Good morning from St Augustine, FL. Since the last post we did some sightseeing, had two CAT engine mechanics on the boat for several hours replacing a few parts, did an unsuccessful sea trial, and then moved to a working boat yard for an undetermined amount of time!

We toured the area and learned about the history of St Augustine; Florida’s oldest town settled by the Spanish.

Flagler College and some of the historic buildings.

Original Hotel build by Mr. Flagler to house guests as they traveled south on his railway.

Typical narrow streets all around the area.

The historic village area which is closed to cars and generally very busy with tourists.

We also took a dinghy tide around to Anastasia Island for a lunch at the Yacht Club and to see the light house in the area.

This is the oldest Yacht Club in Florida. Great food and very reasonable.

Is it me or are all the lighthouses starting to look alike?

Coming back across the harbor area to St Augustine.

We have been staying in the Municipal Marina for 5 nights while waiting for the CAT mechanics to get the engine working without noise and vibration. The harbor is nice, but not easy for workers to get to the boat with parts and tools because there is no parking anywhere near the marina.

Pano view of the Municipal marina.

Who Dat in her slip

Pano from the bridge back to the harbor.

So now for the fun part of the trip. I had noticed a noise and vibration that 4 different mechanics felt were engine related. We have replaced a couple sensors, a fuel line, and now an injector. Of course they do charge for all this work.

To rear part of the engine open to replace an injector.

Old injector and drive on the floor in the engine room!

Ok, so they put everything back together and it was time for a sea trial. Well, that did not go well. The engine ran great but the turbo boost and load on the port engine was not correct. We also had the port transmission to overheat for the first time. The mechanic was able to isolate the issue to the port transmission by running the boat in reverse and forward for a period and got the transmission to act up as expected.

The problem child!

So, Wednesday afternoon my new goal was to find someone in the area that can work on a Twin Disc transmission. That turned out to be a real problem. There is only one company in FL that is a Twin Disc affiliate company. I left three messages for them on Wednesday and no returned call all day.

Now for the life lesson: It is who you know not who you think you are! While we were traveling the Bahamas, we met Brian and his girlfriend at Green Turtle Cay Marina. They were traveling on his sailboat and from the St Augustine area. He had shared that he was a previous owner of the Camachee Marina and boat yard. I sent him a text and he called me right back with names and numbers of the guys I needed to talk with for a repair. I called several mechanics that can work on this type of trans and after talking with 6 different people and companies, the news was not good. They are all so busy that no one can even come and look at the trans for a week or more. I was also told by all of them that they would not work on the boat at the municipal harbor, so we need to move to a boat yard for the work to be done. One more call to Brian and we are now in the Camachee Marina for the next month so we can get this work done. We are not sure of the extent of work needed yet, as that will not be known until we actually get someone out here to diagnose the trans. We just know we have an issue. I am told that the symptoms suggest that the clutch plates are slipping and that the trans will need to be pulled out of the boat. About a two-day job to get it out, two weeks to rebuild, and two days to install again. We are hoping for someone to come out and look at it next Tuesday and then wait for a least another week before they can even pull it out.

We will try to make the best of the situation and once again change all our plans. We had laughed and said we are just behind the other loopers at this time. Now, we will really be behind them. Once we know the extent of the repair needed with the timeline, we will start to assess the areas that we will be able to stop traveling up the coast. We have to make sure we are out of harm’s way from tropical storms before the first of June. Never thought that would be a concern!

We will tour this area of Camachee Island and the other islands nearby over the next couple days while waiting for the diagnosis.

The name of the wine only seemed appropriate last night after the turn the trip has taken. (And it wasn’t bad)

Dinner out by the harbor with some local musicians.

You can just see the nose of Who Dat among all the sport fish boats.

We will cancel all plans for the next month and see what our timeline will be. This might mean we will rent a car and go see Bradley in Charlotte after they get the trans pulled. We will see.

I am still hoping that the issue is not major, but we will let you know that after we find out next week. I am thinking of starting a GO FUND ME PAGE for this poor looper who keeps having repair bills!!

Hope you have a great weekend, and I will post again once we know what is going on.