Stuck in Paradise

5/27/13
Key West, FL
sunny & hot

OK...stuck in paradise, it's 5 o'clock somewhere and I ain't got a nickel and I ain't got a lousy dime.... all come to mind here in Key West.  But, let me digress...our time in Panama City was really nice, it was a great little town, but we were ready to get on our way to the Tampa area.  As it turned out our friend Dan and his son Spencer could not wait for Key West so they planned on joining us there.  We arrived at the sea buoy to Tampa Bay around midnight on May 19th.  We decided to anchor out behind Egmont Key (a bird breeding ground), so finally around 1:30 am with Island Sol on the hook we tried to settle down and sleep.  I just couldn't do it, I kept popping up making sure we were not dragging our anchor.  Come to find out there is a 80' deep ridge that runs around Egmont Key and it is a shark breeding ground also! Yikes...unfortunately we never saw any "fins".

Later, that day we got a slip at The Harborage Marina at Bayboro in the shadow of USFSP...University of South Florida St. Petersburg.  Again another great town.  After some boat cleaning, Dan and Spencer arrived the next day.  Spencer just finished his first year of college and was ready for some decompression.  It was great seeing Dan again.  We met a yacht broker, Joe, who knocked on our hull, turns out he had listed Island Sol before we bought her.  Joe was a wealth of information about St. Pete.  On the 21st we celebrated Charlie's 63 birthday with lots of food and drink...it was a great day!   The next day we visited the Island Packet Manufacturing Plant and got a tour by Carson Johnson.  Very interesting and amazing that these boats are made totally by hand.  At 4:45 pm we slipped our mooring lines and headed for Key West.  Again, we were blessed with good seas and weather.  We did some sailing finally in order to make our arrival during daylight hours.  The porpoise  gods were good to us and we had a couple of occasions to watch them ride that bow wave.  I just can't get over how clear the water is here and so blue, it is just beautiful.  On Thursday morning Charlie decided to throw out a lure and see what we might come up with.  About an hour later that zzzzing sound told us....fish on!  It was really exciting and took all 3 of us to get that 15 pound bonita  on board.  Charlie cleaned it in the cockpit, cut it up and marinated some  of the pieces.  It was grilled later that afternoon and was very tasty, so more for dinner that night.  We arrived in Key West on Friday, the 24th, around 8:30 am with a side berth at Key West Bight Marina.  I have never seen so many boats in one place.

So, here we are back at that first sentence.  Seems our weather is going bad on us with 30 knot winds out in the Gulf for the next 5 days.  This is a crazy town, not unlike New Orleans...some very colorful characters live here. The architect is really neat and as you can imagine the place is quite pricey. We have rented bikes which has made the city more accessible to us, toured Ernest Hemingway's home (which was very interesting) and have found many cool bars/restaurants.  Thanks to the ladies at the Elks Club and to our new found friends Melissa and Eric who spent a "wild and crazy" day with us yesterday.  You know...what happens in Key West stays in Key West!

Island Sol at anchor

We are sending love and prayers to our son-in-law, Bobby, at the passing of his mother the other day.  It hurts our heart that we can't be with him at this time.  So love to all our friends and family....until the next post!  Hopefully I will learn how to post some pictures soon, too.

The Shakedown

This blog is out of order....Date:  January 6, 2013

2013 has arrived and we all lived to tell about it.  Yes, no end of the world, thank God my "adventure" can continue.  We celebrated the new year at the Rinn Resort in Magnolia, Proprietors, Chuck and Linda Rinn, were most gracious as always. It didn't take Charlie long to start planning that "shakedown" cruise to Port Aransas.  We left Freeport on January 6th around 5:00 am in a howling north wind and colder than a well divers ass, how appropriate!  Our son, Sean was with us again on this voyage, he had previously sailed with us on Atra when we moved her from Kemah to Surfside, so it was only fitting that he should be on this trip as well.  We have given Sean the name of Shade Slug II, after our friend (the a fore mentioned Chuck) because he was always finding somewhere to sleep.  It is of course the thing that Sean does best.  

Our plan: sail to Port O'Conner, tie up for the night and enjoy a steak dinner on the BBQ.  We arrived around 3:00 pm and found our way through the twist and turns of Caracol "Yacht Club" marina.  A porpoise followed us all the way in, the water was amazingly clear.  I unfortunately could not enjoy that experience as these short 90 degree turns were making me somewhat nervous.  Finally reached the end of the canal and moored to the concrete dock.  We soon found out that the electrical service at this point would not support our boat, we had to maneuver the boat 360 degree to the other side of the canal, pull her back and then hook up to shore power.  We soon found out the this "yacht club" had no showers or backrooms available, yet we still had to pay $75.00 a night.  By the time we finally got everything settled for the night that steak dinner was diminished to hot sausage lentil soup and bed...not bad at all! 

