Winter Plans 2015 / 2016

Ambition is all tucked away for her first frozen winter. She is scheduled in the repair shop in the last half of January 2016. On the list of items to be taken care of are:

• Installation of the new arch which has been welded together with the two stern rails. The arch incorporates supports for 2 X 140W solar panels, support for wind generator, AIS and WiFi antenna, outboard engine crane, outboard bracket and brackets to lift the skiff up and out of the water.Design drawings are attached
• Repair and painting of the stern black
• Gelcoat repairs to the bow and dodger attachments
• Replacement of the dodger connections to the deck
• Replacement of the lifelines
• The iCOM SSB, antenna tuner and Pactor have been removed for repairs and testing before being reinstalled.

During the summer we will complete the installation of our complete suite of Garmin products with new 12' chart plotter. The existing 7" Garmin will be moved to the navigation table as a backup unit. 

Our plans are to sail Lake Champlain for the summer of 2016 to shake any problems out with the new items and prepare for a fall departure. Itinerary is to leave the lake late summer for Chesapeake Bay and then jump from Norfolk VA to British Virgin Islands. If all goes according to plan, we will spend a few winters enjoying all that the Caribbean has to offer. Any help that you can provide for a stronger Canadian dollar would be much appreciated - not just for us but for all us Canadian cruisers!!!

Back in Canada for Repairs and Additions

Ambition is now at Marina Gosselin to have an arch installed on the stern to get the skiff out of the water and also provide a place for solar panels and a wind generator. While waiting for the arch delivery we will repair the awl grip cracks that developed on the stern and also repaint the bottom antifouling black.

We hope to relaunch Ambition by mid to late July so that we can spend some time on Lake Champlain this summer before we haul her out for the winter.

Our Plan A has us leaving next fall for the Caribbean islands.....YEEESSS!!!

Back in the water .....

Ambition went back in the water and everything tested out just fine with the engine seal. The yard in Palmetto compensated me for the labour to have the bottom repainted but I am still unsure why the paint failed to adhere properly.

We motored back to St. Augustine Municipal Marina to await the installation of the new refrigeration systems.

Barbara was kind enough to arrange for us to get a VIP pass to all the city’s tourist attractions and events. Maryse and I enjoyed the Foodie Tour immensely, our guide Bob was a lot of fun to listen to and was really knowledgeable about his city. We also got to enjoy a number of very good restaurants in town – there is no shortage of delicious meals to be had here.

To save a few labour dollars I removed all the old copper plumbing for the refrigeration systems – that was a job and a half – not exactly like pulling out wires!

By the end of the week, we had the two new systems installed and functioning. We spent the weekend making sure that all was good before leaving town.

After watching the weather for a few days it was clear that Monday was going to be the best departure day for us to get to New York City. After a fuel and water fill-up we dropped the dock lines at noon and headed out the inlet.

Sails out as soon as we cleared the last buoy for the inlet. We were on a close reach – about 60 degrees and the boat was charging forward. During the overnight hours, we clearly had made it into the Gulf Stream, which was about 60 miles east of St. Augustine – Ambition’s speed was now steady over 11 knots and at times touching 13 knots over the bottom. We had full sail set – genoa, staysail and main. Our speed through the water was steady at over 9.3 with the wind at 60 degrees apparent. We held this tack for about 85 hours! I fell in love with the way in which the boat handled the ocean. She was steady, fast and comfortable – this is what I bought this boat for – with so many months of constant repairs and failures behind us, I fell in love with Ambition again!

We ended up having to motor the last 24 hours into Sandy Hook, NJ as there was no wind at all, arriving at 6PM on Friday having covered over 800 miles in less than 4 ½ days. Our average speed was 7.9 knots!

Saturday morning we refueled Ambition at the completely rebuilt marina, as it had been destroyed in hurricane Sandy a few years back. A sunny Saturday in NY brings out LOTS of boats and tourists – the tours of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are non stop. There is a morning fog that hides the waterfront but the building all poke through the fog – really pretty.  

We were hoping for a very favourable tide to head up the Hudson River to Catskills, but that was not happening today. Instead of making it in one day it will necessitate and overnight anchorage. The weather was very snotty in the afternoon as we had torrential downpours and winds to 40 knots.

Noon Sunday saw us tied to the dock at Riverview Marina where we will have the mast taken down for the trip through the canal. In all it took 2 days to prepare the boat, disconnect all the wiring in the base of the mast, build the mast supports and remove the rigging. As they started to lift the mast out it was clear that this was one of the heaviest they had dealt with! We succeeded in wrestling it into position on the supports with no damage or incidents.

By noon Tuesday we were back underway towards Albany and Troy. The first lock is the Federal lock at Toy and we went through and tied up to the free municipal dock at Waterford. This is where the west bound canal to Lake Erie and the north bound Lake Champlain split.

An early morning start to make the 7AM first lock opening. Our plan was to do all the locks in the system except the last one in a day. We easily made our target, tying up Whitehall NY by 4PM. The city provides free dockage and electricity to boaters. Met a delightful couple, Doug and Jan on their way to Lake Champlain and Montreal in a Kady Krogen trawler. Jan had found the only remaining open restaurant in what otherwise appears to be a virtual ghost town.  

Thursday morning we are up early for the 7AM lock opening – after reading the small print – the first opening is now 8AM! The lake is just spectacular – no wind and glorious sunshine. The mountains are displaying every shade of green you could imagine.

