December 2012 - Florida to Cuba - Page 2

8 December 2012   Vero Beach, Florida
We woke up in a proper bed again and after a luxury shower, Glenys made Egg MacMuffins for breakfast – I could get used to this. Mike and Rona took us on some errands and picked up our mail that had come from UK.  There was nothing much of interest because we do most things on-line or by email.  However, there was a whole load of statements and letters from our various banks and credit cards.  Why on earth do banks keep sending out paper when we can do everything on line? We even get a letter every three month from our main bank telling us that we’ve not been on-line for six months – we’re on-line at least once a week - what are they on?

Mike and Rona dropped us off at boat and came for lunch.

Stocking up on spare parts before we leave America

I’d ordered a finger style guitar course which was delivered to Mike’s yesterday, so I spent the rest of the day backing up the DVDs and dipping into the course – it looks like a lot of hard work, but no one said that it would be easy.

9 December 2012   Vero Beach, Florida
We woke to another plague of crows sitting on the top of the mast.  They seem to come and go.  One day there are none and the next day we’ll have hundreds in the anchorage with at least ten sitting on every boat cawing away and crapping all over the deck.  Glenys is sick of cleaning up after them, but shaking the rigging to scare them away only works for about ten minutes and then they’re back – perhaps we’ll have to invest in a plastic owl.

In my desperation to fix the outboard engine, I bought and fitted an extra filter to the fuel line to remove water from the fuel, but it didn’t seem to make much difference to the problem, in fact it seems a little bit worse and the outboard is still cutting out at low revs.  My next plan is to replace the fuel lines and the squeeze bulb - perhaps there’s not enough fuel getting through.

I spent the afternoon messing about on the internet getting guitar music.  We’ll not have any internet at all in Cuba, so I'm starting to narrow down the 20 songs that I want to be able to play and I'm busy downloading videos of people playing acoustic covers of the songs on YouTube as well as trying to decide on the best style for each song.

10 December 2012   Vero Beach, Florida
The weather forecast says that there’s some unsettled weather with a cold front coming through the area over the next few days.  The winds are still from the south, so we’ll need to wait three or four days for the front to pass over and then we should get some nice north east or east winds, which will be perfect for our over-night sail south.

We’ve decided that we’ll not bother going to Miami and will go straight to Biscayne Key twenty miles further on.  Glenys was checking out the anchorages and it sounds like it’s a lot of hassle.  Yachts are anchoring off small islands to the West of Miami Beach and the locals living in their luxury mansions are getting pissed off with the scruffy boats.  One guy has even moored a small fleet of sailing dinghies just off his house to deter anyone anchoring there – he also plays loud music and shines strong lights on any yacht foolish enough to anchor there, then calls the police to complain!

Stocking up before we leave America

We had another lazy day on board because the weather was very unsettled – we had a cracking thunderstorm in the late afternoon.  In the evening, we went for drinks on “Nuwam” with Robert and Heidi where we caught up on their escapades since they left Deltaville.

11 December 2012   Vero Beach, Florida
I finally started doing my morning exercises again – my motivation is that I’ve realised that I’ll soon be taking off my t-shirt in public.  I’ve put a fair bit of weight on over the past four months while we’ve been sampling the culinary delights of the USA – hot dogs, burgers, philly cheeses steaks, etc.  This overindulgence combined with very little exercise, has left me with some impressive love handles.  To make matters worse, I’ve lost my tan – a white flabby body is not very attractive.

Glenys went out to the cinema with Mike and Rona while I did a job or two.  There are two valves on the cooling system hoses between the engine and the hot water heater which are leaking slightly.  It’s one of those jobs that could take an hour or turn into a nightmare, so I’ve been putting it off for several days.  Fortunately, it only took me an hour of grunting and swearing to remove the valves, which are in an awkward place between the engine and the generator.  I was forced to cut an inch off the rubber pipes, but thankfully there’s enough left to refit the valves.

Mike and Rona picked me up after lunch and dropped us in town, so that we could do some Christmas shopping.  As usual, I wandered around aimlessly and bought a few small things, but I still have no idea what to “really” get her.

Back on the boat, I replaced the fuel lines between the fuel tank and the outboard, but it didn’t make any difference – the damn thing still stalls at low revs. However, I’ve discovered that if I pull the choke full out, then the engine will keep running.  I’ll have to read the workshop manual again and see if it will give me any more hints.

12 December 2012   Vero Beach, Florida
I re-fitted the two valves on the engine cooling system – another half an hour of grunting and cursing while lying across the engine crushing my ribs.  At least it’s another job off the list.

I sent my camera off to get it repaired over two weeks ago and UPS should have delivered it to Mike’s house, but they’ve tried three times and have now sent it back to the camera repair company.  This is a pain in the neck and it took me an hour to sort it all out.  UPS were useless and it took ages to talk to a real person who could tell me what had happened.  I’ve now asked the camera company to send it to the City Marina in Marathon.  Hopefully it will be there in a few days when we arrive – having things delivered is always one of the traumas of living on a boat and having no fixed address.

Saloon pulled to pieces to sort out diesel pump

We took advantage of the excellent internet connection for the rest of the afternoon.  We were both looking for sheet music and lessons to practice for the next few months.  It will be a bit of a culture shock not having any internet access while we’re in Cuba, so we’re making the most of it while we have such a good link.

In the late afternoon, I remembered that I needed to recharged the fridges with Freon – I’ve still not found the leaks and I’m hoping that there is a cruiser living in Marathon who will have the correct gear and will be able to help me sort it out.  While I had the floorboards up, I found that there’s a lot of diesel in the bilges and after some investigation found that the fuel pump for the generator is leaking.  I’d noticed a very small leak a few months ago, but it has become much worse.  I’ve got a spare pump, but I ran out of time to sort it out – a job for tomorrow.

13 December 2012   Vero Beach, Florida
We’re still here in Vero Beach – they don’t call it “Velcro” Beach for nothing.  We’ve been here for over two weeks and we’re keen to get moving again.  The wind has finally come around to the north, but the predicted cold front has not passed over yet and it looks like it will be very windy tomorrow, so we’ll wait another day…

I tackled the generator fuel pump, which was easy enough to do once I’d pulled the salon to bits.  It took one and a half hours to remove the dining table and floorboards, half an hour to replace the pump and an hour to clean up and put everything back together.  I then ran the generator for a couple of hours and everything looks to be working OK.  That’s another job to cross off the list which has been lurking around for a few months.

Glenys looked at our various credit cards and bank accounts and found that Lloyds and Halifax have suddenly started to charge us an extra 3% for every foreign transaction, which is a damn nuisance.  Halifax has another credit card that doesn’t charge anything for foreign transactions, so Glenys tried to apply for that one on-line and failed miserably – the web site keeps reporting a problem.

In the afternoon, I had another look at our outboard engine.  I read the manual and the only thing that I haven’t changed is the low speed jet needle, which I didn’t want to touch because I didn’t want more problems caused by not being able to adjust the carburettor properly.  Taking a deep breath, I removed the needle, sprayed carburettor cleaner in to the hole and fitted a new needle.   Low and behold, the engine now runs smoothly – fingers crossed that I’ve finally solved the problem.

We went out for a meal at a beach bar with Mike & Rona.  They had a live band which cut down on the reminiscing on the good old days, but we still drank too much…