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I feel like I’m getting back to my old self.,….. more relaxed, building my core strength by “working on the boat”… the sun is filling my eyes and tanning my legs again.  It’s in the mid 70’s here so shorts and tee shirts are the suit of choice.  No more go to work in the dark and come home in the dark with a coat on….  It’s pretty nice to see the sun all day!

Spending time just me and Linda…  especially on our boat together…  Kind’a nice.  As we get the boat organized like we want we are definitely getting into the “groove”  I shaved last night for the first time since we left for Florida, not for the look of it or the need…. just because I didn’t like how it felt when I sleep.  A short beard bothered me so shaving was the solution, not the rule.

Where I sit right now…. the sun is two hours away from painting me a personal picture that few will see.  Islamorada is gearing up for a big night.  Lorelei’s beach bar and grille will soon be playing live music and since we are 200 yards from shore the concert will be free.  I went ashore earlier to pick up a couple tee shirts to mark the event.  Of the 30 boats anchored here…… 10 to 12 are inhabited.  The rest are either delinquent strays that have long since been forgotten, or some guys home that he goes to when he gets thrown off whoevers couch he currently sleeps on.  There are lots of 25 to 27′ “homes away from home” here.  Much of Florida is either derelict boats or million dollar motorcraft.

On the other side of the coin… This morning a 1/2 a million dollar lagoon power cat left for points North.  We sit a good days journey thru the mangrove bays from Miami.  There are half a dozen nice motor trawlers in the harbor and one  other sailing cat.  A 38′ Leopard came in the anchorage about noon, he took up residence behind and to our port.  It’s an older boat…. you can still see the “Moorings 38” sticker on it.  The Moorings is a bareboat charter company that designed their own layouts and contracted with Robertson Caine to make all their boats.  Second to a Seawind…. Linda and I like the 38′ model a lot.  She’s a long legged very able sailboat with a nice layout.  I sailed next to “Texas Two Step” on the way to Long Island a couple years ago and she goes like the wind!  Not only is the arrangement nice, it’s a good sailing boat.  That means a lot to me.

I can hear a round motored airplane overhead……..  In Florida you see Stearmans and all sorts of interesting WWII vintage airplanes flying around.  By round motored I mean the engine is a radial design where the cylinders are in a circular arrangement around a central drive shaft.  Florida is the home to many advertisement aviation operations.  They pull banners saying “Eat at Joes” or whatever your willing to pay for.. whatever you want to say to the millions of tourists that cover Florida’s state payroll.  WWII planes make a special sound that instantly make old guys like me look…. so they probably demand more money than a Lycoming powered late model.  The “band” just struck up at Lorelei’s, it’s usually one guy on a guitar singing all the popular 70’s & 80’s beach songs.  Tonight is no different.

We are about one hour from Conch horn blowing time.  I heard one or two horns last night.  It’s customary in the Bahamas for every boat to have and blow a conch horn at sunset.  Georgetown probably has the most I have ever heard…… maybe 15 or 20 horns all blowing at once to mark the days end.  Tonight I have mine all warmed up and ready.  I’ll join the horn section for the first time this year…. but it won’t be the last.  I found the conch I made my horn from in the Berry islands where Linda and I went for our Honeymoon.  When we sailed to the Bahamas for our honeymoon we rented a Seawind 1000, the boat we eventually bought…. Ten years later we returned on our own boat and I equipped it with the proper instrument from the proper place.  Life is good.

Sea Yawl Later !!

I have been trying to get the boat in order since we boarded her on Friday.  I am very frustrated at the moment and a large part of my frustration is just situational.  As I have said before trying to provision and clean is difficult.  However, I keep finding little “surprises”.  This morning when I started cleaning at 4:00 am I found a cabinet that was full of damp/wet clothes.  Now this cabinet has NEVER been anything but dry as a bone.  During the crossing from Corpus the forward hatch on that side was not closed properly and that side of the boat took on a lot of water.  I’m sure that’s what got everything in the port hull wet.  When we boarded you really couldn’t tell except for a slight musty smell, most of it had been cleaned, but we are still fighting the smell and probably will be for a while.  Lysol and Fabreeze are our new best friend.  We both have developed a bit of a cough.

