Returning to Spring Fling

We finally headed south on Sunday, March 22nd. We had rented a car and packed it full of our boating gear, i.e. Warm weather type clothing, all our bedding gear consisting of mattress covers, sheets, blankets, bed spread, a new portable vacuum for sucking up water, Android Tablet for Navigating, Our Nebo Unit, Marriage Saver Headsets, all our prescriptions, stainless steel straps for the Dinghy, filters for the engines and generator, and a few non- perishables. We arrived in Florida on Monday, March 23rd and stayed with friends Rob and Kim. Tuesday we headed over to Green Cove Springs in hopes that most of our boat work had been done. The gaskets and motors for the wipers had been replaced, and our toilet and the Duck Bills had been replaced as well and were working like a champ! Yeah! Some work couldn’t be done until Spring Fling was safely back in the water.

Thursday morning Spring Fling was splashed! Yeah! Now we could get the other engine maintenance done.

Unfortunately, Spring Fling’s engines wouldn’t start. Boo! The workers tied us up to the dock until we could move the boat. We were able to move aboard once SF was splashed. We used our Power Cord and hooked up to the Power Pedestal. We added water to the boat and flushed the system multiple times. The next morning the dock hands used long lines and moved us over to the other dock to be out of the way of other boats being pulled out or put in.

Now we had to wait for the mechanic to come aboard and work on the other systems. In the meantime, Pete started researching what could be up with the engines failing to start. He did some research with Chat GPT and it suggested that perhaps the Control Module that connects with the Key Pad had gone bad. After a little investigating, it turned out that the module wasn’t getting any power. A relay that provides it had gone bad. He ordered a new one that arrived Monday at the marina. It took him about 15 minutes to install the new relay and the key pad was back to working! The engines affectionately known as Frick/Port Engine and Frack/Starboard Engine both started. Tuesday morning early before the wind and waves kicked up, we moved the boat over to the marina. Wednesday, Joel the 75 year old cranky, lanky mechanic showed up.

He put on his classic rock music and got to work right away but was not a warm and fuzzy guy. By the afternoon, he had warmed up and was talking with Pete and sharing his vast knowledge of boat mechanics. Joel did the routine engine and generator maintenance necessary to keep SF in top condition. It’s basically like having your car in for service and maintenance to keep it running smoothly. The only thing is a boat requires about 5 times the maintenance and TLC than a car. Joel did a great job and was able to accomplish the high priority list items. We decided that we would leave on Friday morning.

We made reservations for Port 32 on Dockwa for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Dockwa is an app and how we can make marina reservations. We enter in the name of the marina that we would like to go to. We also enter the name of our boat and its size – length, width/beam, and the draft that we need underneath our hull. On Thursday, even though I have a washer/dryer on our boat, I used the marina’s laundry mat as I was doing multiple loads and washing our seat covers that were pretty grimy from the long summer months and dirt blowing around. And then Pete and I ran errands and went food shopping in preparation for our trip the next day.

It was hard to wait for the maintenance to be done, but we did have a rental car and were able to have fun. We went to the local coffee shop for breakfast and afternoon coffee, and we went to a couple of Sushi and Thai restaurants that we had visited last year. We met up with Kim and Rob for dinner at the local pizza shop, Mellow Mushroom one night and went to their house for dinner another night. We even met up with good looper friends, Sylvain and Marie from our last segment for lunch. And we also connected with Pete’s former business partner Arnold and his sweetie Connie.

On Friday morning, we had a quick breakfast of cereal, fruit, and yogurt and Pete returned the rental car. We began preparations for leaving} Unplug the power cord from the Power Pedestal, untie a few lines and rig a few for leaving the dock, turn on the AIS – Automatic Identification System which allows us to identify and be identified by other boaters, bring the Samsung Tablet up to the helm, turn on the monitors, put on our life jackets and head sets, and send out a FLOAT PLAN to our kids. A Float Plan tells them when we are leaving the marina and when we are expected at our next destination. When we arrive at the next marina, we text them to let them know we have arrived. The idea is that someone is aware of our travel plans and when we should arrive. Hopefully, we won’t need them to to contact the Coast Guard, but it’s all a part of the safety protocols we follow. We started our engines and released the lines from the dock. We had finally started our 4th loop segment on April 3rd as we headed north up the St. John’s River towards Jacksonville to Port 32! Woohoo!