6th December 2010 St Augustine to Titusville FL
At last we are away from St Augustine, not that we minded our stay there at all, and once again on our way down south, in search of that elusive, it appears this year, warmer weather.
All the work that was needed to be done in
St Augustine was done in a wonderfully professional manner and appears to have been most successful. After two days of searching and testing, Mike Perrault (our tireless refrigeration engineer) found the freon leak having increased the pressure in our system significantly . What a relief !! A small valve at the back of the condenser which took about a minute to replace was the culprit. Since that was done and the system purged, cleaned and refilled with fresh Freon, the electrical refrigeration has been working like a champ. At Mike’s suggestion, we also gave First Mate the task of trying to get our engine driven compressor to stay in place, thus avoiding our never ending battles with the compressor belt. With good American ingenuity and know how they came up trumps and low and behold we can use the engine driven compressor without any fear of the belt slacking off – marvelous !!!
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| Mike found a big freon leak! |
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Cindy Kern of Custom Marine Canvas also completed our new “sun room” “verandah” or whatever you wish to call it ! Yes, “Solitaire 1” , is now sporting not only new canvas but a full enclosure so that yours truly doesn’t freeze whilst driving . With the cold weather that we are currently having in
Florida – the last two passages down the ICW have been sheer bliss as we have had a cold north westerly following wind, that without the enclosure would have made for a much more uncomfortable ride.
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| David admiring Cindy's work. | | | | | | | |
| Cindy reupholstered our salon cushions as well. |
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We had a pretty good signal while in St. Augustine and really made good use of Skype, we were treated to long conversation with Catherine and Veronica,
http://www.homesrome.blogspot.com/ , unfortunately were not as successful with Elisabeth,
http://www.wavesandrocks.blogspot.com/ ...we'll keep trying!
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| David had his own project, our jerry cans are now properly and smartly secured. |
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We stayed in St Augustine an extra day so that we could join Mike and Angie Williams from “Lady of Lorien” for a trip to a local farmer’s market. A very well worthwhile decision – lots of goodies to buy at reasonable prices. There was even a stall selling all manner of English delicacies and we came back to the boat laden with Scotch eggs, steak and kidney pies etc etc . The Scotch Eggs were superb !!!
That afternoon we spent doing laundry, washing the boat and generally preparing to leave. That evening we invited Mike and Angie and also Bob and Jane Fulton from “Voyageur” aboard for drinks and to christen the new cockpit enclosure which was done very happily.
Bob and Jane are the amazing couple that stayed up until 0200 one night last spring to greet and catch our lines when four boats came in from a sea passage from Cape Canaveral...they were God sent.
We have followed the adventures of Mike and Angie on Harriet's blog,
http://moondance38.wordpress.com/ for the last few years, it was really good to get to know them better.
Tomorrow – weather permitting – it will be onward to the south with Vero Beach being our next stop . We understand that there could be a weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream on or about the 11th/12th December, so we intend to try to be in position to make that window. We shall see !!
Until the next time – au revoir!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, love the pictures! The cabin and your new sun room look wonderful!! Yes, the bird is lovely in a scruffy sort of way :)
Hope to talk to you soon!
test!
ReplyDelete