Back to the US of A

We made it on time (4/30/09, the day our immigration cards expired) from Sale Cay (26° 59.004 N, 78° 12.842 W) to West End (26° 41.857 N, 79° 59.814 W) to renew our status until the end of August. The Immigration Officer was reluctant (she wanted us to leave and return to pay another $300 for our still good, 1 year cruising permit), but when Linda explained about our 40th wedding anniversary party scheduled for the first of August she relented.

Everyone is invited
and gets a free dinner and free drinks.
BUT, you must pay your way to
Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas
AND get your own place to stay.
We’ll be at Ocean Reef (www.oryc.com).
Please email (harnold@cfl.rr.com) us with questions and RSVP so we can plan the food.

Manatee Pocket and Pirates Cove Marina

After confirming with Brightling Star the next morning who had left West End an hour earlier that the seas were flat and the winds crisp and brisk out of the SE, we upped anchor and set sail for the US of A to refit and fix our various problems: generator that wouldn’t recognize that it is making electricity; our Merc outboard’s broken cover, sticking throttle (boy is that fun when you come into the dock on a plane!), and gas line connection leak; and mutiny of Otto, our autopilot. You guessed it, winds promptly died to less than 5 knots: so, we had to motor the whole way. Couldn’t put up the spinnaker ‘cause the autopilot was in revolt and it takes both of us some time to fly it with only Otto at the helm. All in all, I guess, it’s better to have too little wind crossing the Gulf Stream than too much. We got to St. Lucie inlet (27°10.00N, 80° 8.38 W) at around 1830 hrs. and were at anchor in Manatee Pocket ((27° 08.853 N, 80° 11.671 W) before sunset.

Brightling Star had a scare when they discovered they were taking on water 30 miles out through one of the rudder wells. Seems a fitting on the bottom of the hull had slipped down creating a scoop that shot water up the rudder shaft into a rear compartment. Captain Ron (yes, that is really his moniker) got it under control with an extra bilge pump and they made it to Ft. Pierce with time to spare. One good thing, the USCG cutter lurking in the Stream to board some poor sole, heard Capt. Ron’s and our conversation and headed across our rhumb line (shortest distance between two points) northward to see what was up. Next morning we called Customs and Boarder Protection’s 800 number and learned that the checking in procedure had changed again. The DTOPS sticker we had to buy is now only for the boat even though they have all our particulars (name, rank, serial number, etc.) on file with it for both us. We now must have a new, numbered plasti ccard (Local Boaters Program) for each of us aboard. Thus, rent a car and drive 33 miles to the airport to have an Immigration Officer look at our passports. Dumb. dumb, and dumber! Later in the week we ended up making an appointment in Riviera Beach (yes, another 30 miles in the opposite direction) to hand in our passports and a form with all the info DTOPS already had. In 12 minutes, voila! a new, handy dandy plastic card which may or may not be acceptable in the future as the rules are constantly changing. Frankly, it is easier for a Mexican national to enter this country than its own citizens.


We spent the week visiting family and friends in Orlando and returned to Manatee Pocked Friday to turn in the car and get with a marine mechanic to fix the generator and maybe the autopilot. Well, it is now Monday the 18th and we are still working on the generator (now it might be the circuit board we replaced two years ago in Titusville). But it’s not the water pump (it had a seal leak and had to be replaced), nor the fuel pump (we changed and
cleaned the filters), nor the abraded and or lose wires we found, nor the salt crystals (Salt-Awayed) from the leaking pump. The other parts (West Marine for the Lewmar electric winch switch [under warranty!]; Mercury Outboards (gas valve, throttle spring, and cover: black with no decals as the better it looks the more inviting it is to steal [also under warranty!]) should be in by week’s end at worst, we hope.

Chris Aimee Mark, Marnie Linda, Millie
Caiden Alexis Kyler Dalton, Parker

Oh, I almost forgot Magic, Bill and Jose Anderson’s cat. When they stayed with us for a few days, they brought Magic down from Indiantown where they were putting Caper on the hard (out of the water and on stanchions) ‘till they come back in November. (Canadians have to be in Canada six months out of the year to stay eligible for their socialized medicine.) Magic has the run of the boat except our cabin and likes to wander around to include the sail bag on the boom: nice and high, plus cool, I guess. We were listening to music, talking and of course drinking, in the outside salon when we heard a loud scamper/thud and Magic swept past us headed for the bow. Some how, some where she’d slipped over the side, climbed back up the stern steps and took off as if the Hounds of Hell were in pursuit. Jose almost had a he art attach and Bill had the fun of squirting fresh water from the outside shower on his clawing pussy. Oh, ya!

The generator is fixed! And with just one check of the panel to see if there was 120v on two wires. Yup, there wasn’t any voltage as demonstrated by the lack of a light on the Output Gen indicator light on the panel. I’m going to ask Mase for some refunds, especially for the new relay circuit board to replace my good one. We’ll see. The autopilot, on the other hand was not fixed by replacing the broken tip on the rudder position sensor. Gotta look deeper with the Furuno tech.

Our plan is, once all is fixed hopefully this week, to overnight (26 or so hours cruising) north to New Smyrna and take on more on-order supplies from our mail box, Jim and Jane Caltrider. From there we’ll head north hopefully as far as Southport, NC to see Betty and Byrl Raper: our soon to be owner/partners in this adventure, and then up to the Chesapeake. Weather permitting, we’ll see.