Survived the Hurricane in Fort Pierce

Weather reports predicted Hurricane Irma going up the east coast, instead it took a turn up the west coast.  Nevertheless much rain water fell over the entire state and caused massive damage everywhere from St. Augustine, where they had floods in the downtown stores last fall as well to Tampa, Naples, Miami, all of Key West.  Fort Pierce where Shawnee resides fared well with only minor marina damage and no boat damage.

We need to take a visit really to see Shawnee, but Whitaker Boat Yard is proceeding and working with Drew remotely as he designs:

+  a system to cool the engine room with fans and exhaust pipes thus making the engine run more efficiently. 

+   a better stern ladder that doesn't bonk into the dinghy that hangs on davits.

+  a semi-telescopic side ladder to use when I want to go swimming and don't want to go to the trouble of putting the dinghy down to get to the stern ladder.  I have not found a good ladder that hangs over the side.  I've tried many of them.

Whitaker is also doing bright work with Bristol Finish, and a number of other jobs.  As we all know the list is endless on boat projects, improvements and maintenance.

 As plans stand now we are in New Hampshire until November.  I'll keep you posted.
👍🌞

Shawnee on the hard

Drew has spent a week, fixing, cleaning up, designing how to fix things and upgrading, and hauling.  Shawnee is at the age now where things need to be replaced to keep her in good shape.  She was built in 1999.  Whiticar will do a good job.

Here are pictures of the dinghy coming up out of the water onto Shawnee's deck.

 Hauling Tweety up with the halyard after the outboard was pulled up onto the rail.

Deflating and lying on the bow.

Tying Tweety up straight against the mast.

He took all the canvas off for repair.  Naked Shawnee.  I always like the look of boats with no lifelines, hardward or canvas - just the boat itself.  But then the practicalities are the blazing sun, safety, and comfort that wins out.

Shawnee gets hauled out awaiting work at Whiticar.  Without the canvas the radar, wind generator, solar panels, outboard engine hanging on the rail, fold down ladder, the arch to hold a lot of the equipment is so visible.  I wonder what a toll the sun will take on the teak.  Tweety must be lying on the bow or off the boat.

Drew comes home at midnight Thursday to the cuddly, 4 cute puppies, and I'm sure will rest.
I'm reading  A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - excellent.  Just finished Hidden Figures after seeing the excellent movie - but I must say the movie was better than the book unless you want to know the total history of NASA and NACA.

Shawnee and Puppy Update

Drew just flew down to Florida to see how Shawnee is doing on the slip at Harbor Town Marina in hot 90 degree Fort Pierce.  I believe the air conditioning is keeping up. 
  We have an interesting list of items for Whiticar, one to fabricate for us.  I have long hated the transom set up with a flip down ladder behind the helm.  We move the back of the helm seat to the side, take down the dinghy from the davits, undo the lifeline, and finally step down the slanted ladder into the water or onto the dinghy.  It's very cumbersome and not something to use when I want to just jump in for a quick swim somewhere.  When we anchor for the night we don't want to take down the dinghy, but I do want to swim on a hot day.
  Drew has designed a telescoping ladder that could sit on the stern or side of the boat and be released down to the water with legs to push against the side of the boat.  We'll see if it can be fabricated.  That's one project.

Drew has to remove the sails and dinghy and out board engine before Whiticar hauls the boat out July 10 to do other work.

• Check the stuffing box - an annual check.  

• Install soundproofing and fans to suck out the hot air in the engine compartment

•  Maybe install a new stove
•  
• Replace the interior fans 

I am in Exeter, NH overseeing 4 new wheaten terrier puppies, born June 28th, 3 males, 1 female.  So cute and Mazu is so proud.  Yes, they are dark brown when born and lighten up over the first year.  Eyes aren't open yet.  2 males are left for some lucky family.

Socializing with gentle hands.  4 grands with 4 pups.  Who likes puppies? MEEE

  

3 pups on 1 lap

Mast sealing, a short sail, walk on the jetty, dinghy to island and back home

We went home April 10th.  But here's what went on at Fort Pierce before we left.  Life on the slip.

Drew finished sealing the mast so that's the last of sponges inside near the ceiling and little drips near the mast in the salon.
These are the ways we found to seal it.  Drew covered the entire mast deck plate with sealant because it was leaking from there.
You can see it here on the Island Packet Yacht forum, an excellent source of how-tos.

http://www.ipyoa.com/forum/46-rigging-stainless-steel/2873-mast-boot-deck-pin-mast-collar#5529

Here's our finished project at the base of the mast.  The deck plate is covered with clear sealant.

 Well it doesn't leak now.

This was as close as we got to snow this year (except while visiting Bangor for the new grandson around Christmas.) a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of skiing and sledding.

We took a walk out on the Fort Pierce jetty along the Inlet and across from Fort Pierce State Park Beach.
I saw a life list bird, the Ruddy Turnstone on the jetty.  They were stepping along (versus a hop) running really, to pick up the fishermen's scraps.

Drew put the camera up to the scope and got these two movies of a surfer across the inlet at the State Park beach.

Here's the end of the jetty.

Here are the currents off the jetty on a day we sailed.

On another day we took the dinghy out to the nearby island.  Mazu has the place to herself and loves it.  First we slide the dinghy under the pier to get out into the channel.

Then we motor over to the island

Arrive at the island.

Mazu loves the freedom.

