Fallacy of Treating symptoms vs root cause

An embarrassing troubleshooting lesson learned today -- actually I know this but took the easy rode to almost bigger problems.

There has been an off odor on the boat since we have been at the marina and running the AC -- yes temps are a high of mid 80s here. Karen had cleaned the main bathroom shortly after we got here and I thought she used some in appropriate cleaner but she claimed she didn't. This morning I traced the odor to the air coming from the AC duct. I checked the filters on the AC unit and it wasn't bad but I noticed the condensation pan was full -- had not been draining. It drains into the bilge. Normal troubleshooting would have you looking at both ends of the drain hose. The end in the bilge is very difficult to reach so I worked from the AC unit. With some difficulty I removed that hose and blew into the end. I met some resistance then it blew free -- Ahhh problem solved. I put it all back together.

After cleaning some dust from the AC unit cavity and the battery charge compartment and cleaning the cooling fins o n the refrigerator compressor I started to wonder what happened to the "stuff" I blew out of that condensation hose.

Hmmm I checked the bilge and was aghast to find it full and overflowing. Well that addresses another question in the bank of my mind in that on the long run from Vero Beach to here the bilge pump had never run. Usually it runs once or twice a day when underway do to the cooling from the packing gland on the propeller shaft. I thought the zero count was a good thing. No it was actually an indicator of this problem that I overlooked.

Now it made sense.

I now troubleshot the bilge pump and checked the Auto mode switch first --- AAAAACK it was in the off position. I turned it to AUTO and it quickly drained the bilge. This is the root cause of all this unnecessary work I did today but more importantly prevents a bigger problem of the bilge overflowing and spreading that water all over the low lying electrical cables. This was narrowly adverted.

Whew -- embarrassed but happy the issue is resolved.

Note that the bilge switch is located just above the old inverter switch and I must have hit it accidentally when removing the old inverter and installing the new inverter in Vero BEach like 3 weeks ago.

The only problem here at the Old Port Cove Marina has been the courtesy van. We called twice yesterday and left voice mail that was never returned. I finally reached a driver at 4pm or the end of the shift and they said it would run at 8:30am today. We were there but no driver. I called and left 2 voice messages and no reply. I went to the office and they said the driver was sick and it wouldn't run today and it doesn't run on Sundays. Hey no apology and that's just the way it is. I was surprised. At a minimum a return call should have been sent or at least change the VM announcement that it would not run and not to leave a message that would never be replied to. Then again this change to our plans gave me the time to troubleshoot that odor that lead to a LARGER Problem.

I guess we try UBER tomorrow.

Living Large in North Palm Beach

Well the crossing never happened for us this morning. We didn't even try. The wind was supposed to be 5kts or less all night and it was between 10 - 15 instead. The seas need time to settle after all the strong wind we have had for the past two days. There were some showers in the area with more predicted. I decided this window was a "no go" for us but several "salty sailors" left. That left us and one other cruiser here in the anchorage with a dozen derelict boats.

Well to offset that disappointment we decided to splurge and head into the 5 star marina here called Old Port Cove in North Palm Beach -- Tiger Woods used to keep his yacht here. Many golf stars still do. On one dock alone here there is probably a billion dollars worth of Sport Fishing Yachts all impeccably maintained.

We came in around 10am and fueled up before heading into a slip -- it is tight here but the docks are fabulous floating construction.

We checked in and received a free bottle of wine -- your choice Red or White. Well it is free.

After relaxing and a nap in the Air Conditioning -- oh it is 85 degrees here today I cleaned the cockpit cushions and the front of the deck around the anchor. More cleaning tomorrow but with a FREE shuttle to the Publix -- time for some goodies because we are still fully provisioned.

Oh shower facilities are fantastic. Super clean and very cool temps. I think I'll take 2 showers tonight!

We plan to stay just a couple of days then back on the anchor to wait for the next weather window which is looking like Wednesday right now -- but that is a long way off.

Karen will post some pictures of this place on her Facebook page.

Windy Windy

Man no let up in the wind last night. It actually started blowing harder after midnight. This morning it was gusting up to 25kts. I ran the wind generator awhile and it overheated because of too much wind! Crap!

There were several Sport fish style boats running through Hobe sound this morning and they just rocked our world with wake. There is no reason to raise such a wake near anchored boats. WE finally got fed up and left around 10am. Those boats are built to run in the ocean but their timid owners can't take it -- chicken I guess.

There was a lot of wind and an adverse current as usual. We needed to go less than 20 miles to North Lake Worth anchorage but we had to go through 6 bridge openings. Only 2 were on request the rest on a half hour schedules. Wasn't too bad and we were in a little after 1pm. A fair number of boats here but not as crowded as I have seen it in the past. It is still blowing 15+ with gusts to 20.

