Waiting to Cross

So, we have spent the last 4 days in Vero Beach. It is an interesting experience meeting all the other cruisers heading to the same or other more southern destinations. The sailing community is very friendly so it’s easy to fall into a conversation with whomever you happen to be standing near. The funny thing is that people remember you by your boat name, not your real name. When you introduce yourself, the first question is “What’s the name of your boat?” And, you gotta love those Canadians. I have counted no less than 12 Canadian flags on boats, and that’s just on our side of the Marina. I even saw one from Winnipeg…how does one get a boat from Winnipeg to Florida you ask...You buy it in Michigan!

We have been working on our boat since arriving here…OK; Lynn has been working on the boat with help from David. He has successfully installed a new engine blower that conked out somewhere in the ocean, crimped the electrical wire that was causing problems and fixed our outboard motor. Today Lynn climbed the mast to fix the halyards for hanging flags (He seems to enjoy doing this but it makes me very nervous).

Unfortunately, Lynn has not been able to get the ice maker working, which, as you can imagine, has been causing a fair amount of angst. We are now planning to order a new ice maker and have it drop shipped to the Bahamas…because goodness knows we would be lost without it! Gini and I have spent our time shopping, cleaning the boat, cooking, doing laundry and, oh yah, sipping afternoon cocktails. I even managed to get some actual work done today (I made the misguided decision to work 12 hours a week)! We also had a nice visit from Todd and Ben, David and Gini’s son and grandson.

We have been having regular meetings with our cruising companions to assess the weather and plan our next leg. We have decided to leave from Fort Pierce, which is 10 miles south of where we are now. We then head out into the ocean in the early afternoon for an 8-12 hour crossing of the Gulf Stream until we reach the Little Bahama Bank entering at Matanilla shoal. Then we head to Great Sale Cay where we will anchor for the night (that’s the next night after spending the first night in the ocean). After that we go to Green Turtle Cay and check into customs. There we will again spend the night and wait for the weather window to navigate around Whale Cay (something we are told it is advisable to respect!) to our final destination of Hope Town Harbor. I was mistaken in my previous blog because I didn’t realize that we have another night at sea. Oh well, that’s OK, we are well rested.

The weather forecast is perfect for the crossing, with winds out of the south to southeast. It is not advisable to cross with any north winds as the water becomes very treacherous. As they say, don’t venture out if you see “elephants” on the horizon…that’s big waves! We are all excited to move on and are anxiously waiting to pull anchor. It will take 3-4 days to get to the next anchorage where we will be able to post a blog.

Meanwhile, our temporary home has been lovely, nestled close to the mangroves with dragonflies hovering and the occasional dolphin surfacing for a breath (Todd confirmed that we are seeing Bottle Nose Dolphins). I do consider myself very lucky to be here.

Important Note: I was rereading a previous blog and realized I neglected to mention that our friends on E dock gave us a great going away party. We had a lovely dinner out followed by a homemade cake, a poem and dancing on Dr. Paul and Diane’s boat. They are a wonderful bunch of boating neighbors!

Long Periods of Boredom Sprinkled with Moments of High Stress

I would like to restate the sentiments expressed in the last line of the previous blog; life sucks, my husband is driving me crazy and my boat is a mess…ahh, just kidding, life is still great :)

The title of this blog pretty much defines the open ocean cruising experience. We left the ICW just north of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and it took 24 hours to travel to Charleston where we jumped back in to pick up David and Gini. We spent about an hour refueling and loading our new crew and their provisions. We were back out in the ocean about four hours later and had fallen only three hours behind the others. We then travelled south, about 20 miles off shore, for another 48 hours when we re-entered the ICW at Cape Canaveral. With the exception of the last 4 hours, the conditions were ideal. The wind was only about 10-15 knots and the waves were usually less than about 2 feet, very comfortable. The time is spent at the helm, eating occasionally, dozing now and then and tracking our course. There is not much out there, just a few big ships passing us now and then in the night. The stress part occurred only a few times, including a phantom boat passing much too close for comfort in the early morning fog. We never saw the vessel, but their radar blob passed right over ours and we saw their wake…pretty scary. Our autopilot also went screwy a few times and it took some delicate maneuvering to coax it back on course…we decided we probably got too close to the Bermuda Triangle. I’m glad to say that our night travel is behind us now until the journey home.

