Today was mostly a down day on Second Wind. Laura sewed for much of the day (some of our friends and relatives will appreciate this at Christmas time) and I worked on a few boat jobs.
Non-boaters might want to skip through this next section to Wednesday.
I've been trying to figure out the best way to secure our spare main halyard (line going to the top of our mast used to raise a sail) for what seems like several years. If I use the cleats at the bottom of the mast, it gets very confusing with all the lines that are there already. I typically tie it to the outer main stay near the deck which gets it out of the way but doesn't secure it very well.
A few months ago I purchased a deck cleat that I was going to use for one end of the spare halyard - maybe in front of the mast. When I tried fitting everything there, I didn't like it. Instead, I put the deck cleat away and re-tied to the outer stay.
Several weeks ago when helping our friends Dean and Sue with some mast repairs, I noticed that Dean had several lines secured to stays with a stay-cleat. I thought this was pretty neat so eventually purchased one in St. Augustine and used it to tie the free end of the spare halyard to the stay. It looked pretty good. Now I needed to figure out the other end - something that I'd be happy with.
I decided to use the deck cleat to secure the shackle end on the toe-rail. Then the entire spare halyard would be out of the way and very secure to where it wouldn't be in the way of us running the sails or be in the way. Anyway, that the long story of the spare halyard and the picture blow shows the completed work.
The rest of our day was uneventful with nice weather and a comfy boat. We did watch the rest of "The 100" first season and both of us commented on how bad the acting and writing was. Tomorrow we will watch one of our 250 movies on the computer.
Wednesday, December 4th (Day 69)
Beautiful weather and nice conditions at our anchorage again. After a little work this morning, we decided to take the dinghy into Alabama Jacks for lunch / dinner. Alabama Jacks big claim-to-fame is the "first Keys bar" on the way onto The Keys. We've been there several times when we are anchored nearby and it's always fun even though the food and drinks are a little on the expensive side and there are only plastic tables and chairs. But... I guess you are paying for the atmosphere.
We were excited about leaving the boat and seeing other people. It's been 5 days since we've been off the boat or seen anyone else. We enjoy each other's company (obviously) but a little excitement is always good.
I dropped the dinghy and we lowered the outboard from it's ocean storage on the back railing. When I started the engine, it seemed to take a long time for the cooling water to come out but it eventually, it seemed to be OK. We call this the outboard pissing. That's what it looks like too.
We changed into "public" clothes, got our safety gear together and headed out for the 1.5 mile run to the Card Sound Bridge then down the canal about 1/4 mile to the docks at Alabama Jacks. Almost to the bridge, I remembered I had the anchor alarm set on my phone. We stopped so I could dig it out of the pack Laura was carrying to shut off the alarm. That complete, I turned around to get the engine going again and noticed it wasn't pissing. Instead, there was just a lot of steam coming out. Oh oh. This is the first time we've had problems with this engine since we bought it used in Grenada 13 years ago.
Rev'ing up the engine a little made a little water come out so it was getting some cooling. I immediately turned around and headed back to the boat to see if I could get it working better. I didn't want to row our 12' inflatable back 1.5 miles if the motor died.
We did make it back to the boat and I tried cleaning out the water port with a wire - nothing up there to block it. I also checked the intake at the bottom of the engine and it wasn't clogged. The problems were most likely caused by the rubber impeller inside the lower end. I didn't have a spare on the boat so we hauled the dinghy back up on the davits and Laura made us a nice lunch. We'll have to party by ourselves this afternoon.
So you don't feel too bad about missing Alabama Jacks, here are a few pictures from their website.
Tomorrow morning we'll head out through Angelfish Creek to the ocean side of The Keys and start working our way to Marathon. We should be there Friday afternoon.
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