Rusty here:  Right now the sun is beaming into the open hatches, I changed plugs in the dink so it idles like a champ, I bought some 1″ wide webbing to repair the mainsail attachment points.  I bought 2 new boat bumpers so we will have enough again, I lost the rubber welting that pads the bottom of the Dinghy motor cowling long ago, and today I found a good replacement here in Islamorada at Caribe boat sales so the hood fits nicely again.  I need a new shifter cable for the port engine.. they have it here at Carribe… but it’s so expensive I may wait until I can get to a West Marine… How scary is that… waiting to find a West Marine because it’s cheaper!

Man I think I found a new trick….  I haven’t filled the generator in days!  Using a special cap with a quick connect on it and a squeeze bulb fuel hose, I figured out I can stuff the open hose into to a 5 gallon can of gas sitting on the back seats and it will siphon into the generator as it needs fuel.  This will be extraordinarily awesome when it gets hot and we run the AC all night.  No more 3AM get ups to refill the generator.

I totally reorganized the “garage” today.  Everything has it’s place, it’s all clean and the water that gathers in the hulls on big wave passages is all sponged out.  Tomorrow I want to bring the watermaker to life…. flush it out / change the primary filter and make sure it’s A OK.

I suspect tomorrow morning we will pull up the Manson, go in and buy fuel here in Islamorada, top off the water tank and head to Key Largo 18 miles away.  I just ordered a new battery for my handheld VHF at West Marine in Largo, the cable that’s $64 here in Islamorada is $45 at West Marine.  Our final shopping in the US will be via taxi in Largo then it’s just sailing North a few miles to stage in Angelfish Creek for a Friday night gulfstream crossing to Bimini.

The only thing left to do here in Islomarda is dingy into the local beer joint (Lorelei’s) and buy me and my daughter a tee shirt.  It’s 4PM here on the east coast….. I think I’ll get that done now and settle in for the night.

Sea Yawl Later !!   Rusty

We are approaching Islamorada, Fla.  Yesterday was a great sail to Little Shark River.  We got our anchor down around 5:30pm.  We met a lovely couple from Niceville, Florida that had been gone since November and were on their way home.  They told us that they had gotten an ipad and bought a sim card from Balco for $14.99.  They were able to get internet pretty much everywhere.  I have an ipad but I am not sure if it has a sim card.  He also said that most smart phones can take a sim card.  That would be sweet, especially after todays drama.

We did not have a cell signal all day yesterday and didn’t get a signal until around 11:00 am, at which time I got a frantic message from my daughter Erin.  She is pregnant with her first baby and my first grandchild so she is a little hormonal.  She had an OB appointment and has a few issues and really needed to talk to her mom.  When she couldn’t reach us she then went to, “something bad” has happened.  She was in tears by the time I was able to talk to her.  She told me I needed to tell her if I was going to be out of reach.  Then I had to explain that I didn’t KNOW I was going to lose cell service…………bless her heart…………..she really wants me close but she will NEED me more in that last tri-mester and when that baby gets here.  I wish I could clone myself sometimes.

Sunset last night at Little Shark River.

Today we were able to sail more than we expected with an East wind, but the day eventually included a lot of motoring.  The southern Florida Bay it was like a minefield, there were crab pots everywhere in the channel.  There were times you just could not miss them.  Once we had two on one rudder and one on the other.   The problem was, the buoys might have six or seven foot of line floating beside it so if you barely miss the float.. you got the line anyway.  It really is a hazard.  I think if Rusty had had a machete on board he would have started cutting lines.

The weather has been beautiful, we are currently (5:15PM) anchoring in the mooring field in Islamorada.  Tomorrow Rusty has a list of parts he needs from the Caribe Marina here in Islamorada.  It’s a great place, you can pull right up to their fuel docks, take on water and shop for marine parts all at the same time.  He also plans on listening to Chris Parker to see when a good weather window will open up for a Gulf Crossing.  Other than the crab pots it was a good day, not much broke, and what did break was cheap.

