Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Good news!

After the last post, in case you were wondering, Ron and Paul slept aboard Equinox, even though the boat was on the hard. So they weren't the homeless souls Karyn worried they were!

Equinox splashed back in this morning at CrackerBoy after getting the underwater lights re-painted and properly installed. (Apparently they were only hand-tightened before...go figure!) Captain Ron was at the helm, heading south back to Jensen Beach on the ICW while Karyn drove the car back.
Equinox on the move, heading back towards water

Ahhhhh...afloat once again!

As we've said before, (and as others have said before us) cruising is sometimes nothing more than fixing your boat in exotic locations. Although I'm not sure that the middle of the ICW exactly qualifies as exotic! But, definitely exciting!!

About an hour into the trip, the hydraulic system started giving warning alarms of rising temps. Not what anyone wants to hear!! It meant the raw water cooling pump for the hydraulics wasn't working properly, but Ron knew to immediately shut down the engines, so as to prevent any damage to the pump and avoid overheating the system. (Thank you, Eric Folkestad of TRAC for the hydraulic systems class!) It was a bit exciting for Ron, single-handing the boat as he was, but he was quick to handle it. Ron issued a securitie on the radio, warning other boats of his inability to maneuver as he dropped anchor just to the east of the ICW channel. (SeaTow was quick to ask if he needed assistance....but no, not needed!) Ron then took a few minutes to change the impeller on the raw water pump. Once changed, everything was working normally again -- whew -- and Equinox continued her journey back home to Outrigger Harbour. Always exciting!!

Martek came aboard at Jensen Beach to finish the light installation and reconnect the computer with the MaxSea to the new Newmar power supply. While they were doing that, we ran errands -- getting a couple spare impellers for the hydraulic raw water pump, and doing the last of the provisioning for Thanksgiving, already next week!! We have family and friends flying (and boating!) over to West End to join us, so....we're trying to make sure we have enough for the big day. We did a provisioning run to the Hutchinson Island Publix that was epic!!

We are awaiting the movers from Maryland tomorrow, and will unpack as much as we can...thankfully, there's not a lot of furniture in the condo yet, so many, many boxes will be moved in and unpacked -- as many as possible!! Wish us luck!!

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