Waiting out the storm.

A bit of tropical weather is brewing offshore so we've decided to sit tight for at least one more day. It looks like the storm will come ashore somewhere north of here, near the Georgia border.
We'll just sit tight, change the oil, do some other maintenance and be on our way once this storm clears.
Hard to believe it's out there. Here it's a beautiful day.

When was the last time...

You had a real sundae at an old fashioned soda fountain?
We're in New Smyrna Beach at a place called "Little's." It's a real old time drug store with a soda fountain.
We had planned on anchoring tonight but our favorite spot was shoaled in too shallow for Queequeg, so we stopped at the city marina. We needed a pumpout anyway, so here we are.
Early enough in the day to walk around town and we discovered Little's.
I know, it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

The Indian River

A most interesting day.
About sunrise this morning, we raised anchor and rolled out the genoa. Sailing off anchor is always a treat, but today it was so quiet! We had, maybe, 3 knots of wind so we ghosted along at a gentle 1.8 knots most of the morning. About 11 or so we added the main and continued at about 2.5 until just after noon. Then the sea breeze kicked in and we were up to 5! As the breeze continued to build I noticed more weather helm than I like. We started flattening and triming the sails to reduce the weather helm and Queequeg said "thanks," kicked up her heels and took off at 6! After a bit, the weather helm came back so we trimed again. Like a thoroughbred racehorse, Queequeg took off at 7! What ride!
After a short while the weather helm came back and we got nervous. We rolled in the genny and the boat settled down to a nice, sane, and comfortable 4.5. We made it to our planned anchorage right on schedule.
I can see that under the right hand and in the right conditions this boat is a rocket!

OK, so I can't diagnose engine noises...

It turned out that our squeal was a loose alternator belt, not a transmission problem.
Whew! We'll be underway again tomorrow, St. Augustine by next weekend.

I guess it's to be expected...

With a 30 year old boat.
After over 200 miles, we are in a marina for repairs. The transmission started making a loud squeal when we revved up. I ckecked the fluid and it was a bit low. Added more fluid and the noise went away, but why is it leaking?
So we stop to check it out. There is a Yanmar mechanic on site, if needed. I hope not as it would seem there's no easy fix.
As we pulled in yesterday we spotted Great Old Broad, a boat we know from Marathon. Sally is in Chicago at a conference, but Ed drove us to the grocery store and later we met for a few drinks at the bar.
Just pray I can solve the transmssion problem without outside help.

Progress

We are starting to get back into the rhythm of the crusing life. We made another 25 miles today, again motoring with the wind on our nose.
Tomorrow, it looks like we might get to sail across Biscane Bay.
We got to Gilberts Resorth but could not raise them by radio or phone so we saved some money by dropping anchor within sight of the place. Their loss.
We sat here and watched two young pelicans harrass a dolphin. They're lucky dolphins don't eat bird. Otherwise, they would have been dinner!

Underway

Well, we are unerway at last.
The weather wasn't perfect, but we went anyway because we want to be at No Name Harbor by Monday. We have go outside around Miami and the weather is forecast to be great on Tuesday.
Today we had the wind on the nose all 27 nm to Islamorada. We planned on motoring anyway to test the strut repairs. Everything worked great and we started learning the rpm/speed curve for the boat. So far it looks like 2200 rpm gives about 5 knots in calm water, 4 knots in a headwind. Not bad.
Tomorrow Gilberts and Mother's day dinner for Bev.
Everyone please wish us good luck.

Strut work.

Oops, accidentally sent a post to the other blog. Sorry.
Strut work is done. Prop cleaned and balanced. We splash tomorrow.

A setback

Well, today was to be the day and we tried, we really tried.
We started out at high tide this morning and got about half way to Long Key. Then we blew a tack and managed to get the genoa sheets hopelessly fouled. So we started the engine but when we revved her up we had a horrible thunking sound. I suspect the prop strut has worked itself loose. (It's never been quite, but we didn't have money in the budget to haul out and fix it.) Now we have to find the money and get it done.
To top off a day of disasters, we ran aground within sight of the dock and had to wait for the tide to come in.
What a day.
On another note, a young couple looked at Walkue yesterday. They called today to say they want to make an offer.  Keep your fingers crossed.