Position N 24° 56.987’.
W 81° 80.218’.
Key West, FL
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The nightmare continues...finally Jim our electronic guy visited ‘Partners’ on February 4th to do, what we hoped would be, the last sea trial to calibrate the new redundant autopilot fluxgate compass and check everything was functioning as required. HT and I were ready for what we saw as a big day, the last hurdle we needed to overcome before we set off. 08:00 was when we were supposed to cast off, Jim was late! At 08:30 we cast off and began to make our way out into Sarasota Bay. The anticipation after 3 months of problems was consuming me; it took only 15 minutes to be in enough clear water to begin the circles to calibrate the compass. In no time we had a good calibration, simple right? No, as soon as we laid in a waypoint to test the navigation software was sending the right info to the pilot and that ‘Partners’ would follow the course the fuse popped in the autopilot computer! The anticipation was immediately replaced with frustration and depression. Back to the dock for more fuses, yes no one had a 30 amp automotive type fuse including me! Now that I know there are fuses in the AIS and the Autopilot components I will have a stock! What was happening was the autopilots pump which pumps the steering fluid to the rudder ram was surging and drawing up to 36 amps instead of the normal 6-14? Jim and his helper started to blame everything from the navigation software to the wiring of the boat! So after another trip out to the bay and back to the dock, the amp meters came out, it was determined that the wiring was fine so next a call to Simrad. Simrad thought that the Nobeltec software could be the cause sending confusing signals to the autopilot computer which in turn was sending wrong instructions to the autopilot pump, they also said it could be a bad pump (we are already on our second!) and then covered all bases by saying that it could be the computer (we are on the second one of these too!). In other words it could be anything! I intervened with information such as our other Simrad pilot works fine! I then suggested we turn off the navigation computer and conducted tests using just the ‘auto’ feature on the pilot to hold a set course to steer. Out we went again, the same result, more fuses blew! After a conversation with Jim the conclusion was to install a smaller Simrad pump which will draw less current. I made it clear that an exit plan must be addressed as if this does not work I want all the equipment removed and a full refund of the money I have paid to date. We plan to leave, we must, we will have another marine electronics company, recommended by Kadey Krogen, do the job. They are located in Stuart, FL. so we plan to cruise round to the east coast for them to have a go if there is no resolution soon!
When I say ‘we must’ I am referring to our original plan and time frame of being in Trinidad by July 1st (we have to be south of 10° N for hurricane season, a requirement of our insurance company and Trinidad is around 9° N). Time is running out for us not to be too rushed to make the journey through the Caribbean. The idea of cruising is not to be in a hurry. Cruisers are weather driven and any timetable is dangerous so our alternative plan would be to spend spring in the Bahamas and then cruise north up the east coast of the US and visit the Chesapeake and possibly as far north as Newfoundland, we will see...
Feb. 6th Tax day for us...this is our last, I hope, complicated tax year as both of us worked part of the year but are now retired and what with taking Social Security benefits, me signing on to Medicare and two other pensions, all sorts of rules apply. This morning at 10:30 we’ll find out the damage! Next year should be simple, I know...famous last words!
While we were on our way to our accountant Jim called to let us know he had time this afternoon to install the smaller Simrad autopilot pump. I hastily confirmed, okay! The timing was perfect we were able to finish off our taxes and get back to the boat with plenty of time; the 'damage' at the accountant by the way was manageable, just like a seaway...right at the point the stabilizers were going to be needed but just made it without them! To cut this long drawn out saga to a close...everything WORKS...we did a completely successful sea trial; Jim and I gave a sigh of relief, we are ready to go!
That afternoon we called our friend and auto technician, who is buying our two cars and told him that tomorrow morning would be the day to take Lavinia’s car, he already has mine. Lavinia planned the last few fresh food items we would need and a couple of other items so she could get all that finished while she still had ‘wheels’. We loaded the two bicycles on board – we’re ready.
Now, a weather window and a last minute spare part that should have arrived on Wednesday? The part didn’t come and the perfect weather window was closing fast. Here is an e-mail I wrote to a friend...
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| My youngest son Chris his wife Cintia, Isabella and Matthew - Goodbye! |
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| Saying goodbye to our friend Jo (our slip owner) |
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| HT cleaning the bikes before loading |
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| Farewell Longboat Key & Sarasota |
“I had intended to telephone you before we knew we were going to leave but events overtook us! We were expecting a part to arrive UPS to our USPS PO Box and it didn’t! The parcel should have come on Wednesday and we planned to leave on Thursday afternoon to stage ourselves at LBK pass for an early start to Key West on Friday. We had good intentions to call you Wednesday afternoon to see if you wanted to come over for a farewell drink on Thursday; well, Lavinia had to give up her car on Thursday morning, do some last minute shopping and errands and pick up the package, STILL NO PARTS PACKAGE!, after tracking the part there seemed a possibility that the item would arrive at 11:00 on Friday. Bummed out at this point we felt we would never leave, in fact we have felt like that for three months! While talking with family and friends that did stop by to bid us farewell we felt like frauds having kept saying we would be leaving that evening. Our weather window was closing for a nice smooth passage all the way to Key West. On Friday off we went on our bikes to the PO and yes the parts package was there and as we rode back to the boat, I said “Let’s just cast off and if we have to swing on the hook waiting for another ‘window’ then so be it” Lavinia agreed; so, as soon as we got back to the boat we left, this is the advantage of ‘Partners’ being our home! We spent Friday evening in north SRQ bay checking and rechecking weather gribs and saw that we still had a small window if we left early enough on Saturday. 04:45 Saturday we set sail for Key West and had the most perfect day at sea, one of those days that we will always remember and every cruiser, at least trawler cruiser wishes for, I understand sailors like a little wind! We were sitting on the flying bridge most of the journey in flat calm seas with absolutely zero wind. All this when the weather man said the opposite! At least this start gave me a little confidence in my long underused weather forecasting skills… Lavinia did well on her first overnight standing her two watches without calling me! Although the forecast was for 25 knot winds from the east blowing up late Saturday early Sunday the winds did increase and did strengthen to 30 knots but by the time they did, which I had thought, they came out of the SE not the E and we were close enough to Key West that we had a lee from the Keys. We had wind but only 3-5ft seas which the stabilizers coped with fine. YEA! WE’RE IN KEY WEST, THE JOURNEY BEGINS…”
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| Key West - check out the helicopter! |
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| Our first sunset - no green flash! |
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| Our anchorage in Key West - wow, the colour of the water! |
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| YT Relaxing on the flying bridge |
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| Capt. Fix it! |
The techno for this entry is - watermakers don't work if they are sucking air into the system...we tried to make our first RO water, set everything up, turned on the watermaker primer pump and nothing! Darn! or at least something like that, the Admiral will tell you something else, @#%^%^& thing! Three hours later after a practical rebuild of the plumbing and replacing two hose clamps that had rusted away I had located the leak in the system and now we have water, hurrah! 25 gallons an hour of beautiful drinking water steadily streamed into the tank. We made 100 gals which gave us a total of 225 gals. in the tanks.
"Bring hard work to the table and see what you get" I said that...
Note – The ‘glossary of the terms’ page contains all the writers abbreviations and colloquialisms.
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