MV Dirona travel digest for Palm Beach 2016

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

Our first Amazon delivery was waiting for us when we arrived at Soverel Harbour. We've not had a major resupply since the pallet we got ordered in late 2014 and picked up in the Gold Coast Aus, so we're really needing a lot of parts and supplies.

Position: 26°50.94'N, -80°5.12'W

The Gardens Mall is about a 20-minute walk from the marina. It's huge and architecturally more appealing than most malls.

Position: 26°50.90'N, -80°5.03'W

At AT&T in the Gardens Mall to pick up a SIM card. Normally one SIM shared between us works just fine as we're rarely apart. But this time Jennifer will be heading to various appointments on her own, so we got one SIM each.

Position: 26°50.92'N, -80°5.04'W

We had delicious burgers with a local Twisted Trunk beer on the patio at The Counter in the Gardens Mall.

Position: 26°50.86'N, -80°4.99'W

Checking out the tool selection in Sears at the Gardens Mall.

Position: 26°50.71'N, -80°4.18'W

Boats are everywhere in Florida and stacked three-high at the marina.

Position: 26°50.74'N, -80°4.16'W

Four motors on the back of a center-console boat is pretty common here--at 350HP each this is 1400HP. We've heard that bigger boats have been installed with as many as six.

Position: 26°50.72'N, -80°4.28'W

Carmine's Market at the marina is packed with high-quality produce, meats and other foods.

Position: 26°50.16'N, -80°3.65'W

We had a great evening over dinner at Borolo Ristorante with Ernie Romeo of ABT and his daughter Christine. Ernie was in town to attend the Palm Beach boat show.

Position: 26°55.45'N, -80°5.77'W

Less than 24 hours after arriving, Jennifer had on appointment Tuesday morning at 8:30am with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Veronica Diaz of Jupiter Hand to Shoulder. A neuroligist, an MRI and more testing will happen on Thursday.

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

The graphics card in our MFDBB (Multi-Function Display Black Box) failed in Reunion. We'd been very lucky to get a replacement card there that was nearly drop-in compatible. The card was actually an earlier generation Nvidia graphics card that wasn't 100% compatible but could be made to work. We have now purchased two used Furuno MDFBBs as spares. One will yield the graphics card and any future needs in spare parts and we'll keep the other one intact and operational.

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

We last picked up our mail when James returned to Seattle from Darwin last July. So we had a big box of envelopes to go through.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Satellite Beach residents Fran Martini and Brian Smith drove down to visit with us. We had a excellent evening with them, talking boats and business, first on Dirona and later over dinner at the Waterside Cafe.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We didn't bother with the hassle of launching the tender before mooring, but did need to bring it down for service next week. We were planning to move Dirona for that, but when the boat next to us left, we jumped on the chance to launch the tender into their slip. We sure love the 16' reach of our custom Steelhead ES1100 davit. We can launch the dinghy single-handed to the stern and either side of the boat, and even the other side of a dock.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Sunrise over Soverel Harbour Marina.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The wing/generator start batteries have needed replacement for the last couple of months and they've been just limping along. We decided to replace the main start batteries at the same time. Nordhavn Southeast got us an excellent price on four Lifeline GPL-4DL batteries, and delivered and installed them today.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Nordhavn Southeast also replaced the gasket in either side of the exhaust wrinkle belly.

Position: 26°50.80'N, -80°5.39'W

Jennifer had an appointment with Dr. David Silvers this morning at Gardens Neurology to isolate the source of her nerve problems that came up after the shoulder injury.

Position: 26°54.85'N, -80°6.06'W

After the neurological testing, Jennifer was scheduled for an MRI.

Position: 26°46.25'N, -80°3.10'W

We applied to renew our US Trusted Traveler membership last week and had received conditional approval. Today we went to the US Customs office at the Port of West Palm Beach for in-person interviews to complete the renewal requirements.

Position: 26°46.30'N, -80°3.21'W

The US Customs office is right next to Cracker Boy Boat Works, one of the yards we are looking at for some maintenance work due on Dirona. Cracker Boy is one of the few yards with deep-draft accessibility in the area, so deep-keeled racing sailboats frequently are seen there.

Position: 26°46.31'N, -80°3.23'W

Cracker Boy has a 75-ton and a 150-ton Travelift, both more than capable of lifting 55-ton Dirona. They say they use more lifting straps than many yards for added saftey and you can see them all hanging there off the 150-ton lift.

Position: 26°46.32'N, -80°3.28'W

This aluminum mast seemed to go on forever.

Position: 26°50.63'N, -80°4.01'W

We finished the day with dinner at the Waterside Cafe. This is the view from our table to the PGA Blvd Bridge that we passed under to reach Soverel Harbour Marina earlier in the week.

Position: 26°50.63'N, -80°4.01'W

Our table along the Intracoastal Waterway at the Waterside Cafe.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We heard a big splash this morning followed by loud yowling. Spitfire fell in the water from way up on the boat deck. He was struggling to hook onto the rub rail when we lowered a net for him to grab onto and hauled him out. The water is pretty dirty here, so we hosed him off with freshwater and he spent much of the day cleaning up.

Position: 26°0.23'N, -80°22.68'W

Oliver Sessa brought us out for a tour of his family’s business, Johnny Sessa Bulldozing, and to see their Nordhavn 47 and pet Serval. We had an excellent day with Oliver and his family, and had a blast driving some of their construction equipment. Read more ...

Position: 26°50.63'N, -80°4.01'W

Fellow Canadians John and Tina Philippson of Nordhavn 75 Sockeye Blue came up from Fort Lauderdale for a visit. We had a great afternoon with them, first on Dirona and later over lunch at the Waterside Cafe.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We are getting our liferaft maintenance done while in Palm Beach at the same time as tender service is being done and took advantage of the briefly empty slip beside us to crane the raft into the tender.

Position: 26°50.70'N, -80°3.57'W

Grocery shopping with our folding cart at the nearby Publix grocery store.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We don't think James has been on his bike since Melbourne over a year ago. The bikes sure are convenient for shopping and quickly covering the distance.

Position: 26°51.34'N, -80°4.09'W

We'd arranged to have A Sailor's Place pick up our tender and liferaft at the Juno Park launch ramp. We'd arrived a little early so toured a bit through the canals. Boats and docks sure fill every available spot.

Position: 26°51.18'N, -80°3.99'W

A Sailor's Place picked up T/T Dirona (Tender To Dirona) at Juno Park for transport to their Stuart shop for tube repair and liferaft maintenance

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Now that we have spare parts for our Furuno MFDBB (Multi Function Display Black Box), we can replace the temporary card with one that is exactly the right part. The one that we were using required us to enter setup on each power up, but otherwise worked fine. Getting the card in and out is a real pain the way the black box is mounted, but James has had a fair bit of practice by this time, and is pretty efficient at it. Hopefully he won't need this skill again for a while.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

On the left is the correct replacement graphics card for our Furuno MFDBB (Multi Function Display Black Box), an Elsa Gladiac 776 GS 256MB (a clone of the Nvidia 7600) that went out of production around 2006. On the right is the Nvidia 6200 graphics that we've been running on since Reunion. Given how different the cards look, it's amazing that the 6200 worked at all. Once again, Thank you Plug n Play!

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

James preparing battery cable for crimping. We're installing a relay at the DC distribution panel. When the wing\generator start bank needs charging and charging is available, we'll use the relay to parallel that bank into the house bank. Now that we've got new start batteries, we want to keep them properly charged and hopefully improve longevity.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

Crimping lugs onto the ends of the battery cables. We've got a heavy-duty Ancor 702040 Lug Crimper that can handle lugs from 8 to 4/0-Gauge. The tool is massive, weighing nearly 10 pounds, and easily handle any job we've needed it for.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The new relay for the wing/gen start bank place at the bottom right of the DC distribution panel. The relay that parallels the main engine start alternator into the charging system is visible at the top left of the DC panel. Both relays are Kilovac LEV200A5NAFs rated at 500 amps. (The circuit never carries more than 200 amps, but the 225-amp rated Trombetta Bear that we'd originally used for the start alternator failed in operation)

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°5.49'W

Jennifer went into surgery today to address the nerve problem following from the broken collarbone.

Position: 26°50.97'N, -80°5.61'W

While Jennifer was in surgery, James spent some of the time checking out the Downtown at the Gardens mall, part of the Gardens mall complex.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°5.49'W

Dr. Diaz's finished result looks as straight as new. And if all goes well, the pin will come out in twelve weeks.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We've been receiving several packages a day since we arrived in Palm Beach. Soverel Harbour has been a wonderfully convenient place to handle this: our berth is steps from the office where packages are delivered, they call us right away when a package arrives, and garbage is collected multiple times per day from the foot of each slip.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Among our many orders is new wine glasses, tumblers, coffee mugs and plates from Crate & Barrel. We have broken surprisingly few dishes since leaving Seattle, but many are looking pretty worn from heavy use.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

One of our many orders, this one from ABT, included two spare stabilizer actuators, two actuator rebuild kits and spare actuator bearings. We also got special tools to remove the actuator bearings and the fin nut socket.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

Our canvas, from Canvas Supply Company in Seattle, has held up well over the past five years. But we had a few wear points that needed repair and some zippers where the sliders had rusted up. The workmanship from nearby C 2 Shore Upholstery looks very good and was priced reasonably.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

Jennifer sporting her third sling of the year. This one from Jupiter Hand to Shoulder is much better than either of the two we got in Barbados. The healing process has been a little slower than the original break, due to the additional trauma of surgery and installing the pin, but so far she's doing well.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

It's hard to believe given how heavy the hose is, but the wing engine exhaust hose had developed a pinhole leak between the engine and the check valve. James replaced it with hose purchased at West Marine earlier in the week. The old exhaust hose was extremely difficult to remove from the check valve, partly because it is heavy, wire-reinforced hose but mostly because over time it had effectively welded on. James carefully used a Dremel to cut through the wire without damaging the check valve.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The old exhaust hose. You can see why James had such a hard time removing it.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

Van and Tracy Anderson brought their Nordhavn 55 Sunday Morning from Seattle to the east coast last year. They currently are moored nearby at Old Port Cove Marina and stopped by for a visit. We had a great time swapping cruising stories and plans.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We've only used our kayaks about three times since leaving Seattle. In that same period we've moved them off their racks (outside the port boat deck rails) at least a dozen times to wax the boat, pass through locks, or enter narrow slips with high poles as we're in now. We didn't anticipate our usage going up, so decided they were more hassle than they were worth and donated them this weekend. Dirona looks much better without them, and the boat deck feels much more open.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

It's hard to believe, but we're again due for an oil change, our fourth this calendar year. The 208-hour run from St. Lucia to Palm Beach consumed most of the 250-hour change interval.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We'd last changed the secondary and tertiary on-engine fuel filters just over a year ago in Tasmania. The 10-micron secondary filter was still in excellent shape, with plenty of surface area left. The 2-micron tertiary filter is harder to see inside the housing, but what we could see looked excellent too. If there was any concern, we'd cut it open.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We had a bit of a surprise waiting for us when we changed the fuel transfer pump filter. Read more ...