With all this wind not sure about a crossing tomorrow. We will have to wait and see in the morning. At any rate we need to let the seas calm down so it will be the afternoon if we do leave.

A really long day

Decisions decisions. This weather window for Thursday is a short window yet quite inviting with very benign conditions across the Gulf Stream. I would like a longer window to give more options but it is what it is.

We would have left at 7am this morning but because of my vacillations we left at 8:30am for the 41+ miles to Hobe Sound for the night. It was TORTURE from the beginning. We had 13 to 17 kts on the nose and an adverse current from the start. We were only doing 5.4kts over ground. Should get better! Well it didn't. We reached Fort Pierce inlet near high tide and expected to see the current behind us but it actually got worse -- 4.9 kts. Then half way to St Lucie inlet we went to 5.6kts -- mainly because of 17+ kts of wind on he nose and worked our way across the inlet. More torture. Most of the ICW here was between 8 - 10 feet and we were 2 hours away from low tide. We just plugged along. Once across the inlet I had 6+ kts for 15 minutes then back down to 5.4 all the way to Hobe Sound. We had the anchor down at 4:15 pm which was a Very long day for about 41 miles.

Tomorrow it is only 13 miles to North Lake Worth but 6 bridges that we have to wait on. Three sort of on demand and 3 on the schedule of every 1/2 hour.

We have some buddy boats now. Chanceaux from New Bern and EXFLI from some place in TN -- friends of Chanceaux. We are anchored here in Hobe Sound which is next to Jupiter Island, FL -- the home of a Mega Millionaires! We will meet up in Lake Worth tomorrow and head for the Bahamas on Thursday morning assuming no changes to the forecast.

Lots to do tomorrow to Lake Worth. Have to stop for fuel, water, gas, and a pump out before anchoring in Lake Worth tomorrow night. That's in West Palm Beach Florida.

Relief!!

What can I say? I dumped the dinghy back in the water today and inflated the repaired tube. No discernible leak. That means relief. When my two previous attempts failed then I was unsure of this outcome. I'm sure it will never be perfect but it has held air all day today. Such a stupid accident to begin with.

In the future if I should ever face a tear in the fabric again I'll do an internal patch followed by the external patch. I had a lot of trouble working through the slit so in the future I'll make an actual hole that I can work and see through something on the order of 1" square. It will be covered by the external patch. Hopefully I'll not have to do this again -- at least not to my dinghy.

The crossing forecast is looking good for a smooth crossing of the Gulf Stream on Thursday. We started final preparations here today and if the forecast is still good in the morning we will "peel" ourselves from Velcro Beach and head down the coast for Lake Worth. Probably go to Hobe Sound tomorrow to anchor -- a distance of 49 miles then Wednesday head to lake Worth to anchor but stop first at a marina to fill the water tanks and the fill up on diesel and gas for the dinghy.

Staring to get that normal crossing anxiety. We don't have a dedicated buddy boat. Several boats are looking to cross Thursday too but all have a slightly different approach. I want to just run non stop to Green Turtle Cay which means running the bulk of the trip over the banks in the dark and relying on instruments. I've done it twice already but always had at least one buddy boat running with us. If we get too tired we can always anchor off Great Sale Cay on Mangrove Cay for the night and continue in the morning.

Plans are in a constant state of flux right now. There is the adventure!

lazy days

Not much happening. Just some chores yesterday and today. Clean clean clean.

Yesterday we pulled the dinghy on deck and repaired the hole in the bow tube. I got the idea to use the 1.5" split to work a patch inside and first patch the hole from the inside. What a great idea I thought. Well the execution was tough. I thought that if some this glue gets beyond a patch then the tubes might stick together. So I thought I would put a piece of wax paper in first to rest the patch on. That didn't work -- the wax paper disappeared into the nether regions. I then marked the patch so I could center it once inside -- it too disappeared into the nether regions. I then made a new patch and put some double stick tape on its back and fixed it to the other tube inside. That seemed to work but the positioning might be a bit questionable. I then put a big patch on the outside using this HIGH Dollar Hypolan glue from West Marine -- $50 for 4 oz! The directions say it needs 48 hours to cure so the boat is still on the deck until tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the test to see if I was successful or not.

Today just cleaning bathrooms and then John on Chanceaux came over and said his battery charger failed. He went and bought a new one at West Marine and I helped him install it this afternoon. The installation went well and his batteries are charging again.

Not much planned for tomorrow -- depends on whether the dinghy will hold air or not. Grrrr -- it will be a week tomorrow since the accident.

There appears to be a crossing opportunity coming up on Thursday Friday this week so we will stay here till at least Wednesday and head to Lake Worth then if the opportunity still looks good. Otherwise Velcro Beach is a GREAT place to wait for that window to open.