s/vCelebration 1977 Hallberg-Rassy '41

Fresh Market

2012-02-13T17:17:00.001-04:00

Five foot tall flower stems from the market.

As our two regular blog readers already know, we think one of the great things about being retired is the amount of time we have to spend on food. We spend a lot of time talking about food, planning, shopping, drooling, cooking. Steve and I both love to find new grocery stores and markets. Here in Martinique it's a fun challenge just to try to translate the labels and make sure we're buying what we think we're buying. I like the 'fresh markets' (small local produce markets) because they have a little bit of everything: veggies, fruit, fresh spices, locally spiced rums, tourist souvenirs, a meat counter and a fish counter. Here, on a French Isle, they also include a baguette lady and lots of locally grown flowers. Our choices vary greatly from week to week and island to island. We buy what looks good and get to meal plan accordingly.

I have nowhere to put these but I sure like to browse among the flowers.

This week we're having fresh local oranges (which are green), avocados, onions, potatoes, cukes mangoes, bananas and tomatoes.

This photo is for our families and friends in the frozen north, who may have forgotten what fresh, vine ripened tomatoes look like. They taste as good as they look.

2012-02-08T15:27:00.000-04:00

It's been raining a lot lately, so we've had some really spectacular rainbows and double rainbows. We can usually see two or three a day. I suppose they'll get old some day, but for now, I still have to make Steve come and see them all.
We're not doing anything much new here. Just hanging out, grocery shopping, doing laundry. We generally come into Ste Anne once a day to walk, have coffee and Internet, buy bread, practice speaking french. We're on the 'baguette a day' program. I think I'm addicted to fresh bread, with butter, and some kind of sauce to dip it in, and of course, wine. Hmmm, maybe it's not just the bread I'm addicted to.
We're anchored off a long, white, sandy beach, with a Club Med on the far end. Our spot affords us an unimpeded view of the beach goers and all the bars and restaurants along the shore. After much observation, I've decided that European men's Speedo's come in one color, black, and two sizes, XS and S. The size a man buys has nothing to do with his actual body size. It only determines how far up he wants to pull the suit. Most men seem to buy the XS.

Sitting Ste Annes Martinique

2012-02-06T11:48:00.001-04:00

Last Night's Sunset, Best with Cabernet Sauvignon

Weather is beautiful. The solar and wind power are up to their job. Almost all systems are go, even though saying so is often a bad omen. The days are going by fast. Each filled with a bit of boat work, a bit of walking, a bit of gathering from the local markets, sometimes a walk on the beach, a bit of wine at sundown, and all usually followed with a bit of food preparation put together from the local fare. Most often it is a great feast, often with the deliberate overproduction offering a nice lunch for the day after. The exchange rate is fair, the choices are great so we choose wisely for our budget, eat at home and have had some fantastic meals.

New Dingy Cover or "Chaps"

On the boat side, we have now (finally) completed the dingy “chaps” protecting the material from the Caribbean sun so I’m posting a photo here. A bit of adjustment is still needed but until they have to come off for another reason, they will do what they are designed to do. Today, wiring the second solar panel through the charge controller. With enough wind and sun to keep the batteries full, this has suddenly moved up in the priorities.

St Lucia ... Martinique

2012-01-30T16:03:00.003-04:00

St Lucia at a Glance

Market Haul

Anchorage at Rodney Bay St Lucia

We came in to St Lucia to watch the Old Year’s Night fireworks and were not disappointed. Once recovered from the rough sail up and a bit of maintenance on Celebration, we were off exploring. One of the first things for us is always a trip to the local market and St Lucia didn’t let us down. Lynn already mentioned the local food and we found ourselves getting a plate there every Saturday after.

Pitons and Soufriere

Volcano at Soufriere

Always interesting to us is how many folks travel but fail to see or experience beyond the “touristy” spots. In this way our weekly food plate at the market turned into some great fun. While many tourist types and cruise ship passengers walked through, some even bought crafts and trinkets, we were among the few non-locals buying fruits, vegetables, and eating street food there. In every case we’d be sitting at our favorite vender with people walking by staring at our giant plates while we ate away. Sooner or later one would stop and inquire “Is it good?” or “have you eaten here before?” Our answers of “great” and “yes we eat here every week” would inevitably bring on the “and you feel OK after?” line of questions or the “you’re not from a cruise ship, are you” comments. Not many minutes later the vendor’s tables would be full of non-locals with the food and beer overflowing. Slowly we’d head on our way looking for the bus back or the next street over for another discovery.

Off to Martinique

Wine Tasting

Looking toward Martinique

Almost a week ago now we left St Lucia and headed north about 25 miles to Martinique. The sail was sporty and the wind from the direction we wanted to go but the trip short so we tacked and tacked, eventually sailing up to the anchorage. We are anchored off of the southeast corner in front of Ste Annes. The area is beautiful, shopping for wine, cheese and bread is exemplary. Of course as we arrived we saw old friends from other anchorages and we were soon over at s/v Jammin’ (Dave & Helen) for a small wine tasting. All the couples had gone into town and found several low prices bottles/boxes. So that night we each arrived with our new found bargain beverages and proceeded to taste them around the cockpit, compare thoughts, prices, and take thumbs up/down photo’s so we could remember which ones we liked. One of our favorites turned out to be the Grands Prelats Janfort…made even more favored with the $2.01 Euro price.

Anchorage at Ste Annes

So for around $2.67 (US) a nice red for cooking as well as the table. Sure went well with the seafood chowder and great company (Rod & Mary, s/v Sheer Tanacity) last night. So far we are loving Martinique; clean, friendly, great food shopping, beautiful beaches, and the US Dollar/Euro exchange rate is much better than our last visit. If there is a negative it is a distinct lack of free internet. But a coffee at a local shop will allow a connection as part of the bargain. Throw in a couple Pain du Chocolate pastries and it’s just about perfect. Now to get to work on my (currently lack of) French. We could be here a while…

Boat Repairs in Exotic Locations

2012-01-09T09:47:00.000-04:00

Orriginal Delco 12si Layout

Some say that is the true definition of cruising. We heard that many times before leaving on this journey so we tried to keep our systems as simple as possible. Regardless, there is always something. We minimize power consumption as much as possible but we do enjoy a large dose of ice with our small (ahem) dose of rum in the evening. We have a minimum of solar/wind power which usually does fine, but when the engine runs, I want as much power out of it as I can get. I set the plant up with two 100 amp alternators—one for the engine bank and a second for the house bank. After arriving in the Caribbean heat the house bank was left wanting thus a conversion to a 200 amp for the house bank. The big alternator is built on a Delco 12si case and put out power as advertised. Unfortunately the builder had a smaller non-AGM battery bank and thus good success with the stock diodes. We proceeded to blow out sets of diodes regularly when we taxed the system. Not good.

Stock rectifier shown but with new
holes already in the case

210 Amp rectifier
Trial Fit

The fix: I found 210 amp bridge rectifiers specifically designed to “fit” the Delco 12si case and had a couple brought down with Hannah and Cameron. Well “fit” clearly means different things to different folks. Yes they would “fit” in the case and slightly (very slightly) clear the stator and rotor. But they really didn’t “fit” as in none of the holes or electrical connections lined up and lots of in-case mountings and ridges blocked the position. What’s to lose I thought and after some contemplation I busted out the dremel with cutting wheel and went to town. I removed all the pesky ridges and mounting studs, drilled and tapped new mounts, and reset the location of the main power connection. After a bit of aluminum fitting fastened down with JB Weld to provide additional support for the main power stud it all went together. Well almost. I also had to cut off the stock regulator connection so the brush and connections would clear the bridge rectifier.

Aluminum fitting being "welded" to
case for main power stud

Final Assembly, Close but Functional

With some trepidation I mounted it, wired it all up and it didn’t work! Aw crap. Bad news, I had to take it apart again, good news, the problem was simple. A small piece of the toothpick I used to retain the brushes during assembly had broken off when I removed it and was still keeping one of the brushes from making contact. Now loving the power it produces, quickly pushes the bank into absorption stage so the solar and wind can easily finish the job. Time to buckle down and build the backup with the new kit as well. The only problem has been as Lynn referenced, the big stator as well as the electric refrigeration and watermaker clutches all spinning at once threw off the auto helm compass. Now repositioned, I'll report back on that some other time.

Starting a New Year,

2012-01-04T14:45:00.000-04:00

Interesting, always colorful architecture.

this time in St Lucia. We took advantage of what we thought would be a fairly good weather window and left Grenada for the 160 mile trip north to St Lucia. Coming down through the Caribbean last summer, we only spent 2 days here and had put it on the top of the list of places to revisit. Our sail turned out not-so-nice, with me, and Adjima, fetal position sick the whole way. Nothing like barfing for 30 hours to make me really glad to see Rodney Bay appear from behind the rocks. Steve had to single hand the entire day, in winds upward of 30kts and big confused seas. It was one of 'those' sails: the nav computer quit, the auto helm wouldn't work while the engine and the water maker were both on (something about too many magnets spinning too close to the compass), it rained and rained, the sunbrella on the jib ripped and at 5am the fuel filters clogged from all the gunk getting stirred up in the wild motion. Steve was very kind when I dragged myself to the cockpit to stand watch while he changed the filters. He said and I'm paraphrasing here, "Don't do anything. Just keep us on course." And I did. Until I got just the faintest whiff of diesel... We were only a mile or so off the rhumb line when he came back up an hour later.

We ran into some friends as we were leaving the grocery the next day and went along with them to the market in Castries, a few miles down the road. It was a great outdoor fresh fruit and veg market, with lots of trinkets for the cruise ship people thrown in alongside. There was a restaurant row, with all local food and we of course had to sample. On my plate, above, I had: fall off the bone delicious chicken legs, baked mac and cheese, lettuce salad, beans and rice over breadfruit, pasta, and plantains. Steve was the only one in the group to clean his plate. This lunch for 2, including beer, was less than $12. I was definitely over my sea sickness.

This is 'the season' in the Caribbean. Tourists from all over the world come here to soak up the sun. We're anchored off a Sandal's Resort and their guests are jet skiing, windsurfing, para sailing, diving, horseback riding, Hobie-catting, having funning all around the boat. It's great to sit and watch. The large sailing cruise boats come right up into Rodney bay and anchor for the day. I love this picture of the old wooden La Graceau against the new Wind Spirit.

We have a few repairs to make here and some sightseeing to do, so we plan to stay a couple of weeks. Come on down.

Merry Christmas from Grenada

2011-12-25T10:42:00.000-04:00

Lynn Preparing for "Drinks in the Drink"

Cooling off at Seven Sister Falls

What a season it is. Warm, windy, no snow of course but it is tough to believe it is Christmas after all those northern winters. But the beauty of it this year is that both our daughters have been here for a visit.

Hannah & Cameron above the Caranage

Touring Grenada Distilleries

Hannah arrived a week ago Friday with her partner Cameron. He is a brave man traveling 1000 miles to not just meet the parents, but to stay on a sailing boat with them for a week. OK, he made a couple points with me right there, but in the end he is a nice man. Fun, confident, adventurous, kind, well read…maybe even a little quirky like the rest of us. Certainly a good fit. We spent the week hiking, swimming, sightseeing and in the evenings cooking and tasting various rums and spicing combinations.

X-Mass Eve Dinner

Amanda arrived the night before Hannah and Cameron left allowing us one night of full family togetherness. Very fun as all the catching up, storytelling, eating, and rum tasting went late into the night. Next day was pretty much naps all round. Since then we have been out doing much of the same with Amanda. Last night the three of us spent x-mass eve at Da Big Fish with traditional x-mass food, great friends Chris and Anne (Mr Mac), and excellent entertainment from guitarist/singer Baracuda.

Today the cinnamon rolls baking, for dinner later we plan roasted chicken, potatoes, beets and a wonderful sticky toffee pudding made by Anne.

Happy Birthday Amanda

Meanwhile…the rolls are done and out of the oven while I edited a couple photos so one more here of Amanda blowing out candles on her “Birthday” Breakfast Rolls.

Grenada For a Week

2011-12-08T14:26:00.001-04:00

Same theme right? But this time the plan is for more than a week. Hannah (and her boyfriend) are due to arrive a week from tomorrow and Amanda the following Wednesday. We are so excited! Meanwhile doing a few boat projects in preparation. and loving Grenada. With the exception of the occasional “Camp” atmosphere among cruisers and a couple camp “Councilors Gone Wild” it is nearly as great as Trinidad. BTW: Anyone who has been here for a week or so knows exactly what I mean by Camp & Councilors comment. Nuff said to use an old friend’s quote.

Some of the boats near the Fish Market

Lynn loves all the color

Preped and ready

This week’s project, ah varnish. Oh how I love the beauty and texture of wood on a boat. It just belongs there instead of all the synthetics today. But it also needs a lot of love if it is to stay beautiful. While we are on the fast track in this sun to a natural gray finish for the toe rails, we’re still keeping all of our cockpit varnish.

Radar and GPS leads all taped out of the way

One coat down, ??? more to go

A day of prep, a day of rain, a day of varnish. Frankly, I’m not very good at it, but a friend of ours, one of the word working “masters” provided some council after watching my struggle. Dennis bolstered my confidence by stating “Don’t worry, only the last coat counts”, after which he dashed my enthusiasm by also proclaiming that “when it’s on a sailboat; it’s NEVER the last coat.” Tomorrow we’ll try another pass.

Trinadad for a Week

2011-11-23T10:39:00.003-04:00

We left Grenada one evening on a good wind for Trinidad. The plan was to come in, say hello to our friends Chris and Anne of Mr Mac, refuel, re-provision, and head back north. Maybe for Tobago, maybe Barbados, or maybe back to Grenada or Bequia, a week or maybe two at the most. Well here we are…still in Trinidad. Yes we have refueled and bought all the provisions the checkbook will stand….but there is just so much more.

Cathedral of Rum (aging)

For starters, the country is beautiful. The topography, the people, the culture, the city, and the rainforest all are worth the visit. After all that the availability of resources here is clearly the top of the Caribbean. On a search of downtown Port of Spain Lynn and some friend found the textile district, blocks of stores with every type, color and weave of fabric one can imagine. So after an extensive list we have aboard one very large roll of Sunbrella canvas for making a set of dingy chaps and redoing some of our shade awnings. She also picked out new upholstery material for what will eventually become new cushions in the saloon. And one of the best finds was some inexpensive netting for bug screens on our opening side hatches. Oh and have I mentioned the food? Fabulous spicy mix of Indian, European, South American, and Island cultures. Doesn’t matter if it’s the street fare (Doubles at $3tt-4tt each, two of which make a meal) or a meal out (lunch today as much as we could eat was $72tt) it is done right. A bit adventurous at times, lots of eating sticky, juicy foods with fingers but nothing a bit of water and a couple napkins won’t take care of. By the way the exchange rate is $6.37tt to the US dollar so yes that was lunch for two at less than $11.50.

Pan Under Construction

Pan Making Tools

We have found time for a visit to the Pan (Steel Drum) factory, the Caroni Swamp, and toured the local rum distillery, but of course that IS a requirement for any Caribbean island.

Caroni Swamp

Mandatory post-tour Tasting

One From the Relic Collection

One of our highlights was an overnight trip to the Asa Wright wildlife Sanctuary. After a trip up the mountain valley to the old plantation house, now sanctuary headquarters, we got cabin assignments, a great meal, and then a night hike to see the creatures of the evening. Morning dawned with us gathered on the balcony of the main building, looking over the rain forest, coffee in hand watching as thousands of birds began feeding at sunrise within unaided view. Hummingbirds to Tucans, with many other birds we haven’t even seen in zoos.

Balcony at Asa Wright

The real birders were carefully making drawings, taking notes, squinting through binoculars, whipping through reference books, checking off their lists, and at the end of the day counting up the number of new “sightings” Me; I sat with my coffee while the Hummingbirds flashed over every single flower on the bush followed by another, then another right over the rail next my stool. I simply enjoyed their flight, their speed, their grace; wondered at the strength to weight ratio they must surely have and enjoyed the quiet of the sunrise. Took no notes, made no drawings, and carried no reference books. I did think about Dick and Edie (Lynn’s parents) and contemplated how much they would enjoy a trip to this sanctuary. After breakfast, sans bacon to Lynn’s chagrin, we were led on an extended walk where a local expert pointed out the various bird rituals and locations, even a few that sat camouflaged perfectly for their surroundings, would have been missed without a guide pointing the way.

Divali Meal

Another highlight outing was the Divali Celebration. This Hindu tradition is a Festival of Lights celebrated on the darkest night between mid October and Mid November. As I understand it the festival is to ward off the evil in life while celebrating the good. With no moon the street was lined with racks made from split bamboo, then covered with lights made of small clay pots, rolled cotton wicks, and filled with coconut oil. We visited a Indian Temple, listened to traditional music, ate fabulous food…curries of pumpkin, mango, black eyed peas, and flat bread and much more, all off fresh banana leaves, no silverware, no meat, and no alcohol.