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

While we were in Darwin, James purchased a Raspberry Pi to learn about it as much as anything. On the way to Rodrigues, he found it was incredibly easy to program and we have since configured 8 channels of digital input to monitor and record a variety of non-networked equipment on Dirona. Today he got digital output running and now has 8 channels of digital output available. The first one was immediately put into use to control the wing/gen start battery bank parallel relay. This ensures the wing/gen battery are kept well charged even though long periods of generator/wing inactivity when at dock or underway.

Position: 26°51.18'N, -80°3.97'W

A Sailor's Place delivered our repaired tender and reinspected liferaft to Juno Park today.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We installed a new DCM 100 today to monitor the start battery bank voltage and amperage.

Position: 26°50.72'N, -80°3.95'W

We had an excellent evening over dinner at Season's 52 restaurant with John and Tina Philippson of Nordhavn 75 Sockeye Blue (right of James), Van Anderson of Nordhavn 55 Sunday Morning (back on left), and Anne and Jim Crossley of Nordhavn 55 Giddy Up. Great food, great company.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

Chris from Nordhavn Southeast has been on the boat the last couple of days building an enclosure inside the stack to better exhaust engine room heat. We prefer to do all our own work on Dirona, but woodwork and carpentry aren't James' strong suit.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

The whole day while Chris was working outside on the boat deck, Spitfire has been sleeping in the pilot house. He suddenly woke up and became quite concerned that we had an intruder.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We had a fun visit with fellow Canadians Fred Kordalewski and Shirley Fish this evening. They live in Ontario and boat on the Great Lakes, but winter in nearby Lake Worth.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Following a design inspired by Peter Hayden of Nordhavn 60 Tanglewood, Chris from Nordhavn Southeast enclosed the stack base and installed two fans to pull air out of the engine room. We're fairly happy with the current cooling design on Dirona, but the stack running through the house runs warmer than we like. The primary purpose of this design is to add a little extra margin of safety and redundancy in the stack cooling system, however, it may contribute positively to the engine room cooling system as well.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Now that we've got the fans pulling from above, we can remove the secondary stack fan from the engine room. It looks a lot better without it.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

A Palm Beach County Sheriff made a pass through the marina today in a 3-engine 900HP center-console.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Soverel Harbour Marina has been an excellent stop, not only for taking delivery of all those packages, but also while Jennifer is recuperating from surgery. She won't be cutting pineapple for a while, but we can instead buy delicious cored fresh pineapple, and other excellent prepared foods, from Carmine's Deli on site.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

This boat in our marina had 4 300HP outboards. Apparently, this is yesterday's design and the current rig to own is quad 400HP. You'd think 1,600HP could get you to the fishing grounds.

Position: 26°50.45'N, -80°5.48'W

We walked over to Best Buy to get a USB-to-Serial adapter. We're upgrading our navigation computer to 64-bit Windows and the system keeps blue-screening with the driver for our existing Keyspan adapter. Keyspan has always been our go-to adapter for USB-to-Serial adapters. They're more expensive, but were always head-and-shoulder above the rest. They seem to have allowed device driver maintenance to lag though and it's a disaster in a Windows 7 64-bit system. The USB-to-Serial adapter we bought at Best Buy, based on the Prolific, chipset is working well.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

When we first setup our navigation computer in 2010, some applications wouldn't run on 64-bit Windows, so we have been running 32-bit Windows 7. We'd like to be able to use more than 4gig of memory and most applications should work on 64-bit now, so one of Jennifer's "jobs for one-armed people" the past few days has been to upgrade the system to 64-bit Windows 7. It took a few days to work through some driver issues and get everything working again, but all our applications now are working well, we now have 8gig of available memory, and the system runs much faster overall.

Position: 26°50.74'N, -80°4.28'W

Dinner at Carmine's Ocean Grill to celebrate successful results from Jennifer's first post-surgery appointment with Dr. Diaz. The bone is healing well, the large bandage on her shoulder has been removed and she can now go without the sling while at home. And, best of all, Jennifer is regaining strength in her hand.

Position: 26°50.62'N, -80°5.01'W

Dirona is documented with the US Coast Guard, but we haven't needed to renew our Washington state registration once the boat was out of the state. Many states allow a federally-documented vessel a 60-90-day grace period in the state without requiring local registration. Florida law apparently supports this as well. But the enforcement arm, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, apparently requires all vessels operating on Florida waters to be state-registered and will ticket those found non-compliant. We suppose we could contest the Fish and Wildlife interpretation in court, but the sticker looks cheaper and easier. :) Another option would be to renew it in Washington, our official state of residence, but we won't be in those waters this year and registering there is much more expensive than Florida.

Position: 26°4.18'N, -80°9.32'W

Chris Allard, President of Metal Shark Aluminum Boats, was flying home through Fort Lauderdale on their Piper PA-31T1 Cheyenne and invited us along for a visit to Jeanerette, Louisiana and a yard tour. Besides being a boat builder, Chris also owns a Stephens 86, Pendana, and is the former owner of Nordhavn 6220. The flight there was a ton of fun, with James getting to ride in the cockpit during takeoff. The video at https://youtu.be/JK-EyGuvE8g (2:58) shows stills from departure and landing and video of the takeoff.

Position: 29°58.52'N, -92°8.52'W

Chris took us out for some authentic Louisiana cuisine that night. Our first stop was Schucks Louisiana Seafood House for delicious char-broiled oysters. James and Chris have been corresponding for a long time, and it was great to finally meet and spend time in person.

Position: 30°5.96'N, -91°59.43'W

Morvant's Bar and Grill is known for burgers, but also for crawfish when in season. We had a great meal and an excellent evening.

Position: 29°56.54'N, -91°44.52'W

Jeanerette, Louisiana isn’t a massive metropolis, so why were us boaters and technology lovers excited to spend a day there? Admittedly the oysters, crawfish, and local beer are all excellent, but that wasn’t the motivation behind the trip. The reason was to visit Metal Shark Aluminum Boats. Read more ...

Position: 29°56.66'N, -91°50.23'W

Metal Shark Aluminum Boats specializes in custom vessels for commercial, defense, and law enforcement applications worldwide. We began our Metal Shark tour on a test ride of a Defiant-class patrol vessel, a variant of the Response Boats — Small that Metal Shark builds for the US Coast Guard. We were impressed with the comfort and attention to detail—the electrical panel is a particular work of art—but most of all with how smooth and safe the ride felt. At one point we were doing over 44 knots and making rapid turns left and right, yet the boat felt solid the whole time. This apparently is nothing close to it's capabilities. The video at https://youtu.be/z_PYehRePf8 (2:25) begins with some stills from the test run and includes video underway.

Position: 29°48.95'N, -91°32.72'W

We finished our tour at Metal Shark’s second yard that went operational in the summer of 2014. Unlike their original yard, this one is on the water with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. This allows them to build boats bigger than can be legally moved on public roadways.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

One of the deliveries we received this week was a spare windlass that is large and weighs about 85 pounds. This was a difficult purchase decision. There are many ways of working around a failed windlass, and it's both an expensive and heavy spare. But the more we thought about it, the more the spare felt like good insurance. We have anchored thousands of times, and with the weight of our ground tackle, trying to operate without a windlass would be very difficult. We've used up a lot of the obvious locations to stow something this big and heavy, but found a great spot for at the back of the lazarette that amazingly didn't displace anything else. The windlass doesn't shift an inch secured with a ratchet strap and boxes that were there can just sit on top.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We keep the motor for the micro-tender mounted on the starboard side of the stack above our gasoline tanks. This is a good place for it and keeps it out of the way when we're not using it. When the micro-tender is in use, however, it's a bit of a pain to bring the motor up and down, so we often stow it loose either in the lazarette or the cockpit. Neither is a great solution, so one of the projects on our list has been to install a mount for it in the cockpit. Here James is tapping holes in the fiberglass at the port side of the cockpit to install the mount.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

The mount we used on the boat deck extends too far out to use the cockpit, and we couldn't find anything off-the-shelf that would work. We ended up selecting one designed to be attached horizontally, but it turned out to not fit either so James modified it to be a small, vertical mount. It fits perfectly, takes up hardly any space when not in use, and the motor is out of the way when on the mount. We'll continue to stow the motor on the boat deck when we're not using the micro-tender, but now can securely stow the motor in the cockpit and also have a convenient place to work on it for oil changes etc.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

A slight seepage was visible on the outside of the wing engine transmission cooler case. It's hard to believe, but a quarter-inch solid aluminum plate has corroded right through the center. Removing the cooler was a bit challenging with so little space to access the bolts.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The old transmission cooler in two pieces with the new spare. You can see the cover on the left is deeply pitted—the old one definitely was ready for replacement. One of the long bolts that made the cooler difficult to remove is shown as well.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

We've written software to automate load-shedding of the hot water and HVAC systems during regular operation and generator warm-up and cool-down. Today we added a switch to the breaker panel to manually override the automation should a fault occur.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

The wiring for the automation override relay.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

We were marina neighbours with Erik Vaaler at Westpoint Harbor Marina in San Francisco. We didn't get a chance to meet there, but Erik was in town this weekend and stopped by for a visit. He's in the materials business and we had a super-interesting discussion on boating and many of his work projects.

Position: 26°50.65'N, -80°4.01'W

While having dinner at the Waterside Cafe, a Coast Guard patrol boat passed under the PGA Blvd Bridge and docked at the restaurant. We were all excited at the prospect of seeing a Metal Shark boat "in the wild", but alas, it was an older SAFE Boat model.

