I must confess I am writing this first entry for 2017 only a few days before Easter, so Happy Easter to everyone. This year’s drive from T.O. to Stuart Florida was a record for no snow and warm temperatures. We’re sorry about global warming but we had dry and sunny weather for all 2,235 kilometers of our drive.
Quiescence is showing the fallout after four years in a saltwater environment so she needed quite a lot of TLC. Kim had serviced the transmission, autopilot linear drive, and the windlass at home so they all needed to be reinstalled. He also replaced the dripless seal for the prop shaft. The only hurricane Matthew damage we had was that half of our windex (wind vane) on the mast head had been knocked off by flying debris. It still works well enough for us so we will leave it for one more hurricane season before replacing it. All sorts of electrical connections have developed minor corrosion so Kim has been cleaning and spraying many of these connections. Along with aging items that need replacing and the usual work to prepare for launch, we had a lot of hard work before we could go sailing!
One of Kim’s happy places is the engine ‘room’
The Q is finally ready for launching and more adventures.
Early January mornings can be chilly.
On our way south to Miami we did have a few cool mornings with a stiff wind from the wrong direction so we took the inside (ICW) route from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale. Along the way we were waiting for the Atlantic Ave bridge to open for us and as the bridge opened Kim put the engine into forward and almost immediately there was a loud “thunk” and then an even louder “bang” sound. The engine stopped running and we lost control of the boat. As we drifted toward the bridge we were able to convince a small boat to try and pull us through the bridge. This did not go terribly well but we did make it through with only a scrape along the top sides from the wooden bridge fenders that we bumped. Fortunately another boat was able to help us get out from under the bridge and far enough away where we were able to drop our anchor down in the narrow channel. Kim dove under the boat to find a two-foot length of a dock board with stainless screws sticking out that was impaled on our prop. After diving down three times he managed to pry it from the prop. Amazingly there was no damage to the prop and we were quickly on our way again as we had 17 bridges to get through before dark. Just another adventure in the cruising lifestyle…
The offending hunk of dock board (you can see where to prop blade had cut into it)
Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long for an outside sail along the coast to Miami where we waited for a weather window across to the Bahamas.
Some well earned beach time.
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