3/25/2017  Back in the Water and Bahamas Bound

Maggie is ready to get out of the hotel room.

After a long 10 days out of the water, it was wonderful to see Subject to Change gently set back in on Thursday.  Our shafts have been straightened and propellers have been trued.  While she was out, we decided to have line cutters installed.

Shaft being reinstalled.
Props all shined up and ready to go back on.

 

The shafts and props get a coating of protective paint.
New line cutters being installed.

 

Stern thruster propeller with one blade missing.

Our thinking now is that the grounding in Cayo Costa is not what caused our vibration issue.  It may have made it worse, but it was not the main cause.  Instead, we think the problem started with the crab traps we caught in Anclote Key after crossing from Carrabelle and the one we nabbed after leaving Key West.  Our hope is the line cutters will keep us from having trap lines wrapped around a shaft if we catch one again.  While she was out of the water, Tim also noticed that a blade on the stern thruster propeller was broken off.  A quick call to AER in Kemah had 2 new propellers on the way to us.   In retrospect, we should have ordered extra while we were in Carrabelle.  Remember we had to have the boat hauled out to replace the propeller on the bow thruster that broke off in Panama City.  These propellers are just plastic and we have learned that they break pretty readily.  Now we’ll at least have a spare.

We had planned to do a sea trial once the boat was back in the water.  A couple guys from the yard here would go with us as we ran up and down the ICW to be sure all was working as expected and to do the final adjustments to the shafts.  As predicted though, a thunderstorm reared its head and we had to delay the sea trial.  We watched the black clouds roll in and the weather radar showed some major gusts.

We aren’t going anywhere in this.
The blue dot is our location. Luckily we weren’t getting the worst of this storm.
Gusts to 50 mph on the lake.

Friday morning we had our sea trial and all went very well.  The vibration is gone and Subject to Change hums along beautifully. So now we wait for weather.  Sunday, tomorrow, the winds from the front should die down to make a good lake crossing and then Tuesday looks perfect for our crossing to the West End, Bahamas. We have contacted another boat that is wanting to cross to the Bahamas the same time we do.  They had sent out a request for a buddy boat on the AGLCA website and hoped to cross earlier than we were going to be able to, but weather has kept them in Ft. Lauderdale.  Now that we are ready, so are they.  They will head north to Lake Worth and we will head east and south to meet them.  We plan to be in Lake Worth Monday afternoon and then jump out the Lake Worth Inlet early Tuesday morning.

10 thoughts on “3/25/2017  Back in the Water and Bahamas Bound”

  1. Friend of mine once said, “a boat is a hole in the water down which you pour money”. Will always be just a desert rat. Thanks for all the great pictures and information. That looks exciting, but stay careful.

    Dad

    1. Yes, we are getting excited about the crossing and finally getting to the Bahamas. We’ve been watching the weather carefully and it looks great. We’ve been told there should be NO northerly component to the wind and so far it’s all S, SE. Waves will have a 10 to 11 second period. That should give us a nice gentle rolling sea. We’ve got our fingers crossed.

  2. Glad to hear you got things straightened out. (no pun intended)
    Good luck on your crossing. Hope you have great weather.
    Mark & Angela
    Miss Adventure

    1. Thanks. She sure does run smoother with a straight shaft. When is Angela’s retirement date?

      1. Hopefully, the near future. Then we can get down prepping the boat. Your adventure id looking like tons of fun so hopefully we be on the water this winter.

    1. We are too. We’ve not met them, just emails and one phone conversation. Seem very nice and hopefully fun to hang out with once we get there. Love to everyone in MN

  4. PW here. I’ve been looking for a mantra and I thinki “ON THE HARD” is it.

    We lost a blade on a prop one time on the old Ski Nautique we had at Lake Gerogia, when I was driving and Ryan was skiing. The boat just stopped, engine running but no go. Later we attached a little hammer and hung it by the front door as a doorbell. Glad yours didn’t go that far. . . coming to a dead stop in the Gulf!

    I can think of worse places to be stuck in for 10 days, but most of them are in the Middle East. Glad (again) that you are finally on your way, “on the hard”! Have fun!

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