Category: Boat Trips

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

I was worried that the part of the broken alternator bracket bolt that was left in the engine would not be accessible, but it was. I was able to get it out thanks to good ol’ vise grips.

The rest of the alternator bracket is a little wonky so I’m gonna work on that and get a new and hopefully stronger bolt.

Now that I finally have my blog set up I have engine problems due to the broken bolt above so I’m limping at 3 miles an hour to Capt’n Butcher’s Marina in Sebastian where I will tie up for a month to work on the engine. It’s probably a simple fix but I might as well stay a month and explore the Indian River around here it’s gorgeous

Monday, December 9

After staying overnight at anchor for the previous couple of nights, I stayed at the Titusville Municipal Marina to get fuel and supplies, as well as do laundry.  The marina is pleasant with a nice gazebo with BBQ grill and VIP lounge and screen in patio with a big screen TV.  After doing laundry, I got a Lyft to Publix for groceries and ice. Left about 9:30am.

 

Pleasant weather, not as cold as earlier in the trip when it was in the 40s or colder at night. This sunset photo was taken at the park next to Titusville Marina.

Sunday, December 8

Saturday December 7

Flagler Beach was a nice spot to anchor, in a lake near the Sea Ray factory. It was nice to have the lake to myself, except for a few folks fishing on the shore and in some small fishing boats.

New Smyrna Beach was an adventure, a stupid bridge tender held me up for a half an hour. The bridge is on a schedule, opens on the hour and half hour. I got there right on time, but instead of using the official name of the bridge, I was calling on the VHF for the New Smyrna Beach bridge (the only drawbridge in town). By the time I looked it up and called on the cell phone, it was a minute after the hour and he make me wait 1/2 hour which put me at my anchorage around dark so I couldn’t see very well and bumped the bottom. Grrrrrrr fortunately I was able to get into deeper water and motored to a better defined location and stayed overnight on the hook.

Friday, December 6

Friday, December 6 – got up and finished up the oil change mess from the previous day and straightened up the boat and then left around mid day from the Anchorage south of Saint Augustine and went past Marine land marina which is very cool because if you tie up there you can walk across A1A to the ocean plus the rates there are pretty damn cheap buck and a half a foot maybe so that would be a cool place to hang out for a month! I am now anchored near Flagler Beach in front of the sea ray boat factory in a weird little lake that they seem to be filling in or something I don’t know but I’ll take it around tall

I ran until around sunset and started to become concerned that I wouldn’t find a place to Anchor but I could’ve anchored out in the ICW in a white spot but spotted this little Anchorage on the chart using a Navionics and here I am hopefully I can get a an early start tomorrow and hopefully make it 60 miles or so tomorrow unless I go outside at new Smyrna Ponson let in which case I would have to go out and around Cape Canaveral

Thursday, December 5 – slept in and left figuring to go down the ICW. Added a half quart of oil to the engine, the dipstick is a bit wonky but it appeared to be at the low end of the range. The charging system does not instill confidence and plus the wind is forecast to drop so I decided on the ICW as the next inlet is a long haul. As I wend by the inlet at St Augustine, the engine accelerated on it’s own and let out a big puff of smoke. After a few tense moments, it settled down. I returned to Camachee Cove marina and checked the oil, it was overfull. I drained all of the oil so I could add the specified 3 quarts and got a better understanding of the oil levels. It’s a long story but because the crankcase is sealed it’s hard to get an accurate oil level reading so evidently some oil found it’s way in to the cylinders and caused the unexpected sudden acceleration. After searching the internet, I found the exact same thing happened to another boater with the same engine. So I will monitor closely the oil level but feel good about the engine now. The only question I have now is the charging system, I need to fiddle with it to make sure it does charge for sure at least the engine starting battery.