December sailing on the St. John's

The weather wasn't too bad this late afternoon on the St. John's river. As we turned toward home dock (of course not in time to avoid some post-sunset sailing....!), the clouds created a diaphonous skyscape.

Marina holiday lights - happy holidays!

Moon views from the stern across the docks

Another pretty day at OYCM

Sunset Saturday at Ortega Yacht Club Marina

Docked in at new marina - Ortega Yacht Club Marina

Water heater installation

Rick replaced the old propane water heater with a new electric one. It's AC-powered but should run via an inverter when we're cruising. He had to run hoses rather far, along the cabinetry that houses the port daggerboard, then down and into the head compartment and then up / over to the sink faucet and shower faucet. This also managed to hook into the plumbing hoses onboard in a way that brings hot water to the galley sink in the starboard hull.

Sailing weekend on the St. John's River

We went south on Saturday past the Buckman Bridge (upstream), and north on Sunday near the area of the zoo and Hwy. 9A bridge (downstream), along the St. John's River:

Ortega Landing marina at night

Cay Player faces the sunrise

If you live here, your mornings look like this

You can see Cay Player on the far left:

Here she's at right, facing the sunrise:

And here's a neighbor dock with their boat reflecting nicely against the sunrise and the water's reflection of the sunrise against the disappearing clouds:

Cay Player enjoying pretty morning

Views of and from Cay Player at dock 8/18/10

Very pretty dock at Ortega Landing and set of boat views this evening, especially with the cloudscape! That view of the mast silhouetted against the clouds was just taken looking up through the main berth hatch.

Evening docked in at Ortega Landing marina

Lounging in the cockpit last night was wonderful. I did it because the air conditioner wasn't working but was rewarded with caresses of gentle breezes and beautiful surroundings as the sunset flared and subsided, and evening lights became more prominent with twilight deepening. Here are three views of this lovely waterscape:

PS: Later, Rick called and talked me through the AC fix. It was really a maintenance item, not a repair ... Turned out that the filter in the water hose that cools the AC unit (you know, the one that has water streaming out of docked boats almost 24x7 in Florida's summer heat) was all clogged with debris and mud. It just couldn't let the water pass through, so it stopped the AC unit from allowing the compressor to do its job of cooling - just like the filter's air lock ("vapor lock") condition that had prevented the AC from cooling when we first docked here in July. Fortunately the fix was simple as Rick talked me through it. I closed the water hose's through-hull intake valve, unscrewed the water filter, removed the filter, and cleaned it plus the filter housing. The filter was a metallic mesh screen cyclinder. I used a brush (toilet brush actually) on its exterior, and a discarded toothbrush on its interior. Then simply replaced the filter into the housing which I screwed tightly back in place. Opened the intake valve, turned on the AC unit, and waited. It took a couple of minutes for the water hose to fill and convince the compressor to stay engaged. But once I heard the water hose's outflow gushing strongly from the outflow through-hull (at the top of the center bridge of the hull's underside, slightly port-side of center), we knew the air conditioner was fine again. Gotta admit, taking the cabin interior down from 104 F. at 1:30 pm to the 70's last night was very welcome. A sauna might be nice but not for more than 20 minutes! So, I'll add the new label "Maintenance" to this post.

Cay Player undergoes significant round of repairs and upgrades!

Upgrades and repairs time for Cay Player! We're launching a new label "Repairs" with this post. Rick had his home time Thursday-Sunday and lost no time digging into a huge round of repairs and upgrades. He started with ripping out the propane water heater (which had carried a warning, not for use on boats!) from the head compartment, and the old propane space heater from the port side hull near the step-down from the salon. Below is a photo of the new electric water heater on the mount he built into that space (near where the old space heater was). Once he finishes hooking up the water hoses and secures the electric connection, we can place a restraint of sone sort to help secure it for seaworthiness. The water hoses proved difficult so far - Rick determined a good path from the head down under the port hull floorboards, back to the port aft berth, then looping back through the bulkhead to the water heater.

The second photo is of the new faucet hardware Rick installed for the sink, and for the shower. Not only is it a cleaner look but the showerhead is much nicer, and the sink spigot rises enough so we can get our hands under the water flow. Much better than the old one that came straight out with no room to get your hands underneath to wash!

The shower sump pump is one of the fixes we'll have to finish next time. Rick was able to locate the old one (with some partial input from the boat's prior owner we called), and got it working. But it worked only sporadically so it isn't reliable enough to use yet. Still this was all a giant leap forward, even just on these items ... Let alone on the many other repair/upgrade items we'll cover in subsequent posts.

Sunrise, and calm twilight after thundershowers, on the Ortega

Views from her new dockage at Ortega Landing, looking toward the Ortega bridge, August 1:

Cay Player docked in at prior marina, Sadler Point (Google satellite view)

Okay, unlike that image posted about mid-June, this definitely is Cay Player docked at Sadler Point sometime over the past year. You can see her bottom right, bow in, with her blue bimini and the Walker Bay dinghy straddled off the stern:

Bye-bye little Cedar River (west Jacksonville)

Looking across the little Cedar River from where Cay Player used to be docked:

Overviewing the new marina docked into July 2010

Website for sailors and wanna-be sailors

In this post I'm going to tell you about a new website - well, it is new to me anyway! It's SkipperTips.com and I guarantee you will find lots of interesting stuff, whatever your skill and interest levels might be.

Cay Player in the Sadler Point boat lift September 2009

When first I saw this, I agreed it was Cay Player in the lift. Now wondering if it's another catamaran, since the bimini isn't apparent ... Still, at least it could have been!

Spinnakers on the St. John's River 6/12/2010

St. John's River on 6/12/2010