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.
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