Yesterday we finally were able to take delivery of Dragonfly and drove her to her new temporary home at Twin Dolphin Marina. I put her in the slip on the first attempt without damaging anything or hurting anybody. There was one person on the dock who commented, “Good job. You will notice that there was no one around to see it. Had you messed up, there would have been lots of folks to greet you.”
We are so happy to be on board. We moved only a few items aboard and sat down early to a dinner of fried chicken and a few adult beverages. Some Jimmy Buffet on the stereo and a gentle breeze made the scene perfect.
Today is cleaning day. The boat was well taken care of and put up clean, but it has been sitting for several months and needs some TLC. Una is up to her elbows in soapy water and just loving it.
We hope to get her rigged (put the sails up and tune the rig) in the next couple of days. We have hired our friend Capt. Kevin Hughes to teach us the ropes next week.
Everyone down here is great! I think the average age in the local grocery store is well over 80 however… You sort of have to be careful of the little motorized scooters coming down the isles. Those folks actually do race those things: )
Got to get back to the dock and do my share of the cleaning. Will post more later.
Jeff
We finally added Internet to the boat! Yeah! We are connected to the outside world again. It was kind of nice being secluded, but better to be back on line.
We continue to have various vendors come aboard and work on the systems. Some of it is just training us and teaching us what problems to look for and how to handle them. Some things are just in need of some attention. The boat is really in pretty good shape, it has just been sitting with everything shut down for 6 months and needs cleaning, lubricating and some use.
The guys from the Air conditioning and refrigeration spent most of the day here today. Both systems worked, but not too well. They added Freon to both systems and things are much cooler this evening. The diesel mechanic that originally updated the engine and generator is supposed to come soon. Again, nothing major, mostly just tune ups.
WE have yet to get her out of the slip : ( Colin from Island Yachting Center (the selling broker) came over last night and again this morning to rig the mainsail. It is a fairly complicated system of ropes, pulleys battens and sailcloth. It is an impressive rig once assembled. We thought we were going out this afternoon, but the handle on the engine control came loose. It will need to be disassembled, cleaned, lubricated and reassembled. Probably a 10 minute job, but it will take me hours to figure out how to do it…. This is becoming a familiar theme around here. There is so much to know. Most of it is not complicated, just a lot of it.
We toured the factory where this boat was built 12 years ago. The owner of Island Packet Yachts lead us through the entire factory and explained the whole process. Man those things look big when you see the empty hulls in molds in the building. I took some pictures and will try to include them here somehow. (something else I have to figure out…)
It was quite re-assuring to see the details of how this thing was built. Seeing the process answered some questions for us. Like where can water get in and how do you prevent it… Little things…
Hopefully tomorrow I can post some pictures of us actually sailing this beautiful boat. WE LOVE it so far! People here at the dock are starting to stop by and talk, offer advice and invitations to join local events. We like it here, but are really looking forward to getting away from the dock and out into the world. Soon.
We miss you all much more than we thought but hope to see you soon. Drop us a line when you have a moment.
Jeff
Finally, today we sailed Dragonfly! We have spent the last week getting many of the ships systems in order. But today, we cast off the lines and set out into the Manatee River, just Una and me. It was a little nerve wracking. It suddenly seemed to be a very big boat and the light breeze seemed to have suddenly picked up.
We motored out the fairway (the space between the rows of boats tied safely into their slips) and around the corner, then out the pass into the open water without issue. I drove.
We found the channel markers and navigated between them for about a mile into the open section of the river. We are only about 3 miles from where the river opens into the Tampa Bay, and only a couple more miles into the Gulf so the river is pretty wide here, maybe “ mile or so and 10 to 20 feet deep in most places. We draw 6 feet so most of the river is open to us.
After about an hour motoring down river, Una took the helm for the first time and started to get the feel of the boat. She steered a very straight course from marker to marker, and when we got to the mouth of the river, (about a mile wide here) she practiced some maneuvers, like finding the wind and heading up directly into it and then keeping the boat pointed that direction with as little forward motion as possible. This is necessary to hoist the mainsail, which we eventually did. I pulled ropes (sheets) and Una manned the helm. After falling off toward the main channel, we killed the engine and moved effortlessly down wind. It was wonderful. After a few gybes (downwind turns) with the reefed main only, we unfurled the staysail (the smaller inner forward sail) which is self tacking, which means that the rope handler (me) doesn’t have to do anything with it once it is set, the ropes that control it are adjusted so that it moves back and forth as necessary on its own. This added about 1 mph to our speed, now doing about 4 mph. Impressive eh?
