Checklist to Launch: The Breakdown

Tags

cruising, keelboat, sail boat, Sailboat, sailing

   Haven’t had much to post in the last couple months as it has been filled with mostly working and waiting and saving. But we have also been planning and budgeting the next phase.  We’ve gotten a lot of questions about specifics of mentioned projects, and requests for a list of what we need to do. I created the “Checklist to Launch” page, which itemizes and notes the steps, and indicates level of completion. It can be found at the top of the screen. It will be updated as we go.

   Here is the expanded more detailed version of that list. Please note that not yet has a project been completed in the predicted time frame, or required the predicted time, money, or effort.  Whether to our advantage or disadvantage, there is always a development or change in circumstances that alters the course and makes some systems irrelevant or problematic.  So, I give you this run down with that awareness.   Also, for those of you wanting detailed technical information about said projects, large and unique projects will receive a dedicated post each. Please comment to let us know what other projects you would find most interesting in the blog.

In 30 days I will quit my job, and AJ will no longer be able to use the shop. At the end of 30 days we would like to be ready to haul out.

In Shop in next 30 days:  

Build Engine Room Fiberglass Parts:  1) Finish the hatch 2) Build propane locker   3) Engine mounts  4)Engine control box.  

Also in Next 30 Days:

1) Wiring and plumbing for the portable on demand hot water propane shower for bathroom or cockpit with sump pump in bathroom. 2) Install pressure water pump 3) Install full solar set up with controller/ampmeter 4) Install the vented propane locker behind tiller base under the wheel-steering captain seat position. Also install thru hull that vents to the outside. 5) Install the starter battery box and engine wiring. 6) Finish Engine Room/Paint 7) Wheel to Tiller conversion.

We are going to remove the wheel steering and replace it with a tiller. This  means selling the big 9″ bronze compass which sits on the wheel post, and all the wheel steering gear.  I have thought about keeping it in case the next owner wants to convert back, but I don’t know where I would store it, and that big compass is quite nice and valuable.  We’ll have to make or buy a big tiller. According to our schedule though, there isn’t time to make one this month. It also means installing a bulkhead compass and making a swinging arm with our GPS chartplotter mounted so it can be viewed in the shaded companionway from the cockpit, or swung inward to be viewed in the cabin. (Now all of that mounts to the wheel/wheel post.

We’ll drop the engine in as soon as the engine room is ready.

HAUL OUT:

    I suspect the engine drive shaft is too short, and we will need to replace or at least re-fit the cutlass bearing and shaft packing gland immediately. We can’t do that in the water, so it’s a haul out project.  We will likely tow to a yard right across the river.  Then we can fit a new shaft, bearing, and seal specific to the new engine, install and plumb the new engine and the new fuel tank, and replace the thru-hulls from a step ladder rather than a bobbing dinghy.

   We will paint the bottom. Sand the varnish off the toe rails and exterior teak. Install external chain plates. Remove the stanchions for refitting after paint. Refit/install new polycarbonate windows. The windows will require removing the interior wood paneling.  It is delaminating in many places where the windows leak. We’ll sand and fair the fiberglass beneath and paint it, and keep the wood trim around the windows. 

  Grind, patch, and paint the decks with white Interlux topsides edging around large sections of tan textured Kiwigrip.  Then the boat will be glossy white… or blue or green or black … , with bare oiled exterior teak trim and toe rail on white and tan decks and cabin top.

Then we will remove the old mast and reinforce the cabin roof and mast compression post (bathroom wall). Then, depending on if we have a mast yet and it’s location and the cost of a crane, we will rig while on the hard, or launch and motor to the rigging location (we may buy a mast currently in Jacksonville). But once we are back in the water with working systems and a working engine we are free to spend nothing and anchor and cook beans until we can do the rig if we can’t find a reasonable replacement.

LAUNCH

At this point she will have all her new functioning systems, a new rig and well finished engine and engine room/lazarette/cockpit lockers, and be looking bristol from the outside. Hopefully we will then run away to The Bahamas and play around at shooting reef fish before sailing to a hurricane hideout in Central America and work on refinishing the interior and doing something about the icky ice box and it’s wasted space. Regardless in few months we will finally have a nearly self sufficient home, and can start focusing on acquiring and improving the skills required to live this life we have chosen.  Sailing, navigation, and life aboard a moving ship. We will have the home that will cut life’s expenses down to almost nothing and allow us to start roaming.

A New Engine Leads To A New Hatch

Tags

fiberglass building, keel boat, Sailboat, Yanmar

Although we have put many dollars and hours of effort into the old Mercedes, Sarah and I have decided that we need better worldwide parts support and modern compact performance that the Old Mercedes diesel engine can’t offer.  Enter our newly rebuilt, 0 hours, Japanese-built Yanmar diesel.  Half the weight, half the size, less a cylinder, and still 80% the power of the old beast.  Parts are cheap and readily available around the world.

Since a leaking flush-mount hatch led to the damage on the Mercedes, I decided to make a new raised-lip style one from scratch.  The lip will be glued into the hole remaining from the old flush hatch, and the new hatch will fit properly over.

