Thursday November 8: Back at Banana Bay!!!

Now it feels like we're back home :-)

Yesterday's Dream is back in Slip 8 - overlooking the Florida Bay.

All is right with our world.





Tuesday we left Fort Myers Beach - but only after Steve was again working with the alternator belt.

The design of the Ford Lehman diesel engine is somewhat strange in that in order to change or replace the alternator belt, the belt must run on either side of a large hose that is a part of the antifreeze system that circulates through the engine.

So if the belt has broken (as it did the other day), this large hose containing hot antifreeze must be unhooked from the engine. We're talking antifreeze that is 180 degrees as well as an engine that is likely somewhat hotter.

The solution for not having to deal with this scenario is to deal with it ahead of time. With the engine nicely cooled off in the morning, Steve drained the antifreeze from the engine, removed the large hose, looped TWO spare belts around the hose, and zip-tied them up and out of the way until needed!

Works quite well and eliminates the dangerous situation of working with hot antifreeze and a hot engine.

With that job completed we headed out. The gulf waters were so flat it was kind of crazy. From Ft. Myers to Marathon most of the travel is on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

No problem if the winds are light or from the NE to the SE but west winds can make the travel miserable or not doable depending on the strength of the wind.

We arrived at Rose Marina on Marco Island and settled in after fueling up. We've stayed here a number of times in the past - pleasant folks and always very nice.

It was nice to be tied in and plugged in. My plan was to watch the election return to keep up with what is going on in the outside world!

Of course checking the weather is always first so we can plan tomorrow's travel.

There are two choices from here: travel south on the Big Marco River (which is not really very big and IS rather shallow). Or go outside around the Cape Romano shoals. Outside is longer but we can start out 3 hours earlier because we'd need to wait for the tide to be coming in to travel on the inside route of the river.

Leaving Marco Island

Wednesday morning it was a no-brainer! There were no winds so we were up and out of the marina by 7. Another super day.

Steve getting the lines off of the dock!

The plan when we left was to take another two days travel and pull into Banana Bay on Friday. Once we saw how nice it was, plans changed. Plus we were getting current pulling us along so we were traveling most of the time at between 9 and 10 mph - which of course for us with a normal speed of 8 mph was great!!


Steve was of course fishing but was also on dolphin watch! Probably saw a dozen dolphins riding our bow wave at various times throughout the day.

No fish while traveling but once settled into our anchorage at Little Shark River, Steve finally found the fish!


Not really the kind he was looking for but sail catfish (so called because of the very tall dorsal fin) seemed to love the shrimp heads he had for bait. Four in all - should make for a nice dinner tomorrow :-)


The sunset was nice and for a bit we though we might see our first green flash of the season.

Oh well.


Last time at pulling the anchor. Next stop: Banana Bay!!

Another perfect travel day .....

Monday November 5: Fort Myers

We just have to keep reminding ourselves that this is, after all, a boat!

And we were SO ready to go on Thursday. We had moved out of the condo, turned in the rental car, last minute provisions gathered. Time to head out. Destination was about 5 hours to Cayo Costa - a beautiful state park on the Gulf of Mexico.

100 yards away from the dock and the tachometer went to zero. Voltmeter went to zero. Mmmm  .. alternator belt has slipped again. So much trouble with that thing.

Back to the dock. Back into the hole for Steve :-)

Turns out - after checking with an electrical meter: the alternator is shot! Well, that's never happened before. Good thing we carry a spare one! We weren't sure if it would work but it was worth a try.

Steve worked hard tracing wiring and after a phone call to Brian at American Diesel, was able to figure out how the replacement should be hooked up.

By now it's late Thursday and not so nice weather was due in on Friday so we decided to just spend a couple of more nights at the dock at the storage area.

Yesterday's Dream at the dock.

Finally Saturday we left early and we were in and at the dock at the park by early afternoon. Alternator worked perfectly!

TD Dream at anchor.

Steve trolled all of the way there but no fish. He was sad ....

We spotted our friends formerly from Banana Bay - David and Terri on TD Dream at anchor in the bay just off of our dock.

David and Terri came to the dock by dinghy just in time for docktails on the flybridge. We hadn't seen them in a couple of years so it was fun to be able to catch up. They traveled to the Exumas earlier this year and loved it - fun to hear their stories of the adventure :-)




The wind Saturday night was quite strong from the NW - straight into the small marina here - with enough waves to sink one of the small boats tied up for the night.

