Green Cove Springs and Putting Kooky Dance on the Hard

By Capt. Scott Buckley

While we sat at Reynolds Park Marina we continued to check off items from the list we had made to get ourselves and the boat ready to be hauled and stored for a few months.
We made a list of things we wanted done prior to heading to Green Cove Springs, before hauling the boat out of the water and task to complete after hauling the boat from the water but before leaving her in storage.
We made list of things to take off the boat and take with us to Texas, a list of projects that could be completed in Texas, a list of things we needed to buy and a list of things we would need to do upon return to Green Cove Springs in late Oct.

Pre-Haul out list:

1. Remove, clean, fold and stow main sail
2. Remove, clean, fold and stow Genoa sail
3. Hank and cover ropes at mast
4. Engage dynamic brake for wind generator
5. Stow inflatable dinghy zodiac and cover with Sunbrella
6. Clear and clean deck
7. Disconnect VHF antenna cable
8. Disconnect radar Antenna
9. Disconnect AIS antenna
10. Remove bimini and dodger
11. Cover companion way instruments
12. Take pictures and good notes
13. Disconnect both SSB antennas
14. Rig cockpit screens to keep leaves out of drains
15. Cover winches
16. Remove hard dinghy and carry to Texas
17. Cover radar cables
18. Measure davit position
19. Take batteries out of things (remote controls, flash lights, GPS…)
20. Inspect autopilot
21. Treat fuel take with biocide
22. Fill and treat water tanks with 1 TBS of bleach
23. Pull solar panel fuse
24. Remove forward stay
25. Stow dinghy mast below
26. Mark haul out strap placement
27. Remove jack lines
28. Replace Covers on Hatch
29. Cover 5HP outboard and lock to rail
30. Tighten loose bolts on outboard motor lift.
31. Take down and store rescue sling
32. Clean forward head sink drain
33. Check and fill batteries as needed
34. Pump out holding tank
35. Shut off propane tanks

After Haul-out

1. Remove engine raw water pump impeller
2. Open and screen Garber drain bilge.
3. Put screen over sea cocks to prevent insects
4. Put screen over tank vents to prevent insects
5. Shut off batteries at main disconnect
6. Tie down wind vane monitor at stern
7. Insert companion doors and locks
8. Stow sails below
9. Remove boat speed impeller and cover
10. Cover helm and compass binnacle
11. Shade screen by GCS marina
12. Stow main sail battens
13. Drain AC condensate pan
14. Re-Connect forestay

Things to take off the boat

1. Tools (wrenches, sanders, saws, dremels, general)
2. Snubber rope and shackle for repair in Texas
3. Wooden Dinghy and oars
4. Spar wood for use in repairs
5. Food stuffs except can goods
6. Computers, IPad, IPhone
7. Garmin GPS
8. Office supplies and computer and charging cables
9. Empty Propane tank
10. Stainless steel hardware and screws
11. Small Cooler
12. 2.5 HP outboard for repair in Texas
13. Hot Knife
14. VOM Meter
15. Clothes as required
16. Computer Printer
17. Bathroom supplies
18. All personal papers
19. Alarm clock
20. Shower bags

Things to do upon return to Green Cove Springs in October

1. Remove monitor windvane
2. Install dinghy davits
3. Install new anchor switches
4. Change Nav lights to LED
5. Lubricate everything
6. Install engine raw water pump Impeller
7. Close Sea Cock and garber drain
8. Changer Joker valve
9. Clean head lines
10. Check and clean fuel tanks
11. Check and clean water tanks
12. Change racor fuel filters
13. Check batteries and connect
14. Reconnect electronics
15. Change zincs
16. Rig sails
17. Fill propane
18. Register hard dinghy
19. Reinstall solar panel fuse
20. Remove seacock and vent screens
21. Re-provision
22. Uncover cushions
23. Put new bug stuff around
24. Uncover pillows and blankets
25. Put away clothes and towels

Tamera’s list of things to do before haul-out

1. Wipe down everything with Lysol
2. Stow cushions in plastic
3. Stow any clothes left in space saver bags
4. Stow pillows in space saver bags
5. Stow coats in space saver bags
6. Clean Fridge and Freezer
7. Empty pantry
8. Empty spice rack
9. Clean out all cubby’s
10. Put books in plastic bags
11. Empty all snack jars
12. Wash all window seals
13. Empty all cupboards
14. Pack ALL food items except can goods
15. Close drains
16. Put bug stuff all around boat
17. Pack all toiletries

Project list of things to do while in Texas

1. Rig new anchor chain snubber
2. Fix 2.5 HP outboard
3. Change outboard oil
4. Fabricate and install outboard motor mount on wooden dinghy
5. Install cockpit drain in wooden dinghy
6. Install dinghy lift pad eyes for new davits
List of things to buy
1. 3 Engine oil filters
2. 2 Forward head joker valve
3. 3 NAV LED lights
4. 3 1 ¼ shaft zincs
5. 20 Frigiboat zincs
6. 1 Frigiboat line filter drier
7. 22 qt engine oil
8. 2 Caliber dinghy davits
9. Dinghy cockpit drain
10. 2 Dinghy lift pad eyes
11. Hand fuel pump
12. Anchor winch switches
13. New hose sprayer nozzle