The new mainsail is fantastic, unfortunately it was installed with very light 5/8″ wide strapping so one connection has completely failed, and the others are suspect.  Hopefully the marine shop has some heavier strapping.  Rusty really enjoyed playing with his new sail the past couple days.  He talks about how tunable it is compared to the old cruising sail.  So far our top speed has been 11.9 knots.  Monday the waves and winds allowed a bit of surfing so Rusty was smiling and I was down below in the bed sleeping thru it.  We have been seeing a lot of 8 knot speeds, some 6’s and some 9’s.  The peaks we talk about are when the stars align and Rusty hand steers down the right wave face just as the wind pipes up.  He has been a happy boy!

Under sail.  This photo does not due the water justice.  It was soooo pretty.  You forget how green and clear the water is and this is nothing compared to the Exumas!

We had salmon croquettes and oven roasted onions and potatoes for dinner.  Rusty smiled and thanked me a lot so I guess he liked it.  I’m a crab cake snob and didn’t like the patty as much as Rusty, but I’m glad he enjoyed the dinner because we have several cakes to reheat.  Our boat stores probably rival a caIrnival cruise ship.  One thing I like to do is satisfy my hubby in the food department.  I can’t sail but I can cook!

I am having to relearn how to post photo’s.  Hopefully I will improve with practice…………..you get the idea!!

Sea Yawl Later!!

Linda

The last couple of days have been a bit trying.  Cleaning and provisioning at the same time is the pits.  Yesterday morning Rusty went to the grocery to get our produce while I continued to put things away.  Finally Saturday night you could see that the salon did indeed have a floor.  Yesterday we decided to get off the mooring ball and anchor near the bridge to stage to leave…..we had not been there a hour and the bottom fell out of the sky……lighting, gale force winds and heavy rain.  We were not confident in our hook up so rather than worry all night we went back to the mooring ball.

Today is Sunday and it has been a beautiful day.  There was a small crafts advisory out until 1:oopm.  We went back and forth about whether to leave………I was mostly back and Rusty was forth.  Eventually we decided to stick our nose out and see.  We have always said that in all our sailing those truly special days where everything is right happens about 1o% of the time.  Today was one of those days.  But I am head of myself.  First we had to find a place to buy a money order for the $300.00 speeding ticket Rusty got.  Then we started out Manzantas Pass and all $%@ broke loose.  Rusty and I put up the main sail and something was wrong really wrong.  Turns out the back was reefed in but the front was not.  This violently lifted the back of the boom which would not have been too bad except the main sheet pulled out because there was not a knot at the end.  Rusty quickly put the auto-pilot on and it went crazy.  Now we are in the pass with all the other Sunday boaters.  Rusty maneuvered us off to the side and dropped the anchor.  People were yelling at us that the back was reefed………Yeah, Yeah we know!!  Rusty was able to get the sail unreefed, rerun the main sheet tying a knot in the end and then he changed the settings on the autopilot and Wahhhh Laaaaa……….Nirvana !!

We had heard that a group of sailors were going to leave at 10:30pm for Marco.

Rusty here:  We couldn’t leave until 12:30pm so we had Naples as our destination which is 15 miles closer than Marco.  I knew when we came out the cut we might be rocking a bit until we got set up on our downwind run.  SYL quickly took a nice set at 170 degrees true.  Winds were 15-18 knots just starboard of the stern.  Once I got the auto-pilot readjusted it held the course like a dream.  Rudder gain was set on 6 so the boat swung wildly for every adjustment.  I set it to 3 and even with the starboard quarter seas “Otto” was happy again.  This was my first opportunity to sail with the new main.  The headboard has a forward and an aft attachment point for the halyard.  I choose the aft halyard point knowing we would be in a downwind run all day.  That cupped the top of the sail rather than letting it blow off.  Also, I was able to check out my new 3 to 1 outhaul, letting it all the way out made a significant shape difference to the bottom of the sail.   Playing with sail shape and traveler position made tons of difference.  I found it much more reactive than my old main.  In short, I really like the new main sail. We stayed in the 8 knot range and peaked out at 10.8 knots.

