Sunday, May 24, 2015

Move to a new marina ...

Poor Alizee has been virtually at a stand still for the past six months.  We had a great sail bringing her down from St. Pete in November, but low tides combined with the captain's music gig schedule eliminated virtually every opportunity we had to go sailing during the winter season (sad, indeed, because that is the best sailing season in Florida).  Then, when we finally got ready to set out for a sail, we discovered the heat exchanger had cracked, leaking coolant over the starter, and stray voltage fried the starter as well as voltage regulator.  Thus, lots of engine work, which also revealed fried wiring in the engine harness and problems with the raw-water-intake pump -- both replaced, along with the starter, voltage regulator and heat exchanger.

At last, on Monday, 18 May, we boarded Alizee, and prepared to take her out, away from our long-term dock at the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club, and to a new berth at Burnt Store Marina (just 5 minutes from our home and having a regular year-round depth of 6 feet plus).  Friends Hermann and Jeri Schaller joined us for the voyage, which took about five hours.  Very light winds, perhaps get us up to 5 knots at one point, and we ended up motoring the last couple of nautical miles.  And, HOT!   It's not quite summer, but temps in the low 90s and a little humidity make it really miserable at times.

We took our time tying up Alizee, and went into the berth bow first after I failed a couple of times to back her in.  That's always a tough thing to do, and the little breeze we had kept sliding her away from the berth.  Too hot to put her to bed properly, so the next day, I went back down in the morning to straighten out the sails, put on the covers, make sure the lines were all adjusted correctly, and pick up some stuff we'd left aboard.

The first heat break we get, I want to go out for a night on the hook.  Hope it's soon, but it may not be for a while.

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