December is flying by.  There have been the rotating happy hours for the live aboards on P dock, supposedly on Monday evenings but supplemented by additional ones when warranted, like a birthday.  Also, when friends of friends show up to say hi that is usually an excuse for another get together and possibly a boat ride as an excuse to exercise the boats systems.

Our close-to-the-shore dock. The red neck dredging continues with us running the boat in gear at the dock. We now have five feet of water on the center line at the stern at low (-0); we draw three feet nine inches. When the water goes about six inches below -0 we seem to be in the sand, aground about midships. We might have to turn ourselves around and use the prop to push some of that sand out of the way.

Part of our weekly routine is to exercise the thrusters, especially if we haven’t left the dock lately.  While testing the bow thruster it ceased operation.  Thinking it might be low on juice, (amperage) we waited a day before testing it again but still no luck.  Even though the battery was showing 12.7 volts that isn’t necessarily the entire story as the battery lives on a charger.   Well, maybe something got sucked into the prop.  That seemed to be the first thing to check before having to dig into to the fore peak to chase down electrical gremlins.

We have one of those tiny $40 video cameras that are water proof so we attached it to a boat hook and sent it down for a look.  We have seen small barracudas around and heard reports of some good size gators so we weren’t going into the water voluntarily.  The divers that clean boat bottoms around here don’t seem to mind but we do.  Click on the image below to view the process (and no, I don’t know how to edit the video).

Since the tunnel was clear there was no choice but to pull the thruster and check out the brushes.  It turns out those weren’t the problem.

This 7.5 hp motor is nothing to sneeze at when wrestling it out of it’s mount in a fairly confined space. Access to the brushes is a lot easier when you have room to work. It turns out the brushes were still fine, showing very little wear.

After re-installing the motor we tested the unit again and still nothing.  Getting a little smarter by the minute we disconnected the relays and solenoids from the motor and did some more testing.  We could hear the relays click and the solenoids hum which ruled those out as the issue.  It is a good thing as Vetus wants over $300 for the solenoid pack.

We decided that it simply must be that our 5-1/2 year old batteries must be the issue as the thruster draws 300 plus amps and there probably wasn’t enough amperage to keep the solenoids engaged.  As there are one half million golf carts running around Burnt Store this must be a good place to obtain some 6V golf cart batteries.  We made a phone call and were able to get a set of Trojan T-105’s delivered right to the boat for $105 each which is a real good price.  Once installed our “problem” magically went away.

Feeling we should use the dinghy once in a while, we put it overboard and headed out into the harbor to watch the sun set.

Heading out to watch the sun set.

Watching the sun disappear below the horizon from the little boat.

We have our Christmas lights up.  Outside,  a dancing set of lights illuminates the side of the cabin and a string of colored lights are hung in the veranda.  Inside, we have our fiber optic tree and another set of lights strung around the overhead in the saloon.

Not the greatest picture but you can sort of get the idea.

 

Busy doing varnish work, something that needs done probably twice a year in these parts.

 

Varnishing the wing doors. We still have two more sets of doors that need done, the aft doors into the saloon.

We also seemed to have made the command decision to leave the boat in the water over the summer.  A few things entered into this.  If we want to keep this slip we need to pay for it year round whether we use it or not.  It turns out that all the slips here are now taken and they are turning people away.  Part of the reason is that boats that used to go to Naples are coming here as docks are not available in Naples due to the damage from Irma.  It will also simplify our life a bit in the sense that we don’t have to make haul out/launch arrangements months in advance; we can show up and leave when it is convenient.  Statistically, boats are better off in the water than on land during a hurricane.  Burnt Store had very few issues when Charley came up the center of Charlotte Harbor and devastated Useppa Island, just south of here and Punta Gorda, just north of here in 2004 or from Irma this year.  While it was “good” to have to empty out the entire boat into a storage shed it was a lot of work.  Being in the water we can run a dehumidifier all summer and not have to worry too much about mold.   Until they rebuild our dock (looks like a few year out) our electric will be free.  We will have to pay a diver to clean the bottom monthly and the jury is still out relative to covers for our rail cap to keep the varnish looking nice.

The mate has fallen in with the Draggin’ Dragon people here.  They practice three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  The Skipper races his RC sailboat on Mondays starting in January so our “schedules” don’t conflict.  She has all the stuff now, foam seat, paddling gloves, fancy inflatable live vest, carbon fiber paddle, shirt and hat so she is committed.

 

We are heading up to Erie in a few days to visit family for the holidays and to get our fill of the snow and cold.  A few days ago we were forced to wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt for a couple of days due to a cold front that had day time temperatures into the upper 50’s and low 60’s.  It’s now back to shorts and t-shirts again :).

Dave & Bobbi