May-July 2021: The Keys, a Road Trip & a Move

By the first week of May we had finally made enough progress on Ghost Rider’s punch list to declare the boat ready for a much-anticipated trip down to the Florida Keys.  The final two items that we wanted to address were to fix the no-sound issue with the Fusion stereo system, and to get the Sirius/XM weather antenna working.

The XM Weather Feature is a Handy Complement to
Real Time Radar

The stereo issue was self-induced and related to the XM antenna issue; Rick had previously pulled out the Fusion’s master head unit in an earlier search for the XM antenna wire, and in the process disconnected every speaker wire – all 18 of them (2 for each of the 8 speakers, plus 2 more for the subwoofer.)  As it turned out, there wasn’t near enough slack provided in the speaker wiring, so the eventual fix was to buy some connection extenders from Radio Shack and patch them all back together.  And after a system software update, we finally got the XM antenna and weather package working.

 To the Florida Keys

 On Saturday, 15-May, we splashed Ghost Rider at Sanibel Harbor Yacht Club, loaded our gear and 20 pounds of ice for the frozen goods, and pointed the both south towards Marathon in the Florida Keys, about 120 nautical miles away. The weather forecast for the day was good – sunny, warm, not too humid, with easterly breezes and tolerable seas – and that turned out to be fairly accurate, with closely spaced two footers challenging the autopilot, but no bashing or hard landings.

Our inReach Track Down to the Florida Keys

We departed at 0935 and arrived at our rental property in Key Colony Beach (KCB) shortly after 1400, averaging 26 knots (30 MPH).  Before docking there, we topped off the gas & diesel fuel tanks at the nearby marina, then cleaned up the boat and ourselves.  Doug and Cat Cox arrived by car later in the afternoon and we had a fun and relaxing evening together. 

The next morning, Sunday, 16-May, the four of us departed our KCB dock around 1000 and headed south into the roiling seas of the Florida Straits.  The forecast wasn’t great, calling for easterly winds at 15 to 20 knots and seas in the five-to-seven-foot range, albeit with mostly sunny skies.  And that was all pretty much spot on, although temperatures were pleasant (mid-80’s) and humidity levels remained fairly low by south Florida standards.

Fish On!

After trolling close-in (150-to-250-foot depths just a few miles past the reef) with no strikes we ventured further out, and finally found fish in the 400 through 650-foot depths.  Within the first two hours we had four mahi in the fish box and were looking for more when we encountered a fault code for the starboard engine on the Yamaha CL7 (Command Link) electronic engine data screen.  The only anomaly we noticed was that engine would no longer respond when in single throttle mode, but otherwise continued to operate normally.  Nonetheless we opted to abort for the day and troubleshoot the issue in calm dockside conditions rather than 12 miles offshore in very lumpy water. 

Chelle, Doug & Cat During Trolling Operations

Eventually we were advised by our local Grady rep, Fred Granger, that the particular fault code (“164-135-12 Steering Wheel”) was nothing more than a software glitch in the Helm Master system, triggered by a voltage variation; as Fred suggested, a sequenced power-down and restart cleared the error and we never saw it again.

 On Monday, 17-May we were back out there, this time from 1000 to 1500, put eight more nice Mahi in the box, but also encountered quite a few “shorts” that didn’t quite meet the 20 inch minimum from nose to fork, and got tossed back in to fight another day.  Seas varied from five-to-eight feet as we worked the 400 through 650-foot depths again.  On Tuesday, 18-May, the forecast (and reality) was worsening a bit, with seas at six-to-eight feet, but we still managed to bring in six more Mahi of legal size. 

Doug & Chelle with Six Decent Dorados (Mahi)
Back at the Dock

By Wednesday, 19-May the wind and sea conditions had gone from bad to worse, with gusts up to 25 knots and waves reaching 11 feet.  We decided it was a good time to take a down day and just tinker with the boat a bit – that consisted mainly of putting some things back in place that had relocated themselves during the previous three days of bouncing around in the Florida Straits.  A three-by-six ceiling panel in the forward cabin was the main focus, as the factory’s “snap-in” design couldn’t withstand the pounding, which we remediated by drilling holes for ten stainless steel screws.  The new Rupp outriggers also had to be torqued down a lot tighter to keep them from rotating out of the deployed fishing position in the rough and windy conditions.

