20 May, 2022

The Journey…

Recap of Our 1st Major Sailing Adventure

You know, this post really should have been done just after we took Rory out of the water while ‘stuff’ was fresh in our memories. But doing it now has given us time to reflect on that time perhaps giving it a deeper perspective.

STATISTICS

Time Involved: Left Manitowoc, WI June 16, 2021, put Rory on the hard May 16, 2022. 11 months exact.

Nautical Miles Traveled: 4,190

Engine Hours: 469

Diesel Consumption: 350 gal

Sailing/Motoring NM: 2,312, 55%/1,878, 45%

Anchoring/Marina+Mooring Ball Days: 223, 75%/76, 25% (did not include prep-out month @Brunswick)

Average Cost per Nite: $28.77

THINGS LEARNED

-> The allure and power of water: Water is beautiful; the colors, textures, patterns, wildlife presence, mercurial properties; its mesmerizing. It is also very powerful; will pitch you forward & aft, roll you side to side, butt slap you now & again, and crash into the cockpit because it wants to. It is a force to be reckoned with and deeply respected.

-> The amount of ‘stuff’ you need to know: If someone would have told us ALL we needed to know for this trip, we’re not sure it would have happened. Boat stuff; engine, pumps, hoses, electrical, power consumption/production, backups needed. Navigation stuff; wind & weather forecasts, tide & current info(takes the cake for the learning curve), lock transit, plus a billion more.

-> Shit happens: Things break; things stop working, things fall overboard, things get ‘lost’, one falls, things rip. It’s all a part of the gig.

-> Salt water sucks: It permeates everything; you, your hair, the bedsheets, your clothes, the sails, the boat, the stainless. It is difficult to get off/out, feels slimy and makes things instantly rust. I honestly don’t think I ever got it totally out of my hair!

-> Ourselves: K turned out to be a pretty good navigator, did the hand helming during dicey inlets and cuts entry/exit, many in high winds; did the anchoring and mooring ball navigation, nailed em! D is an excellent captain; excellent at determining power needs of the boat, excellent at analyzing problems and solving them. We both experienced anxiety at levels never felt before. Dwight feeling really for the first time. Our feelings/nerves tend to overreact while waiting for things to happen. All part of getting out of the comfort zone.

-> Trust your gut: Had to learn this over & over. If something sounds, smells, feels wrong – it probably is. Every single time we paid attention, it was true. And if we ignored it, it was also true 🙂

-> Provisioning/Cooking: B- for this. Provisioning was actually good, but K’s cooking desire and inspiration came up short. Did well on occasion but definitely not consistent. Lunches were particularly a challenge. Maybe because preplanning helps and K is a Gemini, which = procrastinator?

-> Passage making: For all the previous posts on how mostly sucky our long passages were, we FINALLY realized (thank you Mark M) that you are just moving your ‘home’ from point A to point B; and you do it as quickly and safely as possible. There is very little romantic sailing associated w/this. You are given a weather window to go and you go-motor or sail-at the speed needed to get you to that next spot.

FLAT TOPPERS

WHAT?!? About mid way thru the trip when we would hit those all time ‘lows’ (remember-in sailing- highest highs/lowest lows) we would start commenting, “why don’t we just get a flat top house and be done w/it”! We have been in love w/flat top houses for ages, so seemed appropriate. We actually started keeping a tick list. Luckily enough the highs prevailed and we are still sailing. There are times tho!

IT’S THE PEOPLE STUPID!!!

This cruising lifestyle as it is referred to is predicated on traveling via sailboat/motor boat to fun, unique and beautiful places. However, nothing compares to the people you meet along the way. Yes, its similar interests but there seems to be more of an instantaneous bond built. Maybe because you know the time together is limited, you just cut out all the BS and get right down to what matters. We have built deep friendships w/whom we correspond frequently. I’d love to include a picture and a diatribe w/each of the below but it would take me forever(lazy). Most have had pictures included in other posts.

Bob & Linda – Tiger Lily

Susan & Todd – Freya

Jim & Rita – Daisy

Lee & Jeanne – Lanea Jane

Mary & Kevin – Orphan Girl

Julie & Jeff – Renegade

Caroline, Nate & Soren – Bequia Suite

Sinesa & Kat – Bebe I

Phillip & Rachel – Wandering Star

Jennifer & Eddy – Kairos

Rick – Raindancer

Dave – Restless

Jim – Manitou IV

Dick & Zilda – Elitsha

Laurie and Karl – SP and Me

Thus ends the first of our sailing adventures; time to move on to the next.

