2007 Maiden Voyage
Maiden Voyage: Florida to Guatemala
(we re-named it our Maintenance Voyage)
Since Damiana was 9 years old and had not been used for about a year, lots of deferred maintenance was needed. We won't bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say that our trip down the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida was a "maintenance under way" cruise rather than a relaxing cruise. The first hint that this was our Maintenance Voyage was when we went to weigh anchor the morning after our first night out, the windlass did not budge. Rob spent the entire morning solving the problem. When he finished, he hopped in the dinghy and took Damiana’s “official” portrait.
As for relaxing, it's sort of hard to relax while in the ICW because there are dozens of bridges that we had to get through after requesting the bridge tender to open or to wait for scheduled openings. Some of them are less than a mile away from each other and are on entirely different schedules. Also, Florida has an abundance of extremely fast motor yachts that leave huge wakes causing us to steer into the wake (like every 5 minutes or less!).
Since we would be heading offshore after Key West, Rob and Roy decided to "service" the motors -- and their condition was unsightly you might say...yuck and gunk was everywhere.
During the sea trial the surveyor and previous owner said that the different readings on the two alternators was due to one of them being high output, and the other not. Well, it turns out that the high output alternator kept chewing up belts (now we knew why they had so many spares). Eventually the regulator melted, and you guessed it -- we had to purchase a new alternator and regulator!
Oh, before we get too far along in the story, the surveyor checked that all electronics had power -- they did, however he didn't notice that they weren't working properly. The installer had not wired some of them properly and others needed to be re-programmed. Oh well, those were easy fixes, after Roy made several telephone calls.
The boat came with a dinghy that has a 15 hp Yamaha outboard with an electric starter (yea!). However, the first time we used it, water came in between the severely UV-damaged tubes and aluminum bottom, so you guessed it: we bought a new dinghy in Fort Lauderdale. We had considerable difficulty starting the outboard, even with the electric starter, so Rob spent a few days servicing the outboard -- looked like it hadn't been done in a verrrrry long time -- and finally we had a working dinghy.
Take note of the photo of Linda at the sewing machine. Linda and Rob designed and installed a complete shade enclosure for the cockpit; Linda did all the sewing. We are so grateful for all they contributed to Damiana. Several other cruisers have asked where we had it made -- they all want one!
After spending several lay days (maintenance days) in Fort Lauderdale, we happily set sail for Biscayne Bay, and ultimately Key West. Our friend Gene, from Chalet Mer, flew into Key West, hoping that we'd take off for Isla Mujeres within a day or so -- well the weather didn't cooperate. The day we planned to leave a huge weather system with high seas and strong winds came our way.
Traveling down the ICW and Key West 2007
Photo Albums, Guatemala & Honduras 2007
