January 25, 2015

January 25, 2015

With a favourable forecast we left Palmetto with the sunrise. Wind was nonexistent as expected so we motored out of Tampa Bay through the deep channel and turned to port for one LONG leg to Northwest Channel that will take us into Key West. By late afternoon we set the genoa with winds southwest – not exactly what the forecast was but it it was supposed to turn west then northwest for a planned downwind ride. Well …. I can confirm again that weather forecasting remains an art and not a science. The winds stayed southwest all night long building to 25 – 30 knots gusting 35! An upwind ride in seas of 10 to 12 feet on a 5 second period! Not exactly a comfortable ride at all. To add to the excitement at 11Pm the engine stopped running – not by choice! Another thing I have learned – when you have two fuel tanks and one is empty the fuel pump sucks in air – diesels do NOT like air in the fuel! At 2AM I noticed that the batteries were very discharged – this should not be considering all the motoring we did today???? Under the circumstances, not the best time to be pulling out my electrical books to figure out what was wrong. Started up the generator to recharge the batteries. We will deal with the situation in Key West.

The furling system gave us a lot a grief when we needed to put the sail away and ended up pulling the furling line out of the drum &^%*%$ another thing to fix!

After a 33 hour run and 250 miles under the keel, we tied up at Galleon Marina a couple hours before Steve, Mireille and grandson Cedrick arrived for a 10 day stay with us. Cedrick left with one sailing expression that grandpa taught him – cover one eye with a little hand and say “WHERE”S THE RUM!!!” I am sure the folks at the daycare will be impressed – NOT!

Well the walkabouts and touristy things in Key West kept us more than busy. The Old Town area is delightful – the architecture amazing – add two cruise ships in town and the prettyness drops off a bit with the crowds but that’s Key West – a little Caribbean island in the USA! 

I was able to find an electrician to assist with the alternator problem – a plug had been removed on the front of the main alternator during repairs at the boatyard and forgotten to be replaced ….. a quick and simple fix and a quick departure of a few more boat dollars!

Through my sailing mentor James, we were fortunate to have a couple of VERY professional riggers come on board and correct a number of issues with Ambition’s furlers and rig. Curt and Steve from Keys Rigging in Marathon were awesome and I think that the rig gremlins are behind us.