20 May, 2022

25 Apr, 2022

The Journey…

Brunswick, GA

April 25, 2022

Hey y’all, how y’all doin? Why yes ma’am, well no sir. That’s just fine ma’am; well glad to help sir. Wow, the southern vernacular & accents are strong here. I believe I have been ma’am-ed more times in the past 2 weeks than I have in my whole lifetime. When younger I hated being called ma’am, assuming it meant I was construed as ‘old’. Can’t get around it here. Y’all; a colloquialism that unfortunately I feel that D & I are going to pick up and carry around w/us awhile. Maybe it will replace the current word we’ve been beating to death for the past few months – ‘theoretically’. We picked it up watching a sailing vlog, “Sailing Uma’; when Dan & Kika were installing an electric motor on their sailboat. Dan said it about every other sentence and through about 4-5 videos. Now the way we throw it around you’d think we thought we were elite college professors. “Well theoretically K, we should be able to rewire this alarm system like this.” “Theoretically D, we have about 5 more flushes on the head before we have to pump out”.

We arrived in Brunswick on the 11th of April, motoring from Fernandina, FL w/the headsail up for the last 5nms. We had traveled to this area 8-10 yrs ago and upon seeing the Sidney Lanier Bridge back then, D stated he wanted to sail under it some day. Well he got his wish.

We will be staying at the Brunswick Landing Marina for nigh on a month to get Rory & Bo ready to be stored. Rory will be placed on the hard but we haven’t quite figured out where to put Bo yet. Will work it out. The marina is great; friendly helpful people, free laundry, free beer & wine every Mon Wed and Fri, events almost every wknd. Downsides – no-see-ums, and some days it seemed as if there were billions! Since it has been warmer lately 78+ they have greatly diminished. The other – WHAT IS THAT NOISE? Literally for the past 2 wks we have been trying to figure out what the pulsing, rhythmic, foghorn-like, electrical-type vibrational sound is; mostly at nite. We get up to see if we can locate it, put our ear to the mast to determine if its coming from one of the instruments, go out onto the docks to see if it’s the electrical boxes, turn off all the power to the boat to see if Rory has a short of some sort, ask some dockmates who think we each have 3 heads. Up until yesterday when we finally asked Mr Google the right question did we determine what it is. Ta Da; it’s the mating call of the Oyster Toadfish. Yep, it’s a damn fish. Found an underwater recording made by the Univ of GA and it matches perfectly. At least it’s nothing electrical w/Rory. However that knowledge doesn’t help us sleep much better. Another noise that is more prevalent in warmer waters, one we’re used to, is the snapping or pistol shrimp. These shrimp are ~1″ and have 2 claws one being much larger. The larger claw closes so fast it produces a bubble that makes a loud snapping noise; think Rice Crispies, think frying bacon, think dry wood burning. It is used to stun its prey. So noises in the nite, yippee!

Oyster Toadfish, supposedly very tasty. Would you eat this?
Cute huh? Have one venomous spine on their back, produces a wasp sting sensation.
Snapping or pistol shrimp

The marina is located very close to downtown Brunswick. A sleepy town not touristy like St Simon’s or Jekyll Island but wanting to be. The town has been undergoing a huge revitalization process for the past five years and it shows. There are many great restaurants, music in the parks or downtown squares, an excellent brewery, an award winning rum distillery and more. However get away from the downtown area and the scenery changes drastically. Very poignant differences, sad.

Some of the sights. Will take more for the next post, promise.

City Hall w/cool bug in front
Music in park
Definitely needed
Outdoor restaurant
Music in the square, The PineBox Dwellers, a ‘Swampadelic’ band – excellent vocals & harmonies. Drum is actual pine box being sat upon.

An event that we went to to celebrate Earth Day was the 5th Annual National Water Dance performed by Core Dance Brunswick. It is a national artist driven collective confronting critical water issues in the US. The dance was simultaneously performed around the country in about 100 locations near local water sites. The Brunswick performance took place in a labyrinth by the river built out of donated canned goods to also focus on food justice. It involved spoken quotations derived from 3rd & 4th graders at a local school. It was quite moving. The quotations were written on rice paper and ceremoniously tossed into the river after the performance.

What would our cruising travels be w/out meeting up w/old friends, Jennifer & Eddy(met in Ft Pierce, St Augustine, Fernandina and now here, finally have a pic; and meeting new friends Rita & Jim on Daisy, our across dockmates. This is what it’s all about.

Oh, yeah; boat work, that’s a part of this too right? A few of the seemingly hundreds left to go…

Y’all have a great day y’all hear!

25 Apr, 2022

10 Apr, 2022

The Journey…

Up the Florida Coast?!?

