Bahia Honda revisited.

We took Elysium up to Bahia Honda.  Of course, we had anchoring problems.  No more Bahia Honda for us.  It's a jinx. Here's link to the last brouhaha.

This time it was the control for the windlass, could get it up, but not down. It was odd how we thought to check if it worked BEFORE anchoring, yay us.  But windlass down not a big thing, since gravity helps with the down.  However--Bahia Honda---between two bridges, not a lot of room for error.

First try didn't quite go the way we wanted.  And of course shore side peanut gallery was there.

So we try again and got well placed.  Then tidal swing and the tour boat pontoon got pissy, but seriously they had 5 boat lengths between us and shore.  AND ITS A PONTOON.  Later we found out that the captain is just a whiner.

No wind, so we didn't have that to add to the tidal swing.  Soon our chain rode (love my chain rode), got settled into the bottom and we were sitting pretty.

  

Going through the original Bahia Honda Flagler RR bridge.  They took a span out to allow sailboats in.

Anchored with US1 behind us.

After we got settled, we headed into the park to walk around.  Five hours at sea, oh my, we must get moving about!  :-)  Both times I have asked if we need to pay a park fee, they ask 'How did you get here?' I say by boat. 'You just staying overnight?'  Yeah.  'Don't worry about it'  There's usually a donation box they we wind up putting money in.

I knew there was a trailhead that we hadn't visited the last time we were here so we opted for that since it was afternoon already.

Beautiful original tropical hardwood hammock that most of the Keys looked like before development (or overdevelopment, if you prefer).  However, the first damn sign we see on the trail head is pointing out the POISONWOOD tree.  Yeah, don't take that name lightly.  Way way way more toxic than poison ivy.  Metopium toxiferum if you want to Google its fun filled facts.

 Immediately, my husband (very allergic to poison ivy, have no idea what this would do to him) freaks the hell out.  'WHY? WHY WOULD THEY HAVE A F*CKING POISONWOOD TREE ON THEIR TRAIL!!' 

Well, it's supposed to be a native nature trail full of original plants, my dear.  (City boy)

Once I got him calmed down, and off the parking lot and back on the trail-I really believe he thought the tree was going to attack him-we continue on our lovely journey.

Mid trail you pop out on the beach--pretty is it not?
(more about the little island off in the distance)

 

 

 

 

 

 So we made it through the trail with no attacks by the flora and fauna, and in time to meet our peanut gallery.  We refrained from any witty comments, just smiled and said, yeah, we were having problems with our windlass.  To which peanut gallery looked at us like we were speaking Martian. (Yeah, I thought so, f*ckers)

 Clouds moved in so no sunset pics.  Just a good Elysium eye view of our anchorage.

New boarding ladder

I'm just going to sit here, drink a glass of wine and post random crap for the next hour.

Are ya in? 

We got a new boarding ladder built for us. Super sturdy and with a full rubber backed bar to brace against the boat instead of two points.

The scratching and gouging has gone way down, the other one was crap.

Added feature is that it folds up and is secured flush with the lifelines.  Nothing to get tangled in or trip over.  Love it.

Aft boarding ladder improvements

When the previous owner painted the boat, he had some brainy idea that the stern scoop non skid should be painted with awl grip.  Because that has as much traction as glycerin on ice.  Dumbass.

The ladder itself is just a series of rungs with no step or nonskid either, besides the foot cramp I get going up the ladder, not happy about the safety.

When you got off the ladder, there's an area of the boat with NO nonskid, just flat and slippery.

We had to fix that, pronto.  (remember, I break ME, not the boat)

So, we added some nonskid and a step to help the process out. MUCH better.

The transom scoop with nonskid added.

New dead sexy step, which makes handling dinghy easier also.

Non-skid tape added to rungs.

More non-skid painted on slippery deck area.

Have boat, will break it.

Not me! Not me! Not me!

Okay, only one thing can be attributed to my spouse and his need to use the power winch in inappropriate manners.

So-----here goes: DON'T USE YOUR JIB SHEET POWER WINCH ON THE JIB FURLER. PERIOD.  Especially when the sail is under load, like 20kts under load.  The captain got demoted to Gilligan after that maneuver, but our furler guardian angels came and were able to fix without too much dent to our pocket book.  (and I got to sit there and smirk while they went to Tim--WTF did you do THAT for?)

But in my lovely husband's defense, he breaks the boat, I usually work on breaking myself.  Boat heals faster.

So our most recent trip, maybe because our luck has been SO fabulous lately, Tim suggests we try our windlass out before actually anchoring in a 2kt tidal zone.  Okay.

So what is supposed to be down only goes CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK. Anchor doesn't move. Shit.

After some debate, we still decide to go anchor out at Bahia Honda, there's absolutely no wind and if we can get the anchor and chain down and set, the boat will be fine.  Windlass is working in the UP position just fine.

So after three tries, we get anchor, some of it to do with the fact that Elysium handles like a tank, good in choppy waters and wave action, but not when you are trying to anchor amongst other boats and two bridge spans.  Of course, when we go to shore, the peanut gallery was there with their commentary.  To my credit, I didn't even say stuff it.

We did get some grief from the tour boat, but we were not blocking his way and he was in a twin screw pontoon--he could stuff it.

More pics of Bahia Honda later...  oh, and we are 0-2 in anchoring without incident in Bahia Honda. It's not a hard anchorage, but it seems to make our boats go...um, no.

Final update on previously mentioned projects.

Heads--are awesome.  No more pumping a handle 15 times to find that it didn't flush.  The build work that George did is fabulous and looks like it was always part of the boat. The man is a fiberglass god.

As I might have previously mentioned, the day head can also convert to be salt water, manual flush, so backup plan is in place.

Some experimenting with how the heads use up our fresh water supply (no water maker--yet), doing good, the holding tanks fill up before we make a dent in the water.  Not a problem if we are in open water, because we'll be set to pump and dump.

Fridge--We we first started the nonsense with the fridge (previous post) , we thought it was not enough refrigerant.  So after a while with the new (and most awesome) thermostat, we called the guy that runs the service department at the marina, sure enough, needed refrigerant.  So he charges it and also shows us how to charge it ourselves.  YAY.

Now--now we have a fridge and freezer that works TOO well, as our last trip testified with frozen stuff in the fridge.  When we are on the hook it helps to place a towel over our fridge to help with condensation, but those suckers work with authority now.

Here we go.

Procrastination over. I can do this. 

I decided to stop worrying about what I was GOING to talk about and just start hitting some highlights so I can catch up.

So bear with me, getting my thoughts together.

What I did on my summer vacation...

Except it wasn't really vacation, and usually kids present this the first week of school and it's now November, and....oh, never mind.

No excuses, just lazy and that damn one click to Facebook just is so much easier.

So, lessee, what have I been doing, and then we'll get back to the boat.

Highlights--hardly got to see lake boat due to ocean boat projects and constantly flying back and forth.

Went to the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Newport, RI.

Got to catch a couple of Royals games including a post season play off game!

Had some wonderful summer still time with friends in Key West.

Rental boat + Low Tide = Fail  (we didn't do it, just observed)

Bring on the foods and the drinks!

Visited the Lion Habitat Ranch in Las Vegas and got to see one of my fav comedians, Christopher Titus.

So lots of bouncing around.  Also boat projects, more on that later.  For now, just trying to get my lazy ass to blogging again.