Street Lighting with Bamboo and Coconut oil

We walked the streets after filling our stomachs to find another tradition to be gifts of sweets handed to passersby from local families. We had been warned to graciously accept as this is the tradition, no compensation, no return gifts. So we nibbled until we could no more, then subtly slid the small bundles into pockets, purses, hats as we enjoyed the beautiful Indian dress of men and women walking the streets, sitting in front of their homes taking in the festival.

All that just to let you know we are still in Trinidad and have not really fallen off the edge of the earth. Yes a look at the dates between updates explains why we’ve received emails inquiring whether we had. There has simply been too much, time going too fast, both work and play, so we have been remiss. Besides, we have been heading out weekends to an Island not far from here called Chacachacare. Calm, quiet, peaceful anchorage, and unlike near the industrial centers… dark. Saturday night we lay on the deck with our “his” and “hers” binoculars looking at Saturn. With the night dark and the air clear after a long rain we could literally see the rings and count the moons with our 7X binos. Too cool. We’ll be heading out of here soon…probably…maybe.

2011-10-19T15:41:00.000-04:00

Just a quick video I shot as we came into Trinidad. It'll give you an idea of the terraine. Too bad it can't give you a feel for the himidity. WOW. It's actually nice and cool when it rains or is cloudy, but the second the sun comes out and hits all that moisture in the air: instant steam sauna.
Right now, I'm sitting under the picnic shelter, next to the bar at TTSA, watching the daily deluge, moving occasionally to stay out of the drips.
The shopping bus just returned and disgorged a dozen other cruisers and all their mornings packages and groceries. They've all crowded under the picnic area and now my quiet is filled with chatter in several different languages. Trinidad is a mecca for cruisers from around the world. At last night's potluck we met cruisers from Switzerland, South Africa, New York, New Zealand and England. Since we're below the hurricane belt, cruisers come here to spend the season, haul their boats and have work done in one of the 12 or so boat yards. Pretty much anything that needs to be found/repaired/replaced or fabricated for a boat can be done here. And done in wood or fibreglass or metal. We (meaning Steve) have an extensive list and have to sit down and see what we really need to do or have made while we're here. I'd just like to find some mahogany to make a new set of companionway stairs, our 'temporary' set is almost 3 years old.
The video wouldn't upload, I'll try again tomorrow.

Trinidad!

2011-10-15T12:15:00.000-04:00

No photos today, I forgot the cord to attach the camera to the computer. We got into Trinidad after a beautiful, overnight, full moon sail from Grenada. After a quick check in with Immigration and Customs, we made our way around to the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association. TTSA has a large mooring field and anchorage. We chose to anchor so that we can swing with the wind and keep the boat a little cooler. The moored boats are moored bow and stern so they can be packed in pretty tightly and there is no swinging going on. The sun here is brutaly hot, so any breeze is welcome.
Generally when we get into a new country we spend the first few days getting to know our way around and checking out the buses and grocery stores. Here in Chaguaramas, the first thing to do was get our mail sent from Florida. It seems that debit cards have expiration dates and that cash machines give their version of a belly laugh when you try to use one that's expired! Who knew?? Anyway, we pooled our available Euros, EC, $$ and TT and are making due until the mail comes, sometime next week, we hope. (We've had friends offer to loan us money until our card comes, but we think that if we have to suffer a little now, we may remember to check the dates in the future. (insert another belly laugh here.))
We have lots of friends here, we're all still waiting out the hurricane season and we're looking forward to catching up with them and also meeting all our new neighbors here st TTSA. There are several tours planned, one of which is called "A Taste of Trini", an all day trip where we get to eat our way around the island. Can't wait for that one.

Random Stuff

2011-09-28T10:48:00.000-04:00

Sometimes there just isn’t a fitting title for the random thoughts that roll around in my head. I know many of you won’t be surprised by that. Even Lynn wonders how I get from one train of thought to another so quickly. Most I don’t share but they are all connected somehow. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

What’s with the lights? Yes it gets dark here like just about everywhere else. Some boats stubbornly refuse to use lights at anchor or anywhere else. Then there are the bright red ones in the cockpit, the green ones, the strobes, the lawn and garden variety that kind of, almost work for a few hours (after that you’re as dark as the no lighters) and even the little bitty flashing yellow one. These days of bright, super-bright, cheap, hardly use any energy at all LEDs it’s tough for me to imagine any reason for being un/improperly lit. There I was…..2 AM, wind howling, rain in buckets, the kind of event where boats drag and maneuver, can’t see a thing,but know everyone is up and on watch. Rain eases ever so slightly and a green navigation light pierces the night. S@#T, he’s going to hit me!!! But it doesn’t happen...looks stationary... what? After the storm…yes it was a bright green light being used as a cockpit and anchor light. Very considerate ;)

Retired AND Relaxed; Tiki Bar Pan Band

Retired and Relaxed Cruisers? There are retired folks, there are younger folks with families, even younger yet cruisers delaying entry into, maybe taking a short break from, the working world. It is interesting though the number who can’t really give up the “working” mentality, maybe a few control issues. Yes I am guilty of fixing/updating something when I probably should be reading a good book. But the quibbles, quips, jockeys’ for last word, must be involved in everything, and subtle/not-so-subtle I’m running this inputs on the web and radio net sometimes make me wonder. Seems the younger not yet retired cruisers are the most relaxed. Perhaps it's the mentality beat into us through working careers…or maybe a few would be happier just going back to work?

The “No” Boat: There was this boat in the anchorage we referred to as the “No” boat. You see it had no lights; no flag, no name, and the old "gent" aboard wore no clothes. And…I’ll post NO photo to protect the innocent. You wouldn’t want to see.

Can't let these two pass:

Cock Soup?

Appetizer? Aphrodisiac? Main course? Does anyone need a cigarette afterwards?

Bread Made by Ho's?

And; Bread made by Ho’s? I have no idea, but I swear it was the only brand on the shelf Saturday morning that was still warm and soft. Hmm…

Chao ab Ordo

2011-08-31T15:33:00.000-04:00

Just a small sample of our new 'order'.

When we moved aboard, 8 1/2 years ago, things got put away just to get them out of the way. They didn't always end up in convenient places or anywhere that even made sense. Some of the tools we use a lot ended up under the bunk in the V berth, not easy to get to, but we knew where they were, so they stayed. When we left the dock 2 1/2 years ago all the power tools were in the workbench, easy to find, easy to use. Well, we haven't had 110 power for more than 2 years and those tools were still there, taking up space.
As most of you probably know, I'm a compulsive organiser. I like 'like with like' and things always put back from whence they came. I like things to be where I use them, not where they fit on the boat. I also have to say that generally I leave Steve's stuff alone, he's a big boy and if it works for him, great. But this really was driving me crazy. I talked him into a little reorganisation. Heh heh heh...
I had to put the "reorder the boat" days on the calendar way in advance so Steve would have time to mentally prepare for it. He really hates change. I scheduled 2 days thinking it would be enough time to take everything out of the V berth and out of the workbench and make sense of it all. (yes I really did put it on the calendar, once I found it)
We actually needed 3 days to take out all the wire (measure it, bag it, log it in the inventory), sort all the thousands of nuts, bolts, screws, washers, do dads, assorted pieces of wood and metal, canvas working tools and hardware, power tools, 3 bags of hand tools, a dozen empty plastic peanut butter jars and so much more and then find new places to put it all away again.
I think I mentioned that Steve hates change, but he really got into this project, sorting, even throwing (gasp) a few things away!
We may not have complete 'Order out of Chaos' but I can sleep well knowing that all the #6 flat head brass screws are nestled together in their appropriate compartment, in the appropriate box.

For the love of... food.

2011-08-26T15:48:00.000-04:00

Ester and Omega ham it up.

They say that an army travels on it's stomach. The same can be said for a sailboat crew. Especially Steve and I. We love to eat and cook and are willing to try pretty much anything. Since retirement, we've found the chance to indulge in our love of perusing grocery store aisles. Traveling through the Caribbean has added a whole new dimension to this hobby. There are sooo many different nationalities and mixes of cultures, the old blended into the new. The foods are a huge potpourri of tastes, Eastern curries added to Caribbean spices, with a little French sophistication to top it off. We're having a wonderful time here, spending enough time in one place to really get to sample the local cuisine is one of the best parts of traveling by slow boat.
Yesterday we started a series of classes given by True Blue Bay Resort. They're trying to introduce their guests and visiting cruisers to the Grenadian foods and how they're prepared. The two ladies who do the classes were funny and friendly and really enjoyed being in front of the group. Their banter and obvious love of cooking was great to see. It was very informal and we could ask questions throughout it all. The bar served rum punch and cold Carib beer. At the end we each got a plate of Mahi Mahi on a delicious passion fruit sauce and topped with a Sambal of cucumber and green peppers. Don't know what a Sambal is? Neither did I. Now I do! It's basically a salsa but made with tamarind nectar, Asian chili sauce and fish sauce. Delicious, well except for those yucky green peppers, but Steve ate those. The recipes are available on the link above. Enjoy.

Carbon Footprints

2011-08-22T11:25:00.000-04:00

Got involved in a discussion among US friends a while ago about alternative energy. The effort was a challenge since most folks involved had clearly chosen their positions, but the gist of it all was the cost of alternative energy and whether it is or is not competitive and viable. My assertion is that it is relative. While power flows freely and cheaply out of the outlet, the pollution in some far away state, alternative energy seems pretty expensive. Interrupt that flow for some reason; put the plant in our backyard and the cost/benefit ratio teeters, likely in another direction.

Things also change here on the cruising sailboat. We by our choice of course, must produce all of our energy. There is no outlet to plug into when the batteries are low or filling station down the street with cheap, clean fuel to pump when the tank is down. But at the end of the day we want power in the battery bank, water in the tank and warm for a shower, clean clothes for tomorrow, ice for sundowners, a cool fridge, and some spare diesel in the tank for getting underway or emergencies. We do that with a small wind generator, one 85 watt solar panel, augmented by our engine when it is already running for another reason or when we absolutely have to. Before leaving we super insulated the fridge, built a highly efficient unit, big battery bank, kept electronics to a minimum, and replaced lights with LEDs trying our best to lean the balance in our favor.

Some sailors sail more, some run the diesel more. Some produce large amounts of electricity with solar and wind, some have generators. A few are without refrigerators or watermakers and need little. We all have different “musts” among our cruising needs. For us the biggies are the watermaker and the fridge. But whatever our choices are, we have to power it. We have to get it and keep it in balance. Most things our moms taught us anyway: turn the lights off when you’re not using it, same for the fans, open the fridge one time for everything, and so many more. We’ve all been told…I hope.

We last filled the tank in April in Puerto Rico where diesel was around $3.90/gallon. Everything before Puerto Rico since leaving the US was around $6/gallon or more, sometimes well over that since… the cost/benefit ratio teeters. So I decided to tally the data since that last fill: 85 gallons of diesel consumed in over four months. It has seen us through 740 nautical miles, 15 Countries, and 33 different anchorages. Coupled with our solar and wind…made all our water, cooled our fridge, froze our ice, heated the water heater, and powered all our computers/lights/electronics. Trying for a next fill in Tobago or Trinidad end of September.

2011-08-19T10:31:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have noticed that the 'Adjima counter' on the right side of the blog has clicked over into another year, another decade. I thought long and hard about how to celebrate this milestone. I don't think Adj enjoyed the party and hats as much as I did last year. She's not much into company or surprises, unless they're food. She has a favorite blanket. We grow grass for her to graze upon. She only has to open her mouth and we put food in it. What more could a cat want? I could come up with nothing.
In the end, she had a little catnip and fresh tuna, curled up with blankie, covered her face and took a nap.

2011-08-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

We had Sundowners with a group of dock neighbors last night. Lots of talk of the Carnival. Of course that song came up. Titles ranged from 'Soggy Day' to 'Sorry Day' to 'Soliday' (?). Our friend Mike, from the catamaran Zero to Cruzin, finally stepped in and cleared up the mystery for me. He said it's 'So We Dey', meaning loosely 'so we're good' or 'Que Sera, Que Sera' as another friend Carrie put it. This morning I looked it up on YouTube (what would we do without YouTube??) and had to share. To get the most out of it, make sure your speakers are on full blast and be sure to play it over and over for at least 2 days.

Carnival!

2011-08-10T16:50:00.000-04:00

Trying to get everyone lined up for the start of 'Pretty Mas'.

Carnival actually consists of many competitions and parades. We managed to see most of the parades, which are called 'Mas', short for masquerade. When I first heard of them, before seeing it in print, I thought they were part of a 'mass', as in Catholic Mass. Knowing that the catholics invented Carnival, it made sense to me. Little did I know that Carnival has almost nothing to do with religion anymore. Most of the Caribbean Islands have a Carnival and they're scheduled so a single tourist could attend all of them, if he so desired. Spread the wealth, so to speak. So some of the Carnivals are before Lent and some are after, like say maybe August. Anyway, the different 'Mas' stand for different things.

For example on Monday there were 3 'Mas': at 5AM was J'Ouvert or 'Dirty Mas' where large quantities of brightly colored paint are used to turn everyone the same skin color. (I called it the 'Equalizer Mas'.) Steve and I managed to sleep through this one.

In the afternoon was 'Pagent Mas' or 'Pretty Mas'. The one with the beautiful costumes. This year the theme was Lead Us Into Temptation. So the 'Mas' had lots of devils and angels wildly dancing with each other.

Late that night was 'Monday Night Mas', which we got to participate in. Different businesses sponsored groups of dancers and we were in the Carib group. Carib is the Windward island's beer maker, so it was fitting. We were outfitted with lighted, flashing, fuzzy hats, flashing beer mugs and light sabers, also flashing. We, along with 1198 others in the Carib group, danced and stomped and thumped our way along behind the semi playing the music and in front of the beer truck. The music was chest compressing loud bass, I was sooooo glad we had earplugs. This was a wild time and it only got wilder as the beer, bottles and pot were passed and the night got late. We arrived back at the marina sweat and beer soaked, foot sore and exhausted. We had a great time and now we have lighted hats, mugs and sabers for future use!

So much color!

The King of Carnival.

The Queen of Carnival.

Pretty Mas.

We woke up today to the sound of silence. It's a quiet, normal, back to work kind of day. FINALLY. We've been in the Port Louis Marina for a week now, and the thumping music has been non-stop since we got here. I usually like the live music we can hear from the boat at anchor or in port and I liked this, the first thousand times. For some odd reason, Grenadians seem to have only one song and it's played over and over and over. For. Days. At. A. Time. It goes like this" DaDaDADadaDaDaDaaaaSoggyDay, DaDaDaDAAADaDaaaaSorryDay, DaDaDaDaDADaaaDaDaThursday.......It ends with a whole long section involving 'Tsunami', which gets shouted ALOT. I tried and tried to figure out the words. I even asked the people around me. They all said something different. Maybe next year.

2011-08-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

Port Louis marina, St. Georges, Grenada.

It's been too long and way too many miles since I last blogged. I left Grenada almost as soon as we got here and got to spend a month with my family in North Dakota. It was a chance to see my parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and lots of cousins and their kids. Having such a big family can be exhausting! Great to see them all and catch up. I also got to spend a week in Minneapolis with our daughter, Amanda. She helped me wrap up all my shopping and also scored tickets to the U2 concert. (We were in the 11th row, just left of center! It was AWESOME!) It was a wonderful month and it whizzed by. My only regret was that I didn't get to Albuquerque to see Hannah, not finding either the time or the $$ to make the trip. I miss you Hannah.

Back in Grenada. It hasn't cooled off at all. I can still work up a sweat reading a book. We've moved around to the port city of St Georges, to better observe and participate in Carnival, which starts tomorrow. Carnival was started by catholics in Italy in the 15th or 16th century. Originally called "carnevale" meaning 'to put away meat', it was a party before the start of Lent and 40 days of fasting and deprivation, ummm, I mean prayer and contemplation In the Caribbean, with influences from Africa and many European countries it has evolved into a shut-down-the-country 5 day festival with parades, band competitions and elaborate costumes. We're just starting to get involved and figure out the schedule of events, so I'll keep you up to date as we go. I'm hoping to see the steel pan bands perform on Saturday.

Let There be Shade

2011-07-20T15:59:00.002-04:00

Looking up from Below

So what’s that view out the overhead hatch? Canvas!

Several updates ago I mentioned our old, big, heavy, cumbersome, and wouldn’t fit anymore awning with my hope to convert it to something useful. Well here it is. A few more pinpricks, stitches, re-stitches, days in the doing, and dollars than I thought it would take, but nothing’s ever easy.

Full Boom Length Plus

I split it down the center, manufactured a bolt rope as well as a rope around all the edges for tensioning, and riveted an aluminum rope channel down each side of the boom. Then I just had to solve the rear support since the rigging isn’t as wide as the ship there. Couple hardware store closet rods with creative drilling/cutting and we have SHADE.

But heck, we’re way cooler down here than the Midwest USA already. Sorry.