Hauling Out at Green Cove Springs 

On Tuesday we move the boat from Reynolds Park Marina to Green Cove Springs Marina.  We were there by 11:30AM but did not get hauled until 2PM.  The lift master really appreciate that I went ahead and took down the forestay and marked the strap locations on the toe rail.  Once we were in the slings it became apparent that the inner forestay had to be unhooked as well.
You can see how close the mast is to the cross bar on the lift so all the forward stays had to be loosened.
Once the boat is lifted it is pressure washed.  Kooky Dance had a dirty bottom.
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Once the bottom is washed they back a specialized trailer under the boat.  This trailer is hydraulically controlled and can be raised and lowered and  inclined forward up or down.  There are retractable cross bars that the keel is sat on and then the side arms raised up to steady the boat on the trailer.
 
Once the boat is setting and stable on the trailer the lift straps are removed and the boat and trailer are driven to the storage location with a specialized tractor tug.  Similar to the tractor tugs you see moving airplane around at airports.

The boat is backed into position and blocked up. The trailer lowers the boat down and the supports and cross bars are retracted and the trailer is driven away.  The blocking crew will ask you where your cockpit scupper are location and incline the boat for the best drainage.
We then got back on the boat using a ladder and completed the list of after haul items and ready the boat for abandonment.  OK its just storage for a couple of months but it felt like abandonment.
I re-attached and cotter pinned the stays to support the mast while we are away.
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I really got to see where I had run our poor Kooky Dance aground a couple of times on the way from Texas to Florida.  I see a lot of scratches on the forward edge of the keel and don’t know what sea monsters I might have hit to cause them.

Later the Marina is going to install a shade screen over the boat.  This screen will partially screen the boat and its equipment from the sun and will keep leave from collecting in the cockpit thus clogging the drains and preventing it form draining during rains and storms.

This is the first time we have stored the boat "on the hard".  We ask all the questions we could and got a lots of vague answers because each boat and crew is slightly different.  I got a couple of folks saying you should change your engine oil before you store it, so I did, and others that have stored their boats many times and say that you don’t change your engine oil until you come back.  I will probably do both.
When we get back in October we will move the boat to the work yard and repair the scratch to the bottom and repair the bottom paint.  We will then slash it back in the water and move it over to Reynolds Park Marina and finish the other things on the list.

It seems like a long way away and I don't' know what we will find after leaving the boat set in the Florida summer climate but I am hopeful the precautions we took now will pay off with few issues in the fall and better cruising next season in the Bahamas.

We plan to help a cruising couple (Bud and Jill on SV Earendil) bring their boat from Texas to Florida in the fall and we look forward to cruising with them in the Bahamas.

St. Augustine to Jacksonville and then Green Cove Springs

By Capt. Scott Buckley

We left St. Augustine the morning of May 7th to good weather.  Again we had to deal with some shoaling at the St. Augustine inlet but we followed the channel marker and not the charts and came thru OK.  The trip up to Jacksonville along the ICW was gorgeous.

Jacksonville, Sister Creek and the Angry 1st Mate

Our plan was to stay at the free dock in Jacksonville in Sisters Creek however when we got there, there were 3 boats spread out on a dock that could have easily taken 4 or 5 boats but due to the ways these guys hogged the dock there was not room for us.  We found a suitable anchorage in Sisters Creek that was not too far away.  Due to some outflow boundaries from a low that was off shore we encountered some very strong winds that night.  We had frequent gusts into the 30’s.   
The 1st mate was a little teed off at the folks at the dock that tied their boats in such a way to leave no room for other boats wanting to tie off.  As the winds increased the madder she got.  I believe if I had rowed her over to the free dock a violent massacre would have followed.  Our Delta anchor held fine and we had the dinghy on board at the time, so we just hunkered down and waited it out.  By midnight that night the winds started abating but not the 1st Mate’s ire.


St. John River at Jacksonville and the entrance to Sister Creek

Sister Creek Entrance, Free dock is at the channel in the upper left.

 
We arose the next morning and started heading thru Jacksonville up the St. John river towards Green Cove Springs.  Our plan was to stay at Reynolds Park Marina for a couple of days while we got the boat ready for hauling out at Green Cove Springs marina.
The trip thru Jacksonville was with good weather and the winds cooperated well enough we could motor sail most of the way.

Pictures of Jacksonville

Loved the Name on this boat



   

Reynolds Park Marina 

We arrived into Reynolds Park Marina around 4:30 PM.  Even though the trip was only 38 nm it took a while to negotiate all the bridges thru Jacksonville.

