The El Nino weather patterns have been bringing weekly storms down the coast or up it, but we finally got a 24 hr window to make the hop down to Cape Canaveral.
We had light wind and ended up motor sailing half the night. Fortunately, everything ran well, and there wasn’t much boat traffic around to dodge.
The last time we had new bottom paint put on, was back in 2020 at the Aktio Boatyard in Preveza Greece. They did a great job though, and it held up very well.
After calling several yards around FL and GA, we decided on Scorpion Marine in Cape Canaveral. We had talked to them at the end of last season, but ultimately it made more sense to stop on our way south before wintering in the Bahamas.
It ended up taking 2 weeks due to weekends, wet and windy weather, staff holidays, and painting schedules. This was fine with us, as we had a few other jobs to tackle and the weather was lousy again!
We also removed a couple of rusty links of chain at the anchor swivel, and repainted the chain to mark 25 foot increments with bright red and yellow paint. The chain counter was impossible to read in the sun so we’ve been using this old school method for years.
There was stainless polishing and rust stain removal, and a spot of fiberglassing to reinforce the shelf the windlass was mounted on. The latter was done by “Bobby” one of the many contractors available in the area.
The painters did a good job and we’re hopeful it will hold up as well as the other hard ablative paint did.
The morning we splashed again had 20 knot gusts. Unfortunately the aft lifting strap snagged the port dagger board stub and we ended up getting blown into the side of the concrete Well. It was a relief when we got clear!
Getting a slip anywhere down here is a challenge at this time of year, and we were lucky to get 2 days at Cape Canaveral Marina. It gave us the time to unpickle and test the water maker, run up and fill the fridge and freezer, sort out a new home and wiring for the portable Dometic freezer ( we actually had a place in the forward toy locker ready to go but it would be hard to check on it up there), and get all the remaining provisions on board.
Our next hop would be down to Fort Pierce Inlet, about a 9 hour sail south. I’m pretty sure we’ll be there for Christmas judging by the forcast!