I made the sailboat into a Live-aboard dive boat.

Day 2: At anchor beside Ft. Lauderdale

We are scheduled to depart tonight (Friday) at midnight for crossing the Gulf Stream to West End, Grand Bahama Island.  Yesterday we had a minor situation occur with the propulsion on the boat.  When we 'tried' to increase the speed, the throttle would not cause the engine to rev up.  (it was not working right) instead of our usual 7 knots of speed, we could only get about 5 knots.  Plus there was a 'distinct vibration'.  I was unsure if it was the engine, the transmission, the throttle linkage, or Pirates?

We called everyone we knew to get opinions.  Rod said to check the belt to the alternator, check.  Make sure you have the correct amount of transmission fluid, check.  Look at the grease zirt on the rear bearing, check.  Then Diesel Don - from Marathon of the new transmission circa Dec 2016 - said, "dive under the boat and see if it's something wrapped around your prop."  (Even Gary Last said he had picked up a burlap bag on his prop once and had the same problem)  So, yesterday at 7:30am I put on my scuba gear and dove down to find NOTHING on the prop.  Except about an inch of growth and barnacles....   Grab a paint scraper and about 20 minutes of chipping to get a clean prop and we are now back to full power with more extra revving RPM's if needed.  Great sigh of relief.

Today Rick and I are doing some last minute / all day preparations before departure tonight.  (i see a nap in there somewhere!)  Rick is up in the cockpit working on fishing gear and i'm about to start fastening down the 5 tubs of food (to last 3 months?) down in the salon to keep them from unloading themselves all over the boat should we encounter some waves offshore.

Fishing line wig

All is well here on my Live-aboard Dive Boat!             Have a great day wherever YOU are anchored.

-Peg Leg Pirate Skip

ps.  last night we anchored just North of the Ft. Lauderdale bridge.  (see the SPOT button in the right hand column)  Surrounded by multi million dollar homes.  Ahhh it made for a very sweet cockpit shower ala Frenchman style.