Position: 26°50.73'N, -80°4.12'W

Seven Marine bills their product as "the most powerful outboard on the planet". They turn a 6.2L V8 on end and somehow stuff it into an outboard motor case. This HydraSport 5300 is the most extreme "tender" we've seen so far: 53ft long with 4 Seven Marine 627s for a total of 2508HP. It's the largest outboard-powered center-console in production world-wide.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Working on stowing the ABT parts we received. Jennifer is chief stower, so having her shoulder and nerve issues improve is a big help in getting things put away.

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

The struts supporting the hatch from the salon to the engine room failed again. We use this hatch a lot and if it could do serious damage if it slammed shut on a finger or head. We haven't been happy with the failure rate on the current struts, and they are difficult to obtain. We tried a Suspa brand that is available through Amazon and also improved the mounting position to avoid overpressurizing the strut. Much better--the hatch practically flies open now with just a single strut.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The team from Nordhavn Southeast came by to celebrate Dirona returning to the continental US having rounded the world. Technically we're not all the way around until we return to the Pacific, but there is way to much to see in the Atlantic so we're declaring success on the lap around the world.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Load shedding allows you to operate on a relatively limited source withouth having to contantly figure out if someone else is running an applicance that will be in conflict with yours. The way load-shedding works is that everyone does what they want and the lower priority loads are shed prior to crossing the source load limit. A year ago we implemented 240-volt automatic load-shedding where first the water heater is shed, and if the load continues to be high, the HVAC will be shutoff just for the duration of the peak. Peaks are always relatively short, so you don't even notice the HVAC disappearing for tens of seconds and the hot water still is as hot as ever.

Rather than just having the two sources that could possibly be shed, we'd like to be able to shed our 2 100-amp Mastervolt chargers as well. That way we can run them as hard as the power source will allow, but still not have to manage other loads on the boat, since we would be able to shut the chargers down individually as the load got too high. It's easy to control Mastervolt chargers using their MasterAdjust user interface, but there's no programmatic way to do it and they won't release an API to allow programmitic control. We know they use a proprietary protocol implemented on top of CANBUS and recently bought a CANBUS adapter with the goal of being able to turn those chargers on and off at will. Pictured you can see the CANBUS adapter hooked up to an ethernet cable that's plugged into MasterBus.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Just determining which two of the eight signal wires are signal high and signal low on the proprietary MasterBus took quite a while. Finding that right pair is even harder when, even if you have them right, you won't get a result if the transmission speed isn't set correctly. We probably got a bit lucky and found it a bit more quickly than we deserved. So at this point, we're actually able to see the MasterBus data stream. Now the challenge is figuring out which strings of hexadecimal numbers are most interesting and how to interpret them.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Spitfire is always finding new spots. Here he is "watching tennis" from the eyebrow bimini. Birds and squirrels constantly are on the move behind the boat and Spitfire's head swings left to right regularly as he watches them.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

After almost two solid days of investigation, we finally were able to understand the MasterBus stream enough to control the chargers. Here is a simple PHP program where parameter "-C1 on" turns charger one on and "-L1 100" sets charger one to produce 100 amps.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We share and backup data between our two laptops and the navigation computer regularly using FreeFileSync. We've also less regularly been backing up all the navigation computer data to a circulating set of external drives. One of our many Amazon orders to Soverel Harbour was for a Synology DS415+ RAID file server that we've installed under the salon settee. Now we can backup our systems nightly to our central file server and stop using these big, clunky drives.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

New York residents Scott and Susie Jacobson were in town for the day and stopped by for a visit and a tour of Dirona before their return flight that evening. For years they have chartered boats from Anacortes, Washington and we've cruised much of the same territory. It was fun to talk about anchorages and cruising plans.

Position: 26°50.73'N, -80°4.28'W

We finally stopped in for dinner at Carmine's La Trattoria overlooking the marina. The restaurant is always packed, but now that the snowbird season is waning, there's plenty of good tables for drop-ins. The food, as we expected, was delicious and the service excellent.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Now that we can programmatically control the chargers, we can further automate operation and automatically set the charger draw limit to completely consume, but not overdraw the source, be it shore, inverter or genertor. For the few cases we can't automatically determine the source draw limit, we support a manual override through the web page shown. For example, on 50Hz shore power we limit to the common 15 amps, but could override as shown if we had a 32 amps source. (We'd be running the house through the 25-amp inverter in this case, but don't actually need to override that setting.)

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

In addition to programatically controlling the charger draw, we added the two chargers to the load-shedding hierarchy. As the power draw on the boat approaches the shore power or generator limit, we shed first the hot water heater. If the load remains high, we shed next one charger, and if necessary, the second. In the unlikely event that the load still is high, we can finally shed the HVAC for just the peak few seconds. In the screenshot, the three yellow squares at the bottom center indicate that the water heater and both chargers have been shed.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Bruce and Pam Harris arriving into Soverel Harbour on their Nordhavn 5260 Stella Maris that they recently shipped from the Pacific Northwest to Florida. Three Nordhavns now are here--the third is Nordhavn 4053 Silver Hammer that we believe is berthed here long-term.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

James was back in Seattle this week for work. His flight from Palm Beach was delayed for nearly an hour due to a major fuel spill at the airport. He missed his connection in Dallas, but fortunately got onto the next flight out so was still in time for the dinner meeting.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

With nightly backups to the Synology file server, we are protected against most data loss except complete loss of file server and client devices (most likely from loss of the boat). These failure modes are less likely, but they are possible, and the loss is complete. What’s missing is off-site backup. This is challenging and must be incremental since bandwidth from a boat is usually restricted. Since we have no house or property other than the boat (and since I’m a pretty big believer in cloud computing), we backup everything to Amazon Web Services S3 (Simple Storage System).

While we lived in the US and had unlimited data plans, we used a service to automatically cloud-backup our navigation computer. This also included data from our two laptops that we synchronize to the navigation computer using FreeFileSync. Outside the US, we never saw an unlimited data plan--everything was always usage- or time-limited, and often low-speed or poor quality. So the packaged solution no longer worked. We needed a model where we could backup from Dirona when we could, but also be able to copy data to a disk and transport it with a laptop to somewhere with cost-effective and high-speed connectivity, possibly on a return trip to the US.

For the backup to S3 we use S3 sync directly and aim to run incremental backups opportunistically but no less than quarterly. We did investigate a few software packages that synchronize to S3, but they all were tied to backing up from a single computer. So we wrote a small script to backup using S3 sync from either the navigation computer or one of our two laptops, using a combination of data from that computer and either the file server or an external drive.

When James went back to Seattle this week, he took with him the full payload on his laptop and an external drive, and copied all 800Gig into S3 using a fast ethernet connection in just over 24 hours (that would have taken many days even with the decent connectivity we have here in Florida). The screenshot shows the amount of data we had stored in S3 over a five-day period. Now we can sync the changes to S3 as often as we choose to. And should be go a while without being able to backup up from Dirona due to connectivity constraints, we can carry a laptop and an external drive to access better connectivity.

The good news for us is we are now pretty well protected and, with more than 100,000 pictures and lots of custom software the thought of a loss is not very appealing.

Position: 26°50.63'N, -80°3.84'W

Dinner at Twisted Trunk Brewery, just across the PGA Blvd Bridge, to celebrate James' return from Seattle. Great beer and an unusual dinner location in that they don't actually serve food there. We ordered dinner from the restaurant next door and they delivered it. James wasn't gone long, but we're so used to being around each other all the time that it felt like ages.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

In addition to changing the struts on the salon-to-engine room hatch, James added two struts to help lift the master stateroom berth. We keep a lot of spares under there and it's heavy and difficult to lift. Now it goes up almost with one finger. Spitfire of course jumped in immediately upon our lifting the bed and had to be carried out before we could lower it.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We just got our 50,000-mile Nordhavn distance pennant. Over a third of that was done in the past year: in the 12 months since arriving at Cairns in northeastern Australia we've covered 16,552 miles.

Position: 26°47.45'N, -80°5.54'W

At City Electric to pickup the contactors that will be used to implement load-shedding and active cooling on the 120-volt system.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The Raspberry Pi is capable of delivering only 16 milliamps at 3.3-volts per channel, and no more than 50 milliamps in total. So there really isn't much power to work with. This group of eight relays will allow the Pi to control eight channels of up to 10 amps at 24 volts.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Some time back, we modified the 120V inverter with fans to provide active cooling, allowing it to deliver full output for longer at higher temperatures. We're using the Raspberry Pi to turn the active cooling off and on as needed. The yellow indicator at the bottom center of the screenshot indicates the fans are on. We've also implemented simple load-shedding on the 120V circuit. When the capacity of the 120V circuit is exceeded, we'll shed the most common culprit, the microwave, and turn it back on when the peak has passed. In the screenshot, the indicator below the fan on indicator would display yellow were the microwave shedded.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Wiring the digital output lines from the Raspberry Pi to the eight relays that control 24-volt circuits.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Navy Protocol Officer Mike Chan is helping to bring together the US Navy's Fleet Week Port Everglades. It's a busy week for Mike, but he was able to find time to drop by Sunday for a visit. When Mike was in the Navy, he also went around the world on the maiden voyage of the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier USS John C. Stennis. He went in the opposite direction from ours, from the US east coast to Hawaii, at considerably greater speed, although we will have consumed more diesel for propulsion. On our trip around the world, we fueled thirty times, whereas the John C. Stennis didn't need to fuel at all. We had a great evening over drinks on Dirona and later dinner at Carmine's Ocean Grill, discussing navy technology and ships, and boating in general.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We've been told the Sea Fire automatic fire suppression system draws 1.2-2 amps at 24 volts continuously (whether the engines are running or not). We sat down today to understand how it is wired and how we might circumvent that big draw when no engines are running and the system is not needed.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

James testing the draws at various points around the fire suppression system.

Position: 26°55.93'N, -80°5.56'W

Dinner at Koon Manee Thai and Japanese restaurant with Bruce and Pam Harris of Nordhavn 52 Stella Maris, also moored at Soverel Harbour. Pam and Bruce recently lived here in Palm Beach Gardens, but now live in Maine. In addition to boats, over the years they've owned multiple recreational vehicles. We love adventuring and exploring, so RVs have always been interesting to us.