At Reynolds Park Marina for the small cost of $14/day you got water, electricity, showers, laundry, a spectacular cruisers lounge, and gated access.  Did I mention free WiFi?
I was able to connect electric to the boat and run the AC.  I had not run the AC since Oct 2014.  It would have been difficult without it.  This far inland the days really heat up.
Oddly enough one of the Space Shuttle’s fuel tanks was sitting right there at the Marina.  You could walk right up and touch.  It was probably  crawling with space cooties but how could you resist

Actually the "Space Cooties" is incorrect.  Once these guys go into space they get burned up on re-entry.  For this guy to even still exist mean he experienced "Failure to Launch"

This is actually 2 tanks.  one for hydrogen and the other for oxygen.

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We got Reynolds Park Marina on May 8th which was a Friday.  We were not scheduled to haul out at Green Cove Springs Marina until Tuesday or May 12th.  We had 3 days to do final prep on the boat before haul out. 
Once again David and Alice gave us a ride from Green Cove Springs back to St. Augustine to pick up our car.  While there we met with them for dinner and was joined by Toby and Dana from MV OZ.  Another couple we had met and cruised around with in Georgetown.

St. Augustine

By Capt. Scott Buckley

We traveled from Daytona to St. Augustine in a day thru the ICW and arrived at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina and secured a mooring buoy in the southern field.  The cruising guide warn of shoaling on this route and to honor the buoys and not the charts.  The buoys are continuously adjusted for shoaling while the charts are not.  At some points along the route the chart plotter shows the boat on land when clearly we are not.

SV Simpatico also secured a mooring and SV Alice Mae went to her home port at Fish Island Marina.   St. Augustine is a pretty nice town.


The Southern Mooring Field at St. Augustine. You can't even see the Marina.

The St. Augustine Municipal Marina Building

 
The mooring set up is pretty nice here as well.  There is a water taxi into the dock, pump out boat, laundry showers and a nice lounge.  Did I mention they have WiFi.  The is an old fort there that shoots off a very loud cannon at all hours without warning a fellow.  I mean supposing your down in the hold trying to disconnect the power from something to get the boat ready for haulout and you are trying to be very careful and not short anything out and burn up the boat and while you are doing this and a very confined space BOOM.  The Captain soiled his drawers again. We would end up staying here for nearly two weeks and not leave until May 7th.

The St. Augustine Fort where they shoot that canon off to scar the sailor.

Dinghy Needs a Shave

The mooring field to the south is a considerable distance from the marina and dinghy dock.  Additionally there is a swift tidal current running thru the field.  This can make rowing very difficult and time consuming.  Because  we would need to go onshore a lot here in St. Augustine I had to figure out how to mount a motor to the wooden dinghy or inflate the blow up dinghy.  I first would try the wooden dinghy because we had already assembled it and had it in the water.  I did manage to get in on the wooden dinghy but I could not raise the motor up out of the water.  This would become significant later.

Just 2 weeks of growth.

It is amazing the amount of growth in just 2 weeks.  It also clogged up the intake on the outboard motor and made it run a little hot.

Changing Plans

St. Augustine was a bit of a turning point for us.  As I have been alluding to for a while we were discussing an ever change set of plans for our future. 
The original plans of that starry eyed couple from Texas was to sail from Texas to the Florida Keys and then the Bahamas for the winter and spring.  Then to return to the US and sail up the East Coast for the summer and hurricane season.  Perhaps to go as far as Maine.  We soon discovered thing were costing more than planned and some of the modifications to the boat were not working out as planned.  We had blown thru our maintenance budget in less than a year due to near by lightening strikes, a bad engine hour meter and all 3 house bank batteries gong bad while in the Bahamas.  Everything is so expensive in the Bahamas because it all has to be imported.
I won’t go too much into all the discussions that went into our decision as it may be a post all to itself.  It may help others in similar circumstances.  In St. Augustine we had a list of things to accomplish. 
1.  We had to find a place to pull the boat out of the water.
2. We had to buy a car.
3. We had to travel back to Texas and try to find jobs to make some money to pay for all of this.
Dave and Alice of SV Alice Mae again came to our rescue.  They took us around to the marinas in St. Augustine so I could get quotes to haul the boat and store her for 5 months.  Dave also loaned us a minivan so we could shop around for a used car.  Dave is a semi retired used car lot owner and it was pretty nice of him to loan us a car from his lot so we can look for a used car.  He quoted us a price on the car he loaned us and after 6 days of chasing down car deals I found I could not beat his offer and bought the used minivan from him.

In the mean time I had decided to haul the boat out in Green Cove Springs FL.  It was about 60 mile away by water and only 25 miles from St. Augustine by car.  We had to get ourselves ready to go back to Texas and the boat ready for storage.  We made lists and began checking things off.  I will make a post directly related to getting the boat ready as I am sure that will help people.  I did an internet search and found very little.  Most of what is written in related to hauling boats out up north where freezing is the issue.
We still had to get the boat to Green Cove Springs and that meant going thru Jacksonville and then up the St. John river.