Travelling in the dark is not too bad once you get used to it. One of the more aggravating things was that our enclosure kept fogging up, so every once in a while we would attach the harness and venture out with the squeegee. But that only lasted about 15 minutes. The toughest times were the hours between midnight and 7 am when the sun came up. It was really challenging to stay awake and I found myself nodding off. Good thing the autopilot kept us on course! We spelled each other off more in the daylight hours when we each took a few hours off to sleep. For me these were fitful naps as I kept dreaming we were running aground or hitting a boat.

Because the conditions were so good and due to our timing, the group decided to push on about 100 mile further south than our original planned entry point. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as good as we reached Cape Canaveral and the waves increased to about 7 feet and were hitting us broad side. This makes for pretty uncomfortable cruising as the boat rocks back and forth about 45 degrees on each side. We then discovered that we had not stowed our stuff as well as we thought and articles were crashing about below. Nothing breakable of course but there were bags of pretzels and clothing strewn about. There’s not much you can do while underway, you just hang on and pick up when you get out of the weather. We were all pretty happy when we pulled into that harbor (harbour for the Canadians reading this blog). Again, we were never in any danger, just uncomfortable. It’s strange that the relief and exhilaration of leaving the ICW for open ocean was later replaced by the relief and calm felt at once again returning to the security of the ICW.

Unfortunately, as we entered Cape Canaveral, Bill radioed us from Meant-To-Be to inform us that they had smoke coming from the engine. They had to quickly pull over to assess the situation. The problem was that they were in a restricted zone and were boarded by security within a few minutes. Despite being almost arrested, it turned out to be a relatively minor problem that should be easily fixed. We have continued on to our final Florida destination at Vero Beach, where they will join us with only a one day delay. A few words about our fellow travelers. Mary is the self-named double P, which refers to poop’n and puke’n! This first happened as we came down the Chesapeake Bay in nasty conditions and her body had this unfortunate reaction to the fear she experienced. I think she was incredibly brave to venture again into the ocean after that. The last few hours before arriving in Cape Canaveral apparently had the same effect, topped off by their smoking engine. It is very fortunate that this happened when we had returned to land because it would have been a much more serious situation in the ocean. I’m afraid Mary might have thrown herself overboard. We all plan to toast their arrival at Vero Beach. I did get permission from Mary to write this in my blog; she wants Nicole Kidman to play her if there is ever a feature film about this memoir.

We are now motoring our last 10 miles to Vero after a lovely relaxing night with dinner and wine and a perfect sleep. This is where many of the south bound cruisers gather to rest up, re-provision and do any needed maintenance after beating up their boats. We have a battery charging problem and ice maker to fix (you may remember Lynn’s extreme addiction to ice). Other than that our boat had faired very well. So, the end of this leg of the adventure is now in sight and we await the next, which will be crossing the Gulf Stream.

Two to One

Since I left off, we have been traveling south in the Intracoastal Waterway. We have averaged about 60 miles per day, stopping to anchor about mid afternoon. Our days have been spent navigating the markers and bridges and trying to keep our keel off the bottom. Actually the score is now two for Lynn and one for me…that’s times we have run aground. Lynn did “kiss” the bottom one other time so I guess he should get 2.5. Lucky for us our trusty boat and always-calm captain triumphantly managed to push our way off each time, with the help of the 135 horses in the engine. But these are definitely moments of rather high stress that I really don’t enjoy. We have also passed the time playing cribbage and 20 Questions (which never ceases to amaze me!) We are usually pretty exhausted when we reach our daily destination and eat an early dinner then hit the sack after an unsuccessful attempt at watching a movie…it took three nights to get through Pirates of the Caribbean because we kept dozing off!

The weather has been absolutely perfect after the horrendous night in the Bay. It has become steadily warmer and we have been slowly shedding our winter duds. I was even in a sleeveless shirt for a short time today. The scenery is very serene and if not for the stress of avoiding running aground, we would be totally relaxed. We have had a number of exciting wildlife sightings, most outstanding of which are the dolphins (porpoises? I never know the difference) that have been playing and racing with our boat. Something I have heard they will do but have never experienced. It was really exhilarating to see…the picture don’t do it justice. Other sightings, in order of excitement caused, are a bald eagle, pelicans, herons, egrets, cormorants, anahingas (sp?), an american coot and several other unidentified water fowl (sorry Dad!)

