Our 2022 adventure begins

 

2/08/22 Samba’s Great 2022 Adventure

And so it begins!

Our trip to the Bahamas which should have started right after Thanksgiving, 2021, is only now beginning and the journey up until today has been tumultuous!

Last November, we loaded the boat, provisioned everything but the frozen and cold items and had a fuel truck bring us a load of fuel on a Friday morning. Within 2 hours of filling up with nearly 900 gallons of diesel fuel in 3 tanks, 1 of our 350-gallon tanks had leaked 10 gallons of fuel into the bilge! Jim had to cut the wires to the bilge pump to keep it from pumping the fuel overboard. Ughhh!

Fortunately, we were able to find a fuel reclaimer truck who could come and remove all of the fuel from that tank. Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep it - - so sad!

At the end of January, a tank liner specialty service was able to cut a man-way opening into both of our 350 gallon aluminum tanks, remove the baffles, weld new aluminum to the inside, replace the baffles and install nice access plates. As you might imagine, the cost of all of this insanity was breathtaking! Argghhh.

This is a picture of the bottom, inside one of the tanks. Notice the significant corrosion and the wire that went all the way through one of the corroded places.

This is what the tank looked like once the man-way was cut.

Here’s the finished product before the engine parts were replaced. Notice their kewl logo. 

It took another full day for our boatyard to replace all of the engine parts for both engines.

We arrived at the boat on Tuesday, the day after the work was completed and spent the next 4 days cleaning, repairing and provisioning for an extended stay in the Bahamas.

Among a host of other things that needed fixing, our davit/crane that we use to raise & lower the dinghy was dead. That called for Jim to wiggle into a tiny space to get access to the hydraulic motor so he could trouble shoot it.

While he was occupied with boat projects, Carol made many trips to the store to get fresh produce, frozen goods and a host of other items. We try to provision well since the shopping in the Bahamas is sometimes verrry limited, difficult, and expensive.

Once she finished the provisioning, Carol cleaned the boat inside and out while Jim continued the boat projects. 

Finally, after lunch on Sunday, we cast off and headed out into the St. Lucie River. Our goal today was a 20-mile jaunt to the edge of Lake Okeechobee, the largest freshwater lake in the U.S.

The river was scenic and either farmland or dense mangrove, palm, and pine forests.

Today, we only had 1 railroad swivel bridge we had to wait on to open. Here, you can see it is mostly open so we can pass to the right side of it.

We arrived at the edge of the lake at 4:00 and tied off between 2 large dolphin pilings. Though these are primarily made for barges, we were able to make it work OK. At this spot, we are within sight of the Port Mayaca lock which regulates the water flow from the lake into the St. Lucie River.

Though a little difficult to see, we had an alligator sentry watching us as we tied up. It’s a good thing Carol didn’t slip while lassoing the pilings! He’s the bump in the water on the left side of the picture.

Ahhhhh, a great evening to end our first day on the water!

Tomorrow, it’s Lake "O", here we go!