Trawler Blogs

 Stuck on Stock Island —

Easing out of Marathon and pointing toward Hawks Channel, we were enjoying smooth seas and clear skies. We settled into a nice quiet 1200 RPM and slowly made way toward Key West.
No hurry, it was a short day.

Mel had read good things about Stock Island Marina Village so we thought we’d check it out for a couple of days before going to Key West.
We eased into Safe Harbor, hailed Stock Island Marina, and backed into a nice new floating dock.
All good.

Surveying our surroundings, we see a gritty industrial area with fishing boats, research vessels, boat yards, and in the middle of all this is a little oasis of a marina, Stock Island Marina Village.
The marina was teeming with seemingly bright young folks, eager to help catch lines, and standing by with smiling faces.

We like the authentic, no nonsense, feel of Stock Island, it’s not at all busy like Key West Bight and  we’re thinking it’s our kinda place.

There’s a funky more Keysian/Conch side to the marina.

Walking down the road at Coconut Row is interesting. This is the Conch Republic and probably the last bastion of that lifestyle left in the Keys. Of course, gentrification rules just like everywhere else so…

After looking around Stock Island, we think this is gonna be alright.

Then I go down to the engine room…

Before leaving N Palm Beach I had replaced a keel cooler hose and lost coolant. Slowing topping that off to the appropriate level, it’s not unusual to add small amounts of coolant till the engine finds it’s happy spot. Add too much and it spits it out; that’s messy.
You can probably tell where this story is going.
The coolant level had dropped out of sight and I was concerned so I made a call. A knowledgeable buddy told me to check the engine oil. “There could be an issue with the oil cooler or something and it may be dumping coolant into the oil pan. Probably not, but check” my learned friend advised.

Surely not, I reckoned.

I reckoned wrong.

There on the dipstick, to my horror, was an extremely high oil level.

In my mind I was nervously sorting through all the possibilities: Cracked block, Head gasket, exhaust manifold, turbo… oh shit… large amounts of money… oh shit… stuck in the Keys, at their mercy… oh shit… oh shit…

I call my friend back and he validates my thoughts and fears… oh shit… oh shit… oh shit…

How could this be? We had such a nice run, the engine was humming like always, not overheating, no high oil pressure alarm, reading normal on the gauge, how could this be?

The next day I manage to find a John Deere authorized mechanic… things were looking up. (Thanks, Next Dance)
This guys shoots down the oil cooler diagnosis and leads with the more ominous and expensive causes. “You’ve got a serious problem”, he says and he says it in the flat monotone voice of an oncologist.
But, if there’s a bright side, he’s right next door and he can have a guy over the next morning.

So to make a long story shorter, it wasn’t any of the really bad things, it was the coolant/water pump. A relatively quick fix and inexpensive ($1200) part.
Istaboa doesn’t have cancer!!

Now for the rest of the story:

I’ll do it in emotional bullets:

• Relief that the problem wasn’t catastrophic
• Surprised that they could have part shipped overnight and start fix the next day
• Happy to see the mechanic early the next morning
• Patient when he says he’ll have some new hoses shipped overnight to replace old ones.
• Peplexed when he doesn’t show the next day.
• Annoyed when he doesn’t show the second day
• Anger when I call Key West Engine Service and they tell me my mechanic won’t be back for two more days because he has to work on another boat 
• Indignant – What’s wrong with my boat and all the overnight shipped parts sitting, waiting?
• Frustrated when the power keeps going off at our slip
• Weary from lack of sleep because I must go out on the dock to reset GFI breaker at all hours of the night
• Exasperation when the seemingly bright young marina folks tell me the power problem is my boat and my fault, not the GFI. “Use your generator”, they say.
• Elation when the mechanic returns, installs pump, and coolant problem is fixed (fingers crossed)
• Respite – We move the Istaboa to another slip with good power (Obviously Istaboa’s not the problem)
• Comfort – All ACs work in all room
• Relax – I’ve slept all night without resetting a GFI or starting the generator.
• Guarded optimism – The whole ordeal is over… we hope

So that’s where we are now. It’s Sunday and this all started 9 days ago.

We’ve spent much time in the Bahamas and we’ve done a lot of work over there. We understand Island Time.
The Keys operate on a completely different style of Island Time.
In the Bahamas that’s the way the islanders were raised … in the Keys, people from all over the world come here to get away from something… not work. And, for the most part they don’t or if they do it’s at their pleasure, not yours.

Kinda like a New Yorkers with an island attitude.

In the Bahamas: It’s de islands, Mon
In the Keys: It’s the Keys, asshole! Get over it. We’ll get to you when we get to you.

We did find a nice fellow who fixed a head pump.
The Head Honcho
305-923-7861
kwheadhoncho@gmail.com

Oh yeah…  the fritz list after a week on Stock Island?  Vacuflush Head Pump, a dead, (brand new), TV, and our poor generator just got older while at the dock.

Bad timing or a black hole? Don’t know.

We did find a few nice restaurants. Shrimp Road is a food truck with a bar that’s a cool place to hang out. Roostica has great pizza and other Italian dishes, Hogfish Bar and Grill is exactly what it sounds like with good fish and a good hang.

So today we’re booked into Conch Harbor in Key West Bight where we hope things will return to normal. We know we’ll have better WiFi; that’s something we control.
It’s rainy today, that’s nice for a change, and the forecast temps are going to be in the upper end of the 80s.

So, all good? We hope.

Adios,