Still in northern Florida. Still in the boatyard. Still waiting for our engine work to finally be done.

But we are hopeful, happy and surrounded by great friends. It has been a joyful holiday season for us.

To make it even better, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel for our engine work. Yay! All of the major components that were removed from the engine by our mechanic have been assessed and are being fixed up and made new, or replaced. Phew! This was the nerve-wracking part for us. Throughout this engine drama, we have been plagued by issues of parts being back ordered, or, even worse, parts that they just don’t make anymore. This is normal in the boating world. Even though Wild Horses is a 2002 boat (she is “old” but not ooooooolllddd), getting parts has been an adventure. Days and weeks have been spent by our mechanic’s office, searching for parts amongst their vendors and, when that failed, we did our own dives into google and Facebook to find all the right parts that will fit our 63D Westerbeke engine.
​
This past week, just before Christmas, we got there. Every part of the engine, propellor, transmission and rudder has been reconditioned and is now awaiting reassembly. Plus, everything we need is ordered and should arrive in early January. We don’t have a date for the engine rebuild yet but we are hopeful for mid-January.

To celebrate our success, we decided to take a couple of days away from the boat yard and explore Cocoa Beach, about a two-hour drive south of us. There, we met up with our friend Steve from the boat "Lola". He left the Green Cove Springs Marina boat yard on Lola at the end of November and has been working his way south through the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). He is now positioned at West Palm Beach to do the crossing over to the Bahamas. Unfortunately, the weather has been terrible for anyone trying to make that leap over the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream is shallow and has a strong 4 to 5 knot current pushing north. For a good crossing, it is recommended that you have winds less than 15 knots without a northerly component. In the worst conditions, you can get square waves aimed directly at your bow that can be terribly uncomfortable and even dangerous. Add elevated sea heights to that and you definitely have a mix of conditions that will stop even the saltiest of sailors in their tracks.

On the way back to Wild horses, we decided to make a quick stop in at New Smyrna Beach. We heard good things about this Florida coastal town from our good friend Denys (who, incidentally was also the previous owner of Wild Horses so we know he has great taste 😊). Thank you Denys!

So, as we see 2024 come to a close, we are feeling pretty good. Not only is our engine work on the boat going extremely well, the rest of our boat work is also getting finished at a rapid rate. We are feeling pretty good about our dear Wild Horses.

And, we have met so many new sailing friends. It has been a pleasure to spend the holidays with them. They are all headed to the Bahamas sometime in January so it will be extra rewarding when we get to spend time with them on the water, at the beach and maybe even over dinner and drinks in the Bahamas, as we celebrate our boat successes and travels. 😊
​
There is so much to look forward to in 2025! Happy Holidays!

​It is now December and Northeast Florida is dealing with an early cold spell. Our days peak at 15 degrees Celsius and our nights are dropping to a very chilly 0 degrees. Boats have no insulation and are not air tight so the chilly nights really cool down the hull and the deck. The cold air seeps in through any slight opening and whispers its way across our floorboards, giving them an icy feel. Without our little ceramic space heater and our down duvet, we would be freezing. Not good! I praise our space heater often!

Even though it is very cool (for Florida), we have several things to be thankful for. There has been very little rain and very little wind. This makes it so much easier to be cozy, whether we are in the boat or making those late evening walks to the yard bathroom. Also nice is that the sunny days really heat up everything so we are able to throw off our jackets and toques as we work on the boat.
​
And there is lots of work to be done! Our main project, of course, is the boat engine. When the engine was disassembled by our mechanic, that was only the beginning of the real work to be done. Even though most of the parts were ordered over the summer, our engine repair has grown to include the transmission, the muffler and the rudder so a few new parts were required. We are also having existing parts tested, cleaned up and repainted. Other parts, like the prop shaft, are being milled back to true (it had small wear etchings from use over 22 years). There are a lot of phone calls, emails and google searches as we search for parts or services. The good news is that, so far, we have no show stoppers. The bad news is that it is a slooooooooow process.

In between the calls and the emails and the waiting, are we twiddling our thumbs? Hell no! This has been the perfect opportunity to break out our long “to do when we have a spare moment” list.

• The bottom of the hull is getting sanded to remove the barnacle rings and then we will give it a fresh coat of bottom paint. This is a project we have to work around the weather to get done.
• The hull and decks are getting waxed and any imperfections are getting fixed up.
• Our teak toe rails have dried out from the salt and sun, causing them to crack in a few spots. Mike is fixing the cracks and sanding them down to new. And then we are going to give them a fresh moisture bath with Howard’s Sunshield, a wood conditioner and UV Protectant.
• We are replacing all of our Genoa fairleads (deck hardware) that became fragile from sun and salt over the last few years.
• We have repaired a few of our stanchions that were slightly bent from a wayward docking in the Dominican Republic.
• Mike fixed our leaking high pressure overflow valve for our hot water heater. Woo hoo we have hot water! Very important with these chilly nights!
• The edging around our salon windows had degraded over time so I cleaned and sanded them up to new.
• I have cleaned the engine block and will be priming and painting it back to its beautiful Westerbeke red colour.
• We repaired one of our pantry lids that had been lying askew for the last year.
• We are replacing and repairing our anchor bow roller and getting our anchor guard milled back to true.
• And we finally found a locksmith who could make us new spare keys for our companionway lock. For some reason, it has a specialty lock and finding someone who could create the required custom keys for us has been a real journey. But we found him! Yay!

​What else are we doing? Exploring the area and getting in lots of hikes. There are some great state parks and trails around us and it has been a real pleasure to take a break from our dirty dusty boatyard and breathe in the fresh air of the forests and the ocean.

​And even in the boatyard, the days are not too bad. Of course, it is very satisfying getting lots of boat work done but it is made even better sharing the joys and sorrows of boat work and boat living with our newfound friends in the boat yard. Although we are not where we would have chosen to be in December, we are exactly where we are supposed to be. And that is pretty all right 😊.