Today was another uneventful day until we decided to follow a barge out an inlet to the ocean to try to buy back some time lost waiting for a broken swing bridge to be fixed. The barge drew 7 feet (which means it needs more the 7 feet of water below it) so we figured it would be safe to follow since we draw 5.5 feet. Wrong!! As we followed the Evelyn Doris, she hit the ground hard and got severely stuck just as they were making the turn to head out to open water. Lynn had time to quickly back off and we opted to follow Chuck and Dale out instead. They did a masterful job and we made our way easily out to the ocean. It was very exciting to venture out to open water and it definitely felt great to stop worrying about 7 foot water depths.

It’s now about 8 PM and darkness has fallen. I must admit it is a little unnerving travelling in the dark. Like Dale says, it feels like driving with a blindfold on. The GPS says we have 15 hours of cruising at this speed to reach our next destination of Charleston, where we will pick up David (Lynn’s brother) and his wife Gini. We will then head back out to the ocean for another hour leg to Florida. But the conditions are perfect for being out here so we are making the best of it. It will be nice to have extra hands at the helm to spell us off duty. But, for now I am on watch as Lynn alternately dozes and munches on pretzels. I have an eagle eye on the radar while I type this blog. I love my life, I love my husband and I love my boat.

It's Friggin' Cold Out Here!

Oops, sorry Mom, let me rephrase that…it’s very, very chilly out here. Well, we finally left at about 2 PM on Wednesday afternoon (December 5th), in the middle of the first snow storm in Baltimore. So, with the white flakes falling and two dock hands to help, we finally pulled away from our slip and officially started our big adventure. With our GPS, radar and autopilot working we headed south down the Chesapeake Bay to rendezvous with our flotilla companions. Two other boats are travelling with us. One is named Driven and is a a 47-foot Vagabond ketch sailboat (Chuck and Dale are the Captains; they really are certified Captains!). The other is named Meant-To-Be and is a 37-foot Albin trawler (Bill is the Captain and Mary is First Mate). We met up just north of the Bay Bridge in complete darkness. It was a relief to find that our radar worked perfectly and we saw them as a blob on the screen before making out their steaming lights in the distance. We then started the journey to Norfolk, an all-night cruise (not a 3-hour cruise!).

Anyway, back to the start of this story, cold doesn’t really describe it. It snowed through the night and the wind was sustained at about 30 knots with gusts as high as 40…not quite what the weather man predicted. We tried to use our little ceramic heater in the cockpit but it kept kicking off. Our feet were definitely numb and we were chilled to the bone. As we reached the lower part of the Bay, the waves picked up significantly; we estimate they were about 5 feet (although they felt like 10 feet). They were rolling into the port stern, so it felt kinda like we were surfing. The only thing that made us feel better was the knowledge that we would be much worse off had they been hitting us abeam or we were crashing into them.

After many hours of this action I discovered that I don’t seem to suffer from motion sickness and for that I am extremely thankful. Daybreak came finally and we reached Norfolk at about 2 PM on Thursday afternoon. Lynn and I have decided that we have no desire to repeat that particular voyage and would opt in future to do the bay crossing in two days.

We anchored in Hospital Bay, Norfolk, in very calm water. We were all bagged!! After a hot shower, Lynn and I had a nice mug of hot chocolate (mine with “splash” of Baileys) and tried to watch the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but kept dozing. We eventually gave up and hit the sack at about 8 PM. With our generator purring and our heater finally working, we slept soundly and woke at about 7 AM for our planned 8 AM departure.

Today is a beautiful day. We are very cozy in our cockpit enclosure (I’m not even wearing a jacket) and have hopefully left the very cold weather behind us. We have successfully navigated the 13 bridges (6 of which have to open to let boats pass) and one lock south of Norfolk (which we managed somewhat more gracefully than the last time when we ended up facing backwards in the lock!). Our plan is to travel about 60 miles to the top of Albermarle Sound and anchor there for the night.
So, Mom, Dad and Lynn’s kids, now that you have read this…let us reassure you that we were very safe the entire time, just a little uncomfortable. We are now listening to the Beatles on our IPOD (thanks Tracy!) and have polished off delicious chocolate chip cookies (thanks Jeff!). We are feeling so happy to be here.

