UPDATE: Round Peg – Square Hole –Cost ? Slightly Under $500

This episode is for the Guys who keep their vessels running by sacrificing the skin off their knuckles, their backs, their heads, the aches and pains associated with contorting their old bodies into shapes not designed for old bodies and all those bad words that have to be said to get the job done. In other words Ginny says this is Boring.

Ok, I’m pissed, Ginny’s pissed and we both have good reason. Mind you we are not pissed at each other, we are pissed at two different circulator pump suppliers who told us on the phone their pumps were manufactured as replacements for the pump that just failed on our Ford Lehman Diesel engine (after 29 years of great service).

Old Pump

The pump failed in a mild, non catastrophic way as the mechanical engineer designed it many years ago.  The pump in question circulates the antifreeze/coolant through the engine block in order to keep the operating temperature within the range designed for the engine. This pump is rotated by two belts that also operate the engine alternator as the shaft rotates. The common cause of failure is bearing and seal failure around the pump shaft which starts as minor leaking of antifreeze through the weep hole in the pump.  As the seal wears, more and more coolant leaks through the weep hole. Usually it’s a slow process that gives the observant owner or captain a warning prior to an event that compromises the engine.

Old Pump - Round Hole

Such was our case on November 7^th during our pre-departure check list. Prior to getting underway we check all engine fluid levels and seek reasons for any apparent leaks. During our check, I found coolant in the bilge and after further investigation it was apparent the culprit was the circulator pump. Without being able to determine whether it was the gasket between the engine or the shaft seal, I removed the pump for closer inspection. The evidence seemed to point to the gasket between the engine and the pump so I cleaned the pump and engine surfaces, cut a new gasket and remounted the pump. After adding new coolant it was evident the culprit was the shaft seal as there was a small drip leak from the pump weep hole.

Decision time. Replace the pump or press in a new shaft seal and bearing. After investigating our options in Brunswick, GA. the best option appeared to be ordering a new pump. So be it and so it was. On Friday Nov 9^th we ordered a new pump from a Georgia based company who specializes in rebuilding Lehman Diesels. During the ordering process they were very helpful and we were told they had replacement pumps in stock. Due to UPS Delivery we were told it would be Monday before the pump would be shipped with a delivery date to us on Tuesday, Nov 13th before 10:30 am. We agreed to the extra overnight shipping fees ($68) so we could make the repair and get underway. We also ordered with the pump a “cap” to cover the lower port on the pump. For those who don’t know, the pump was designed with two possible hose connection ports. In the case with our engine the lower port is not used and has to be capped.  Tuesday morning UPS delivered the package and I was stoked until I opened the package only to discover the pump only and no cap. After the realization that the order was incomplete and we were screwed for a next day departure I contemplated our options. 

New Pump - Not So Round Hole

Ok, I will pull the freeze plug from the old pump and use it on the new pump. No problem. Wrong! After inspection of the new pump I discovered the manufacturer apparently decided to cut cost and not ream the ports so the freeze plug from the old pump would not work. Round Peg, Square hole! Mind you this pump cost under $200 back in 2003 when the ports were round and now has increased to almost $500 with irregular unreemed ports.

We took the pump to a local machine shop to determine the cost of reaming or weld the port. The estimate was $75 to $100. I decided make my own cap by purchasing some hose , hose clamps and a freeze plug. No problem, I will skin this cat myself. Well there was a problem, the pump would not fit on the engine with my newly engineered port cap. Mind you this process not only cost time, effort and money to try to fix the  problem created by shitty manufacturing and incompetence in filling a simple order, it cost me lots of skin off my hands and arms, head and lots of aches and pains.  So the decision was made to return the pump to the 1^st supplier and order another pump from a different supplier who told us the ports were reamed.

Fast forward two days later when we receive the pump from the second supplier along with a freeze plug. One problem though. The round freeze plug will not fit into the unreamed (square hole). Same problem, different FN day. Now I’m really pissed. I call the second supplier to discuss how they will rectify the problem since they told me the ports were reamed. Their solution, send the pump back to them. Great ! Now we have lost 5 freak’n days because people don’t give a crap about customer service or making sure they actually help their customers get the right parts to fix their problem. No wonder our country is going down the proverbial tubes.

