Catalina Sunshine: RUNNING ALONG SIDE THE DOLPHINS

1400 hours, May 26, 2015, Huckins Marine Jacksonville, Florida: Arrived at Huckins Marine.

The most exciting part of our trip from Palm Beach had been watching Jackie chase around the boat, at first searching for her dolphin friends, then watching them jump along side when they arrived, which they did several times. She would stick her head through the stainless steel line port cleats, and jump up and down along the solid railing so she could see the dolphins on the other side. She would lay on the pilot house floor waiting. As soon as she would hear a splash, or any noise like a splash resulting from the dolphins landing from a jump, she would race out the door and investigate on both sides of boat. She was as much fun watching as the dolphins jumping.

We stopped for the first time in Fort Pierce. We couldn't get our new alternators to charge the batteries. On the way to Fort Pierce we were on the line with both our engine mechanic and our electronic guy to try and figure what was going on. Our mechanic drove up to solve the problem. It turns out the alternators his assistant installed were wired differently than the previously alternators, and required some additional wiring on the boat to compensate. Once working the alternators handled the full load of the inverter so we do not have to run the generators underway except to cook or run the AC.

The Fort Pierce Marina is located next to the Town Center. There are two restaurants on site, and other conveniences adjacent to the marina in the renovated down town area. We would stop again.

Our plan was to leave the boat in Jacksonville for two weeks while we caught up with things in California. We had left varnish work on the interior and exterior to be done along with warranty work on the electronics and a few other repairs to be preformed during this time. The varnish work was to be done by an in yard contractor who had worked with Huckins for over 20 years. The problem was, the in yard contractor had gone fishing and continued to extend his fishing trip day by day for the entire time we were gone. This left an assistant to do the exterior varnish work I had scheduled three months earlier, and no one to do the interior varnish. We also had our DC fresh water pump, which we had just found out was not working, replaced. They replaced the pump with all the controls facing outboard so we need a mirror to make the pump function. While in the Yard I also discovered they had installed the port engine through hull valve they had replaced on the previous trip to the yard, backwards and it could not be closed. And most infuriating, although they included deck protection on their estimate, they failed to install any. Most took their shoes off at the dock. But, as I saw the Yard Forman do, others looking for a part or tool, walked a cross the filthy Yard in their bare feet and returned to deposit on our boat, the oil and grease they had collected on their feet. They did not clean it all up with a rushed wash down preformed at the last minute. After progressively using harsher and harsher products it finally took acetone, with a signifiant reduction in the life of my deck paint. I have still not been able to get the dripped varnish off the deck paint.

Fortunately the electronics warranty work was completed on schedule.

This is the same yard that built my flawless one off hard top a year in a half earlier.