After several more turns, using the channel markers as pylons to turn on, we hoisted the main the rest of the way up and unfurled the 135% foresail on the very front of the boat. This sail provides a lot of power and accelerated us to about 6 kts. in a beam reach (running across the wind). To those used to driving on freeways, this is not so impressive. However, in a sailboat, with the wind throwing the tops of the waves at you and the deck heeled over 10-15 degrees, we felt like we were flying!
We traveled several times up and down river, tacking, adjusting the sails and getting a good feeling for the boat. Each turn requires identifying where you are going to start the turn and where you will be headed after completion. Being in a river, there is a definite channel underlying the large expanse of open water. In a boat that has 6 feet of keel under water, you sort of need to know where that channel runs and stay in it. We have a depth finder prominently displaying the depth or the water currently under the keel. However, it looks down, not ahead.
It was nothing like the awful crash of bending metal and flying glass that some of us have had the misfortune to experience. It was more of a swoosh accompanied by a sudden stop and then relative silence as we drove up out of the channel and onto the sand flats. Una’s face reflected a pretty serious “Oh Shit” look and I had the fortune/foresight to say absolutely nothing.
We sat, stuck in the sand with the sails still driving full power trying to push us into the parking lot at the Snead Island Boat works where they had painted the bottom only last week. Sue in the office at Snead Island called on the radio to see if we were Ok. I recognized her voice but having never used the radio before, wasn’t sure how to answer. This was all pretty new to us. I finally found the microphone and assured her that we were fine but I still wasn’t sure if I was lying. “What do we do now?” I hear. Una is still manning the helm, to little effect. “I don’t know” I answered in all honesty. After several minutes of contemplation a guy in a motorboat drove past and hollered something about taking down the sails. I thought he was just poking fun at us, but realized that he was right. So we furled in the two foresails and dropped the main. Then sat there looking at each other and the boat, stuck firmly in the sand. I was thinking about the towing insurance I had intended to buy yesterday.
Without the wind in the sails, the boat at least sat upright, waiting for us to get her going again. I suddenly realized why the previous owner had installed a lightweight Danforth style anchor on the stern rail. I remember seeing a length of anchor rode in the locker and dug it out and hooked it up. I climbed out on the swim platform and threw the anchor out like a skipping stone toward the deep water. It slid away from the boat and set on the first toss about 15 feet astern. We wrapped the rope around a winch and pulled ourselves off the flats without much trouble.
After pulling ourselves off the sand, we motored back out into the main channel and thought about the youngster being thrown off the horse and how they had to get right back into the saddle. Much to my first mates concern, up went the sails again and down the river we flew, staying well within the main channel this time. We returned to the marina without any additional trouble. However, once inside the fairway, things got exciting again. Remember the beautiful job I did docking Dragonfly when no one else was around? Well there were plenty of folks around this evening.
John and Nan were just starting dinner in the cabin of their 32' O’Day cruiser in the slip next to ours when I misjudged the wind and current and didn’t get Dragonfly turned quick enough to back into our slip. The wind caught the bow and turned us 90 degrees pushing our bow right down on them. Grabbing their bimini top we kept the boats from hitting each other. I managed to get a stern line to one of the growing crowd on the dock and then passed a line from the mid-ship cleat to another concerned but helpful onlooker who pulled us back into our own slip.
Sheesh, what a day. We invited all on board and put a pretty serious dent in a brand new bottle of Tanqueray gin. Lots of laughs and got invited to a couple of upcoming dinner events. All things considered, it was quite a day!
Although Dragonfly is in very nice shape, she is 12 years old and has been salt water her whole life. Yesterday I worked with a marine plumber and replaced 40 feet of sanitation hoses. Hoo boy, hard work. I hurt today. The plumber proclaimed that he had worked on his last Island Packet sailboat. They are just too hard to work on, with things packed too tightly into spaces too small for them. We have also had work done on the refrigeration and air conditioning and still need to see the diesel mechanic and the electrician. I can start to see a light at the end of the tunnel… I hope it is the end of the tunnel and not a train.