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

James decided to do the Pi output design correctly. The Pi puts out 0 to 3.3V on the digital output pins, but very low draw 3.3V coil voltage relays are hard to find. It turns out that the Pi will actually drive 5V relays, but when done in large numbers, manufacturing tolerances have some relays not triggering when switch. He could just operate with the roughly 70% that work at the lower voltage but we don't like designs that are close to the limit or run risk of being flaky. So he added two resistors and transistors to each output channel. The Raspberry Pi drives the transistor base through a 2k ohm resistor and the base is drained to ground though a 10k ohm resisters. The new approach is more components and more work but it's a rock stable solution that will last for the component life and will not suffer from component manufacturing tolerances or lifetime drift. We'll blog the details for those interested in more information.

Position: 26°50.43'N, -80°5.58'W

We picked up a rental car at the airport this afternoon and stopped by Total Wine on the way back home. The selection there is huge--it's like a highly-specialized Home Depot.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.28'W

Another great feature of Soverel Harbour Marina: a parking spot right in front of the boat.

Position: 25°59.90'N, -81°20.82'W

On a road trip to Naples on the west coast of Florida we saw several signs like this one. The panther in reference is the Florida Panther, a subspecies of the North American cougar.

Position: 25°58.18'N, -81°21.14'W

High fences bordered both sides of the road, topped with barbed-wire oriented to keep something from entering the road. When we noticed the fences had gaps near the panther crossing signs, we realized they were designed to protect the panther and give them a safer place to cross the road. The Florida Panther is nearly extinct--barely 100 adults are still in the wild--and vehicle collisions are among their leading causes of death.

Position: 25°56.54'N, -81°28.17'W

On the way to Naples, we made a couple of stops to take in some Everglades wildlife. Our first stop was at Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park along US Route 41 to walk the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk. Signs near the entrance warned of the most fearsome resident: alligators.

Position: 25°56.54'N, -81°28.17'W

The track leading to the boardwalk ran alongside a small creek containing dozens of baby alligators. At barely a foot long, they were pretty cute.

Position: 25°56.58'N, -81°28.19'W

The Lubber Grasshopper is one of Florida's many dramatic-looking insects. It grows to about 2-3 inches long with a bright color that warns predators of its poison.

Position: 25°56.63'N, -81°28.22'W

This baby alligator sunning on a branch was perhaps two feet long.

Position: 25°56.67'N, -81°28.21'W

Walking the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk through an old-growth cypress swamp forest. It reminded us a bit of tropical Daintree National Park near Cairns, Australia.

Position: 25°56.84'N, -81°28.16'W

The Strangler Fig is the common name for a variety of tropical and subtropical plant species. We saw several in Barron Gorge National Park near Cairns, Australia. The tree often starts growing from a seed that has landed on the host tree. The sprouted seed sends roots down, frequently entwining and strangling the host. When the roots reach the ground, the tree changes from an epiphyte, or air plant, to a terrestrial plant. This fig has killed its host and now entwines a rotting stump.

Position: 25°56.94'N, -81°28.06'W

The 2,300m boardwalk ends at a small and tranquil pond packed with life. The video at https://youtu.be/_s5dIAp_WQc (2:11) shows footage from the pond, including it's resident alligator.

Position: 25°56.94'N, -81°28.06'W

Several groups of White Ibis were foraging at the shoreline of the pond. We also saw a number of Great Egret.

Position: 25°56.94'N, -81°28.06'W

At the top of the pond's food chain was this adult alligator at least ten feet in length. It circled the basin, trying without luck to catch one of the wading birds that kept a close eye on it. Alligators typically grow to about 14 feet long, a little smaller than the crocodiles we saw in Australia, that often grow to about 19 feet long. That missing few feet does not make them any less dangerous. The babies were kind of cute, but that is not the word that comes to mind when you see an adult.

Position: 25°58.45'N, -81°33.25'W

Our second stop was a short distance down Route 41 at the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, part of the largest expanse of mangrove forest in North America. The refuge only encompasses a portion of the Ten Thousand Islands chain--much of the rest is part of Everglades National Park to the southeast.

Position: 25°58.29'N, -81°33.33'W

A short distance from the parking lot is an observation tower that provides a sweeping view across the everglades. The tower is barely two stories high, but the area is so flat you don't need much height to see a long way. The footage starting at 1:44 in https://youtu.be/_s5dIAp_WQc (2:11) shows the scene.

Position: 25°58.29'N, -81°33.33'W

Great Egret wading in the swamp near the observation tower. Up in the tower we got a nice cooling breeze, but at ground level the air was still and the water surface mirror smooth.

Position: 25°58.29'N, -81°33.33'W

A loud grunting noise caught our attention from up in the tower. We looked down and could see at least a half-dozen alligators looking for a meal.

Position: 25°58.31'N, -81°33.31'W

Small birds occasionally approach the water through the grass. Several alligators were lined up along shore waiting for an easy snack.

Position: 25°57.85'N, -81°43.05'W

We continued west to Marco Island where we were meeting an friend for lunch. We'd arrived a little early, so toured the neighbourhood a bit. The area is a myriad of canals flanked by mansions.

Position: 25°57.84'N, -81°43.04'W

This house next to the previous had security shutters that could seal the place off. In the picutre, the front-door shutter is most of the way down.

Position: 25°57.85'N, -81°43.04'W

The third-house in the cul-de-sac reflected the traditional Florida Cracker architecture, but looked more like four houses than one.

Position: 25°57.74'N, -81°43.15'W

A number of prime lots were empty. Presumably the taxes are lower if you don't have a house on it and the owners were waiting for a good price on the land.

Position: 25°58.40'N, -81°43.66'W

We'd gone to Naples to have lunch at the Snook Inn with Janet Perna, who lives in Naples most of the year. James worked closely with Janet in the 1990s when he was lead architect on DB2 at the IBM Toronto software lab and Janet was General Manager responsible for IBM's Information Management Software Business. We've kept in touch over the years, but James and Janet haven't seen each other for nearly a decade and Jennifer and Janet probably closer to two decades. It was a real treat to get together and catch up after all those years.

Position: 26°4.13'N, -80°10.09'W

We love adventure and exploring, and have always found RVs appealing. On the way to the Fort Lauderdale airport to visit Metal Shark Boats a few weeks back, we passed a large RV dealership and decided to drive down and check them out. We looked at pretty much everything on the lot, from compact Sprinters to full-sized buses. RVs seem to have even more compromises than boats.

Position: 26°7.16'N, -80°8.13'W

After spending much of the day at North Trail RV, we headed down to Las Olas Blvd and had a great meal on the patio at American Social.

Position: 26°50.32'N, -80°5.99'W

On our way back from Fort Lauderdale we noticed a large Snap-On display at the Marriott hotel parking lot, so stopped in to check it out. If you look carefully, this chopper is fashioned from dozens of tool-shaped parts.

Position: 26°50.32'N, -80°5.99'W

Snap-on sponsors Joey Logano's number 12 car in the Nascar Xfinity Series (after years of watching, we'll always think of it as the Busch series though).

Position: 26°50.33'N, -80°5.99'W

Snap-on also sponsors Cruz Pedregon's number 5 NHRA Funny Car. Funny Cars are one of the few ways possible to make boats appear to get excellent fuel economy. This car will burn 12 to 15 gallons in a 1/4 mile run. About half of that fuel is pre-launch fuel but, even discounting that, it's still a bit less than 0.04 MPG.

Position: 26°50.33'N, -80°6.00'W

Jennifer getting just the right amount of torque on a nut with a digital torque wrench. James had a beautiful set of Snap-on tools when he was an auto mechanic, but nothing as fancy as this. One of the few things we regret about selling everything from our house was his huge Snap-on toolbox.

Position: 26°50.33'N, -80°6.00'W

We never did figure out what the Snap-on event was about, but we had a lot of fun checking out the displays.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

One of Soverel Harbour's many squirrels enjoying a big breakfast on James' bicycle seat.

Position: 27°7.07'N, -80°16.27'W

We've not yet decided on a yard for haulout, and drove north to check out a couple in Stuart today. Our first stop was American Custom Yachts. This is where Nordhavn Southeast did most of their yard work before relocating from Stuart to West Palm Beach. The yard is large, clean and appears well-run with pretty much any service you could imagine available. Several very large yachts were getting some major repair, upgrade and maintenance jobs done. Pictured are their 125-ton and 75-ton Travelifts. They also have a 30-ton lift.

Position: 27°8.95'N, -80°11.59'W

The Hinckley yard in Stuart had also been recommended to us. They had a number of large yachts hauled out there and were quite busy.

Position: 27°8.99'N, -80°11.72'W

We had a great lunch in Pirate's Cove Marina overlooking Manatee Pocket.

Position: 27°8.99'N, -80°11.72'W

Several fishing charter boats returned as we were having lunch. By the end of our meal, over a dozen pelicans had congregated below the fish-cleaning station looking for scraps.

Position: 27°3.80'N, -80°7.55'W

Returning south from Stuart, we took SE Bridge Rd to reach Jupiter Island for some ocean views. The route was through an incredible banyan forest that completely enclosed the road. They seem to take traffic violations seriously here—two police cars were monitoring speed less than a half-mile apart on a lightly-travelled road.

Position: 27°1.17'N, -80°5.69'W

A public park was at the end of Bridge Rd., but most of the property on Jupiter Island was private. We did find a small beach access partway down and took a walk out onto the sand to see the ocean.

Position: 26°59.17'N, -80°5.27'W

Many of the Jupiter Island houses were on large lots at the end of winding driveways and barely visible, or invisible, from the road. If the separate service entrances didn't give us enough of a hint to their size and value, the fact that Christie's International Real Estate has a page specific to Jupiter Island certainly does. We saw empty lots offered for as much as $5.75 million, and one developed estate was listed for $45.5 million.

Position: 26°5.16'N, -80°7.07'W

This weekend we attended Fleet Week Port Everglades as a guest of Mike Chan, Protocol Officer with Navy Region Southeast, who was organizing the event. Read more ...

Position: 26°6.03'N, -80°7.15'W

After a great day on the USS Bataan and the USS California, we took a water taxi from our hotel to the Las Olas district.

Position: 26°6.58'N, -80°7.21'W

Dozens of boats were packed onto Sandbar Park enjoying the sunny Saturday.

Position: 26°6.97'N, -80°7.78'W

The water taxi left the Intracoastal Waterway for narrower and tighter Tarpon River. We'd be pretty nervous bringing Dirona through here.

