Leaving Indiantown

Thanks all for your lovely words of faith and encouragement after my last post. I didn't think i would be posting again quite so soon.

After a false start, we have made it out of the Indiantown Marina and are now at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. Our first attempt to leave Indiantown last Tuesday was thwarted by the boat engine. While it had been running fine after Ivan and Jack first fixed it up, it decided to give us grief the day we wanted to leave. We said our farewells to all of the wonderful people we had made friends with in the boatyard and to the fantastic staff at the marina and went to cast off from the floating jetty. With the engine still running at this point, we were only slightly delayed by having to forward and back to free the boat from the sticky muddy bottom that it had been resting on due to the unseasonably low level of water in the marina. Then the engine conked out! After checking for air in hoses, tightening everything and getting various bits of advice from a number of people, we made it out of the marina into the canal, thinking all was fine when the engine conked out again. To cut a very long story short, we spent the next 4 hours in the canal trying to get the engine to run for more than 10 minutes before conking out.  Finally we conceded defeat and turned back to Indiantown Marina ( we had only travelled about 500m up the canal). Even getting back was a challenge as the outboard motor decided to play up. Fortunately the hastily rigged staysail didn't let us down and the boat engine actually continued running for the whole journey back. It was an exercise in perserverance and frustration for Ivan and I think I developed a few more grey hairs. The only slightly tricky bit in getting back was making sure we could time our arrival at the railway bridge so that it was up to let us pass under.

Going through the open Indiantown Railway bridge

The next morning Graeme from the marina and Ivan set to work to try to find out what the problem with the engine was. The outboard problem turned out to be easily fixed. The boat engine problem was more of a mystery. Again, to cut a long story short, it took all day, changing over hoses, tightening and re-tightening things, bleeding lines, looking for air bubbles and then finally they worked out that a tap that was in the 'on' position should have been in the 'off' position. So some buckets of sweat, curses and hundreds of dollars later, once again we were able to leave the marina. We left at about 5pm and motored successfully down to the St Lucie Lock where we had to stay the night as the lock was not due to open again until 9am the next day. It was a 2hr trip down the canal.

Richard and Ivan are happy chappies now we are underway.

Thursday morning we were up early waiting for the

Lock to open. A catamaran had also stayed the night near us and a couple of motor cruisers came up the canal that morning to go through the Lock too. We were travelling east and the west travelling boats came through the Lock first so it took some time before we were through. By about 10.30am we were once again on our way motoring up the canal towards Stuart. There wasn't much to see in the canal other than the back gardens of some swish, but sterile houses which reminded us at times of the canals in Paynesville. We arrived at Stuart and picked up our mooring at about midday.

Today we are having our 'Mack Pack' fitted and rigging checked. We will do some final provisioning here before leaving for the Bahamas. Still not entirely sure when we will depart as it depends on what needs to be done in regard to the rigging. The clock is ticking and, much as we like the very good meals at the restaurant near the Marina we are very keen to get away.

Nearly Ready to Leave

Two months after we arrived at the Marina, we are nearly ready to leave. We hope to travel down the canal to Stuart on Tuesday or Wednesday, spend a couple of days there finalising the boat and then it's off to the Bahamas to start out journey home. This may be my last post for some time.

Still in Indiantown

It's been a while since my last post, partly because I couldn't access the site for a couple of days. So since i last wrote the big news is that we have made it out of the workyard and into the water at the marina!



Brio touches the water again after being on land for the last 2 years



It's been a while since my last post, partly because I couldn't access the site for a couple of days. So since I last wrote the big news is that we bade farewell to our fellow "dirt rats" and made it out of the workyard and into the water at the marina!

"dirt rat" Clyde

 





Fellow "dirt rats" Craig and Andy on Orion

Over the past couple of weeks we have been invaded by love bugs. These are small flying insects that are joined at the abdomen  - hence the name. When I say fly, it's more of a spiralling any which way they can as they go through their superglue mating routine. While they thankfully don't bite, they are a nuisance, especially when you are trying to paint or use epoxy, as they inevitably land in it and stay there! 

The results of a love bug swarm on fresh epoxy



Brio is looking almost ready to go - we now have a wind generator and solar panel installed, liferaft aboard, operational chartplotter and other things electronic, nearly completely painted deck, new hatch (after I broke one just opening it), so many other things I can't think of right now. Every day is busy, busy, busy.

The name goes on the bow

and home port goes on the stern

Even though we feel like we are nearly ready to sail , we still seem to be buying lots of necessary things - and some comforts like a bbq. Today our 'dirt rat" friend John  drove us to Stewart so we could buy a secondhand dinghy. The one that came with Brio, although not an old one, had obviously spent too much time in the Florida sun and humidity. No matter what we did to fix each leak, new ones would appear and usually on the seam so impossibly hard to fix. After many attempts and a whole lot of glues and solutions to remedy the problem, we finally decided it was a lost cause, and started looking for another dinghy. we now have an 8ft Walker Bay hard dinghy (so at least we wont have to patch it!)



Ivan, Laura, Tuckker and Louise

We spent a great evening with Tuckker and Laura at their house not far from Indiantown. Tuckker made the best fresh tuna sashimi and Laura cooked mahi-mahi (our first taste of the fish everyone seems to talk about around here). Tuckker works at the marine store where we buy most of our supplies from and has helped us so much with getting our boat ready, including connecting all of the electronic equipment. I'm sure he didn't expect to be spending quite as much time in the bowels of our boat as he has. We came to have dinner at Tuckker and Laura's place  because Ivan - who has more front that Myers- said to Tuckker he wouldn't have felt like he had visited Florida unless he had been invited to a local person's home!

  

Week Five





Here's an example of a huge trailer just for you Helen



Ok, so it's the beginning of week 5 for us at Indiantown Marina and the work continues. Someone did say to me the other day it's like Hotel California here.....for those of you who aren't Eagles fans - "you can check out, but you can never leave". Please let that not be us! Richard has got right into working on the boat as well as checking out the ones in the yard that he'd like to buy. Hopefully the third pair of hands means we will at least be in the water soon. 



Richard sitting down on the job on his first day



Michael and Robert  - welder men

 We had to get the welder men back for some more advice on the keel and a couple more small jobs. Michael and Robert are really nice guys with great southern accents.  Thanks guys for helping us out.



John, Ivan and Craig enjoying a beer on Brio



John who has a yacht in the yard near us is an invaluable source

 of information and knows his way around the sailing

sites like no one else. He put us onto someone who was selling a secondhand series drogue and liked ours so much he's gone and bought one himself!

Ros and Rob were also near neighbours of ours for a while, but have now returned home to Canada after a marathon 5 months in the workyard. They'll be back to finish working on their yacht and then they hope to go sailing!

Our mate Jack has also returned home to Canada. He helped us immensely with sorting out our engine.



Jack on board the Daniel B



Rob and Ros with Sarah being moved