s/v Fairwinds - Southern Cross 31

[s/v Faith]

I split some of these posts off of the 'Creative transportation thread'

Thanks for all the interest and suggestions!

I had the privilege of helping a friend of mine move his SC 31 from St. Petersburg FL to Oriental NC the last few weeks.

  The SC 31 is a find ship, and should be a great blue water cruiser / liveaboard.  I was very pleasantly surprised by how well it sailed.  Here are some pictures and a bit of narrative.

Here is a pre-purchase picture from the add;



  As you can see she has a proper full keel, the forefoot is carried fairly far forward which makes her a bit of a chore to bring about in tight quarters but she tracks like she is on rails.    I had expected a bit more sluggish going with the beam carried so far fore and aft, but the entry and exit are fine and the turn of the hull is close to the waterline so she really sails nicely.  Tom Gilmer drew a good hull for this one.

  Much about the boat speaks of her offshore capability,  her toe rails are proper bulwarks, a heavy rig with a stout mast and boom... the cutter / sloop rig suits her well with lots of options to balance the sail plan.

  Here is a link to a page with more of the specs.

[s/v Faith]

 :)  This is Rose writing for hubby, he was picked up by the friend who is taking the boat to Oriental.  He is now in St Petersburg working on the boat and will be (hopefully) casting off to move the boat on Thursday.  Pray he has a great trip.  Thank you all for your help and suggestions.  He will let you know if he needs help getting back from Oriental NC to Pensacola FL.  Again thank you very much.                 Rose     ;D

[Tim]

Thanks Rose for the update, hopefully things will go well enough that there will only be a FEW stories ;)

[s/v Faith]

 ;D Just got a call from "the hubby" at 3pm.  They had trouble with the motor and just now pulled anchor and are now sailing.  He does not know what route they will take, the cut through or the keys.  He does not expect to get to Oriental for at least two weeks, if not longer.  ???  They are taking there time and enjoying the trip. 

I appreciate the of aid they may go off shore so it may be a few days or longer until he calls me again.  Please pray for a safe sail and good weather. 
                               Rose  ;)

[Tim]

I am sure they will have a great time. :)

[s/v Monomoy]

Looking forward to the report once you return.     8)

[Faith 1st Mate]

 ;D  Update on travel for hubby. 

Dennis and Craig are North of Charleston SC, they went off shore and got hit by bad weather.  Did not sleep at all last night.    :o  Not good. 

Still do not know when they will get to Oriental, or back here, but he is having fun. 
                                                             Rose   ;)

[CapnK]

Some guy named "Craig" called me tonight. Same guy? Might be, I dunno...

Said something about maybe having a lay day here tomorrow.

Apparently he has been here before and knows of the Mighty Endless Freshwater Showers here at the marina. I reckon if he shows up the we'll hang out together some...

I'll give him a call when I get up and find out if he really means it.

;D

[Mario G]

I'll be in Oriental thursday night till mondayand I hope to meet up, please let me know when they get there?

[Faith 1st Mate]

 ;D  Hi, Craig called.  They left Georgetown this morning and just got into Southport about half an hour ago.  Said if all goes well tomorrow they should reach Mile Hammock tomorrow night.  It will probably be at least two more days or more until they get to Oriental. 

Will try to keep you updated as he goes.  Oh,   ::) they went aground at least three times because of motor boats.  >:(  They just do not be careful around sailboats.   Oh well, will update at a later date.

                                           Rose   :-*

[Faith 1st Mate]

After a hot and long day, Craig and Dennis are at Mile Hammock.  It is a place near Jacksonville we loved to go to and spend the night.                 Rose

[Faith 1st Mate]

 ;)  Hubby just called, they are less then 4 miles from Oriental.  They are looking to get there tonight. 
                              Rose   :)

[Captain Smollett]

Talked to Craig on the phone...they are tucked into the slip and are getting some dinner.

Hope to catch up with them some more tomorrow.

[CapnK]

Hi Rose -

Posting here because I need you to get a message through to Craig, and I can't call him since he threw my phone into the river. I really wish he would have let me get the SIM card out first, but you know how impulsive he can be when he's had a few drinks. :-X (I don't know why he thought I didn't believe him when he said he could skip it like a stone, but...  ??? Marines...  ::))

Anyway, would you let him know that I am out of jail now, and that I was able to talk both the County Sheriff and the State of SC District Attorney out of pressing charges. They said that taking into consideration the fact that I served his jail time so that they could finish the delivery trip, and that Craigs face can be seen so clearly on the videotape just before the detonation, they don't expect him to come back through here anytime soon. "Forever" is the term they used for their expectations, I believe. (My ears are still ringing a bit, makes it kind of hard to hear some things...) Also, a local realtor has offered the use of several unoccupied homes in the area, so the orphans as well as the old folks from the retirement home will have some place to stay during rebuilding.

The best news for him, though, is that local law enforcement still has no idea just who it was that was responsible for all the mayhem on Front Street earlier that night. The local paper has taken the stance that there must have been some hallucinogenic slipped into the city water supply that evening, because no one person could have done so much and so crazily in such a short time; they think it is possibly a case of mass hallucination. Me? I am content with just knowing that sometime, maybe as early as this fall or winter, things should be almost back to normal around town, so I won't blow the whistle on him.

Last, you can tell him that the local fire company was able to get both the goat and his "inflatable Suzie" down, and with no harm to either. I'll send her back in a few weeks, after I get some spare change for the shipping fees; first it's gonna take me a while to pay off all the fines, bar tabs, and marina bills...  :P

[CapnK]

PS - Dennis is a really nice guy, and I enjoyed meeting him.

Some of the folks around here aren't too sure about his claim that "naked bar jogging" is the newest fad, but who knows, it might just catch on...

