Finally! Time to Write!

Hello, all! It has been over a month since my last posting, and this is my first opportunity to sit down at the computer except to pay our bills and check a few emails. Since it has been this long, I should probably start from where we are and work backwards...
We are at anchor in the ICW (West side, out of the main channel, of course) just off Titusville, Florida. Off to the East, we can see the NASA Shuttle Assembly building, some of the outbuildings, Space Museum, and what appears to be a launch facility. We arrived around 1:00pm, after an early start and easy run up from Melbourne. This is our shortest travel day so far. Tomorrow, we have a longer 50 mile run up to Daytona, where we will spend two nights, and visit with my sister Ellie Rein.
We spent a full day at Melbourne Marina, as I had hoped to have a Garmin 4212 Chart Plotter display repeater installed on our flybridge. We love the one that is in the pilothouse so much, we've decided we must have one on the flying bridge as well. Unfortunately, Bethel Electronics in Melbourne could not get a network cable in time to do the installation, so we will wait until we get to Brunswick GA to have it installed. While in Melbourne, Susan caught up with laundry, polished woodwork, while I worked on various maintenance projects.
Some of the things still on my to-do list are:
Fix the Reverse Osmosis system, which has mysteriously quit working. We have filtered water from the tap, but the RO system feeds the icemaker. We've resorted to making ice in baggies!
Replace the raw water pump which supplies cooling water to the air conditioners. We can only run 3 of the 4 air conditioners at any one time. We've tried a number of alternate solutions, and have concluded that the motor is wearing out. There is also a possibility that the supply manifold is too small to supply all 4 at once. I was able to buy a new pump motor in Riviera Beach, but have not yet installed it.
Speaking of Riviera Beach (which is actually a suburb of West Palm Beach), we had the scare of our lives while approaching the Marina there. We were ending a long run from Biscayne Bay/Miami, and were only 100 feet from the dock when we realized that the starboard transmission was stuck in reverse gear, and the controls would not respond. We were in danger of drifting into megabucks worth of other boats, destroying the dock, or our own boat! Quick action by our training captains (Diane and Ed Havelka), prevented disaster. Ed dropped the anchor mid-ICW, and stopped us from drifting into anything. A TowBoatUS craft was passing by and immediately came alongside. He tied up to us and within 20 minutes had us eased into our berth at the marina! Whew!! The tow captain recommended a friend of his (Mark Ogden, a marine electronics guru) to look into our problem, and even called him to see how soon he could be aboard. Mark arrived the next day about 2pm. He located the problem within a couple of hours. It turned out to be mechanical, not electrical, in nature. The cable running from the MicroCommander control box to the starboard transmission shifter arm had worked loose, leaving the engine running in reverse gear, just as we were maneuvering to the dock. He tightened the screws holding the cable and all was well (or so we thought). Mark also researched and corrected a couple of other minor problems during his service call, and worked with us until around 8pm. It was well worth having him aboard!
The next day, we traveled from Riviera Beach to an anchorage in Ft. Pierce. This was our first "solo" day without our training captains aboard, and the exact same problem occurred while we were maneuvering the boat waiting for a drawbridge to open. Starboard engine stuck in reverse! However, we knew exactly what to do...Drop the Anchor! Susan and I were SO glad this problem arose the day before. Susan performed lookout duty, while I went below and REPLACED the damn bolts holding the transmission cable linkage in place. I used lockwashers AND nylon locking nuts. After we got underway again, we checked my repair every hour or so, to ensure that it was still secure. It has held up so far, and we've seen no sign of any further loosening. Since we lost time during our repairs, we reached our planned anchorage just by the skin of our teeth! We dropped the hook at 6:44pm at Ft. Pierce. Sunset was at 6:45pm. Actually, we could have navigated there after dark using our instruments as it was nearly a full moon, so it isn't as scary as it sounds...
Backing up a couple of days:
The run from Biscayne Bay to Riviera Beach was the first time we ran into 5-foot seas. The boat handles these with great aplomb. However, our rough-water tie-down systems were tested. Some of the cabinet latches failed, and we lost some crockery. The refrigerator wanted to go for a stroll, and the sofa was apparently going across the salon to meet it. All this without the boat rolling at all! The active stabilizers largely eliminate roll, but the wave height still produced the forward and back motion. Somewhat like riding a hobby horse. Not severe, but enough to give us a sense of what we need to do to complete our tie-down routine. Actually, considering all of the furnishings that actually did stay in place, we are quite pleased with our initial preparations. We just need to fine-tune a couple of things. For example, the crystal and glassware cocoons we made performed perfectly! None of these items moved a bit.
I think I will stop here, and do another posting with a few pictures, then I will attempt to go back to our starting point in Bradenton on October 15th, and describe our training run from there to Biscayne Bay with Ed and Diane.
Love to all,
Walt and Susan
Aboard MV "KINGDOM"