The List is Done!

Days on cruise: 313

Hear it in your head:   “The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone . . .” and on and on. 

We have an 8KW Westerbeke generator at the front of our engine room. It has a 25-foot very thick, rigid 2-inch diameter hose that carries exhaust from the generator to the rear of the boat, running down the port side on top of the fuel tank, which is behind the port engine. We don’t know how old that hose is (the boat is 27), but it’s old. It began showing signs of age, cracking and a with a bit of a water leak, so recently Bob patched it with Rescue Tape (a must-have item on a cruising boat, in our view) and put replacement of this hose on Dave’s List when we got back to Fort Pierce. Dave was not excited about this project, but absolutely agreed it needed to be done, as leaks in any exhaust hose are a safety issue. Dave’s assistant, Jeff, cut out the old hose Thursday morning.

Dave bought 30 feet of new hose, which unfortunately costs a lot more than your typical garden hose, as do all marine parts.

Guess what Dave found when the old generator exhaust hose was removed? Behind that hose are two other hoses which weren’t visible to inspection as long as the generator exhaust hose was in place. The top hose (below) is the fuel overflow hose which runs from the port fuel tank to a vent on the side of the boat. This is a hose you hope never to use, but which does it’s job occasionally. If it gets used, it means you’re spilling fuel into the water, a big No-no! The bottom hose is the fuel fill hose which runs from the deck fitting to the port fuel tank. Here’s where the song at the beginning of this post comes in.

Dave found both of these hoses to be old, saturated with fuel and “soft”, all undesirable features. Off he went to buy replacement hose of these as well, not expensive as they’re so short. Can you find Dave in the photo below???

Those who’ve paid great attention to details on this blog will recall we have twin engines, so might ask: what about those same fuel hoses on the starboard fuel tank? Good question! Dave examined those, which are readily visible because they’re not hiding behind a generator exhaust hose, and found they’d already been replaced sometime in the past couple of years and are in great condition.

So off we went for a dinghy ride, missing being on the water after a week. Doesn’t Next To Me (in the middle) look  mighty small in the photo below, parked next to that 64-foot Hatteras? We’re dwarfed!

We motored over to “Little Jim’s”, a place mostly visited by locals and Harley bikers. We came here last year on our first foray after buying the dinghy, sent by Chris and Alyse Caldwell (our training Captains) on a navigation exercise. The food has improved greatly since we were here a year ago. The scenery and ambiance remain as fun as we remembered them.

The approach to Little Jim’s shows it to be a simple, small marina, with this as the only amenity beyond docks.

And last night we had an absolutely fabulous evening at the home of Chris and Alyse Caldwell, but forgot our camera, so only have a photo of them from last year.  They invited us to their very lovely home situated on an small pond out in the country near Vero Beach. We had appetizers on the dock (and fed the fish and turtles), followed by an unbelievable 3-course dinner, then dessert. Oh, and wine. Those folks from New Orleans sure know how to cook! And they even know how to serve food in a beautiful presentation, making it more special. Multi-talented folks, these two!