Captain’s log
Dateline: 30.07.2022
Escape from Saint James City
I can’t and don’t want to stay here at the dock anymore. The spot that I found, the deal that I made, both of them no longer exist.
The plan was to wait out storms at this dock, work on the boat in peace and quiet, and then leave in late November, or sooner if my boat was ready to sail earlier plus given a good weather window. I offered twice the money that marinas charge, so that I could have privacy and the whole dock to myself, no other boats would bump into me or drop their mast on my boat in case of a hurricane. The new owners who bought the lot, after a couple of months of me paying rent have decided to get another boat to fill the empty spot. That’s when I knew it was time to put my refit and electrofication plans on ice and go pursue happiness in the open ocean. Not to mention that there’s a 30’ fishing boat in front of me now, and a giant australian pine tree directly above that I, thanks to that boat, now can’t move away from. It has recently lost one of its branches, and so if it falls on my boat during the storm, I’ll automatically be down over a hundred thousand dollars in repairs — the vessel is still uninsured.
I paid extra for this spot also to not have these sorts of problems, but it is what it is. Leaving doesn’t seem to be easy either. TowBoatUS refused to tow me unless I specify a marina that I’m going to, with a written confirmation from them that they’re waiting for me, plus their captain said a bunch of multihulls have to be moved from the canal, and trees need to be cut. We also need to have high tide and two captains available. That makes my TowBoatUS membership basically useless, I plan on cancelling it right after leaving St James City — if your boat is working, then you can go on your own, and if it doesn’t they are not allowed to take you anywhere but some dock or marina... I rather buy an extra solar panel or wind generator than pay for that membership, it’s useless. The young local captain who I spoke with is the same guy who towed me four months ago to the current location from Bob & Annie’s. I’ve explained that I’m leaving one way or the other, and if it’s on one prop bumping into things on my way out, then so be it, maybe that’s exactly what the world needs. I also suspect the guy is jealous that I have a big yacht and he doesn’t, and he ended up going as far as saying "unfortunately you bought a boat that is landlocked"... I’m not sure how something that’s sitting in salt water can be considered landlocked.
Monday I’m calling Lee County to explain that I need to leave and can’t pass through the canal due to overgrown trees, hope they cut them within two weeks. By now I have phone numbers of most people who are docked in that canal, but I might just pass with three out of four of those boats there — the Corsair 3600 catamaran will need to be moved no matter what. The guy who owns it is a very cool old sailor, a guy named Al. The problem is that he will be away from his boat for almost two weeks starting Monday, so there’s no way for me to leave during that period no matter what.
Those boats aren’t supposed to be there, they’re taking up more than 1/4 for sure, and some if not all of them take up more than 1/3 of the canal’s width — which is against the law, but no one cares because nobody that wide needed to go through there, up until now. Another thing is that while cutting trees, they may finally notice those boats that aren’t really supposed to be there even though it wasn’t a problem for over a decade... they could remove or issue a fine to those folks just because TowBoatUS didn’t want liability and asked for all these things to be done. I’m cutting the trees either way, I don’t want them to damage my mast or bend stanchions.
One of those boats has methheads living on it. They drive old rusty cars and there’re tents sitting in front of their monohull — the usual attribute of tweaker’s way of life. Every night they start a bonfire and cook something, which I’ve been told is not spaghetti or oatmeal. Local cops couldn’t do anything about it for years. Due to me trying to get out of here, now there’s a rumor around town that their boat may get removed by the state due to my boat being too big to go through the canal with them being in there. It’s a matter of days until they hear that rumor, and the worst that can happen is they’ll try to torch my boat so that the state doesn’t have to move theirs. Their engine most likely doesn’t run, and even if it does, I have no intention of talking to that fabulous crew.
Crabs love chicken bones
My new neighbor caught a giant crab, said that, "crabs just love chicken bones". It escaped right after he opened the cage though, so it’s still down there, looking for something to eat again.
Cabin hatches
Some of my ten round hatches that represent cabin windows turned out not to be glued shut.
My guess is that the rubber gasket started leaking in some of them, and since those can’t be bought anymore today, someone decided to use black silicone and just glue them for good.
Either way, that means anybody can enter the boat even when the main sliding door is locked, which I’m not entirely cool with.
I need to get some black 5200 or similar and solve this situation once and for all.
Alternatively, I will design and 3D-print hatch locks that can’t be opened from outside.
I’m becoming a real boater now — hesitating to do permanent modification to parts of the vessel that I want to replace later anyway, and these ones I could sell on eBay to someone who needs spare parts or complete replacement of the whole thing.
The window itself is fine, it’s tempered glass, so there’s not a scratch on them and they look crystal clear.
I hope I don’t become like one of those hoarders with a ton of useless garbage sitting on their boat.
Clean cat
Using my hose and dinghy, I was able to get to the starboard side, clean it, and finally remove that ugly "Northern Bounty" sticker. She’s now a cat with no name.
The boat looks way less homeless now, plus now I know that new fenders that I’ll put on her soon won’t get dirty right away.
The most fun part was using my hose as a water jet to push the Zodiac back to the boat. Finally I had some kind of propulsion system working here. And of course there’s nothing as exciting as standing on two feet on an 8’ PVC inflatable tender holding a razor, trying to stay close to the boat while scratching that sticker off the hull.
Hydraulics
Had a video consultation with Derek from Captineer, his conclusion is that installing the motors while they’re in the water is a bad idea in my case due to the need for perfect alignment which is hard to get with the shafts being in place. That complicates and delays my electrification quite a bit, but that’s alright, I’ll use my diesel and hydraulics for now, at least I’m not dead in the water. Once I’m in Tampa, I’ll be able to fish her out and do what I need to do. E-Tech guys will also be in Tampa in September, so even if my boat won’t have their motors in by then, they could advise me on how to properly mount them.
Ken and Julie from Golden Palms (where I used to stay before transferring to my liveaboard) have offered some help. Julie is just one of those cool down-to-earth free-spirited Americans, and Ken is this badass MacGyver type of a guy who builds and flies airplanes and used to be a diesel mechanic at some point. She said they likely could help me make my port-side screw turn. If it works out, I’ll be able to navigate myself out of here through the canal without bumping into anyone.