We left Stuart, FL on Thursday morning and had an uneventful motor trip down the ICW to Lake Worth Inlet where we went out onto the Atlantic about 4:30 p.m. and set course for Miami. Shortly before going through the inlet our autohelm started to act up. As we sailed south from the inlet the autohelm stopped steering a course so we turned it off and began to hand steer. We sailed for a few hours but the wind died down and with the waves behind us it became difficult to hand steer so we turned on the engine for the remainder of the trip. It was an easy trip. It was very pretty watching the shore lights as we went by. We shortened our watches as we were hand steering and arrived outside of Government Cut in Miami by 6 a.m. We slowed down and waited for two huge cruise ships to enter the cut and then followed them in. With the ships docking in the channel, the marine police close it to recreation traffic and we took a left and came in by Fisherman's Channel. We had anchor down by 7;30 a.m. in our anchorage just south of Belle Island right off South Beach. It is so pretty here with interestingly designed condos lining Biscayne Bay. We spent the day napping and trying to decide what to do about the autohelm. We called a contractor to try to get an idea of repair cost and it had the potential to be huge. We would have to go into a marina and have the contractor test the compass. If it was working they would suspect the control computer which would have to be sent back to Ray Marine for repair or totally replaced. After adding up medical bills, boat insurance and potential repairs it was clear our cruising kitty would be gone.
Saturday our friends whom we met in Stuart, Rick and Chris on One With The Wind, arrived in the anchorage and we took them into South Beach to show them the Publix, Ace Hardware and Lincoln Mall which a wonderful outdoor mall-actually a main street that has been closed to traffic with shops and restaurants. We walked all the way down to the Beach listening to all the voices speaking many languages and watching all the interesting people. At night we watch the lights.
Sunday Rick came over to Spunky to help troubleshoot the autohelm. He spent about 3 hours moving our compass location and cleaning wire attachments. We took Spunky out that afternoon to check the results and still did not have success. John and I then disconnected the compass once again and checked the resistance between the wires and put things back together again.
Monday we once again took Spunky out to try to calibrate the autohelm which requires going around in circles a full 360 degrees 2 to 3 times until the autohelm senses what it requires to steer our boat. Success !!! we think. It seemed to hold a course so we returned to our anchorage.
John thinks we are set. I am hopeful. Now we will enjoy South Beach find a laundry and await a weather window that will allow us ample time to cross the Gulf Stream and arrive in Nassau.
The weather here is lovely. Temps in the high 70's and low 80's. We hope that 2013 is beginning well for all of you.
Elyse and John
sv/Spunky
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