Ghost Rider Dockside at Our Marathon Digs

When we saw the updated forecasts for Thursday and Friday, we decided we were done fishing for the week….8-to-12-foot seas were simply more than we cared to mess with.  So, on Thursday, 20-May, we piled into Doug’s pickup truck, drove to Key West, enjoyed an excellent lunch at Fogarty’s on Duval Street (LINK), and generally just messed around the eclectic waterfront attractions amidst other touristas and the local conchs.  We used Friday, 21-May to prepare for the next day’s scheduled departure back to our respective homes – repacking suitcases, clearing out the food stores in the kitchen, divvying up all the fish filets, and stowing all the fishing gear. 

The Rental House at Key Colony Beach in Marathon...Plenty of Room for Four

A Cumulative Track Record of Where We Fished Off the Keys

Back to Fort Myers

On the morning of Saturday, 22-May we finished loading the boat and were underway by 0900, heading back home.  It was sunny and warm again, but still breezy with brisk winds out of the east.  While the ride wasn’t as rough as we experienced in the Florida Straits during the week, we encountered fairly sloppy conditions in Florida Bay until we got north of the Cape Romano Shoals near Marco Island.  From there we hugged the coastline all the way to Fort Myers for a much smoother second-half ride, arriving back at Sanibel Harbor by 1415.

The boat was a salty mess but otherwise in pretty good shape considering the pounding to which we had subjected it over the past week.  The only real punch list item added was the Sirius/XM weather functionality, which had disappeared completely from the electronics display.  We suspect some cabling got dislodged in all the banging around, but we’ll deal with that later.

Road Trip!

In late May we launched the land yacht and started a long road trip.  Finally feeling some freedom from Covid (but not near enough to fly commercially) we made stops in Atlanta, Ga; St. Louis, Mo; Quincy, Il; and Yukon, Ok.  It was nearly 4,000 miles of driving, but it was fabulous to see and hug our (vaccinated) friends and family.  It had been too long.

We Stayed with Friends Cal & Kara at Their Place East of Atlanta.  No, They Don't Run
a Resort, but It Sure Looked & Felt Like One.

In St. Louis We Enjoyed Some Long Overdue Time with the Grandkids.  Rick Discovered
that Grandson Danny Can Now Kick His Butt at Golf.

Back to Fort Myers…and a Move

By the time July rolled around we had sold the condo, bought a house and made the move from the former to the latter.  Both the sale and the purchase included furniture, so overall it wasn’t too painful, especially since the move was just two miles downriver. While the condo had served us well during the years of extended traveling on our Nordhavn, it was time for a bit more privacy and quiet, as well as our own pool and a boat lift for the Grady….at our very own dock.

While it’s an older home (circa ’75) it has been cared for meticulously and updated over time, and will be more amenable to visits from family and friends.  But Rick says it’s our last move.

Ghost Rider Parked Comfortably at the Dock at Our New Digs

Upcoming

We’re coming up on the heart of hurricane season (and another Covid surge here, courtesy of the chronically clueless), so for the near term we’ll be sticking close to home and taking a blog break.  We need to arrange for a new, beefier boat lift to handle the heft of the big Grady, and hopefully get a whole-house generator installed, assuming we can find space for it and the large propane fuel tank it would require (TBD).

But we’re also in the process of planning for some interesting boat sorties next year, including the Southern Loop in May, back to the Bahamas in June, and another week of Keys fishing in July.  And hopefully more.  So eventually we’ll have more maritime merriment on which to report, so stay tuned. 

It's a Modest 3-3-2, and Yeah, We Paid WAY Too Much

Back to Waterfront Living with Our Own Private Spaces

Chelle Calls This Room Rick's 'Man Cave'

Mar-Apr 2021: Sorting Out the Grady

Due in no small part to the pandemic, finding both quality boats and places to store them is challenging these days.  And the same is true for scheduling qualified technicians for service.  Eventually, though, we found one to help us figure out the battery charger issue…it was indeed a faulty main board throwing faults, so we replaced the unit with a new ProNautic 1250P.  That finally allowed us to begin using the boat without worrying about dragging down the expensive AGM battery banks.

