April 15, 2007 Lake Worth, FL (north of West Palm Beach)

Rickshaw has left the Palm Beach Yacht Center boat yard! We are now anchored in Lake Worth, which is north of PBYC and the main departure point for the northern Bahamas. After 9 weeks of repairs, we are finally on our way again. It has been a long wait but the boat is in better condition than ever and we are thrilled to be back on the water. While we wish this hadn’t happened in the first place, we were very, very lucky to have been in the care of a fantastic, competent and caring team of professionals at PBYC. We will always count them as friends. We have a request into the Coast Guard for information on what obstruction they may have found which caused the damage. We’ll let you know as soon as we know!

Our original plan was to find a buddy boat here in Lake Worth and cross over to the Bahamas. But due to the amount of time we lost and the weather conditions here for the next several days, we decided to head south to the Keys instead. Plan B isn’t a bad thing, in fact, we are both looking forward to it. We just don’t want to wait any longer to get ‘somewhere’! So, as our friend Capt. Norm says, tomorrow we are going to put the pointy end of the boat heading due south! The Bahamas will have to wait for a future trip.

As we post this, we are putting together some plans for the trip to the Keys. We’ll run down the ICW, through the exotic multi-million dollar area around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami … it is said this is a great trip … once. There are lots and lots of bridges to deal with, and narrow “no wake” zones, but it’s supposed to be worth it to see the mansions lining the ICW. Then we’ll probably stop in the Biscayne Bay area and sort out our next path. We’ve already decided we’ll run down the Atlantic curve of the Keys in Hawks Channel, as opposed to the Gulf side, since the latter is apparently very shallow and full of shoals.

Thanks for all of the support that we received during our ‘ordeal’ from friends and family. We also met some new friends, Bill and Ruth, who keep their boat in the same marina and watched over our boat during the 2 months we were back in NC. Ruth took some great pictures of us leaving the marina, which we really appreciate! We’ll update the blog as we make our way south.

Below we are starting to provision Rickshaw before we put her back in the water.

This is a look at the repaired propeller and rudder and of Paul, the yard manager, putting on the finishing touches .





Rickshaw on her way to the water...and finally, in the water. YEA!!!

Two very happy campers on their way again.

Leaving Palm Beach Yacht Center.

On our way to Lake Worth. It feels really good to be on the water. We both feel like we have to find our 'sea legs' again but that will happen quickly.

Sunset on Lake Worth after a day of lots of rain and very high winds and potential tornados. Tomorrow, on to calmer seas and winds. YEA!

February 18, 2007 Cary, NC

Rick and I decided to come back to Cary. There wasn’t anything more that we could do while Rickshaw is being repaired so home we went. It was about a 12 hour drive back from West Palm Beach, long but uneventful. We’ve hung around the house since we got back just getting over bad colds. We feel that Rickshaw is in good hands and that we will, hopefully, be back in Florida in a couple of weeks to continue our trip to the Bahamas.

Prior to Rickshaw being "grabbed" by something in the ICW near West Palm Beach, we had not had a chance to update the blog with our trip from Palm Coast, so we thought we'd add that now, along with a few pictures.

On our way from Palm Coast, we stayed in the Melbourne Marina which was great. Another cruiser took us to the grocery story and later we all ate at the local bar and grill, Ichabod’s. Our next stop was the Vero Beach anchorage where we tied up to a mooring ball for the first time. You have to take your $11 into the dock office so Rick got a ride in with a neighbor. Our last stop was the Lake Worth anchorage. Amazing houses and boats line both sides of the ICW. Here are some pictures of the trip. We have had so many dolphins swimming with us this trip, and we never tire of watching them.

Cormorants hanging out under the bridge.


The Melbourne FL Marina and Ichabod's restaurant.



These guys were putting new ICW signs up. Pretty high tech!
Rick's taxi ride to the dock house in the Vero Beach anchorage.

The Vero Beach anchorage in the morning.




A couple of the small mansions that we passed along the way.

This is a boathouse, really!!! The big house is behind the trees.

The shoreline at the Lake Worth Anchorage.

Working session! Yes, we actually have them. Local color.

Unloading fruit in West Palm Beach. Busy place.

Notice the jeep on the back of the little cruising boat we saw.

We'll update the blog when we hear more about Rickshaw's progress.

