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! ;)
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.
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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