June in North Palm Beach

 Blossom snugged up between some big girls

South marina down the way

We had hoped to only be here for a couple weeks and then explore Savannah and Hilton Head on our way to Charleston. So why are we still here?  Well, first we were waiting for the engine to get fixed, but the guys had her up and running in just a couple weeks. (Thanks Rob, Chris & Fernando!) In the meantime, our satellite phone died. Our next trip will be 48 hours offshore, and after all that’s happened, we’re not comfortable leaving without a functioning satellite phone. (We may get an Iridium Go as a back-up for the satellite phone after this experience.) 

We’ve had a really nice month at Old Port Cove Marina. There are two marinas at Old Part Cove and this is our first time staying in the north marina. When we originally made arrangements to come here (before the ER fire) the marina said they didn’t think they could get us in. We gave James Knight a call and he immediately got us a slip. Thank you, James! We’ve rented a car and have been enjoying having access to so much! After being on the hook for almost three months in the Bahamas, mostly in the Exumas, it was a bit overwhelming when we first got back. So many stores and access to everything and anything you could want (including Amazon Prime).

When not working on Blossom activities, we’ve been enjoying hanging out with friends and meeting some new folks. It’s fairly quiet here now as everyone has left Florida for hurricane season. Sean & Louise were here for a week before heading north and we checked out a couple of restaurants with them. We also met a great couple, Joe & Renee who just finished commissioning their Nordhavn, and enjoyed getting to know them. They’ve taken off on their adventure now as well. There’s a captain of larger Nordhavn here, Geoff, who we met at the Ft. Lauderdale show and we enjoyed having dinner with him and catching up.

Our friends Margie and CJ live in Delray so we’ve been able to get together with them a few times. They’ve helped us break in our new game - Molkky. We learned about Molkky in Georgetown from the folks on s/v Saltine. We’d never heard of it before - it’s like a Finnish version of Bocce ball played with wood pieces called skittles. It’s best played in sand but it works on grass as well.  I need to work on my Molkky skills, Martin wins way too often!

Martin explaining his technique

Martin in action

Enjoying a game on CJ & Margie’s gorgeous lawn

before the mosquitoes tried to eat me alive

My new favorite drink – a Moscow Mule. With a few twists I’d like to make it the new Blossom Bomber J

Margie & Martin who has obviously had enough to drink!

The weather had been hot (not as hot as up in the Carolinas, but hot!) So we’ve been staying indoors most of the day and coming out in the evening for cocktails on the fly bridge and dinner in the cockpit.

I’ve been trying out a bunch of new recipes with several successes – Sweet Corn & Crab Soup, Chicken Pad Thai, and Watermelon and Cucumber Salad.  I’ll add links to the recipes because they were all so amazing. The quilt bug bit me too and I’ve finished 5 quilt tops & their backs ranging from a table topper to a large lap quilt. I started the larger quilt in November 2013 so it felt good to finally get it pieced! I’ll post pictures once they’re quilted.

We’re heading to my home town up by Rochester, NY for the 4^th of July. One of my high school friends is having a “Yay, we’re turning 50 this year” party and I’m really excited to catch up with everyone. We’re also going to celebrate the holiday with two barbeques, one at my Dad's and one at my Aunt & Uncle's summer lake house. It’ll be a high school and family reunion weekend! 

We’ll return to the boat after the holiday and will head to Charleston as soon as our sat phone is back in service and we get a good 2 day weather window. We’re looking forward to visiting Charleston and meeting up with Martin’s Mom and her partner Michael who are coming to visit us from England. We have a great month ahead!

Wishing our American friends a safe and happy 4^th of July!

Boat Business:

We’ve gotten quite a bit done on the boat over the last few weeks. We talked about the wing engine in our last post, but we’ve gotten a lot of other work done as well.  Rob, Chris & Fernando have been great. They’ve been aboard helping us with some warranty items as well as with the engine repairs.

Repairs:

Break Band on the Windlass. It was bent during the free fall in the harbor. We discovered that this piece of metal costs almost $1000 but we were able to negotiate of significant discount if we take some pictures and let them use it for advertising - score!

Satellite Phone. Our sat phone died right after we arrived in North Palm Beach. It’s a fairly new unit so we were a bit surprised. We’re waiting for it to arrive.

Galley sink sealant. The sealant around the sink and between the tiles and granite began to mold. It was inside the sealant – very nasty. Fernando scraped it out and replaced sealant. It looks so much better!

SUP. Both of our inflatable SUPs developed pin hole leaks. We’re in the process of patching and testing them.

Ventilation system under the helm. We run hot under the helm. In fact, that’s other time a smoke alarm has gone off – when the fan in the inverter died and it overheated. (That was a much less dramatic situation.) Martin replaced the broken fan in the inverter and then installed 8 more fans under the helm.

Speaker amplifier replaced. We have an audio system that allows us to play satellite radio throughout the boat. The unit in the salon broke so we have a replacement coming in next week.

Ooo oh that smell… (to quote a song and date myself.) We’ve posted a few times about a strange smell coming from our forward basement area and then being spread around by the air handlers when the ac is on. I hesitate to post, dare I temp fate or an evil stink demon, but I think we have at last resolved this. In the past, we’ve added exhaust fans, replaced several black hoses and spent hours searching. After each intervention we’d think that we had it solved, but then it would return. I actually think that having the basement hatch open for so long, the smell would dissipate and then take a couple days to accumulate again. Well, this time we think Chris nailed it! He thought the smell was coming from the manual black tank overboard pump. Fernando rebuild/cleaned it and changed out the O-ring and voila. Interestingly, the smell was never “obviously” a black tank smell. So we waited a week to make an assessment and the verdict is in - Blossom has never smelled so sweet!  Of all our fixes (other than the wing engine), this makes me the happiest J

Additions/maintenance:

DVD & DVR. We added the tv last November to the guest stateroom. Now it’s a fully functioning unit with a DVR and blue ray player.

Smoke detector. We added one to the stairs/salon area.

Under the hanging cabinet

Fire extinguishers. We bought two extinguishers designed specifically for electrical fires. We replaced the one in the pilot house (that we used in the ER) with one and installed the other in the utility room just outside the ER door.

New flag. I repaired our poor flag in the Bahamas but it was no match for the wind and it shredded again. Now we have a lovely new flag flying proud for the 4th.

SIM card for Maretron system. Our AT&T sim stopped working so Martin had to go to an AT&T store and get it sorted out. We want to have our alarm system working while we’re off the boat this fall of course and thought we’d get it up and going before our trip to Rochester. This system will send a text if an alarm sounds – for example if we lose shore power or the bilge pump goes off.

Deep Clean. This was the first time we’ve hired someone to clean the inside of the boat. Wow!  It was so nice to have a professional come through and do it right. Maureen did a fabulous job and Blossom is sparkly now.  And we even have fancy towels in the guest head J

B’s Bottom. She got a good clean and a zinc check. No need for zincs but she was pretty barnacled up. I think we’ll redo her bottom paint before we splash her next January.