Technical Details

As we've mentioned our prop shaft broke just short of our destination last weekend.

We were about 5 miles north of Daytona Beach and heard a loud pop and lost power. We quickly got the anchor down and I went below into the engine compartment to investigate. I found the prop shaft broken right by the coupling.

After we got hauled we were able to really review the issue. Apparently the previous owner had challenges with the shaft coming out of the coupling. I'm guessing that because of the prop he installed that was massively over-pitched the force of the prop would pull the shaft out of the coupling. To remedy that someone drilled through the shaft and installed a 3/8" bolt to hold it in place. I totally missed this issue as did our surveyor and the yard at Oxford. It's pretty obvious the previous owner knew of this and the risk. By drilling through a 1.25" shaft with 3/8"the strength was reduced to 7/16". It's no wonder that under the stress of 3000 rpm the shaft eventually broke.

We are lucky that it didn't happen when we were 100 mi. offshore or when navigating some of the challenging channels we've been in. Fortunately we were in a mild current with water deep enough to anchor but shallow enough that had we sunk we would have been on the bottom with about a foot or so of water in the keel doing little or no damage.

During the entire trip we have had an issue with the bilge pump cycling on and we were unable to find any source of water incursion but water has been coming in through the shaft log since shortly after we left Oxford.

This past Tuesday we removed the shaft and drive assembly and hopefully will be able to get the replacement parts early this week. The shaft log will need to be epoxied in to seal it and then I can put some paint on the bottom and prop after we return from the cold.

Then we can be launched and the engine realigned.

The actual parts replacement are the shaft, engine coupling and we are replacing the cutlass bearing while it is out.

We have some other work to do while we're waiting for the parts so the time isn't wasted. Eventually when we get all the work done there will be beach days or time to just kick back in the cockpit on anchor with a nice rum drink.

Meanwhile the weather has been warmer than up north and Daytona is a nice town. The yard so far has been great and I feel comfortable with the work being done. The damage done by the previous owner is just another example of how some owners do really stupid stuff that they don't understand and emphasizes the need to do all work competently and check everything thoroughly.

Road Trip!

Totally unexpected on New Years Day we received a sound offer for our 380, on the hard in Deale, MD. The buyers are in a hurry so they have scheduled a survey and sea trial for next week. We are leaving tomorrow by car to head up to the land of the cold again. Just as we're settling in and enjoying the warmth of the south we're now digging out our long undies and cold weather gear which we buried deep in the bowels of the boat. The forecast for the day of the sea trial is a low of 12 and and a high of 31. Hopefully, this will be the shortest sea trial ever. We're not looking forward to freezing.

                              Our lovely 380. She will soon be gone but not soon forgotten.

We are looking forward to seeing a few dearly missed friends. Unfortunately we won't be in the area long enough to see more of our good buddies. We have to get back to finish the work on the 420 so we can head further south. We don't want to miss our rendezvous in the Keys scheduled near the end of the month.

A Day at the Beach!

Being on the hard at Daytona Beach isn't all that bad. Today we had a visit from my step-daughter, her husband and three grandkids. Our destination was a couple of miles east to the Beach! With the sun shining, the temperature soaring into the 80s and a nice breeze the kids built a castle with a moat, tested the waters and some of us went for a walk. Water temp was in the 60s, much to cold for me to dip anything but my feet. It's always so cool to see the cars driving on the beach!

We finished our excursion with a very late lunch just off the beach at Ocean Deck. Then it was off to the boatyard for Maris and I and back to Sanford for the kids. It's great to be in sunny, warm Florida!

After 2 weeks we left St Augustine

Well I have been remiss in updating our blog. But, hope to get caught up over the next couple days.

Happy New Year to all.

We spent 2 great weeks in St Augustine and left on Sunday past for Daytona Beach,.

Above is a picture of the St Augustine Municipal Marina. This is the man fairway with the dinghy docks off to port.

We intended to leave STA early but when we got off the mooring the fog was fairly heavy but visibility was reasonable so we motored to the fuel dock to pump out, take on fuel and water. As we serviced the boat the fog actually got worse so we waited a bit hoping it might lift. About an hour after our arrival at the fuel dock it began to lift so we took off. But a few miles down the river it got intense so we slowed and with Linda on the bow we went mark to mark for about an hour until the fog lifted. Once it did it turned into a beautiful day. Temps got up to the 80's and we cruised past some beautiful homes.

We were passing Ormond Beach with just 5 miles to go Daytona and we were talking to a trawler who had been following us since back in the fog when we heard a loud pop and suddenly lost power.

I cut the engine and got the anchor down before the current could push us into shallow water. I then investigated and found the prop shaft had broken. We called Towboat US and made arrangements with the Daytona Beach Marina and Boatyard for a slip and after a few hours towboat arrived and took us into the marina.

During the tow we were unable to steer because the prop had fallen back into the rudder. After we got into the marina we discovered that the shaft log had cracked and there was water leaking int the bilge which identified a mystery source of water incursion since we left Oxford. We tried to find it and had made numerous fixes but this was one we hadn't seen until now.

I stayed up most of the night dozing off occasionally to ensure that the bilge pump kept running to remove the water. I found the hand pump handle and got it ready in case it failed and we needed to pump by hand. But, morning came and things were under control.

The yard folks came by in the morning and saw the issue and later in the day on Monday we got hauled and are now sitting on the hard.

More to follow... 