Position: 26°7.03'N, -80°7.85'W

Some pretty spectacular houses, and boats, lined the waterway.

Position: 26°7.16'N, -80°8.21'W

After walking much of Las Olas Blvd, we finally settled on Big City Tavern for an excellent meal streetside.

Position: 26°6.76'N, -80°6.50'W

After dinner we took the water taxi further north to the Bahia Mar area. An incredible number of super yachts are concentrated in this area.

Position: 26°6.14'N, -80°7.55'W

We got a late start to the day with a lazy and delicious brunch at the Boatyard restaurant along one of the canals off the Stranahan River.

Position: 26°5.23'N, -80°6.96'W

After brunch, we toured the USS Cole. Read more ...

Position: 26°6.10'N, -80°7.22'W

The view from our hotel balcony, at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. In the distance beyond the 17th Street Causeway Bridge, you can just barely make out the Fleet Week ships at the right side of the picture. Jennifer shot the footage of USS California leaving the next day from here. We're pretty impressed with our Canon PowerShot SX60 HS for getting such clear shots at that distance. The SX60 is the latest in our series of non-SLR, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive digital cameras.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The Blue Angels were one of several performers taking part in an air show during Fleet Week. We also saw the Canadian Snowbirds earlier in the day.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The Allure of the Seas leaving Port Everglades. When we saw her, she was the largest passenger ship in the world with a length of 1,187 feet, a beam of 198 feet and a displacement of 225,282 gross tonnes. One week later, her sistership Harmony of the Seas went into service and took that title with a length of 1,188.1 feet, a beam of 217 feet, and a displacement of 226,963 gross tons.

Position: 26°7.13'N, -80°8.38'W

We returned to Las Olas for an excellent meal at the Royal Pig Pub. In an amazing coincidence, we ran into Van and Tracy Anderson of Nordhavn 55 Sunday Morning.

Position: 26°5.20'N, -80°6.97'W

Today James got a rare opportunity to spend the day undersea on the nuclear submarine USS California. Read more ...

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.26'W

James installing the final part of the 120V load-shedding and active cooling. These two relays will be contolled by the already-installed Raspberry Pi.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Pam and Bruce Harris heading north on Stella Maris. Hopefully we'll see them again when we make our way north.

Position: 26°50.91'N, -80°5.04'W

James choosing from over a page of options to create his own burger at The Counter in the nearby Gardens Mall. They have great beers on tap, and the burgers are exceptional.

Position: 26°50.85'N, -80°4.00'W

We took the dinghy out for a run this afternoon. Seminole Marine, adjacent to Soverel Harbour Marina, has three Travelifts capable of carrying 60, 70 or 100 tons. Any of the three could lift 55-ton Dirona.

Position: 26°56.10'N, -80°5.05'W

Several large yachts were moored outside the Harbourside Place mall complex.

Position: 26°56.75'N, -80°5.38'W

Lots of boat traffic at the Pete Damon Memorial Bridge. The intracoastal waterway is a busy place. These two relays will be contolled by the already-installed Raspberry Pi.

Position: 26°56.98'N, -80°4.72'W

The waterway is packed with large and beautiful homes. They weren't quite at the level of Jupiter Island homes, but close.

Position: 26°56.98'N, -80°4.72'W

Dozens of small boats were anchored bow-first below the sand cliff along the Indian River. People were swimming, sunning on the beach, fishing, barbecuing.

Position: 26°56.77'N, -80°4.97'W

A late lunch on the patio at the historic Rustic Inn with a view to the iconic Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. The light went into service in 1860 and, at 153 ft above sea level on a 105-ft tower, is visible at sea for 24 nautical miles.

Position: 26°52.80'N, -80°4.35'W

A surprising count of six Nordhavns were moored at Loggerhead Marina when we passed through. In the foreground is Nordhavn 64 King's Odyssey with N57 Jura on the right. The mast rising behind King's Odyssey is from Nordhavn 56MS Kindred Spirits. Not visible are N57 Bagan, N46 Hanuman and N43 Genesis.

Position: 26°50.77'N, -80°4.03'W

Distinctive Nordhavn 6209 Bella Leigh hauled out at Seminole Marine. Original owners Ken and Roberta Williams named the boat Sans Souci. Icelandic singer Bjork purchased the boat in 2006, renamed it Dimma, and painted it black on the outside and pink and green on the inside. The boat was up for sale in New York in 2009, and now is here in Palm Beach Gardens with a new name.

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

The boat beside us was out for the day, so we took advantage of the empty slip to power wash the bottom of the dingy and stow it back on the boat deck. Unsurprisingly, the the bottom of our dinghy had accumulated quite a bit of growth sitting in the water for the past few weeks, but we can only get it up and down when a boat beside us goes out.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

One of our many orders to Soverel Harbour included a Nikon Forestry Pro Laser Rangefinder. We finally found some time today to test it out. The device is easy to use and appears incredibly accurate at determining horizintal and vertical distances. We'll use it to measure bridge clearances. Surprisingly, in many parts of the world, bridge clearances are neither charted nor marked on the bridge and a mistake can be expensive.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

In large beam seas, the appliance garage doors behind the stove top occasionally slide open. So we cut a plastic dowel to fit in the track for when we are at sea.

Position: 26°50.74'N, -80°4.28'W

Happy hour drinks and appetizers at Carmine's Ocean Grill.

Position: 28°31.45'N, -80°41.57'W

We were pretty excited to be visiting Kennedy Space Center, about a two-hour drive north of our marina. We got even more excited as we approached, through the front window of the car we could see the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Position: 28°31.35'N, -80°40.91'W

A photo op with a space person before the gates to open. We can't wait to get inside.

Position: 28°31.46'N, -80°40.86'W

Our first stop was the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit that opened in 2013. Outside the exhibit is a towering 184-ft full-scale replica of the two solid-rocker boosters and fuel tank used to launch Atlantis into orbit. This is the display we could see as we approached the area.

Position: 28°31.48'N, -80°40.83'W

The exhibit begins with a movie describing the origins and history of NASA's Space Shuttle program.

Position: 28°31.48'N, -80°40.83'W

When the movie was over, the screen lifted and revealed the actual Space Shuttle Atlantis suspended as if flying directly toward us. Wow!

Position: 28°31.52'N, -80°40.80'W

Seeing the actual Atlantis was amazing. The payload doors are open, and a replica of the Canadarm extends over visitors as they exit the theater.

Position: 28°31.52'N, -80°40.80'W

We also rode the Shuttle Launch Experience, an amusement-park type ride that re-enacts a real shuttle launch.

Position: 28°31.52'N, -80°40.80'W

Among the many exhibits and displays is a sobering memorial to the lost Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia. Included in the memorial are recovered pieces from the shuttles: on the left is a large section from the left side of Challenger and on the right is Columbia's cockpit frame.

Position: 28°31.46'N, -80°40.87'W

We spent most of the morning at the Atlantis display, then had lunch at the Orbit Cafe.

Position: 28°31.46'N, -80°40.89'W

The NASA Robotic Mining Competition was taking place the week we were there. Forty-five U.S. University teams were competing in the 7th annual event. Today was a practice day and we spent some time watching the robots work in the demonstration sandbox.

Position: 28°31.38'N, -80°40.95'W

The Rocket Garden celebrates NASA's rocket program from early unmanned launches through to the Apollo missions.

Position: 28°31.41'N, -80°40.97'W

Jennifer barely fitting inside this replica Mercury single-person capsule. She usually makes things look big. If something looks small with her in the photo, it's really small.

Position: 28°31.41'N, -80°40.98'W

This replica Gemini two-person capsule is a little roomier than the Mercury capsule.

Position: 28°31.42'N, -80°41.00'W

This Saturn 1B rocket was prepared for the Skylab missions, but never used, and is the only remaining flight-ready specimen of the Saturn series of heavy-lift systems.

Position: 28°31.44'N, -80°41.00'W

This is the actual service arm that Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin walked in July 16, 1969 to reach their command module 30 stories above the launch pad atop a Saturn V rocket. Once inside the command module, the next steps Armstrong and Aldrin took were on the moon.

Position: 28°35.10'N, -80°38.90'W

We took a guided tour that afternoon around the Kennedy Space Center complex with a stop at the Launch Control Center where over 150 Apollo and Space Shuttle missions were launched. This is looking across Firing Room Four where the last 21 shuttle missions were launched.

Position: 28°35.10'N, -80°38.89'W

Looking northeast from Firing Room Four down the Crawlerway to the launch pads just barely visible in the distance. Saturn 1B and Saturn V rockets, and later the Space Shuttles, went through final preparations at the Vehicle Assembly Building, adjacent to the Launch Control Center, and then transported along the Crawlerway to the launch pad on 5.5-million-pound crawler-transporters.

Position: 28°35.10'N, -80°38.90'W

On display at the Launch Control Center was a single crawler-transporter tread belt shoe that weighs 2,100 pounds. Each crawler has 456 such shoes.

Position: 28°36.28'N, -80°40.19'W

The guided tour ended at the Apollo/Saturn V Center where we first watched a movie on the origins of America's drive to put a man on the moon, including a snippet from Kennedy's speech where he so famously committed the country "to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." After the movie, we moved to Firing Room Theater for a re-enactment of the Apollo 8 launch using the original firing room consoles.

Position: 28°36.36'N, -80°40.22'W

The Firing Room Theater exits directly under the boosters of a real and complete Saturn V rocket. Amazing! The 363-ft rocket is the largest ever made and dominates the Apollo/Saturn V Center. At the bottom center of this photo is a statue of Snoopy from the "Peanuts" comic strip. Snoopy was the official mascot of the Apollo space program—a photo by the statue showed Apollo 10 commander Tom Stafford, en route to the launch pad, patting the nose of a giant stuffed Snoopy.

Position: 28°36.36'N, -80°40.22'W

Alan Shepard's Apollo 14 command module, Kitty Hawk, was among the many Apollo/Saturn V memorabilia on display. The command module looked like it had taken a fair bit of abuse during the heat of atmospheric re-entry.

Position: 28°24.52'N, -80°37.09'W

We had a great meal in Cape Canaveral at Rusty's Seafood and Oyster bar. We normally prefer to eat outside, and Rusty's has a large patio, but a torrential thunderstorm started just before we arrived.

