Heading home

March, 31st, 2012...after almost four wonderful months in Key West, we are heading back to Minnesota.  The long way.  Via boat. 

We have a new dingy for our trip up north.

The plan is to head up the Gulf side of Florida then along the panhandle to Mobil Alabama.  Then we will leave the Gulf and head up river through the TennTom waterway.  That will take us up to the Ohio River where we cut over to the Mississippi, then north to St. Paul. Total trip should take six weeks but we are going to do it in stages.  We will leave the boat up river in Alabama for a month, move it to St. Louis and leave it again, and then finish the trip in June or July.
We have made several repairs and updates while in Key West. We had a transmission problem repaired, new cutless bearings installed, a new bottom paining, installed a new "in motion" TV system, and had an electronic system installed that allows us to identify other vessels, especially the big ones.

Bottom is primed and ready for paint.  We slept on the boat a couple of nights while in the yard.  Boats are not meant to be on land.....it was no fun at all!!!

We splashed the boat after spending 3 nights on the hard.

While we had the boat being repaired I had a local outfit look at the genset as it was not producing electricity.  The "expert" determined it needed a re-wind that would cost 3 to 4k and a new genset would be around 12k.  Before I spent any money on the old genset or pop for a new one, I wanted Pat "Trick" Stair to look at it.  He is coming down next week to help with the crossing I have to do up in the Panhandle. 

Trick wanted me to try "jumping" the generator to see if that could solve the problem.  He was looking at the tech manuals online as we talked on the phone.  With a lot of twisting and contorting, I was able to get the back cover off the genset.  While looking for the correct wire to jump, I noticed a broken wire.  Trick told me how to fix it and guess what?  We have a working genset again.  For nothing!!  Kerm will be proud of me.

We left Stock Island Marina Village late this morning heading for a stop in Marathon before we turn north for the Gulf Coast of Florida.  Allan McCartney helped us as we let the dock lines loose for the last time this season. 

We headed up Hawk Channel into moderate chop with seas of 3 feet....maybe an occasional 4 footer.  Missy was not liking the journey.  I feel so bad when she is uncomfortable but we had about 30 miles in Hawk Channel.  I did see a couple of Sea Turtles mating at the surface but was not able to grab a camera.  Once we got to Bahia Honda we were able to duck under the bridge and finish our trip to Marathon on the calmer Gulf waters.

Dock Ducks greet us in Marathon

We will be up early in the morning to head out on a 90 mile leg to Marco Island.

We had to really wash the boat off after getting knocked around in Hawk Channel with salt spray everywhere.  While I was washing the boat this Manatee came over and took advantage of the freash water spilling off the boat.

Remember to follow our journey with the Spot locator.  Copy and paste the link at the bottom of the page and you will be able to see where we are.
We had a great time down here.  Most of our days we shared with family or friends.  I will let Melissa fill you in on the great people we had the opportunity to connect with.  We are both kinda tired after a long day so she will add her comments the next day or two.