The trip North

The trip north started uneventfully, the engine started, we got underway on time, and passed through our first drawbridge without a hitch. Scott was enjoying the trip immensely at this point, but as you can see from the photo, the weather was not exactly co-operating. The first part of the day went well until early afternoon. That is when the Engine from Hell started to give us grief. Our first indication was the overheat when the belt fell off. We pulled over to the side of the inter coastal waterway, anchored up, and proceeded with repairs. The lack of maintenance on the engine and the general rust build-up made this a bit problematic, but we got it back on and underway again.

We continued on until early evening, unable to find a marina that would take a boat with a 6 foot draft, we anchored up. We went just off the channel and had an quiet uneventful evening. After rigging up some temporary anchor lights (think Jed Clampett goes to the yacht club). I was bored and decided to inflate the dinghy. I don't know why, maybe it was an underlying feeling that we may need a liferaft.

The next day we got underway and made it until about noon, when the belt broke. This was OK as we had a spare on board. Although we found out the spare was 2 inches too short. After a bit of McGyvering with the rusty brackets and alternator mounts , we managed to get the belt that was too small into place and operational. At that point the wind started blowing out of the north (cold) and the torrential downpour started. At this point we had had enough, so it was time to find a suitable marina. We pulled into Mebourne Marina, found a nice slip and stayed for the evening. The bar and restaurant looked pretty good by this time. So we spent the evening eating and drinking.

The next day we got underway in a cold, windy, rain. Things went well until we reached Cocoa, FL at which point the new belt broke. This was a problem because we had no spares. We anchored at Cocoa Village. It was time to try out the dinghy. We test fired the little outboard prior to putting it on the dinghy and it started right up. We wrangled the dinghy and the outboard into the water. I left Scott in charge and headed for the parts store. Even though the motor had started, I soon found that it would not throttle up, and I was losing ground against the wind and was drifting away from shore. A quick look under the hood, and I solved the problem by running the throttle from under the motor cover. After a harrowing trip to the beach, I waited out in the rain for the NAPA guy to deliver the parts (I had a hard time convincing him to deliver the belts to a park in Cocoa). A wet trip back to the boat, more modifications to the engine to make the new belts work, and we were underway again. As we passed under the Hwy 528 bridge prior to entering the Barge canal, we happened to run across a new catamaran, that went by the old boat name (Ruahk). We had found the guy that sold us this fine craft! Understandably he would not answer calls on the VHF radio, I can't imagine why not? After a wait of about twenty minutes for another drawbridge on the Barge canal, we entered our first ever lock. After locking down about three feet, we passed under another drawbridge and finally arrived at Cape Marina.

Cape Marina is located at Port Canaveral, so we docked right across from the big boys. If we could only get that kind of service on board our vessel. The next morning we were awoken at 6 am by some kind of multi-lingual fire drill aboard the cruise ship. It was time to get the boat out of the water and get started on making it into what we want.

Finding the right boat

After years of searching we finally pulled the trigger and bought the boat we want to cruise on. This had not been an easy process. Originally we wanted to have a Gulfstar 54 Motorsailer. This boat had enough powerboat features to make me happy and sails to extend the cruising range. But this was not to be. Gulfstar only made 21 of these yachts and the current owners are mighty proud of these boats. The average one sell for approx. twice what it did when it was sold brand new. With the economic times and the results to our investments, It was decided that the only way we were going to get to cruise was to downgrade our sights a bit.

We found a Gulfstar 50, although the boat is not a peach (imagine 10 miles of bad road), the deal was right and we now have our future cruising rig. The vessel will require extensive reftting and we are in the process of doing that now.

The first order of business was to save the boat from the clutches of the boat yard where it was being held hostage. Without naming names, lets just say that all the boatyards in Ft. Pierce, FL are not very welcoming to those that with those that wish to do their own work. I have been doing this type of work for 30+ years, and I want to do this one by myself, for myself. We found a boatyard in Cape Canaveral, FL that is very easy to get along with. Cape Marina charges a reasonable price, lets you live aboard the boat, lets you pull your truck into the yard, and most importantly welcomes do-it-yourself owenrs/repairers. The only problem is we have to get the boat to Port Canaveral, a mere 70 miles, piece of cake right?

The launch turned out to be interesting, since they would not let us work on the boat in the yard, we had to do some midnight mechanics to get the boat at least ready to float. But we prepared as best we could and launched the next day. I was assited by my friend Scott. I immediately fell into the captain mode and Scott came up with the working motto for the trip."Captain says, Scott do"

Of course the engine would not start, and after some help from Tim at Whittaker marine. we got into the water and over to the fuel dock. After loading aboard 103 gallons of diesel fuel (The boat only is supposed to hold 100 gallons). We moved the boat to a dock and checked everything to make sure it would stay afloat. The rest of the day was spent provisioning for the trip north