Rear Support

On the injury report, there will be no photo today. I took one to document…you don’t want to see it. It’s doing what a burn does, a large blister and 1/2 dozen small ones. Keeping it clean, followed by topical antibiotic and loosely covered. No sign of anything out of the ordinary. I'm very sure it'll leave a mark but will heal fine, and probably won't be able to do the Hash this Saturday.

Meanwhile, the sewing machine is off, the wind is blowing 12-15, the sun shines…batteries are rapidly catching up.

Injury Log, # xxx(x)?

2011-07-18T21:26:00.007-04:00

Damn the pirates; The Coffee Pot’s kicking my arse.

Lynn started this injury log thing some time ago and nooooo we really won’t post a number. Lots of things on sailboats are incompatible with human flesh in this constantly moving environment. For those followers who may actually want to Cruise someday, the number is probably better well... unsaid. Besides, "nothing to date has required professional medical attention". Morning started great, and then somehow turned awry. See we love our French press for making coffee and I’ll make a small disclaimer here, the thermos brand we own makes superb coffee and is in no way responsible, the malfunction was clearly between my ears. Anyway… pour steaming water from the teakettle over the coffee grounds and in four minutes we have coffee house quality coffee at home, every day. Usually we set it up in the cockpit so we can observe the dawn while we wait. Today, while stepping down to turn on/off something as I do many times every day, can’t even recall what it was now, my foot clipped the top of the handle and it tipped. No, not in front as one would think, but hung balanced on the edge until right after my foot passed, then pouring the heat down the back of my calf, and tumbling down the companionway spewing coffee and grounds everywhere. “Crap” (really?) I said observing the mess. Rinsed the grounds off my leg, leapt down to clean up the disaster below…AND start another pot of course..

T plus 2 hours

Couple minutes into clean up I realized this whole REALLY hot water on the leg thing just might be a problem. Unfortunately, or fortunately depends on the situation, I have a quite high pain threshold so really didn’t pay attention as I saw coffee grounds spewed about the carpet and cabin. You know, priorities, and let’s not forget…I haven’t yet had a cup! So once I finally take in the big picture, I head to the head (no play on words there) and run cool water over it for a few minutes to make sure it’s cool and clean.

T plus 5 hours

Well here is the progress report by photo log. Not necessarily for the queasy, but please bear in mind, this is all documentation so others don’t make the same mistakes right? Short story; lots of Ibuprofen to reduce inflammation and pain, every 4-5 hours a rinse and coat with antibiotic cream (yes it is one of the meds on board that is actually both in date and labeled for humans), keep elevated as much as possible. What would the med professionals do? Not sure, but Google search indicates for small area 2nd degree burns: Keep clean, disinfect with antibiotic, loosely cover, elevate to reduce inflammation, use Ibuprofen for pain…see a medical professional if that’s not getting it done or if there is any indication of infection. OK…So far so good. For those less adventurous…there is a medical school here in Grenada. A bit frustrating to think I did a hash Saturday in some pretty tough terrain most the while chatting with one of the medical school students, left with nothing but a couple saw grass cuts and lots of mud stains. Today I can’t even get through the stinking morning coffee.

14 Hours

10 hours...preparing self medication

Still finding splotches of grounds around the cabin…and a little afraid this one is going to leave a mark.

Island Time

2011-07-15T13:48:00.002-04:00

Clearly it is a phrase with many meanings. My version on the island is not to hurry. The day starts with a mug of coffee, a listen in on the weather, and off to do any errands before the Island heat sets in full force. Putter with some project until lunch, a nap, actually work for a couple hours then enjoy the evening (relative) coolness in the cockpit with a beverage and the six-string. Interesting meaning I learned yesterday is that when told your order will be here Thursday, It means here… on the Island. Oh, so when did you want to pick it up? Today after three will be fine of course. I’m adjusting…not to hurry.

New Slide Attachments, Chafe Guard

Leach Tape and Cleat

New Cloth and Leach Detail

Meanwhile the good ship Celebration is becoming whole again. The Mainsail we blew and planned to replace is now repaired and back on the boom. Johnny of Johnny Sails looked it over hard, made a long list of musts to be done and an even longer list of should be done's. I nearly fainted at the price until he mentioned it was EC not US. Oh, so at 2.7:1 I felt a bit better. Told him to go for it and we’d hold off on the new. Picked it up Tuesday and his work is excellent. He replaced most of the blown panel, ran new cloth up the entire leach, new leach tape, removed all the luff grommets, new chafe protection on the luff, installed all new grommets, reattached sail slides, beefed up the leach end of the batten pockets as well as several other bits of hardware and re-stitching.

The "new" Shade Awning

The canvas work is coming along, side number two is almost done, but I’m still waiting on the track for attaching to the boom. Yup, today after three.

Food for most of the week!

In the food department we are still eating well. Sunday was the day to just suck up the heat and turn on the oven. So first a loaf of bread followed by a roaster full of pork loin smothered in potatoes, garlic, onions, and herbs. That pretty much got me and Adjima through the week. Last night a pot of chili made with ground turkey and a new discovery…Adj loves ground turkey. BTW…cheaper here on the Island than the canned cat-food we ration her as a “treat”. Tonight I believe I’m off to the Tiki-Bar happy hour, might even have a pizza. Two for one beer, live music, and cheep and delicious pizza, Island time, it doesn’t suck.

Laundry Day

2011-07-08T13:44:00.006-04:00

A morning here, one this week, actually dawned clear with dry air. So as a cruiser all other tasks were pushed back and it became laundry day. We’re often asked “What do you do with all that free time?” Here is one example of many like it. We don't carry the standard washer/drier, nor the electrical plant to support them. So here is how laundry gets done aboard the good ship Celebration. As you can see, two buckets, wastebaskets actually, one for wash and one for rinse. And the old fashioned wringer between. This one came from a car wash supply place where they’re used for chamois and towels. The mount here was actually a big step up for us. It sits over the lip of the cockpit locker so we don’t have to mount and remove it every time and is hinged for easier storage. Yes line dry. No problom mon.

Today there is no dry in the forecast. Between rain and thunder showers this morning the good boat cat Adjima joined me in the cockpit while I sipped the first coffee and listened to the dismal prediction. She looks almost as excited as I am about it...I suspect slightly less concerned. It's all about the body language.

Independence Day

2011-07-04T20:39:00.006-04:00

Resting here in Grenada I was surprised to see a pop-up on the cruisers net for a July 3rd Canadian/American Independence Day celebration. The marina at Port Louise hosted the event last night and I might say cooked up a fine American Cheeseburger with fries in commemoration. (Sorry the burger at the Sandbox in Boquerón Puerto Rico still holds best burger title hands down!) Nicest part was seeing all the cruisers we know but haven’t seen lately as we’ve bumped and jumped our collective sailing courses down through the Bahamas, Turks and Cacaos’, PR, USVI, BVI, Leeward, and Windward Islands. Short list but not at all inclusive was Bob and Janice of SV Tsmaya whom we met in Annapolis last fall: John and Kathy of SV Oceana; Jen, Greg, and Quinn of SV Mirasol; Mike and Cheryl of SV Happy Times; Martin and Johanna of SV Snowbird (a very pretty Hallberg-Rassy Rasmus ketch designed by the same marine architect who designed CELEBRATION); and Mike and Rebecca , SV Zero-to Cruising.. Then there were the folks from Venezuela, Brazil, Germany, France, Sweden, and many more. What a great group to meet…the evening ended with a guitar and ukulele sing along on one of the large catamarans moored at the marina. And….there was no 0400 thunderstorm this morning, woo who!

Tonight just before sunset I sat on deck and watched our dear friends Chris and Anne, SV Mr. Mac haul anchor and set off for points south.. It was one of those bitter-sweet parts of cruising. For those who don’t know, Chris and Anne were readying Mr. Mac at the same time and marina as Lynn and I were readying Celebration for her full time role as both our home and sea gypsy transportation. We left the dock a week apart each other. We ran together in Key West within weeks, then 6 months passed until we met again at the Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA) Gam in Annapolis. Nearly another year after that until we shared moorings in front of our wonderful friends Gary and Alex’s home in Newburyport MA followed by a couple weeks together exploring Maine. Again, off to different directions. One quick hello in Melbourne Florida at another SSCA event, and off to different ports. As we headed south this winter we met them in Boquerón Puerto Rico to realize we had similar plans for the storm season. Over the past couple months we have sailed the same routes, seen them in many ports, have snorkeled, hiked, shared a car or a bus to sightsee, and of course watched many sunsets together over cocktails while sharing past adventures and future plans.

Several times in the past few years Lynn and I have compared cruising relationships to those we experienced in the Air Force. The similarities are extraordinary. With 18 moves over 24+ years and many deployments, we made and found many, many close friends. The new adventure, excitement, risk, and shared camaraderie, brotherhood all led to the building of a common bond among peers and extremely close, even could say intense, relationships. Then one day, any day, Independence Day (as we all are, and literal) in this case, you just waved and moved on to another place, always with the assumption in our minds that we would see them at another stop. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t.. Time moved so damn fast that suddenly it’s all over and we were in different stages of life wondering where all those great people are. Oh yes the internet and cell phones have changed a lot of that as we can now stay in touch no matter where we are. But tonight as I watched them haul anchor and head out, even knowing we will meet again this fall in either Trinidad or these Windward Islands, I had that old familiar feeling. Close friends departing course with the assumption we will see them again, soon.… I look forward to that.

Grenada, week 1

2011-07-03T11:41:00.004-04:00

    We were headed here as a stopover point enroute to Trinidad. But with Lynn flying home we learned flights from here were quite a bit less, so we booked it from here. Then we got here and really like it; decided we’ll stay at least through Carnival. Plans change…the life of a Sea Gypsy.

    Lynn is back in the US for a while with her family so I’m taking some time for boat projects and of course continuing the quest for the best Happy Hour. I believe our friends Bob and Kitty of Equinox took on the same challenge in Key West last summer. Dang the luck but someone has got to do it right?. I’m happy to report last night’s deal was 3 beers in a bucket of ice for $10EC ($3.71 in US dollars) OK, so it’s hot, windy, broken only by thunderstorms several time a day/night thus far, but between the fellow cruisers we meet up with, the socializing, and the ability to get some work done in between…it doesn’t suck.

    First project: figure out how to get the windscreen to open farther without having to undo all the hardware and prop it up with a stick. Not a problem last year as we were headed north and trying to stay warm vs cool. Lynn came up with this solution. I measured the swing room, looked like it would work so took the old (shorter) slide in to the machine shop and they built two new longer slides. As you can see, the window opens flat out and a nice breeze blows through the cockpit.

Now working on some shade so the saloon has temporarily been converted to a canvas shop. This big piece used to go over the boom but with lazy jacks and a Stack Pack (sail cover) both now atop the boom, it doesn’t work. Besides it was too heavy and cumbersome so we rarely used it. But it is hot here (did I mention hot yet?) so on to it. I’ve ordered channel to mount down each side of the boom as I’d seen on a couple big schooners. I’m splitting the canvas in two, will sew in a couple boltropes so each side can go on separately. More to follow.

This last photo is for Lynn since I know she doesn’t believe I really eat while she’s gone. Guess I’ve used that old college line “Beer; a pork chop in every can” at least once to often. Anyway here is today’s tortilla pizza lunch, lots of onions, garlic, olives, a leftover frank which Adjima took a liking to, and lots of cheese. Not too bad, followed by the obligatory after lunch nap of course.

We have not sailed off the edge of the earth…

2011-06-23T14:36:00.001-04:00

...even though the computer navigation program often looks as if we are about to! We did however leave Rodney Bay, St Lucia on the 13th of June and have been pretty much out of touch since. First stop was Admiralty Bay, Bequia to check in for St Vincent and the Grenadines. A couple days there waiting for a "tropical wave" to pass and we were on to Saline Bay Meyreau. A night there and we moved out to the Tobago Cays Marine Park. We snorkeled in a turtle protection area (yes, lots of turtles) but the weather was unsettled, anchorage rough, and forecast calling for more wind so we headed for Union Island after a much too short visit.

We loved Chatham Bay, Union Isle and the $2 Rum Punch happy hours at the open air Sun Beach & Eat restaurant/bar while another "tropical wave" blew through. Three days ago we headed south to Hillsborough Bay, Carricou to check in as this is (unknown to me prior) part of Grenada, then around the corner to Tyrrel Bay where yesterday we rode out yet ANOTHER "tropical wave" seeing wind over 35kts in the protected anchorage. Tomorrow we are hauling anchor to head south for Grenada proper, probably Prickly Bay, where I’ll spend a month doing boat work while Lynn heads back to the states to visit her family. Hopefully we will find a good Wi-Fi connection to upload photos.

12 deg 27.404 min North

061 deg 29.317 min West

Fort du France

2011-06-11T16:18:00.001-04:00

We spent almost a week in Martinique, reprovisioning and sightseeing. The city of Fort du France is the capital and the largest city. It''s a great place to wander, which we did a lot. The Martiniquois are a mix of indian, caribee and European and are a good looking lot and very tall! The skin colors range from kind-of-white-with-freckels (like me when I have a tan) to cafe au lait to the very darkest of dark chocolate. There were quite a few inter racial couples, something that, while not uncommon on the other islands, was definately more noticeable here.

The grocery stores are modern and fairly well stocked and we took advantage of the short walk to the dinghy dock to pick up some of the more bulky items: toilet paper, coffee and cat litter. It's a challenge to shop in a French 'super marche', I have to take a dictionary to see what it is we're really buying. And then there's the money. We've gone back and forth and back and forth between the Euro and Eastern Caribbean Currency as we've gone from island to island. I'm sure I look pretty funny standing in the isle trying to remember which currency we're using today and which way to divide the dollar and is that a good price for a kilo of rice? And, yes, things are in kilos and grams which also adds to the equation. Anyway, it's great fun and we've had more fun trying the new foods that we're finding here.

We took a look around the Schoelcher Library in Fort du France. It was designed by Gustav Eifel, built in France and shipped to Martinique in pieces in 1889. It's a very elaborate building, made of metal and is still used as a library today. It's named after Victor Schoelcher who was a very active slavery abolitionist, there is also a town named for him on the island.

Local rum punches for sale in the market, I like the hats on the upper bottles.

We went through the main Market where there was everything for sale from soup to nuts, literally. We bought curry and fresh vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks, tomatoes and lettuce. Steve and I were standing having our usual conversation*, when the vendor overheard us and said "Oh you speak English, so do I! You're English." Steve said "No, I'm American, my English isn't that good." The woman was very funny and nice and hardly made fun of my attempts to speak French at all.

* (What's the exchange rate again? No, that's EC, we're using E here. Are you sure? What is this anyway? I don't know, I think it's a christophene. Are they good? I think it's like a potato, only different. Are you sure?)

Produce stall in the market, notice that she takes VISA and MASTERCARD.

We left Martinique yesterday and are currently in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, anchored off a giant Sandals Resort. There's a lot to see and do here, but we'll keep moving south and try to be in Grenada in a week or so. The phrase 'tropical wave' keeps coming up in the weather forecasts and we'd like to avoid them if at all possible.

And FYI, according to the guide a christophene "has shallow ridges, is pear shaped, comes in green or white, and grows on a vine. Somewhat delicate in flavor, it makes an excellent vegetable dish or may be added to curries or stews. Peel it underwater or with wet hands, as otherwise it leaves a mess on your hands that gives the impression your skin is peeling off. It is excellent just boiled with salt, pepper and butter and is even better put in a white cheese sauce. It may also be used raw as a salad ingredient. The seed tastes good raw".

Martinique, Ready or Not

2011-06-06T16:58:00.003-04:00

It was tough to leave Dominica as beautiful as it is. We wanted and planned to stay a few more days, but the wind was forecast to come from the south for about a week if we didn’t leave Friday…so we left in the evening and sailed overnight to Martinique. Well we mostly sailed. By the time we were in the lee of Martinique the wind had died to nothing, so we motored the last several hours. Not all bad since with Nanni sipping .56 gal/hour, we arrived with the water heater hot, the water tank full with all 175 gallons (engine drive water-maker), the fridge plate frozen solid, and the batteries all topped up. The passage was again smooth and uneventful. Lynn was joined on her watch by a large pod of dolphins ripping though the phosphorescent water and leaping alongside Celebration. I on the other hand, had some great sailing, a starlit night, but was greeted by no dolphins, just several large ships to starboard and several small ones to port. It was kind of like sailing right down the median of the highway.

And have I mentioned the FOOD?

Check in at Fort de France, Martinique was as easy as could be, even on the weekend. We went to the lobby of the Chandlery to fill out the one form on-line (yes just one for check in and out too), printed it, took it inside for signature and stamp, no fees, no fuss, no "officialdom" and we were off. Well almost off as we of course met some other cruisers doing the same thing so note sharing and plans to meet later were obligatory. All in a day’s cruising. So far the French have it hands down on the check in process!

Like everywhere, we study the local market early in the visit; pick our grocery shopping spots and today we made the large runs to top up before heading off. Tomorrow we’ll head for a more secluded anchorage as we are right down town now, then later in the week when the wind turns east again; we’re headed south to St Lucia. Meanwhile we can relax a little now just 160km from the airport in Grenada where we must be for Lynn’s 30 June flight home.