Too Much Wind?!

I know, you would think that wind is exactly what we want when sailing south…but not too much wind. We have been sailing alright, but have unfortunately not left the slip yet! Our departure has been delayed a few days due to the high winds from the Nor’easter blowing through. We were measuring sustained 45 knot winds with gusts in the 50s…a little too high to make the trip comfortable. So we opted to wait it out. We are now planning to leave tomorrow morning, which will be early Wednesday, 5 December. It will be cold, but the wind will have died down somewhat.

It feels like ages since we started getting ready and now that we have the boat fully equipped (medical kit that will even pull teeth, life raft, EPIRB etc), provisioned (20 lbs ground beef, 30 chicken breasts, 30 fillet mignon…), and safety approved (coast guard inspected!), we are anxiously awaiting actually going. The biggest challenge will be just getting away from the slip with the wind a little higher than Lynn likes.

It has been a fun few weeks as the excitement builds and we enjoyed several great Bon Voyage parties. It started at work with a surprise party that caught us both off guard. Before Lynn realized the party was for him, he quipped “Nobody ever gave me a party like this!” Thanks to all who pulled that together (Amy, Erica, Susannah, Stephanie, and Nancy, the extraordinary cake maker). We then had a fun happy hour with a bunch from work. My family had an early Christmas gathering. Thank you Mom and Dad for the great dinner and my bro’s and their families for travelling in inclement weather to get together before I left. Lynn’s kids and grandkids had a lovely breakfast brunch and showered us with Christmas presents. Again, very unexpected and much appreciated. We managed to cram the whole gang of 16 on the boat…a new record.

We do feel very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. Anyway, we will finally be off in a few hours and will keep you posted.

BOAT…A Hole in the Water into which you Throw Money

So, let me tell you about our boat refurbishing odyssey. As I said earlier, we pulled our boat out of the water in the fall of 2003 expecting to work for a season and launch the following summer…well, we didn’t actually launch until three years later. What did I learn in three years?

Surveyors are crooks
All boat repairs are more time-consuming and costly than expected
Lynn is a perfectionist, but very handy
One boat unit = $1000.00
BOAT is actually an acronym for Bring on Another Thousand (or boat unit…see #4)

You know you are in trouble when you start thinking “it only costs one boat unit, that’s not bad!” It’s a good thing that we got a good deal on the boat by purchasing in Georgia because the money we saved has all gone back into repairs and upgrades. We have certainly used much of our equity, both cash and sweat. But, we now have a beautiful, seaworthy vessel. Here’s a short list of the main improvements we have painstakingly, I mean lovingly, accomplished…

New bottom (24 blisters estimated by our surveyor turned out to be more than 200)
New engine
New generator
All new electronics
New rigging (twice, but that’s another story)
Refurbished mast and furling motor
All new lifelines
New stainless steel swim platform (designed by Lynn)
New stainless steel arch (also designed by Lynn)
New cockpit enclosure
New main sail
Refurbished winches and windlass
New stainless steel portholes
New windows
All new upholstery and décor
New Corian countertops and sinks in galley and head
New microwave and freezer
New lifeboat
Revarnished all teak
Etc, etc, etc…the list really does go on and on…

Although the boat is 24 years old, almost everything is brand new. I don’t really mean to sound like I’m complaining because, although it has been challenging at times, we really have enjoyed the project and feel very satisfied to have brought our boat back to her former beauty. The most rewarding moments have been when strangers ask if it is a new boat…which has happened more than once. Our launching party last year was also a wonderful event, with friends and family there to celebrate the long-awaited splash. We even popped a bottle of Dom Perignon for the occasion.

We have now been living aboard for about 5 months and thoroughly enjoy the experience (except for the occasional bickering that inevitably occurs due to close quarters J). We continue to make improvements in preparation for the big departure in December. Just this weekend Lynn installed our new freezer and I started varnishing the teak cabinets in the salon (one coat down, five to go!). Twenty six days to go…

That fateful day...

