Finished!

FINISHED!

We departed Stuart this morning at 6:15 and arrived in Ft Myers today around 3:45. We had a really nice crossing of Lake Okeechobee. The weather was great, we went through 5 locks, and we saw lots of wildlife. The boat ran flawlessly for the entire 1,526 mile journey. We ran off-shore for 5 of the 8 days of the trip. The weather, for the most part, cooperated for us and allowed us to cover as many miles as possible each day. Dave and I are both looking forward to getting home tomorrow. As you can tell, the posts are getting shorter each night. We are slam worn out. It was a great trip, but the long days have taken a toll. Here are a few pictures from today.


Hard to see in this picture, but we had a good bit of fog this morning. This is the St Lucie Lock.


Port Mayaca Lock - this lock puts you onto Lake Okeechobee




One of many alligators we saw on the trip today.




Moore Haven Lock


A nice 72 Marquis




Franklin Lock

Boating Heaven

If there is a boating heaven, I found it today.

You really just could not have asked for a prettier, nicer day on the water than we had today. We left out of St Augustine this morning at 5:45. No wind and perfectly flat sea conditions. We turned out of the inlet and set a waypoint for Cape Canaveral some 108 miles away. The seas may have been 2 feet, but for the most part, were about as nice as you could ever hope for. At 11:20 we arrived at our waypoint and set one more waypoint for the St Lucie Inlet at Stuart, FL another 94 miles away. Once we turned at Cape Canaveral and had just a bit of protection from the Cape, it got slick as glass. You could have served an 8 course meal on fine china in the cabin.

About 30 minutes before our arrival at the St Lucie inlet we saw a huge thunderstorm blow up over Ft Pierce. It was amazing. We thought for sure the bottom was going to fall out and we were going to end up docking in a down pour. As luck would have it, we missed the rain completely and pulled into Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, FL around 4:30. We got her topped off with fuel, gave her a quick bath, and headed up to the restaurant for a well deserved meal.

If there is a heaven, I think I got to experience a good piece of it today. I run a lot of boats in a lot of different conditions and today definitely made my top 10 days on a boat.

We should finish up tomorrow with a final push onto to Ft Myers. We have about 145 miles and 5 locks to finish across Lake Okeechobee tomorrow. The weather looks good so I am optimistic for another good run tomorrow.

Welcome to Florida

Another great day aboard Checked Out. We departed out of Thunderbolt, GA this morning just before 7:00am. We went down the Wilmington River as it was a shorter route for us to take to get offshore. We turned at the mouth of the river and set one waypoint 136 miles away for St Augustine with an ETA of 3:00pm (7 hours). It was bit bumpy to start with seas about 3 to 4 feet and wind out of the west at 15kts. The winds calmed to 10kts by mid-morning which smoothed out the ride. By noon seas were much more pleasant about 2 feet for the rest of the day. We took some spray over the top of the boat early, but none after about 11:00am. The boat still needed a complete wash down when we got in.

Boat is running great. I changed out the starboard Racor this morning as a precaution since the port Racor was clogged yesterday. No fuel issues today. The forecast for tomorrow is near perfect. We are expected to have winds out of the NW at 5 to 10kts and seas 2 feet or less. It is about as good as a forecast as we could hope for. If that holds true tomorrow, we will try and run about 220 mile all the way down to Stuart, FL. That will put us in great position to finish our trip to Ft Myers on Monday.

Just a few pictures.


Dave and me washing the boat in Thunderbolt


A good wash down was needed.


Coming into Conch House Marina tonight in St Augustine, FL


Lighthouse in St Augustine

Bumpy, bumpy, bumpy...

Bumpy... very bumpy!




We left Georgetown, SC this morning and headed back out into the ocean.  The forecast was for winds 10 to 15kts out of the SW and seas 2 to 3 feet.  We saw 2 to 3 feet seas, but it didn't happen until mid-day.  We had solid 4 footers all morning which made for a very bumpy ride.  No waves over the boat, but with the wind out of the SW we got lots of spray over the top.  The boat did great and handled things well, but had a very wet ride.