(Out of sequence)

Hard to believe that we have been here in this marina a week. Tomorrow we move down the river to a mooring at the St Augustine Municipal Marina for the next week. Now there is less than one night left in this marina. There will be new challenges but hey, there's no snow and I'm sitting here in the cockpit in my bathing suit typing away by some tiki lights strung up in the bimini.

This is a view of the dock at the marina looking down the canyon of the triple decked professional fishing boats. We were the only sailboat on the dock an definitely the cheapest house on the block. Most of these tuna/marlin sport fishing boats run in the multimillions of dollars and several have their own fulltime crew. But, hey so do we!

Over the course of the week we did get a fair amount of work done.Of course I've added to my "to do" list that I will work on as time permits. Each stop I will work off the list and add new things to it.

The facilities at the marina were very good and they provided a loaner car that we used on occasion to get out to take care of business.

But time to move on.

Looking at the marina in the daylight it is very simple to come in. But, when we came in at night after 57 hours offshore and a 4 kt cross current at low tide it was anything but straight forward. In spite of that we made it into the right slip and backed in and had a good nights sleep.

Merry Christmas

After spending our week at the marina on Sunday we moved to a mooring at the St Augustine Municipal Marina. So for this week we are tethered to the bottom via a big floating ball. The Matanzas River that flows through here has a wicked current. The tide variations are about 5’ so every 6 hours 5’ of water goes in and out of here. The current speed approaches 3 kts at max flow. So every 6 hours we change direction and it has been really interesting because the wind has been out of the south so when the tide is coming in and we’re facing north, the wind keeps us on top of the mooring ball.

St Augustine City Marina with cruisers dinghying in (like us) from a mooring.

Linda’s son, Seth, flew in for the week on Sunday night that become Monday morning. The 9 pm arrival became 3 am so we didn’t get back to the boat until after 5 am on Monday. So at just before dawn we dinghied out to the boat in a moderate rain and then went to sleep.

One of the exciting things about our adventure is that it is always filled with surprises. On Sunday after we moved the boat to the mooring we had to walk back to the marina to get the rental car. But once we got that downtown and went to dinghy back the engine wouldn’t start. Our 15hr Yamaha engine that is supposed to be bulletproof was dead. Since it gave us problems on the way in I took the gas can out of the dinghy and added a gallon of high test gas. The gas/oil mix in the can came from the engine’s previous owner and I suspected it might be old. So eventually I was able to get the engine started and we motored back out to our boat. Once there we lifted the Yamaha engine off the dinghy nd replaced it with our spare Mercury 9.9 engine that we bought with our dinghy. Of course it was my bad for never running the engines before (just not enough time) other than to try them out.

We have been using the merc ever since.I plan to get a can of gumout and clean the carb on the Yamaha and suspect that will then work again.

We have been enjoying St Augustine a very culturally diverse city. Founded by the Spanish explorers in 1565 the old city has narrow walled streets with shops and restaurants tucked in everywhere. Then of course there is the old fort built to repel pirates and English. For the holidays pretty much everything is the City is decorated in lights and at night it is absolutely gorgeous. The Spanish colonial style buildings with palm trees decorated with lights provide an intimate attractive holiday appeal. 

There are nice little restaurants and bars all over the City. Monday afternoon we sat at the Mi Casa Café and listened to a very good entertainer sing and play great classical American roots music. It was a mix of blues, country and bluegrass. After that we found a nice vegetarian restaurant for one of the best meals we’ve had in a while. Even the cashew nut ice cream was incredible and nothing had animal products in it.

Weather this week has been less than spectacular but at least it is warm! 

Merry Christmas to all and hope you continue to follow our updates. There are more pictures to post and more information.

But for tonight have a beautiful silent night.

The morning after the second night at sea found us close to Florida waters about sunrise. The night was warm and comfortable. Early in the evening just after sunset we found ourselves sailing fast but going nowhere in a very warm cockpit. Realizing something was amiss we pulled out our data and found that we had moved into the Gulf Stream. Upon that discovery we turned west to move out of the stream. After about an hour our speed had gotten back above 6 kts and the temperature had dropped a bit. But, the waters remained in the 70's all night so the frigid temps of the Bay were gone and we enjoyed the comfort.

Once the sun rose with the warm water the day was quite pleasant all the way to St Augustine with no wind. In fact, the seas laid down and it was like motoring across a pond (a very big pond).

What''s really amazing is that despite the 57 hour trip from Beaufort, NC to St Augustine, FL including 2 overnights the time went by quickly until the last few hours as we got closer to our destination. Seeing the school of dolphins just before sundown was a good sign and welcoming us to Neptune's world.

As the sun began to set we could see land in the distance. It seemed odd that we were approaching land from the sea after crossing almost 400 nm of open water instead of simply coming down the coast.

As we got closer the reality of coming into the St Augustine inlet after dark began to sink in as we developed our strategy for how to meet the challenge. As we approached we called for a slip at Camachee Cove for the week and asked for updated information about the channel. The marina had no information so I called Tow Boat US who didn't answer and then I called the USCG.

They responded that we should not go in the channel after dark as it was a hazardous inlet and that there was no updated buoy information. We had found by googling that there was in fact a new lighted buoy from the last time we went in the inlet. So we passed our final waypoint and headed in the channel. We quickly identified the channel marks. Linda was up on the bow with a spotlight and found the unlighted marks and a couple small power boats passed us and we found our way in. After a few minor challenges with the current we found our way into the marina and backed into our slip where we have spent the past week.

More to follow about our week at the marina.