Boundless/Once Around Reunion

After our false start from St. Petersburg the day prior, the Admiral and I were chomping at the bit to head for Sarasota Friday.  Sarasota is special to us, because it was there almost a year ago where we first laid eyes on the motor vessel Boundless, which was destined to become the motor vessel Once Around.  Sarasota is a beautiful city, but more importantly, we were excited to be reconnected with Tom and Elaine, the former Owner/Captain and his Admiral.  We had stayed in touch since purchasing their boat.  As former Loopers they have been full of ideas, guidance and support since we departed last May.  Mostly, Tom is just pretty much “full of it” 24/7.  Talk about a guy who enjoys life! And Elaine is his self-described “perfect pirate wench”.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay

The house of the day

and another house of the day?

We pulled into Marina Jack’s in Sarasota around 2:00 PM with nothing on our mind except a quick once over cleaning of Once Around, a shower and then heading out to dinner with Tom and Elaine.  Marina Jack's is right in downtown Sarasota and the views and people watching are great.

A view of Sarasota from our cockpit

Another view from our boat into downtown

We were a little overdue for a waste pump-out and Marina Jack’s has pump-out facilities right at your slip, so no problem…right?  Once again, the boating gods decided it was our day to put up with a bunch of their crap…literally. 

To make a long and smelly story as short as possible, it was 8:00 PM before Tommy the plumbing guy finished up.  God bless him for his superhuman effort (and stomach).  We had to cancel our dinner plans with Tom and Elaine as I helped Tommy through the process, but he definitely had the worse end of the job!  In the middle of it all, Doug and Judy of Moonstruck (landlubbers for the moment) stopped by for what turned out to be a very short visit.  They took one whiff and said, “Another time perhaps!”  As boaters, they understood the urgency of the situation.  And, to The Pump Out Queen from Jolly Tolly:  Jan, it’s good you weren’t around, you’d have had a stroke!

Anyway, afterwards my First Mate and I had a shower, a quick meal at the marina restaurant and even got in a couple of dances in the lounge where a live band was doing a pretty good imitation of some 70’s groups, especially Earth, Wind and Fire.  We were too tired to go for too long though.

Finally, Saturday morning Tom and Elaine caught up with us and gave Once Around a thorough going over.  I think we passed inspection pretty well.  They were pretty nostalgic about their old boat and happy to see her (and us) having such a great loop trip.  We enjoyed lunch in town with them, learning that they had brought two cars.  They insisted we take Elaine’s car to keep with us while we were in town.  They had another great surprise in store for us for the evening.   The four of us motored out a few miles in our dinghy to their friend’s (Tom and Tanya) boat, Mister Window II, which was anchored in a beautiful spot across the bay from Marina Jack’s.  We enjoyed a couple of cocktails and an excellent barbequed steak and potato dinner.  I had tucked in a couple of good bottles of California cabernet which were a hit as well.   There was even a full moon to help guide us back from this perfect evening with new friends.

on Mister Window II, left to right:  Elaine, Tom, Tanya and Tom

Saturday turned out to be another down day.  I had been nursing a cold and the sore throat that I thought was just a symptom of the cold persisted and was worsening.  The Admiral ordered me into sick bay, which turned out to be a little express urgent care facility a few miles away.  What is it about emergency care that they think they need to keep you there three hours even if they aren’t busy?  Anyway, a subsequent trip to Walgreen’s pretty much rounded out our last day at Marina Jack’s.  The good news is that the antibiotics started making the throat feel better within hours.  The bad news is that the Admiral seems pretty adamant I not have any alcohol for the week or so I am on them…I may have to mutiny!

Monday, before we left Marina Jack’s, Tom and Elaine stopped by to pick up her car.  They brought Jack, their dog with them.  Now, Jack is no stranger to this boat, as he accompanied them on their Loop trip.  He sniffed the boat approvingly from bow to stern, and then proving his familiarity, climbed the ladder to the fly bridge!  If you doubt me, check this out:

 

Jack heads for his old fly bridge

Once Around then left downtown Sarasota on what will probably be the shortest leg or our entire Loop.  We went to the Field Club, a distance of 3.4 miles.  This gorgeous yacht club was Boundless’s old home port near Tom and Elaine’s home.  Tom and Elaine met us on the dock with cameras as we approached.  I think I might have seen a tear or two in their eyes as we pulled into their old slip. 

 

The Field Club

Our view from the cockpit of Once Around at the Field Club

Carrie and I spent the afternoon re-provisioning and relaxing.  Then the four of us had dinner together at their home.  They plan to come by in the morning to bid us farewell as we depart for our next stop at Boca Grande.  It will be hard to say goodbye.  Carrie and I do not have the words to thank these two great friends for their kindness and generous hospitality.  We only hope to cross wakes or paths with them some day in California so we can return the favor. 

Starboard Engine "Overheats"

Today we left St. Petersburg to make the forty mile run down to Sarasota at around 9:30 AM.  Before we were even a mile out, I noticed the temperature gauge for the starboard engine had quickly risen to over 220 degrees.  It normally operates at about 185.  The port engine had not even come up above 120 degrees.  Concerned, I idled back and went below to check the obvious…had someone (me) left the seacock for that engine closed?  For the engine to overheat so quickly, it almost had to be getting little or no water.  If the seacock was open, the next most likely culprit was the water pump impeller.  Discovering that the seacock was in the proper position, I decided to return to the marina and get professional help.

Meanwhile, the gauge now had risen to 250 degrees, so I shut down the starboard engine and limped back to our slip on the port engine alone.  My First Mate had already had the good sense to check the gauge at the lower helm to confirm the reading we were getting on the fly bridge gauge, and wouldn’t you know it, the lower gauge had picked this particular time to quit working altogether.  I began to dwell on my version of Murphy’s law, wherein more and more small things keep going wrong and add up to big headaches…it was shaping up to be one of those days.