Ok, I have a new pump that needs a round port and the port needs to be capped. I’m not paying another $100 to ream or weld the port closed so give me Mr. Drimel, some JB Weld, a smaller freeze plug, a rubber boot and one hose clamp please. I will fix the FN pump myself.  Minus the details, fast forward one day and the pump has been capped and installed. In goes new coolant and no leaks. Fantastic! Run the engine and bring it up to temperature and crap another leak. A crack in a U-shaped hose. Drain the coolant, replace the hose and add more coolant. Bring the engine up to temperature and crap, another leak. This time it’s the main expansion tank lip where the pressure cap is mounted. It has a small hairline crack. Bring out the JB Weld. Fast forward one day and the engine is very happy. No leaks.

Lessons learned.

      Always anticipate not receiving what you order.

2

      New parts may not fit old engines or if they do, something else may have to be modified.

3

      Some people and some businesses don’t give a crap about customer satisfaction so make sure you have good sources for your parts.

4

      Keep a good supply of JB Weld on your boat.

5

      Never tell anyone the date you are shoving off to go Cruising. 

      Underway on November 21st.

 

   

UPDATE: What a Summer and Fall - Time to go Cruising!

New Varnish and Cetol

Ok, sorry for our delinquency in blogging this summer and fall. It’s been filled with lots of land based travel we call our “Driving Miss Ginny Summer Tour”, fishing, shrimping, sweating and lots of boat maintenance.

Nice Redfish - One of the Best Tasting Fish in the Sea.

Sea Trout. Filet, marinate in olive oil, add spices and grill. Yummy.

On the Beach in Jacksonville Beach with Chris, Zak. Skye and Jake.

Nikki and Chris 

Watching Zak's baseball game.

We spent most of July and August visiting friends and family in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Delaware. Our “Driving Miss Ginny Tour” is always a blast after living on the boat for 10 months. 

Joe and Deidra 

Trip to the Zoo with Brian, Deidra and Chris

Visiting with our family is very special after being away cruising on “Wind Dust” and we thoroughly enjoy terrorizing all our kids and grand-kids (really a more proper term, is our grand teenagers). 

Ginny with Annalee and Holden 

We are very blessed to have healthy, happy and wonderful children and grandchildren.

Captain Matt at the Helm

Tara, Annalee and Holden

Little Miss

Bob, Barbara, JP, Brenda and Fred

Bob, Brenda and JP

Ginny, Jack, Bill and April

Ginny, Bill, Zoey, Papa Doug and April

Dinner at the Sweet House in Rehoboth Beach

One of the big projects on the list for “Wind Dust” this summer was a complete redo of her exterior brightwork. The brightwork on a vessel is commonly known as the exterior wooden surfaces of the yacht. Most modern day designs call for no exterior wood as it is a cause for constant maintenance which most people deplore or can’t afford. If you don’t have the time or desire to spend mucho dinero for it’s maintenance then a wood free vessel would be in order for you. I can attest it’s a huge job if you have a lot of teak like we do on “Wind Dust”.  

Bow of Wind Dust

Our project consisted of scraping the old varnish and Cetol off and exposing bare wood. Light sanding, followed by 6 coats of Epifane Marine Varnish on the handrails, pilothouse cabin doors and pilothouse cabin top accent rails. Light sanding between each coat and a 24 hour between coats wait time creates a long drawnout process. For our toe rail and bowsprit planks we applied 2 coats of Natural Teak Cetol covered by two coats of High Gloss Clear Cetol. I must say it was a lot of work but it was rewarding to watch “Wind Dust” come to life.

It wasn't all work though. We had plenty of fun on Dock 6. Most afternoons around 5 pm we gathered at the dock porch to tell stories, lies and participate in the advancement of our ADD (Adult Drinking Disorder). Most Saturday evenings, couples took turns cooking a meal for the other Dock 6 cruisers. We also had participation from a few couples on Dock 5. Memorial Day, July 4^th and Labor Day the marina sponsored cookouts and we had great fun with the Halloween Party. 