With that boat speed the GPS showed a 5:30pm arrival at Marco.  I opted to hand steer most of the way not because “Otto” couldn’t handle it but there is a lot of speed to be had by working the wheel as the 4-6 ft waves approach from the rear.  I didn’t have quite enough wind to stay at wave speed but we had some pretty good 8-9 knot runs.  We arrived at Marco at 5:30pm.  As I entered the pass, Linda cook dinner and had it on the table right as I was setting the hook.  All in all it has been a glorious day.  Our first day back on SYL was indeed one of those 10%ers.

Sea Yawl Later!!

We are finally on SYL in Ft Myers, Florida though it was like walking through wet cement to get here.  We left the lake with hugs and waves and high expectations of being on SYL at long last in about 48 hours.  We were well on our way, making good time and as we approached the “Mandeville Triangle” as we have recently coined Mandeville, La; Rusty told me we better call our dear friends Michael and Guiann Carpenter and let them know we are passing thorough and stop and say hello if they are free.  Rusty also add, “we don’t want any car problems”.  We have made this trek from Texas to Florida for many, many years when we were bare boat chartering are when we leave SYL in Georgia and several times we have had car trouble, I am taking MAJOR car trouble like losing a transmission kind of car trouble.  Michael and Guiann always helped us by loaning us cars, putting us up in their home and treating us like royalty.  I called Guiann and made arrangements for us to stop by.  Guiann wanted us to spend the night but we really wanted to get a few more miles toward Ft Myers.  It was not fifteen minutes later that the car started dying.  We had to pull over several times, turn the car off and start again.  We called Guiann and made arrangements to spend the night.  We had always joked that Guiann, the quintessential southern belle, placed a “voodoo” on our car so we would have to stay.  We love, love, love Guiann and Michael and staying at there home is like staying at a 5 star resort but it seemed we were usually on a tight time schedule.

Early the next morning Rusty took our car to the Dodge dealership and we were told we needed not one two fuel pumps.  We had gotten bad gas.  We asked if they could expedient the parts and it seemed the best they could do was Friday, this was Tuesday, and if it didn’t come in Friday then it would be the next week.  Rusty found some after market fuel pumps he could get in by Wednesday at 6:00pm but Dodge wouldn’t install them.  Rusty decided he would do the install, which he did and we were on the road again Thursday.  Schedules changed for the couple we had hired to take the boat the Marathon and they needed to leave ASAP.  We found this out Wednesday before the parts were in.  We couldn’t guarantee we would be on the road by Thursday so we spent Wednesday on the phone trying to figure out what our options were.  We had planned on Mark and Julie taking our car home but they really needed to get home and we  couldn’t be sure when we  could make that happen.  Ultimately we had friends who live in Ft Lauderdale that said they would come get the car and keep it at their house for us……………these were friends we met in the Bahamas in 2010 who have a Seawind 1000 like ours.  We rented Mark and Julie a rental car one way to Corpus so they didn’t have to wait on us.  It all worked out well.

We contacted the water taxi and told them our stationwagon was packed and could we transport our “stuff” as well as us to our boat.  We were told “no problem, I will even have someone to help you”.  Awesome!!  Well when we get there, there is this older fella that was none to thrilled about our stuff and said he didn’t have any help and we would have to do the loading.  So he talked on his cell phone, complaining about the time it was taking for Rusty to haul all our stuff from the car to the loading dock.  We filled up half the water taxi.  Rusty was not feeling great but he got it all done.

I had not been on the boat in months and it had been a long, long time since she had had a “deep cleaning”.  We had quite a bit of repairs done but everything else was pretty much the way Rusty brought it back from Florida a couple of years ago.  There were can  foods that had leaked and created quite a mess, so much stored food that was out of date, etc.   I have never provisioned this way before and I hope I never have to provision this way again. Usually I clean everything from top to bottom and provision in stages.  I buy a little put it away, buy more, put it away, tec.   We only had the car for yesterday morning so Rusty went to the store with a list for what I thought we would need for the entire trip.  Trying to clean out everything while the boat is cluttered and I mean cluttered, is awful.  I started out cleaning like I normally do and organizing everything but this is not going to work.  I have changed to taking everything out and cleaning things thoroughly but to say I am organizing what I put back well………I am using the “stuffing” technique for now.