We have been studying our “Costal Navigation” book and will have the instructor on board Wednesday and Thursday this week. After working pages of these navigation problems, I realized that they are really just applied trigonometry. Calculating position based on sightings of objects fixed to the earth like buoys or land features like water towers etc. Doing it is pretty straight forward, but getting through the workbook has been a long drawn out affair.
We are still trying to find places for our stuff. There are small storage places everywhere but most are hidden and still being discovered. Yesterday, I found a large space which contained a spare prop and some sort of used electric pump.
The people here are really great. There is always a pot luck, or cocktail party happening somewhere. Last night we went to one of the local restaurants where we were known as “the boat people” and had our own special room and got a discount off the bill to boot!
Later, Jeff
You might think we are just sitting around down here in the sun, mixing G&Ts and mingling with the other boat people. The last four days have been VERY hectic. Our old friend Capt. Kevin Hughes has been aboard and trying to educate us on both the rules and the art of sailing. There is so much to know and we have so little time. I have been reading dozens of books on the topic, but doing pays much bigger dividends than reading about it.
During our power boat days, we learned that if you ran aground, it was going to cost you big, maybe even loose your boat. We learned to simply avoid it at all costs. Sailing is different. Capt. Kevin has put us on the sand intentionally several times in order to show us how to avoid it and how to get clear if you can’t. Good lessons I guess, but very hard on us. Neither of us enjoyed that part of training.
Yesterday afternoon, he had us running down a narrow channel heading out to the gulf under full sail. We were moving about 7 kts and heeling over about 20 degrees. In fact, we were passing another sailboat that was using its engine. Ha! Unfortunately, during that pass, we met a big cabin cruiser coming the other way, so we were three wide in a very narrow channel with 2 ft. deep water on both sides. I think I may have ruined a pair of shorts. If we live through training, we will make good sailors.
From there, we headed out into the mouth of Tampa Bay, just west of the Sunshine Skyway bridge where the big tankers go in and out of the bay. We learned how to trim the sails to get more power out of them. We learned to balance the power to allow the boat to go straight ahead without any input from the wheel. Normally, Sailboats are designed with “weather helm” which simply means they want to turn into the wind. This is done so if you are not paying attention, they will simply head up and slow down as they head into the wind vs. falling off where the boat would start to heel excessively and might even do an accidental gybe (where the mainsail and the boom would swing wildly across the back of the boat and slam into the other side. You get the idea, bad things.
We also spent a lot of time trying to figure out where we were using three point fixes and triangulating our position on the charts. We also learned to do a “running fix” where you cruise a straight course measuring your distance traveled and take two fixes on the same object. Based on the angles to that object and the principles of simple geometry you can figure out exactly where you are on the chart. Pretty cool. Although with 3 GPS's on the boat, I don’t imagine we will ever be in too much doubt about where we are
I took some pictures and published them on the main page of the web site. Just before these pictures were taken, Una was at the helm and pushing us hard close to the wind. She fell off a little and the boat heeled to about 20 degrees. I saw and heard things below move from one side of the boat to the other. Maybe we will do a little better job of putting things up next time. Nothing hurt or damaged.
We spent three days with Capt. Kevin, night and day. He is pretty intense and we were totally wiped out by Friday evening. Saturday (yesterday) we worked on the boat, replacing some of the lines (ropes) and spent about half the day at West Marine. One of our neighbors here is an associate there and he gave me a “Friends and Family” super discount card good for Saturday and Today only. “BOAT” Bust Out Another Thousand! And I just got little stuff that had to be purchased. But, things are coming together and I think we will actually be ready to go when the time comes.
So long for now, Jeff
Yesterday started out hot. But as the day goes on the wind started to pick up and cooled things down nicely. The wind continued to build to a constant 20 then 25 knots gusting to 30. Not bad when you get out of it, but that is hard to do on a boat. Fortunately, we are tied safely at dock and facing the wind mostly.
Clear blue sky this morning, but still the same wind. The seas 100 miles offshore are currently experiencing 15 foot waves. Glad we’re not there!
Have I told you about “The Sign”“ Back in early October we had just submitted our bid on Dragonfly but had found two other boats that we felt would satisfy our needs. Both of the other boats were smaller and less expensive, though not as nicely equipped. The mantra of many cruisers is, “Go simple, go small, go now”. Well, Dragonfly is neither simple nor small, but with our house sold and living with friends, the now part was easy.
