Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Tying up loose ends.......

As we sit here this morning we have our "new" (rebuilt) port engine and hopefully we can get off the dock for a sea trial later today.  The weather is iffy, there is another boat right behind us so we will see.  In the meantime we know we have two engines again, hooray!  First Mate Marine did a great job and they got the engine off Nati and back on without mishap.  If we ever need assistance again I think we will try to get back here.

 
Before



Heading off Nati

rigging up the boom to help



Over the lifelines and to the dock

Finally.....off to the shop

Our empty grimy engine room





Overhauled engine after we painted it up



A much cleaner engine room!

Ready to come aboard

Jim & Bo sliding the engine into the compartment

Finished!
You can see we had Nati protected as best as possible.  A Yanmar 3GM30F block weighs in at around 250-300lbs so you do the best you can to keep the walls and floors covered.

padding

Cardboard everywhere 

Another roll of tape..







































While here we thought we were getting invited for cocktails by this boat.  It came in to the marina and just turned around.  It did not look like it would fit!

Hi there!

Turning........



































This one on the other hand is one beauty!  When we researched m/v Justice we found out she is the best preserved commuter boat still in existence.  The boat was built in the 30's and served as a commuter for the owner from CT to NYC five days a week.  The boat would cruise at 20-30kts.




Turtle rescue.......a little green turtle was most likely injured by a prop and the marina staff along with a women from Turtle Rescue came to its aid.  They were able to capture it and will be taking it to Marineland, only a few miles south of here.























Lastly.......what do you think of this sunset looking east.  We got into the marina last Monday and this is what we saw.......This picture is not manipulated.


Almost ready to get a move on again.......


Sunday, November 8, 2015

Florida ......... at last!

It good to have nice weather with us and just the other day we pulled into St Augustine, FL.  As long as we are here we are going to attempt to stop the hemorrhaging of the port engine.  Oil is not too expensive but we are now going through it like water.  Good ole "First Mate Marine" will do an overhaul so we are looking forward to have another "great running" engine.

Savannah was a great time.  Halloween in that town is lively and fun.  The food was fantastic also.  We even had our first episode with Uber.  We made it back to Nati but I hope we have learned a little more how it works.
Over 9 foot tides near Savannah

Guess what day it is?






























After Savannah we continued down the inside since there was not wind and we had timed the currents so we were flying down the ICW.  We did a couple of 55+nm days and that is pretty good for  moving in the fall.  Daylight hours are greatly reduced so it's been up at 6am and on the road at 0630. We made it to Cumberland Island and after a nice night there we moved up to check out St Mary's, GA.
We finally found some cats in the hood!


The town is nice and quiet and there are a number of good restaurants.  Of course the wind and current made it uncomfortable to get off Nati so we skipped dinner on land and used some more of our provisions.

Sv Peacemaker

St Mary's waterfront
































The next morning we caught the tide out the channel and direct sail right to St Augustine.  Again, another 55+ nm day but we rode the tide in and caught our mooring ball before sunset.

Sunset in St Augustine

Look who we found......Tyler & Holly

Heading back to the good ship "Renegade"






























Now..........lets get the engine working right!!