While waiting in our slip for the mechanic to arrive, I went below again and checked the sea strainer, just to be certain I hadn’t sucked something into it.  Nope, clear.  There was no unwanted water anywhere around the engine compartment…it must be a damaged impeller. 

Long ago, my buddy and (mentor) John on Poseidon had drilled into me the need to carry spares, for darn near everything.  Thanks to him I have spare hoses, filters, water pump, bilge pumps, float switches, generator parts, electrical parts, plumbing parts, anchor chain parts, and parts for parts…you get the picture.  (I once had the brilliant thought a spare first mate might be a really cool idea, but the Admiral damn near killed me when I brought it up).  Anyway, I was pretty sure I had a spare impeller, and I was right.  (John, you’ll be proud to hear I actually had three spare impellers!)

When the mechanic arrived, I told him all that I had done up to this point and mentioned the coincidence of Murphy choosing this time to break the lower temperature gauge.  I even told him we had just had new chart plotters installed at each helm.  The mechanic nodded, and then agreed, the water pump impeller was the next logical step, along with inspecting all the intake hoses for debris.  This took a couple of hours of his time and a return trip to the shop.  When he returned with one of my spare impellers installed in the pump, he went below to reinstall the pump and reconnect all the hoses.  In passing he said, “If this doesn’t do it, we’ll check coolant level now that it has cooled off a bit, and then I guess the thermostat.”  He didn’t exactly instill much confidence.  Then, as an afterthought, he said, “You know, both those temperature gauges work from one sending unit, and the units have different resistance depending upon whether one or two gauges is being driven.  If one gets disconnected the other will get twice the signal…” 

Duh!

Before the mechanic was done below, my First Mate and I had removed the dash on the lower helm.  When we tilted it forward to inspect the wiring behind it, we quickly found a dangling pink wire that appeared to be pulled loose from…imagine this…the temperature gauge!  It must have come loose undetected when the electronics guy, I mean Santa, put in the new chart plotter.  Once reconnected…voila…both gauges work fine.   So it turns out, the days delay was due to a faulty high temperature reading in the first place.  Remember, boating is fun.

The not so faulty impeller

Cost of spare water pump impeller to replace perfectly good impeller:  $85.00

Labor to replace perfectly good impeller:  $211.00

Knowing which pink wire to connect to actually fix the problem:  Priceless

Barring any more loose connections, we should be in Sarasota tomorrow.

Santa Visits Once Around

Wow!  We returned on the 29^th of December to Once Around in St. Petersburg, FL to find that Santa Claus had not missed the boat (no pun intended) on his Christmas rounds.  Low and behold, he had outfitted her with brand new Garmin touch screen chart plotters at each helm and Garman radar on the mast while we were gone!  Santa, I think you are spoiling her…but thanks!

On the 30^th we drove (by car) down to Port Charlotte to the home of Moonstruck and her crew.  The Admirals, Doug and I had an absolutely hilarious day of shopping for all the (“Eye-talian” as Doug says it) specialty ingredients, cold cuts, cheese and wine that I needed to cook dinner for eight at their home on New Year ’s Eve.  Garth and Kathy from Algonquin and Sid and Evelyn from Something Special would be joining us the next day. 

Saturday was spent mostly in the kitchen.  Italians cook with one hand on the wooden spoon and the other on a glass of red wine, so by the time everyone else got there our New Year’s celebration was well under way. 

My First Mate whipped up a great salad of greens, beets, red onion, oranges and goat cheese with citrus vinaigrette.  We followed that with a porcini mushroom risotto as a second course.  The main course was braised short ribs in Borolo wine.  Nobody would leave the table hungry!  In fact, Kathy finished us off with a “Red-Velvet” cake she had “baked” that afternoon (at Sam’s Club). 

left to right:  Sid, Evelyn, Doug and Judy

left to right:  Sid, Evelyn and Garth

Kathy's cake, which was slightly damaged on the way as Zeke sat on the box

We love you anyway, Zeke

We had a blast catching up with everyone.  We had parted company with Moonstruck and Something Special last in Alabama in October, and we hadn’t seen Algonquin since Cape May, NJ back in June.  There were lots of lies…I mean stories to tell and the night seemed to fly by.  Still, Loopers are basically old farts and by the time the clock reached 2012, we were about half comatose, especially Garth, who sort of dozed in and out for the last half hour of 2011.

We were all sad that Linda, the (Italian) Admiral from Jeremia and her captain Jeff could not make it due to a horrible back pain Linda has been fighting for months now.  We sincerely wish her the best and a quick recovery in 2012.  We’ll cook together another day, Linda!

Also, conspicuously missing were Ron and Jan from Jolly Tolly.  You will recall that Jan seemed to disappear under suspicious conditions, to say the least, a few weeks ago.  Well, New Year’s Eve Judy received a beautiful bouquet of flowers signed only “Jolly Tolly”, with their regrets at not being able to attend our gathering.  But a few minutes later, I received a text message with a very interesting photo of Captain Ron.  I am now more concerned than ever that Ron might have completely “gone overboard” (pun intended) with regards to the number of pump outs he has had to put Jolly Tolly through.  Check it out and see what you think?

Personally, I think we should all still keep a close eye out for Jan. 

(On a serious note, we all pray for Jan’s mom’s health to quickly rebound, which was the real reason for our friends on Jolly Tolly’s absence.   We missed you guys.)

As some of you know, the Admiral’s dad played football for Stanford a few years back.  Today he is in Glendale, Arizona watching his beloved Cardinal take on Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl.  We couldn’t be there with him, but the Admiral ordered the colors raised for the day in his honor. 

Once Around in her Stanford regalia, and my beautiful First Mate