Gary and Irene (from Thunder Bay, Ontario aboard trawler Mandi Ross) have a standard schnauzer and a set of dog clippers and offered to show me how to use them to shear Buddy. Gary ended up doing the whole Buddy (how could we not have a picture of that) for which Buddy seemed to be very grateful.
We also got to talk to Joe Krunk about leaving the boat here. Joe is in his early eighties and is in charge of the marina and is the ultimate authority on who gets to stay. The place is always ‘full’ but clearly isn’t, so essentially Joe has to think you’re OK folks before you get leave your boat here. He was quite non-committal but told us to come see him on Wednesday, his work day.
Nick aboard Tovaki, happened to be heading back to Miami the following morning to fly back to the UK and his family and offered to detour to Indiantown and drop me off to retrieve our RV “The Big Easy”. We made a decision to take him up on the offer because even if Joe didn’t find us a spot we could take the boat to Glades just further up the waterway and leave it there.
We had Gary and Irene over for happy hour and talked about the marina and cruising in general.
Monday 4th May
6 am and we’re up and by 7:00. Nick and I are buzzing down the highway going round north of Lake Okeechobee (incidentally the second largest lake within the US) to Indiantown.
By 9:00 I was pulling the cover off the RV, the engine started right away and after calling in at the marina for mail I took the beast to get the oil changed, the tire pressures checked (it’s an absolute b$%@# of a job to do without a truck style pressure pump and gauge).
After some shopping on my bicycle, it was ready to go and off we trundled.
We parked the RV fairly close to the boat and started the dreaded task of moving from one to the other before spending our last miserable night trying to sleep on the boat. There’s nowhere in the marina to plug the RV in and run the air conditioner.
Tuesday 5th May
A long day getting things moved but at the end we head off in the RV to Granny’s Grove RV park to plug in and have blessed cooling, running water and showers.
Plus the campsite has a pool even though it was 93 degF. We are parked right next to Peter and Roberta who told us about the reasonably priced Granny’s and incidentally are also next to us in our mooring slip at the marina in their Catalac catamaran Llamedos. A rather unusual name that has to be read in reverse.
Wednesday 6th May
We head to the marina as soon as we have paid for our stay at Granny’s Grove and we meet up with Joe and it’s a done deal. We can stay and even use the spot we are in.
One of the reasons for staying here is that Scott, who is two boats over from our spot, had a friend coming who he said had completely rebuilt his engine for him and was a very knowledgeable guy. Herb had arrived the day before as predicted and anchored his sailboat, Lively Lady, in the bay. We met him and passenger Sayrah and when he’d finished dismantling Scott’s alternator he came and took a look at my problem. In a couple of hours he had found the problem. As most people I had talked to suspected , it turned out to be a fuel problem. In the primary filter that is first in line from the fuel tank there is a small cavity that acts as a non-return valve. I didn’t even know it existed but anyway it was practically filled with slimy crud.
We were very very grateful for his assistance. Herb, it turns out comes from Calabogie just west of Ottawa.
Then it was back to moving our worldly goods.
Thursday 7th May
Peter and Roberta lent us their truck for the day and we used the opportunity to pick up stuff like fuel stabilizer etc.
Down came the sails and more stuff to move.
Friday 8th May
Back in the RV to the marina to motor into the next bay for fuel and a last pumput. On the way, I couldn’t believe it, the engine failed again. However, Herb was still around and diagnosed a leak in the bottom end of the filter that was causing air to get into the system. New filter housing required!
After preparing the outboard for storage and removing it from my now quite famous (locally anyway) motor mount it was up on deck with the dinghy.
Saturday 9th May
Time to run the lines that will protect the boat in the case of a passing hurricane and finish removing the last of the stuff that’s going with us. Another long day in the hot sun. This is no fun – time to go.
Sunday 10th May
It took all day to tension the lines so the boat was away from the dock and cover the most vulnerable parts with tarps.
We had Peter and Roberta over for supper to celebrate our completion and readiness to go.
So ends another season of sailing.
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