The last few days we seriously started preparations for our trip north to the Hudson River from our Winter home in the Florida Keys. It is quite different this year with the COVID-19 lock-down as we try to limit trips to stores. We try to make good lists so we get everything we need in as few trips as possible.
For about 6 weeks in February and March I kept close track of weather windows for sailing to The Bahamas. I was looking for good sailing longer than a day that would let us get east at least to Nassau. If we took a short window to Bimini, we could be there for weeks waiting for the trade winds to die or clock. So, we stayed at our dock in Burdines having fun with our friends and hanging out.
That all changed near the end of March when COVID-19 spread to Europe then to the U.S. All vacationers to The Keys were told to leave and we worried that we would be told to go also. To prepare, I jugged diesel and gas from the marina fuel dock to fill up our diesel tank (about 32 gallons) and filled our gas jugs (20 gallons) for generator and outboard. Laura also stocked up our freezers and food storage which we've kept full. But, it turns out that we were allowed to stay because we were long-term renters. We had been here since December 5th.
Laura and I walk about every other day on the walking-path along US1. Our main topic of conversation has been "Do we stay here or head north?". Up until now, states along the coast were changing their marina rules daily so we were not sure if we could get fuel, water and groceries along the way. That all seems to have settled out now with only a few places we typically stop being closed. Of course everyone is social-isolating and basically self-service plus stay on the boat. That's OK with us as we prefer to anchor out most of the time anyway.
Another part of the "stay or leave" equation has been the Florida Keys seem pretty safe right now. But, with the exception of New York, states up the coast don't seem to have many hot-spots worse than here so that somewhat levels out. If we stayed here past April, we know from experience that it starts getting hot. Daily highs in the 90s with high humidity. Later in the summer we would need to start worrying about hurricanes and associated boat insurance issues. Time to go...
My current long-term plan is to take a month or so and travel up the coast to Chesapeake Bay. There are several isolated anchorages where we could stay there for several months with only periodic trips to grocery stores nearby. We won't go from there into NY until it's safe.
I've been running our main engine and Honda generator every week or so to make sure everything is in working order. Laura has also been stocking up (hoarding?) on many staples which would allow us to stay isolated at anchor for probably close to two months if we had to. We do have a watermaker on the boat that we haven't used in several years but it worked fine back then. This time of year our solar panels and wind generator would just about supply all of our daily power requirements with the exception of a couple cloudy and calm days in a row. Then we would have to run our Honda generator for a few hours but we keep 20 gallons of gasoline in jugs which would run it about 80-100 hours in battery-charging mode.
Other than stocking up and preparing the boat, we only had a few projects that we wanted to finish before we left. One was to put new soundproofing on two of our engine room doors to quiet down the engine noise while underway. There was some sound insulation on the doors but it was looking pretty bad. After much research, I purchased two sheets of 1 inch composite foam insulation from Jamestown Distributors that was highly recommended for engine rooms. Last Friday, Laura and I started by stripping the old insulation off the first door then drawing a line on the door when it was closed so we could bring the new insulation right to the edges of the opening. Here is Laura using Acetone to remove all the old glue after we scraped off the insulation. Sorry it's a little fuzzy. I guess she was working!
Next we took the door outside to the marina tiki-hut, measured the new insulation, cut it out and used Gorilla spray adhesive on the door and foam. After pressing it down well, we used Aluminum tape to seal around all the edges. Here I am on the salon table finishing up the tape.
Surprisingly, the door fit excellent when we put it back on. Here is the finished first door back on the engine room.
Saturday, we made quick work of the second door which leads to the engine room from our stand-up shower. Everything fit on that one too!
I then took the left-over soundproofing and re-insulated around our freezer compressor box which is also in the engine room. After we installed the new refrigeration 3 years ago, the engine seemed much louder in the galley. I can't wait to see how much difference it all makes. Cost of the two 1" X 32" X 54" sheets was $230 including shipping. Not cheap!
For the past couple weeks, Laura has been working on making new hatch covers for our main deck hatches. The old covers were over 10 years old and falling apart. She purchased the material and hardware from Salrite and worked on them every few days. On Friday I installed them all by pressing in new snaps to hold down the 4 corners on each one. Here I am installing the last snap.
My last boat project before leaving was to wash and put preservative on our cockpit bimini. I try to do this twice a year and it was overdue. I needed to do this before we left because it uses a lot of water. Today, while Laura was cleaning and packing away her inflatable kayak, I scrubbed all the bird-poop off the bimini then washed and dried it well. I then put a heavy coat of 303 Aerospace Protectant which I spread with a clean cloth. It usually makes the bimini look like new again but now it it getting pretty old. We're planning on making a new one this summer at the marina where we can use the picnic tables to lay everything out. It does look much better!
Now there are only a few items on our list before we leave. Tuesday seems like the best day to sail north with 2 days of predicted southeast winds which will get us to Miami or Biscayne Bay. Then everything calms down on Thursday so we can run off-shore to Lake Worth. But... Thursday starts the Spring string of daily thunderstorms which we'll be playing with for the next several weeks. Wish us luck!
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