The Battery Charger, Although Elevated, Lives in the Bilge
Area, Not Conducive to Long Life for Electronics

 Pursuing the Punch List

So, between Thursday, 25-March and Monday, 26-April, we sortied the boat six times, sometimes to a nearby marina, and occasionally to one of our favorite protected anchorages.  We mixed relaxation with work on the Ghost Rider’s punch list.  Stopovers included Salty Sam’s Marina for a weekend, Pink Shell Marina (both in the vicinity of Fort Myers Beach), Boca Grande Marina on Gasparilla, and several times at anchor off of Shell Point near the infamous “Miserable Mile”.  Typical of southwest Florida this time of year, our weather was spectacular – clear, sunny and pleasantly warm, but with refreshing breezes.

Unsecured Vertical Water
Pipes Eventually Will Work
Loose & Leak

Our to-do list items ranged from the very mundane – applying missing trash and oil placards required by the USCG, entering our new MMSI number into the VHF radio – to remediating some of the survey deficiency findings and bolting on new fishing gear.  Chelle also kept quite busy trying to figure out storage options on a boat that was decidedly less cavernous than our previous Nordhavns.

After the battery charger resolution, the first maintenance project was trying to figure out why the boat’s fresh water pump would run intermittently; that typically is either due to a bad pressure switch in the pump or an actual water leak somewhere.  It turned out to be the latter….a rather significant leak at the cockpit shower near the transom, where the hot water PEX pipe joins to a terminating “push-fit” connector.  It was a relatively easy fix.

Rick also got a few more minor survey issues remediated – removing and re-bedding a stainless base plate for the port side boarding gate, repairing its hinge pin, and replacing a slew of plated steel screws on some maintenance panels with stainless ones to avoid future rust issues.  We also mounted four more rod holders – two in the bow section and two more on the transom – to beef up our rod storage capabilities, which were sorely lacking.  And we spent an inordinate amount of time applying the required USCG boat name and hailing port decals to the transom – that’s usually a job we leave to detailing experts but our DIY efforts turned out well enough.  

The Survey Had Found Elevated Moisture Beneath the Boarding Gate's Base Plate.  While There is No Wood in this Boat, We Still Removed and Re-bedded the Plate & Securing Screws

The Boat's New Name Decal and Two Extra Rod Holders

On multiple occasions over this time period Rick spent considerable time trying to get the boat’s Garmin devices configured to work with the companion “Active Captain” phone app.  That’s now Garmin’s preferred method for uploading updates for system software, charts, user routes and waypoints, along with the Active Captain POI databases.  But it’s buggy, lacks anything resembling adequate error-handling, and at best only works intermittently and unpredictably.  It’s likely that we will revert to the old method of shuffling microSD cards for the foreseeable future.

Concurrently we also began the installation of a pair of telescoping outriggers.  After researching we decided on a pair of Rupp’s “Top Gun” rigger bases with 18 foot polished aluminum poles, which will provide a nice spread of trolling lines when we go hunting for mahi and tuna.  Ghost Rider’s hardtop was preconfigured to accept such equipment, but it still required drilling all the holes in the hardtop (took most of one afternoon), mounting and bedding the rotating bases (another afternoon), then installing the telescoping poles and rigging kits (a third day.)

Drilling the Thru-Holes in the Hard Top for the Outrigger Mounts is No Fun.  It's Very Thick.

The Starboard Side Outrigger Following an Arduous Installation Process.

Lastly we had to address a couple of HVAC issues from the survey.  One of those was a port-side A/C condensate hose that for some reason had been cut short and left dangling well short of the bilge.  We managed to extend and route that properly with the help of a technician from Felix Marine.  In the same area we also encountered an odd water leak seeping from the insulation of a duct hose; even the A/C tech was scratching his head on that one.  For now we decided to drain and dry the soaked insulation, secure the hose run in a higher and more horizontal fashion, and install an underlying drain pan.  It may later require additional surgery.

This is Inside the Port Side Service Panel Where We Extended a Condensate Hose, Taped Up
an A/C Duct to Run More Horizontally (Yellow Arrow) and Added a Drain Pan
(the Green Arrow)....More of a Diagnostic Move Than a Permanent Fix.

 Amidst all the punch list efforts we mixed in some relaxation outings as well.  On one we headed north about 40 miles to Charlotte Harbor to rendezvous with our good friends, Dan & Cher Clark, for a brief two hour “raft up”.  We had not seen them in over a year, so we bobbed at anchor together, ate lunch and caught up on all the small things we had been missing.  Afterwards while heading back south, we stopped off at the private docks on Three Sisters Island so Chelle could get some stick time with docking practice in the new boat; she’ll be an ace in no time. 