[Tim]

Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion I am going to hear a completely different version of this.  ;D

[Frank]

Sounds like a typical night out with Capt K to me  ;D ;) :o

[s/v Faith]

Dennis ended up picking me up and we drove down to St. Pete.   

  The boat has been there since he bought her back in November(?).  He has done some very nice work so far, one of the most impressive jobs was a foredeck re-core DONE FROM BELOW.

  The work was fair and strong, and probably several times stronger then when she was originally laid up.  Dennis has had many boats, and I know his work well.  He was the one who built up my foredeck hatch and finished it for me when my last minute surgery might have put our trip on hold.

  Some of the last few details we spent a couple days working on were;


~ Re-building and fitting the Aries Windvane
~ Removing the Raritan Head and tank and installing a Natures Way Composter
~ Wiring the Lopolight tricolor masthead light, and running lights
~ installing the VHF and Garmin 540s Chartplotter (with transducer)
~ Loading a couple hundred feet of chain in the locker
~ other misc. chores involved in moving from one place to another.. provisioning, cleaning out storage and dock boxes etc.

Met some really good folks there in St. Pete, Paul who helped us shuttle vehicles and Phil who showed us one of the finest 26' sailboats I have ever seen (voyager 26, more on that later).

  FWIW, apparently the Aries spares kit includes delron bushings that are intended to be installed and then reamed to fit.  The prior owner of the vane had not reamed the bushings and somehow gotten the assembly back together anyway.  We had the vane set up, but conditions on the trip did not give us the opportunity to check it out.

Here is a picture of the boat as she sat in the slip in St. Pete;

[s/v Faith]

After 3 days of preparation, we were ready to get underway.  We ran the motor in the slip for a while to check the motor.. and were glad we did.

  The boat has an older Yanmar 2QM20.  The motor turned out to be in wonderful shape, burning less then 1/2 gallon /  hr underway (and RPM to make 5.5k)... and burned no oil across the ~ 35 gallons of diesel we burned on the trip.  The fuel system had some 'bugs' that allowed air in. 

  FWIW, the small copper washers that you see on banjo fittings on many (most) diesels are not intended to be re-used.  THey compress when they are tightened and can cause leaks if they are not changed.  After the problem was found the motor not only ran, but smoothed out and the idle was higher.  It appears the air leak was a known issue and that at some point the idle had been adjusted to compensate for it.

Once this was sorted out, we got underway about 1700 on Thursday the 27th of May.

  Here is a picture of the Aries Windvane installed (the paddle and oar are stowed);

[s/v Faith]

One feature of this boat you can see in the picture above that was really clever and works well is the retractable tiller.

  There is a heavy aluminum box approximately 2' long and 2" x 4"  The tiller slides into the box so that it can be extended for sailing, but can be slid back into the box while at anchor (or while the tiller pilot is being used).  I wish I had gotten a better picture of this arrangement, the prior owner had made a stainless bracket for the tiller pilot that worked out well.  Hopefully you can see enough of the set up in the prior picture.

  We sailed down Tampa Bay, and under the Sunshine bridge.  We had a nice sail, and cleared Eggmont and got out on the Gulf before sunset.

  It was a pleasant passage down the coast overnight and we came back in Boca Grande inlet the next morning.

We made Ft. Meyers the same day and anchored near the Municipal Marina's mooring field...  strangely the moorings had been taken up?  Not sure what gives with that, but it is strange to see mooring fields being removed.  ???

  From there we headed up the Okeechobee Waterway. From the US Army Corps of Engineers; 

Welcome to Lake Okeechobee and the Okeechobee Waterway! Located in central and southern Florida, the 451,000 acre lake and 154 mile long waterway extends from the Atlantic Ocean at Stuart, to the Gulf of Mexico at Ft. Meyers. The waterway runs through Lake Okeechobee and consists of the Caloosahatchee River to the west of the lake and the St. Lucie Canal east of the lake.

We locked through Ortona lock;


Our next stop was at LaBelle.  The rain caught us for the first of several times on the trip just as we were making up to the free town dock in Labelle.  It is a friendly town to cruisers, sadly some of the locals take advantage of the fact and 'squat' on the town docks.

On through the Morehaven lock the next day and a night anchored on the edge of the lake near a fishcamp before the crossing the next day.

  We crossed the lake on Memorial Day.  The wind was light, and we sailed most of the day.  The typical weather pattern crossing the lake is light winds in the morning, then the sea breeze kicks in in the afternoon which causes thunderstorms.  The week we were there these storms were said to be worse then normal due to extra cold winds at high altitudes.  NOAA said the sea breeze was hitting warm air and kicking off thunderstorms with tops between 60 and 70,000'  :o

  We were in sight of the Port Mayaca Lock when the light wind started to back.  We saw the clouds that were drawing the air, and started the motor to make the lock.  The motor started to surge, and the clouds thickened as we entered the channel before the lock... it stopped.  :P

  As Dennis tried to sail in the fluky wind, I went below and started trying to figure out what was happening with the motor.  There was air in the lines again, and no sign of where it was coming from.  I had the idea to pressurize the fuel system with the pump on the Racor... and found that fuel was leaking out from the diaphragm in the electrical fuel pump.  As I was pressurizing the system the 'O' ring on the Racor gave up and fuel sprayed all over.

  I managed to get the filter back together and tighten the pump up enough to limp the boat into the lock.... just as the rain started and some serious wind blew rain completely across the lock (over our heads) while we locked through.  We motored (at idle) for the rest of the day to anchor in the channel at Indian town. 

  It was Memorial day, and we had soup and coffee to drive the shivers away as we sat below (I actually put in long underwear in Florida on Memorial Day)....