Our second month in Titusville (or one job leads to another)
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Mon 25 Aug 2014 21:31
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Many apologies for not putting fingers to keys in the last
month. Work on Ajaya has been taking up an inordinate amount
of time and we've found the intense heat very debilitating. And, guess what, its
not normally like this!! Luckily in recent days the thunder and lightening
storms have become less frequent. We have a cooling breeze courtesy of a
front which has pushed tropical storm 'Christobal' out of our way.
Hurricane Bertha a few weeks ago also missed Florida but then went up to the UK
and downed the rear fence of our house!
The solar panels arrived in the middle of July. Work began on
making the structure to support them on the rear arch. A panel was duly
'offered up' to Mk 1 'tray' which promptly collapsed under the weight leaving us
struggling to hold the panel level without going over board. Back to the
drawing board. It was obvious that 'offering up' was not an option so the
'trays' had to be constructed precisely round the panels standing on the rear
deck. There was a lot of measuring, re-measuring, thinking, trips to the
hardware store, drilling, cutting, ordering of specialist fittings and climbing
up and down. One of the stainless steel supports attached to the arch is
even made from an old stanchion from that catamaran featured a few blogs
ago. Needless to say this all took far longer than anticipated especially
as the metal was often too hot to touch. Meanwhile, there was a lot of internet
research on the wiring, controlling and fusing side of things with many an
e-mail to knowledgeable friends. With the arrival of the next package the
wiring can commence. The hard top building is on hold until we get back
from our visit to the UK - that's where the third panel will live. Yes, we
did get tired of the comments relating to powering the national grid and the
like.
  You bought how
many?
A few minor adjustments and a near perfect
fit.............
  Guess how many nuts, bolts and washers ended up in
the drink - the dinghy caught most of them.
Whilst waiting for the panels to arrive we took the anchors
and chains on a side trip to Jacksonville. They holidayed there for a week
before being collected all shiny and new looking. This wasn't straight
forward either. The chain had to be hammered to loosen the links from the
galvanising process before being anywhere near free to flow through the
windlass. The windlass is back in place but the job of re-enforcing the
area where it sits has been added to the ever growing list. The hawser
pipe needs a few finishing touches.
  The steamy galvanising plant in the woods outside
Jacksonville
  Before and
after.................
Meanwhile, one job continued to lead to another. Whilst
we had a couple of dry days we took the sails off to store. The
main sheet track car wouldn't move. It had seized solid. It took a
hammer and wooden wedge to shift it to the end of the track where Skip had
to remove the end stop to get it off to assess the problem. This involved
taking the headlining down in the port aft cabin (which had just been
cleaned). Even though we replaced all the headlining during the re-fit in
the UK some of it is now suffering due to the heat on the hulls. The foam
backing is disintegrating. So a small snow fall of yellowing foam dust and
sticky bits ended up all over the upholstery. Oops. Further research on
the internet also revealed that type of car is no longer made. Out with
the Dremel. Two days later with a lot of cleaning, grinding, sanding and
the amputation of one of the bearings the car is back on and moving to the
mantra of 'hope it lasts another season'.
It has not all been work although it sure feels like it.
Before 'the' panels arrived we had a great visit from our very good friends from
Lanzarote. They were on their yearly holiday to Florida and were staying
this time at Universal Studios, only an hour or so drive away. We had not
seen them since we'd left the Canary Islands to cross the Atlantic in 2009. The
weather unfortunately was not kind so we went to a nearby restaurant to catch-up
on all their news. It was a little hot and humid on the boat. The
children we left are now so grown-up but your Mum and Dad are just the
same! Thanks for coming to see us.
  On the wet dock and in the 'dry'
restaurant.....
When we went to Jacksonville we decided to leave early in the
morning so we would be back before the afternoon thunderstorms. It took
roughly two hours there on the '95'. To change the scenery we came back on the
'1' and stopped off in one of our favourite places for a spot of
breakfast. St Augustine is steeped in history which we experienced on our
way through a few years ago. The cafe we found was excellent. The
feta, spinach, tomato and olive omelette was worth the wait. We took a
quick walk along the front before heading back passing through Daytona
Beach on our way back south, stopping to pick up a very large bag of oranges
from one of the road side citrus sellers.
  The Ponce de Leon bridge guards - here kitty -
last time we were here 'Ajaya' was parked to the left
After many weeks of waiting we finally got to see a rocket
launch. Two actually, one in the day and the other at night. The day
time one was a Falcon 9 taking up communication satellites and the other an
Atlas V delivering GPS 'stuff' into the ether. Always a spectacular
sight.
   The day time launches appear a little more
impressive
On the subject of modern technology - computers to be precise,
we went out to buy one twice. The first time we returned with a television
and the second a light weight folding trolley. We did need a new monitor
to watch DVD's on so the TV was a replacement item for the one we kept having to
hit to make work. The bonus was that we managed to hook it up to our UK TV
aerial up the mast. We now have FTA (Free to Air) TV stations to watch which
include some that broadcast excellent BBC dramas and comedies. The
trolley replaces a very rusty one. On the third attempt we ordered
a laptop on line and had it delivered to Walmart. One of our existing
computers has died, this one is six years old and keeps displaying the 'blue
screen of death', the Notebook is too small and is really only an
emergency back-up so a new laptop was needed. We never thought to
look here in the States but they are so much cheaper. Well, for those of
you who have had to set up a new computer with everything you need on a daily
basis you know what we say when it is one of the most frustrating, time
consuming and mind blowing exercises. Especially when you are not an IT
specialist. It has taken weeks but we are nearly there. Skip plans,
eventually after all the other work is done, to clean up and retire the old
one to use for navigation alone.
Did we mention we've moved marinas? We are now in Westland
Marina where we will be hauled out at the end of the month. It is all of
half a mile from the other marina so it wasn't far to go.
'Ajaya's' new home for a week or so............
And so to critters..............
  Manatee lying on his back with flipper exposed
drinking water draining from the dinghy................................night
time prowler
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