Lorena always claims I’m not having fun while we’re out doing stuff and I am, all the time, but a lot of the time it’s type 2 fun.

Type 1 fun is fun while you’re doing it. Eating cake, playing games (not monopoly), riding bicycles, etc.

Type 2 fun is not fun while you’re doing it, but it’s fun in retrospect. Almost all of the fun hobbies are like this. While you’re doing it it’s stressful and painful, after the fact it’s the best feeling ever. Racing bicycles, racing almost anything, really, and cruising some of the time.

Type 3 fun is not fun, ever. Playing monopoly with my sister. Surgery.

We got down to key biscayne and needed to launch the dinghy and get the outboard on it. Once the dinghy was in the water it was clear that the latest professional repair didn’t do the job. It fills with water. It doesn’t sink, but it’s got 4″ of water in the bottom that has to be bailed out while you’re using it. At one point I was bailing it and the cap came off the bailer and man I bailed a lot and not much was going out till I noticed the cap floating in the bottom of the boat. Bailer = cut off milk jug.

Then while putting the motor on I noticed, “Hmmm, where is my watch?” I guess the hoist for the dingy caught it and flicked it into the water where a serious tidal current was running. It’s gone. Apple Watch Ultra 2, which is also my dive computer. Lorena went in and looked for it but it was clear pretty quick we were never going to find it. I wanted to throw up. I needed to sit down for a bit. I just paid it off.

Once we got the outboard on and running we noticed it was dribbling gasoline out of the carb. When I replaced the hardened o-ring on the idle jet before we left I should have replaced all of them because the bowl seal is shot and now it dribbles gas out when it runs. Enough that it’ll dribble out a whole tank while you’re not paying attention. Not great for the environment either. No worries, I’ll just row. I’ve rowed this dinghy quite a few times, for an inflatable it rows pretty well. While rowing to shore this morning (March 9) one of the oar pintles broke off. This whole voyage is cursed. You’d swear we killed an albatross or something.

The entire time we’ve been out the generator has been funny. First it would shut itself off immediately and a call to nexgen they said it was probably the oil or water sending units. I had them send both, overnight, and it ran for a while but then it was doing it again. So I ordered 2 relays (literally the only other component that can be bad) but they got misrouted. Finally they admitted on the phone it’s just a honda headlight relay so my wonderful friends Ryan and Amanda brought me 2 and it was running again. Until the fuel system problem cropped up again. The genius who installed this generator teed into the fuel line for the main engine instead of just using the spare port on the fuel tank like you would expect and when the main engine is running it draws enough vacuum that it pulls the prime out of the generator so I have to dig everything out of that compartment, also known as “The Swearing Hole”, get down in there and prime the pump. Sometimes I can run the main engine prime and it’ll clear but today I had to do it the hard way. When I get back to Stuart I’m going to plumb it in properly. You’d think a generator with less than 40 hours on it wouldn’t have so many problems. I certainly wouldn’t expect it, I guess that is just the case with boat generators. I don’t know anyone who has one who doesn’t have problems with it.

We were trying to move the anchor the other day and it jammed again because we weren’t fast enough to shove the chain pile underneath so Lorena got on the throttle while I went up to unjam the chain from the gypsy. I took the drum off and lifted it off the spindle and the wind was really howling and it blew the plastic thrust washer off the gypsy and into the water. I thought about diving in after it for about a second but in those winds, with the anchor half in we’d go from annoyed to serious problems in a heartbeat so I let it go. Once I got it back together sans washer I had Lorena give it some gas so I could take the chain up. And more gas. Give it 3000 rpm! Boat wasn’t moving at all, I was seriously freaked out, surely the wind wasn’t that strong. We weren’t dragging so I went below to look at the prop shaft to see if something crazy had happened like it was uncoupled but it wasn’t turning at all. Then I realized Lorena had it in neutral and didn’t know it’s a little fiddly to get it out of neutral before giving it gas. I think we looked like such amateurs that the friendly Canadians behind us got nervous and moved before we did something even more dumb and ran into them.

Also we’ve had the flu the last few days with fevers and all the good stuff that goes along with that. I think any of these problems is solvable, but all at the same time is a bit much. I have to work while we’re cruising so I can’t do without the generator. Starlink is a power pig and I have to have it to work so having it be dodgy is not an option. We’re headed back to Stuart with our tails between our legs to lick our wounds and solve some problems. Maybe next year we’ll make it to the Bahamas, probably just in time for them to have increased fees or World War 3.

1. The swearing hole ↩︎