We had both fallen in love with Dragonfly immediately. Like you feel after looking at dozens of houses and then you walk into your new home, you just know it. Well, with boats, especially ocean going boats, there is soooo much that can be bad but looks good. We just didn' know. And we knew enough to know that we didn't know enough to make an informed decision. Mostly we were going on gut, and mine hurt most of the time.
Una and I were driving to the Titans Football game in downtown Nashville this Sunday morning, heading to a parking lot behind a metal working factory to meet our friends Larsen and Stephen from Memphis and “tailgate” a little. We found the parking lot, behind the factory, nothing but asphalt, concrete and old rusted iron beams lying around. We found a shady spot and set up our chairs and opened a beer and waited.
Wouldn't it be easy if we could just get a “sign” I asked, Una agreed and opened another Ice House. We discussed all the pro's and cons; Can we afford it? Is it a “money pit”? Is it too much boat? Can we handle her? Should we take our money and buy a small house in the country? (Just kidding, that was never a consideration.) Which one should we get? I asked. Nothing. Silence. I looked at Una, she was not wearing her usual smile. Her stomach hurt too.
Then I noticed a big bug, circling our car. It was flying in and out, up to the end of the alley and back to our car. It hung out over the hood for a few minutes. Really minutes, not seconds. Then back up to the end of the alley and back for another run at our car. We are miles from water, in an alley, behind a metal working factory, sitting with our feet propped up on giant rusting beams with a few spindly looking weed trying to poke through, looking at a dragonfly doing circles around our car.
He stayed with us for about 10 minutes until our friends drove up. Cincinnati beat the Titans 31-23.
Monday morning I went out to Best Buy to buy a backup laptop computer for the new boat. However, I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money and came out empty handed. I got back into the car and sat there, staring back at the dragonfly hovering over the center of my hood, not 24 inches off the shinny curved surface. We looked at each other for at least a minute, until I started the engine and he slowly backed off. I called Una on the cell phone and told her that I did not buy a computer, but we most definitely had bought Dragonfly!
Jeff and Una
S/V Dragonfly
Today we blew up the dingy and mounted the Yamaha 8 hp outboard engine to the stern and donned our bright orange life jackets (Yep, put “em on. The water is cold, deep and there is no place to just climb out.) The outboard is stored on a mount on the stern rail with a block and tackle pulley system to lower it to the water. It started on the first pull, after about 30 pulls without the kill switch enabled.
I felt like an adult going to visit the kids at grade school, “Did we ever really sit in these little bitty desks?" This is a 4 man boat. They must be pretty small men.
Una and I pretty much filled up the dingy. We putted down the fairway and out into the river. There was a “ foot chop, we were hunkered down in the bottom of the little boat feeling every bit as goofy as we looked, heading across the “ mile of river. Before we even got the boat on plane, the tops of these little bitty waves were coming over the front of the boat and landing on Una's lap.
“I'm getting a little wet.” Not really a bad thing to hear from someone you've been married to for 20 something years. She was not too happy and there may have been a little edge in her voice.
I turned the little boat around and nearly swamped us with our own wake. I love sailing, but this motorboating has to go. We headed back into the marina and went over to the other side. We met a new friend who was out in his dingy, one just like one we had been looking at on-line. We will be joining them for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
I think we will be selling the little roll up dingy and upgrading to a hard bottom boat in which we can tour the islands.
Hope all had a great holiday!
We enjoyed the company of new friends Jonn and Nancy Lafeaver aboard Febrile, their 44′ Defeaver Trawler for a wonderful turkey dinner with all the trimmings and some good conversation. They were in the Bahamas very recently and had some great pictures and stories and some advice on anchorages.
A good time was had by all.
Tomorrow, I guess we have to buy some Christmas lights and do a little decorating. There will be a “dingy parade” in a couple of weeks where people decorate their dingys and tour the marina. I assume there will be a little celebration afterwards. Looking forward to that.
Time for some football.
Today I replaced the Main Sheet. On sailboats, ropes are called sheets or lines. I don’t know what to call the bed linens. The Main Sheet controls the boom and the Mainsail. This rope, oops sheet has a tremendous amount of pressure applied to it. If it were to let go, the boom would fly around uncontrolled and most definitely hurt something or someone. It starts with an “eye splice” where you pull the core of the rope out and feed the outer part back through the inner part and the inner part through the outer part and pull it all up tight to leave a small loop in the end of the sheet. The pressure of the pull on the rope tightens it on itself like a Chinese finger handcuffs.