Since it was pretty rough in the morning, we changed out course and headed for the Charleston inlet.  We had enough rough seas and thought we could still make our goal via the intracoastal, albeit much later than we hoped.  By the time we got to the Charleston Inlet, the seas finally started to subside to the 2 to 3 feet forecasted.  So we changed our heading again and made for the Savannah River entrance.  The rest of the day went pretty well until about 1:00pm.




At 1:00 we noticed the port engine hesitating a bit.  It periodically would drop 50 to 100 rpm's.  After seeing the drop in rpm and "hearing" the change in the motor, I knew pretty quickly that we had a clogged Racor.  We ran for about another hour hoping it would not get any worse and we could get into Savannah without issue.  However, it was not meant to be.  The problem continued to get worse and the engine was now loosing 200 rpm's.  It was time to change the Racor.




Luckily, John had plenty of spare filters on board.  So we shut down the port engine (always an uneasily feeling when off-shore) and turning directly into the waves.  Dave drove while I went down into the engine room and changed out the filter.  I was able to get it changed out in about 10 minutes.  Again, John was very prepared and had a container of diesel fuel in the engine room, so priming the filter was not an issue.  I topped off the new filter with fuel, checked for leaks and we were back up and running.




We arrived today in Thunderbolt, GA just before 4:00pm.  We got the boat topped off with fuel and gave her a good wash down today as she was covered in salt.  It felt good to get in early today and have more time to really go over things.  We have developed a small exhaust leak on the port exhaust elbow.  That will need to be replaced once we get into Ft Myers.  Otherwise all is well.  No pictures today since we were off-shore all day.  We hope to run down to St Augustine, FL tomorrow.  The forecast is for 2 to 3 feet with South wind at 10kts.  That should make for a good ride tomorrow.

Just another 200 mile day

Just another 200 mile day...

We departed Morehead City this morning with winds gusting to over 30kts. It was a pretty rough start to the day and the ICW was very choppy and unrelenting. The wind was pushing us all over the place and we needed to be careful as we ran down Core Sound towards Swansboro. The wind was very strong almost all day, but we did well to make as many miles as we did today.

Myrtle Beach was a disaster. There were tons and tons of small boats, jet skis and people on the waterway. By the time you got up on plane, you had to back it back down for another boat. We did the best we could, but by the end of the day we were burned out. We pulled into Georgetown, SC at 6:30 tonight. We got the boat fueled and washed and it was time for us to head out for a cheeseburger and beer.

We are not too sure about the weather tomorrow, so we could end up inside or outside, but in either case we are going to try and get down to Savannah tomorrow. The boat is running great after having covered 860 miles since leaving NY on Monday. Here are some pictures from the last few days. Note we saw the new Sea Ray L65 on the ICW on Wednesday.


Getting ready to enter Great Bridge Lock



Waiting on Centerville Turnpike Bridge


North Landing Bridge


New L65 Sea Ray


L65 Sea Ray


Boat traffic going through North Landing Bridge




Captain Dave at the helm as we cruise down a very calm Pamlico Sound


Carolina Beach

On Down the Pamlico Sound

Had a good run yesterday from Norfolk down to Morehead City, NC. We got an early start at 5:30 to make the bridges south of Norfolk and then had a beautiful run down the Pamlico Sound. We got in last night at 6:30 after 13 hours. We were dog tired. I probably had one of the most challenging docking situations I have had in awhile. The wind the last hour picked up to 20+kts and it was directly beam to as we came into dock. We made two attempts to stern into our slip before I new it wasn't going to happen. So we gave up and pulled bow first into the slip. I'll post a few pictures later today.

Nice Surprise

It was just a perfect day on Checked Out.  We left Atlantic City this morning at 6:30.  Forecast was wind out of the South 10 to 15 and waves 3 to 4 feet.  After our tough run yesterday, we thought we would head down to Cape May and then turn up the more protected water of the Delaware and then down the Chesapeake Bay.  We were not up for another day of pounding on the open ocean.