Position: 28°23.80'N, -80°36.71'W

We had purchased a multi-day pass to spend two days at Kennedy Space Center and overnighted in Port Canaveral. We started the day with our first McDonald's breakfast in years. The menu sure had changed—we'd never seen a McGriddle before. But fortunately they still served Jennifer's favourite: a sausage McMuffin with one of those tasty hash browns.

Position: 28°31.47'N, -80°40.91'W

We watched two IMAX 3-D films this morning, A Beautiful Planet and Journey to Space. The footage from A Beautiful Planet, taken from the International Space Station, was spectacular. This is a shot at night where the lit-up cities show the population centers and the . You generally can't see the borders between countries of course, but the line between South Korea and North Korea (not visible in the picture) was obvious. South Korea is brightly lit, while poverty-stricken North Korea is almost completely dark, save for a smattering of light near the capitol Pyongyang.

Position: 28°31.45'N, -80°40.97'W

The first day of competition for the 2016 NASA Mining Robot Competition was underway this morning. Teams must meet a number of requirements, including size, weight and remote radio control, and score points for categories such as the amount of sand they moved and autonomous operation, plus items external to the competition such as a slide presentation and engineering paper. The sand used to simulate the Martian environment contains a small amount of respirable silica and is an extreme skin irritant, so teams must be fully protected and wear breathing apparatus. We were rooting for Texas A&M, pictured, who'd we'd spent some time with yesterday during practice. The "Aggies" placed a respectable 16th in a field of 45. University of Alabama earned top honors operating in fully autonomous mode to the tune of "Sweet Home Alabama": https://youtu.be/GcQFft5skuo (1:12). At the start of the video, the screen shows the Alabama robot at the top left with the team monitoring its progress from a remote location at the bottom left. Another school's robot and team are on the right.

Position: 28°31.48'N, -80°40.90'W

James making a friend over lunch.

Position: 28°30.73'N, -80°36.57'W

We took a second guided bus tour of the Kennedy Space Center today, this one an "Explore Tour" with several stops where we could get off the bus and take pictures. Our first top was at the Banana River causeway with a panoramic view to the various launch centers strung along the Florida coast. This is a close-up of Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37), from where the United Launch Alliance will soon launch a Delta IV Heavy rocket.

Position: 28°35.21'N, -80°38.79'W

Looking northeast along the Crawlerway, called Saturn Causeway, toward the launch pads. The Launch Control Center we visited yesterday is close by in the opposite direction. The Crawlerway is two lanes, each 40ft wide with a 50ft median between them. The lanes are surfaced with Tennessee River Rock for its anti-spark properties. Below the river rock is a layer of asphalt and a 7ft stone bed.

Position: 28°35.68'N, -80°37.31'W

One of the two 5.5-million-pound crawler-transporters used to transport Saturn rockets and the Space Shuttle to the launch pad. The vehicle is 144 ft long and 131 ft wide, with a height adjustable between 20 to 26 ft. It is powered by two 2,050 kW (2,750 hp) V16 ALCO 251C diesel engines and has a maximum speed of 1mph loaded and 2mph unloaded. When completed in 1965 they were the largest self-powered vehicle in the world.

Position: 28°36.08'N, -80°36.41'W

Looking northeast to Launch Pad 39A. Apollos 4 and 6, and all manned Apollo launches commencing with Apollo 8 launched from here, except for Apollo 10. 82 Space Shuttle missions launched from pad 39A as well. The company SpaceX currently leases the pad from NASA and has modified it to support Falcon Heavy launches.

Position: 28°37.29'N, -80°36.45'W

The base of Launch Pad 39B, seen from a viewing stop along the tour. Launches from here include Apollo 10, Skylab 1 through 3, the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, and 53 Space Shuttles missions between 1986 and 2006. NASA plans to use the pad for their Space Launch System (SLS) that replaces the Space Shuttle.

Position: 28°37.37'N, -80°37.22'W

These fire control panels at Launch Complex 39 were used to control the direction of the rocket blast during Shuttle launches. The faces are lined with a refractory concrete called Fondu Fyre.

Position: 28°34.93'N, -80°39.10'W

The last disembarkment on our tour was at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) next to the Launch Control Center (just barely visible at the right of the photo). The massive Saturn V, with an Apollo command module and lunar lander on top, were assembled here. The Space Shuttle was also assembled in this buildling. Both were then transported by crawler along the crawlerway to the launch pad. The building is 526ft tall, 716ft long and 518ft wide, covers 8 acres (3 ha), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet of space. It remains the largest single-story building in the world, and is the sixth largest with respect to usable space. The American flag painted on the building is 209ft high and 100ft wide. To give you an idea of the scale, we're standing on a life-sized duplicate of a portion of the flag: each stripe is 9 feet wide and each star is 6ft across.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

David and Susan Odell from Nordhavn 4715 Dragonfly were in North Palm Beach and stopped by for a visit. Their boat was the first Nordhavn 47 we were on. There were two brand new 47s side-by-side at the 2004 Poulsbo Trawlerfest and Dragonfly, originally called Oso Blanco, was really nicely setup. We loved the hydraulic forward thruster and generally thought the entire boat was well throught through and well-equipped.

Position: 26°50.84'N, -80°4.05'W

Another Nordhavn 62, we believe called Dealership, at the Seminole Marine yard.

Position: 26°50.85'N, -80°4.07'W

Nordhavn 55 Mighty Aphrodite also at the Seminole Marine yard.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

We opened up the wire run at the bottom of the stateroom stairs to run signal wire from the pilot house down to the engine room to control the engine room fans for 120V load-shedding. The wire run is getting pretty tight.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The wire run between the pilot house and the engine room passes under the master berth, so everything had to come out from inside.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

Spitfire continuing on his mission to investigate every locker that we open.

Position: 26°50.79'N, -80°4.27'W

The new shroud and engine room circulation fan junction box. James put on a bigger box to allow the circulation fans to be turned off briefly when the 120V inverter load gets high. The design we chose has the shroud fan always on for safety, but the circulation fans can be automatically shut down for brief periods to avoid inverter overload when, for example, a kettle is run with too many other 120V loads active.

Position: 26°50.72'N, -80°3.95'W

Sunset dinner on the deck at Seasons 52, a short walk across the intracoastal waterway from our marina.

Position: 27°29.73'N, -80°18.04'W

The modern-day US Navy SEALs originated in World War II as Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) that provided hydrographic reconnaissance and underwater demolition of obstacles prior to any amphibious landing. The Navy UDT-SEAL Museum stands on the site where those first divers trained, at Fort Pierce, Florida, an hour's drive north of our marina.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

Just inside the museum was a Ghillie camouflage suit, commonly worn by snipers and hunters.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

Suspended from the ceiling was a SEAL Delivery Vehicle. The flooded-design submersible is designed to delivers SEALs clandestinely for covert missions. The occupants are exposed to the water and breathe either through their own SCUBA gear or the SDV's compressed air supply.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

The museum had some incredible footage of Navy SEALs in action. Check out the size of the breaking wave those inflatables are paddling into.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

An impressive display of the wide range of firepower used by the SEALs.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

The museum had a selection of plastic firearms made to the same size and weight of the real ones. Just carrying this around would be heavy enough, let alone all the SEAL's gear.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

A model of the Bin Laden compound where Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden during a raid in May of 2011.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.01'W

The actual life raft from the Maersk Alabama, where Captain Richard Phillips was held hostage for five days by Somali pirates before Navy SEALs rescued him.

Position: 27°29.75'N, -80°18.01'W

Displays outside the museum included an obstacle course modeled after that of the SEAL BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) course. A couple of people were trying their luck--it did not look easy.

Position: 27°29.77'N, -80°18.04'W

Looking into the cockpit of a Special Operations Craft-Riverine (SOC-R). The 33-ft boat has a beam of 9ft and draws only 8 inches at speeds up to 42 knots. This particular vessel logged 192 missions during 1050 hours and travelled over 3400 nautical along the Tigris River in Iraq between 2007 and 2008. SEALs always use the latest and best hardware they can get—we noted that the navigation software was Furuno NavNet vx2, state-of-the-art back on 2007.

Position: 27°29.77'N, -80°18.04'W

The 82-ft Mk V Assault Craft carries 2,525 gallons of fuel and has a 500-mile range operating at speeds beyond 40 knots.

Position: 27°29.75'N, -80°18.06'W

The Mk V carries a crew of 5, plus up to 16 SEALs in seats specially-designed for maximum comfort and shock-mitigation in high seas or heavy maneuvering. With the roof removed, the vessel can actually fit, barely, inside a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy aircraft. With a second C-5 carrying the rest of the detachment and gear, the Mk V can be deployed within 24 hours of landing.

Position: 27°29.70'N, -80°18.04'W

When the Apollo capsules splashed down, Navy UDT divers jumped from waiting helicopters and attached a floatation collar around the capsule to prevent it from sinking. They then opened the door, decontaminated the astronauts, and helped them safely be lifted out and into the helicopters. These are two of the mock capsules the UDT divers trained with.

Position: 27°29.71'N, -80°18.00'W

The Navy SEAL Memorial lists the names of all 280 Underwater Demolition Team members, World War II "Frogmen" and modern Navy SEALs who died serving their country.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°18.00'W

Navy SEAL Chief Edward C. Byers was awarded the Medal of Honor for rushing into gunfire to shield an American hostage in Afghanistan. His name was being added to the SEAL Medal of Honor statue the day we were there. Only six SEALs have publicly received the Medal of Honor. Unfortunately, many SEAL missions are classified, so there can't be a public award.

Position: 27°29.74'N, -80°17.93'W

We took a quick walk along the beach adjacent to the museum before returning home.

Position: 26°50.74'N, -80°4.28'W

Torrential rain during Happy Hour at Carmine's Ocean Grill. We've been seeing a lot of thunder and lightning storms recently--time to head north.

Position: 26°50.37'N, -80°3.97'W

We finally departed Soverel Harbour Marina this morning for a long-overdue haulout. Our last haulout was more than 2.5 years in Whangarie, New Zealand. Following us past the PGA Blvd Bridge were Nordhavns 43 Genesis and 62 Sabi.

Position: 26°46.30'N, -80°3.06'W

Nordhavn 64 Kapowai had just been launched from Cracker Boy Boat Works and was taking on fuel from a truck as we arrived. There sure are a lot of Nordhavns in the area.