April 10, 2022

So, someone want to tell me what we were thinking??? The whole purpose of this trip was to avoid seeing the dreaded ‘Wind Chill’ factor in the weather. This is only 9 degrees warmer than at our place in WI!

We’ve made 3 stops coming up the FL coast, Ft Pierce, St Augustine and Fernandina Beach, all places we’ve been to before. So, not a lot of pics to include due to redundancy.

Ft Pierce: the place we first stopped after leaving the Bahamas. That’s where we cleared into the USA; it was incredibly simple using an app; one just filled out all the info, answered the questions and had a video chat w/an immigration agent. Whole process took less than 15 min. WOW! Impressed! That’s where we weathered the blow and played dodge boat. That’s where met an awesome couple on a catamaran Kairos (thinking of you Jay) from Raleigh, NC; Jennifer & Eddy P. We ‘met’ them on AIS on our way from the Bahamas and anchored next to them here. We’ve proceeded to have multiple happy hours and excursions w/them due to buddy boating w/them to St Augustine AND Fernandina Beach. Pic? Not yet 🙁

St Augustine: We did our last overnite sail to here, D got to see a hammerhead shark next to the boat. He also managed to catch the same type fish, same size fish, only 3 miles from where he caught the 1st one 3 months ago, what are the odds of that! The town had A LOT less people than when we were here at Xmas time. One did not feel claustrophobic every time you turned around. We celebrated Jennifer P’s 60 Bday (nope, no pic) and wandered the town unfettered by crowds. Visited the Flagler College entrance which was in the day one of the most opulent hotels. Rory (and Dwight) got an exquisite wash complete w/a hail scrub one afternoon, she was clean, Dwight was soaked from a walk into town.

And look who we ran into again; our great friends Mark & Cheryl M, our dock mates from Manitowoc. This is the 6th time we have met up w/them on our adventure, completing the circle from/back to St Augustine. It really becomes a small world in the boating community. They have been so helpful in guiding us every place we’ve gone in FL and the Bahamas; offering great advice, giving us engine oil when FL was out, too many things to list; but all was appreciated. We will miss them! Can’t wait to travel late this summer to Manitowoc to visit them.

Fernandina Beach: Ok, so you’ve had a taste of the sail from St Augustine to here in a previous post but man, it would be nice to have a weather forecast be right for a change. Friday’s sail was actually good but just taxing on the body & mind to pay close attention to all conditions the building winds. We grabbed a mooring ball in 30+kts of wind. D read somewhere that one should use an anchor alarm when you use a mooring ball, never quite sure if one can trust them. So, @1:30am the alarm goes off, what? (The only time this entire trip it has gone off!) We scramble around and get ready to move the boat, look outside and assess the situation. Doesn’t seem like we’ve moved, did we, I’m not sure, did we? We didn’t; there was a slight miscalculation of distance that set it off. Back to bed. Saturday proved to be even more exciting w/the winds averaging over 30kts w/a couple 40’s thrown in for fun. Started at noon ended around 7:00pm. Constantly checking our surroundings; Rory for some reason likes to do her own ‘thing’ and dances around oblivious to the direction the rest of the boats are facing. Yep, she’s a princess bitch!

Oh, and the exquisitely clean Rory was absolutely covered in salt, D&K were covered in salt, the waves hitting the boat forced water in the vberth port hatch, the bed was covered in salt.

We’ll go into town today since its so wonderfully calm, grab some lunch maybe a couple groceries and rest up for our trip to Brunswick, GA tomorrow.

Again, WHY???

10 Apr, 2022

9 Apr, 2022

The Journey…

Quote – Paolo S

April 9, 2022

From a new found friend met helping to celebrate another new found friend Jennifer P celebrate her 60th Bday. Paolo has been sailing and racing most of his life ending up in an America’s Cup race amongst others. According to his wife he has no fear and purportedly skateboarded @roughly 45mph down a hill. Yikes! to quote RA!

“If I’m not going faster after I’ve reefed my sails, I’m doing something wrong”

This quote became reality for us on our sail yesterday from St Augustine to Fernandina FL. We initially set the sails for the ‘predicted’ winds of 12-17 kts for the 57nm trip. As the wind built throughout the day (wasn’t supposed to) to the upper 20’s and a couple 30’s, we went thru about 6 variations of sail adjustments as we became overpowered as the winds built. And as the quote states, we went faster after each time we adjusted sails. It has to do w/the amount of the boat hull in the water creating resistance, less boat hull in the water the faster the boat goes. To top off the day as we entered the St Mary’s River inlet and took down the sails, the winds were low to mid 30’s w/2 low 40’s noted. Right. On. The. Nose. Luckily we had a slight current w/us so we were able to maintain a decent speed to get to the Fernandina mooring field, snag the mooring ball (in one pass in 30+ knots!), then sit & relax. The day was physically taxing for the both of us. We were exhausted! Being “on” and trying to stand up straight 100% of the time for 9 hours took a toll. We hit the bunk before the sun went down.

