Winter is probably behind us by now

Lea and I enjoyed our time in Jamaica.  The weather was, shall we say, better than in Maryland.

As I mentioned in our last post.  The Gliding Gander was left in the charge of the Deckelman family who owns Long Cove Marina in Rock Hall, Maryland.  These people did a wonderful job.  Mort Jr., the eldest son of Mort Sr., opened the inspection plate on the transmission and immediately saw where it had been beaten with a center punch at some point in time.  After investigating further, Mort quickly determined the transmission was defective inside.  Additionally, the V Strut was an inch out of alignment with the shaft on the starboard side.  After rebuilding the brand new V Stut, re-pitching the propellers, replacing the recently machined drive couplings, replacing the transmission, and realigning the engine for about the fourth time, the Gliding Gander shakes no more.  While at Long Cove Marina they also replaced the thermostats, fan belts, tightened down the very loose generator, installed the synchronizer for the engines and installed raw water alarms on the both motors.  Furthermore, they did a lot of things that were either completely missed, not finished, or, not done properly.  

Lea and I got the boat back last Monday.  We ran it to Chestertown last Friday evening for a cocktail cruise with sixteen foxhunters who are our friends.  Sunday morning, we took the boat to Lea's daughter, Este.  Sunday afternoon we took Este, her daughters and some of their friends on a cruise to the head of the Severn River in Annapolis.  During our test runs we developed a list of additional things that need to be done before the Gliding Gander will be completely ready to live aboard.  Unfortunately, we will need to haul the Gliding Gander one more time.  During the next haul-out we will be installing side drains for the scuppers.  Unfortunately, the new scuppers we built into the sides draw water into the boat at mid-speeds.

The previous pictures were the Foxhunters cruise with Master Ed Fry immediately above.

Looking backward from the rear of the flybridge.

Looking backward from the forward part of the cockpit.  Note motor boxes in blue.

Looking backward from mid-flybridge.  Note ladder on left and dinghy with cover on right.

Looking forward from the lower helm station toward the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and a ship.

 Looking forward from upper helm station.

A pair of sailboats approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Lea with daughter Este and Grandchildren on the stern seat.

Lea playing a game of Scrabble on her smart phone.

Time out

When the ice finally melted the Gliding Gander was moved to Long Cove Marina across the Chester River from Lea's farm.  With Lea being in Jamaica for the last week, and a snow storm predicted in two days, I decided to fly south and join Lea.  While I am away Tony Van de Wal will again take charge of the Gliding Gander and have her fixed for all known, remaining issues.  At this time, it appears the V strut was made improperly and the coupling between the transmission and drive shaft was not properly aligned.  I ordered a new coupling to be installed, the V strut to be rebuilt and hopefully that will resolve the imbalance problem.  While at Long Cove they will install new thermostats, raw water pump alarms, new belts, change fluids and filters.  While the boat is out of the water Tony will raise the water line a little bit and add spray rails to the rear sides of the hull to help stop water from having a chance to come in the scrubbers while underway at mid-range speeds.

Lea and I just received the date of the auction of my farm across the creek from Lea's farm.  The date will be Saturday,  April 24th.  As a result we decided to not leave on our trip until after the auction and until everything I have is moved from my farm property (assuming the farm sells).  I expect we can get underway by the second week of May.  We are now seriously considering doing America's Great Loop before we go to the Bahamas and into the Caribbean.  This could add about three more thousand miles to our original trip.  The greatest consideration in doing the Great Loop now is because we will be coming into the spring and no longer have the need to get ahead of freezing weather.

No matter how it all turns out, Lea and I will have our boat trip.  We just do not know when, or where, or for how long.  As Lea says:  "It is all part of the adventure".

Meanwhile, this Jamaican weather is very easy to get used to.