Of course Steve went over to check it out and lend a hand if he could. The park ranger came to the rescue with a battery and a 12-volt sump pump which took care of the water pretty quickly.

"We" went kayaking but it was mostly Steve pulling me along! I could get used to kayaking like this :-) But it saved my shoulder from more wear and tear!

The goal was the manatee hole just a bit down the shoreline from the marina.

Lots of manatees around but they just come up, stick their nose out of the water to take a breath and the silently lower back into the water. Not really that much to see!

The alligator on the other hand was quite visible! This is taken with a zoom lens but the wind was definitely blowing me closer than I really wanted to be!

We spent two really nice days at Cayo Costa - Steve made it over to the beach side. It's a really pretty beach and he enjoys walking it.

The storm east of us just barely missed us - we had moved out into the anchorage for the night.

Not much wind ....

Monday was a perfect day to travel the 4 hours to Ft. Myers Beach where we would pick up a mooring ball for the night.

And we were again reminded that it is a boat :-)

Lost the tachometer and voltmeter again. This time the belt broke! No problem - we have one semi on the engine ready to install.

Back in the hole again for Steve as he spent about 30 minutes getting the new belt positioned and tightened. He hopefully discovered the possible cause of all the alternator issues. The bolt holding the adjusting bracket to the engine was a little too long and bottoming out without really being tight enough to secure the bracket when under way.

Off again - with David and Terri standing by in case we had any further troubles. So nice of them ....


Plus they took Steve to the NAPA store once we were in Ft. Myers Beach to pick up a couple of more spare alternator belts.

Can't have TOO many spare belts :-)

Hopefully we'll see Terri and David when they pass through Marathon on their way to the Bahamas in the spring. Boaters are the best people in the world and Terri and David are no exception!!

Marco Island tomorrow - another 5 hour run. Getting close to Banana Bay .....

Tuesday October 30: Back in the Water!!

Painting the primer after first sanding all of the sides.

While I continued working on the inside of the boat, Steve moved on to the next project: painting the cabin sides of the boat. This hadn't been done since we first bought the boat back in 2006.

It was something we really have wanted to get done but a good time/place never really was there. Seemed this was a good time!

Step one: sand all of the surface area on the sides of the cabin from the walkaround deck up.

Step 2: paint a coat of primer for the Brightside one part paint we were going to use.

Painting the cabin sides.

After letting the primer dry for a day, Steve sanded and wiped down the areas that were primed.

Then it was a two person job. I rolled on the paint and Steve 'tipped' the paint with a paint brush. Hence the name: roll and tip!

Works well and the first coat was done.

Cleaning and recoating the prop.

And so were we. I guess I should say I was done. Steve went on to work on the prop.

First wire brushing and then recoating the prop with bottom paint. It seemed to hold up well - keep the barnacles from growing. Probably not the ideal coating for a prop but for our purposes it worked well.

We were back to the boat bright and early today with a scheduled launch time of 10 am.

Ready to be lowered in!

The travel lift was actually there 30 minutes early but we were ready for them! It was supposed to be in the higher 80's today so I think the guys wanted to get an early start.

I don't blame them :-)

It's always fun to watch the boat be launched - no matter how many times we have seen this :-)


Thru hull fitting open: check

Start engine:  check

Water exiting the exhaust: check

Ready to put it in reverse and back away!! This is an engine that hasn't run for 6 months. It's a diesel. I love diesel engines. Turn the key and it starts.

Since it was early yet, we decided the mast might as well go up.

Steve started the process by attaching the stainless steel stays to the top of the mast.

We actually remembered to make sure the mast lights all worked (they did!) before raising the mast. Made that mistake once - try not to repeat our mistakes :-)



Next was for Steve to lift the mast as I pulled on the lines attached to the top of the mast. Once up, I hold the ropes (easy to do!) until Steve attaches the lower ends of the stays where they belong.

How fun to be back in the water!!

We returned to the condo for lunch. I stayed and Steve ended up going back to the boat and putting the second coat of Brightside on the starboard and front side of the cabin.

Did I feel bad that he did it without me? Not even close ....

Tomorrow, finish the port and aft sides and the painting is done.

Canvas to put up and we'll be pretty much ready to go. Probably Friday, maybe Thursday. Doesn't really matter - especially since we'll hardly know what day it is anyway ......