Capt. Jesse's New Spiked Hair - Who's the Mystery Girl?

Ellie and Dr. Donor (Jim) - (I'm still Laughing)

The Dock Six Wenches - Oops I meant Witches.

Tuesday evenings the group hit Cilantro’s ( a local Mexican Cantina and Restaurant) for $2.99 Margarita’s, chips and salsa, good entrees and lots of laughs teasing each other and our weekly waiter “Tiger”.    

The Dock Six Gang - with mucho Margaritas 

November 10^th brought on the annual Brunswick Rockin’ Stewbilee which has a road race, pooch parade, classic car show, great live entertainment and the Brunswick Stew cooking contest. I’m always impressed by the live music (usually classic rock with awesome guitar players) and the entire event held at Mary Ross Park on the East River. Lots of fun. If you haven’t attended this event plan on attending next year.   

Music at the Brunswick Rockin' Stewbilee

Waiting for Santa - at the Pooch Parade

The Stickers say it all.

Classic Car Show was Great

The Wharfratz 

Yo quiero -  Lobster !

Another project included stripping the old cracked paint and hypalon off our AB Inflatable dinghy, applying new rubber over the bare spots and repainting the tubes. Man what a difference that made. While she’s not new (2001 model) she looks new from 10 feet away. A little labor, $150 in materials and she should be good for another few years. Much better than spending $5000 to replace it.

New Paint on "Dusty" the dink

Other projects included cleaning and sealing the stainless steel, oil changes for both the genset and main Ford Lehman diesel, rebuild of the aft head pump, new flax and grease in the stuffing box, new bimini and connector for the aft quarter deck and new pleather cushions for the pilothouse.

New Cushions in Pilot House

Our target date to head south was November 8^th, however our standard pre-departure inspection revealed a small leak in the Lehman freshwater circulation pump. We currently have a new pump ordered and hope to be underway by November 15^th.

UPDATE: What’s This Dark Cloud Over Our Heads?

To cruising sailors, weather forecast and conditions are a big concern. Knowing what’s coming is critical to and directly proportional to how much fun you have on the water. If you sit around not paying attention or caring about the weather Mother Nature will soon send you a little reminder of who’s Boss. Hopefully the reminder is not too severe.

While in the Bahamas, we have to constantly keep an eye on the major cold fronts as they roll across the United States. These cold fronts can drastically affect the weather in the Bahamas and especially in the Northwest Bahamas (Abaco). This season we have been hiding from fronts about every three to four days as they roll through. This year the fronts seemed to penetrate deeper into the Bahamas than other years.  Some really “Rocked the House” with winds sustained in the Gale Force range. Some lasted for days creating uncomfortable and or sometimes downright dangerous conditions to get off the boat. That’s when we break out the books or movies for a marathon ride out the blow party.

Last season we didn’t spend much time in Green Turtle Cay, so we decided to catch up this year. We took advantage of a special offer from the Bluff House in White Sound called “Docking for Dollars”. This is a program where you get food and beverages equal to your docking fee. For example, if your dock fee was $50 you could eat and drink $50 worth of food and beverages at their restaurant without paying. It’s a great deal and especially at the Bluff House where the food is excellent.

We sat out two fronts at the Bluff House and one strong cold front on the hook across the Sea of Abaco from Green Turtle, where we saw our 1^st water spout. We staged our crossing back to Florida on our second stay at the Bluff House. The weather pattern we were dealing with had winds coming out of the south, which was good for a return trip to Florida. The downside,  south wind brought with it lots of moisture. Chris Parker (Forecaster for many Cruisers) had been saying the unstable patterns may create conditions favorable for Tropical Cyclones the last two weeks of May. 

