Friday, December 12, 2014

“Nordhavn Central”: Old Port Cove


Last Wednesday morning we pulled into Old Port Cove Marina in North Palm Beach. A Sportfisher had its time in the yard extended so we were able to use its slip. What a social week!  We’ve heard a lot about this marina over the last few years and have looked forward to visiting one day aboard Blossom.  (We came by during commissioning to check out fenders and lines that were being used by the Nordy’s). There’s so much happening here. For one, there’s a super operation, Yacht Tech, that deals exclusively with Nordhavns. Their reputation is great and so people flock here to get work done and have the owner, James, look at their boats. We met James several years ago. He’s a nice guy and wow, does he know these boats!  It was also recently announced that the Nordhavn SE sales and commissioning office are moving here so it’s really going to be the “one stop shopping” area for our boats. The marina is part of a gated community so it’s very well kept, has a lovely high-end restaurant, gym, you get a bottle of wine in your welcome bag and there’s a free shuttle to take you to the local publix, Trader Joe’s and mall. Nice!

During the week we took advantage of the free shuttle to get some errands done and DeltaT came out to continue working with us on our engine room temp issue (more below).  But mostly, the week was filled with social activities.

We had a couple of friends visit including Peter who just commissioned and took ownership of his N60, Tanglewood, on the west coast. We enjoyed spending the evening with him and sharing info on our boats.  We also had a wonderful visit with our friend Steve who came by to stay with us for a couple evenings.  He and Martin did a lot of boat work on Sunday (details below) and we got to see some of his photographs from recent trips. He’s a great photographer and just looking at pics makes me want to get out my camera and go exploring.

We also met several couples while we were at Old Port Cove and were reminded, yet again, of what a wonderful community we’ve joined and what a small world it is!  We met a couple living aboard their N50, and we quickly realized that we’d been aboard their boat back in ’09 when she was in Highbourne Cay, Bahamas with her first owner.  We also met a couple who have been cruising down the coast aboard their N76 this fall. We’d seen their boat a few times as we travelled up and back down and it was great to finally meet them!  The six of us even took a ride on the big boat when they moved to another marina right next door. We really enjoyed the stroll! Talk about a fantastic day!  We’re all planning on going to the Bahamas this winter so we hope we’ll be seeing them again soon. Later in the week we met another couple with an N60 on the west coast of Florida. They gave us a lot of great tips for the boat.  We may be cruising in their neighborhood in January and hope to stop by and say hello if we do.  (I’m hesitant to use people’s names/boat names because of privacy reasons. Unless I’ve remembered to ask if it’s okay, I figure it’s more polite to be discrete. If folks have regular blogs of their own, then I’m guessing it’s okay to mention them by name…)

Going for a ride (I pulled a Wilson with the pilot house stairs!)

Wandering through the anchorage

And Monday afternoon our friends Sean & Louise arrived – woo hoo! They had a long journey southward from Deltaville, making it here in about 2 weeks.  Monday evening we had dinner with them and discussed our plans for the next 10 days as we head to Key West. We ironed out a plan that leaves us a bit of time to wait if necessary for weather. 

On Saturday evening we had a cocktail party aboard Blossom. I really enjoyed the evening, with old friends and new. We get asked pretty often if cruising is lonely. You might think that it could be, but really, it’s a very social lifestyle. We seem to meet the nicest, most generous folks wherever we go.  People invite you aboard, offer rides if they have a car, share wisdom, advice and laughs. And since favorite cruising grounds are shared by many, the odds of meeting up with people over and over again are pretty good!

On Wednesday we headed out for Delray to visit our friends CJ and Margie (who we met while cruising in ’09!) There are few marinas/anchorages near there and we were happy to get the fuel dock just down the road from their house. As we were docking I heard a familiar friendly voice and there was Capt George!  We met him in Stuart at the commissioning docks last spring. I hope we’ll be able to catch up with him before we head out on Friday.

We had a great visit with our friends last night and are looking forward to having them aboard this evening for dinner. They have the cutest house ever and looks even more wonderful all decked out for the holidays!

House and yard all lit up

Gorgeous statues and snowflakes

On Friday we’ll leave early and meet up with Sean & Louise in Hollywood, just south of Ft. Lauderdale. From there we’ll go to Miami and find an anchorage to hang out in and watch for a good three day weather window to head down to Key West. 

Update on critter living under the boat while at anchor:  Sean & Louise heard the noise as well and we all think it’s some kind of fish. But maybe it’s not…according to Wikipedia we may have experienced the Muck Monster! ;)

"Muck monster"[edit]
An unexplained wake in the lagoon on August 24, 2009 was caught on tape by a local group known as the LagoonKeepers, who named it "muck monster".[7][8] The identity and existence of the creature remains unconfirmed, as it did not break the surface during the time observed. It displayed a wide wake, but then appeared to descend deeper when observers approached within 10 feet.



Boat Business:  Martin was able to get a few tasks done while we were at the marina including:

DeltaT conduit. A DeltaT rep came out to help us with our ventilation system on Wednesday and the following Tuesday. They’ve designed an air conduit to move air through the engine room. Now we have 2 intake fans (one with a conduit to push air towards the stern) and an outtake up the stack. We’re aiming for no more than 25 degrees over ambient. We’ll test this out on our trip south!

Maretron. Martin created new screens for Maretron for when we’re underway, at a dock and at anchor.  Martin was able to add a new page showing our swing circle. There’s a glitch in the system so this can’t be viewed remotely from our ipad but Martin called and found that it’s due to be fixed in the next software update. It’ll be great to be able to see a graphic from bed at night when the wind is blowing just to make sure we aren’t dragging!

Fresh water tank. This was calibrated so we’ll know exactly how much water we have.

A/C. Martin used the pump he built last week to put antifreeze in water loop for the air conditioning.

Wing engine shaft seal. Martin fixed a drip in the wing engine shaft seal (by rotating the prop – we need to do this regularly, once a month or so.)

Gray tank odor. Martin and Steve tore up the master and guest staterooms looking for the source of our gray tank smell. We found that the one way valves for the anti-siphon loops had been put in backwards. Martin had moved them but put them back as he’d found them originally.  We have our fingers crossed that this was the source of smell! We also bought a couple of products from James to help keep this fresh including a new enzyme treatment for black and gray tanks and tabs to keep air handler trays from going stinky.


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