It all started on a cold, rainy November day in 2002 when Lynn woke up and said, "Let's go to Annapolis and look at sailboats". Little did I know that life would be dramatically altered when I sleepily uttered the reply, "OK". So off we went to wander aimlessly (or so I thought) around the Marinas. We happened upon a unique-looking boat called a Gulfstar that intrigued Lynn so we sought out the dealer and had a look aboard.

We were immediately impressed by the roomy interior that had lots of amenities not commonly found on a sailboat, like light and space. Not to mention the enviable sweet stuff like a separate galley and salon areas, a stand-up fridge, and best of all a separate shower in the aft head. Of course we continued to look at other boats, cause that's what you are supposed to do, but we kept coming back to the Gulfstar (kinda like searching endlessly for the perfect wedding dress and finally buying the first one you tried on). Anyway, Lynn searched the Internet and found a boat of the same design for sale in Georgia, which is quite amazing because there were only 17 of its kind built. Well, after numerous trips to survey the boat and much help from our broker Jack and Lynn's brother David, we purchased her.

We knew our new boat needed a lot of TLC because she had been sitting idle for many years. For example, all the windows leaked and we thought...that's OK, we'll just replace them, what could be easier?...more on that later. The first job was to move the boat from Georgia to Havre de Grace. For that we had a few crazy volunteers, including Lynn's previously mentioned brother, David, our sister-in-law, Gini, and our good friend Cindy. The trip took 11 days and turned out to be a blast. I was expecting long, boring days afloat so took along a bunch of books to pass the time. Not one was opened. The weather was great and the scenery and wildlife was varied and beautiful, from the serene winding marshland in Georgia to the forested shores in North Carolina. We also stopped in many nice places, if only for one night, including Beaufort SC, Charleston, and lots of quaint small towns and Marinas.

We quickly settled into our routine and crew positions. Lynn was obviously the Captain and his job was to bring the boat in and out of the dock and then sit at the bow smoking his cigar with David. He also occasionally stripped down to the buff while David splashed him with a full bucket of water to cool off from the hot Georgia sun (I have pictures for anyone willing to pay the price). David was the First Mate and took over whenever Lynn was otherwise occupied. He was also an experienced sailor so his advice was often called upon. Cindy and I were the navigators and helmsmen, using the handheld GPS to make our way from bridge to bridge and ultimately state to state. Actually, Cindy was officially classed as a helm hog as it was rather difficult to pry her hands from the wheel she enjoyed it so much. Gini was the galley wench and kindly made many of the meals and all of the 5 PM cocktails (OK, it was 5-o'clock somewhere:)). Thanks for introducing us to Vodka Gimlets...we may never be the same. She was also our resident naturalist and could be found most often with the binoculars spotting birds...I think she extended her life list by a few species. By the end of the trip we had all earned nicknames, like Dinghy, Backwards, Water Spout, and Lighthouse. I'll let you try to figure out who's who.

I will tell you that Lynn's nickname was Iceman, not only because he is addicted to massive quantities of ice, but he manages to remain eerily calm during moments of high tension...like approaching a closed bridge in 30-knot winds, a strong current, two marinas with boats launching, a small rowboat immediately off the bow, and loss of our dinghy off the stern cleat (clue to one of the nicknames previously mentioned)...all at the same time! I have never figured out why Lynn will utter a string of unmentionable and very creative curses when he does something like drop a screwdriver, but stay calm and focused when facing a seriously stressful situation. I, on the other hand, don't seem to sweat the small stuff (or so I think...Lynn might choose to differ), but can completely lose it when the going gets tough. Oh well, at least we aren't both crazy at the same time. But, I digress. In the end, after lots of laughs and camaraderie, as well as many mini-adventures (e.g, ending up backwards in a lock, spotting both real and imagined wildlife, dodging water spouts - another clue -, running aground temporarily and taking the wrong turn once, OK twice, to name a few), we made it home safe and sound to our first home port in Fell's Point, Baltimore...just in time for Hurricane Isabel!

Lucky for us our boat weathered the storm with only a small amount of damage (if you consider ripping off a portion of the rub rail small). We then pulled the boat out of the water in Havre de Grace for what we planned to be ONE SEASON of maintenance...but, that's another long, sad story, with a happy ending of course...