. She will not pump water out of the shower. No propane means no cooking or refrigerator which John doesn't mind anyway as he enjoys eating out. I was able to convince him when I arrived to take my taxi I had when I arrived at the marina in west palm, to take us to the grocery for some food that would save in a cooler. So we have sandwiches for our long slow motor up the ICW :).
Once arriving at Sebastian John and my fathers attempt to get the shower to pump working failed :(. But we now have a coffee maker and a toaster on board.
Our next attempt to raise the sail and play was not until today, my brother-in-law Ed joined us at
Cocoa village marina to attempt another sail. While motoring out through the channel marker Ed reached and removed the free standing table base that remained from the first sail out of Miami when John fell on the table.......... While Ed was removing the table base John was watching him and not the markers. This was curious as we had been afraid to remove it due to the unknown....Should I say more ..... Poor Moondance was bitten by the marker she buckled as we motored by.......Waiting for the bill from the marina to fix the #4 marker or maybe they missed that. Not sure but Moondance was scuffed and a bit of displaced rubber along her side but no fiberglass damage like she suffered at the last marina when John ran into the dock...... Moondance is waiting for her band aide in the form of the mini fiberglass repair kit sitting in the salon ready to fix her up. Luckily the hole was not all the way through. There is a God. Ok back to the ICW experience today. We did make it past the rippled channel marker and got the main sail most of the was up. But as I looked up the mast it was not quite straight and the main was only a up about 3/4 of the way. But John continued on pulling out the second sail. We did sail about an hour practicing. It was fun and we only lost one of our flags the
code flag "j" that I had got John as a Christmas gift.
We arrived back to the dock sails down as well a bit of rain. We were scurrying to get everything tied
on, zipped up, buttoned down and here comes John saying I dropped the wench handle in the water. It's not really funny but it is because you have to take it in stride. Now the ICW has claimed johns favorite hat, his "j" sailing flag and now a winch handle. Onward we go next week to the cape for upgrades and repairs so Moondance aka Training Wheels is ready for our spring adventures as we continue north late march 2014.
Hoping the repair list doesn't get much longer between cocoa and the cape.
Life Is Good, Sail On!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment