2011 FLUKE UPDATE

May 2011

You last heard from us when we pulled back into our home port of Vero Beach, FL right at the beginning of August after our 2010 Bahamas trip. With hurricane season in full swing we knew that we needed to get FLUKE out of the water ASAP before a hurricane was headed this way. If that was the case, every boater who had a boat in the water would be trying to get out too, and it would be chaos. Space becomes very limited.

Since we wanted to have FLUKE as close to home as possible so that it would be easier for us to do work on her, the guys suggested we look into hauling out at Riverside, a work yard about 15 miles south of Vero, in Ft. Pierce. In years past we had gone through the facility by car, and it was very disorderly, full of derelict boats, dirty, dusty, and just not my idea of a place to keep FLUKE for nine months. So, I whined and pitched a fit, but in the spirit of compromise, agreed to make a new visit to the facility. I can say it was 100% better than the last time I saw the place. It had been cleaned up, better organized, and the owner/operator family was very helpful answering all our questions. They were almost filled to capacity already, but had a couple of boats going back into the water and were able to get us out.

Transporting the big girl on land

So, FLUKE sat in the yard, collecting dust and yard dirt at a rate of $400/month, but at least relishing in the fact that we didn't have to contend with the trauma of going through a hurricane. If we had kept her in the water, we would have had to deal with having her bottom getting fouled which would have created a whole new set of problems and it would have cost even more money just to keep her in the water at the marina anyway.

No work got done on her until the first of 2011 because of the following “excuses”: too hot, had to recover from the Bahamas trip, unpacked moving stuff, landscaped the yard and did house projects to the new place, holiday activities, and personal “business” (more info on that to follow).

Once FLUKE was hauled out the second week of August, we moved to the “new” land home and starting sleeping there for the first time since we purchased the place in April 2010. It has taken a lot of getting used to, especially the lack of storage space. We had to buy a storage shed for the yard. I can vacuum the house by only moving the plug once; I had to move it 6 times to get the whole old house done. We had hurricane shutters made, and the little block house should be a fortress. I call it our “Lock and Go” home. However, we are finally settled in and love the neighborhood. We can walk or bike to the municipal marina where FLUKE is now berthed waiting our next departure. We can walk to the end of the driveway and see the beach boardwalk at the end of the street, and we walk down there often to watch the sun rise and check out the sea conditions. When the wind is out of the east, we can hear the ocean at night when it is cool enough to have the windows open. The following two photos are taken about a year apart.

At the time of purchase

Home improvements

I went back to work part time for the University of Florida at their Medical Entomology Lab, where I have worked periodically for almost 10 years now. I was happy to be able to work on field and lab projects and do a variety of different jobs. My days always went by quickly and the work was very mentally stimulating. While I enjoyed being away from the guys, they floundered in my absence; a lot more work gets done when I am on site to supervise.

Eddie just up and left town altogether. He rented a convertible Mustang and took a month-long road trip, visiting friends and relatives in GA, AL, OH, RI, ME, and CT. Then when Chief Cool Wheels returned, he jumped right in and started working in the yard. He did a great job creating plant beds and planting and watering in the new plants. We wanted to get the yard done so that we would have time to get the new plants established before we left again.

Wayne transitioned into a new, truly advanced phase with his bread making hobby. He finally broke down and got a Bosch compact mixer for mixing the dough and began using different types of bake ware and vessels to prepare the various breads he makes. He has become interactive with several on-line bread sites. We haven't had store made bread loaves, hamburger or hotdog buns, rolls, or English muffins since our return from the Bahamas!

No loafing for these loaves

Once work finally began on FLUKE, after the first of the new year, the days went by quickly. Wayne spent lots of time working on re-varnishing the cap rails with 12 coats of varnish. Hopefully they will be able to last a while and won't take the effort just to put a couple of new layers on when the time comes to do them again.

In the interest of saving time, we broke down and paid for having her hull waxed; we still need to do the house and inside bulwarks. I polished quite a bit of the chrome. I have no idea when we will finish the rest of either.

We sanded and painted our own bottom, a dirty, nasty job! We have to wear haz-mat suits and respirators so that we don't breathe the paint dust. However, you work up a sweat and the blue dust sticks to any skin that is exposed, so we all end up looking like blue raccoons in the face where our eyes are covered, but not our cheeks. We had prop speed put on the main prop and thruster props. That is the shiny surface you can see on the prop Eddie is sitting next to. The stuff is supposed to help keep bottom growth off the metal, the favorite place for sea life to try to grow on.

What keeps us going

We extended our external exhaust pipe; the little black flap you see above the pipe where it comes out of the stern in the photo is where it used to be. We've had a problem with the exhaust getting on the transom and also a station wagon effect whereby the exhaust gets pulled up towards the boat as we're moving forward, so this may help with that. No matter what the sea conditions are, it is just not pleasant having to breathe exhaust fumes. If you aren't sea sick from rough seas, you can get sick from breathing exhaust fumes alone.

It is important to quit smoking

We purchased a smaller dinghy for the trip north. We had talked (and argued) about doing this for several years. Of course we also had to buy a small outboard motor to put on it. Both items can be picked up by hand without having to use our mast lift system and then can be stowed aboard – somewhere. My big beef about getting new stuff was having more things to take care of when we don't take care of what we already have. The guys had a good point, though, there are times when launching the big dinghy is just too much of a production. Plus, we can't have our mast up (needed to launch the big dinghy) when we are on the northern canals because their bridges are too low. I described this situation to one of my landlubber friends as leaving our car at home and having to use a scooter. I think the new dinghy sat for 6 weeks on the porch, which I guess is where everyone keeps a dinghy, right?!

Trying out the new equipment

Anyway, the big dinghy has problems. The Sea Stooges let it sit in the water for too long without keeping it clean. Bottom growth accumulated, including barnacles. Then we scraped them off, causing pinholes which let the air out. There were months of discussions between Wayne and Eddie and I about the dinghy not holding air; W said it was due to temperature changes, but we kept saying it was leaking since we were the ones who paid the most attention to how often it needed air before it had the pin hole problem. It is a huge project to try to seal the holes.

Since we weren't going to be taking the big dinghy north, we needed to find a place to keep it. The municipal marina has a rack and stack; it's one of those big buildings where a fork lift puts boats on racks. The price for our dinghy was going to be $100/month. So, we decided to try to buy a used trailer and keep it in the yard. That also meant that my little truck had to have a wiring harness put on it to tow the trailer. This is just the beginning of the money trail; keep reading for more details.

We managed to get the big dinghy off FLUKE while she was in the slip at the dock without hitting the boat next to us and with minimal yelling (that is always a gauge used to determine the complexity and/or success of a crew project). Once in the water, we had to act quickly since the dinghy was losing air at a rapid pace. Fortunately the closest public boat ramp is right around the corner, so the guys got there without sinking. Getting it on the trailer didn't go too badly, only because of dumb luck. I expected my poor little truck to get pulled back down the boat ramp and into the water, but that went okay too. However, once the truck and trailer were clear of the boat ramp we noticed that one of the trailer tires was losing air, and Wayne had forgot to put the license tag on the trailer. Eddie and I went back to the house to get a pump and to try to look for the tag. Found the pump, but no tag.

Eddie's job was to pump up the tire, and he was getting testy because he wanted to get home in time to watch Glen Beck's weekly wrap-up. So, he was hurrying along, following Wayne's misinformation in regard to the air pressure, and ended up blowing the valve stem off the tire tube. We could hear the air hissing out. Since we only had about a half mile to get home, Eddie and I followed Wayne and the trailer, being ready to lend assistance if the tire fell off the rim. Luckily we all made it home without incident and jacked up the trailer since the whole thing was listing badly to starboard with the flat tire. Poor Eddie only got to watch the last 15 minutes of Beck, but that is the most important part anyway since you get his take-home message which will hold you over for the weekend.

While taking off the tire to have the valve stem replaced, the guys discovered that the wheel bearings were low on grease and one side was missing the dust cap. When Eddie went to the automotive store to get the parts, they were having a sale on wheel bearings, so he decided that they would replace both sets of wheel bearings. At least the trailer will have good bearings while it sits in the yard for 6 months. You can see this crew covers all our bases!

Our dear friend, Big Al, who I've mentioned before, was kind enough to let us use the fork lift in his automotive business to try to lift the big dinghy to put a liquid sealant inside to try to seal the pinholes. While it took an entire afternoon to manipulate the whole thing, it was only partially effective. So, now the poor thing will have to sit on the trailer for the whole summer mostly deflated. At least it will have good wheel bearings though.

When the beginning of May rolled around, we were really starting to get panicky since we had set a May 10 departure date to leave Vero for our trip north this year. We still had a LOT to get done preparing FLUKE and shutting up the house. Tempers flared on a daily basis. One day at lunch Eddie asked me how he could tell if I was happy. I told him he would probably never be able to tell since I was only happy when he wasn't around!! One of my friends has said that she fully expects to hear that one of us won't be returning from one of our adventures some day. So, with that in mind, I will close for now.