May 2006
We knew we would be amongst the Superyachts once we were here in Florida but we really weren’t prepared for the scale of it all. This was the end of season refit for some real monsters with 100 feet considered small! There was a traveling hoist like the one we know in Suffolk but its big brother was there too and that handled motor yachts up to 150 feet! When they needed to change a tyre on the big one, the little one was used to lift one corner off the ground. The scale of refit on these large yachts was mind-blowing. Huge teams worked on every system and anything not quite right was torn out and replaced.

It takes two cranes to move this mast once lifted from the boat. Every bit of rigging has been removed, dismantled and cleaned.
Someone should tell Helios in Suffolk Yacht Harbour that their new boom is here. It looks longer that their boat so maybe they got the size wrong?
150 foot of luxury charter boat being torn apart at the seams
Another 150 foot boat but this time with sails
The jumble of cables hear look set to re-wire the marina
While boats are being worked on on land they have scaffolding and cocoons installed
This 100 foot Jongert is just a baby here...
The local lizards have curly tails and they sit right up tall on their front legs

Our own needs were extensive by our standards. We found someone who would sort out our generator for us but it turned out to be far from simple and also expensive. The interesting thing was that the problems stemmed from the exhaust blocking and not anything whatever to do with us drowning it on the Atlantic crossing as we had expected. Finally it was working again!

The alternator was also poorly and we found a great little workshop who did nothing but rebuild alternators and starter motors. They put it on the test rig and showed that the diodes had blown and we realised that a bearing was worn as well. These big Balmar/Lestek alternators turn out to be reworked Delco units. Balmar market a kit of parts for rebuilds but it contains all sorts of unnecessary extras. The guy in the shop worked out who supplied Balmar and got the parts much cheaper directly from then. He also got us a new spare alternator so that we don’t face the same problems again when away from the right support.
We got the water seal replaced in our original raw water pump for the main engine and will get the spare attended to later. Oh, the seal on the generator pump is now going the same way. Another pump swap coming up...

We struggled with the issues of US shore power with difficulty. We had hoped that the two 120 hot wire system they use would be OK since that is how our generator produces 240 volts. It turned out to be unsuccessful because the two hot wire shore power is opposing phases and the generator is same phase. This would not suit the AC refrigeration or the inverter/charger but was OK for the water heater. We compromised by converting our second shore power inlet to 120 volts and fitting a small US battery charger. Later in the year we will fit an isolation transformer to convert 120 volt single hot wire to 240 volt single hot wire. It can stay in the boat with different jumper settings and isolate the boat completely from stray galvanic currents - a big issue in our UK marina!
When we went to run the freezer again this had leaked and we had to have the leak sealed and the unit recharged again. We do hope that sees an end to our mechanical issues for at least a while now!

Getting used to US language and culture again has been great fun. Service is always with a smile and they do know why they need customers - not always the same at home.
Time to move off to the north now and head up to the Chesapeake Bay mainly through the Intra Coastal Waterway, of which, more to come...

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