Well, luck was on our side today.  Once we cleared the Absecon Inlet at Atlantic City, the seas were more like 2 to 3 feet and pretty far apart.  It was nothing like the day before.  Dave and I looked at each other and almost together said we needed to reset the waypoint for Norfolk.

So we adjusted our travel plans and turned toward Virginia.  We had a near perfect day on the water.  It was sunny and relatively calm.  The boat ran perfectly for us all day.  We turned into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and crossed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at 4:15pm after 190 miles.

We cruised on into Norfolk, tied up the boat, gave her a quick wash down and headed out for dinner after a total of 237 miles.  Another long day, but the tough part of the trip is over for us now.  We can continue down the ICW in more protected water if the weather is an issue.  We still have all of our options open to run on the outside if the weather is going to be good.

We plan to run down to Morehead City, NC tomorrow.  We should cover another 200+ miles on our journey south.  Sorry no pictures today as we had nothing but open ocean all day.  I’ll try and have some for tomorrow.

It was the Best of Times; It was the Worst of Times

It was the best of time; it was the worst of times….

That is exactly how the day went for us today. We started this morning at 6:00am running down Long Island Sound. You could not have asked for a prettier or nicer day. Dead calm flat water, sunny and no wind to speak of. It was just beautiful.

We got down to NYC around noon and came under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge leading out to the Atlantic Ocean around 12:30. As we turned south toward Sandy Hook and the NJ coast, the swell was a solid 7+ feet. The good news is that the swell was a good 10 seconds apart and we had no problem as we made our way south.

Over the next hour or so, the wind picked up out of the south to 20kts and the chop on top of the swell started to get very big… like 4 to 6 feet right on the nose. We took a few waves over the top before we finally had to pull the throttles back to keep from pounding as we fell off the top of the steep waves.

We almost lost the dingy at one point, but some very quick thinking by my mate Dave along with some luck and skill we were able to get the dingy secured and continue on our way. Nothing like a good adrenalin rush to keep you on your toes.

We pulled into Atlantic City tonight at 6:30 after 12 and a half hours. We covered 221 miles from CT today. Not bad given the sea state. We will try and make Annapolis tomorrow, but the seas will be bad in the morning as we head on to Cape May, NJ before turning up the Delaware Bay.

Checked Out ran great today and she performed flawlessly in the heavy seas. It is always comforting to have a good boat beneath you as you take on challenging conditions.

A few pictures from this morning when the conditions were near perfect.

Checked Out: Meridian 411 - CT to FL

Today I had the distinct honor and pleasure to finally meet my long-time friend and one of the original members of the MYO forum John Valletta and his lovely wife Michaela. John & Michaela have asked me to move their 2003 Meridian 411 Sedan Bridge from their home port of Groton, CT to Ft Myers, FL.

John and I have exactly the same boat: A 2003 411 sedan bridge powered with Cummins 370B’s. John has hull number 13 and I have hull number 15 of the original year Meridians were built and began production. We have shared a lot of stories and helped each other through the years with lots of projects. I have emailed and talked with John on the phone for the past 7 years, but today we got to meet face-to-face.

John & Michaela have maintained their boat to the highest standards. Looking at the boat you would never guess it is 11 years old. She looks like she just came out of the showroom both inside and out. Needless to say I am very familiar with the boat, its layout and all the nuisances of the vessel.

John & Michaela spent some time going over the boat with me and showing me all the improvements they have made through the years. Believe it or not, John still has the original canvas on the boat and it still looks good. I am very much looking forward to the trip to Florida.

We had a nice dinner together before they had to head for home. I will depart early in the morning and get down to NJ tomorrow. Not exactly sure where we will end up since the seas off the NJ coast don’t look great, but we will go just as far as we can.

Here is a picture of John & Michaela before we headed out to dinner. The SPOT locator will be active tomorrow for anyone who wants to follow along. SPOT Shared Page