Just finishing an autobiography on Frederick Law Olmsted, A Clearing in the Distance by Witold Rybczynski.  He helped design Central Park, Prospect Park, The Fens in Boston and 5500 others. As the country grew he was there with wild landscape. That has put me into the woods and gardens. Also Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami for book group.

A sail, a sail on a beautiful day.

From the other day up the mast

Our good friend Michelle came up from Palm Beach to go sailing with us Monday.

With light wind behind us we sailed wing in wing - mainsail to starboard (right) and jib to port (left).

On our sail

a bird flew aboard and stayed with us for about 20 minutes.  So cute.  It hopped along the floor. Finally just flew off.

And some jet skis around

On the way back into the slip we saw a heron posing on top of the mangroves. 

We've also seen a few other amazing animals other days.  This one is endangered.  We picked him up but a person said, "Don't let the ranger see you do that." and put him down.

At the local aquarium.   Amazing color. A seahorse - some think these are like unicorns - too incredible to be real.

The many sounds of the marina
 soothing to me.   We have the soft sound of a whoo, whoo train that goes by several times a day and night; that low woooo ooo as it passes the road intersections.
Walking down the dock there's the fairly loud whrrr of the wind in the boat shrouds, the gurgle of  water coming out of boats' air conditioning outflow, an occasional startling slap-flap of a fish jumping straight up and coming down on the water, low talking on some boats, hose spray cleaning boats, always the hum of an electric tool's motor somewhere either on a boat, in the marina or from the nearby boatyard at work and the ever present beeps of a big vehicle backing up or the phone or the microwave or some unknown source that causes us to say, "Where's that coming from?"

At the end of the day - today was pretty cloudy, so no sunset, but I saved 3 bucks off the dryer fee and dryed my sheets on the life lines on a windy day for scent, ease, and 'cause I'm cheap and cannot do this at home (stupid condo rules).

BOOKS: Just finished: The Nature Fix  - a must read - by Florence Williams,  Clementine, the Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill by Sonia Purnell and  Upstream by Mary Oliver. Now reading Savage Beauty, The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay - my favorite poet - by Nancy Milford - excellent with  more detail than some may want.

Up the mast - my favorite fix

The toilet now works completely and we have learned that we should put vinegar down the hoses to keep them clean and clear.

Drew is busy with his office moving to Bedford, New Hampshire from Auburn in April.  Furniture to order, decorating, image to portray, lots of decisions.

Future sail plans are on hold.  I am thinking of renaming this blog the Not-sailing in a sailboat blog.

Rain day aboard.  Pretty loud, but dry in the cockpit room.

The next day we decided to try putting the a new anemometer spinner on top of the mast.  Drew hauling on the winch and me going to the top which I love.  2 ropes/halyards are on the chair, green and red, the second is a safety.  Great workout for him.

Here I am in the bosun's chair waiting to go.  You can see the tools in the pocket and the new anemometer sticking out.  I bring up my phone/camera too and text pictures down to Drew so he can see what I'm doing and if there is anything else to be fixed up there.

 At the top it's a great view and fills me up for the day.  The swinging around on the way down is fun too.  No video though with Drew cranking me down.

Nice view of the harbor.

me at the top and the anemometer

Viewing the base of the anemometer before I screwed the new one in.

View of the nearby drawbridge

View of  the inlet from the ICW into our marina protected by mangroves.  You can see a little slim sand island way out that Mazu and I go to for a swim once in a while via dinghy.   This shows a blob of sealant on the top of the anemometer too.

Looking down at Drew in cockpit, solar panels

Little video of looking around.

The next day our French Canadian neighbor had watched me go up and asked me to do the same thing for his boat.  His anemometer had conked out too.  So I went up for a drink (of water) and did him a $150 favor.  He has an electric winch so I went up pretty quickly. FUN! easier than rock climbing and I still have a view.

 You can barely see me from the ground.

Of course a picture of moon over marina one of those full moon evenings.  Looking down the lighted dock walk.

Drew dives and I visit St Lucie County Parks

Drew had a great dive with our son-in-law, Yeang.  They took a dive boat out of Jupiter Florida, Kyalami.  Two dives where they saw rays, sharks, turtle, and large fish.  The visibility isn't the best, but a sunny calm day - the best of the week Yeang and family were here.

3 month Oliver

 Isabelle looking out.

On the St. Lucie County Preserve Indrio Savannahs walk  I saw an alligator in the canal.

 Nice paths with some of it shady.  There was an observation tower where I saw roseatte spoonbills.

The St. Lucie County Preserves have 30 parks nearby, with State Parks along the ocean.  The county seems to have more parks and places for the public than many places where we've stopped.   I've dinghied to islands with Mazu, explored mangroves and seen little red legged crabs - really hard to see but they are peeking out of the mangrove roots and rocks.

 
When we put Shawnee stern in at the dock to use the dinghy, we go under the dock to get out to the marina channel.  Me with Sarah and Isabelle.

 

dinghied up Taylor Creek from this marina to a dam with waterfalls.  A kingfisher followed us all the way back, skimming the water, perching on a tree then darting ahead of us.  Large great blue herons swooped across the creek clearly surprised to see a boat.  We scooted under four high and low bridges.  I went at high tide and slowly over areas where I wasn't sure of the depth.  It was so calm, end of the day light.  I passed an island that is an evening roost for primarily pelicans.

At the end of the day sunset over the marina