The light at the end of the tunnel is minute, however slowly but surely is becoming brighter.
Our clock is ticking. We have a hard date of picking up our best friend in Nassau April 8th. Planning for a two month plus voyage, we need to make sure all our i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.
Crossing the Gulf Stream is liking crossing the Straight of Georgia, Johnstone Strait, or Cape Caution. It’s not to be taken lightly. The Gulf Stream runs on average 2.5-3kts North off the east coast of Florida. The wind cycles around like clockwork; the trades are predominantly E, shifting to SE, then SW to W (warm and humid!), shifting N (c-c-cold), back to NE to E. When the winds are N to NE, you do not want to cross the Gulf Stream. You may say, but you will be going with the wind; isn’t that what we all try to do? The N-NE wind will be against the S-SE Gulf Stream: wind over current. Unless you want to get the sh*! kicked out of you, you wait for the weather window. Our weather window is Easter Sunday, April 1st. If we miss it, it’s another four to five days in Ft Lauderdale.
Since we were splashed, the deep freeze compressor has been installed, all six (we counted wrong, not enough fingers on one hand) AC units work, the de-naming and naming ceremonies have occurred, the BBQ is now functional, the gauges are somewhat functional, the dilapidated skiff is on the dock, and the water maker is installed and functional.
Key word: functional. When we tried to test the water maker, no sea water was getting to the pump. Back to that saying, it always sounds easier than it is. We began the troubleshooting. We primed all the hoses with water, we checked all the hose clamps, we swapped out the initial strainer… still nothing. The thru hull/sea cock was blocked.
F*$! We were just on the hard for two weeks, and we did not even think about checking the thru hull. We quickly assessed our options. A) be hauled out in the morning ($$$). B) it’s warm and 6ft of water where we are sitting. Tom could dive under to dislodge it. Neither sounded appealing. If only we had something long enough and skinny to stick down the hose…
Thank goodness for… a metal coat hanger! This is the third time we’ve used this coat hanger left by the previous owner. We’ve used it as an arm extension for pulling wires, and now we used it to unclog our thru hull. With a little bit of prodding and heavy pressure from Tom’s lungs, we were able to blow it out. We are now making our own water!
Sunset during our de-naming ceremony