Rather than pay the guy at West Marine $12 to put one in the end of the Main sheet, I bought a kit for $32 and did it myself. The first practice splice took a while, but the second one only took about 2 hours… Glad I have lots of time…
I had one of the very experienced sailors on the dock take a look, and got a thumbs up… Probably won’t loose the mainsail. Then he tells me about how to do it with a coat hanger. Hmmm. I wonder how many children (of West Marine employees) I am feeding with my dollars.
The new lines run great and the main handles much smoother. There are several other lines on the boat that now that I look at them, need replacing. It is sort of like after painting one room, you notice how bad the other rooms really look. The new lines are smooth and supple, they move through the sheaves (pulleys) so much smoother and are much nicer on your hands. In hindsight, I should have figured up everything on the boat and ordered it all from one of the manufacturers for a substantial savings, but then those poor kids whose fathers work at West Marine might not have had such a good Thanksgiving.
Hope yours was good. Drop us a line when you have a chance, love to hear from you!
Jeff
S/V Dragonfly.
Yesterday was my birthday. I am older now.
My day started out with birthday presents, all boat related items. My favorite (and now I know why) was a red lightweight rain jacket ( it is pouring down rain today). He should have gotten me some sun glasses. My BIG present was a new dingy. I think there is a dingy gang here and in order to be a member you have to have a BIG dinghy. You all know Jeff —so we now are part of the gang,( maybe even the leader). They have a dinghy parade of lights at Christmas. People actually decorate their dingys with lights and parade around the marina. We will take pictures.
Jeff threw me a great party. All the boat people congregate every Monday night at Fav's Restaurant for dinner and boat talk. So as we are walking to the Restaurant in the rain, in my new red rain jacket, I said to Jeff “I bet no one shows to night with all this rain”, he just smirks, ( I think Jeff went around and told people it was my birthday). We walked into the restaurant and the gang all yelled “Surprise”. How fun to have been here less than a month and have 20 people singing happy birthday to me. The boating community is a great group of folks; we have made some new friends. The party then proceeded to the local pub & pool hall, fun was had by all. Thank goodness we just had to walk a few blocks back to the boat. So yes, I am feeling older today.
We can't seem to get out sailing : (
Since Una's birthday on Monday, we have been trying to get out and enjoy some of our newly learned skills. There seems to be soooo much to do. I mentioned about our dingy being too small. Size was not really the problem, but the old one has a “high pressure” floor. This is a blow up floor that when inflated really hard, makes for a semi rigid floor. We pumped to the limit of the little foot operated pump and never got it really very hard. We were able to get around the harbor, but when running just a little bit fast, it got scary immediately. So, off to the dingy store. No kidding, there are stores here that only sell dingys. After much discussion, debate and pondering (again making expensive decisions without any actual knowledge of what we really need) we take the advice of the young man running the store and select our new station wagon / runabout/ sports car / ski boat and write the check.
The boat is rated for a 15 hp engine but will handle up to 25 hp, which of course is what we bought. The young man said, 15 will do it fine, and with the 25, you will be able to get a real exciting ride. Years ago we learned to ski behind cousin Austin's boat which had a 25 hp engine.
Yesterday we took delivery of the new boat. Man what a difference! It is much more like a real boat, and a lot less like a pool toy. With the 25 hp engine, it comes right up on plane and zips across the water. Anyone want to ski?
Today, I thought we would get to go sailing, Not! The mechanic I had called last week called, apologized for not calling back and said he could come out and look at the generator this morning. He arrived right on time at 10:00. By 11:00 we had the back bedroom empty, all the hatches open and lying about the boat, both cockpit lockers completely empty with the contents lying all over the boat. Man was there a lot of stuff in there, We (I say we because I actually did help) had the insulation cut from around the generator and gained access to the alternator, which took him about 5 min. to remove, stick in his bag and say “I will have this rebuild or replaced in a day or two. Austin and Marg are on their way down and I have another 2 hours of work just to put the boat back together.
Hopefully, he will have me a new alternator tomorrow, install it and be done with another problem.
I will try to put a couple of pictures on the site so you can see what I mean by the generator being squeezed in, I am learning tons about this boat. It helps to have someone else leading the charge when removing big pieces. But none of this stuff is really complicated, just buried beneath and behind tons of other stuff.
