Judy Beauty

Judy Beauty

 

 

 

Christmas was spent with just a four of us in the apartment. Naomi and Grant did a great Christmas lunch, we drank too much Champaign and before we new where we were, New Years eve was approaching. New Years started with dinner at the little Italian restaurant just around the corner from the apartment, followed by fireworks. Fireworks are available in Florida and Father Christmas had delivered bunch of missiles of one sort of another to Grant. So, after dinner it was back to the apartment for fireworks. Fuse systems were set up for multiple firings, it was regular pyromaniacs paradise! There was even an audience on one of the adjacent second floor balconies to cheer us on. Once the sky had been lit up on several occasions it was of to central Orlando to see in the New Year. We found a suitable bar come night club and settled in! Plenty of time before Sasha and I had to be at the airport for the 7 am flight to Oriental. 70ties and 80ies music was apparently the order of the night, so we stayed danced and drank a little until about four. Stumbled back to the car and Naomi the skipper drove us home just in time for Sasha and I to throw our bags in the car and drive to the airport.

 

 

 

An hours kip in the plane, met up with Gary in Atlanta, and arrived in New Bern about midday. By 1 pm on 1 January, 2006, we were standing on the dock (jetty) taking our first look at the Beneteau 393, Judy Beauty. She did not disappoint. It was as though she had been sitting in the showroom for three years, not a mark on her, or it all seemed to good to be truth. Henry, Gary’s counterpart in the deal setup at Triton Yachts, turned up and we went for a sail in a very light five knot breeze. She sailed at three knots. With engine running at 2800 rpm, she cruised at 8 knots. Sasha and I were suitably impressed. There were a couple of very minor items that we haggled about, but then a virtually new four stroke outboard was added so we settled on our final offer which was accepted. All we had to do now was come up with funds by 30 January!

 

 

 

When we first moved into the apartment we had opened an account at the local branch of Suntrust bank. Frank, our contact at the bank seemed fairly confident we could get a  marine loan for part of the cost of the vessel. However, after many back and fourths it seemed there was no way around the fact that I hadn’t ever had a loan in US and therefore had no credit rating. So it was back to scraping up funds from Oz and getting them into the account at Suntrust. No such thing as on-line transfers internationally and we soon found that it takes at least a week to wire funds even though it is suppose to be electronic! Eventually, after maxing out all Oz loan accounts and credit cards, we had amassed the required funds and the payment was duly made on time.

 

 

 

Neither of us were very keen on the name Judy Beauty, and although it was suppose to be bad luck to change the vessel’s name, we both thought it had to be done. There had to be a theme! The secondary colour of Beneteau was green. It was French design, Frog just had to come into it somewhere. Sasha started search into Australian Aboriginal language names for frog that sounded at least a little famine. Eventually we settled on Ednbal – green tree frog in ?? language of ?? area in Oz. Enquiries in Oriental where there are several marinas reviled a boat sign writer Susan Henry. Sasha had found a great frog animated character, so we sent Susan the name, font and the animated character for her to change the identity of Judy Beauty. All was going to plan, we were to fly to the boat 17 Feb, we would have Australian Registration completed, a one year US cruising permit and sail Ednbal down to Melbourne in the week of 20th Feb.

 

 

 

I rang the US customs in Morehead city the closest to Oriental about the permit for an Australian Registered vessel to cruise in the US. I had to explain that we had not “entered” the US, as we had just purchased the vessel in Oriental. A major problem! You cannot get a permit until you leave and enter US formally. First you need a permit to leave and you must apply for that in person in Morehead city. Well, not too bad as is not far from Oriental, Could we do it Saturday? No the office is closed over the long weekend as Monday is Presidents Day, and the office would not reopen until Tuesday. Great!! I rang the next up the line, Customs office in Wilmington. When I explained the situation and how the de-registration with US Coast Guard was proceeding, to allow Australian Registration, the guy stopped me and asked. Is the vessel at this time registered with the US coast guard? I said “Yes, but”, and before I could go on he said he did not need to know anything else, we could sail the vessel to Melbourne, flying the US flag and work it all out from there, when we had time. I did not ask any further questions, just sent a letter to him confirming the conversation!

 

 

 

We had a reasonable inventory of the vessel and knew there a few items required for the 600 mile trip from Oriental to Melbourne, engine spares, safety lines, foul weather gear, radar reflector, first aid kit, additional fuel drums and possibly a life raft. A date was set, 17 February, that would if I took 3 days holiday for President Day and the GE “floating” holiday for Easter, give a week to sail 600 Nautical Miles. Sasha set about searching the web for the various items. The items started to turn up at the apartment from all over the world. Some were delivered direct to Oriental.

 

 

 

The few weeks flew past and before we new it was Friday and we were on our flight from Melbourne to Kingston, where we picked up the hire car and arrived at Pelican Grove Marina close to midnight on 17th Feb, 2006.  It was freezing literary. Sasha was just getting over a cold, she had been in bed all day Thursday, so first thing was to get the A/C on Judy Beauty pumping out worm air. I plugged in the shore power, but although we fiddled every switch combination, we could get neither of the two A/Cs on board to fire up. We eventually went to bed fully clothed in our sleeping bags and froze. Needles to say it did not do Sasha’s cold much good.

 

 

 

Next morning I discovered there was a second shore power connection, when plugged in both the A/Cs sprang into action, at last a lovely worm vessel. We got things on board, generally organized and set of to run the various errands. Fill the diesel jerry cans, pick up the dingy and outboard, pick up items sent direct, filled water tanks, etc. Most went without a hitch until I turned on the tap to fill the empty water tanks. Nothing happened. All water had been turned off to stop pipes bursting as it freezes. I managed to borrow a couple of 5 gallons water containers and proceeded to ferry very cold water from the club house, about 200 m away, in a small trolley to the boat and almost fill one tank.

 

 

 

We settled into a lovely warm Ednbal for Saturday night.

 

 

 

Sunday morning was clear and I went outside to wipe down some of the water from the teak cockpit decking to find it was very hard . The decks of Ednbal were iced! Sasha’s cold had deteriorated, and we were debating whether or not to leave or wait another day. The weather pattern for leaving Sunday was almost perfect, but waiting another day should not be too critical. We decided the best for Sasha to recuperate and carry out some more checks of the vessel. I found the second engine starting battery to be very low on water. After putting in almost 2 qts (about two liters) of distilled water we decided that the battery needed replacing. I walked over the bridge, about a mile or so to Oriental, with several layers of clothing and foul weather gear on. The only part uncovered was from the bridge of my nose to my eyebrows. It was bloody cold!! The marine store had the exact battery and one of the customers was kind enough to give me a lift back to Pecan Grove Marina and Ednbal.