Aborted Trip to the Bluegrass Festival!

After paying a visit to the Farmers Market, we planned to go to the Bluegrass Festival. It turned out to be thirty miles farther away than I thought. We went to a matinee instead. Lone Survivor is an Afghanistan war pic and is very intense. You get a sense of the incredible things seal trainees have to do! Not to mention the severe mental and physical demands they face. One can't leave the theater without a sense of awe, patriotism, and appreciation for the extremely difficult and dangerous tasks with which those who protect our freedoms are confronted.

Lights!

When we towed the Nimble back to Vero Beach the other day we noticed that the lights on the newly wired trailer light bar weren't working properly. After arriving back in Vero Beach, we checked the truck lights and found one of the parking lights was out.  Could this be the reason the trailer lights weren't working? Replacing the bulb is not easy. The battery and battery plate must be remove for access to the bulb. We took it to the local Ford dealer. They checked all of the lights and found one of the back up bulbs was out too. The guy at Ford didn't think the burned out bulbs had an effect on the trailer lights. We used our tester to discover that burned out bulbs do make a difference. The tester showed that the turn signals and the stop lights were now functioning properly.

Thoughts On Growing the Fleet!

Well it's only a temporary growth. We will continue to downsize our fleet which now consists of SUNSHINE, our PDQ catamaran and her inflatable dinghy, Cooter, the Nimble Nomad, a Peep Hen sailboat, a Hobie Wave that I sail with the grandkids, a Harker's Island Skiff in need of a motor, a  two person Perception kayak, a Sunfish and an Optimist dinghy. The latter two boats are used by the grandchildren for their sailing lessons.  

Besides SUNSHINE and dinghy, the Harker's Island Skiff is for sale (actually it will be when we get back home) and the Hobie Wave may be put on the market this spring. When all four are sold, we'll be down to five boats. Geez, that's still too many! Don't forget that we lost two sunfish, a Jon boat, a canoe, an inflatable dinghy, two inflatable kayaks and a one person Featherlite kayak in Hurricane Sandy! Taking that into consideration, I guess our fleet is really being downsized after all.

The Peep Hen and the Nimble will take a considerable amount of time and effort to bring up to my standards. It'll probably take me until the fourth of July to get them in boat show condition. We'll see how it goes.

Boat Ramp Fun!

After a restless night, we were up at 0700 hours. The wind had picked up during the night and white caps were rolling in the sea outside the harbor. Before breakfast, we prepared the Nomad for travel by stowing our gear, removing the anchor,  and tying everything down. 

At the snack bar, we enjoyed a cup of our favorite breakfast beverage and a breakfast sandwich while reviewing our ramping procedures. At 0800, the trailer was pushed down the ramp and into the briny  grass covered water. We walked back to the boat; Anna Marie released the dock lines and I sailed the Cooter from our spot on the sea wall to the ramp. Once the bow came in contact with the trailer bunks, I goosed the engine and the Cooter inched up the trailer. The electric winch was useful in helping to get the boat further up the trailer until it stopped working. Anna Marie had to get into the knee deep water to crank the boat four of the last six feet up the trailer bed. For some reason, the winch started working again and it pulled the boat up the last couple of feet to the winch post. With no clear way for me to get off the off the vessel, Anna Marie was left to drive the boat out of the ramp. She had hoped to avoid this responsibility as visions of the boat, trailer and truck sliding back into the water filled her head! Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened. She slowly dragged us up the ramp and stopped at the staging area where we secured the boat for travel. 

Two hours after putting the trailer in the water, we were on our way. Our old F-250 diesel pulled the boat with relative ease. In six hours we made it to our storage facility in  Vero Beach. We'll continue to work on the boat until we take her to NJ sometime in early March.

Thinking About Loading the Nimble onto the Trailer!

It's time to retrieve the trailer from Lawrence's yard. The trailering light bar project is completed. The harness was a few feet short, so we made an extension. We're not sure  the cord for the electric winch is long enough, but if necessary, we can make an extension for it. (Ed. Note: the cord is long enough!)

Lawrence was kind enough to pick us up at Bahia Honda. We retrieved the truck and invited Lawrence and Ann to meet us at the Wharf for lunch. They accepted and we had a delightful two hour lunch with them. We enjoyed their company so much, we didn't want to say good-bye! Ultimately we diid exchanges good-bye hugs and hand shakes with promises to keep in touch We especially want to let them know what we're doing with their boat.

After lunch, we retrieved the trailer and headed back to Bahia Honda. The showers we experienced during lunch turned into a steady rain for much of the afternoon. We passed the time by rehearsing the boat retrieval procedures that we'll employ at the ramp tomorrow morning.

The rain stopped about a hour before sunset, so we had an opportunity to test the trailer light bar and the electric trailer winch. As for the winch, it worked fine. The cord was just long enough to run from the passenger side battery located in the front of the vehicle under the hood. The trailer lights sort of worked. The turn signals don't work and the stop light go out when the brakes are applied. The lights are wired correctly, so we guess it's a ground problem. I'm hoping the ball/socket makes a better ground connection as we go down the highway tomorrow.

Bottom line... We're as ready as we can be to haul the boat out tomorrow morning. 

Leaving Summerland Key!

The wind is supposed to kick up on Tuesday and Wednesday, maxing out at 20 to 25 knots. Preferring not to be out is such conditions on our very first outing in the Nimble, we decided to leave today. The predicted wind strength also caused us to cancel plans to anchor out tonight.

Today's wind is light and variable. Perfect for our first trip in the Nimble. After a little over 10 nautical miles in less then two hours, we were tied up to a sea wall in Bahia Honda. Aside from the quirky steering necessary to keep the Nomad on her course, the trip was delightful. Breaking away from Summerlamd Key was dramatic. It was difficult to find deep water even with the chart plotter, making only a knot or two, we picked our way into deeper water, we finically made it out of the Summerland Key area as we rounded Little Palm Island.

Along the route, I tried the autopilot. It worked, but I can't imagine it can keep up with the oversteering required to keep this boat on the straight and narrow.

Bahia Honda is still paradise, although in the intervening 21 years since we been here by boat, she has aged. The campground remains popular and is always filled to capacity except perhaps for a few days in the summer. The park was crowed today, probably due to the fact it is a national holiday. The dive boat was packed. The dive master suggested today was the best day in January to dive the reef. 

We caught the sunset from the top of the old Bahia Honda Bridge. It was spectacular! We took plenty of pictures to prove it. All in all, we must have added 20 pictures to our thousands of sunset pics. Unfortunately, there was no green flash today.

Back aboard, Anna Marie prepared her first meal on this vessel. Spaghetti and white clam sauce made up the menu.

Happy Birthday Geoffrey!

Geoffrey is 15 today! Where oh where has the time gone? He's a terrific young man and handsome to boot. We love him with all our hearts and want only the best things in life for him.

Our first night on the Nimble is over. Not only did we survive, we thrived. The bed is significantly small than we are used to. It reminds me of the bed on Fodder's Cat. We lived aboard that small boat for 6 months! For the long haul on the Nimble, we'll need cushions with firmer mattresses but we slept peacefully and soundly.

We did more work on the boat and tested more systems. The trailer light bar project wasn't completed. We have to go back to West Marine to get more wire.

In the evening, we called Geoffrey to wish him a happy birthday. We find it difficult to be away during special times like birthdays.