The Face of the Wind

With Chris’s red flag and mild conditions forecast for crossing the Gulf Stream, we planned our departure for Monday, May 14. High tide was around 4:30 pm and we needed as much water as we could get to transit the White Sound Channel. The Bluff House allowed us a late checkout and our plan was to leave the dock around 1:00 pm and drop the hook until the tide was higher. As it turned out, a nasty set of thunderstorms came in around 12:30 and lasted for a couple hours. During that wait, we met Bill and Ann on s/v “Wind Spirit” a 38’ Island Packet who were heading to Ft. Pierce too. I discussed our plan with Bill and he liked our approach, so we became instant cruising buddies for the crossing. While we have made the crossing alone several times, it’s nice to have a buddy boat for the long trip back.

1st Water Spout over Green Turtle

Once the rain and wind settled a bit, we shoved off the dock just after 2:00 pm. I made the decision to try to transit the White Sound channel instead of waiting another 2 hours for maximum tide. It was a good decision and we were on our way to our 1^st anchorage early. As we exited the channel “Wind Spirit” called to let us know they were through the channel and ready to hit the road for our 180 nautical mile trip to Vero Beach (207 statute miles). 

This may not seem like a long trip especially if you think about it in terms of highway miles. Our average cruising speed is 6 knots (6.9 mph), so were looking at a 30 hour trip, with the last 60 nautical miles crossing the infamous Gulf Stream.

Since we got an early start out of White Sound, we pushed on another hour to Crab Cay and dropped the hook. Crab Cay provided protection from the ESE wind and we had a good night on the hook. The next morning we weighed anchor and headed for Great Sale Cay. Our plan was to drop the hook at Great Sale around 2:00 pm and get a few hours rest before shoving off for Ft. Pierce, around 9:00 pm. The plan would have us crossing the Little Bahama Bank at night and hitting the Gulf Stream around dawn and into Ft. Pierce around 3:00 pm with a rising tide.

The passage to Great Sale was rainy and overcast with a light ESE wind. About two hours out of Great Sale, a set of nasty squalls came at us from the southwest. As one of the squalls approached, we watched a huge water spout form. This was the second water spout we had seen form in a week. Behind us were a parade of boats that seemed to be in the path of the water spout. As it developed, the VHF radio exploded with chatter of the spout and evasive action needed. Most sailing vessels lowered their sails as we did and continued on course. Some of the power vessels pumped more fuel through their engines to try to get the hell out of dodge. As luck would have it, no vessel was hit by the powerful water spout. It was a close call.

2nd Water Spout forming east of Great Sale Cay

2nd Water Spout fully formed

We were listening to the chatter of the water spout on the VHF radio when the drag on our reel went off. Crap, we caught a fish. Not exactly the best timing when you are running from a water spout. Since it appeared we had dodged the spout, we chopped the throttle and reeled the fish in. As I reeled the fish closer I 1^st thought I had caught another Mahi. A minute later, I realized I had caught a 3 and a half foot Barracuda. One look at those teeth and I said no way am I bringing him on board. So we dragged him behind the boat to the anchorage.

We anchored on the west side of Great Sale, instead of the south anchorage, so we could save an hour or so off the trip. On our approach with “Wind Spirit” there were no other boats in the anchorage. After setting the hook, I went back to remove Mr. Cudda and he was gone. It was ok with me, cause those teeth can do some real damage if the fish is playing possum.

Within an hour or so, we went from 2 boats in the anchorage to over twenty. We took a nap for a couple hours and when I woke up there was a trawler sitting over our anchor. Can’t even begin to believe there’s some idiot with enough money to buy a 60 ft. Fleming trawler but not enough sense to anchor outside of our swing radius. Our plan was to weigh anchor around 8:30 pm and now this A-hole is sitting over our anchor when there’s enough room to anchor fifty battleships here. I flagged this guy down when he got in his dinghy and told him he was over our anchor and we were leaving in three hours. No problem Captain he says, the wind is going to shift to the north in an hour or so and this will swing our boat off your anchor. If not, he says he will move up on his anchor. Not sure where this idiot got his weather report from but I’m pretty sure it’s the same place where he learned to anchor. Every weather report this side of China was calling for south wind and this idiot is saying just the opposite. If he thought the wind was going to shift north, why did he anchor here? I guess maybe I should just chill and bite my lip, let the blood trickle down my chin until I pass out and get some much needed rest. NOT.  