9 Apr, 2022

7 Apr, 2022

The Journey…

Update – April 7, 2022

Finally!!! I am caught up w/all posts. I have backfilled the last ones today and will try better to keep up to date going forward. The backfill process goes back to posts starting March 18.

We are currently in St Augustine, FL and a rainy stormy day allowed me to get caught up. I will admit it feels really good right now. Hopefully they do not seem rushed.

Sun’s out now and I’m going to go sit outside and enjoy it. Thanx for the patience.

7 Apr, 2022

6 Apr, 2022

The Journey…

D, K, Rory & Bo – The ‘Plan‘

April 6, 2022

We have been receiving subtle and not so subtle questions on what our ‘Plan’ is going forward. I recently wrote in an email to a great new boating friend Linda B that “We are starting to include the word ‘plan’ in our 4 letter word category and recite it as we do other comforting swear words”. And it generally seems to be the case, however now we actually DO have a ‘plan’.

Since arriving back in the states from the Bahamas to Ft Pierce and now in St Augustine, we are working our way north to Brunswick, GA. There we will put Rory on the hard for the summer and have a couple of work items done. She’s scheduled to come out of the water on May 15th. We hope to get to Brunswick by Apr 15 and spend some time in the marina so we can do a bunch of projects that needs to be done.

We will then rent a car (maybe a semi) to bring boat stuff back from GA back to WI, stay for about a week and then turn around and take Tesseract (our Tesla) on a road trip out west. Our niece Cate J is getting married on June 4th and that will be the wonderful beginning to our summer adventure. Then we go where our whims and the car takes us.

Rory & Bo will sit by themselves until the end of Sept when we work our way back south. They’ll be in a good location to sit out storms (hopefully) and get some rest! We’ll put them back together and begin the next round of sailing travels w/Rory & Bo. And yes THOSE plans are unbeknownst to even us, but will be thought about and formulated over the summer.

6 Apr, 2022

3 Apr, 2022

The Journey…

Playing Dodgeboat

April 2, 2022

A game that no boat owner wishes to play. The weather in central Florida was quite unsettled yesterday with storms including lightening, gusty winds and heavy rains forecasted for late afternoon. D & I prepared to the best of our ability; getting rain gear ready, putting keys in the ignition, readying the spot light and blow horn. Mother Nature was right on schedule unleashing winds to 38kts and torrential rains. our anchor was holding marvelously.

Out of the corner of our eyes we noticed thru the whiteout of water a boat slowly drifting across the channel in front of us. We both proclaimed “They’re gonna hit us!” We rapidly got all of our fenders out and placed for potential impact. This was done in an absolute deluge. You see sailing YouTuber’s in storms wearing goggles and a snorkel; I get that now. The boat (above, in a calm moment) passed ~50ft twice in front of us, 15ft twice to the starboard side of us and swung ~3ft thrice behind us; dragging his chain w/him; we were sure that it had dragged across our chain and was potentially entangled (it was not). The owner was sitting inside the boat until D blew the horn and he came out into the cockpit – D screamed “WTF are you doing? DO SOMETHING!” He stated “I’m not going to do anything until it stops.” WHAT?!? Put your engine on, put fenders out, move your dinghy just DO SOMETHING! No. He then stated that he had a stroke awhile back and was recovering and couldn’t think clearly. Get that but on a sailboat?!? In a storm where reaction time is critical?!? D offered to go over and try to help him move his boat but he said no. We then took matters into our own hands and pulled up our anchor in 35kt winds and still driving rains. Got it set again and waited until the winds died down. The interloper boat continued to drift very close to the rocky shoreline. D hailed the Coast Guard whose compound happens to be less than 300 ft from us to tell them of the situation. They went to offer assistance and were refused. The guy said no. He then sat on the front of his boat for 4-5 hours until after dark. Spent the nite there and left this am around 7:00.

So, we’re rehashing the evening’s event and trying to figure what else we could have done. We feel pretty confident that we did just about all we could except maybe get the fenders out earlier. How to help the guy is what’s bugging us. Contacting the Coast Guard we thought was enough but was it?

Apparently there were a few boats that ran aground last nite in Ft Pierce and a boat came in and anchored next to us just after midnite w/a very torn head and mainsail. The pleasures of owning a sailboat. We were lucky last nite, being prepared helped.

3 Apr, 2022