NOW WHAT! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? 11th December 2014

Away at last.

Happily motoring along the Inter Coastal Waterway between Fernandina Beach and Jacksonville. Testing systems before we head to sea......There is a bit of a leak in the stern seal. ...Well the leak is getting worse!.... by this afternoon it became necessary to really find out what the problem is. David got down and dirty and discovered that the vulcanizing on the face plate of the Manecraft Stern seal has come away from the rubber housing. This is the second time this has happened and this one is only 2 years old.  We are limited in the type of seal we can use because the space into which we must fit it is very limited. All other seals we have found are too long. We have ordered a new one from the UK and now we must back track, fortunately only 20 miles, to Tiger Point and re-haul and replace it. We have done this job in the water before but not in water this cold and dirty!!!

This morning I went aground while David was dealing with pumps down below.... "they put the channel markers on the wrong side here and I got confused..." lack of recent practice...oops!! Fortunately the tide was still rising so we were able to motor off in 15 minutes or so. Red face me!!

We are now tied up at the nice free dock in near the St Johns River and will back track the 20 or so miles to Fernandina over the next couple of days ready to haul when the seal arrives. The leak is fairly non threatening while we are stopped. Oh well that's boats.

 

Free Dock at Jacksonville.

Captain Brown Altman ( Ph. 9046080025) the self appointed unofficial "Greeter" popped by this afternoon to see if we needed anything. Shops, repairs, lift to the airport etc. What a nice surprise. This was a first in 10 years of cruising foreign places. The dock itself is one of the best docks we have ever been on. Floating Concrete with huge concrete piles. Great big cleats and excellent bumpers. There is water supplied but no power. Ashore there is a shower and toilet block. And its all  free for the first 72 hours courtesy of the city of Jacksonville. 30 23.8988 N 081 27.5329 W 

16th Dec Up on the hard again for the past 2 nights. Splash again today. Replaced seal.

 Dec 17th Splashed again. Seal all good. Lets get out of here!