The guys who anchor on top of you (when there’s a world to anchor in) never want to move.  These buttheads seem to come from the same place and speak the same language and it’s not English. They have a huge reputation (in the cruising community) for not knowing how to anchor and always wanting to anchor too close to other boats who were there first. (Note to Self) Develop a weapon that will ward these bastards off.

Anyway, after the wind shifted from the east southeast to the southwest (earlier than forecast and not from the North) it was enough to swing “Wind Dust” over the buttheads anchor. If we didn’t have to get back to the States I may have sat there just to piss this guy off when he was ready to leave. After a couple of light squalls passed, I could see a seam in the thunderstorms coming off Florida (on our XM Weather Radar) and we shoved off for Ft. Pierce with our buddy boat around 8:30 pm.

We had 55 nautical miles (9 hrs) of the Little Bahama Bank (in the dark) ahead of us. We planned to hit the exit point around 5 am. I was not looking forward to this portion of the trip home, as our autopilot died before we started back. This meant 19 hours of hand steering “Wind Dust” to Vero Beach. We chatted with our buddy boat “Wind Spirit” throughout the night on the VHF and they hung about a quarter to half mile off our stern quarter as we motored all night through calm seas. Most of the night we could see lightening off to the south, southwest and west towards Florida. The thunderstorms rolled off south Florida towards our position however dissipated before reaching us as we thought they would.

Around 4:30 am, we began to see white lights off our starboard bow. We could not pickup the vessel on radar or on AIS, nor were they displaying running lights. As we approached our Little Bahama Bank waypoint, we could begin to see the vessel which appeared to be a Trawler anchored just inside of the bank. A few minutes later, I saw a cargo ship pop up on our AIS system. I queried the system for the ship’s status and it contained conflicting information. We looked for the vessels running lights and could not see any. The ship “Pacific Pearl” was steaming towards us at 12 kts and our CPA was 1 nautical mile. I began hailing “Pacific Pearl” on the VHF to insure they could see us and our buddy boat. No response. I waited a few minutes and hailed them again. No response. What concerned me was the ship was not displaying any lights, would not answer their radio, and was steaming towards us at a pretty good clip. This is the first time I have encountered a commercial vessel with AIS (underway making way) without running lights (or any other lights) that did not respond to a radio call. I called our buddies on “Wind Spirit” and asked them to hail the ship. I figured if there was something illegal going on that at least the US Coast Guard would hear two of us hailing the ship. On “Wind Spirit’s” second try “Pacific Pearl” responded and acknowledged that they could see us both and were changing course to pass our stern. As sunrise approached, we could see “Pacific Pearl” approaching us and we confirmed no running lights. Very odd, odd indeed. As stated, they passed to our stern and we were glad the light of day was upon us.

An hour or so after dawn the wind picked up from the south and we were able to put up sail for most of the morning. The sky was overcast with mild squally conditions. I kept an  eye on the XM Weather Radar as there were some significant thunderstorms off of Jupiter Florida and others just to the north of our track. Around 11:00 am, a large cargo ship crossed our route approximately three miles off. As they moved north, we could see a fairly large squall developing, but it seemed to be stationary on the radar. A few minutes later I heard an unfamiliar voice hailing “Wind Dust”. It was the ship which had just passed a few minutes before. He got our name from our AIS. The captain said he wanted to warn us of the squall and told us it looked pretty ugly and was coming to get us. I thanked the captain and proceeded to closely monitor the radar. Yep, the captain was right. The squall had started to move our way and it was building into a storm we wanted to avoid if possible. We first dropped the sails and while doing so the third water spout of the week appeared. It’s part of the squall that’s headed for us. Ok it’s time to take evasive action if possible. We determined we could turn southwest and if lucky miss the worst part of the squall. I radioed “Wind Spirit” to tell them what we doing. By this time they were several miles behind us. They took the same evasive action and the worst part of the 12 mile wide storm missed both of us. Heavy rain did pass over but we missed the heavy wind. The rest of the trip to Ft. Pierce was uneventful and comfortable.