Getting Ready to Drop the Anchor for Our Raft-Up in Charlotte Harbor.  Thanks to Dan & Cher
for Taking the Pic as We Approached Their Boat.

In early April we were treated to a visit from good friends Tim & Sigrid Gehrig, who were vacationing in south Florida to escape Atlanta for a week.  Still blessed with excellent weather, we decided that a boat outing would be a good venue for entertaining and catching up.  We cruised south to Fort Myers Beach and Pink Shell Marina for a long lunch, then north to a quiet cove to drop the anchor and let their son, Sven, try his hand at casting and fishing.  No fish were caught but neither was anyone snagged by a hook during the casting lessons, so it was a good day.

Rick & Sven Rigging the Fishing Pole

A week after that we took a run up to Boca Grande Marina on Gasparilla Island.  Chelle had invited three of her golfing gal pals for a boat outing, lunch and some shopping.  The weather was again nearly perfect, and it gave Rick more time to curse at the Active Captain software.

Brief Boat Break & Fly Time

From 30-March to 01-April we took a break from the boat with a road trip to Kissimme and St. Pete.  There we hooked up with good friends Mike and Mari Zimet (Nordhavn 57, Mari Mi), and Martin and Stephanie Morris (Nordhavn 60, Blossom.)  Mike and Rick took the opportunity to check off a bucket list item that every pilot yearns for – some Warbird stick time in a T-6 Texan (LINK).  The Kissimmee Gateway Airport is home to Warbird Adventures (LINK) where they maintain two vintage T-6’s and one P-40 Warhawk, legendary aircraft from the WWII era.  Rick’s father had learned to fly in the T-6 back in 1942 before deploying to the Pacific Theater, and he was absolutely jazzed about strapping into one them for some yank-and-bank time.

Taxi operations in a tail dragger – which Rick had not previously flown – is interesting since you cannot see the centerline over the engine cowling.  Thus you must zig and zag and look out each side of the cockpit while en route to the hold line….in other words, you need to taxi the aircraft like a drunk driver.  But the tailwheel steering in the T-6 is very precise and responsive. 

Rick Flying the T-6 in the Left Wing Slot.  Nice Pic Taken by Mike from the Lead Aircraft.

Mike, a former Navy pilot himself, had talked the Warbird instructors into letting the boys fly two-ship formation before splitting off into separate areas for aerobatic maneuvers.   Just after the two-ship wing takeoff Rick took the controls, got a quick feel for the stick and rudder controls and tucked the Texan into the wing position.  (You know you’re flying close enough when the lead pilot’s eyeballs look really big.)  After a while the lead/wing positions were swapped, with Rick taking the lead and Mike taking the wing slot.  Shortly thereafter the two aircraft split off into separate practice areas for some solo rolls, loops, wingovers, barrel rolls, Cuban-8 and reverse Cuban-8’s. 

When pushing over to gain maneuvering airspeed (known as building up “smash” in pilot slang, generally 170 to 180 knots in the Texan), one had to be careful to avoid less than positive G-forces else the engine would sputter, and on one occasion when pulling out at the bottom of a loop we encountered slight wing buffeting on the edge of an aerodynamic stall.  Recovery was easy by just briefly unloading the stick – the aircraft is very well-mannered and eminently predictable.  After over an hour of aggressive maneuvering we were close to bingo fuel so it was time to RTB. 

Overall it was an absolute blast, and it was easy to see why the T-6 Texan was also nicknamed the “pilot maker.”  Here are a couple of YouTube video links from the flight; best to skip through them, we were up there for a while:

Flying the T-6 Warbird....(YouTube) Part 1

Flying the T-6 Warbird....(YouTube) Part 2

And here's a short video clip of Mike "Maverick" Zimet after his sortie:

Rick & Mike After They Once Again Had Defied Gravity & Death

 Back to Boat Stuff

The next couple of weeks will be all about final preparations for our upcoming fishing trip to the Florida Keys in mid-May.  Having adequate fishing gear won't be a problem, as good friends Doug & Cat Cox and Jim & Susan Hill will accompany us, and between them have enough fishing tackle supplies to equip every angler in Florida.  But there are a few more minor punch list items requiring attention, one of which is to remediate the boat's Fusion stereo system which has suddenly stopped producing any sound whatsoever.  We need music while we're hunting mahi-mahi.  More later. 

