Day 121, Year 11: Day Two, Passage to Little River—Water Pirates
Date: Saturday, February 20, 2016
Weather: Overcast, Hi 70’s, Low 50’s, Wind Variable 5, Seas 3-5
Latitude: 27 52.715 N
Longitude: 080 22.037 W
Location: Motoring Along Florida’s E Coast–Off Sebastian Inlet
Total Miles Traveled: 79 nautical miles (5:30 pm)
We were on a roll this morning. Kevin was in the water by 7:45 am to check out the prop. He quickly came back up and reported that growth on the prop was not our problem. It was actually pretty clean, so the overheating issue is probably a problem with a heat exchanger. Checking that out will have to happen later. For now we’ll just not push the RPMs and hope that we will be fine. As soon as Wonder Boy (new name replacing Kevin’s ‘angel’ status) was out of the water, he and Mark were in the dinghy and headed to shore to get water. They were so fast that I still hadn’t had a chance to eat all of my granola. They explained that they were able to go right into the marina into an empty slip and get water before anyone knew they were there. Kevin was singing a little ditty about being a water pirate. Pirates or not, I was most grateful for the water. Our water jerry jugs were purchased in St. Helena and hold 25 litres and hold almost 7 gallons when absolutely full (versus US jugs that hold 5 gallons). They put the 14 gallons of water in the empty port tank and poured the 3 gallons they brought back in a bucket in our compromised starboard tank. This is the water tank that Mark mistakenly poured a small amount of diesel fuel in last spring before realizing his mistake. We have cleaned it and cleaned it, but have been afraid to use it for anything but washing dishes. We decided last night that we were going to have to change our minds and use it in this situation. But with good water in the port tank, we could now go back to using this one for just washing dishes. The guys went back for more water. This time they returned with two five gallon buckets (my idea) and the two jerry jugs. Mark was getting ready to put the jerry jug water in the port tank when Kevin suggested that we just leave it in the jugs on deck in case of another water emergency. As you will see, that was a brilliant idea. We put the buckets of water in the starboard tank and off we went. It took us three hours to get to the Ft. Pierce inlet and Mark felt like it was close enough to slack that we could go out. It wasn’t the roughest inlet we have ever negotiated but there were 10-12 foot standing waves and about three knots of current going with us. Obviously we didn’t wait long enough. But we were fine and by 12:30 pm we were through the inlet, had raised the main, and were headed north.
It was now time for me to head below to make lunch. I was once again enjoying running water when all of a sudden, there was once again no water. I wish you could have seen my face. Total disbelief doesn’t quite cover what I think I looked like. Mark came down to check things out, and sure enough, one of the hose clamps on the water hose Kevin installed last evening had popped off and once again we lost all of the water in the port tank. This is when we really appreciated Kevin’s genius in encouraging us to keep the two jerry jugs of water on deck and not in the tank. So we have an empty port water tank and a mostly full starboard tank that we are using. If there is any residual diesel in that tank, you certainly can’t see it or smell it. And since all of our drinking water goes through a Sea Gull filter, it will be fine.
So today had its moments of drama, but it was a much better day than yesterday. We will be passing Cape Canaveral before dark and nearing St. Augustine by tomorrow evening. Kevin says he doubts my weather forecasting skills as we certainly do not have the 15 knots of East wind that should have given us a wonderful beam reach sail this afternoon. It looks to me like the wind predicted for after midnight tonight came 12 hours early. And that means no wind for the next couple of days. But at this time of year, no wind is better than too much wind, so we’ll take what we have with no complaints. I will just note that with no wind, the 3-5 foot seas are causing us to have a roly poly ride, but we will endure.
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| 160220 Day 121 Passage to LR–Water Pirates |
