April 7, 2022
The return to Lake Worth (West Palm Beach) last week was without incident on a mostly good weather day, and Jinhee arrived shortly thereafter to hang out on the boat with me. We did just that. There is little room for boats around here, so we (mostly) anchored in Lake Worth behind Old Port Cove and spent time meeting new friends, doing some work and catching up on life (in a really hot Florida sunshine). Slips are very hard to come by and also excessively expensive.
One of our lucky bits was running into Rich and Carol who crew on Aura. I met Carol two years ago on the dock here. She was wearing a Race Across America t-shirt and only crazy people even know about RAAM. We have been following each other’s adventures on Strava (a fitness tracking app) ever since. I realized she was still at this marina and so we made plans to ride a couple of times. Captain Rich allowed us to tie up at the front of their boat where there is enough room to tie up on the pier without impacting their boat, so we have had a place to get to shore pretty easily.
The many problems that seem to be creeping up on Home Free were met with easy access to parts here in Florida. My parts for the davit (crane) arrived and it appears that the davit is now working again. This is good so that I can lift/lower the dinghy easily.
We did tie to the dock overnight when Jinhee arrived (making it easier to tour N64-Exile, see below), and while we were there, our power decided to fail. After taking the power cord apart, it was clear that our trainer last summer fried a lot of things, including that power cord, and it was going to be impossible to fix. (It is impossible to buy the European bits (32A 230V) here in North America, despite them being made in Wisconsin!!) In the end, I switched to a SmartPlug, which is newer, supposedly better, and was readily available. I have yet to plug in to verify that everything works, but I sure hope it does when I get to Fort Pierce, as I will need power when I tie the boat up for the month.
Meanwhile the head in the master stateroom failed as well, and I have ordered parts for that and completed that repair. That is probably the hardest thing I did the entire time. It is such a difficult toilet to access. In any case I was also able to track down very specific details about parts and service (ignore this next bit . . . Raritan Atlantes Freedom A8 – AVHWF02403. Solenoid is CWPS 24B It is made by Emerson/Asco Top Hat II – 8210G002DC24/DCD. It cost $150 from Emerson and $168 from Raritan, but they offered a 20% discount! More importantly the joker valve on my toilet is NOT the C254. Something was modified in Greece and I need to take pictures next time it comes apart (hopefully not soon). The C254 spews water everywhere due to a bad fit/seal). Raritan customer support was fantastic!
The roller on the anchor was squealing badly and that received a good layer of grease as well. Overall, the boat got quite a bit of loving this week.
We are always thankful to get James Knight’s time, and James spent a couple of hours with us on Saturday where we had a chance to look at N64 – Exile. We had never been on a 64 and wanted to get a sense of the space and layout for this (much) larger boat. It was quite nice, although this particular boat was already sold, and wasn’t a layout that we would have been open to. Still it was nice to see and certainly if we ever head to the South Pacific, this (much) larger boat would allow us to invite family and friends more easily, carry a LOT more toys and be more comfortable.
Jinhee has returned to Canada to work while I prepare to move the boat to Fort Pierce where it will stay for a brief period before a ‘Mt. Allison Boys Cruise’ ensues on the trip North in mid-May. As Jinhee prepared to depart, we were warned about a possible Tornado and she almost missed her flight as it became too dangerous to go outside and take Jinhee to shore. Below is a short video of what 30 knots of wind looks like. The wind topped out somewhere around 55 knots and was steadily in the 25-30 range for about an hour, but we didn’t actually see a tornado. Jinhee made it to the airport on time and the water was calm by 9pm.
Over the weekend I will head to Fort Pierce and prepare to return home (by plane) for a few weeks to catch up on all things Canada.