Around 3:30pm with a southwest wind and halfway through the flood tide we transited the Ft. Pierce inlet at 10 knots. The water was as smooth as a babies behind and we were hauling some serious butt. Not often does “Wind Dust” hit 10 knots over ground and it's always fun to use mother nature to your advantage. As we approached the ICW we hailed the Ft. Pierce North Bridge and requested an opening. Perfect, the tender opened the bridge and we barely had to slow down. With the rising tide giving us a nice push we moved north towards Vero Beach at 7.5 to 8 knots. We arrived at Vero Beach City Marina around 5:30 pm. We picked up our assigned mooring, promptly had several celebratory drinks and hit the sack for some serious sleep. It was good to be home. Another safe crossing behind us and ZZZZZZZeeeeee.        

UPDATE: Taking it on the Chin from Tropical Storm “Beryl”

Holy crap "Beryl" has Reverse - We are the triangle on left-Beryl's path is dotted line.

Ok we were minding our own business heading up the Florida ICW to Jacksonville from Vero Beach. Tuesday night we anchored in the Indian River just south of Cocoa Village. Wednesday night at New Smyrna Beach where we saw our friends Jeff and Cindy on “Salty Dog”. Thursday night at Palm Coast where we relaxed and planned our weekend in Jacksonville with the Kids. Our plan was to take advantage of the free dock downtown Jacksonville on the St. John’s River and enjoy the “Jazz Festival” and Scotland vs USA soccer match with the kids. I spent some time planning the route to take advantage of the swift currents of the St. Johns River arriving at the dock at slack tide on Saturday afternoon. I checked the weather before retiring and there was mention of a possible Tropical disturbance forming over the weekend. The Low Pressure System was off the coast of the Carolina’s and there was a slight chance it could track southwest towards Florida. We hit the sack Thursday night with a plan. As usual I was up around 5:30am Friday morning to check the weather and low in behold now the slight chance had changed to a 70% chance of a Topical Storm affecting NE Florida by the weekend. I checked all the sites I normally trust for weather and crap we really need to change plans. Jacksonville it will be, staying at the well protected Beach Marine Marina. We called, made reservations and quickly made preparations to shove off.

The Bridge of Lions St. Augustine, FL

With our new plan we needed to head straight for Beach Marine and bypass anchoring. Our ETA at Beach Marine was 4:00 pm Friday. All went well until we reached our beloved Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida. Mind you this is a pretty bascule bridge. It was refurbished between 2006 and 2010 with the construction causing all kinds of headaches for boaters, pedestrians and drivers alike. The untold accumulated wasted time and aggravation this project caused would be astounding if calculated if terms of lost revenue of the people who had to wait for one reason or another. Not to mention the untold volume of fuel spent by cars and boats waiting for either the bridge to open or the bridge to close. Couple this with the additional cost to refurbish the bridge(5 years and $80 million) verses building a new one (3 years and $20 million)  and it’s enough to really piss off taxpaying citizens who have to deal with it now, when it could have been an aggravation of the past. 

Hang on the rant is almost over. Don’t blame FDOT though, they declared the bridge structurally deficient and functionally obsolete” in 1999. A new taller bridge with the same architectural beauty was planned by FDOT however there was an uproar to refurbish the old bridge and these butt-heads won. They are the same people who complain like hell when they have to wait an extra minute for a boat to pass. Well the aggravation and delays continue. On Friday we were within two minutes of reaching the bridge as it opened for a sailboat on the north side at 11:30 am. As always, I hailed the tender to request passage. He responded by saying “Captain you ain’t gonna make it” and  began closing the bridge. Now mind you he knew he was not opening the bridge at 12:00 noon and his decision not to wait an extra minute or so would cause us to have to wait an hour for the 12:30 opening. And so it was, this S.O.B. wouldn’t wait an extra minute and we sat for an hour waiting on the 12:30 pm opening. We have passed through almost every draw bridge on the east coast of Florida numerous times over the past three years of cruising. They have discretion cause we have experienced it. Florida has the most courteous bridge tenders we have found except for “The Bridge of Lions” and the “Boca Raton” bridges. The hatefulness and arrogance of these bridge tenders just ooze down the sides of these bridges. These guys need to find other forms of employment  and I’m going to do my best to make it happen.  Well enough ranting for now and back to “Beryl”.

