Our Key West 203 DFS arrived today from Florida, courtesy of Joe Walsh, our "boat delivery guy". Joe dropped her at Sandy Point State Park and I brought her around to Mill Creek on a spectacular April morning.
The Key West 203 DFS is a Dual console Fish and Ski boat. It is a much more family friendly runabout than the 17’ center console we have now. So the 17’ boat is on the market.
So, we sold the Florida condo and bought a new bigger boat to cruise. We needed more time on the water adventuring and less time tied to specific real estate. All good.
We closed on the new boat, a Back Cove 37, in early March and waited on better weather and our final month in the condo before heading north. We loaded the stuff from the condo along with some stuff for the new boat and headed north to Myrtle Beach, where the boat was home ported at puchase, on Monday March 28th. After stuff dropoff and a sleepover, we were off to Anapolis with the rest of the stuff. Too much stuff.
On Friday , April Fools Day, we flew back to Myrtle beach to begin the ICW trip home to Annapolis with the new boat. Saturday was a day of provisioning. On Sunday we headed to Wilmington Marine Center where Tom DeMann (who did the engine survey at purchase) did the past due maintenance on the intercooler and heat exchanger. He also looked the engine over, replaced the impeller and water pump cam and the serpentine belt. It was about $4k and less than I had experienced up on the Chesapeake. We stayed in a B&B in Wilmington for a couple days while Tom did the engine work and we did other work to be ready for the rest of the trip.
Along the first leg I could tell the ZipWake system was not working. Turns out one of the servos is bad. Imtra says the servos are subject to a recall and so sent me new ones ($1k saved). I have to pay to have them installed and that will require hauling and blocking (cost unknown).
After we left Wilmington we headed for Homer Smith's in Beaufort. No problems. We added fuel at Jarrett Bay Boatworks after our overnight in Beaufort and headed to Belhaven. No problems.
On the leg from Belhaven to Coinjock we crossed the Albemarle Sound on a choppy, beam wind day. Just a mile from the protection of the North River we suffered engine shutdown. It restarted a few times but could not hold idle long.
After a couple rocky hours on the hook, TowBoat US came and towed us to Coinjock (my second tow in 41 years of BoatUS membership). You already know the problem: algae in the fuel that was stirred up on the crossing of the Sound.
With help from a good local Diesel Mechanic (Brian Scott), we replaced the filters but still had a problem getting higher RPMs. Turns out that the fuel pick-up hose in the tank has a screen on it. There was a Back Cove issued service bulletin about this in the operating manual that the former owner left us. The bulletin said the screen was not authorised by Back Cove and should be removed.
Of course the screen was almost completely blocked by the recently loosened up tank algae. So Brian and his new Diesel Tech, John, followed the service bulletin and removed the screen. They also called a fuel polisher and we did the full tank clean. Apparently the former owner did little to stabilize the fuel.
Anyway, about $1k later (and almost 48 hours in Coinjock) we were on our way to Norfolk with a smooth running engine.
There is an additional issue with the boat that I am also going to have to correct. The stuffing box on the rudder leaks underway. It weeps a little at the dock but underway and under load it leaks more significantly.
Since there is no bilge pump from the engine bay back, I hand pumped over 40 gallons out every evening after a day's travel. I am surprised that the former owner didn't figure it out. With the automatic float switch out on the bilge pump at the front of the engine (a survey discovery) this little leak could have become a bigger problem.
Well, it's a boat!
We closed on the Florida condo sale and moved some stuff aboard the new to us boat (located in Myrtle Beach) on the way home to Annapolis.
Winter is slowly departing the mid-Atlantic states. Boats in FL for the winte are starting to think about heading north. We moved our 20' runabout, Mighty Quinn, to a trailer today for the trip north.
Five boats, about 30 folks headed south of Jupiter by about an hour to Peanut Island for a lunch cookout. Peanut island is the former home of a cold war bunker intended for President Kennedy when he was nearby. Our trip was on a friend's Grady White Freedom 325, a great boat.
Girls Weeklend and I am the driver. Lunch cruise to Juno Dunes Nature Preserve. Hike over just before some rain and back into slip before massive rain and thunder storms.
sister in for a visit boat trip for lunch at local restaurant
Closed on the new to us boat, s Back Cove 37 on Thursday. We spent the weekend “moving in”. This included loading an inordinate amount of gear (and not really everything yet). It also included a lot of measuring, thinking about improvements and additions, etc. One of the most important riddles to resolve, coffee. Where is the coffee maker going to go? Is a built in the best option? Stay tuned.
One of the pleasures of retirement, being a snowbird is winter boat shows. Today is one of those days, Trawlerfest Stuart.
One of the pleasures of retirement, being a snowbird and having a small boat with you in snowbird land is quick lunch cruises to local waterfront restaurants. Today is one of those days.