Mari & Chelle at Happy Hour in Kissimmee

Grilling Brats on the Boat at Salty Sam's Marina

Afterword:  Both of us are now fully vaccinated (via Moderna.)  As good as that feels, it doesn’t mean much until / unless the rest of the planet’s population follows up, else we’ll be playing whack-a-mole with mutant variants and repeating vicious cycles. If you haven’t already, go get poked.  There are lots of excuses not to, and none of them are good ones.

Jan-Mar 2021: Sold the Nordy, Bought a Grady

We concluded our previous blog entry in December with this:  With the arrival of December and south Florida’s version of winter, we’re now at a point where we may start contemplating what Rick calls “a different kind of boat.”

 Selling a Boat

Well, it all happened rather quickly.  Just a few days after discussing the potential sale of the Nordhavn with our broker, Jeff Merrill of JMYS (LINK), he brought us a very committed buyer.  The boat never even got formally listed.  Following two full days of surveys and sea trials in mid-January, the sale of N5021 Ghost Rider closed on 05-February, 2021.  After five and a half years, an ocean crossing, and over 10,000 nautical miles of Nordhavn “trawlering”, we had begun to miss the more casual ad-hoc boating and fishing style of earlier days.  And between the two of us we had developed three bad knees that were beginning to complain with pain. 

N5021, Ghost Rider, Getting Hauled out for the Survey

So, it was time to move on to a boat that didn’t have as many steps and levels, and which provided more southwest Florida flexibility.  But before describing what that looks like further below (hint: it looks a lot like our boats from 2005 to 2015), we first extend our very best wishes to the new owners of hull #21 of the Nordhavn 50 line of trawlers, Scott and Heidi Smith.  They are approaching their retirement later this year and plan to live aboard and sail extensively along the west coast of the US and Mexico.  They are quite excited and enthusiastic to embark on their new adventure, and we know the former Ghost Rider – now named Mi Casa – is in great hands.  N5021 will get many more miles under her keel and plenty of TLC under their watch.  We wish them smooth seas, sunny skies and a fabulous retirement. 

On the Fly Bridge of N5021 After the Offshore Closing:  Heidi on the Left, Scott on the Right, and
John Hoffman of the JMYS Brokerage in the Middle.

Buying a Boat

Over these past couple of months, we had been hunting for our next ride, focusing on an express style cabin boat in the 30-to-36-foot range, designed for both cruising and fishing, and with outboard power.  We first sea trialed an Edgewater 33 over in Palm Beach, and liked what we saw in terms of style and quality.  Powered by a pair of Yamaha 350 4-stroke engines, and built like a tank, it felt just a tad sluggish but handled a very sloppy mess out in the open Atlantic with ease. 

We also traveled to Key Largo to view and test drive an Everglades 36 with triple Yamaha 300 4-strokes; that, too, was a high-quality boat and handled exceptionally well.  Unfortunately, its cockpit configuration was set up more for entertaining, was a bit short on headroom in the cabin, and wasn’t particularly conducive to our fishing plans, so we passed on that.

Finally, we went back to our Grady-White roots and tested out a late model 330 Express that had a pair of Yamaha 425’s hanging off the back….and fell in love with that.  But good boats are going fast these days, and that one got gobbled up before we could make an offer.  Fortunately, we found another a short time later, and it was loaded with almost every option the factory offered.  Ultimately, after a smooth survey and sea trial, we closed on that on Monday, 01-March. 

The New Ghost Rider, a 2019 Grady-White 330 Express

Moving the New Boat

Unfortunately, our new-to-us boat was located in Ponte Vedra Beach on the east coast of Florida (near Jacksonville), which resulted in a 400-mile shakedown cruise to get the new Ghost Rider to our home base in Fort Myers.  So, on Tuesday, 02-March we splashed the boat around 1100 and began the trek south.

The weather was lousy – a cold front had moved through the area the night before, dropping temps into the upper 50’s, with rain showers and a brisk north wind…which also churned up the Atlantic into a frothy mess.  Busting through seas forecasted at seven feet wasn’t an appealing prospect, so we decided to take the inside ICW route.  We kept our first day short, going only about 70 miles to Halifax Harbor Marina in the Daytona area.  There we topped off the fuel tanks, reset the trip computer (it’s WAY more accurate than any fuel gauge) and tied up on a T-dock for a relaxing stopover.  While we still had grey skies and cool temps, the rain had finally stopped.

