Refit in Ft. Lauderdale

Enee is now up on the hard in Ft. Lauderdale at the Pier 17 Marina with many projects taking place simultaneously. What a surprise when she came out of the water! I wonder where I picked up that rope on the prop shaft? Never noticed any loss of power or anything. Guess I should dive under the boat on occasion to see what's going on down there!






Here's the short list of boat projects taking place.

*Take off old bottom paint (about 200 coats) and re-do bottom the Micron CSX
*Pulpit is off and has been re-welded. Sue and I will re-install...Yes, Sue, back into the chain locker you go!
*Re-do lifelines
*Fixing the dripping rear seal on the engine.
* Replace the plexi on the 4 deck hatches and rebedding hatches to deck
*Finish installation of the 12 volt refrigeration
*New dodger, bimini, and pedestal cover being built
*New dripless packing nut for prop shaft. While there was nothing inherently wrong with the traditional packing we had, there is a design flaw with these Endeavours. When the packing drips as it should when underway the water runs forward to the bilge but that path takes it right over the top of the fuel tank! Ultimately this will lead to serious corrosion of the tank and then water in the fuel. This dripless packing nut will take away that problem.

Final possible project for the boat is the installation of SSB radio. I think we'll probably go with this. It is a one time expense that will allow us many possibilities for weather info, email, and communication with other cruisers in the future. The move from there to a Ham license is not that big a step and e-mail is totally free if you are a Ham.

Whew! Much of the work is being done by Stem to Stern and they are doing a great job. At this time we are actually back in Chicago and will return first to Tampa where Scott's dad has a nice wood shop. There are some minor projects that can be built there and then on to Ft. Lauderdale. It looks like the boat will go back in the water on Thursday. We'll move back aboard then and sail out a couple of days later. Have to at least get the lifelines and pulpit back on before we leave. We're excited about these jobs! After sailing this boat about a thousand miles we have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done and Ft Lauderdale is a great place to get projects done.
Longer range plans have us continuing on to the Keys and then spending about a year exploring the Bahamas. The Bahamas charge $300 for a one year cruising permit so we intend to get our money's worth! Art from Stem to Stern has showed us some good hurricane holes in the Bahamas as well as noting that Ft. Lauderdale itself is a pretty good hurricane hole if you get far up the New River.

More pics to follow after we return to Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale.