August 23, 2008

Tropical Storm Fay

We made it back from out trip to VT and NY. Had a great time. I am finally packing the boat. Bedding, food stuffs, clothes etc. Unfortunately I am not packing for a trip...we are going to use the boat as our "high ground" if the flooding gets any worse. This is what the water looked like early in the day and we still had to get thru the night. We wernt sure what effect the flooding S of us would have and didnt want to be caught trying to load in the middle of the night. Wading thru water in gator and water snake territory should be done as fast as possible at night (feeding time) and we would be carrying 2 dogs ( gators favorite food) and a bird.


We had 3 hurricanes a few years ago and didnt have this much water. The head waters of the St Johns is S of us and it flows N. We wernt sure what all that rain in Melbourn FL would do when it got to us.


Luckily we didnt have to evacuate to the boat...and the water has started to recede. It was 3" from being inside the steel building, on the back side. Our trailer sits 3' above the ground so it had a ways to go to get inside, but I wasnt going to take any chances. Many of the roads around us had water over them and ours had more than we dared to drive the Pickup thru.
The "pad" that the trailer sits on was built 3 ft higher than the surrounding area. It is all black muck (like potting soil) and had to be hauled out and bottom sand etc brought in. The water you see extends back thru the woods on acres and acres of land.
Now the waters have receded a bit..hope it's gone before the next storm. Maybe next week I will be packing for a trip up the St Johns River.

August 3, 2008

Launched

The launching went well...

We spent 2 days heading N on the St Johns River. Our plan was to spend 7 days out..see how the new battery bank worked and enjoy some rest...2 days out Jim realized the alternator was not charging the batteries...change of plans...we headed back to Hontoon Island and spent the night at the dock with electric hook up, which recharged a bit and spent another 2 days getting back to the ramp. Haul out went well but we are going to add rollers under the keel to make it easier to move forward to the bow roller once out of the water. Jim's going to install a new alternator and we'll give it another try once we get back from our trip to NY and VT.