Left Caracal around 9:00 the next morning to a beautiful sunny day.  We have been motor sailing to make good time as we do not like going into a port at night.  Today we tried to "wing and wing" and Charlie attached the wisker pole, also the preventor so as not to make an "uncontrolled jib".  By 5:00 pm we were about 9 miles out of Port Aransas and the weather was deteriorating fast as was the light (damn it)....We had 6-8' seas at the mouth of the jettys, here we began to let the main down with me at the helm.  It was very difficult with those rolling seas to keep her into the wind and then that "uncontrolled jib" happened and tore a D ring off the mast.  It wasn't that serious, but certainly could have been.  Another lesson learned....get inside the jetty's and then take the main down.  The Lord was with us.  Did I mention that I am on the hotline to God when sailing!  Sailing into port at night is very disorienting to me with all the land lights, our nav screen is amazing...how did Christopher Columbus every make it here with out "Navtronic"? But Captain Charlie got us there and in our slip (Dock 1 #120) without mishap....he is my hero.  So, tonight we had those steaks.  We were too tired to walk to the marina showers, so had one in the boat....bed and sleep was wonderful.

Sean departed for home the next day and we had a day on the boat to ourselves, tidying up and getting ready for our next guests...Tim and Gay Conner.  They spent 3 days with up, bearing gifts and food!  How sweet of them, but those are the kind of friends they are.  We were able to sail a couple of times, first not much wind and lastly...fog!  Oh, I don't like fog and Charlie didn't either, that was the first time he has ever wanted to come in early.  But marina life was fun and Tim helped Charlie retreive our "la bomba" from Corpus, so now we have wheels.  

Again a few days alone, messing around with boats, exploring Port A.  The sun was non-extent for 7 days, but with it's arrival also came our daughter, Haley, for the sail back home.  This was Haley's first time to see Island Sol.  We spent a day on the beach and then readied the boat for leaving.  Not too far out of the jetty's, we discovered that Haley was not feeling well.  This soon moved on to being sea sick - bless her heart.  

I managed my first night watch by myself and it was all good.  With some help from my itunes I got through, watching that radar and being alone.  That will take some getting use to, but I look forward to more solitude and just see where my mind takes me.   So 201/2 hrs. later we arrived back to Freeport.  On terra firma Haley recovered quickly, a hot shower and some breakfast then back on the boat for a well deserved nap.  Our shakedown complete....Island Sol is a good boat!

Bye, Bye, Pensacola

5/16/13
Pensacola, FL
hazy and calm, light winds from the south

Left Pensacola around 4:30 p.m. yesterday and had a lovely sail into the night.  We heated up some leftovers and enjoyed some tunes with 1' seas and trucking along (motor sailing) at an average of 7.4 knots, so we were making really good time.  My (Saundra) watch was from 11:00-2: 00 am and there was absolutely nothing on the radar the whole way, calm seas but the wind was 30 degrees off our starboard so the "kicker" was a necessity.  Oh, and the autopilot is now working after purchasing a new compass.  And, that was after hours of Charlie brainstorming and 2 days with an electrician in Pensacola, then Charlie contorting his body into a tiny hole to install the new compass...yes, again, he is my hero.  Charlie took over the helm around 2:30 and I went below for some sleep.  But, around 3:00 I awake to the engine going off and finding out that the oil indicator was lowering.  After pulling off the engine cover, Charlie found that the "professional diesel mechanic" in Kemah, who checked our engine, did not torque down the valve cover and the gasket was not set, thus throwing oil all down under the engine. Not really sure how long all of that took, but finally got back underway and I woke up at the sea buoy to Panama City.  We docked at the Municipal Marina, got a shower, a Bloody Mary and some sausage and now we are retiring till who knows when.  Should be departing here tomorrow morning as we have a good weather window to make Tampa Bay.

Music in City Park

On the dock

Loving Pensacola, but....

5/15/13
Pensacola, FL
sunny and beautiful

Well, Pensacola, Florida is a beautiful place and Palafox Marina is awesome, especially John who runs the place, a very capable and nice young man.  We have read a lot of other crusing blogs which have mentioned issues with the all important "autopilot" and guess what...we are there, too!  We had issues with the autopilot (we haven't named it yet, but I feel that is not to far off in the future) off and on the day before we reached Mobile Bay, but now it is out.  So here we sit patiently waiting for the local marine electronics company to help us out, as well as Charlie climbing down into all the little holes and trying his best to fix things....he is my hero!  Hopefully, the next post will be on the water heading for Panama City.  Until then....

