Thought this would be a good way to keep those that were interested, up to speed on our activities...it has been an interesting & busy year.
We started out the New Year living ashore in Melbourne. Our 4 years aboard motor yacht 'Bus Boy' came to an end at the end of 2005, after delivering the boat south to Vero Beach, with the new Canadian owner aboard. We were very sad to leave the boat, working for the Dupuis family had been a positive experience & the untimely death of Ray was a great shock & loss to everyone..
However, all good things come to an end & the jobstyle we lead is prone to these sudden changes.
After a few weeks of freedom & visiting friends throughout Florida & Georgia we rented a 3 bedroomed house from a friend. It was on the beach, in Melbourne, Florida, & we spent a pleasant two months there, including Christmas. The place was virtually unfurnished, but we had the basics and were pretty content there.
Eventually we headed back to Ft. Lauderdale to once again do the rounds, searching for our next boat job. This time we rented a little efficeincy apartment, nothing fancy, all of my cooking was done in the crockpot, on our camp stove & in the microwave!
We eventually took a job on an 80' Hatteras that was based at Ocean Reef, Key Largo, & at the beginning of May we started work aboard. We knew the old crew, they were leaving to do other things, but Bill, the captain, did come with us for the trip north to Long Island.
It was a pretty interesting trip. We were due to stop at New Bern, where the Hatteras plant is located, for some warranty work & before we arrived we had our first engine issue. One of the heat exchangers was leaking salt water & had to be removed & replaced. Not such a big deal, we were underway again within the week & the rest of the trip was uneventful, we arrived safely at Sag Harbor in time for the Memorial Day weekend, the first hurrah of the summer.
We got to see a lot of the family over the course of the summer, they arrived every weekend for at least 3 days, sometimes longer. Although they spent a lot of time on the boat, they mostly ate lunches & dinners ashore, so I was spared a lot of work in the galley.
In July we had a trip planned to Nantucket & we had only been underway for about an hour when Skip became aware of a serious problem with the starboard engine. Turns out the gasket in the ZF marine gear had failed & 14 gallons of oil was blasted out at full pressure, all over the engine room! The engine was quickly shut down & we headed to Mystic to call for repairs.
The ZF marine mechanic was there that afternoon, he had actually just installed the gasket a few days prior, due to a slight leak. Apparently he had not torqued it down correctly.....Anyway he cleaned up the mess, tore apart the gear, replaced the gasket & oil, & off we went to seatrial. It was only a few hundred yards before the gasket blew again....14 more gallons at full blast throughout the engine room! Back to the dock we went, more clean up & repairs...this time the new gasket installation held & with the ZF gear guy & a Caterpillar mechanic aboard, we headed to Nantucket.
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