We really did get up around 7am and had a leisurely process
to ready the boat for sea. Lisa and
David, sweet hearts that they are, were up and helped us untie. I backed out and spun the boat around and
headed to the fuel dock 100 yards away where early riser Debbie helped us put
in a whopping 29 gallons of diesel.
That’s enough to get to Rodriguez Key and half way across the Gulf
Stream to Biminis .
After fueling, we gave up our cable box and bathroom cards
and off we went to Rodriquez Key This is
a popular spot for staging for a run to the Bahamas because it offers
protection for most wind except westerly.
And the prevailing winds down here tend to be for the east.
It was a rough going at first. The worst seemed to be down near the Marathon . As we
headed north the swells did down to all most calm.
 |
| Dropping the anchor |
We made it to the Key, spotted Just Faking It and anchored a
ways away from them and most of the other boats. I wanted to take advantage of the incoming
tide to make water. Well, test the water
maker, but optimism reigns here. So it
will be making water!
Its only about 6-7 feet deep here so we laid out about 50
feet of chain. And I dove on the anchor
in the 86 degree water. The anchor was
on its side with one fluke dug n but since it isn't going to be very windy and
all the chain tend to keep the anchor down, I left it alone. Which was a good thing because I couldn't
stay deep enough to fiddle with the 70 lbs. anchor without weights to keep me
un-buoyant.
 |
| That angular looking thnk is our anchor |
We talked with Jeff and Judy on the radio a bit and then I fired
up the generator which hadn’t been run for 2 months. A testament to the equipment we have. It fired right up.
We started the generator to run the water maker and take advantage of the incoming
tide as I mentioned before. This was all
about making water because I really don’t want to pay $0.75 a gallon for water
over there.
I took our bed off and opened up the boards so I could see
the water maker canisters. And then
fired it up. I let it run without much
pressure floor a few minutes and then cranked the pressure up to 200 psi.
Geysers! Leaks galore. I was able to stop most of them by tightening
down on the fittings but two wouldn’t succumb to my wrench. And my attempts simply exacerbated the leaks.
Lovely!
I shut the water maker down, went back and re-positioned the
hoses, tightened everything back up and re-started the water maker.
No leaks, Ran it up
to 400 psi. No leaks, Ok, so now comes the real test.
Cranked the pump up to 1,000 psi. No leaks, flipped the product water lever
from Test to Tank and the TDS was reading in the 450 range. We are making water!! Quite a relief!
I should explain the TDS (total dissolved solids) is a
device that monitors water coming out of the water maker. If its too high it would allow it to be routed
to the water tanks. Nifty little device.
So here are making water at 6pm in a lovely anchorage where
the ocean temperatures are in the mid 80’s and there is a nice ocean breeze. Hard to beat.
We leave tomorrow around 6:30AM for Biminis . Cant wait!
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