Are We Cruising Yet?

5/10/13
Pensacola, FL
overcast and windy


To all our friends and family, we are well and having a wonderful time so far.  Getting away from the dock in Kemah was a hard 3 days.  My parents came down along with our daughter, Haley, and our son, Sean. Haley, thanks for organizing our new home and Sean for taking the Ford back to Cat Spring, we love you more than you will ever know!  Saying farewell 3 different times was tough and when the lines were slipped a small sigh of relief was released.  So, has the adventure begun then?  We sailed to Galveston where all of our "tanks" were topped off and then Charlie said, "take those docking lines off and store them".  That's when it hit me...no more docking lines??? so I guess we are now cruising.

We left Sunday and it took us 3 days to get to Mobile Bay, Alabama.  We were blessed with great weather and calm seas, but we motored sailed the whole way.  As those of you who know Charlie, we ate quite well during those 3 days.  Night on the Gulf of Mexico is very lite up with rigs as you can imagine, but when we got into Louisiana waters the number of rigs seemed to double as well as shrimp boats and crew boats.  We arrived at the sea buoys to Mobile Bay and were met with a bank of FOG!  Never sailed in fog before...our radar worked wonderfully and I also got a quick lesson on the VHF radio.  At our intersection to the channel to the ICW going east, we pulled out of the channel and dropped the hook and sat that fog out.

As the sun burned off the fog, we got back underway and made it to the ICW.  We Texans were amazed at seeing trees on the ICW as that does not exist in Texas.  We later learned this was the "Redneck Rivera".  It was just beautiful.  We arrived at "Lulu's at Gulfshores Marina"....Jimmy Buffet's little sister Lucy Buffets place. We had to walk a long way to reach the restaurant due to the way the marina was laid out, but as I told these guys I am sailing with...we need to walk.  What an operation!  After a long deserved rest we refueled and headed on up the ICW towards Pensacola, FL.  The geography changes again and now we are in white sand dune beaches and large bays.  We called ahead to  Palafox Marina and reserved a slip were we sit at this post.  Very nice marina, floating docks and there is a Texas boat from Kemah, TX.  John, our 2nd mate, first class will be leaving for home tomorrow, what a great crew member!  Hopefully, John will rejoin this adventure somewhere else along the way.

OK, already...Let's Do It!

4/16/13
Kemah, TX
overcast and misty

The adventure has not begun, or has it?  We are still sitting in our slip at Watergate Yachting Center in Kemah, TX.  There was a big push to leave by April 21st, but it is not happening, still too much to do, mostly at home.  We have finished our refrigerator conversion and we now have a freezer.  Our cockpit is glassed in and shade cloth is all around.  Today we put up our Shade Tree awning, to make sure it fit (and it does), but there are still so many things to finish and BUY!  Long lists of things to do are composed, marked off as done and then another long list appears.  Where is the blue water???  We are hoping to leave by the first of May...so we will wait and work and see if that is the beginning of our "adventure".

Preparing for the Adventure

September 24, 2012....Well, I thought the outfitting would be finished in Kemah....boy was I wrong.  I think this boat thing is an ongoing "outfitting".  We did make the move to Freeport.  It was a 19 hour sail from Galveston, going against a current and a headwind.  In retrospect we should have motored, but live and learn.  Our good friends - Eileen and Les Pettigrew and John Trevathan made the trip with us.  Thinking that it would only take 9 hours tops, we sailed into the night and into the next morning.  Some problems with the navigation screen and the lack of wind direction indicator, but that was all of the problems with the boat.  She sailed beautifully.  Nighttime sailing hopefully will be less stressful with more experience, but the dark did make me a little nervous.  The stars were beautiful and the albatross that followed the slip stream of our main sail was an awesome sight for a good 20 minutes.  The mast light lite up the underbelly of the bird and it was just a little surreal.  Made for a good memory.

We are now moored at the Freeport Municipal Marina.  It is a secured marina behind a guillotine gate, which, in case of a hurricane would provide some protection from the storm surge.  We, again, are meeting some nice people, but the town lacks the expertise of workmanship that is needed to fix up a boat.  As we do more research into cruising, we are finding more and more things that we need to do.  And, the leaving date of March is looming, in the very near distance. But, we will not hurry the necessities that must come.  So, we continue to buy....you know what B O A T means? Break out another thousand.  So hurry out and get you a boat too, and live for an adventure!