A Month In Ft. Lauderdale

Well, it's finally here!  After a month or so in Ft. Lauderdale spent in work on Pelican, play, and preparing for the jump to the Bahamas, the plan is to leave Saturday evening, January 21st, for the passage at south of Memory Rock into the Little Bahama Bank on the way to Great Sales Key and the Abacos.  My friend John Brown will be with me for a week and that'll be fun!

As you know I broke the windlass base in the Delaware Bay.  Well, you would if you'd read the entry.  Suffice it to say, you can't anchor there, you can't anchor in 5 foot seas with 20 to 30 knot winds.  That will break stuff.  What it broke on Pelican was the part of the deck that the windlass is mounted on and it bent the wildly insufficient backing plate.

Windlass removed,  deck repaired with
biaxial cloth and epoxy.

The process to repair, of course it to take it all apart, grind out the broken fiberglass, repair with new, and put it all back together with a stronger backing.  Also, I added 1" to the height so that the windlass was in a better position to bring the anchor over the roller without jumping off the gypsy.  The stronger backing is a 3/8" stainless steel plate that covers the entire area below the windlass.  It replaces the bent 1/16" plate which was exactly the size of the windlass base.

Base installed, 3/8" backing plate
before installation below.

You can see the added 1" spacer to
raise the windlass.

Windlasses are one of the most neglected pieces of equipment on a vessel.  The second most neglected are winches.  I've seen them literally disintegrate in the locker.  The owner's complaint is that the windlass won't raise the anchor and upon inspection the entire thing is a ball of mushy corroded aluminum.

So while I had to disassemble the windlass, I also did all the maintenance.   Greasing, oiling, corrosion control and painting.  The gear below deck looks and acts like new.  Above deck looks more or less the same.  One problem I ran into is that the added height causes some very slight interference with the anchor locker door.   The downside is that it's a bit difficult to open the door but the upside is that the door stays open without any hassle.

Besides provisioning Pelican for some extended time, there were many other projects to do or complete.  One of the things that had been annoying me was that the water pump ran for a second or so every few minutes.  That usually indicates leaks.  But when I replaced all the fittings and piping near the water heater and checked all the other fittings with no leaks showing themselves I was completely annoyed when the pump continued its behavior. 

It turns out that the inexpensive water pumps eventually get a build up on the diaphragm.  This causes them to leak backwards.  The pump is $110, the rebuild kit is $89.  So it's not worth rebuilding.  Fortunately, I had a spare so I installed it and hey! presto!  problem solved.  That all was a day out of my life.

I've been meaning to repack the rudder shaft which has been weeping for some time.  I've adjusted it a few times but it didn't last long.  I found that the packing was probably original with only two rings.  That's not a bad run.  I used Duramax packing with three rings. Problem solved.

Before I left Connecticut I replaced my port water tank with a Plastimo 200L (52 gal.) flexible tank.  It leaked.  It ruined my cabin sole.  That's another story.  I thought that perhaps that tank leaked so I tried the spare I had.  Leaked.  Leaks from the fittings.  So I tried a bigger o-ring.  Still leaks.  Finally, gooped it with 5200 where the fittings connect inside the o-rings and waited for 24 hours.  No more leaks!  Put tank in service.  Been brilliant ever since.  Performed the same operation on the spare.  I can see how those fittings are supposed to work.  Sadly, they don't work that way and a sealant is necessary.   I'm surprised no one else has had the problem.

Other small projects like maintenance were putting the water maker in service, changing the transmission fluid, cleaning the generator carb and so forth.  I rebuilt the old Racor and have installed it as a fuel polishing system/spare filter-fuel pump arrangement.

One of the great things about Ft. Lauderdale is that you can get anything that has anything to do with marine stuff done and for reasonable prices.  And one of the bright stars of those places is McDonald Hardware on State Rt. 84 otherwise known as Marina Mile.  They are an old fashioned hardware store but they have all sorts of marine stuff, really helpful staff and prices that are pretty close to the West Marine Pro prices for wire, hose, and fasteners.  And then there's the tools.  They have everything!  Even if you don't need anything you need to stop there.  Well worth the visit.

In between, of course, has been fun.  Seeing the Ft. Lauderdale New Years fireworks, a visit from Lynn, the odd barbecue, dinner with friends, visiting friends in Delray Beach and sailing a radio controlled boat, and much, much more.   There's been a lot of bike riding hither and yon.

As much fun as it's been, it's time to go!

***
Here's an addition to the time here.  When I last took a journey on Pelican to the Florida Keys I purchased a Citizen Bike.  Citizen makes a number of bikes, but this one was aluminum, light weight, foldable with Shimano 6 speed gearing.  Admittedly, it's spent a number of years in storage, but I've been using it pretty heavily down here rather than renting cars or whatever.

Long story short, the right pedal pulled out of the crank, threads stripped.  I thought it would be a MarineTex repair, but no, I thought, why not call Citizen Bikes and see what the best solution was.  Imagine my surprise to find they're in Dania, not 7 miles from here!

I made an appointment for this morning for the repairs.  Naturally, I arrived early.  Nothing doing but they took the bike, asked me to come back in an hour, which I did, and hey! presto!  Repaired like new!  Also, very, very inexpensively.

So if you need a folding bike, please check out Citizen Bikes.  Not only are they very price competitive but their service is, apparently, without equal.  Highly recommended.