Leaving Ponte Vedra & Heading South on the ICW on a Cool & Rainy Day

Any experienced boater will tell you that a shakedown cruise is actually a breakdown cruise, and accordingly on the morning of Wednesday, 03-March we were greeted by nearly-dead starting batteries for the starboard engine.  Since we had a long 170 mile run to Stuart ahead of us, we decided to just join both battery banks together to start the #2 engine and get underway at 0900, delaying the troubleshooting until that evening.

Skies had cleared and temps has warmed considerably, but with some very long stretches of go-slow zones on this leg (we got passed by several dolphins), we didn’t arrive at Pirate’s Cove Marina in Stuart until 1700.  After situating the boat with a quick washdown and topping off the fresh water tank, Rick went to work on the battery issue.  All four AGM’s had stayed at normal charge levels throughout the day, suggesting that the engine-driven alternators and the batteries were not the issue.  A quick glance at the onboard battery charger revealed the problem: its red “Fault” and “Reverse Polarity” LEDs were glowing brightly, and the unit would not respond to the reset button. Since the device had checked out fine on the survey, and we verified our AC power connection was of the correct polarity, we were fairly certain a circuit board had gone wonky over the last 48 hours.

Our Route From Ponte Vedra to Fort Myers.  The Red Line is the First Day's Path When the inReach
Tracking Device Refused to Track.  The Blue Lines are Actual Tracks Following a Reset-Reboot
of the Misbehaving inReach Unit.

With prudent DC power conservation overnight (lots of flashlight usage) the batteries retained enough juice to provide normal start operations the next morning, Thursday, 04-March.  We were underway by 0815, with a plan to cross the state via the Okeechobee Waterway (Lake O) and reach Legacy Harbour in Fort Myers before sunset. While morning temps were still cool (jacket weather) winds were light under partly cloudy skies.  We reached the first lock – St. Lucie – at 0930….and we were still there at 1145.  So much for the day’s planned schedule. 

 With its 14 feet of level change, passing through the St. Lucie lock is never a quick process, but there was a lot of dredging going on just east of that lock, and the barges got prioritized over all recreational traffic.  So we sat dormant for several lock cycles before finally locking through.  The only bright side to that frustrating morning was that the Yamaha Helm Master’s fly-by-wire “Stay Point” feature got thoroughly tested, and it worked well; just stab that button on the joystick and the computer-controlled engines automagically hold a position for you. 

Locking Through St. Lucie

There were a few more, although less onerous, delays at the next three locks, and in between a very sloppy Lake Okeechobee gave the Grady a chance to show off its rough water capabilities (holding a steady 30 MPH / 26 knots, albeit with lots of trim tab deflection.)  But even the Grady’s power and speed couldn’t compensate for the lost time at the first lock; that long delay meant we would be about 15 minutes late for the last lock-through time of 1630 for the final Franklin lock facility.  And that meant we would not make it to Fort Myers until the next day. 

Of course, that also resulted in a mad scramble to find a place to park the boat for the night.  Marina facilities are scarce along that particular stretch of the waterway, but eventually Michelle found a vacant slip at the LaBelle City Docks.  While far from fancy – no finger pier, no 50 amp power, no shore facilities – the price was right (free.)  We had to park Ghost Rider bow-in because of skinny depths at the shoreline, and then get creative with the dock lines, but we made it work.  We also had to run the genset all night for AC power, but overall it sure beat trying to anchor in a dark and narrow ICW channel. 

Tied Up at the LaBelle City Docks Along the Okeechobee Waterway

We awoke to bright sunshine, light breezes and warming temps on Friday, 05-March, tossed off the lines around 0830 and continued west towards the final lock and then Fort Myers.  We decided to stop at Calusa Jack’s cozy little transient marina for fuel, and enjoyed a conversation with the attendant and his two parrots, Billy and Nauti while pumping in 245 gallons.  After enduring several more lengthy no-wake zones (it’s manatee season in south Florida) eventually we made it to our new home port, Sanibel Harbor Yacht Club (SHYC LINK), at the eastern end of the Sanibel Causeway just after high noon. 

We Stopped at Calusa Jack's Small Marina (Fuel Dock) to Top Off Tanks and Have a Chat with
the Parrots Billy & Nauti (the One Hanging Out on Chelle's Arm.)

