Pearson Trip-Day 1

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

I had mentioned in one of the earlier posts that we were crewing for a delivery up to NY on a Pearson 530. We have spent the past 2 weeks getting ready for this trip and provisioning the boat.  We bought cartloads of popcorn, granola, cereal, cookies, cakes, sweets, chocolate, and potato chips.  We cooked 8 frozen meals so that Kristen (captain’s wife) and I wouldn’t have be in the galley for too long cooking.  Our meal plans consisted of things that would only require one pot to heat up (i.e. Baked ziti, Borscht, Chicken Stew, Tacos, Jerk Chicken,...you get the picture). 

After weeks of delays, we finally left the docks this morning.  One of the more crucial delays had to do with Tropical Storm Chantal.  We had no idea what track she was going to follow, and we didn’t want to take any chances, but after missing our first weather window, we realized that we could’ve gone as it puttered out south of us.  Our next delay had to do with the fuel injector pump.   On the day that we had originally planned to leave, Dylan (the captain) had noticed a leak in the engine room.  It was discovered that the fuel injector pump was leaking, so that had to be taken care of before we left.  A kit was ordered and overnighted to the yard.  In the process of replacing the pump, Dylan had asked the yard to replace the fuel injectors.  Seemed simple enough, but because the engine was so old, the rusty, corroded injector broke right off in the engine.  This took the yard guys a full 12-hour day to remedy, and luckily, John was competent enough to drill out the piece and use a die grinder to dig out the rest, all the while not getting any debris in the cylinder.  Quite impressive!

After spending the morning testing the engine to see if it was still leaking, we finally left the dock around 1:30pm.  Dylan decided that since we were having such a late start, that the best thing to do would be to grab a mooring ball downtown and head out at the crack of dawn the next day.  Since Frank and I have been talking about eventually living out on the mooring, we were interested in seeing what it’d be like.  It was everything I had imagined; St Augustine is beautiful from the water.  We even had time for a refreshing swim to cool us off before our dinner of rotisserie chicken and cupcakes (for Dylans birthday) while watching the sunset from the cockpit.  Sigh….