Driving Tour: October began with a driving tour of the Carolinas.
In the Raleigh area, we stayed with long-time boating friends and caught up with several friends at a wedding celebration, a birthday celebration, and a mini-brewery tour.
In the Charlotte area, we had lunch with Ray's mom, sister & brother-in-law. Then we spent a few relaxing days with Carson and his new puppy. Carson arranged a special dinner at the club for my birthday. 💛
In South Carolina, we spent a few days with my family. We had a belated birthday celebration for Daddy, and attended my great niece's first birthday. She looked cute (as always) in the princess braids I crocheted for her. Thanks to a few photographers for getting pictures before she started pulling it off. 😊
Daddy and I took a selfie in front of "Howard's rock" (Death Valley) while shopping for a special Clemson gift for the great-grandchild.
Fun fact: "Howard's rock" is the center of a longstanding tradition (1967) where players touch it before running down the hill in the east end zone at each home football game. The rock was brought to football coach Frank Howard as a gift from Samuel C. Jones, who found the rock while driving through Death Valley, California and gave it to Howard as a reference to "Death Valley," the name used to refer to Memorial Stadium. Howard reportedly said to his players, "If you're going to give me 110 percent, you can rub that rock. If you're not, keep your filthy hands off of it."
[Credit] Schlabach, Mark "Gift from Death Valley became "Death Valley" tradition" ESPN College Football
Football: We got back from our driving tour just in time for a marina-hosted pot luck for the Pathers/Jaguars game -- what I dubbed the "battle of the backup quarterbacks". Ray & I were the only Panthers fans. I was decked out!
Fun Fact: The Jaguars' mascot is named Duval (county); their chant is "DuuuVaaal".
Haul Out: It's been a year and a half since we bought SCOUT. During this time, we have hired divers to routinely clean the bottom of our boat (scraping away barnacles and slimey growth). Before setting sail for extended cruising, we decided it was time to haul her for new bottom paint (which reduces growth), inspection, and a sea chest improvement that requires the boat to be out of the water.
Geek Alert: At the bottom of this blog, I have provided more details about what's under SCOUT's water line.
While SCOUT was "on the hard", we were not allowed to stay aboard, so we did a little bed-surfing at 3 different Airbnbs.
Since the yard shuts down over the weekend, we took the opportunity to "vacation" near Jacksonville beach and try out our new e-bikes.
We had a pleasant ride through a couple of the state parks, but we didn't see as much wildlife as we had expected.
Culture: You know you're retired when you can indulge in a symphony performance on a weekday -- in the middle of the day. We saw a mini-performance by the Jacksonville Symphony at their Coffee Series. Jacoby Symphony Hall is a beautiful venue. At this mini-performance of "Hooray for Hollywood", we learned some interesting symphony facts:
King Kong (1933) was the first sound film for which a score was written specifically to enhance and support the narrative.
The original version of the familiar Think! theme from the popular game show Jeopardy! uses a celeste - an instrument similar to a piano where the keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal plates. We heard the celeste in a portion of John Williams' Harry Potter score, "Hedwig's Theme".
October has been fun here in Jacksonville -- and we're only halfway through the month!
Geek Alert: The rest of this blog provides more details about what's at and under SCOUT's water line.
SCOUT - a Great Harbour N37 - Below the Waterline:
Propellers: SCOUT has twin engines - each with its own propellor. Each propeller is protected by a keel (forward) and a a shoe (below).
Rudders: Behind each propeller is a rudder, which controls the turning of the boat (while in motion).
Each propellor/rudder can be controlled individully (dual throttles) to move the boat in forward or reverse direction. Ray has become very good at maneuvering the boat with just these these dual throttles -- spinning, side-stepping along a dock/finger pier.
The Bow Thruster is a supplemental steering mechanism since the rudders & propulsion are at the back of the boat -- sort of like 4-wheel drive for a boat. We generally turn it on (just in case) when maneuvering in tight quarters or strong currents.
NOTE: With twin engines, there is no need for a stern (rear) thruster.
Zincs are installed at every metal part under the waterline -- to protect the working metal part from corrosion. Metals corrode at various rates. Since zincs corrode faster than other metals, they are put near metal parts to attract corrosion away from the working metal part.
On our N37, there is a zinc on each of the 2 bow thuster propellers, each of the 2 drive shafts (main propellers), and 1 in the center of the stern -- connected to wiring -- to protect all other metal under the waterline -- depth sounder and thru-hull fittings, for example. ("Thru-hulls" are any openings in the main hull of the boat -- both above and below the water line.)
NOTE: You can see one of the shiny silver zincs in the bow thruster picture above.
Sea chest : Great Harbour boats have a somewhat rare feature called a sea chest -- a rectangular or cylindrical recess in the hull of a ship, which provides an intake reservoir from which piping systems draw raw water. The sea chest is taller than the water line; that is what prevents the boat from taking on water -- and sinking.
In this picture, you see several hoses at the bottom of the sea chest (below the water level), connected to valves which open or close the "thru hull". On our boat, if the valve handle in parallel to the fitting, the valve is open; perpindicular is closed.
On SCOUT, raw water is used for cooling the 2 engines, the generator, and the 2 air conditioners. We now also utilize the sea chest to draw raw water for our anchor wash-down (one of the projects Ray completed while in the yard).
Ray's main project while on the hard, was to replace the grate at the bottom of the sea chest with a grate that can be removed from inside (to clean/inspect). Below, you see 2 views of Ray sanding fiberglass under the boat -- 1 taken from inside at the top of the sea chest.
My priority while in the yard was to act as runner for Ray, passing supplies to him from inside the boat -- saving him a hundred trips up/down the ladder.
My only other task was washing the boot stripe -- the white vinyl horizontal strip on hull, just above the water line. Since our AC has been running almost constantly since we bought SCOUT (and we haven't kept it waxed as we should), the AC raw water output stains our hull and boot stripe (tanins, algae, etc.). While our engines are also cooled by raw water and also have outputs, they forutenately haven't stained as much. That is because they haven't been running 24-hours a day. (Dread seeing those stains when we finally start looping.)
Thanks to a yard crew offering a bottle of "On & Off" cleaner, the stripe is gleaming white!
Watch for another October post!