Sunday, January 20^th, a cold and windy day.  We are finally on our way. 

Last week we hosted our first visitors.  Friends Charles and Giselle of Wild Ride (sister ship) rafted up with us in Palm Coast.  They are also headed south on their first leg of a circumnavigation.  During the week Charles and I helped each other finish up some of those last minute details.  As you boaters know, you are never finished with “boat projects”. 

Some Days A Diamond and Wild Ride ready for departure

On Sunday after several schedule slips we finally cast off the dock lines.  The temperature stayed in the lower 40’s all day with a constant 20 knot north wind occasionally gusting to 30, TOOOO COLD.  It was an uneventful trip to New Smyrna Beach (all systems up and running). 

Monday morning finds us still bundled up with 3 layers of clothes and the day’s weather looks like more of the same stuff.  After 6 hours of motoring we decide to call it a day and get out of the wind.  We found a nice protected anchorage just south of Titusville and enjoy a meal with Charles and Giselle.  After diner it’s a couple of hours of TV then early to bed. 

Top - hub sans prop Bottom - prop & hub

Tuesday morning is looking good.  It is still cold but the wind is now light and variable and the sun is shining.  This is more like what cruising is supposed to be.  I momentary picture us in the warm Caribbean waters and am suddenly anxious to get underway.  We up anchor and prepare to get going.  As I shift the starboard engine transmission into gear I notice something wrong, nothing is happening.  I get into the engine compartment to check the linkage, everything looks okay.  After a few moments of banging, tapping, and swearing I put on my face mask and stick my head underway to find no propeller on the starboard sail drive.  What gives here?  It seems that the propeller has come off its hub and spun off the shaft.  I have heard about this strange occurrence on the Lagoon Owners web site, but thought it an isolated incident. 

 We decide to continue heading south while I start making phone calls to find a prop and a diver for the installation (waters to cold for me).  After about 20 calls and leaving several messages I find the ONLY diver available.  The good news is he will try to do the installation.  The bad news is he has not ever done this type of job and hates working on sail drives, UGH!  The diver recommends that we stop at Cocoa Village Marina (about 15 miles away) where he will meet us.  He also recommends a Marine supply place that luckily has the prop we need.

We arrive at the marina by 11:30.  After lunch a big heavy set guy wearing a bathing suit and carrying a prop strolls up to the boat (looks like a severely over weight old biker dude with long hair and a beard).  Could this be the diver?  Oh boy, now I am getting nervous.  Fortunately Charles is with us and has performed this task (prop replacement), and is able to explain to the diver the procedure.  Okay, let’s get this job done.  We agree on the price (paid in advance) and the diver jumps off the dock and immediately loses his large pipe wrench.  After an initial examination of the shaft he comes up and tells us that what has happened can’t happen.  I am reminded of that old Groucho Marx line “who are you going to believe, me or your own two eyes”.  Thanks to Charles’ patient coaching the diver is able to get the old hub off the shaft and install the new propeller.  Well $340 lighter we are off again to find the night’s anchorage. 

We motored 10 miles south to Honeymoon Lake, a nice anchorage tucked in close to the western shore of Merritt Island.  It was a quiet night.  The next morning I received an email from Donald on the vessel Over Indulgence, a blue hulled 41’ American Tug anchored nearby.  I had met Donald, the owner in Palm Coast a couple of months ago.  It’s a small world.

The next day everything seemed back in order with the Universe until I ran around just north of Ft. Peirce.   My starboard pontoon was severely stuck while I still have 13’ under the port side.  After about 30 minutes of trying to rock the boat back and forth Charles came to the rescue with a tow.   With a bruised ego we continued on for an overnight in Ft. Peirce.  The next day the fog limited visibility enough for us to delay departure by an hour.  Our next destination is North Palm Beach. 

We had a mini crisis with bugs eating our herb garden.  Fortunately my brother lives in Lake Worth and was kind enough to do some  running around getting us some spare parts (engine and plumbing) and a new batch of herbs and planting soil.   Carol spent Sunday discarding the bug ridden herbs, thoroughly debugging the boat, and replanting new herbs.

SV Wild Ride in the fog	Replanting the herbs

Monday morning we stopped to top off fuel and fill the water tanks.  The next 40 miles to Ft. Lauderdale has 21 bridges.  Most of the bridges are on some type of schedule and requiring some timing to avoid excessive delay.