Position: 26°46.31'N, -80°3.07'W

We hauled out today on the 125-ton Travelift at Cracker Boy Boat Works in West Palm Beach. The crew was efficient, competent, and careful from start to finish. Many yards only use two lifting straps, where a single failure is the end of the boat. Cracker Boy lifted Dirona on six straps and used a diver to ensure they were properly positioned, particularly around our stabilizer fins.

Given our last haulout was 31 months ago, in October of 2013, and we have been sitting in Florida waters more 10 weeks (without bottom cleaning), the bottom was in suprisingly good condition with not much growth. We did discover that we had some minor fiberglass damage on the port side under the swim step from when we were pushed up against the wave break during the 50-knot storm in Richards Bay, South Africa. The marina we'd just vacated broke apart in the storm, so we're lucky that's the only damage we took.

After we were lifted, we inspected the bottom while it was power-sprayed and scraped clean, then Cracker Boy transported Dirona across the street to a haulout stall. https://youtu.be/n-QdDbZfB4c shows stills and video footage.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

As was the bottom paint, the Propspeed we'd applied in New Zealand back in 2013 also was in pretty decent shape.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

We thought this was just a section of paint that had worn through. But, on closer inspection, it was previously undetected damage from the big storm in Richards Bay that broke up the docks: http://mvdirona.com/2015/11/a-brush-with-disaster/.

We had been asked to leave the marina prior to the storm coming in. The marina owners were concerned we were too heavy and their docks might break up. It's super annoying to wait until we have no alternatives to let us know that the facility really isn't strong enough for our boat. We considered just staying but eventually elected to leave and it was a good thing we did. In the link above, you’ll see the docks where we were collapsed and many boats were damaged. Even worse, post repairs, the docks broke up again only a month later.

We had nowhere to go and eventually anchored in the channel and tied off to a wave break. This put us on the weather side of the wave break but it was the best we could find at short notice. I think the wear on the transom paint came from the biggest storm gusts pushing us back into the rubber bumper of the wave break.

In our location we saw winds of 52 kts and the more exposed port saw over 70 kts. To escape with only worn off bottom paint was pretty fortunate.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

James removed all our zincs, last replaced in 2013 during our New Zealand haulout. In Seattle we used to change our zincs every 6 months. But since we’re not in marinas as frequently, we’re able to go years rather than months since we're no longer supporting other boats in the marina.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

James using a prop-puller to remove the bow-thruster propeller. These were a little challenging to remove. It's really important to use a puller—we've seen mushroomed prop shaft ends from them being beaten apart. Certainly this would lead to early bearing failure as well.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Chris and Rob from Nordhavn Southeast brought us some packages and supplies they'd been holding for us. The large wooden box contains our new keel cooler. The current one is in fine working condition, but we wanted to increase the amount of cooling available, so ordered one with more cooling capacity.

Position: 26°50.78'N, -80°4.27'W

Our empty slip at Soverel Harbour Marina where we've lived for the past ten weeks. Jennifer took an Uber up to retrieve our rental car.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

James removed the stabilizer winglets and let them drain before painting.

Position: 26°42.38'N, -80°3.08'W

We expect to be out of the water for about ten days. Although we usually stay on the boat during yard work and are permitted to at Cracker Boy Boat Works, we decided to live better and are staying at a hotel for the duration of our stay in the yard. We got a great room for a surprisingly reasonable rate at the Hyatt Place in downtown West Palm Beach. The room is large, with a separate sofa and desk area, includes a free daily breakfast buffet, and is a ten-minute walk from restaurant-packed Clematis St and City Place.

Position: 26°42.74'N, -80°2.96'W

After a long, hot day, we had a great meal at Bradley's on South Clematis St. overlooking the intracoastal waterway.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Keith Phan of Phan Yacht Refinishing will be doing our bottom painting. This is one if his more major projects: a multi-month LP (Linear Polyurethane) paint job on a 100ft+ yacht. The entire project is done inside this plastic enclosure to allow spray-painting. Environmental laws require all painting be done by brush or roller outside of an enclosure.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The Phan Yacht Refinishing crew sanding the bottom and cleaning the in preparation for paint and Propspeed.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

How we get on and off the boat.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Nordhavn 76 Spring Day hauled out the day after we did. That is a load of boat. Cracker Boy Boat Works used 12 straps on the over 125-ton vessel.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Our main propeller being prepared for a new coating of Propspeed.

Position: 26°42.81'N, -80°3.15'W

Lunch at the Tap House on Clematis St. with Don Wieppert of Nordhavn 76 Spring Day. We first met Don and his wife Lili around 2009 when their Nordhavn 55 Lili Pad was moored near our previous boat at Seattle's Elliott Bay Marina. We last saw Don at the 2011 Anacortes Trawler Fest. It was a real surprise and treat that we ended up together in the same yard on the other side of the country.

Position: 26°42.55'N, -80°3.40'W

Happy Hour at the Blue Martini in City Place mall.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

James sanding down the rudder foot in preparation for painting.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.24'W

Phan Yacht Refinishing repaired the areas damaged by the Richards Bay storm.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The main prop is nearly ready for Propspeed.

Position: 26°42.75'N, -80°2.98'W

We returned to Bradley's for fish tacos and Margaritas.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

A coat of Petit 6627 Tie Coat metal surface primer on the rudder foot while the wing engine propeller is being cleaned up for Propspeed.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The bow and stern thruster propellers are off, but they need some work before Propspeed treatment.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

We painted our domes grey in New Zealand using Rustoleum so that they wouldn't show soot so much. This worked well, but the paint is starting to look a little chalky, so Keith will repaint them for us. James already has the starboard dome off and is removing the port dome.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Jennifer has mostly been working inside catching up on site content while James is prepping the boat for painting. With no A/C, the interior gets pretty warm, so we've setup fans inside for some air circulation. Spitfire doesn't mind the heat though—we often find him lounging in the 100°F+ engine room after we've been underway.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

James sanding down the domes in preparation for painting.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Phan Yacht Refinishing applied small patches along the hull where the paint had worn through.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The wing propeller is nearly ready for Propspeed now.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Looking through the starboard bow thruster tube, with the props removed and the shaft covered up for painting.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Our new keel cooler with a coat of metal surface primer. Paint reduces the cooling efficiency of the cooler, but marine growth reduces it even more. So this is an experiment and if it doesn't work out we'll clean the paint off.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The first layer of bottom paint is complete.

Position: 26°46.31'N, -80°3.23'W

Keith repainted the domes with LP (Linear Polyurethane). They look fabulous.

Position: 26°42.71'N, -80°3.01'W

The streets around Meyer Amphitheatre were closed for a big Memorial Day street party, with bands playing at the amphitheater. This is our first Memorial Day in the United States since 2012.

Position: 26°42.75'N, -80°2.93'W

We see plenty of security in West Palm Beach, but they're usually bunched together in groups like this in the same place for hours. It may not be the most effective, but it does seem to work as the area feels pretty safe.

Position: 26°42.79'N, -80°3.08'W

A great meal at Rocco's Tacos and Tequila Bar.

Position: 26°46.31'N, -80°3.23'W

The final coats of bottom paint have been applied. We put on two full coats, plus another half-coat from the waterline to about halfway down the hull.

Position: 26°46.31'N, -80°3.23'W

The newly repainted domes back in place.

Position: 26°42.75'N, -80°3.01'W

An excellent evening at the Avocado Grill with Cameron McColl, owner of Nordhavn 57 Jura. Cameron also co-owns the Nanny Cay marina in the British Virgin Islands. We were hoping to stop by and visit Cameron at Nanny Cay as we were passing through the Caribbean, but ended up running straight to Florida to deal with Jennifer's shoulder injury. Cameron was in the Palm Beach area this week and came down for a visit.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The new keel cooler painted with Petit Specialty underwater paint for metal boats. James is cleaning up the threads with a wire wheel on the drill.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Installing new hull zincs.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

We'll be changing the stabilizers seals this week. As part of that job, James removed the stabilizer fin zincs. They zincs aren't completely gone, but definitely ready for replacement.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Parts and tools for the stabilizer seal job (the many small boxes at the center of the picture). James also is going to replace the starboard-side actuator (far left) and the trunion and clevis bearings on both sides (bottom, left of the seals). The large white cylinder is a stabilizer fin nut tool, and the smaller unpainted one to the right of it is a trunion bearing removal tool. At the far right is the fin position sensor tool to reposition the fin after replacing the actuator.

Position: 26°42.74'N, -80°2.97'W

A late lunch at Bradley's after a hot day at the boat yard.

Position: 26°42.51'N, -80°3.41'W

Appetizers overlooking City Place at Lafayette's.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

This morning Cracker Boy Boat Works lifted Dirona and shifted the supporting blocks and stands so we could clean the bottom and repaint the covered areas: https://youtu.be/hGV2uMe-lfQ.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Draining the oil from the bow thruster transmission.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

A layer of Propspeed going on the wing and main propellers.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

James loosening the bolts to remove bow thruster seal housing.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Propspeed going on the thruster propellers.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Chris Cooper from Nordhavn Southeast draining the coolant from the old keel cooler prior to removal.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Fernando Diaz of Nordhavn Southeast re-caulking our swimstep. The old caulk was peeling up.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

With the port stabilizer fin removed, at the right of the photo, James is cleaning marine growth off the stabilizer shaft.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

A close-up view to the stabilizer shaft arm with the fin removed.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Touching up the paint on the hull where the support stands initially were.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Removing the keel cooler.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Several of the bolts holding the thruster seal housings had seized in place. James managed to get the front two off. Tony Fields of ABT-TRAC managed to get all of the bolts out of the rear except for one on each side which required an Ez Out. We air-freighted replacements in.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Within a week of landing back in the water after the last time it was hauled out two and a half years ago, the keel cooler started leaking fairly substantially. We didn't want the expense and time-consumption of lifting the boat right back up, so we temporarily sealed it with 5-minute epoxy and it has worked remarkably well for the past couple of years. It's important for us not to have water leaks in the boat because a known water leak could possibly hide other ones.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Tony Fields of ABT-TRAC changing the upper seals and o-rings, trunion bearings, clevis bearing and actuator on the starboard side fin.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The starboard stabilizer with yoke and actuator removed and the upper seal housing exposed.

