How She Spent Her Winter Vacation
Irish Lass spent the winter in the custody of Eldean Shipyards near Holland, MI. While reclining in a stout steel cradle in one of Eldean's heated storage building, she underwent a broad array of maintenance and repair services. Routine items like oil changes (15 gallons total!), fuel and oil filters, water pump impellers, V-belts, zincs, and bottom paint were addressed. The port engine starter was removed, rebuilt, and replaced. (The previously replaced starboard starter was also rebuilt as a spare.) Her exterior was buffed and waxed, and her interior carpets were cleaned.
We engaged Eldean to address two significant electrical issues, as well. First, we asked them to attempt yet another "final" fix on our troublesome inverter/charger. This device is designed to "invert" 12V battery power into 110V household electricity when we are underway or at anchor, and to charge the main battery bank when we are connected to dockside power. It has never worked properly and after two previous repairs (the second to undo the first😠), we asked Eldean to take a blank sheet of paper approach and make it right. If all goes as planned, it will now power all the 110V outlets on the boat plus the microwave oven AND charge batteries, as designed. Fingers are crossed.....
Our second request was to diagnose an alarming over-charging of the starboard starting battery we observed at the end of the 2021 season. Eldean's electricians dug into the starboard charging circuit and discovered that the wiring harness on that side had at some point suffered a catastrophic short circuit and partial melt down. Yikes!
The primary wiring in the charging circuit had been melted and shorted, to the extent that the entire engine block was energized to 12.5V. (For the less mechanically inclined, that's a "Holy Crap" situation.) Clearly we were headed for the disaster if we had tried to complete the Loop last year. and thank goodness our engines are not gasoline-powered. Eldean's electricians have located and repaired the source of the initial short, replaced the damaged wiring, and returned underway charging to normal parameters. Whew!
Our final bit of winter maintenance is to replace the front portion of our canvas enclosure. The seams and snaps of the exiting one are starting to wear and the "clear" portions have aged to the point that are no longer "clear." so we will meet with our new best friend, Chris, from Canvas Innovations when we leave Eldean Shipyard and he will, in return for a few "boat units", equip us with a new and improved forward enclosure. Way cool!
Go Figure......
We recently booked a reservation at a nice resort marina in Marathon, FL for the entire month of January 2023. A bit of a lottery win involving careful research and being poised over the "Enter" key at the stroke 12:01 am on May 1st. (Which, thru the miracle of Time Zones, we could do and still make our 9:30 PM bedtime.😁) In doing so, we got a refresher course in what we are calling Marina Math.
Dockage is generally priced by the foot of boat length. With the anchor on the bow and the dinghy in its davit, Irish Lass measures about 47 feet. Daily dockage rates we have encountered have ranged from $1.00/ft to $5.00/ft. In some high-rent areas, rates as high as $8.00/ft are known to exist.
Our Marathon destination quotes a winter daily rate of $3.85/ft. So a single night stay for Irish Lass would run $181.00. For a month at these rates, we would rack up a bill of $5,609 and change. HOWEVER, by booking the entire month, we get a monthly rate that works out to $2,051. Or $69/day. Or $1.45/ft. Don't ya just love that Marina Math?
Figuring backwards, we will be money ahead even if we pay for the month but only stay for 12 days. We are seeing similar pricing gyrations as we finalized plans for December 2022 in Ft Meyers. As they say, Go Figure....
Speaking of Recycled Dinosaurs.......
Irish Lass runs on off-road ("red") diesel fuel. As such, it is exempt from fuel taxes aimed at highway construction and is generally a bit cheaper than the diesel you can buy at your local filling station. (The red dye in the fuel serves as a tell-tale for tax authorities to see if you are using it in over-the-road vehicles.)
Look back at our posts from July 2020 and you will see us marveling at our first trip to the fuel dock with Irish Lass. At the princely sum of $2.099 per gallon of diesel. By the time we finished our 2021 cruise, we were paying as much as $3.00/gal.
Ah, them were the good ol' days......
We use a couple of services to monitor fuel prices at marinas along the Loop. Today, we see prices ranging from $4.99 to $6.25, with an average around $5.60. So, with Irish Lass's 500 gallon capacity, today the cost of a hypothetical complete fill-up to somewhere around $%$#*&#%#)^)($^(*#!. We are hopeful we can mitigate this a bit by watching our speed and running on one engine where conditions allow. And perhaps prices are high enough to keep more boaters at home this year, thereby reducing traffic and competition for transient dockage. Always a silver lining. Sort of. Kinda. Ahem...........
A final thought....
Men and women have struggled for centuries to find The Truth about the "economics" of boat ownership. They invoke oaths about dates of purchase and sale. They conjure images of holes-in-the-water, raincoats, cold showers, and disappearing $100 bills. They labor over spreadsheets tracking the relative costs of living on dirt and living afloat.
And the are ALL missing the point!!
Boat ownership is not about "economics". No! It's about JOY! As the cartoonist Wiley so perfectly illustrates below:
