Sitting in a room with mustard colored walls, a queen bed and kitchenette supplied only with a single cup coffee pot. It ain’t much, but it is or home for a little over a week. We are at the Travelodge in the great City of Okeechobee, one of the few hotels in town that will accept dogs. Subject to Change is in the yard at River Forest Marina in La Belle.
We had the boat hauled out at River Forest on Monday morning to see if we could find the cause of the vibration on the port side that we started feeling after our run in with the bottom in Cayo Costa. We suspected and hoped the prop had been bent or gouged and that having it trued would solve our problem. Unfortunately upon inspection, both props looked very good. So now the shafts become suspect. Rough measurements showed that the starboard shaft had run out at the tip by .015 and the port shaft was out 0. .005 is considered acceptable, but . 015 is crossing the line.
And it still did not explain the vibration on the port side. We had to make the decision to have the shafts removed and sent to a shop for further testing. With the shafts removed, we now had 2 large hole in the bottom of the boat and she was going to have to stay on blocks until they were replaced. We are not permitted to stay aboard the boat while she is on the hard, so……
We have a rental car and room until Wednesday the 22nd. The earliest the shafts will be back to River Forest is next Tuesday and then we need to allow a day or two for installation and alignment . We’ll do a sea trial to be sure all is OK and then we’re hoping to be back on track and continuing to the east coast and then the Bahamas.
Meanwhile Tim, Maggie and I are making road trips every day. Tuesday we drove to Indiantown and Stuart both of which will be on our way down the Okeechobee WaterWay. We weren’t terribly impressed with Indiantown Marina. It’s very small with fixed docks and not much around. Stuart, on the other hand, was a bustling area. Lots of fancy marinas and a cute town. We checked out Sunset Bay Marina and their mooring balls. We liked the area and it has good ratings. After we cross Okeechobee, this maybe a good place to hang while waiting for a window to cross to the Bahamas. Wednesday we drove to Lake Worth/ West Palm Beach area. Our plan is once we see a window opening, we would leave Stuart and anchor in Lake Worth for the night. It would be a quick jump out the Lake Worth inlet and into the Atlantic.
Lake Worth has a huge protected anchorage. It’s a key waiting area for cruisers like us waiting to cross. Yesterday we went north to check out Ft. Pierce and Vero Beach. Cute, cute downtown areas with many marinas. We stopped at the Ft. Pierce City Marina. There is a new section of the marina that has floating docks and looks very secure. The older fixed dock section leaves a lot to be desired. As we checked it out, we came upon this momma and her baby.
When we cross back to the states from the Bahamas, Ft. Pierce is a logical port to come into. The Gulf Stream will be pushing us in a northerly direction and Ft. Pierce will be a great place to stop for the night to rest and relax. We really like Vero Beach. The City Marina is highly rated and has mooring balls too. One thing that has surprised us about mooring balls in this area is that 2 boats may be tied to the same ball. The east coast of Florida is the first time we have heard of or seen this. Space is limited here, so boats sometimes raft together on a ball. This was a small, older marina, but very quaint and quiet. Maggie liked it the best of all the places we’ve visited this week because there’s a wonderful dog park right next door with plenty other pups to play with. We’re amazed at how NOT dog friendly beaches on the east coast are. Dogs can be in parking lots, but are not allowed on the beaches. How totally rude.
Today we headed back south to Delray Beach to visit with Capt. Bill Olsen. Bill has been a great source of information and support for us. He is a licensed boat captain who we met through Tim’s brother, John. Normally he is out making a delivery, but luckily we found him home working on his own boat. We enjoyed lunch and a lot of boat talk with him and his pup, Bear.
Well, what a bummer about your boat! Nevertheless you do seem to be having a great time and ‘gathering good information.’ all good things. I can’t believe the Eastern folks are rude to Maggie, keeping her off of beaches – shows they just don’t know as much as they think they do!
Things are good here -‘ we 3’ took a day long road trip on Friday; it was fun. Stopped in River Falls for dinner.
Annie and I are going to ‘health classes’ on the 22nd and 28th. I will stay overnight at her house on those days as it will be dark when the class is over. Too spooky for an old one to be out.
June I have to compliment you on all of the mechanical talk about Subjecttochange (I am assuming it was all correct). I had thought at first that Tim was the writer (sorry about that). Excellent pictures too.
Much love to all 3, Elayne