Well, I promise that I won’t write everyday normally. But, things are interesting right now. Isn’t that an old curse “May you live in interesting times”? It certainly has been this year.

Yesterday morning, we arose early and started the engine as normal. But, it wouldn’t slow down and kept revving quite high. Mur dashed below and did something to stop the engine. And discovered that the throttle cable was broken, in fact when he got it out, it was rusted to bits. So, we tore apart the aft cabin, the cockpit locker and the steering pedestal. After about 4 hours all was in readiness and we headed out once again.

The rest of the day was uneventful and, with the sun shining, quite enjoyable.

At Daytona, we turned off of the ICW to anchor for the night. Then I found that I couldn’t shift the transmission into neutral. The shift lever was frozen! At first, we suspected the transmission which had been re-built recently. On further inspection, the cable connecting the gear shirt lever to the transmission was broken.

Two in one day! And we only had one spare. So, this morning we launched the dinghy and headed down the waterway to a marina with access to the local West Marine. They had the correct parts on the shelf. Back to the boat, take everything out of the aft cabin, empty the cockpit locker and tear apart the steering pedestal. Now the job can start. Mur is going to replace both cables as the one that he had installed in the morning had ridden around in our bilge for many years. It was already rusty.

So, eventually today we will get underway. Or maybe, if it is too late, we will wait until tomorrow. Hopefully not another interesting day.

Hugs to all,
Heather & Murray

PS the funny thing is that we are anchored in the same place where we landed when our damper plate broke two years ago. It was deja vous drifting in to anchor with no engine power.