Tuesday05March2013

Happily anchored in the harbor at Cocoa, Florida. Warm inside the boat, outside it is 34 degrees with strong gusty wind. The radio said it was 31 degrees in Melbourne last night. Other than the weather, this is a great place. A good anchorage, good convient dinghy dock, and a three block walk to the bus stop where, for a dollar, I can ride to Sears, West Marine, Publix supermarket, WalMart, even to the beach. I just about have everything except the internet, which I did have while anchored in Rockhouse Creek up at Ponce de Leon Inlet.
Update on shakedown:

Cocoa anchorage

The transmission fluid leak does not seem to be getting worse, and I have developed a method of dealing with it. About every four hours I empty the cup and measure how much leaked, and the engine hour meter reading. Then add however much leaked out. It seems to be about 100ml/4 hours. If it starts leaking more I will know it. I do not think I am harming the transmission, and everything will be OK as long as the rate of leaking does not increase.
For ocean sailing a lot of boats have an additional track on the mast that carries a sail smaller than the mainsail. Typically this smaller "tri-sail" is used in heavy wind, and to reduce wear and tear of the big mainsail. Ten years ago I added the additional sail track. The added track is stainless steel, the mast aluminum and the rivets attaching it are aluminum. Now, ten years later, the rivets are failing. About six have pulled out. This is easy to fix, but the equipment to do it and the rivets are home. In the meantime I need to take it easy with the tri-sail.
Advent II was made in France in 1980. That was early in the era of popular yacht building. The term "yacht" meaning a pleasure boat instead of a work boat. In 1980 things were not standardized. In this case it is the track on which the mainsail is attached to the mast. It is a "T" shape which stands out from the back of the mast. The sail has attached "C" shaped slides that go around the "T" and slide up. Those "C" shaped slides are plastic, 30 years old, and over the years several have broken. I had a box of spares and would replace them as they broke. I have tried to find replacements and have been told by sailmakers that in the '80s, before standardization, the makers tried lots of things, and if it is not available now it no longer exists. When my box of slides is empty I will have to do something else. I broke three last summer, and four on the way down. I only have two left. It is time to do something else.

So with everything considered I have aborted the Bahamas trip, and will start making my way back to Normandie, North Carolina. (Why would you think that Normandie was in France?)
PS and by-the-way: The web site: adventtwo.blogspot.com is doing what we wanted it to do. It has pictures, my location, and these letters I write are automatically posted. You can even click something that tells the web site to send you an email whenever I post something. It seems to be working. So taking that into consideration, I need to shorten my distribution list for what I send over winlink. You can go to adventtwo.blogspot.com and get these letters. Or, if you prefer, I can arrange to continue to get them sent directly to your email. I didn't even ask most of you if you wanted them to start with. If you want the letters sent to your email, please let me know, by sending me an email saying simply "yes". And please don't send this message back to me.
Bill Doar