Today is Tuesday, 27 October 2015.  JoAnne and I thought we’d be in Florida by now.

She and I have had a pretty rough time and at times we take it out on each other.  We yell sometimes and get mad over no reason.

Turns out though we still like each other a whole lot 🙂

We’ve been married over 38 years now and have known each other about 40 so as much as we get on each others nerves at times we still know we love one another.

My job, besides making this boat move, is to take care of her.  To keep her warm, to keep her dry, to keep her from getting seasick.  I’m a miserable failure in those things.  She’s gotten sick, drenched, dripped on, spray washed over her, and she’s been cold since August.  But, I keep trying.

Today the insurance surveyor is coming by to examine the damages on the boat, and I’ve completed my statement, collected names and numbers of witnesses, provided the police with information for their report, organized the paperwork and will email it to the insurance adjustor this afternoon.  I’ll let the surveyor do his job before I limit my options.

Tomorrow morning sometime they will pull Adventure up to the other dock, get the crane out and hoist our mast out of it’s traditional place on the foredeck, laying it down on the hard where I can inspect the upper mast and mast head, lighting, rigging and probably install a new halyard or three.  (I need a new main halyard, and at least one on the spreader for things like courtesy flags and such.  I’ll add two or three because I see there are places to add them).

I’ve asked the boat builder in email if he can start work almost immediately.  I’m not waiting for the insurance agent to say “ok”, because I want the front repaired so we can get out of here.  I’ll let him and the insurance guy worry the small stuff.  Not my circus, not my monkeys….  The damage is obvious, the work is clear, the guy that hit us admitted he did it, the insurances have been notified.  So, get ‘er done….

Sunday morning Dave from USA Fuel Services came by and “polished” the fuel.  He ate through 5-6 filters on the coarse pump out which at first I considered surprising.  Then I thought about it.

Dick Stapleton, the former owner had met with us on August 5th for dinner at Sheerans, in Stony Point NY area, and we went over a lot of things on the boat.  He had said he’d cleaned one of the tanks.  Wasn’t 100% sure which.  The other tank he was unsure of the quality of the fuel.

When we started out, we began using the forward tank, starboard side filler.  Neither fuel gauge worked so we never knew how much fuel there was.  When we got here, towed in, because the engine shut off, it was due to the fuel having gunk in it. Water, bacteria, and who knows what else.

Dave discovered a LOT of crap in the forward fuel tank and cleaned it out.

Dave also found that the back tank was clean.  In other words, that tank would never have done what the front tank did had we been using it.

He pumped out close to 25 gallons of bad fuel and we’re down that much.  But we have roughly 55 or 60 gallons at the moment, and I’ll top off the tanks before we leave for the ICW (soon I hope).

A mechanic is coming down to check the engine, help me replace the filters, drain the fuel lines and get the engine started today as well.

Things are coming together (again) and with luck we will get the mast back on in a couple days, rigging adjusted properly, engine running, JoAnne happy, warm and dry and us on the move again.

We decided to take the boat south ourselves after that rough day on the Bay.  It was a long conversation and various “What Ifs” bandied about, various options, ideas like JoAnne going on to Florida by plane and me bringing the boat down alone, getting a delivery skipper, me travelling with a delivery skipper to learn and other things from selling the boat and giving up to trading for something different.

None of those options except sticking together and travelling down the ICW, together, worked.  Or will work.  We do this together, or not at all at this point. (I won’t rule out a delivery skipper later if this becomes any more ridiculous though).

Speaking of ridiculous.  We’re in a place we came for minor repairs.  We ended up getting hit.  We’ve had the engine shut down because of fuel problems (because we were TRYING to get here after they called us and rushed us, and then didn’t even bother to really help us until a week later) and it’s getting cold, it’s raining today, and I’m still working my ass off.

Yesterday, I tore apart the binnacle, galley, electrical panel and the radio shelf over the navigation station searching for wiring that was causing the short, and subsequently taking out the chart plotter.

I never found the actual short, but I found the wire and where it disappears into the wall someplace over behind the electrical panel and nav station.  I cut it loose and reconnected the stuff I have to have working.  I know forward, there’s no power being supplied to the auto bilge pump and toilet.  So, I suspect that is the problem somehow.  I have repaired the bilge pump by rerouting power from another location and adding a switch to make sure the two pumps don’t power up at the same time.

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1315: Surveyor is here.  More in a minute.

13:45:  Surveyor, Rick Milner was here.  He went over the damage and checked it all out.  His assessment pretty much agrees with mine, except he wants a rigger out to check the rake on the mast, the stays from the bowsprit, and a few other things.  Time to email my statement and pictures over to the insurance adjustor.

Looks like it’s gonna be awhile before we get out of here.  If we get out of here.