14 deg 28.9 min North
061 deg 04.1 min West

Skipping right to Dominica

2011-06-03T11:57:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't written anything about St Martin or Antigua or Guadeloupe, but I think you'll get tired of me continually saying how beautiful the beaches are and how great the snorkeling is and how FANTASTIC the fresh baked baguettes are for breakfast, etc. etc. etc. So I'm going to go right over those islands and straight to Dominica. It's pronounced dome-a-knee-ka and has been, at times, ruled by the Spanish, the French and the British. The names of the cities, mountains and rivers are a hodge-podge mix of all three languages and have a little Carib Indian thrown in for good measure. You can go from Salisbury to Trafalgar then on to Morne Espagnol, Dublanc and Soufriere. They mostly (is mostly even a word?) speak English but lapse into a Caribbean/French Creole when they don't want us foreigners to know what's up.

Indian River from the Bush Bar.

There is an interesting industry here, one referred to as "Boat Boys". I guess boaters entering the harbor used to be mobbed by very young men in boats and on surfboards offering all kinds of services and help for everything from laundry to trash disposal. These days the Boat Boys are now Boat Men and they are organised into a group called PAYS (stands for Portsmouth Area Yacht Security, but actually it's what you do, you pays and you pays and you pays). They now run most of the tours from this area, in addition to taking care of your laundry and trash. It's difficult to describe but the way it works is that basically the first boat boy you are approached by becomes YOUR boat boy and you are expected to take your tours on the rivers and on land with him. The complications arise when you want to take a tour with a few other fellow boaters to take advantage of the group discount. Who's boat boy gets the business and who'll be upset? It's too much stress for my stress-free lifestyle. They also don't seem to understand how freakin'ly independent cruisers are (and how cheap) and that we as a whole don't want to PAY someone to hand us the mooring line that we're very able to pick up for ourselves, thankyouverymuch.

Steve and Chris drinking coconut water.

Anyway, when in Rome... Our Boat Boy is Jeffrey and he's the president of PAYS. He wasn't too upset when we did an Indian River tour with a competitor as long as we agreed to an island tour with him later in the week. Both were wonderful. The river tour, given by Monty, was quiet and fairly cool. We sampled coconuts, cocoa beans and mangoes, saw bananas ready for harvest.

The view from the restaurant almost made up for the supremely uncomfortable bamboo benches.

For the island tour, eight of us piled into moreBLING with Winston. (All the vans and most of the cars had names or sayings applied across the top of the windshield, and for some reason Winston's van said moreBLING, I didn't ask.) Winston took us to see a bay leaf distillery, a rum distillery, a river where we swam across to a thermal pool, an Emerald Pool where we swam under a waterfall, mango trees, almond trees, cashew trees, passion fruit vines, taro root, on and on and on.

Carib Indian basket vendors, looking out over the Atlantic.

After lunch of fried chicken or fish, we were off in moreBLING to see: the Carib Indian reservation and purchase some beautiful handmade baskets, black sand beaches, red rock caves, cassava cooking, mahogany trees and more fruits than I can remember. We were a quiet, tired group by the end of our 12 hours of touring, but we managed to stop by the grand opening of the new fishing pier here in Portsmouth and buy fresh tuna steaks for $3.20 a pound. In all, a wonderful day with good friends, old and new.

The group sampling what I think was cassava. left to right: Darwen and Jan, Anne, Winston, Vicki, Chris, Steve and Bob.

The Sailing

2011-05-29T09:47:00.001-04:00

Yes we have to do a little catching up. OK….perhaps a LOT of catching up. The internet has been sparse and the stops very interesting so we have neglected the blog. Then there is always the meeting of other cruisers and a bit of socializing of course but, back to the catching up.

English Harbour, Antigua

Our sail from Virgin Gorda to St Maarten was one of our best passages yet. We motored out of Gorda Sound mid afternoon, shut down Nanni and sailed off through the sunset, through the perfect starlit night, and watched the sun rise over St Maarten. Calm seas, perfect wind, stars, and shooting stars everywhere. We especially loved it since we had blown our main sail a week earlier on what was to be a “gentle” sail around St Thomas. We felt we were due for a comfortable stress free crossing sooner or later. Now we are determined to make it to Trinidad with just our remaining (2nd reef point) mainsail and fix it or replace it there. Hey, we are supposedly in the trade winds now where it blows 15-20 every day so two reefs should be about right, right?

Since then we have visited Saba for some of the best snorkeling I have ever done, met with some old friends Robert and Vicki from FoxSea, spent nearly a week at Antigua followed by a few days down the coast of Guadelope and are now resting in Isles Des Saintes.

Visit by the Dutch Coast Guard

Every one of these places has been a worthwhile stop and we’re making notes on where to spend more time on the way back. Also looking to pick a spot to spend x-mas and invite the rest of the family. Clearly the French islands have it over on everyone when it comes to the food and the low to no hassle check in and out. The people are friendly and good looking , and did I mention the food?? Next stop is Dominica as we’re looking to depart here early next week. Word is the local produce is great and fair priced so a bit of stocking up may be in order.

Sublime Saba

2011-05-20T10:01:00.001-04:00

On the trail up to Mt Scenery.

I'm forced to admit that until I started to read the guide about where we should go after St Martin, I didn't even know Saba existed. Which seems to be a good thing, not a lot of other people do either. It's a part of the Dutch Antilles, although most of the people speak English. It's a tiny island, only 5 square miles, but it goes up 3000 feet. From the water there are very sheer cliffs and hillsides, almost no beach.
In the center of the island is Mt Scenery, a climb of some 1064 steps.
The steps are steep, wet with moss and rain and dead leaves, en even. Steve said it was like climbing the Great Wall, some steps were 6 inches tall and some were 18. Due to my unreliable right knee and my absolute terror of falling and being laid up, I didn't do the whole climb. I left the group about a third of the way up and, using my trusty walking stick, made my way down an equally wet and steep trail, stopping often to listen to the birds and watch the goats and geckos.
I met up with Steve, Anne and Chris at the bottom and we headed for the nearest bar for hydration.

Until recently, when the docks and breakwater were installed on the south side of the island, the only way on to Saba was through Ladder Bay. It's named for the 800 steps that go up from the water. There is an old Customs House about half way up (it's just about in the center of the picture) and according to the guide "Everything from the outside had to be carried up, including, at different times, a piano and a bishop".

The snorkeling was the best we've seen to date. Water so clear we could see the bottom from 45 feet, hundreds and hundreds of fish, corals, sponges and one very curious barracuda. There was a tunnel through the rocks along the shore that we snorkeled through, a first for me. In the picture above, you can see Chris and Anne snorkeling around the base of Diamond Rock. From the distance, it does look like it is a faceted rock, but from up close, you can see that it's just bird poop.

Mt Scenery, as we sail away.
Saba is a spectacular place and if you are looking for a great off the beaten path vacation spot to dive and hike, I highly recommend it.

Virgin Gorda

2011-05-05T09:53:00.000-04:00

We left the US Virgin Islands and made our way very slowly east to Virgin Gorda. The wind was on the nose as we headed down the Sir Frances Drake Channel. Since it's not possible to sail a boat into the wind we made a large zigzag back and forth across it. This is known as tacking. We tacked and tacked and tacked. To go 18 miles, we went 29. Trust me, it makes sense if you're a sailor.

The ride was worth it. The next morning we picked up a mooring and snorkeled into the area known as The Baths. Giant, house-sized, granite boulders falling down the hillside and into the sea. Hiking up and around them was beautiful and snorkeling along them was like being in an aquarium. Bright fish and waving coral, clear, clear water. We were lucky and got there before the tourist boats arrived and as the crowds headed to shore, we headed back to the boat, a quick rinse off and a second cup of coffee.

One of the many interesting rock formations at The Baths. I thought it looked like a half-buried skull.

We're currently at anchor on the north end of Virgin Gorda, planning to leave this afternoon for an overnight sail to St Martin/Sint Maarten. It's about 80 miles, so we should arrive around noon Friday. Blog you then!

Caribbean Blues

2011-05-01T19:38:00.000-04:00

Another Cool Thing...

2011-05-01T19:18:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot about the coolest thing we did in Puerto Rico!
About 55 years ago my dad was a student at St John's University in Minnesota. He was the second son in an Irish family, I think he was supposed to be a priest, but 5 kids later... So anyway, there were students at St John's from Puerto Rico. What they thought about the upper Midwest winters, I can't imagine. (actually,yes, I can imagine. I imagine they thought they'd been sent to hell to freeze their asses off) My dad and Sig Cruz became friends. Sig went home with dad for holidays and visited from Minneapolis in the summers. Sig and my grandpa Ray golfed together. In 1956 Dad visited Sig in Humacao, PR, checked out the girls on the beaches. Sig stayed in MN for 8 years and then moved back to Humacao. Dad and Sig have stayed in touch all these years.
I sent Sig an email in February, telling him who we were and that we were planning to be in PR for a month or so and would love to finally meet him. He wrote back right away and plans were made. Actually, tentative plans were made. What really happened was that we arrived in La Pargara after an ungodly early morning sail, cranky and in need of more coffee when he called and said, "We're here. I brought my family to meet you!" So we went to shore, substituted beer for coffee and had a great visit.
When we got around to the east end of the island, we were invited to their beautiful home for dinner. Sig's wife, Marie, doesn't speak much English and Steve doesn't speak Spanish, so there was a lot of laughing and teasing. At one point Marie hugged Steve and said, in Spanish, "If you stayed one week, I'd be speaking English and you'd speak Spanish!"

My parents wedding, Sig was best man.

Marie and Sig Cruz, Steve, at their home.

Sig was reminiscing about being in Minnesota and told a great story about his mother. She never went to school and so couldn't read or write. Sig's sisters didn't want to write letters for her to her son so far away and so at the age of 50 she went to school and learned to read and write. He said he still has the letters she wrote to him.

2011-04-29T13:23:00.000-04:00

Just a quick video, to see if it would work. I took it a couple of days ago and it's of the motor/sail from Vieques to St Thomas in the USVI's. The sound is hard to hear because the engine was running, but I am narrating. The weather has been quite nice, not too hot and humid, but it's coming.
So, anyway, let me know if the video plays and how long it takes to load.

Old San Juan

2011-04-26T20:48:00.000-04:00

Old San Juan is home to not one but two massive old Spanish forts. The first, San Filipe del Morro, was begun in 1539, on the point to protect the harbor from sea attack. It was named after King Phillip II of Spain. It stands 144 feet tall and the walls are 18 feet thick.The second one, the Castillo de San Cristobal, was started in 1634 and was built around the city to protect San Juan from land attacks. Both forts have an extensive tunnel system, through the walls and underground.

On the grounds between the forts is San Juan Cemetery, very crowded, very beautiful. The granite carvings were so detailed, the statue here looked almost lifelike.

The streets of Old San Juan were narrow, with blue cobblestones and very ornate details on the buildings.

El Yunque

2011-04-26T19:33:00.000-04:00

Steve, Anne and Chris on the trail.

Steve, upper left, looking over the forest.

One of the really cool things we did in Puerto Rico was hike in El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the US National Forest system. It's in the mountains outside of Humacao, on the eastern side of the island. We rented a car for 2 days, which was an experience in itself (lots of roads that either aren't on the map or aren't where they're supposed to be and not many road signs), and drove to where we thought the Visitor's Center should be. We drove up and up and up, through the bamboo and finally came to a stop when we got to a padlocked arm across the road. A man was there waiting and after a few minutes, a work crew showed up. At this point, it was discovered that the map of the park had a little N in the upper corner with a DOWN arrow next to it. It was south up and we were at the opposite end of the road we wanted. Not a problem, you'd think, just drive through the park and start at the other end, what's a couple miles? Ha! It seems that the bridge in the middle of the park, on the only road, fell down some years ago and has never been replaced. So it would be a trip around outside the park on the sign less roads, maybe 40 miles, maybe 60, there was some discussion, to get to the Visitor's Center. We decided to stay where we were and hike on the less traveled end of the trails. It was beautiful and quiet and cool and very wet.
El Yunque is a finalist in the New Seven Wonders of Nature competition and you can vote or just check out the other finalists here.

2011-04-14T16:28:00.002-04:00

We left Ponce, but not until almost 0800, as we were just going 7 miles offshore to an island called Caja de Muertos, literally Box of the Dead or Coffin Island. Supposedly, the island looks like a man laid out ready for burial, hands clasped on his chest. I didn't see it, I guess maybe if you squinted. Anyway, the island is a park, run by the DNR and they have these great boats that say "Vigilantes" down the side. I know that in the US the term vigilante has a bad connotation but here is just means watchman or caretaker. We went on blistering hot hike up the hill to the old lighthouse, the views of the island and of Puerto Rico in the distance were spectacular.

This is the sign at the beginning of the trail. I think we figured out all the hieroglyphics except for the one in the second row, second from left. It looks like a man in a maze, or a guy with a reallllllly long, square arm but apparently he is allowed on the island. Any one have any ideas?

There's something called a Tropical Wave moving through the eastern Caribbean this week, and the thunderstorms over PR have been very impressive. The trade winds pretty much keep the storms off the southern coast, but we have great views of them building inland. In this photo, you can see the lighthouse on top of the hill, on the right. This cloud formation was gigantic. The trade winds make the contrast in climate between here and the mainland was very apparent. This island is mostly scrub and the center was covered with Organ cacti, some up to 20 feet tall. Walking down the trail was almost like going through a cactus tunnel. It was a great hike, in spite of the heat.

Fish On

2011-04-11T17:17:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we left Gilligan's Island at our usual 0500, steaming coffee mugs in hand. It was a beautiful morning, calm and not too much wind. We putted our way along the coast, enjoying the sunrise. At 0630 Steve looked behind and said, "We have a fish on." Very exciting as we normally get skunked in the fishing dept. It was a yellowfin tuna (maybe 8-10 lbs?) and it's delicious. We had some on the grill last night and are contemplating how to cook tonight's fillets. Such are the hard decisions we have to make every day.

Today we spent the morning at the Hermanos Santiago Cash and Carry, a case lot warehouse. We took our two wheel cart and stocked up on spaghetti sauce, beer and snickers, all the important things in life. A man stood and watched us, outside the warehouse, packing our backpacks and cart, deciding what we could hand carry, then he motioned us over and around the side of the store. He had an ancient van into which he loaded us and all our purchases. He didn't seem to speak any English and we weren't sure exactly where we were headed, but we must have looked like boat people and he dropped us off at the marina. I spent the ride thinking of all the things I'd have bought if I'd known we were going to get a lift back. That's how shopping is now: how much does it weigh and how far do we have to walk.

2011-04-09T20:30:00.000-04:00

Mr Mac enjoying the shade.

We sailed into a really nice anchorage at Gilligan's Island today, doing our daily 12 miles along the coast. The island is a state park and because it's Saturday and there's a ferry from shore, the place was packed. We walked around a little and headed back out to the dinghy to get away from the maddening crowds. Chris and Anne, on Mr Mac, had their dinghy and motor stolen while in the Dominican Republic (and are still looking for an engine for their new dinghy ) meanwhile they use their kayak. We found a mangrove tunnel of sorts, on the side of one of the islands, it was a cool respite from the sun.

Tonight's spectacular sunset over the hills.

We're working our way slowly along the south coast of Puerto Rico. It's slow going east because of the trade winds that pick up every morning and blow steadily west the rest of the day. This is a really easy way to cruise, a kind of forced rest period for a big part of each day. We get up really early, go about 20 miles, drop the anchor, have breakfast, check out the town, go for a walk, nap, read, watch the sunset. At least that's my day. Those of you who know Steve, know he has his project list(s) and he manages to check off something every day, while still doing all of the above.

Tomorrow we're on to Ponce, the second largest city, and maybe a little provisioning and inland touring.

Next Chart Please

2011-04-08T16:20:00.000-04:00

Kind of a special day of sorts as we dug out the next small scale chart for the Caribbean Sea—Eastern Part. We’d moved completely through the Key West to San Juan chart since January and risked falling off the edge of the earth, or the saloon table in this case, if we didn’t do something. As you can see, it is as big as the saloon table if we chose not to fold, staple, or otherwise mutilate in order to see and use just what is necessary and still get around the boat. Key west to San Juan doesn’t look nearly this “clean”, lots of marks, plots, and yes folds…gasp. We also are out of the neat little chart-books so popular in the US and have had to resort to our well used…not so much by us yet…Imray-Iolair black and white reprint charts. Thank you Fred!

Last night a great evening with Chris and Anne (Mr Mac) having pasta with tomato and meat sauce under the stars, followed by a slow row around Bahia Fosforrencente before retiring. Tomorrow it’s up anchor early to get our 12 miles of easting to the next little island set before the trade winds pick up…usually around 0900.