Position: 26°42.74'N, -80°3.02'W

A surprisingly tasty Avocado Margarita at the Avocado Grill. The hotel has worked out super-well. After a hot day in the yard, it's really nice to come back to have a long shower and then head out for a great meal.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Replacing the thruster seals. You can see the seal boxes and three of the thruster seal retainers.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Chris Cooper from Nordhavn Southeast cleaning the holes where the keel cooler was bolted to the hull in preparation for installing the new cooler.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

One of the boats in the yard required 100-amp service. This Y-connector combines two 50-amp connectors to feed 100.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The new keel cooler coated with 3M 5200 prior to installation.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The starboard stabilizer re-assembled after changing the upper seals and o-rings, trunion and clevis bearings, and actuator. The only thing left on this side is putting the fin position sensor cap back on (middle of photo).

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The hose end that used to attach the keel cooler, with daylight showing through the holes where the old keel cooler came through the hull.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Chris Cooper from Nordhavn Southeast fitting the new keel cooler. It's a really heavy beast.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The new keel cooler in place. The new cooler is almost identical to the previous, with a few extra cooling tubes and extends only slightly farther down than the previous one.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The wing propeller is designed to fold away when not in use to reduce drag. The gears that control the prop folding tend to get fouled with marine growth, so need a careful cleanout and liberal greasing.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The starboard stabilizer fin back in place.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The old keel cooler packed up and ready to leave.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

A delicious dinner experience at Banko Cantina. Several of their signature skewers are hanging above the table, along with a salsa sampler and Margaritas with all ingredients made in-restaurant except the Tequila.

Position: 26°47.02'N, -80°3.02'W

Jennifer stocked up on fresh produce and a few other items today. One of the few products we like that was difficult to find anywhere else in the world was Bacon Bits.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

The stabilizer trunnion bearings were very difficult to remove and the lower bearing on the port side was not budging as of late yesterday afternoon. That’s potentially a very big problem. Tony Fields of ABT ended up fabricating a tool to pull them out and found success this morning, so the works is now done. What a relief.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Although not quite as many people are in the engine room as when we visited the yard in Xiamen, China, it still fells full with, from left to right, Chris Cooper and Fernando Diaz of Nordhavn Southeast and Tony Fields of ABT all in there working. Chris and Fernando are refilling the coolant from the keel cooler job and Tony is completing the port-side stabilizer work (changing the upper seals and o-rings, trunion and clevis bearings, and actuator).

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

An excellent evening at the Avocado Grill with Jeff Merrill of Jeff Merrill Yacht Sales. We met Jeff back in 2004 at the Poulsbo Trawler Fest on our first tour of a Nordhavn 47: 4710 Kellie Anne and 4715 Oso Blanco. Jeff patiently worked with us for years and eventually proposed a deal that really looked like a great fit for our interests, and contributed a huge amount of time, energy and ideas while we built, configured, and equipped Dirona. 7,891 hours and 53,795 miles later, rarely does a week go by without us commenting on some design feature or equipment choice that Jeff recommended. It’s been years since the sale but he stays in contact, still makes recommendations, and still collects ideas from our experience to contribute to future builds. We haven't seen him since we left Seattle in 2012, so it was great to see each other again and catch up.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Cracker Boy Boat Works maneuvered this yacht into a haulout stall with inches to spare on either side.

Position: 26°46.29'N, -80°3.23'W

Steve Ellis of Dockside Petroleum fueled us on the hard this morning. We could have fueled in the water after launching, but we likely would be going in around slack water and wanted to take advantage of that to enter the adjacent Riviera Beach Marina. The currents here can be quite strong.

Position: 26°46.31'N, -80°3.10'W

As with the haulout, Cracker Boy Boat Works did a careful and efficient job of relaunching Dirona. At 2:00 into the video https://youtu.be/KzZhcdy_qDw, you can see one of the workers placing a step near the bow. Once the boat is floating, we got on using those steps to start the engine and make sure everything looked OK before the Travelift straps were released.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

We made a short trip to Riviera Beach Marina adjacent to Cracker Boy Boat Works for a few nights to get the boat cleaned up and wait for a weather system to pass before heading north. The boat was really hot and we had all five ACs running when we lost shore power. The shore pedestal had power, as did a breaker near the shore power connectors in our cockpit. The breaker at the shore power isolation transformer, underneat the pilothouse settee, had tripped. It should be able to support 50A continuous but perhaps from transformer heat or the breaker just getting old, it released the load at 44A. We'll likely replace the breaker since it only triggers near but not at max current.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

The cruise ship Grand Celebration departing on a two-day cruise to the Bahamas. The ship berths at the Port of West Palm Beach, right behind our haulout stall. We saw it arriving and departing several times during our time in the yard.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

Sunrise looking north across the Riviera Beach Marina towards the Blue Heron Blvd Bridge.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

In our slip at the Riviera Beach Marina. It was sooo nice to wake up on our boat this morning with Spitfire tucked under the covers with us. Even though we were on the boat every day, it didn't feel like our boat with all the work going on. It's nice to have it back.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

The forward thruster pressure gauge O-ring was leaking for the fourth time. In the past we've replaced the O-ring and that actually will work for a year or so but the leak returns. We do run the hydraulic system at fairly high pressure of 3,800 PSI but our experience has been that it's stays sealed up tight without issue. Over 6 years and 7,900 hours ignoring this issue, we have replaced 2 or 3 O-rings due to tiny leaks. The system is the way we like it: so clean and dry it's dusty. This particular seal that has caused problems 3 times previously is a O-ring boss fitting. This is a very reliable fitting type. We think the problem is that the original assembly missed the washer that retains the O-ring in an O-ring boss fitting. We replace the O-ring but it eventually fails again. Now that we understand the cause, addressing it is easy but we don't have the missing part on board so we just removed the T-fitting for the gauge and that gauge port. It's easy enough to re-install if we get the missing part and decide we need a gauge reading. For now, it'll join the rest of the hydraulic system of being leak and trouble free.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

The engine room and lazarette floors were filthy from the yard. Dirt is pretty much unavoidable when doing major hydraulic service and changing the keel cooler. James scrubbed them clean today, and the cockpit and swimstep too. It's back to looking great.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

Sunset over the marina.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

One of the engine room exhaust fans has started to spin backward. Since there are two installed side-by-side, this one spinning backwards causes the two to flow nothing—they just circulate air between each other. A bit of reading suggests that a failed capacitor can cause an AC fan to run backwards. Reversing polarity will do this on a DC fan, but AC fans have no polarity. A bit of reading suggests that a failed capacitor in the internal fan controller can yield this failure mode. We hadn't seen it before but, upon replacing the fan, all is back to normal again. We'll keep the failed fan for a few weeks just in case something else is at fault but we're pretty sure the failure is understood and replacement addresses it.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

From our slip we have a great view of the Intracoastal Waterway. The beach at Peanut Island on the other side is very popular on the weekends.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

We replaced the keel cooler for two reasons. First we wanted to have the reserve cooling to be able to run at wide open throttle in warm sea water with a less than absolutely clean keel cooler. The other reason we chose to replace the keel cooler is it had to come off anyway due to a water leak. The sealant under the cooler had failed. Having just addressed the only known water leak in the boat and expecting to be returning to our normal dry bilge operation, you can imagine how disappointing it was to find a trickle coming down from the supply tank area into the forward bilge. Jennifer is looking into the bilge area and up under the supply tank to try to locate the source.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

The water leak was freshwater and it hasn't rained for days and the leak is dripping frequently enough that, whatever the source, there is a lot of water. There really aren't that many options on a boat. We first shut down and drained the pressure water system. The leak continued unabated. We drained the main water tank, gray water tank, and black water tanks but the leak continued unabated. The water is very clean so we are starting to worry that we might have a freshwater tank issue. And, being a slightly paranoid engineer, we couldn't help think that it might be possible that the boat flexed while being up on dry land in the boat yard. That would be highly bad since the tank is very difficult to get to so we started to think through solutions deciding the best answer would be to install access hatches in both sides of the tanks and cut out the baffles to get to the problem area. At this point it's been leaking for 2 1/2 days so it must be residual water in the water tank. We dug down through the spares, clothes and stores to the water tank and, wow, what a wonderful surprise. Nordhavn has installed two large service hatches exactly where we were thinking of installing them.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

In our continuing search for the engine room water leak, we opened up the first water tank service hatch and the tank is absolutely unblemished white fiberglass and all the baffles are removable. It was a great discovery since it meant we could fix the tank if it was ever a problem and the build quality looked so robust that it's very unlikely to ever leak.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

The photo inside the first water tank hatch revealed a second hatch to port of the first, so we opened that to further inspect the tank. We vacuumed out the remainder of the water residue so the tank is now clean and bone dry. We're now feeling super good about the serviceability of the water tanks and their overall strength, but the engine room water leak continued without even slowing down. Gallons have flowed in so far even without any water in the pressure water system or tank. It remains a mystery.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

One of the reasons we went to Riviera Beach for a few days is to wait for a storm system to pass before we headed north. After a day of high winds, this ominous black cloud appeared bringing heavy rain.

Position: 26°46.65'N, -80°3.33'W

We walked the folding cart over to nearby Marine Tech to pickup another seven gallons of anti-freeze so we'd have enough to change the wing and generator plus some spare. When we got the boat, since it's a John Deere, we bought the John Deere coolant to top it off. However, now that we know both coolants better, we're pretty sure the yard uses Fleetguard ES Compleat. Both are exceptionally good anti-freezes, and both meet the spec of the engine. But it's really not wise to mix them. So we chose to standardize the entire boat on the Fleetguard ES Compleat.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

Our main engine uses a serpentine drive belt. These are wonderful in that they can accept absolutely enormous loads and, even driving difficult loads, they can last for many years. On Dirona the belt drives the coolant pump and two 4.5KW alternators. These alternators are beasts but the belt never slips and just gets the job done. But, even serpentine belts don't last forever. After a while they start to develop cracks across the groves and ridges in the operating face. A crack across a ridge here or there is pretty normal and not a problem but when there start to be a noticeable number of cracks or the cracks start to line up across the belt, it's time for a change. Generally changing early is the right answer since belts are cheap and easy to change but a failure can cause engine failure if the over-temperature is not caught quickly enough.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

A shortage of water just north of the marina.

Position: 26°46.43'N, -80°3.04'W

The stack of the cruise ship Grand Celebration visible over Peanut Island as it heads out on a two-day run to the Bahamas.