We chose SHYC for several reasons, one of which was every other yard within a hundred miles was at capacity and with long waiting lists.  But their hurricane rated storage barn, proximity to the Gulf, similar proximity to our condo (10 minutes), and broad range of quality splash, concierge and maintenance services also checked all the right boxes.  Javier, the yard manager, and his crew forklifted the boat and spent about an hour fitting the storage barn bunks to Ghost Rider’s hull.  In the interim, our good friends, Jim & Susan Hill, ferried Chelle back to our condo to pick up our SUV, and then we spent another hour transferring all our gear from boat to car.  It was good to be home.

The New Ghost Rider Getting Forklifted at Sanibel Harbor Yacht Club

About the ‘New’ Boat

This is our third Grady-White, although at 33.5 feet long (more with the outboard engines & bow pulpit) it’s the biggest of those.  There is one aspect of this vessel that Rick is not wild about, and that’s the blue hull….down here in south Florida, that will be prone to fading in the hot sun, and it retains heat; we’ll eventually find out how well the air conditioning works.  But Michelle loves it, and that was the end of that discussion.

The original owner had tricked it out with every option but one.  The options list includes: a motorized sunshade for the cockpit area; an electric sunroof above the helm area; air conditioning for the helm as well as the cabin berth; an electric grill in the cockpit area; refrigerated chill plates for the big fish box at the stern and a for a cooler under the port side passenger seat.  The boat also sports custom SeaDek flooring on all exterior decks (LINK).  The one option it is missing is outriggers, which Rick is already planning to add. 

The Big Forklift About to Insert the Big Grady into its Slot in the Barn.

For propulsion power it sports a pair of Yamaha’s latest and largest outboard engines, a pair of 4-cycle, 8-cylinder 425 HP beasts.  Standard power on the 330 Express is a pair F350’s, but Rick wanted to avoid those given their history of flywheel issues.  (Yamaha gave up trying to correct that issue and now just installs new flywheels on them at no charge at regular maintenance intervals.  But we did not want that hassle.)  The 425 XTO 4-stroke engine is all fly-by-wire, and that includes both the throttles and the steering – there is no helm pump, and no hydraulic lines between the wheel and the motors.  That, in turn, enables the use of joystick steering via Yamaha’s “Helm Master” control suite, with independent movement of each engine.  That enables very precise close-quarters maneuvering capability without the use of a bow thruster, as well as the aforementioned “Stay Point” feature.

The nav/comm equipment, however, is pretty average consumer-grade Garmin gear.  The 8616 MFD is serviceable, and the additional CL7 display provides some redundancy, but in typical Garmin fashion it’s all touch screen, and you are subjected to “death-by-layered-menus” to do anything other than basic navigation.  It does, however, integrate very nicely with the Garmin autopilot (GHC 20 control head with Reactor 40 computer.)  The VHF is also a Garmin device (a 215 model) with GPS and (theoretically) AIS…the latter has yet to be tested; regardless, it’s the lowest of low-end VHF options on the market, and hopefully will eventually become just a backup to a higher quality radio.  Finally, there is a Garmin Fantom 24 dome radar on the hardtop; after considerable tuning it seemed capable.  The network backbone is all NMEA 2000, and that also interconnects with a Fusion sound system. 

Sanibel Harbor Yacht Club

It all works well enough for coastal cruising, offshore fishing and occasional trips to the Bahamas.  But If any of the Garmin stuff ever dies, Rick will be happy to rip it out and install come commercial-grade Furuno gear.

Punch List?

Oh yes, there’s always a punch list, even on a lightly used two-year old vessel.  The main item right now is getting the battery charger replaced, and we’ve got a new unit on order.  The survey produced a relatively short list of more minor infractions that need to be remediated, and we’ll have more on that in the next blog post.  A pair of outriggers are also high on the list, along with a Sirius/XM weather overlay for the chart plotter.

What’s Next?

Once we get this boat reconfigured, our goals are more frequent sorties, including coastal cruising, marina hopping and fishing trips.  We’ve targeted mid-May for the first journey back down to the Florida Keys and a week-long stay in the Marathon area for some serious dolphin and tuna trolling excursions.  The summer season cruising plans will, of course, be gated at least partially by how active the hurricane season gets (likely to be another active one), but there’s plenty of time to figure that out later.  Stay tuned.

Chelle Relaxes in the Spacious Helm Area While Docked at LaBelle

Afterword:  After the recent reminder that American democracy is still very much an experiment and still quite fragile…shouldn’t we try a little harder not to fuck it up?  Mask up & get your shots, we're not out of the woods just yet.