February 11, 2007 Boynton Beach, FL (south of Palm Beach)

Well, this is one blog entry we wish we didn’t have to make. I guess everyone has a bad day now and then and we had one on Friday. We were going down the ICW from Lake Worth to Pompano. It was a beautiful day and we were looking forward to being in a marina and getting our mail. About halfway there we were in the center of the ICW following in the wake of another large boat going our usual 8-9 miles an hour. We heard a loud, awful bang and the boat shuddered.

Rick ran down to check on the engine room and saw that we had water coming in. He came back up to try and determine what had happened. When he checked the engine room a second time he realized that we were in big trouble as the water was coming in fast. We put our life jackets on and Rick immediately radioed the Coast Guard with our position and told them we were taking on water. We were very, very lucky as we were about ¼ mile from a boat yard. Had there not been a boat yard close by (we learned the next closest one is about 1 ½ miles away) Rick was prepared to ground the boat in shallow water to avoid sinking. I’m so proud of him!!!

The Palm Beach Yacht Center, who had been listening, got on the radio and told us to try to make it in and that they would have a sling ready to get the boat out of the water. About 50 yards from the sling we realized we had no port propulsion but the port engine was still running. The boat yard guys were just great and jumped on boats near us, I threw them lines and they walked us in. They immediately got the boat out of the water and let it drain. We could then see that the entire shaft holding the propeller had been pulled out of the boat (which is where the water was getting in), the two struts holding it had been sheared off and the entire mechanism was hanging behind the boat. The rudder and post are also bent up about 30 degrees from vertical. The whole episode took about 15 minutes so the water, while it was frightening, didn’t get up to the engines or any other important operating parts and the there is no hull damage at all which is a wonderful thing.

Tomorrow, Monday, a surveyor will examine the boat and we’ll know better what the deal is. The yard manager estimated it could take 2-3 weeks to repair the old girl. In the meantime, the Coast Guard sent vessels searching for the obstruction. We don’t yet have their report. We were in 10 feet of water, right in the center of the channel where we were supposed to be. Our boat has a 4’7” draft which means it was a fairly sizable obstruction. Everyone figures it had to be something made of metal vs. a log, as it did such damage. One theory is a boat on the bottom from the many storms. Another is a channel marker that went down and was never removed (they have steel I-beams on the bottom holding them in place). We have also learned that in the last few months two other vessels have had their running gear damaged in the same vicinity.

In the grand scheme of things, we thank our lucky stars that no one was hurt and that the boat didn’t sink!! We lucked into a boat yard full of caring, helpful people. They couldn’t have been nicer to us.

As we post this, the boat is on the hard and plugged into power. We (Rick) spent the last 2 days cleaning the salt water out of the bilges and coating all metal surfaces with anti-corrosive spray. All in all, Rickshaw came out of this with a few dings but generally in good shape. We have a rental car and are staying in a Comfort Inn. We’ll figure out what we are going to do next after tomorrow, but one thing is for sure; we will ‘get back on that horse again’!! More later.


Rickshaw in the sling. Notice water draining from the port side.
Guys pulling the propeller and shaft out of the front strut where it was dangling.

The shaft with the sheared two aft struts (which hold it on the boat).

Putting Rickshaw on the hard. No damage to hull!!

Travel lift and operator which is operated by wireless remote control!

This is what the propeller and shaft are supposed to look like.

This is the damaged port side with no shaft or propeller. You can see the bent rudder post in the foreground.

Below is the prop and shaft assembly and then a close up of where it was snagged and peeled the metal back.

A look at the port rudder. You can see the starboard rudder behind it in its 'natural' state!!

Finally, here is a tired Captain washing down the bilges with a smile on his face.

January 25 – Feb 4, 2007

Palm Coast, FL, South of St. Augustine

We know we’ve been derelict in blogging, but we’ve actually been quite busy (for retired guys). We ran from St. Augustine down to Palm Coast on Thursday, Jan 25th to attend the DeFever (…our make of boat…) rendezvous. There were about 18 DeFever boats there and about 150 people. It was really fun to see them again and meet some new friends.

Our friends, Vicki and Norm, stayed with us on the boat for the event. They’ve just purchased a DeFever, but weren’t able to bring their boat. It was great having them stay with us, and of course lots of laughing and story telling.