I cleaned the stove but when I asked Rusty to remove the stove so I could clean behind it he looked at me like “really?”.  I guess that can wait…Rusty is still feeling pretty weak and runs out of gas quick.  The refrig, freezer and major storage areas have been emptied, clean and now I am just “stuffing” things and making list of where I have “stuffed” things.

Rusty is off to the store for fresh produce that he didn’t get yesterday and I am taking a break from cleaning to write this.  Well, back to cleaning and “stuffing”.

We are on our boat and we are in Florida……………We are choosing to be happy!!!!!

Sea Yawl Later!!

Linda

We are enjoying the Lake House.  Visiting with good friends we haven’t seen in ages around the lake, riding in the golf cart, the semi cool spring weather is such a difference from the 4AM get ups and a 20 minute drive into the middle of an oil refinery that spits out sour smells and steam….. 

After resting and sleeping for days now.. I got out and visited the neighbors a bit today.  Our house “Sitton on the Lake” is a unique and quiet respite.  Gentle winds thru the 90′ pine trees.. the fresh scent of clean country air across the water….. looking out the picture windows at the patterns the wind  makes on the surface of the lake are healthy to the mind and body.  Definitely a change from the windowless office I have been spending time in.

Today I made some vacation progress… I tuned up and packed my remote control sailboat in it’s carrying case for the Bahama trip.  My Chistmas gift this year was a 57″ long 10′ tall carbon fiber replica of the 1993 america’s cup sailboat.  I’m looking forward to playing with it in the Georgetown harbor.   I like toys, this one will be quite the conversation piece among the sailors.  It’s a big investment as far as space goes to carry the huge RC sailboat but I know it will be worth it.

Chillin’ at the lake with a big trip on the horizon….

SYL left Destin this afternoon for points South!  By the direction they are taking it seems the Keys may even be their target.  The best thing about leaving from Destin is you can bail out anywhere along the West coast.  With all the trials Mark and Julie have had, I hope they don’t feel the need to pass up much of the pretty part of Florida in order to make some schedule.  Clearwater to Marco is the best part of the ICW. 

Linda and I have done much of the “work” to get ready for our big summer.  The RV is settled, the car is pretty well packed, we made it to the lake.. I have had more than one 10 hour sleep!  Life is good.  After months of 4AM wake ups…… it’s pretty nice to see light coming in the window when I get up.  I’m looking forward to some more of those lazy mornings, some down time here at the lakehouse before we take on the boat trip.

Right now the full moon is reflecting off the lake… yep….. time for some serious rest.

Sea Yawl Later !!

Rusty

The Intracoastal Canal is regreted by some and detested by others, I kind of like it.

I grew up on the Sabine River so running the river is an elemental part of my “good memory” bank.  I have great youthful memories of water skiing for miles on end with my brothers  behind my old 85 Mercury on a 17′ Glastron.  Narrow strands of water and boats have always been an intergral part of my life.  In the late 70’s a Hydrostream boat was all the rage.  I bought a brand new one…. “Loco Coco” brown with metal flakes the size of diamonds.  In 1980 I bought my first V6 outboard, a Mariner 200 “Gray Ghost” and hung it on my Hydrostream Vamp.  I have run a river full of gasoline through that rig.  Life at 79 mph was very good for a very long time.  My son still has the boat.

Mom and dad belonged to the “Rooster Tails”, a boat club in the 50’s that traveled and camped on the rivers of East Texas and Louisiana.  They had embroidered jackets and everything.  Hells angels on the water…..  only different.  It was a family affair that branded me with the love for the river.  Some of my first memories as a kid are riding under the bow of a boat and seeing the process of my dad building a boat in our garage.  On this one campout a thunderstorm approached as we were breaking camp on the sandbar, tents, lawn chairs…. adults loading the boat.  I remember a long bumpy ride with me and Mom cuddled up on the orange life jackets under that bow to escape the stinging rain and lightning as dad motored us home in front of that first big tall 6 cylinder mercury that was ever built.  It was an amazing engine, when you shifted into neutral, the engine stopped, as you shifted to reverse the engine started backwards, so there was no shifter in the lower unit, the engine actually ran backwards.

