Standing Still in Cape Canaveral

Day 28 - 41 (Sat, Dec 10 – Friday Dec 23): For this entry, I will share highlights of being on the “hard.”

That is boat terminology for dusty, hard work, climbing ladders, exhaustion and dealing with no fridge. Anyway, after arriving at Cape Marina we had Gaia pulled on the following Tues. I took Dobbie and we did some errands. Patrick and Thomas (a great new friend from Denmark) took Gaia from her stall to the travel lift. By the time I arrived back at the marina, Gaia and Patrick were in the power wash area. Gaia was having her hull sprayed. Then, over to our spot in the yard where we would do the work. As it turned out, Gaia had some blisters. They were the smaller, less invasive types but none the less, they needed to be cared for. Within the next couple of years, when we have her pulled again for maintenance, we will have to have her hull sandblasted and a new barrier coat applied. But all good for now, we took care of draining almost all of the ones we could find. Sealed them with West system and then we painted the bottom. Wow that was a lot of work.

We also found that our cutlass bearing desperately needed to be replaced. And like all boat projects, one thing led to another. We needed a new shaft and while we were at it, we had our prop coated in the nicest of nail polish for Gaia. Supposedly her “nail polish” would keep barnacles from attaching and would improve the performance of our prop (Prop Speed). What the heck just more “Boat $s.” Patrick frantically made calls to try to find someone to help with the work. We needed a pro. As it turned out, Mike who is the project manager working on several “big” boats that are undergoing renovations on our dock, offered to help Patrick. He was amazing. Let me share a bit of what transpired…for those less inclined to read technical manuals and details of boat work, please skip to the bottom :)

It was evening, late after his daily boat work job ended. And Mike was positioned over our bilge in the back of Gaia with a PULLER device. One thirty second of an inch by one thirty second the flange moved, as he cranked and persuaded the flange. 4 hrs later, it was off. We then were able to pull the shaft and get to work. The next tricky part was removing the actual “gland.” Good grief, I though the flange was the difficult part. We finally, determined how Gaia’s inner plumbing was set up. And, removed the inner tube. Then, Patrick ran around Cape Canaveral collecting all the new parts. I could go on and on and on but I will spare you. We reassembled Gaia, learned there were still some aspects that needed to be tended to after being back the water and had her “splashed.” No leaks…. YEA!!! Back in the water. Dobbie was quite happy to be back to normal too. Amazing how he knew what normal was. Patrick once again, worked his behind off as we all did to make this happen.

My idea was that we would get Gaia back in shape; Patrick had other plans/projects. One replace macerator and two do the final install of our single side ban radio. And did I mention how many tools these two projects would take… Melt down… and this is when the “relaxation and glamorous part starts?” Needless to say the next two days were devoted to cleaning, organizing and returning all of the 100 billion tools back into their rightful places. I feel better now. But, my reputation for being the “cheerful lady on the green boat” has been tarnished.

Finalizing details and of course spending a bit more… boat units stinks... but it is all needed to ensure a safe and fun passage to the Bahamas. On the fun side, Patrick a new BC and I got a beautiful green sea kayak and a new scuba regulator. Ahhh all that is left is to wait for a weather window. Oh yea, and to the last part of the job I mentioned above… measure the tolerances on our new shaft… and, we will go ICW for the last leg of our journey south to West Palm or Lauderdale. Ughhh, safety first and everyone says we should really test Gaia out before we head back out offshore. More bridges and locks…