Chris and Nikki

Chris and Ginny

We arrived at Beach Marine and shut down the engine at 5:00 pm Friday May 25. The wind had been hawking all day and we were glad to have a slip for the evening. Saturday brought prepping “Wind Dust” for Beryl and enjoying our grandson’s (Zak) baseball game with Chris and Nikki. The afternoon we shopped for needed supplies. After a late lunch with Chris, Nikki, Skye, Jake and Zak on Sunday we all walked the beach to see the pre-storm rage. It was pretty impressive and we heard the local lifeguards had saved over one hundred people whose IQ seem lacking when it come to danger. Anyway we were back at the boat around 4:00 pm and hunkered down for the head on assault of Tropical Storm “Beryl”.

JP, Zak, Chris, Skye, Jake and Ginny before "Beryl", Nikki is behind the camera

Never Mind the Wind Flags They were off by a factor of 4 to 5

I checked the wind velocities of a couple offshore buoys and confirmed the wind speed was in the 40 kt range and from the northwest. We dialed in a local FM Station on the radio and had our VHF Radio on.  We also had our Chart plotter with XM Weather and our Autohelm Anemometer on to measure wind velocities.  With our XM Weather Service on our chart plotter we could see “Beryl” as she made her approach. We were going to take her best shot head on. Not exactly what one would want to do, but with the hand we were dealt that was the way it was going to be. 

As the eye wall came on shore

78 knot gust (89.7 mph)

We chose Beach Marine because it is a well protected marina and we had a good slip assignment so we felt ok. If things were to get too bad we could always go ashore and wait the storm out. As we listened to the Radio, the forecasters kept changing their wind velocities higher and higher for “Beryl”. According to our trusted weather source “Accuweather Premium” we would experience sustained winds in the 60 to 65 mph range with gust in the low eighties. We had received this forecast on late Friday and it stayed pretty much the same until the storm hit. Other sources forecast winds in the 40 kt (45 mph) range when “Beryl” came ashore. What we experienced was almost verbatim to Accuweather Premium’s forecast from late Friday. When the eye wall hit us just after 8:00 pm Sunday the sustained wind speed was 50 to 60 kts (57 to 69 mph) with a maximum gust of 78 kts (89.7 mph). Needless to say the 78 kt gust sat us one our ear. Wind Dust heeled over in the slip as the dock lines groaned from the strain. The wind howled through the rigging with a shrill eerie pitch.  This went on for several hours until the eye move onshore. 

More Rain

That’s when I had a good chance to tighten the dock lines as they had stretched due to being wet and the pressure on them. For the rest of the night we experienced winds in the 40 to 50 kt range and finally gave up the ghost and hit the bed. We woke Monday morning to a southeast wind which was mostly blocked by several adjacent buildings. Rain at that point had been relatively light and the wind was relatively tame. I inspected Wind Dust and found no visible damage. We had a fantastic dinner with Chris, Nikki and the grand kids and returned to Wind Dust before the heavy rain hit. Most of the night we had bands of rain come through along with several severe thunderstorms. Tuesday morning we woke to lots of rain and reports of flooding in Jacksonville. The wind is still kicking this afternoon and there are more severe thunderstorms in the area as “Beryl” works its way to the northeast and out of Florida nearly 48 hours after first hitting.

Tuesday Morning May 29, "Beryl" still kicking it up. Please leave!

We have experienced many hurricanes in the past and “Beryl” was not in the same league. However, she did have her moments and she was unique in her longevity and path. Being a early season storm and an “Home Grown” storm (developing just of the east coast) certainly will make her remembered here in Jacksonville, Florida for a long time. We heard this afternoon “Beryl” will go in the record books as the strongest preseason tropical storm to hit the east coast of the United States.