We crossed paths with Albert and Sandy on Outrageous as they headed south and west to Lake Erie. Rafted up together to a few minutes to chat and then headed back northward. 

Treadwell Marina has offered us a spot on the service dock for the weekend as we need to be at Gosselin Marina by Monday where we will have all the remaining work done to make Ambition ready for our next trip south.

It was good to catch up with all our friends at Treadwell Bay.

A weeks worth of repairs….

May 16, 2015

A weeks worth of repairs….

By Friday evening the engine was back all together with a new crankshaft seal and the transmission reinstalled. Two new air cooled refrigeration systems have been ordered – one for the fridge and a separate unit for the freezer. With Randy’s help we pulled out the old fridge system along with the water pump and all the related wiring and plumbing. This will resolve the problems caused by the refrigeration water pump sharing the same through hull fitting with the generator. We also pulled out the windlass motor, a new one is on its way, which we will install next week.

Monday the prop shaft and new seal will be installed and we will be relaunched. They will realign the prop shaft and motor and then we will be back to St. Augustine Marina to complete the remaining tasks of fiberglassing the cutout that was made to remove the transmission as well as install the new fridge systems on Thursday. Poor Ambition will need a major clean-up inside and out – nothing like a boatyard and repair work to completely turn the boat upside down and dusty. A few days of sea trials to make sure everything is in order and we will continue our journey northward.

The antifouling paint issue will have to wait to be resolved. The paint technical rep visited the boat and was absolutely useless in explaining what happened to the boat. He did offer three gallons of paint as compensation. I will splash the boat with what is on her now even if it doesn't look very good. 

Always good to have a plan B

May 13, 2015

Always good to have a plan B

Our plan of sailing direct from Nassau to St. Augustine was rudely interrupted by a low pressure weather system that was supposed to move off to the north east, giving us a clear sail. Well that is not what happened – once we were in the gulf stream off West End Bahamas the weather forecast showed that the low had actually stalled and to make matters worse, it had developed into a tropical storm and even gave it a name – Ana. Sailing into tropical storms is never a good thing so despite the fact that we were having a great sail in 15 to 20 foot rolling seas, we were making 9 to 9.5 knots heading for Portugal. At this point we also discovered that the refrigeration system had completely stopped working and nothing I could do, would make it better. Time for plan B – we ended up sailing to Fort Pierce, Florida to tuck into the inter coastal waterway to get out of the weather and load up on ice, to try to save all the food in the freezer and fridge. We ended up motoring all the way to St. Augustine, arriving Monday morning. All the fixed bridges on the ICW are a minimum of 65 feet clearance – well our VHF radio antenna did a great job of whacking the spiders off the underside of almost every bridge. Our 63 foot tall mast just squeaked under – sure got our attention!

By Monday afternoon the folks from First Mate Yacht Services were on board to start the disassembly of the transmission from the engine to make the repairs. Well here again a plan B is also good – there is just not enough room to work between the engine and the prop shaft so they tried to slide the prop shaft backwards but that didn’t work So now with everything in pieces, Ambition was towed from the Municipal Marina to Oasis Boat Yard to get pulled out of the water.

Well since Tuesday, things have only gone from bad to worse. Pressure washing the boat bottom is standard practice when the boat is hauled out – but in our case, the pressure washing washed the anti-fouling paint off the bottom that was applied just 4 months ago …. Time to call in the paint technical rep to figure out what has gone wrong. Now we will add a new bottom paint job to the list of must do tasks once we figure out who is going to pay for it! We are now on our third service company to try to figure out what to do with our fridge system – it is now looking like a total replacement is going to be the only solution but they can’t even come look at situation until next week.

This morning with much banging and persuasion, the prop shaft finally gave up the fight and slide out the bottom of the boat. Now we discover that the shaft seal, which was supposed to have been serviced in Tampa, was just partially done – nice! So now it only makes sense to upgrade the shaft seal with a much newer and better technology so Ambition will get a new PSS dripless shaft seal this week and a new cutlass bearing as well, as it has rotted out from lack of use. But at least now we can continue with the trying to get the transmission out of the boat - that will restart this afternoon. 

The SSB radio was tested yet again and we have determined that I will need to remove it from the boat and ship to the US west coast for a repair and overhaul. Me thinks I will wait to do this later. 

On a real positive note, we have some very wonderful friends that Maryse and I met 2 years ago in the Bahamas, that live on board their motor yacht in St. Augustine – they have taken us under their wing and helped out incredibly – welcoming us with our own cabin on board their boat, lending us a Jeep to get around in and overall moral and nautical support for all that is going on here – thanks ever so much Barbara and Randy for your hospitality and support – you guys are great!

Our Bahamas time is coming to an end ......

May 6th 

After waiting for a bunch of weather systems to clear out of our path for the past 10 days, the torrential rains and squalls are behind us. Finally we have a plan - pulling out of Nassau Thursday as early as possible for St. Augustine.

Looks like we will be motoring 90% of the way (I should have bought a trawler @(*&^%^*) and hence plan at 6.5 knots for 385 miles which will put us in to St. Augustine Saturday afternoon late if the gulf stream helps us or Sunday morning first thing as I don’t want to do the entrance in the dark.  We will need to clear customs somewhere to get our Homeland Insecurity Cruising License. 

Once they figure out how much work the engine, anchor windlass and SSB radio are, then we will start to plan our trip up the east coast to NYC (800 miles).

It will feel so good to be back in deep waters again after months of sailing along with as little as a foot of water under the keel!