I guess my love of the river makes the ICW more than bearable for me.  I’m watching my boat go down the ICW right now on it’s way to Florida via “spot” and google earth.  My mind sees the familiar sights I have seen many times as we passed them on our multiple ICW transits.  The entry to the locks at different locations, moss in the trees in Louisiana, The Mermentau river basin, “stump alley”, and crossing the mighty Mississippi are all burned into my brain, easy to recall at a moments notice.

I’m still at work as my boat sees all those things without me, but soon I’ll be on her with my wonderful travel companion, my wife…. for a great spring adventure.  SYL is approaching the Harvey locks soon, ICW mile marker Zero.  My boat has seen the intracoastal from its beginnning at the Mexican border all the way up the east coast.  Sue me, I like a river………….

Yesterday SYL started this season’s adventure…without us.  We have friends that we have hired to take SYL to Florida.  Rusty’s job is not going to be over until later in March so we decided to have SYL delivered so we can make it to the Exuma’s and still have plenty of time before hurricane season starts.  We are both ready to “get away”.  It has been a hard couple of years and this TA is and has been difficult.  Erin and I have been at the lake for almost a month.  E is pregnant with my first grandchild and her husband, Michael, is working nights for the TA so it just made sense to be here.  Monday we head back to Corpus Christi with a stop in Webster for a doctor’s appointment for E.  Rusty and my RV is in the shop having warranty work and won’t be ready until sometime late in the week.  My sweet hubby made reservations at the Omni in Corpus for Monday and Tuesday……I was looking at Motel 6’s.

The refrigerator in the RV has never worked properly since we bought the Columbus new.  Now the freezer smells awful because it defrosted with shrimp in it.  I tried cleaning with Clorox wipes but it didn’t help.  I haven’t completely emptied it so I will try that next.  According to Colonial Del Rey the manufacturer, Dometic, says it is my problem.  We shall see.   If I can’t get the smell out then it will make selling the RV rather difficult.  I am not letting them off the hook that easy.  I have had the refrig worked on twice and this is a new RV.

Anyway, I hope to deal with that while in Corpus.  We are not sure where SYL will be when Rusty gets finished but wherever they are we will meet them there.  For now we just longingly watch SYL on SPOT.

Sea Yawl Later!!

Linda

Life has changed, I can no longer call my mom on the phone and talk about things… ask her advice or hear her voice.  In the normal order of life death happens to everyone but it’s certainly life altering.  My current sober attitude is probably more about working lots of hours under stress, but I’m hoping I can feel “light” again someday.  I can’t see that day yet though.

I fear that when the stress of the job is over, the “normal” life won’t be normal anymore.  I’ve lost friends and people I love before, but this is worse.  much worse.

I can feel the excitement in my life about the upcoming sail.  I’m glad it’s in there.  The boat is almost ready to leave, arrangements have been made for friends to sail the boat to Florida while I finish up here at work.  There are lots of pretty new things on the boat.. that’s always good.  If anything can make me smile… it’s a sailboat trip so that’s good, it’s almost time.  I look so forward to warm beaches playing around the boat in the water… eating the good stuff Linda puts out from her little kitchen.  Running into old friends and the absolute certainty of meeting new ones.  I’m glad we are about a month away from shirtsleeves, shorts and sandbars again.

By the end of the month everyone can start looking at “spot” again.. watching the boat head East then South to Marathon Florida… I’m anticipating our road trip to the Keys.  Linda and I bareboat chartered for years, this drive will rekindle those plesant memories with a big plus at the end.  When we chartered we only had 2 weeks and it was on a borrowed dream.  This year our sail path is yet to be charted, the duration is not vetted and it’s on our own dream…. SYL !!    like I said… better.

I know me… I have more confidence in my joy that I seem to be able to muster right now.  The 2014 sail won’t “fix” everything.  There have always been times when I find a remote beach, sit alone with the water barely waving at my toes for hours on end contemplating life….  this year will be different.  I expect my refelcting time will be more medicinal and melancholy than in past years.  maybe I can let down there….  my life isn’t the same.