This weekend is the annual Parade of Lights, where people decorate their sailboats and parade up and down the harbor. We will go and watch, but will not be participating, this year.
We will post some pictures later.
Have a great weekend, we miss you all, but are still having fun.
Well, it may have been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, but not here! Last weekend, 12/2/05 cousin Austin and his wife Marg came down for a visit. We went downtown Bradenton the first night, had dinner and played some pool at the old Main Street Pub. Fun was had by all.
Saturday morning, we cast off the lines and headed out on our first overnight. We joined some other residents of “B Dock” at the Parade of lights Christmas display at Cortez Yacht club about 20 miles away. We motored out into the Manatee River, then set sails as soon as we turned west and ran dead downwind for the first hour into Tampa Bay. From there, we headed southwest around the end of Anna Maria Island and into the Gulf of Mexico then turned southeast. This was our first time in the Gulf. It was nice seeing more than a couple of feet of water under our keel. The winds were moderate at about 10-12 kts, but mostly on our nose. We made a couple of long tacks to work our way 6 miles up the coast to LongBoat Key Pass, through the draw bridge, then into the Intercoastal waterway through another bridge to the Seafood Shack Marina, where we took a slip for the night. Austin did most of the helm work leaving me and Una to the navigation, so Marg grabbed some metal polish and started on the Stainless Steel rails. We offered to let them stay forever, but they said something about people needing them back on shore.
The trip was uneventful except for a number of dolphins that swam with us for part of the trip. While in some fairly shallow water, they would swim up on one side of the boat, then dart under our keel to the other side. The Depth gage was showing only 2 feet of water under the keel, so it was like they were playing “limbo dance” with Dragonfly.
We spent about 6 hours covering the 26 mile route. When we arrived, we all cleaned up and got ready for the Parade of Lights. About 10 or 11 boats were decorated and very lit up and paraded up and down the river just after dark. We then went into the restaurant and had a wonderful (if a little slow) dinner.
The next morning, we took the Intercoastal waterway back home and made it in time to get Austin cleaned up and to the airport for his mid afternoon flight home. Marg stayed another night, helping with our dock's gate decorating party and flew on to Pensacola to visit/babysit with her nephew and his new child.
Do you remember the definition of "BOAT” Bust Out Another Thousand? The electronics guy I contracted with the day we bought our boat finally showed up. It seems that everything that I thought might be questionable was in fact needing some attention. We will be getting new house batteries and a new SSB radio next week. I have heard people discuss items like this in terms of “Boat Units”. Each boat unit is $1000. Well, this latest round of updates will run about 4 boat units. See, that doesn't hurt so much as discussing it in terms of dollars.
The old radio was built almost 20 years ago and needs to be retired. I knew this when we bought the boat, but the house batteries were only a few years old and West Marine may help out with the cost of their early demise.
While Una was on-line searching for a book on first aid at sea, I was busy creating the need of such a book. Our first onboard injury. While reaching into the fridge to find some milk for my cereal, I bumped the lid and knocked it off it's catch. The lid just caught my right ring finger and busted it open just outside of the first knuckle. Blood, four letter words, ice, Jeff down on his knees so as not to pass out, then to the couch for first aid. That's gonna leave a mark.
Last night we had our local “Dingy Parade” where locals decorated their dingys and ran up and down the fairways (between the docks) while the crowd cheered wildly. What Fun! Later the Manatee River Parade of lights came down the river, this may have been why so many people were gathered on the docks. We joined new friends Bob and Jane for a few glasses of wine on their boat “C'mon Wind” before the parade then had a great dinner at the Marina Restaurant. I took some pictures and will try to post them in a day or so.
Mom and Dad are coming down next weekend. We are looking forward to their visit and will see some of the local attractions and hopefully get them out sailing. Uncle Pinky and Aunt Doris will try to come up to visit during this time as well.
That's all for now. We miss you all. Drop us an email when you have a chance.
Jeff
Hi, sorry it has been a while since the last post. Time is getting short for our departure (Jan 3, 2006) and there remain several items on the “have to do” list and dozens of items on the “like to do” list to get us and the boat ready.