Da Caribbean

2011-03-30T11:27:00.003-04:00

After 10 days in the Turks and Caicos, we finally got a good weather window to go east, so we could go south. We did more than 450 miles in 5 days and fetched Boqueron, Puerto Rico, on Monday morning. We were glad to see land again, but had a very uneventful trip. We have our watch schedule down pat by now and ate and slept well. I tend to get motion sick if I spend too much time below decks when we're offhsore, so I do most of the cooking before we leave port. This trip, I made about a gallon of chili and prebaked pizza crusts, Steve baked bread and buns, we dug out nuts, dried fruit and trek mix, made a huge bowl of popcorn (breakfast of champions), had plenty of fruit and salami for snacking. We don't eat much sweet stuff underway, but have plenty of protein and carbs. As always, we ate well.

Adjima claimed her spot on the seaberth and slept almost all the way. She only weighs 6 pounds but takes up a person size space. I slept around her, heaven forbid I should make the cat move or make her uncomfortable in any way.

We saw very few other ships, but did see whales, caught fish, had Tropic Birds try to hitchike on the mizzen boom, read books, talked a lot.

We came into the harbor and there was Mr Mac, our former dock mates from the North Dock. We haven't seen them since November, so we invited ourselves over and got caught up. They got here by way of the Dominican Republic and had some good tales about the seas and winds around the Hatian end of Hispanola. I don't think they noticed the tracking device we planted in their cockpit. They only think they'll get away from us at some point.

A Tropic Bird trying to land on the stern.

Cruising is also known as 'boat repairs in foreign places', so here's Steve doing a little repair on the genny in Boqueron harbor.

We plan to spend a few weeks here, touring and fixing, getting our mail sent. I'm hoping for a little rain today to wash off all the salt. It's pretty and sparkly, but I can hear it chewing away at the stainless.

2011-03-20T13:09:00.000-04:00

I just re-read the previous blog and have to apologise. It wasn't meant to sound so bitchy and negative! I can't blame it on lack of sleep or rum (or lack of) or anything else. This is a really beautiful place and the people are great and friendly. So please read it in the spirit that I intended and didn't quite manage to achieve. Lynn

Turks and Caicos Islands

2011-03-19T21:25:00.002-04:00

OK, I have to admit, until about 6 weeks ago, I didn't even know the Turks and Caicos Islands were a separate country from The Bahamas. Actually, I didn't even know they were here at all, I thought it was all just vaguely southern Bahamas. But we had to dig out the 'Q' flag again, visit customs and immigration, get a cruising permit, get a little run around. I think Customs is a very necessary place and have no quarrels with fees and permits. If I want to come into your country, I have to abide by your rules or I can stay home. I just wish they would apply the rules uniformly. We checked in the same day as another boat here in Sapodilla Bay. We paid the $15 entry fee (which ended up being $20 as they had no change) and have a $75 cruising permit. The other boat paid no fee for the cruising permit and didn't have to pay the $50 entry fee for their dog. AND they got a 90 day visa, ours initially was 7. Same day, same officers, different rules. WTF??? Weren't we lovely and smiling, non-ugly-Americans? Did we somehow look like we wouldn't mind paying? Do I have to work on a more 'poor' look? ahem, rant over.

These islands have a very colorful past, as do most places from here south. The T's and C's were 'discovered' by Columbus in 1492, and it sounds like it went downhill for quite a while. Slavery, disease, pirates, colonization. First ruled by Spain and at different times by Bermuda, England and Jamaica, they've been a British Crown Colony since 1962. They're now a huge tourist destination for fishing and diving and judging by the numbers of people on the beach here in the Bay, it's big for spring break, too.
(One quick Jeopardy! fact: after his space flight, John Glenn first set foot back on earth at Grand Turk.)

We rented a car yesterday to do a little provisioning and sight seeing. Who am I kidding? We did mostly provisioning: the IGA and Price Club for groceries, the Do-It store for hardware stuff, Napa, the Wine Cellar. We did manage to squeeze in a nice lunch at da Conch Shack and Rum Bar. It was right on the beach and the conch (pronounced konk) was very fresh.
The live ones were in the kayak, they hid as I walked up.

They were shelled and pounded right on the beach and then deep fried and brought to our table. I don't have a photo of that because, you know, I was too busy eating them. The shells were then cleaned up and sold. Only $25! There were huge mounds of shells around the restaurant for the taking and yet tourists were still buying the ones that had been brushed off and washed. I was very encouraging of this and stood there pointing out the really nice ones to the couples who came over. I think the guys out there working in the hot sun and putting up with all of the debating about which shell to buy, deserve all the money they can make. Most of these guys are from Haiti and I'm sure the idea of spending $25 for a free shell just boggles their minds.

We've been here in Providenciales (Provo) for more than a week. The wind is still blowing from the direction we want to go. Unfortunately, the farther south we go the more steadily the wind blows from the east. Fortunately, we don't have too much more east to do before we can just head south.
It looks like the weather will give us a break by the middle of the week and we should be able to head off shore to Puerto Rico. It'll be at least a 4 day trip, so we want a large and fairly good weather window. I can't wait to get there and finally be in the Caribbean.

Coconut Challenge

2011-03-15T16:40:00.000-04:00

We were in George Town for their annual Regatta Week. Lots of activities, from volleyball to poker to kayaking, to my personal favorite, the Coconut Challenge.

The attire was casual (as if there's anything else), the objective was simple: gather as many coconuts into your dinghy as possible.

THE RULES:

inflatable dinghys only, motor removed
4 persons per dinghy
each person must wear a PFD in some way (although some of the ladies had their own SAFD's- Surgically Attached Foatation Devices)
each person must keep 2 appendages in the dinghy at all times
the only paddeling devices allowed were swimfins
only 2 swimfins per boat

900 coconuts had been gathered and were deployed across the lagoon from the start line. The competitors were all seated on the beach and at the signal, they sprinted to the dinghys and shoved off. We could tell who among the entrants had done it before as they had their PFD's on their backs, out of the way and they had some massive swimfins to paddle with. It was a hilarious race of bumper boats with buckets of water being dumped into other boats to sabotage their seaworthiness and people falling into and out of their dinghys, sometimes with a little help.

The race is on, coconuts are visible between the moored boats.

The official count was taken VERY seriously as there seemed to be a bit of pilferage going on! After the counting, each contestant chose one coconut and used it for the rest of the Challenge. There was a ring toss: throwing the coconut through an old bent porthole. Bowling for Kalik bottles: bowling in sand with a non-round object and a toss over the volleyball net: throwing the coconut into different sand rings, with the most points for hitting the smallest ring. Steve and I had a great time watching and plotting strategy and I'm sure if we're here for another Regatta Week, we'll be in the running for Coconut Champs.

From Georgetown to…..

2011-03-06T22:36:00.000-04:00

We have had a great time in Georgetown. We have met cruisers going north, cruisers going south, cruisers just staying her until, well who knows when. All in all it has been a great week plus. Yesterday was the in-harbor boat race. With the wind direction and the course layout, several boats were going by us on both sides at the same time while we sat at anchor enjoying the show and taking photos.

This was clearly a whole new twist on the rules, using the anchored boats as a “pick” to force another competitor to fall off the wind. Interesting to us is noting a few of the boats were folks we have met over the past couple years and we were fortunate enough to get a few photos of their boats under full sail, rails dipping toward, or at times even under the waterline in their quest toward fame in the “31st Annual George town Cruisers Regatta”.

On the other hand, there are days filled with the daily events of regular life, sometimes made just a bit more difficult by being far from the convenience we have in the US. Couple days ago it was propane day, and we like many others took advantage of the opportunity to fill our cooking tanks not knowing when or if, the next opportunity would come. The photo is if the Prking lot where folks line up hoping the propane truck with actually show up sometime after 1100…oh, and on Wednesday not everyday.

We leave at first light tomorrow. Destination: Rum Cay. How much more appropriate can it all be??

Work Too???

2011-03-01T12:47:00.000-04:00

As fellow cruisers and boat owners know, cruising is fun, but not all fun. There is always a “list” with far too many repairs, projects, and recurring maintenance than time permits. Some are updates and improvements whose immediacy is driven by our desire to have that improvement, for example perhaps that wash down above deck for after the snorkel or dirty job. Some maintenance jobs are prioritized by the need to do it now, or do it later with far greater time and effort such as bright-work as it deteriorates day by day. Then there are the pop-ups…those jobs that move RIGHT to the top of the list because something broke

Today’s was the dingy outboard prop, essentially the motor from the proverbial family car wasn’t working and it needed attention now. All my fault as I passed too close to a mark allowing the prop to strike something in the water. As a result the little rubber bushing tore allowing the inner hub to spin without driving the prop at the same speed, kind of like spinning your tires on the ice…lots of power going out, but not going forward. Here is a quick solution which appears to have worked.

First I drilled three holes through the outer hub, inner hub, and just far enough into the inner bushing to make a small depression. Next we tapped the holes for #10 screws, and filed the end of the screws pointed to try and fit the depressions in the bushing.

Of course we only had tapered machine screws so the outer hub needed a countersink for the heads to fit and allow the screws to reach the inner bushing.

Lastly we started the screws with lots of “Tef-Jel” corrosion inhibiter, remounted the prop, and tightened the screws to again connect the prop to the inner bushing. Yes it worked!! But we still must find a new prop and be very careful not to hit anything again as the connection, now without the rubber cushion, may not prevent gear case or engine damage if we have another prop strike.

But meanwhile the family “car” is back in service! So we’re off to the Chris Parker (a.k.a. Caribbean Weather God) briefings and the tough task of socializing with other cruisers. Ahh…the list may have to wait a day.

Down the Exuma Chain

2011-02-20T15:22:00.000-04:00

We left Nassau and headed south east to Highborne Cay after a wonderful night anchored away from everyone else out on the very tip of New Providence. As often happens, we chose a spot that looked great by the location and weather forecast…then wound up being the ONLY boat there. Hmmm, we think, what have we missed? Getting used to it, we realize many cruisers follow the group from marked anchorage to marked anchorage. So but again, we are there by ourselves and the answer turns out to be we missed nothing, I think perhaps the others did. Beautiful stars well away from lights and a calm night with just us.

Next we headed south to Shroud Cay, part of the Exuma Land and Sea Park, then on to Park Headquarters at Warderick Wells Cay. The place is kind of magical in that it is a “no take” area for everything and has been for over 40 years.. As a result the sea is full of coral, crystal clear water, fish, and crustations as it would be without human impact. At low tide the shallow beach was filled with thousands of large Conch, and coral head right in the mooring field covered with Fan Coral, and some of the largest lobsters we have ever seen.

One exception is Boo Boo Hill where it is OK to leave a memory of your ships passing, but only if it is on driftwood, no artificial materials allowed.

Since the park is a trust run by a foundation they welcome volunteer help so we spent a day helping Andrew, one of the park wardens, build a mooring down-line from some of the toughest, stiffest, most brutal three strand nylon line I have ever seen. Lynn refers to it as “the eye splice from hell”. Blistered fingers and all, we feel a little better by doing our part after enjoying the spectacular above and underwater vistas…and I’ve certainly worked in a lot worse places.

Now we are anchored off Black Point, Great Guana Cay trying to catch up a bit with some sporadic internet, do a bit of laundry, a few boat chores, and wait out the passing cold (72 degrees, bummer!) front to head farther south east.

Nassau

2011-02-09T22:27:00.000-04:00

After a 02:00 departure from Rodriguez Key in Florida, we had a very uneventful crossing of the gulf stream and the Straits of Florida. We entered the Bahamas just south of Bimini, watching the depth sounder go from all 0000's (meaning it's over 1000 feet deep) to 600 to 6 in less than a mile. Our first stop was an overnight anchorage on the Great Bahama Bank. We dropped the anchor in 8 feet and watched it hit bottom and dig in. It was so clear. We sat back and enjoyed the view, see photo above. It was a 360 degree view. Not a tree, not a rock, not another boat, no Starbucks. Except for the sound of our boat on the water, it was silent. It was a strange thing to be that alone. I wasn't sure if I was intimidated or if I liked it. I want to go back and spend about a week just sitting there and see how it feels.

As we entered The Bahamas, we hoisted our yellow 'Q' flag for the first time ever. The Q stands for quarantine, meaning we weren't allowed to leave the boat until we'd cleared in with Customs and Immigration. We spent 2 nights at anchor at Fraziers Hog Key and then made our way south to Nassau. We cleared in and paid our $300 for our cruising permit. Down came the Q flag and up went the Bahamian courtesy flag. Then we went for a walk.
We were both reminded of Korea as we went down the street. The smell of diesel in the air. The sidewalk that changes with every new property, up and down and in and out, and where the owner wanted more land, there isn't sidewalk at all and you walk on the street.The fact that if you need to park and you can get 3 wheels on the curb, you're good to go. It's great.

Nassau is on the island of New Providence, but no one calls it that, it's just Nassau and across the harbor is Paradise Island, where the huge Atlantis Resort is. We walked across the bridge to check it out this morning and got a great view of the harbor with the cruise ship docks in the background. Atlantis was beautiful, but for two people who spent years in Las Vegas and have checked out all those mega casinos and resorts, it just wasn't very interesting. We had more fun watching the MailBoat loading and unloading that we could see from the bridge.

For some reason, Steve really liked this sign.

Heading East

2011-01-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

As is normal with us, we spent much longer in Key West than we'd planned. The weather was cold and windy for a lot of the time, preventing our sightseeing and deck lounging, but we managed to find some old and new friends that we wanted to hang out with. We finally made the 45 mile run to Marathon on Friday and couldn't have picked a better day, well, maybe a warmer day, but the wind was awsome. We had 10-15kts on the port beam and sailed the whole way. But just so you don't think it was too perfect, it was COLD. Another multi layer clothing day. We're thinking longingly of The Bahamas and all the snorkeling we'll be doing in a week or so. We hope. Cold has a way of following us around.

One of the many 'Northers' that rolled through Key West.

We're now in the mooring field in Marathon. Marathon is a pretty unique slice of cruising life. They have an almost completely protected mooring field with 260 balls. They actually like boaters here as opposed to most of the rest of Florida. There are a lot of cruisers who come here to spend the whole winter because the facilities are great, the price is right and there's always someone new coming into the harbor. I like to just putt around in the dinghy and check out all the other boats. We're here waiting for water maker parts and by Wednesday or Thursday will head across to The Bahamas.

View of Marathon mooring field from the mizzen mast.

It's Never Easy To Say GoodBye, part II

2011-01-25T21:09:00.001-04:00

It's hard to be too depressed when this is my daily commute...

In this case, I feel like it's my youth that I'm leaving. Not that 50 is old, but I remember when I was a teen, the 50 year olds all seemed to have a good grasp of being an adult and being reliable and responsible. Now that I'm here, I get the feeling that they were just pretending. Turning 50 seems to be a much bigger deal than 40. I'm half way! (Oh, yeah, I never did turn 40, I've been 39 for the last 11 years and am now going directly from 39 to 50. No wonder it's such a big step!) I guess now I'll have to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I still want to be astronaut, and a rock star, and win Wimbledon. I probably should pick something and start practicing, I only have 50 more years. I think my 'second half of life' resolution will be to try to pay more attention to who and what's good in my life and get rid of the extraneous stuff.

and this is the end of my day.

On to Key West

2011-01-16T20:15:00.001-04:00

We left St Pete Friday evening for a cold, cold sail down the coast. We'd looked at the forecast temps and while the Key West highs weren't really higher, the lows were warmer by 15-20 degrees...and it was time to move on. We dressed in all our layers, pulled off the lines again, and headed south. While we already miss all our St Pete friends, our two nights off-shore closed with a special welcome to Key West once again.

At 0630 this morning I sipped a fresh cup of coffee as the big genny dragged us south by the bow. The sky began to change from dark to blue, to gray, then light blue, red, orange, and every possible color between. Photo's never do it justice, but I grabbed the camera and shot away over the next hour stopping to take off layer after layer as Hjlmr pointed us toward the Northwest Channel.

We closed by rolling onto the reef and down the channel under sail. We checked in in shorts, now sitting in the cockpit watching the sun set with a glass of wine thinking about updating the project list...awwww later....

Yet Again, More Stats

2011-01-13T17:16:00.000-04:00

Thanks everyone for the comments and emails regarding provisioning. I'm embarrassed to admit that the photos in the last blog were but a small quantity of what we brought aboard, but it's all stowed and thanks to Nancy, I may even be able to find some of it again.
I've been gathering my end of year stats and thought I'd share. (I also like to give the Mr Mac crew a chance to brag about how they live on $2 a day and haven't been to the dock in 3 years.)
We started the year at the dock in Oriental and this info starts when we left there April 5. Of the remaining 272 days we spent them:
   at anchor                         116 days
   on an overnight passage     12
   on a mooring  ($)               52
   on a mooring  (free)           59     (46 at Gary and Alex's, thanks!)
   at a dock ($)                     25
   at a dock (free)                   8
Our second year spending reflects the added days we spent at the dock and at moorings. The dock days added up to $510 and moorings a whopping $1003. While we didn't blow the budget, it's more time attached to land (well, you know, other than with an anchor) than we like and we plan to spend year 3 getting the 'at anchor' total back up. We spent time in 55 different cities and anchorages.
I also sent out 92 postcards.

provisioning

2011-01-10T18:02:00.000-04:00

How much is enough?

