Heading to Miami

It's that time of the year again - heading to Tropical shipping this morning to drop off our two barrels for shipment to Grenada.  

Unloading the barrels and getting them on a pallet.

 Medley Facility

 Inside the warehouse

From there we will be heading to Jupiter Inlet Colony to visit a friend for a few days.

Taste test or is it liver test?

We are visiting friends in Rick Hall, Md.  We decided to try a a few single malt scotches and also to test our livers.

So far so good!

IP-38 Before and After

I spent several months this summer working on an IP-38 and thought I would post a few images of the changes.

Wiring on the boat was an absolute mess.

 

After removing a lot of abandoned wire I was able to clean the wiring up.

 

One of the jobs was to remove an old genset, cleanup the lazarette and wiring and plumbing in it.

After learning that the old genset was shot the new task was to install a new one.

Another job was to clean up the plumbing, open up the top of this compartment and reinstall 4 house batteries.

Job was a sucess.  I also fabricated a new hatch cover for this compartment.

Finished?

I spent several months this summer working on an IP-38.  I thought that I had seen everything that could possibly be installed wrong, jury rigged, kluged together - I was wrong.  I saw some new things this week when we moved the boat back to Islamorada.

This boat could be used as a poster child on how not to do things, how not to maintain a boat, miracle the boat did not just sink.

I'll post some photos and a more descriptive writeup later but to make a long story short we left Burnt Store Marina Monday morning - we were motor sailing with the staysail up and we had a squall come along - most of the running rigging on the staysail was shredded, the canvas is not waterproof anymore, I managed to hand steer the boat for about 45 minutes till the storm died, the we went up on the foredeck and completed damage control (how do you spell wet?).  Tied things down and recovered rigging fittings where we could.  The engine was overheating so we shut it down to add coolant and when we restarted the engine the starter hung and it was fried - luckily no fire - miracle - so we called Boat US and they towed us in to Marco Island (Rose Marina).

Replaced the starter and tried to determine what had happened but starter circuit checked good.  New starter in and tried test starts and running and all was OK.

Got up early the next morning and started the engine - you guessed it - starter hung and another one bites the dust.  Decided to go anyway and hope that we did not have any issues with overheating requiring a shutdown as we would not be able to restart hte engine.

Trip South was good, storms were mainly onshore and we arrived at the dock in the Keys at about 9:30 PM.

Next morning was touch up, cleanup and installed a few new lights, installed a start button to bypass the start switch, fridge shelf, etc.  Found two new galley sink drains so replaced the old ones (yep, the old ones were improperly installed) so now the sinks drain better.

The new freezer and reefer work great and the boat is coming along - lots of work ahead for the owner but the boat is already 100% better than when purchased.  Bilge pumps now work, sump pump works, new genset works, tanks level sensors work, anchor light works, things work again and the wiring and plumbing is all new.

Nice to be home now - I worked on bathroom renovation today - Lesley is happy!

  

Boots and Island Packet Sailboats

It is truly a small world - I got an email from George Henry (an IP owner) this morning and he commented on my earlier post about boots in Austin, TX during our earlier road trip this summer.  Boots!

George sails with the owner of Allen's Boots and the owners girlfriend designed the boots that Lesley tried on!

Boom

On Friday Roy, from Harbor Mobile Marine, helped us remove a generator from an Island Packet 38.  We moved the boat over to the Fuel Dock and rolled the Bimini back.  Roy moved the boom down close to the lazarette and we used a come along to lift the generator up to the boom.  We had to try several times to get the generator lined up so that it would clear but once we had it clear Roy used his Android phone to control the boom.

Yes, his phone!  Seems that the boom was damaged in a lightning strike and Roy found a App and blue tooth relay controller on the internet and has wired this in to control the boom.

This summer - busier than last!

Last summer I worked on 3 boats and got a lot done.  Summers only about 1/2 gone for us and I've already worked on an IP-38, two IP-32's, and IP-37 and a Leopard 39.  I'm staying very busy but like I told a friend I'm not having to worry about a watch or an alarm clock.

Lesley has me on tap to remodel our guest bathroom so will have to get to that or be in the Dog House!

Lesley is making preparations for the coming of our new puppy (not till next spring) but she's ready.

We are also making plans for our annual trek north to Rock Hall (which we did not do last year).  We are planning a few days in Atlanta so we can watch the Falcons beat the Patriots!  I'm not especially a Falcons fan but I am MOST DEFINITELY not a NE fan. 

We plan to spend a few weeks on the Eastern Shore and then make our way back South with a few stops - Oriental at this point and perhaps another one or two along the way.  There is a Generator Company in Jacksonville that makes a nice 3.5kw unit based on a Kubota EA-300 single cylinder engine.  I want to visit and see how the unit performs and how quiet it is in the sound enclosure.

Photos later.....