The rendezvous was full of activities including seminars, boat visits and social gatherings, so we pretty much went at it from 7:00 in the morning to about 10:00PM. The culmination of the event was a great Monday night dinner party, with dancing, and lots of laughs. Here you see the four of us dressed somewhat above the usual boat attire of sweats and 't' shirts. The cool boas were compliments of Vicki.

The rendezvous alone was busy enough. Added to that, our aft (…read master stateroom…) head flat stopped working in St. Augustine, the morning before our guests arrived. This was not a good thing. Rick started to try to deal with it at anchor but quickly concluded a professional was needed. We called ahead to Palm Coast and got a recommendation for a marine services company. Short story, after about a day of problem determination, is that the vacuum pressure tank died … hence no mo’ workie. However, the marine services company waged wonders. A brand new tank was hand delivered to the boat by 2:00PM Friday, and our technician, Mike Radwansky from Half-Hitch Marine Services, shortly had it working. These guys really bent over backwards to help us, and it was good to have guests who understood boats.

Here are 5 DeFevers at the marina. You can just see Rickshaw's blue canopy beyond the others at the far end.

Yes, that IS a hot tub on that DeFever! (can you believe it?)

Daytona's bridges.

Titusville , FL across the water from the Kennedy Space Center.

We have been anchored out for a few days to catch up and plan the next part of trip. We originally thought that we would go to the west coast of Florida via Lake Okeechobee, and then down to the Keys. However, in studying the charts and with our timetable in mind, we decided to forgo that route and go south down the east coast of Florida and the keys. There are plenty of cool places to stop along the way, and either way we get to Key West to hang out for a while. We always have the Okeechobee as an option, before heading to the Bahamas, if there is time. We still plan to leave for the Abacos mid-March so we’ll see how it all works out.

It’s been rainy and windy since we got here … there were tornados north and south of us yesterday, but we just got more rain. We were running out of Doritos chips, so we made the command decision to go into town. We put the dingy in the water and ran over to the Municipal Docks and then walked to the local Save-a-Ton grocery store. They didn’t have Doritos, nor much of anything else, but we did get some more chocolate cookies.

These guys swam with us for a bit on the way.

New sign for us!

Below, in the background, is the Kennedy Space Center vehicle assembly building for the space shuttles before they take off.

When we pulled into the Titusville anchorage we picked a spot adjacent to a very serious looking work boat which had three giant steel pilings essentially on the bottom, with the rest of the boat suspended over the water. We thought it was some sort of dredging operation. Then yesterday, we saw a matronly lady in her red house coat, and white hard hat, helping deploy the dingy with a huge crane … this seemed a bit odd for a “dredge.” Later that day, the guy who took the dingy ashore swung by our boat on his way back and welcomed us to the neighborhood. I took the opportunity to ask him what he and his boat were doing. Surprisingly, he said they were “…hunting for Spanish Galleons …” and had put into Titusville to wait out the weather. So we are anchored next to genuine treasure hunters … what a life.

So, it’s Saturday afternoon as we write this, and it’s still blowing about 20 mph with occasional rain. We’ve been looking at each other wondering when the sun will come back out.

Tomorrow, Sunday Feb 4th is Lynnie’s birthday, so we’ll chill out and do some more trip planning. We’ll be leaving here on Monday morning…gotta watch the Super Bowl!!

January 22, 2007 St. Augustine, FL

We are just 25 miles from our destination for the Defever Rendezvous in Palm Coast, FL. We have traveled 575 miles. Since we don’t need to be there until Thursday, we are now anchored just south of the Bridge of Lions in historic St. Augustine for a few days. We had a pretty exciting day as a cold front came through and at times it was raining so hard that we could only see 100 yards in front of us, which would have been OK if not for bridges and other boats close by. It would also have been OK with us also if it wasn't raining inside of the canvas top where we were standing!


It rained off and on all day and now another shower has passed. We are back in sweats. Where is the sun and warm??

Storm coming over the boat.

St. Augustine Lighthouse.

View of the town from our anchorage. We plan to be here for another day and if the rain holds off to take the dingy in to walk around the town today.

This is the historic Bridge of Lions. Apparently, it was in need of repair and because it is historic they have built a temporary bridge beside it for the traffic and will rebuild the original bridge. Big project!

Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish fort dating back to 1672, taken from the water. And below, from the land.

West Gate to St. Augustine from the mid-1570's.

St. Augustine sunset.

LT driving the dingy to shore and St. Augustine architecture.