Mom and Dad were here last weekend. The weather was awful for them, sorry about that! Dad came aboard and gave us the thumbs up on inspection. Unfortunately, Mom could not safely get aboard and did not try. There are just too many big steps onto things that move. She really wanted to get on and go for a sail, but just couldn't risk falling and getting hurt. Uncle Pinky (Mom's brother who winters an hour south of here with his wife Doris on their boat) mentioned that we could hook up the bowsens chair (a sling like thing that you sort of sit in designed to hook to a rope and haul someone up the mast). And hoist her aboard. Mom didn't go for that either. Too bad, that would have been quite a sight. So, no sailing.
Dad bought us dinner at several of the nicer places in town. Thanks Dad! The first night we went to the Marina Grill right here at Twin Dolphin. We had a nice table overlooking the river and Hwy 41 bridge. Pretty lights, nice view. There were dozens of Christmas parties going on in the restaurant. Apparently, our waiter was taking care of several of them and after an initial introduction we didn't see him again for 30 minutes. Arrrrggg. After he got us going, we had a great meal. We went out for Pizza at Zio's the next evening. Yummm. Mom brought us a new game called “Gimme Five” played with two decks of cards. What fun! If you get a chance, pick it up and give it a try. We will be playing a lot of it once out on the cruise. The rules are few and simple so anyone can pick it up and enjoy it rather quickly. Thanks Mom! Because the boat was not part of Mom's tour, we spent a lot of time in their hotel room. Dad finally convinced one of the hotel employees that bringing a couple of extra chairs into the room would be ok, so we all had a place to sit and play the game.
During their visit, the electronics guru I hired the very first day we were in town finally showed up to replace our house batteries and the SSB (Side Band Radio used for long range communication, mostly weather reports). He also ran wires from the GPS to both the VHF and the SSB radios as well as the Radar display station and the helm. Now we can send immediate distress signals from either radio that will contain our ship's number (registered with the US Coast Guard) along with our exact position to everyone both close and far. Hopefully this was a wasted expense for a service we will never use!
If you have or know someone who has a SSB or HAM radio, we may be able to talk. These things are used to allow people to communicate all around the world, depending on atmospheric conditions, sun spot activity etc. Sheesh, another new subject I know almost nothing about! I guess there will be time to learn. Funny thing about knowledge, the more you get the more you realize how little you really know.
I ordered a replacement chain for the primary anchor (the old one is very rusted). After three weeks, it finally showed up, one big barrel of chain. I had ordered three 100 ft chains, but they shipped one continuous piece. It weighs 500 lbs and is still setting right where the trucker left it. At least I don't have to worry about someone stealing it. I have asked Una to bring it down to the boat so I can install it, but she keeps finding other things to do. Also, it doesn't fit the gypsy (the part that actually grabs the chain) on the windless (electric winch used to retrieve the chain) on the front of the boat, so I am making lots of calls trying to find a replacement part that will work. I am meeting with the factory rep from Lewmar today. They are the company that bought the company that made my windless 15 years ago. At first he said, sorry, we don't have anything that will work but became more interested when I mentioned that the manual for the windless indicated a part number for a gypsy that was designed for the chain I bought. He will try to help me work this out. If not, I have 300' of stainless steel 3/8 chain available at a really good price. I really could use that “Easy Button” advertised on TV.
Finally, I had time to build a new bracket for the outboard motor to lock onto the stern rail. I will post a picture of it. The one that was on there could not take the weight of the new outboard and bent badly. This one is made from “ inch Starboard (a plastic material you handle like wood) with a “ inch stainless steel plate bolted onto the front where the engine locks in. I tied this one into the vertical bar on the stern rail so it is much better supported and will take the weight easily.
Well, breakfast is about ready and then off to see the Lewmar rep.
Drop us an email when you have a moment, we love hearing from you.
Have a great Christmas!
Friday, December 30, 2005
Happy New Year!
I hope you all enjoyed a great visit from Santa and were able to share it with friends and family. We enjoyed a great Turkey dinner on the boat and a day of rest, football, wine and peace and quiet together. Una says that a 9 lb turkey will just fit in our oven.
Again, sorry it has been so long, but we have really been busy. Our internet service has been very sketchy the last week or so, so I haven’t even been able to pickup or respond to email.
Server Problems: My good friend who is graciously hosting this site replaced his server last week and had to take the site down for a little bit. I hope that hasn’t caused anyone problems.
