Outboard Woes

This week has been an eventful one. Our outboard decided to go tits up this week and just stop working completely. Although Brad gave it his best shot, we couldn't figure out the problem.

Hoisting the outboard up on the mothership with the cowling off is like waving the white flag.

Since we are on a mooring ball a mile from the dinghy dock, that was a bit problematic. We tried rowing in, to the great amusement of all of our boat neighbors. This was largely unsuccessful in the strong winds and after going in circles for a bit tied along with a few expletives thrown between myself and Brad, some of them offered to tow us in. Thus started the three day hell of having to rely on our neighbors for rides and tows, as well as outboard repair assistance. Everyone was very obliging, but it is taxing on them and us to have to tow another dinghy a mile. We had a line of people offer to come over and look at our outboard to see if they could impart some wisdom and every one of them went away just as perplexed as we were. So, while we learned this was the quickest way to meet our "neighborhood", we realized they would soon tire of us and thus we found ourselves in the market for a new outboard....as it were.

As luck would have it, there was indeed one outboard available on craigslist in Marathon. We have been lucky enough to befriend a young couple here with a car and so he and Brad drove out to put it through the paces. After a bit of haggling and some test drives, they decided it would do and we found ourselves the proud owners of a "brand new" Suzuki 15hp!! It is a 2010, which is the newest anything we have ever owned and it is a gem! It starts on the first pull and idles quiet as a mouse; and even I can work it!!!

When we returned with the outboard out to our neck of the mooring field, we were greeted by applause and laughter from our neighbors, who were obviously relieved not to have to tow us around anymore. While this outboard was certainly not in the budget, we are glad that if we had to have an outboard issue, it was here in the harbour. We were able to find a relatively quick solution, thanks to the generosity of the boaters.

So, now, with our new outboard in hand, we are waiting on weather....the story of our lives. But, while waiting, we have been reunited with some boating buddies we met down in the Exumas. They are also waiting for weather and it seems that we will all be making the crossing at about the same time. In the meantime, I'm sure there will be lots of rum consumption, good laughs and volleyball games for all. All in all, there are worse places to be "stuck"...

10 Feet Under

Well, as usual for us (and most sailors I have ever spoken to), we have had a few setbacks and have had to push back our departure date multiple times. I don't know why we even bother to set one. I've now adopted the mentality that we leave when we are ready. No planning allowed. It does make things a bit more stressful however since it seems we may not meet our Georgetown for Christmas destination. As depressing as it is, I am trying to accept this and am looking into flying us over there for Christmas with the fam. This will be more cost prohibitive and will put us farther behind in our trip to the Virgin Islands, but it is better we play it safe.

With two weeks left before their arrival in Georgetown, we still have time to make it there. The weather however, has been a bit of a problem. Even if we were to leave St Pete today and sail down to Marathon and wait to cross the Gulf Stream, the winds have been North for the last two weeks and are predicted to stay that way for at least another week. We will not cross the Stream in any winds with a northerly component. So, even though we are bummed we haven't left St Pete yet, it's either we wait here, or we wait there.

This, I must keep reminding myself, is part of the fun of sailing - the unpredictability and the free go with the flow attitude. Although, for those that know me, you know patience is not one of my stronger virtues and that I love a good plan! So, these past few weeks have been particularly grueling for me. Brad has been a huge help and has been keeping my spirits up and working hard to get us ready to go as soon as possible.

So, enough of the pity party, let me fill you in on all the upgrades that have set up back so far!

I finally finished provisioning for our trip - meaning stocked up on groceries and toiletries that are more expensive over there. I bought way too many things and was a bit daunted when I brought everything home and realized I now had to find a place to stow everything. But, with some creativity and a couple of storage bins, everything now has a place and is safely stowed away. We have claimed the Vberth as our garage for storage, but a few weeks into the trip, we will have used most of the stores and the boat will be feeling a bit less claustrophobic.

Brad has had the hardest part of the last few days - we had decided to upgrade some of our electronics and they have been a bit more challenging to install than we originally thought. He has done a great job though and now we have a new VHF radio with a built-in AIS and, after a few days of research, he has figured out how to wire our new instruments so that they are compatible with some of our older ones as well. Today he will install them and I cannot wait! They are so beautiful!! We were finally able to read our depth under the keel (something we couldn't do on our old control head since it was so sun damaged) - 10 feet under has never looked so good!

Brad has also been putting in a lot of time on our outboard. Unfortunately, after a few days of trying everything he knew how to do, we had to call in the experts. Enter Casey - a wonderful engine repair guy who spent a few years down in the Caribbean. He understood our timeline and desire to leave ASAP and has fit us in to his non-existent spare time and hopes to return our outboard to us today! We have our fingers crossed!

And, last but not least, we have felt a bit lighter these last few days since we donated our car to Make a Wish foundation. We have gone from having a pocketful of keys on our key chain to only one measly boat key. And it feels great!

So, things are coming together, the boat is almost ready to go, we have purged ourselves of all of our land items and the pets are legal - now we just wait for wind!