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January/ February 2005 VILKAS is all provisioned and ready to go except for getting the generator fixed. On our way south we had noticed that the voltage was dropping. The electrical end was still under warranty but we had to have the Gen-set removed from the boat to remove the electrical end. A local shop removed the Gen-set the second week of January. We then had the end shipped to Ft. Lauderdale. The shop acted quickly and we had the End back within a week. A few days later we reinstalled the Gen-set in VILKAS and we were ready to go. Finally the weather cleared and we left Ft. Pierce on February 7.
The weather of the past week had the ocean kicked up with a strong NE
swell so we decided to stay on the inside and motor down the ICW. At least we
were moving. We left the marina on
a rising tide at 0900 with a plan for a short trip down to Hobe Sound, however
the trip went very smooth and we arrived at the anchorage at 1330. Since we were
making such good time we kept on going to North Lake Worth dropping anchor at
1645. We stayed in North Lake Worth for a week.
Discovered that our wind generator was not working because of a failed
brush. Decide to wait until we get to Miami to order. The cold fronts keep on plowing through but we got a little break so we
staged south to Lake Worth and anchored off of Palm Beach.
We hauled anchor at 0300 and left the anchorage for the trip to Miami.
It was a very long day. Forecast
was for east winds but they shifted to the SSE, right on our nose with seas
running 2-4 feet. The trip took us 13 hours.
We have done this trip before in about 8 hours.
Fortunately when we arrive at Government Cut that there were no cruise
ships docked so we were able to go down the cruise ship channel saving an hour.
We dropped anchor in our usual place off of the Venetian Causeway between
DeLido and San Marino Islands. The
Miami Boat Show starts on Thursday so there were a lot of boats in the
anchorages. We always enjoy the Miami area. As I mention above the boat show was in town so we went on
Thursday and I went again on Sunday. Then
on Saturday we took the bus/train to Coconut Grove for the annual Arts Show. The weather has been great with low 80’s so we have been relaxing and
enjoying the Miami area. I ordered
and installed new brushes for the Wind Generator. It is now working great. We awoke on Feb 28 to discover our refrigeration not running. I setup a time for a tech to come check it but we had to pickup the anchor and move to Miamarina for the service. The tech arrived on time and found we were low on coolant so he flushed the system; added coolant and we were back in business. While at the marina we went over to Sun Electronics and bought a new Inverter/battery charger. We enjoyed Miamarina. We had thought that it would be noisy because of all of the restaurants and stores but it turned out to be enjoyable.
Anchorage at Venetian Causeway
Sunset Over Miami
Vilkas at Miamarina
Over Miami |