We joined new friends Lon and Mary at the Commodore’s Christmas Ball at the Bradenton Yacht Club last Friday night. Several boats motored up the river a few miles and tied off on the seawall at the Yacht Club. It is pretty much like the golf clubs many of you are used to, except the view out the window is different. Lon is the outgoing Commodore of the club and invited us to join the party. When asked, he said a coat and tie was recommended. Una dug through the storage locker and came up with my blue sport coat and gray slacks and one black shoe, no white shirts, no black socks. One more trip to the locker turned up the other shoe, but no shirt. Una volunteered to find the mall and shop for me. It took her almost all day to find the shirt and socks, must have been a BIG mall.
Una had brought several complete outfits (so that’s what was in those three big bags of clothes) and put on a little fashion show for me. We picked out the ”right” one and headed off to the party.
I know we came down here to go sailing, but we have been too busy to do much of it. We hadn’t had the boat out of the slip since Austin and Marg visited several weeks ago. But, we made a successful passage through the marina into the river and did a quick efficient tie up alongside Lon and Mary’s 38’ Chris Craft. It was nice to NOT be the entertainment while docking. Later in the evening another large boat tied up just down the wall using lots of horsepower and changing of directions, dock hands running, pulling and finally a tie up. The tidal current caught the back end as he tried to pivot into the wall and caused him some problems. Everything worked out after a few tense minutes.
At the party, it turns out that most of the men wore Tux’s. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the Big Band sounds of a local swing band.
Later in the evening, while Lon was on the mic, thanking all of the outgoing officers and welcoming the new ones, he asked Mary, his girlfriend of 9 years, to come up to the front. When she arrived, he pulled out a beautiful custom engagement ring and popped the question. She answered “Of Course!” This was a total surprise to everyone, especially Mary.
Provisioning: You make your list, go to the store buy what you want and come home. Pack the cupboards, then call your mate to pick up the things you forgot. Una has started provisioning the boat. We now own and have found a place to store a years worth of toothpaste, floss, ziplock bags, batteries, toilet paper etc, etc, etc. (marine TP can go for a $1.50 a roll at West Marine Don’t know if is even available down island). The aft stateroom has become a storage locker. We haven’t even started buying food yet, that comes Monday and Tuesday next week.
Sewing: We bought 4 plastic 5 Gal. Gerry cans to carry a little bit of extra gas and diesel fuel. Una bought some UV resistant fabric and made covers for them. We are beginning to look like a real cruising boat. She also made a cover for the gas tank in the dingy and the next item is a custom cover for the dingy when it is on the davits. This is to keep “following seas” out of it and also to help protect it from the UV rays. The dingy hangs about 5 feet off the water. If a following sea that gets into that, I won’t even be thinking about the dingy or the davits. But adding 200 extra gallons of seawater at 7 lbs/gal, hmm, I don’t think the davits will hold that much weight. Might tear the davits out of the back of the boat, leaving holes where they once were. OK, a cover it is.
I continue to make repairs and upgrades to the boat, but am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What’s that sound? Hmmm. Anyway, we got far enough along in the process to take a look at the stereo system in the boat. There are speakers on remote volume controls in all the cabins and the cockpit. Corrosion is a huge problem in this environment and it has taken its toll on the stereo. It worked, but with very little volume and virtually no volume adjustment, just noise when you move the dials. I pulled it out and found a big power amp and some seriously complicated wiring, all green with the effect of the sea. So, off to Best Buy with the last of my bonus coupons in hand. It has literally been months since I had been in one of my very favorite stores. Una decided to stay home and let me shop alone. I came away with only a car stereo that popped right into the hole left by the old one. It worked great! I also bought a simple speaker selector without remote volume control and some new speaker wire. At some point, I will replace all the speaker wire and the remote volume controls, but that will have to wait till we have some truly “spare” time.
I finally purchased and installed a chart plotter at the helm. A little self contained Garmin unit. It is not fancy, but will give us much better situational awareness while sailing. Another “boat unit” invested into our new home. It is also connected to the computer at the nav station, so I can work from either location. The BlueChart software from Garmin is pretty nice. You can plot your course on the computer and upload it with all the waypoints into the chartplotter. It could hook into the autopilot, but we will not be doing that.
Well, I am off to replace the old rusty anchor chain with some new galvanized Hi-Test chain. This little project ought to wear me out. I will let you know how it goes. The Stainless Steel chain still sets on the dock, waiting for some resolution with the vendor. So far, no good.