Santa was very, very good to us this year.

Aside from our extensive socialising, we've been doing LOTS of boat projects (I'll let Steve do that blog, along with all the boring pictures) and trying to reprovision for our upcoming trip to the Bahamas and Caribbean. We decided a long time ago that no matter where we go, the people who live there eat. It may not be what we're used to, but we'll never starve. This I know, but... I do have a couple favorite things that I'm not willing to be without. JIF, creamy, reduced fat, for one. And Doritos. And good chocolate. And Close Up toothpaste. And a nice crisp glass of white at the end of the day. And toilet paper. We're talking quality of life here. So we've been trying to find out what will be available (and affordable) and what we need to really stock up on. I've been tracking our consumption of things for years now and have a pretty good idea of how fast we use things up. But I still have a hard time buying 100 rolls of TP and an even harder time finding a place to put it. Because that is the hardest part of all: putting it away and then finding it again. I have an great inventory of what we have, it's just not always so great as to where we have it. At this point, the lockers and my back are both groaning, the credit card is smoking, it's time to go. I can live with inferior peanut butter.

A Convoluted Story

2011-01-10T17:25:00.000-04:00

Gayle, Kitty, Lynn, Chuck, Greg, Bob and Steve

A short time ago, I got an email from a guy named Chuck Snyder. It started "You don't know me...". It seems that Chuck is a friend of our friends, Bob and Kitty Bennett, of Equinox. Chuck follows the Equinox blog and on it found a link to here. Upon reading our blog, he discovered that Steve was from Minnesota. Not just Minnesota, but Arlington Minnesota. Chuck is from Minnesota. Chuck has 7 brothers. One of Chuck's brothers, Marv, is married to Sheila Nieland from Arlington. It turns out that Steve was in the same class as Sheila's sister and has known her family forever. Chuck is a sailor and is the dock master at Pasadena Marina here in St Pete. Chuck's other brother, Greg, and his wife Gayle, are also cruising sailors on Yoohoo, and we've been following their blog, Late Coffee Early Cocktails, for a long time through another link on Equinox. We saw their boat for the first time this fall as we were leaving Oriental and heading south. What does all this mean? Just that last week we were all in the same place at the same time and we got the chance to meet all these great people for a long lunch and put faces to names, swap stories and laugh alot. As Chuck ended his first email "It's a small world".

It's Never Easy To Say GoodBye

2011-01-06T09:13:00.000-04:00

My Bluemug and I have shared many thousands of mornings. For the first few years we just sat and quietly collected our thoughts for the work day, Steve and all his morning energy already out the door, the cat fed. Matt Lauer used to join us, back when we had a TV. Sometimes, when the paperboy could manage it, we'd read the news. Always a nice calm beginning to my day, just my Bluemug and I.
These days we look out at the world from the cockpit and wonder what we'll find over the horizon today. These days aren't so quiet, though. Ominous cracking sounds are coming from my Bluemug, protesting the scalding coffee. A slight tang of plastic has crept into my coffee mate. As hard as it is, it may be time to look for a replacement of the Bluemug.
Finding just the right new Bluemug will take time. It has to have just the right hand appeal, the right color and heft and texture, the right rim. It needs to bounce off the floor. I'll take my quest seriously, checking thrift shops, coffee shops and tourist shops alike. Ah, it's early in the morning and I already have a goal for the day.

2011-01-05T09:30:00.000-04:00

It was cold in Florida at the end of the year, but that didn't stop us from getting out and seeing the sights. As we left St Pete very early one morning we all had to whip out our credit cards to scrape the heavy frost off the car before we could go. I'm fairly sure there are no ice scrappers in the state.
The Kennedy Space Center is an overload of space facts and information. The IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope was fun and fascinating and the red 3-D glasses, very cool.

Hannah thought that everything looked like it was made of tin foil.

We also got down to Sarasota to the Ringling Bros. Museum. Once again, it was very fun. An insight into the workings of the big traveling circus. Soooooo much work to put it all up and then take it all down at the end of the day and load it on the train and go on to the next city and start again. They started taking the outer tents apart and loading them before the acts in the Big Top were even over. One of the buildings has a scale model of the entire operation, from the train yard to the Big Top and everything in between. There was a commissary tent, medical, barber shop, private cars for the stars, all the animals, and in the Big Top the trapeze artists twirled. It was amazing, 50 years of work by one man.

As always, the time with the girls went way to fast, They are wonderful, active women with great imaginations and inquiring minds and we couldn't be prouder of them.

Together for the Holidays

2010-12-26T13:15:00.000-04:00

It's been a couple of years since we've all been together for the holidays, the last time being the Short Bus Tour to Mexico in '08, with my entire family, a total of 23 people. This year it's just the 4 of us, a much easier group to feed and transport, although I do miss the gigantic family gatherings. So far we've managed to get in a walk on the beach in between meals.

Christmas Day is also Amanda's birthday and this year she requested a Dutch Apple birthday pie as substitute for the traditional Birthday Cake. We ate and drank and sat and told stories and sang, a very good dinner on a chilly evening.

The menu this year: Salmon seasoned and steamed from the grill; Scallops sauteed in an onion, garlic, and wine sauce; Garlic mashed potatoes; all followed with lots of wine, chocolate and of course the apple pie with ice cream. Walks required all around today.

There has been a lot of talk of sailing but with a cold front blowing through today winds are cold and blasting from the NW at 20-25kts, gusts to 40. Looking at Tuesday...maybe a trip south for an overnighter, then back if the front continues to push through as forecast. No weather complaints allowed aboard though as friends and family continue to post about the large storms from the NE and huge snows from the Upper Midwest.

Merry X-Mass from aboard Celebration to all our family and friends!

Home Again, Part Deux

2010-12-18T12:31:00.001-04:00

It's nice to think of St Pete as home, and we've actually lived here longer than anywhere else, so far, in our married lives, more than 5 years. It's been really fun getting together with all the friends we made over the years here. Last night Bob and Kitty , of Equinox fame, hosted a dinner at their new home (formerly La Casita Pepto Bismol and now La Casita Elegante) and invited a group of us over for delicious BBQ, salads and numerous desserts. Bob was even nice enough to taxi us there and back. It was a lively evening, solving the worlds problems and talking sail trim, eating bread pudding and drinking wine. At some point, the wine obviously got the better of us and we ended up in the back yard playing on the zip line that Bob built for their very lucky grandsons.

I love this photo, Elise and Penny look like the neighborhood kids playing, and Elise standing there thinking "Auggg, no fair! It's my turn!"

This is Jeff, who lives in England, but has a boat named Jade at the North Dock. He was here working and visiting his boat for a few days. He's a great guy, well informed and able to hold his own, and his wine, in our vocal crowd-another new friend! And he's a sailor. A good night all around.

Home Again

2010-12-13T17:44:00.004-04:00

It was an interesting trip from Vero Beach around to St Pete. We had a variety of weather and sea conditions, from calm and cold to really crappy cold and rain and fighting a 20kt wind on the nose, with the accompanying waves to slam into. It was so rough that the anchor mount and two of the teak slats on the bow broke from the force of the water. For one whole night it was: get up speed forward, to about 3kts, hit wall, bounce back, bounce way up, bounce down, have speed drop to 1.5kts, get back in seat, adjust hat, pick up speed, hit wall... Generally, I love overnight passages and the chance to enjoy the stars and sea, alone on my watches. On this trip, however, I spent a lot of time fantasizing about a nice warm RV.

We did have one wonderful highlight to the trip. As we left Indian Key, we sailed off the mooring and the dolphins joined us by the dozens, jumping, flipping, zooming around, under and across the bow. Hjlmr steered down the Hawk Channel while we both stood on the bow and watched. There were more than I'd ever seen at one time and most of the time I just stood there with the camera useless in my hand, just pointing and yelling "over there! oh,oh, oh, over there, more! Look! Look!" That, at least, was a great 'welcome back' to the Gulf of Mexico.

Almost close enough to touch.

They came by the dozens.

Mom and baby

2010-12-07T18:34:00.000-04:00

Vero Beach, looking north, Celebration is almost in the middle of the photo, rafted with a 20' black Flicka.

We've finally ripped ourselves out of Velcro Beach and are making our way around The Keys. Steve needed a couple of days to recover from the delivery trip, the lack of sleep, food, intelligence, took it's toll. We took some long walks and stocked up on fresh fruit for our jaunt around the Horn of Florida. (I like to call it a 'Horn' because it's the only one I may ever round.) The Vero Beach mooring field was packed, we were 3 or 4 to a ball the whole time we were there. It's interesting, you're expected to raft up at Vero. If you're the first one on a ball, you just put your fenders off on the side you want boat #2 to raft to. Then you both put fenders off on the outside and let boat #3 choose which side to go on. It's a novel way to meet new people, although with a boat on either side, privacy is non existent. We had many, many friends to catch up with and it was great fun to go to the Thursday Happy Hour and see who was there.

The marina grounds were very park like, covered with Live Oaks, which were themselves covered with moss and ferns.

From park like to cruise ships and air pollution. Steve watched these 5 cruise ships enter port on his night watch off of Port Everglades. They look like birthday cakes at night, all lit up and twinkely. The air over the port was heavy and yellow.

Tonight we're on a mooring ball at Indian Key State Park. The wind continues to blow and the temps are low. We'll head north tomorrow and get to St Pete by Friday, ahead of the next Norther. We've reserved a space at Maximo Marina for the next month and we're really looking forward to seeing all our friends there and catching up with them.

One final note to NOAA: ahem, this here is My Yam Me, we don't do Ark-tic here, so could you quit sending it?

Boat Delivery 101

2010-12-01T17:57:00.000-04:00

Many of you know I went on a little “side-line” the past couple of weeks. Offered a chance to sail an older offshore Choey Lee 48 ketch from Moorhead City NC to St Thomas, and get paid to sail, I took it. The boat was a true joy to sail. She handled heavy weather beautifully, and a good thing as we had plenty. In all we experienced over four days of gale conditions with winds in the 35 – 45 knot range and seas over 20 (sometimes 30 feet) for most of it. The boat was designed by Bob Perry, had recently been re-rigged and with all new sails was well up to the task. Unfortunately no boat is perfect and she had her flaws, the first of which was the auto-helm so most of the trip was spent hand steering. Not an issue except that as an old off shore designed for a big crew, we were unable to adjust any sails from the helm…effectively making sailing a two crew job anytime the weather kicked up. Then the human factor kicked in.

Regardless of the (loooooong) South Pacific sailing stories we were regaled with, one of the crew had difficulty handling the helm when the weather got tough, lobbied often for reducing sail (even when impossible as only the single smallest sail on board was flying [huh???]), steered us through an accidental jibe during an expected and observed approaching frontal passing, couldn’t/wouldn’t get adequate rest, and really didn’t seem to understand the concept of sailboat systems or operation. A distraction for the crew to say the least…perhaps so too for the Captain with whom she shared a bunk. For those sailors out there you know about running the engine to charge battery banks, and the importance of isolating those banks when charging is done. Say it isn’t so, but yes the batteries remained combined, selector on “Both” after charging. Discovering the mistake going into our second gale still 650 miles out of St Thomas it was too late…no engine for the rest of the trip. Oh…and no power, no fridge, no electric bilge pumps, stove, running water, auto-helm, chart plotter, navigation lights, VHF, etc. With just our personal head-lamps, one rechargeable GPS (with ½ power left), one hand-held VHF and an Iridium phone (1/2 power left), now it’s exciting! Interesting how you never really know how much a boat leaks until the electric bilge pumps don’t work and you must hand pump. In our case I estimate 5-8 gallons/hr. Eventually I found and stopped all the leaks allowing the last four days of sailing without pumping….and much better sleeping I might add. In short, we put into Puerto Rico hungry and needing showers for a jump start and a nights rest, then on to St Thomas. In total 15 days at sea, some great experience, a few “notables” for my own off shore checklist, realization that big swells are not a problem when the boat sails well, and mostly the confidence that we can do this….probably do it better and safer.

Thanksgiving Dinner for about 120

2010-11-25T21:35:00.000-04:00

There were 8 of us at table #5, talking, laughing, enjoying the happy hour before the potluck buffet started. Having such a good time we almost didn't mind that our table number was drawn last to go through the buffet line. Not too much turkey left after the first 110 people were through. In fact the carcasses looked like they'd been left in the desert for a week, they were so barren. But we had our choice of hams, squashes, dressing, cranberries galore, potatoes, gravy, dozens of salads, beans, veggies and fruit. The good thing was, we turned right around and were first in the dessert line. I had an awesome slice of key lime cheesecake. It went well with my Capt'n and Coke with lime. Great to see so many friendly faces, some of whom I hadn't realized were even in the area. As always, so many people, so little time.

Wide awake, no tryptophan here.

This is just for my relatives in the really frozen north. I took it as I was considering a second shower before leaving for dinner, as it is also very humid.

No word from Steve for a couple of days. I'd heard from the Captains girlfriend that they were having engine problems and were going to put into Puerto Rico to make repairs. Knowing as I do that Steve can take apart and put together a diesel engine in his sleep, I can't imagine what could possibly be wrong that they couldn't jerryrig a temp fix. Any hew, I've always subscribed to the 'no news is good news' magazine and am confident that they are slowly making progress toward St Thomas.

2010-11-19T10:08:00.000-04:00

Sunset over Vero, from the cockpit, with wine.

I took the bus to the shopping area yesterday, just to see what was there. I really was just looking, I have a 'buy one: get rid of one' rule, and don't have anything I want to get rid of at the moment. If you haven't taken public transportation lately, let me refresh your memory, it's highly entertaining. People will say the most personal, intimate things on their cell phones while riding on a full bus. The woman next to me was having a very loud discussion, obviously about sex, with her boyfriend, L'roy, and was upset that I was avidly listening (it was a very long ride). She finally turned her back to me, no easy feat in a bus seat, and said to L'roy "The woman next to me is listening to my private conversation!" There was laughter from the entire bus, even the driver. And from several rows back came "Hon, we all gettin' turned on heah!"
Last night was Happy Hour at the dock and tonight I'm going to a birthday party on Blackfoot. The social life continues and will just get busier as more boats arrive in anticipation of the Thanksgiving party next week.

Vero Beach

2010-11-16T11:00:00.004-04:00

The view off the stern of Vero, with Mr Mac rafted alongside.

About a month ago, we were having dinner with our friends, Ken and Cynthia, in Oriental. Ken mentioned that he was helping another friend deliver a boat from Beaufort, NC, to St Thomas in the USVI's. They needed another crew. Steve and I had a head to head in the corner and Steve was in. It meant, though, that we had to get the boat south to Florida, so as not to be freezing our tushes trying to get out of NC at the end of November when he (Steve) returned. We did 4 days on the ICW and then jumped offshore and came to Florida. Found out the trip was delayed because of hurricane Tomas. Came farther south. Found out that Steve was bumped from the trip because they found local crew and wouldn't have to buy plane tickets. We headed to the GAM in Melbourne, which was the original plan. Got to Melbourne. Steve got a call from the captain, was he still interested? The local crew had backed out. So the next day he flew out and Sunday they left the coast, heading east across the gulf stream and then south on I65. 65 is the latitude that runs north and south through the Caribbean and so many boats go that way that it's referred to as an interstate. In all, about a 10-12 day trip.
So that left me in Melbourne all by my lonesome. Well, except for the 15 other boats in the anchorage who were also heading south. I jumped in line behind Mr Mac and followed them here to Vero Beach. It's the first time I've managed the boat on my own and I had very shaky hands for the whole 2 days we took to get here, trying to remember all the things that Steve does and all the things I usually do when we get under way, turn this on, turn that off. I was very pleased with myself when I wrapped the mooring line around the cleat here in Vero and could take a deep breath for the first time since I found out that Steve was leaving. It's actually not such a big thing, kind of like driving to school the first time after you get your license and you think that every one is watching you.

Adjima, being very concerned about my driving.

So Adjima and I are going to enjoy Vero Beach, or Velcro Beach as it's called, for the next 10 days. It's so nice and the grocery and shopping are so handy and there's a free bus, people come here and never leave. Just about everyone we know will be going through here at some time or other and I hear they have a great Thanksgiving party. Steve should get back sometime Thanksgiving weekend.

More Touring and Of Course, Good Food

2010-11-07T21:34:00.000-04:00

Steve on the drawbridge.

We had the chance to tour the old fort here today. It's called the Castillo de San Marcos, was built in 1672 and is now a National Monument. It was built by the Spanish, remodeled by the British and then re-redone by the Spanish. It's in remarkably good shape considering it's age. They have a great staff of park service rangers and volunteers. It's made of a local material called coquina (ko-key-na) that's actually compressed beach: shells and sand. It was quarried on the island across the river and let dry for a year to harden so it could be cut into bricks. It's great for withstanding cannon ball fire because it doesn't shatter, it just absorbs the cannon ball and it doesn't burn. Because it doesn't burn, it was used for most of the buildings in St Augustine.

The cannon firing reenactment.

