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Published: March 25th 2013
It has been a long time since our last entry. We are still in Fort Pierce.
The mainsail proved to be a much bigger problem than we thought. We were absolutely not able to get it out of the mast ourselves, we had in fact broken the furler inside the mast so we were not able to roll it out. It was so badly jammed in there that even a rigger up in a bosun chair was not able to get it out either. The mast had to come down to take it out and to replace the broken furler parts. The day of our appointment to move the mast we motored over to the well where the crane was waiting. The tide was on the low side and the depths were scary, but we started to coast into the well. As Marty tried to slow the boat to tie up she suddenly lurched forward- Marty's attempts to back up only sent us running faster forward and we plowed into the cement dock. We were confused and panicked- were we stuck on the bottom and swiveling? Luckily the crew were already there to help fend us off a bit and luckily we hit where we were already missing a stanchion. We have metal running the outside of the toe rails and that's what hit, first. With the tide so low we actually slipped under the dock a bit and we had to try to get out and brace the boat off the dock for when the tide started to come back up or we would be in trouble. When all this was finally organized and the motor was turned off we could breathe again .... not a good start to the process! With the crane waiting we forgot about the issues for the moment and concentrated on trying to move the boat forward in the well so they crane could better reach our mast. Forget that- we were stuck in the mud in the low tide. Thankfully the crane was able to reach us, and within the hour the mast was off. Getting out was now our main concern- what could we do when we seemed to have no reverse? We had to wait until we were floating again, and then we tried once more to back up, only to be pushed back into the cement dock. This time we hit a wood post and took a bit of it with us. There was something wrong for sure. Turned out to be a broken cotter pin on the throttle. I guess if it had to break that was a better place than a few minutes later when we would have been trying to get back into our slip (where we have to tie up to posts instead of a dock- always a struggle!) We finally made it safely out of the well and back to our spot. When we had calmed down a bit from all the excitement we went over to where the mast was being stored to help try to pull out the sail. It took three of us well over an hour to get it out- the rigger announced it was probably the most difficult he had ever done. We determined that the sail was not worth keeping, the fact it was so old and misformed was a huge part of how it got so stuck in the first place. We did however have a spare sail with a rip in it, and the rigger agreed it was in far better shape and was worth fixing. It only cost us $350.00 to repair and it will last us another few year- one good thing so far!
We took advantage of the fact we had no mast on the deck. We had already decided we would try to keep the teak on the coach deck and the cockpit because it seemed to be in decent shape, so now with no mast and no lines the coach deck was free to clean and stain and protect. The mast itself was lying in an accessible place to us so we polished it and de-rusted all the hardware. We replaced all the lights with leds and replaced the wind instrument. A few weeks later when all the broken parts were replaced the mast went back up with no issues. We had to wait a while to put on the sails due to high winds, but finally Caribee was a sailboat again!
As you can imagine, time ran out for us to get to Anguilla this season. We have to be in Calgary Alberta to work for the month of May, so we first thought maybe we would just skip over to Bahamas for a week or so to maybe relax a bit for the first time. Then we made a list of all the things we wanted to do on Caribee and decided that any time taken for resting now would just add time in the summer or fall to our workload when the weather would be much hotter and more unpleasant to work in. So we posted our list on the wall and took on what we could and abandoned any ideas of going any further for the season. It was the only logical thing to do. There is pretty much anything you need in Fort Pierce to fix your boat and a number of people who can do it for you if the job is over your head as the mast issue was for us. We decided that this was a good place to do all the work we want done- there are no bugs, not many storms, warm enough weather, and for a bit of down time there is a pool, a gym, a lounge, a nice restaurant/bar with live entertainment on weekends and a small island with a beach to flit out to on the dinghy for peace and quiet. And so we started tackling the list of over a hundred items on the wall!
It would be far too long to list all we have done in the past few weeks, but some of the major things were the mast and sail repairs, the coach deck and cockpit teak repairs, finishing the varnishing inside the boat, cleaning out and organizing all the lockers, fixing many little broken parts, getting electrical and plumbing up to date, sorting out and redoing the battery terminals, adding all our sensors for the tanks and batteries, the list goes on and on. There has never been a dull day!
We have had some visitors here in Florida, some passing through and some who actually came to stay. As I write this we have Mike and Jason from Montreal here for a few days to help us test Caribee's new rigging. We entered the Fort Pierce regatta and got one long crazy day of racing in before the weather turned for the worst. The second day was canceled due to very high winds. But that was ok- we had two fantastic days on the water before the race and a full day of racing on Saturday in all kinds of conditions. Caribee preformed very well, we are very happy. It has been so amazing to go out and sail just for the sake of sailing. All our time on the boat up until now was governed by schedules, and most of the time the motor had to be running in order to keep up the speed we needed to make it to our destinations in time to be safe. Finally we were able to just go out and enjoy ourselves and Caribee! Today we will go out for once more sail before they go home and we get ready to pack up to go home as well.
There are projects left undone- stripping the damaged teak off the deck and replacing it with Kiwigrip is one of them. We will allow our newfound friend Bruce to do this job for us while we are away for the summer in order to speed up our departure for Anguilla in the fall. We will discuss other projects with Bruce as well, the more we can manage to have done the less we will have to do upon our return and the faster we can get to Anguilla to set ourselves us there.
This has been a tiring but amazing few months here in Fort Pierce. Again I am reminded of how interesting our journey has been so far. It is not fun to run into unexpected problems, but it is fun to discover areas you would otherwise never visit when these problems ground you and change all your plans. We have met some wonderful people along the way, and we have enjoyed all the places we have stayed and what we have seen. As my time winds down here for now I start to feel myself go back into more of a stress mode- I will have to function on tighter schedules and smaller, indoor places for a while. But I know I will be back to the outside world again, and time will go fast, so I have no complaints.
I will leave you with a few pictures, and another blog about Caribee and her sailing will come soon
actually I will post photos later- have to go help a boat being towed in get safely into a slip!
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roger Gaby
non-member comment
Glad You are both OK.
The tough part is behind you now and I hope your restart in the fall will be effortless. Like I said in the title-glad you are both Ok. You had quite a shakedown adventure. Don't forget to see us on your way back up-I don't know your plans. If you need a placeto stay for a bit and if Sarah's house is rented you can stay at my place. I have a bedroom and private bath upstairs that I never use although I hear some Mexican music coning down from there late at night. I'm gonna have to go up there some evening and see what's going on. I have been working on my boats like crazy for the past few days since the weather has been favorable to painting and since I want to splash them in the next week. Regards- Roger and Sarah