Saturday October 27: Back to Florida

Trevi is still not very big!

We arrived back in Port Charlotte, FL on Wednesday after having a few last days with Matt and Wendy in San Diego.

London -    10 months old

And a day to drive to LA to visit Becky and her puppies! For a change we were around and able to help her with a project. Doesn't happen very often so we took advantage of the day.

Mostly it was Steve and Becky working while I got to play with Trevi (2 months old) and London (10 months old).

Someone had to watch the dogs, right?!!

We airbnb'd a condo for the week - 10 minute drive from the boat.

It was a lesson we learned well a number of years ago - don't try to live on the boat while trying to work on it - especially if it's after the boat has sat for a while!

So nice to be able to come 'home' and clean up and relax after a day at the boat.






It's always a gamble when we leave the boat for 6 months as we never know what condition the boat will be in when we return.

And apparently we still don't know what to do to avoid the dirt and mildew ......

Somehow we were not expecting what we found - the outside of the boat was super dirty. And this is with the boat under cover. Maybe next year we'll try leaving it uncovered????




Regardless, Steve made great progress Friday by getting the flybridge and sides from the walkaround deck up cleaned up.


What a difference when he was finished!

Meanwhile, I worked inside wiping down the main cabin - using a knife to clean out between the slates in the cupboard doors. All of the mini-blinds will be taken down and cleaned but that may wait until we get to Banana Bay.


Today Steve tackled the sides of the hull. Using dishsoap, lots of muscle power, a brush and a long handled microfiber scrubhead, he was able to do both sides of the hull. He said this boat gets bigger every year :-)

Definitely not a fun job .....

I continued inside focusing in on the aft cabin after finishing up the main cabin.

Are we having fun yet???





What a difference after two days of work!!

I swear if this boat doesn't kill us, it will cure us:-)


I neglected to mention that we actually acquired some new skills while at Matt and Wendy's - we took a class on making clay things on a wheel!










Lots of fun - mugs, bowls and cups. Wendy will pick them up for us as we ran out of time to do the glazing. No problem - we'll be back out there in December.

More fun stuff? Becky will have her first on-screen credit as a co-producer of iZombie!!!!

Although she has been involved in many shows (working with her former employer Warner Bros current programming) this will be her very first on-screen credit.



We're so excited for her and can't wait until the first episode (of the 5th season) of iZombie - it won't be until 2019 on the CW network. We will be watching and taping!!!

Friday October 19: California and Hawaii

This fall has really all been about the World Championship Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii. Ever since our son-in-law qualified for this race (by finishing high enough in his age group in a regular iroman to win a slot to this race), our plans revolved around being at the race to cheer him on.

Somewhere in the mass of bodies is Matt!

Matt swam 2.4 miles ...

Biking through downtown Kailua.

and he biked 112 miles ...

Practice run through the lava fields of the Big Island.

and he ran 26.2 miles ....

all in 85 degree heat and sun ...

and he finished in 10 hours 47 minutes!!!



















And his in-person support team cheered him on: Linda, Wendy, Steve, (Matt), Randy and Cindy. Many friends and relatives were also 'watching' and cheering him on through the internet.

Matt pointing out his name on the banner listing all 2,500 racers!

It was fun knowing he was one of the elite 2500 racers who came from 82 countries from around the world for the 40th World Championship Ironman here in Kona.

Not a bad looking group of supporters - given that it was 4:30 in the morning the day of the race!

Randy, Cindy, Steve and Wendy (missing from photo) did masterful jobs of being actually at the race and cheering.

I was the designated driver to get them downtown and back to help lessen the amount of walking and the frustration of finding parking.




The rest of the month on the west coast was spent - well, I'm not quite sure HOW it was spent! Lots of beach walking for Steve, lots of reading for me.

We were able to connect with Karen and Craig - friends we first met on the Trent Canal a couple of years ago. They live in San Juan Capistrano - about an hour north of Matt and Wendy's home.

And we met Becky's new puppy, Trevi, and were able to see London again. Both cute dogs :-)

Trevi

London

Trevi on the left (3 months old) ....


and London on the right (now about 10 months old).

Becky with Trevi and London

Hard to tell the size difference but this gives some idea :-)


















We finally return to San Diego tomorrow and then back to Florida on Wednesday. We have a week to complete jobs on the trawler before Yesterday's Dream scheduled launch on October 30. Will update next week as the progress continues ....