The coquina doesn't fare so well with all the thousands of tourists who go through. It's fairly soft and wears down like concrete. There are signs all over asking people not to touch, sit on or stand on the walls. Of course, there were people all over the walls. Did I mention that they're 35 feet off the ground and 300 years old and just a little crumbly? They need to make us tourists sign a "I will not be stupid today" pledge before entering.

Close-up of the coquina walls.

The elusive seafood market.

I mentioned yesterday that we had chowder simmering for dinner. It's because we finally found the seafood market that all the locals use. We've been here a week now, so consider ourselves to be locals. It's very hard to find unless you're in the know, there is no signage, just a bit of activity around some small trucks, that when we got closer we saw were seafood delivery trucks.

So for our $12 we had chowder and tonight we had shrimp in a white wine reduction with garlic, onions, lemon juice and butter on pasta, with a light topping of fresh grated Parmesan.

The Ancient City

2010-11-06T19:07:00.000-04:00

We've had a couple of days to do some serious sight seeing here in St Augustine. They pretty much claim to have the oldest of everything in the US: Oldest House, Oldest School, Oldest Catholic Church, Oldest Tour guide Still Talking, etc. They even call the city the Ancient City. The architecture is really beautiful, the Spanish influences remind me a lot of Albuquerque, lots of terra cotta color and very shady courtyards. (Not to throw doubt on the Tshirt makers or anything, but I think Albuquerque may be an older city.) The cool thing here is the way the color of the ocean contrasts with the city buildings. I've always said that Albuquerque would be the perfect city if it were only on the water. We may be close to perfection here.

Looking up the center of the 219 steps.

We went and climbed the lighthouse yesterday, all 219 steps of it. It was really windy and a little scary at the top. The guide said they'd measured some 50 mph gusts. The view was wonderful and even though I had to hold on pretty tight to the camera, we got some nice shots.

The view from the top.

We're off in the morning, heading toward Melbourne to see friends. Tonight, a shrimp chowder simmers on top of the stove and bread bakes in the oven. It should help take the chill off a cool night.

St. Augustine

2010-11-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

We spent 52 hours off shore and Boom! we're back in the sun and humidity. It's great to be back in Florida with the blue/green water and palm trees along shore. I didn't realize I'd missed it so much until we got back. We had a great sail from South Carolina. A great sail consists of having nothing break and no one getting sick. (Adjima did get a bit motion sick on the way out the inlet when we left and did do a little barfing (fortunately, it was on Steve's side of the bed)).

The most interesting part of the sail were the jellyfish we saw almost all the way down the coast. They are known as Cannonball Jelly (for Dr. Anne: stomolophus meleagris). They apparently are considered quite a pest by the commercial fishermen because they're so prolific and tend to clog the nets and slow down sorting times. I also read that they're one of the least venomous of the jellyfish. I had to scoop one out with our cat-retriever net and take a closer look. The one I caught was as big as a softball and quite firm. We sailed through these things for more than 100 miles, there were millions.

I took a tour of what is now Flagler College, the former Hotel Ponce de Leon. It was built in 1888 by Henry Flagler ,of Standard Oil fame. It was built as the most exclusive of them all resort destinations, back in the day when the women were whisked away from the check-in desk in the lobby so as not to see any financial transactions, thereby saving them from going blind. It was the first building in Florida to have electricity and the second building ever done by Thomas Edison. It's an amazing structure, Tiffany glass and murals by G.W. Menard. A lot of the original fixtures are still in place: the carved pillars and African mosaic tile floor in the lobby and the gold leaf lion heads with light bulbs in their mouths, a huge art collection. The attention to detail was wonderful. It's now a girls dorm on the campus of Flagler College.

We also had a chance to peruse one of sailing's meccas here in Florida, the Sailor's Exchange. Consignment and used gear marine stores are always fun for me, you just never know what you'll find! At SE there was a huge bin of any kind of nut or bolt or screw, complete with a paddle to move the piles around. I think there is literally one of every size there, all you need is the patience to find the one you're looking for.

Driving the Ditch

2010-10-27T14:42:00.001-04:00

We call Adjima our 'Canal Cat' because she loves to come and sit in the cockpit when we're going through canals. It's usually not too windy and not too bumpy and she can sit and watch the sights. She's had lots of cockpit time in the last week as we make our way down the ICW south of Norfolk. The IntraCoastal Waterway, is also known as 'the ditch' or 'going inside' as opposed to going off shore or 'outside'. It's a series of rivers and canals or land cuts, all connected and usually just inside of the barrier islands along the coast. When the weather isn't good to go outside, like this past week, when we had strong winds from the south, it's a busy place. Not too much sailing to be had, but lots to look at. We're now in the middle of the mass exodus of cruising boats making their way to warmer climes and the canals and anchorages are full. As usual, it's a very, very social group. It's fun to get out the binoculars as we come into an anchorage and see who we've met before and who's our next victim.

Getting into the Virginia and North Carolina water system is interesting because the water is brown. It's pretty clear, just brown from all the tannins in the water from the decaying plant materials. It looks like root beer foam as the power boats go by. It also gives boats that spend a lot of time here a very distinctive 'mustache' on the hull.

Don't go where the birds are standing.

The ICW is prone to shoaling, due to the many, many creeks and ocean entrances with all their currents and tides. Some places more than others, as in the picture. I like that they've even installed a parking meter so they can make money off the many boats that end up stranded here.

2010-10-20T20:14:00.000-04:00

Back through Norfolk, one of my favorite places to sit and watch the traffic go by. Yes, Chris, I know you think it sucks, but I love all the different types of boats and the commercial aspect of it all. The loading and unloading of the big container ships is fascinating to me. I want to know how they know which conex to put on which ship and in what order. I realize there's a computer program for it all, but there are thousands of conexes and dozens of little worker bees trundling around moving them, loading more than one ship at a time.The ones getting off last have to go on first, but don't the heaviest ones have to go on the bottom? I know they fall off at sea, because we hear the warnings to look out for them on occasion, but how many are actually reported as 'lost'?

Container ships being loaded.

'Worker bees' hauling conex's to load on board.

L to R: Sandy, Steve, Allen, Judy, Laura, John and Bill

Last night we were tied to the free dock in Great Bridge, which is a bulkhead where boaters can stop for the night and get off the boat. There's a little park with tables and grills. There were 5 or 6 boats there last night. We did laundry up the street and managed to spend $100 at the grocery, but we resisted going to El Toro Loco for great Mexican food as we're saving ourselves for M&M's in Oriental. We did, as usual, though, manage to have a great meal. One of our dock mates had caught a tuna offshore on the way into Norfolk and offered to share and it turned into a potluck. We had tuna, grilled chicken, Caesar salad, potato salad, green beans, cheesy potatoes, fresh apple pie and eclairs and maybe a little wine. No one in the picture is standing next to their spouse, but the different boats involved were Luna Sea, Second Wind and Discovery II.

Buzz Kill. Just when we thought we'd solved that age old problem of, "I need
a shower but I also need to do laundry".

2010-10-18T19:13:00.003-04:00

Cliff, in the dinghy.

Our weekend couldn't have started out much better. We had dinner with our old neighbor from Albuquerque, Cliff Spohn. He was in Solomon's Island visiting his parents and we managed to sneak him away for dinner and then again for a Saturday visit to the boat. So good to visit and catch up on the news of all our kids and mutual friends. Some day we'll get Cliff and his wife, Sandy, to actually come sailing with us.

Roberta, Lynn, Steve and John, at the Tiki Bar

We also met up with John and Roberta from Freedom, and along with Jason and Laura and

Laura's brother, Erik and his friend, Kennon, we managed a few margaritas at the Tiki Bar. I somehow got no pictures of the whole group! I guess I might have had to put down my glass or something improbable like that. Once again, sooo goood to catch up with everyone. I'm looking forward to learning use Jason's lasso to catch lobster in the Bahamas this winter. Since I never attained my goal of gettting sick of eating lobster over the summer, I will continue with my objective as we go south.

Look Mom, No Violations

2010-10-14T16:36:00.003-04:00

On the way from Annapolis to Solomons Island yesterday, we had our very first safety inspection by the Coast Guard. They had boarded the sailboat about a mile behind us and we knew we could be next, so we were sitting, all nice and secure in our PFD's, when they pulled alongside Celebration. They were extremely nice (and SO YOUNG! How come they all look to be 20? It can't be my advancing age, can it?) and polite and efficient and chatty. It was a painless process thanks to our super organised Boat Book, containing all pertinent documents, and Steve's uber up to date flares and fire extinguishers.

We're anchored in Mill Creek just across from Solomons and had the chance to catch up with our friends from Blue Blaze, Jason and Laura and John from Freedom. It was a lively evening, made all the nicer because it was unexpected.

Today as we had our morning coffee, we got to watch a pair of eagles fishing and being harassed by the crows.

Heading South

2010-10-11T20:10:00.002-04:00

Or, more likely, the title should be, Meandering South. In our usual fashion, we've stayed a long time in one place. Annapolis is one of those places that's very easy for a sailor to get comfortable in. There are lots of other sailors, good shopping for new and used gear and waterfront bars where sailors can talk (think heated debate here) about all that gear.
The annual Annapolis Boat Show took place this past weekend. It's the largest in-water boat show in the world and it's quite a spectacle. We met some cruisers who are part of the work crew every year and learned a lot about the workings of the set up and take down involved in such a big show. There are about a mile of floating docks assembled off site and towed in and then the vendors start bringing in the boats and setting up in the tents.
This year the weather was perfect and the crowds were big. We went on Friday looking for a few specific things and spent a whole day getting information and taking pictures of new ideas. We went back today to do our volunteer hours at the SSCA booth and look at water heaters, which we need as of yesterday. Ours isn't entirely kaput but it's the original 33 year old one and it's leaking rusty water into the bilge. Steve discovered this when he was at the bottom of the sail locker, doing something entirely different, we call this the Domino Effect. (I actually want to rename the boat 'Domino Effect', because we literally can't make coffee without moving something else first. Our daughter, Hannah, watched us putting away the groceries once, and after we had to ask her to move for the 3rd of 4th time and she was now perched on the back corner of the settee, remarked "you live in a puzzle".) Anyway, a great time was had at the boat show, we ran into friends on every other corner and spent a lot of time talking and catching up, my favorite part.

So now, it's getting chilly in the evenings and the leaves on the bank are turning red and yellow. The Canada Geese are going through in big incredibly noisy flocks and it's time to follow them to where it's warm.

Albuquerque: Family, Friends, Cars, and yes Balloons!!

2010-10-04T15:18:00.008-04:00

The SSCA Gam over with a week before the sailboat show, I took a trip to Albuquerque to spend a week with our daughter Hannah. After two days of knuckle-busting car repair (two motor mounts, idle air valve, adjust valves, timing, new spark plugs, couple light bulbs, etc) and evenings filled with cooking, a little wine and a lot of catching up we finally set out to see Albuquerque. First a trip to Tricklock Theater Company for a Friday night social and my chance to meet all her great friends and fellow company members, then a test drive of the car to the top of Sandia Crest and a photo opportunity looking down at the city below. Next a visit to our long time friends and old neighbors Cliff and Sandy Spohn to catch up once again.

Tough to beat seeing and catching up with family and friends, but Cliff threw one at us we couldn't pass up. It's Balloon Fiesta week in Albuquerque and I didn't even know it before the trip. Cliff, Sandy and family crew for one of the out of town balloonists and asked if we wanted to help out. After a 0400 alarm and a quickly downed cup of coffee, we headed off to the Spohns and the Balloon field. Today was a competition day so pilots had to choose their own take-off point from off field and fly the wind back accurately.

Well one thing leads to another, the briefings over, launch point selected, wind checked, balloon out, filling, burners heating...take-off time. "Who are my passengers?" Becky the pilot yells. "Hannah, get in!" comes a shout from Cliff. "I need one more" Becky says "Steve get in" Next thing we knew we were airborne floating toward the field watching the competition. Here are a few photos from another wonderful, completely unexpected experience.

Our "sky" for a couple hours.

Hannah

Our pilot Becky and copilot Cindy,

Thank you Cliff, Sandy, Becky,Cindy and everyone else for the great surprise and morning at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Annapolis

2010-09-22T09:12:00.003-04:00

We've been in Annapolis for a couple of days now, walking our feet off. There are a lot of good places to go here: chandleries, a marine consignment store named Bacon Sales, a really good Sunday brunch at Buddys (unlimited bacon and good people watching, it doesn't get any better), a really great Goodwill with a really great book corner, so 16 new paperbacks on my shelf and best of all, lots of old and new friends in the harbor and here in the creek to socialise with.

We're waiting for an alternator to be tuned up, it should be finished around noon, (so one more walk across town) and then we're off to the Rhode River for the Gam weekend. There should be some good seminars this year and, as always, too many people I want to catch up with and not enough time to do it. I love coming home in the evening with my face sore from smiling and laughing. It's such an exhausting schedule.

I thought I'd share some photos of a hitch-hiker we had a little while ago. We've had bats, butterflies and lots of birds, but this was our first Giant Silk Moth. And it really is giant: hook-your-thumbs-together-and-put-your-hands-flat giant. It had big dark 'eyes' on each wing, called a distraction pattern, to scare off the birds and squirrels.

The body was cigar shaped and very furry and the long antenna gave it a kind of Groucho Marks look.

The moths only live about two weeks, long enough to mate and lay eggs. They are lacking mouth parts, so never eat at all. Poor thing, can you imagine a life without bacon?

Block Island to Chesapeake Bay

2010-09-17T07:41:00.003-04:00

Warm enough water for a swim, Finally!! We left Block Island Monday with some nice southerlies. Beautiful sail west along Long Island waiting for a front to push through then wind from the west. Well the front came, but the west winds did not so our second day/night was mixed sailing/motoring... mostly motoring.

For fellow cruisers you should find this photo interesting, yes it is THREE tankers going side-by-side up Delaware Bay. Two upbound and one outbound. The Coast Pilot recommends everyone in the bay monitor channel 13 (commercial net) for traffic awareness. We do, and heard this one developing as the tanker last in a line of 4 had an earlier report time, so you pass right? Oh crap, there is another tanker outbound, so we'll just go outside of the channel. ("Don't need no stinking channel" or "channels are for beginners, we're professionals here") OK maybe, but it sure as heck surprised a few little boats in the path.

We are now anchored at Still Pond, after the 2 1/2 day passage from Block Island. Not our longest, but first time doing extensive inland miles (up Delaware Bay, thru the C&D canal, 20nm down Chesapeake) after a 2 night off-shore passage. Nice to be here resting for a couple days watching the deer and eagles on shore. I'll sign off with a photo of one of our salt encrusted hatches after being offshore.

2010-09-12T14:08:00.005-04:00

The Boston skyline as we went by to Quincy.

We left Gloucester and had a great beam reach sail along the Massachusetts coast to Quincy, pronounced "Quinzee". Our friend Anne, of Chris and Anne on Mr Mac, grew up in Quincy and they were in the area visiting her family. We rafted up alongside them and had a mini reunion. They've been busy promoting their new books and doing conventions and it's very exciting to hear how well they're doing. We also got an autographed copy of Chris's newest release, Scimitar Sun. I had to hide it from myself, (you know, the old out of sight, out of mind, thing) to save for a future cold, rainy day. We also got to meet and have dinner with Anne's mom, Margie and brother, Greg.

Sunrise at Block Island this morning.

We left Quincy and had another great sailing day down the bay and through the Cape Cod Canal, and yesterday had yet another great sailing day into Block Island, RI. It might seem strange to keep harping about the good sailing, but getting good wind to go the direction you want to go for 3 days in a row is pretty freaking great. But after 2 days of 60 miles or more we were ready for a break and are sitting at anchor today. I know 60 miles isn't that far, if you're in a CAR, but 60 miles is a loooong way at 5-6 kts an hour. We went ashore and had a good walk, and some great wings and the only other thing on my list to do today is to watch the Men's Final of the US Open and maybe bake some browines.

On The Road Again

2010-09-08T20:25:00.004-04:00

We had a great, dark, fast thunderstorm go through this morning, just the thing to watch over my morning coffee, while snug in the cockpit. I like this picture because there were rain drops on the lens and it makes it look otherworldly.

Gloucester, pronounced 'Gloss-ta', or as Amanda preferred 'Glow-chester', is a very old maritime center. They have a memorial along the seawall to all the men who have gone to sea and not returned. The stats are sobering: in over 300 years, 5326 men in all. You can enlarge the photo for more details.

And if the man in the statue looks familiar, this is the home of "Trust the Gordon's Fishermen", the tune which I've had stuck in my head all day. Good luck getting rid of it once it comes to you.

Earl was a dud,

2010-09-06T20:48:00.010-04:00

but the hurricane party wasn't. Alex used her beautiful, homegrown tomatoes and made pasta sauce, they invited all of us itinerate sailors and wanna be's and Rob brought the rums. What more could you ask for?

Pre-party, we picked Amanda up at Logan Airport and headed downtown Boston. It was 95degrees and it didn't take long for us to decide to hop the trolley for the city tour instead of walking. Of course, this was right after lunch, where Amanda, who's been reading about our meals all summer, had her first lobsta roll.

It was almost too much history for me for one day. We visited the USS Constitution, the first battleship and the oldest commissioned warship still afloat in the world, built in 1797. It was still 95, so while Steve and Amanda braved the bowels of the really hot ship, I browsed the nicely air conditioned visitor's center and got to know 2 ladies who turned out to be from Marshall MN! They were hilarious! Everything ended in !!! You're from ND?! Well isn't that amazing!!! We're from Minnesota!!! Donchaknow!!! We also managed to visit Boston Commons, the State House, saw The Garden, (where the Celtics play), Quincey Market and Faneuil Hall.

We saw some really skinny houses, this one was only 10 feet wide.

The Old North Church, where on April 18, 1775, Paul Revere saw the "two if by sea" that let him know the British were coming. It's still in use today.

The inside is divided into separate sections and they all had brass plaques to identify the original owners and other famous butts that had sat on the pews.

Yesterday we went to Salem and checked out all the witch burning, hanging, stoning places and also went to The House Of The Seven Gables, which is were Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote his novel of the same name.

Last night before dinner, we raided Alex's garden, oh, the possibilities........

Hello, Good-Bye, Hello Again

2010-09-01T18:31:00.005-04:00

We had a lovely visit with Gary and Alex, back in Amesbury, bought a few groceries and headed our for Gloucester. This is a view of the Twin Lighthouses on Thatcher Island on the way around Cape Ann, going south.

We got into Gloucester, listened to the updates on Earl and beat feet back north to a very secure hurricane hole, which just happens to be the mooring we just left, where we are having another lovely visit with Gary and Alex. This is a view of the lighthouses as we passed, again.

Our daughter, Amanda, is flying into Boston tomorrow and we were going to spend the long weekend on a mooring there, exploring the city. Instead, we've rented a car and will pick her up and have a hurricane party. Some people will use any excuse to break out the Captain.

Waiting Out The Weather

2010-08-25T14:15:00.002-04:00

A nor'easter has been blowing through. It's been blowing and blowing and blowing and we're ready for it to blow out so we can keep going south. We've been tucked into Richmond Island harbor for 3 days now and so yesterday we took advantage of a dry spell went exploring on shore. The island is privately owned, but they let hikers walk around the perimeter trails. There are about a dozen big fuzzy sheep, who let us get this close, then ran away. The Tree Swallows congregate here in huge numbers, eating the bayberries that grow all over the island. According to the guide, they also enjoy playing with feathers, dropping and catching them in the air. We didn't see any of this, probably because the wind is trying to blow the feathers off the birds themselves. It also says "they circle in big eddies like leaves caught in a whirlwind". Which we have seen a lot of. It's quite amazing how they can dive in a flock of thousands, all turning at exactly the same time and not run into each other. One of the mysteries of nature.

We also found one of the hidden lobster buoy forests. I'd heard about them, but never expected to see one. As you can see, this years harvest is almost complete. The lobster buoy is Maine's official state bird/tree/fish/shell/animal/flower/rock/younameit, and the locations of the forests are a closely guarded secret.

Quahog Bay

2010-08-21T17:17:00.003-04:00

Sunset over Quahog Bay.
We've been in Quahog Bay for 2 days now and I finally remembered to look it up and see just what a quahog is. It's a clam, also called a hard shell or steamer clam. It's the official shell of Rhode Island and can be pronounced: KWA-hog, KO-hog, KWO-hog or KAW-hog, depending on where you learned to speak English. If you're from The South, and never learned English, then it would be a KWAW-HAWG-ah. Quahog Day is June 20 or 21 or 22. And yes, there is a Quentin the Quahog, who is pulled out to see his shadow each year. And no, we haven't eaten any, yet, or you know I'd post pictures. (Hi, Jim!)
We've been relaxing from our strenuous touring and eating. Steve fixed the seal on the windlass that has been leaking and I sewed up an anchor bag for our big-ass emergency storm anchor, so it can stand in the sail locker and hopefully never be used. Amanda is coming to visit and we have to find the 'berth' part of the v-berth so she can sleep there.

2010-08-18T16:39:00.005-04:00

The pay phone is alive and well in Maine.
Cell phones work on line of sight and since
most of Maine goes up and down and the
whole state is carved out of granite, we
haven't had much luck with ours. We found
this great red phone booth in, of all places, Boothbay.

We left Boothbay in the clearing fog, heading out to Seguin Island. The peasoup fog came back about halfway out of the bay. We had less than 100' of visibility and we entered Sequin's very rocky narrow anchorage before we could even see the island. It was extremely nerve wracking to know that there were rocks most of the way around us, we could hear the surf, but we couldn't see much. Thank goodness for radar, good chart plotter, current hard charts, oh, and e-charts on the computer/GPS combo. As long as they ALL lined up, we kept moving in, slooooowly.

We dinghy'd ashore and took the tour of the museum and climbed the lighthouse. The caretakers, Michael and France, were talkative and friendly, telling us about their 3 month stay on the island. We're very interested in doing something like that ourselves, so it was great to get first hand info from them. This is the view from the top, looking north. You can see that the fog hung around all day

Michael also has an arrangement with one of the local lobstermen. He stopped by the boat with an offer we couldn't refuse. Adjima checked them out, carefully. We just added a few boiled potatoes and butter. Tonight we're making our own lobster rolls on Steve's fresh-from-the-oven rolls.

And under the category of "Things That Go Bump In The Dark": nothing, but nothing, gets a sailor's heart beating faster than those 4 little words "We're on the rocks". Uttered by Steve at exactly 2310 as we were jarred awake by the unmistakable sound of our rudder crunching against a rock(s?). The bottom of the rudder is only 5 feet below our heads when we sleep, so it was a rude awakening, and it was a terrible sound. We had come in at low tide but somehow the low tide and wind combined to push our stern around the mooring toward shore and under there somewhere, was (probably just that one) rock. We bounced on it a few times while Steve sprinted to start the engine and I tried to get my pants on upside down. It was foggy, cold, wet and really dark and we could hear the surf very close to the back of the boat. We bumped it in gear enough to stay forward of the rock while Steve quickly plotted a course out. We were searching for a solution other than sailing around all night. If only a stern anchor...but no anchoring due to a cable area. Sacrifice the #35 CQR anyway? Then an idea; Steve dinghy'd off trailing a long line,(and a gorgeous bright green bioluminescent trail that we were too busy to pay much attention to), tied it to a park mooring, and cleated it taught to a stern cleat. Steve stayed in the cockpit to ease the line as the tide slowly filled in. Inspection this morning shows no apparent damage and we were again off on another adventure. Whew!!

This blog was a collaborative effort.

On To Monhegan

2010-08-16T07:14:00.006-04:00

Monhegan Island is only a few miles off the beaten path, but it was a great, dark, place to sit and enjoy the Perseid Meteor shower on Thursday night. We set an alarm (after first finding the alarm, funny how they get lost when they're not used) for 0300 and bundled up for the cold wet Maine night. We sat on the bow for more that an hour and watched the meteors and quite a few satellites, overhead. The Milky Way was a cloud of stars, Cassiopeia sat in her chair on top of the mast, Orion was just stepping up over the horizon and Ursa's Major and Minor faced off in the North. It was a wonderful experience.

Monhegan is home to more than forty artists and galleries. Most of them teach classes, from one day to a week long and there were people drawing and painting everywhere we went. The views were certainly worth trying to capture, although from what I could see, some of them were very modern or 'picassoesque' in their technique. There were a lot of blobby looking building/people/tree things.

Across the small harbor is Manana Island, privately owned, but also open for hiking around. We were warned by the harbormaster to beware of the goats. Apparently one of them likes to sneak up on people and give them a little butt. We saw the goats, sleeping in the shade of this project home ( I told you there were a lot of artists here) but had no butting encounters.

The rocks seemed VERY close at low tide, but seen from the top of the island, we actually had plenty of room. Celebration is front left.

We are currently in Booth Bay Harbor, on a mooring at the Carousel Marina. The movie, Carousel, with Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae, was filmed here in 1956. The dock house has lots of pictures of the cast singing and dancing on top of the buildings. Booth Bay is a nice town, very touristy, but they have a free trolley that runs around, so it's easy to see the sights.

2010-08-11T17:52:00.005-04:00

We made a stop in Belfast over the weekend. It's a really cool little town. All kinds of quirky stores and interactive art displays. Steve had fun hiding among the carvings outside one shop. The faces on these were very lifelike, each different. The artist must have modeled them on his friends, or maybe relatives, some were pretty funny.

We met a couple in Ocracoke in April, Vaughan and Linda aboard Legacy, who very highly recommended a restaurant in Rockland. They said "BEST sandwich I ever ate". I've been salivating and looking forward to it for almost 5 months now and it lived up to it's hype. We finally made it to the Brass Compass yesterday and partook of their famous Lobster Club BLT. As you can see, it was a tiny little thing, barely enough to get a good taste. It was a very good taste.

Adjima turned 19 yesterday,

she celebrated with a little birthday bacon.
I didn't make her wear her hat or lei this year,
she still hasn't forgiven me for last time.

We had a beautiful thunderstorm roll through early last night. Great clouds and lightning, but it split around Rockland and we didn't even get much wind or rain.

2010-08-08T16:33:00.003-04:00

Fog rolling through the anchorage.

My favorite part of the sailing life is the constant opportunity to meet new people. We had a wonderful chance to do that at the SSCA Downeast Gam in Islesboro last weekend. We saw friends we met along the way here and got updates on what they've done in between. We saw a lot of people we'd only talked to on the radio and got to put faces with names. We met a few dozen new friends that we can now run into down the coast and have over for sundowners. We found out about great anchorages, moorings, restaurants, where to go to reprovision, do laundry, buy beer. I got a few new ideas for easy appetizers. We met a couple who have a cat named Clamshell who likes to ride in the dinghy. We got to sit and have morning coffee while listening to the loons, knowing that all over the anchorage other boaters were doing just the same.

A Little Mussel Update

2010-08-04T15:52:00.007-04:00

So, we've eaten a lot of mussels in the last week. First, on board Takarabrune, with Greg and Pat, we had them steamed with white wine and onions, more vino on the side. ( yes Kristel, delicious) Next night, on board Hurrah, with B.J. and Kelly, this time steamed with onion and garlic, maybe a little more wine on the side. Then last night, Steve made a marvelous garlicky marinara sauce, added mussels and baked fresh hard rolls for dipping. This was special enough to break out the Captain. Finger licking good.

Today we sailed up to Islesboro for the upcoming Gam. We managed to snag a mooring ball in Warren Island Marine Park for the weekend. Whoohoo, no dragging and no lobster bouys!

Mussel Beach

2010-08-02T16:08:00.002-04:00

Mussels by the thousands, free for the taking, which we did.We went mussel collecting at low tide. It was a first for us and we didn't know what to expect. Friends told us where to go and to take a couple of buckets. We found beaches full of mussels, great heaps and dunes of them. I have to admit, they're not my favorite food, but who could resist? Just clean off the barnacles and change the water every couple of hours. Easier still, hang them off the transom in a mesh bag and let them divest themselves of all the grit, then steam and enjoy.

Mike Kauffmann Memorial Tractor Ride

2010-07-31T15:21:00.000-04:00

Today is the Mike Kauffman (my late Dad) Memorial tractor ride in Arlington, MN. It’s being done by the local IH Collector Club and culminates with a bonfire/wiener roast/BBQ at the farm. We hope all the family and friends are there and having a good ride. Our thanks to all the club and best to Mom, sorry we’re not there in person. We’re with you all in spirit.

We’re lying at anchor in Seal Bay, Vinalhaven. Since my update, we spent a couple days at Wooden Boat School, sailed Eggemoggin Reach to Castine where we spent a couple nights. Yesterday a wonderful (although slow) wing-on-wing downwind sail to Seal Bay. Air Card is barely reaching out so more updates and photo’s later.

Hells Half Acre--the Cats Ass

2010-07-24T18:20:00.000-04:00

We took a walk today around the island called Hell’s Half Acre. Beautiful, 500 feet from our anchor and open to the public as it’s protected by the Maine Island Trail Association. Take a look at the photo…we recommend a short walkabout if you’re in the area. You might say it’s the….

Stonington, just across the Deer Island Thoroughfare from our anchor earns but one smallish paragraph in our cruising guide. Good news to us as there are few cruisers here. This true Maine working harbor is full of lobster boats with a few local sailboats tossed in for good measure. As we rounded the bend between work docks we saw a welcome sight for cruisers…a large ”Public Dock” sign, plenty of space at it, and a dumpster with public restrooms at the top. Friday was farmer’s market day so we stocked up on fresh produce, enjoyed lunch at a local café and took in the atmosphere. Small store ½ block from the dock sells all the necessities at a fair price, including live lobster ($7/lb), beer, liquor, produce. Couple all that with rock solid anchorage…maybe we know why the writers have kept it all a secret. We’d maybe even call it the….

Then today, after 51 years of hearing and even using the phrase on rare occasion I saw it for myself, those still wondering, here is a photo of the….

Lobster: Whole or Roll

2010-07-23T05:27:00.004-04:00

My goals for this summer are fairly simple: go to Maine, see the sights, eat enough lobster to get sick of it. Pretty lofty goals, if I do say so myself. So now we're in Maine, seeing great vistas and thanks to Gary and Alex, we started eating lobster before we even got here! Now my big dilemma is: whole or roll? Get the lobster whole and get to crack it apart myself? Very squirty messy fun at a table full of people. Dip chunks in butter and eat, simple and delicious. Or, let someone else do the work and get it all neat and easy on a toasted roll? A little mayo, a squeeze of lemon, also delish. Such is the hard life I lead.
We had a great thunderstorm the other night with lots of lightning and rain. Our decks are designed to be a catchment area for rain, to fill the fresh water tank. After waiting about an hour, to let all the dust rinse away, Steve put in the plugs and everything else went into topping off the tank. What an easy way to fill up. We got up in the morning to a dinghy full of clean rain water, so we did what cruisers everywhere will do: laundry. Washed in rain water and dried in the breeze, the clothes smell like the sun.

I will leave you with a photo of the seals at sunset in Mackarel Cove.

Position: 44 deg 09.096 North
68 deg 37.242 West

In Search of Puffins

2010-07-20T10:28:00.001-04:00

Time to catch up; we left the Mt Desert area with a specific destination in mind, Machias Seal Island. Just 15 nautical miles (nm) from the coast but a long run east then another off-shore through some cold, current ridden waters stood between us and the notorious Puffin rookery. We left on a calm morning after the fog cleared. In skydiving we called it a “sucker hole” a nice clear spot between clouds offering encouragement, but once on the way up it would close in. Yup...a sucker hole with us as the suckers. The fog closed in within the half hour so tight that although Mr Mac and we kept a distance via radar of between ¼ - ½ mile, we actually saw them just once for the entire 46 nm day. Great part was the pod of whales surfacing during the same rare semi-clear moment.

We holed up in a beautiful anchorage in Shorey Cove at Roque Island. Two days later the dawn was clear and we left early with both boats for the “circumnavigation” of Machias Seal Island. Challenged by counter currents but supported by great winds we made the 40 nm round trip to get a great view of Puffins. Tough to sneak up on them with open seas slapping the boat around, however we’re posting a photo or two anyway. The evening found us back at another beautiful anchorage at Roque Harbor after a sporty sail back to the Maine Coast. Yesterday a second clear day in a row, so while we may have enjoyed another day at the anchorage, we headed back toward Mount Desert. We are now anchored in Mackarel Cove at Swans Island for a little rest and relaxation. We should be here for a few days while we hope to get this posted, catch up on some phone calls to friends and relatives, decide where to head next.

Position: N 44 deg, 10.323 min
W 68 deg, 26.338 min

Another Beautiful Day

2010-07-15T14:48:00.001-04:00

We moved out of Somes Harbor yesterday in the rain and fog. As we were readying the anchor near Southwest harbor a sparkling blue race boat sailed over to point out a couple moorings that were available if we wished. He said he knew the people and they were good folks. Yes he is the owner of three moorings so graciously made available for Mr Mac and us. Believe I've mentioned how meeting new friends is on of the special cruising treats.

Today dawned sunny and clear. We're looking at the weather now for an opportunity to go yet further east in search of one of the five island puffin rookeries in the NE. Possible departure in the early hours tomorrow. We'll let you know...meanwhile one more shot of the Maine coastline.

Acadia National Park

2010-07-13T14:29:00.000-04:00

Chris, Anne, Lynn, and I spent yesterday hiking the shoreline trail in Acadia National Park. The fog abandoned us for a day of gorgeous weather so we actually got to SEE the spectacular Maine coastline.

We eventually wound up in the village of Northeast Harbor with enough cell service to allow a few phone calls, ACE Hardware successfully ending a long search for the elusive NGK BP8HS-15 spark plugs, and a nice mid-afternoon lunch at the Colonels. The end of the day came all too soon but tough to beat as we watched the sunset from the cockpit with Hors d’oeuvres, wine, plans and tales all plentiful till well after…