Here is the initial fiberglass cloth trimming.  The mold is simply 1/2″ MDF covered in packing tape, then taped to glass, and then the whole assembly is waxed with mold release.  Corners are filled with modeling clay and rounded with a popsicle stick to provide a smooth surface with rounded corners after the wax has been polished

Waiting for wax to dry on the hatch’s lip mold (version 2.0)

Tools of the trade: Polyester Resin, MEKP catalyst, respirator, rollers and a Bondo squeegee to remove bubbles, cheap natural bristle paint brushes and plastic pails for mixing not shown.  Acetone for clean up

Learning the hard way: Laying up the hatch lip (version 2.0).  The first one was done as a reverse lay up and the sealing surface was unacceptable.

All finished

Here is the hatch the next day, fresh from the mold.  Notice modeling clay around the corners, unfinished edges, and the 1/2″ core material in the middle

Smooth as glass (face) …  and packing tape (edges) …  and modeling clay (corners)

Fiberglass cuts with good plywood circular saw or table saw blades, but I used a small lightweight tile circular saw to cut the edge to the mold line.  Then a bit of cleanup with a small air grinder and some hand sanding.  There are some half bb or smaller pits in the surface that will be faired and filled with Bondo before final sanding and white polyurethane topsides yacht paint from Interlux, and then re-laying the teak from our old hatch on top using just Lifecaulk or 3m 200 (no screws).  The core is a plastic honeycomb backed with flocks so the resin binds with the outside surface, but the core remains air-tight, hollow and resin free.

The hatch will be plenty large for our new engine to come in from the top instead of through the engine doors into the cabin and then up through the companionway…  even though the hatch is the exact same size as the old one… (shown with failed hatch lip version 1.0: poor finish because of reverse layup)

I still can’t believe how small the engine is.

Soon the parts will be finished and ready to install.  The shop will be unavailable and Sarah will be quitting her job in 30 days.  The plan is to have the motor in and be headed to a haul out right about the same time.  These next 30 days will be full of wiring, solar panel installation, engine room painting, and general rebuild on the aft end of the boat!  At haul out we will be able to pressure wash and paint the bilge, hull, and decks, seal the stanchions and windows, and ready the boat for the new rig.  We’ll tell you about it soon!  - AJ

Happenings

Tags

keelboat, Sailboat

As I said before we have abandoned the original Mercedes engine :(  So I never posted the pics after paint and partial reassembly.

But there is an excellent unexpected new development.  We will be getting a rebuilt Yanmar on next Wednesday. Now we just have to finish the engine room and make a new cockpit hatch that won’t leak rain water on the new engine. AJ made the mold for the new engine hatch and it will get laid up next week. This weekend it’s back into the pit for more scraping sanding and scrubbing. Hopefully we’ll be ready to paint the engine room by Monday.  Maybe drop the engine in the next weekend, once we’ve worked out the engine mounts hosing and wiring. Having an engine will mean we can finally move. We can get off the dock and out of this marina. We will finally have the freedom to anchor, and go where ever we need to.

There are a few other things we have to work out in order to be completely independent.  For instance a shower.  We are relying on the marina for that at the moment. Solar showers in the cockpit are more than adequate in the warm months when you haven’t got neighbors. But, it’s in the 50′s at night and we have got neighbors.  We need to have a shower solution for cold climates and the instances of lack of privacy.  Like we find ourselves in now. Installing a hot water system was out of the question, and the main reason we hadn’t given getting a shower much thought.  But we were delighted to find another solution. A cheap convenient one. An on demand, mobile propane-heated shower.  You can hang it up in the bathroom or the cockpit. Just have to attach it to a propane supply which we’ll plumb to the bathroom, and there’s already one in the cockpit. It does however require pressure water, which we caved to.  We have not installed it yet, but we will be keeping the foot pump for back up. It has to be rebuilt often, and it turns out the amount of power pressure water uses is negligible.  We will also be installing new solar panels. (Thank you AJ’s parents!). This will give us the power we need to be able to run lights and charge the laptop and cell phone, or run navigation equipment. And we have a Honda 700w generator to run power tools when needed.  So we will be able to say goodbye to the Marina’s outlet.  There is an insane amount of work to do.  And I’m stuck in an office all day wishing I was doing it. And the sooner we can leave the marina the sooner my salary will matter.  Oh, and the windows. We really need to rip those out and replace them before the rainy season hits. You can already feel it coming. We’re entering that constant 30% chance of rain, scattered showers stroll through whispering “the white outs are coming…the white outs are coming..” So a lot of work to do, work that mostly AJ will be doing while I’m at work, which is why he will be updating you as to what’s really going on with these projects soon.

Here is our boat at present.  We’ve finally got the old name off the back. After some sanding and paint patching we’ll put our decal on it.  Which says “Robin” with Russellville AR underneath. The old solar panel on the back will be removed and the new ones will be installed as wings on either side of the back or possibly on the cabin roof. Either way freeing the space in stern.  AJ removed the wind generator, and the tower mount it was on. We won’t need it with the new panels and it’s one less obtrusive thing to have back there.

Scenery:

Behind where I work.

Looking for fish.. looking for fish.

I’d Rather Dumpster Dive Than 9-5

But it’s still 9-5 for now.  It’s lobotomizing, demotivating and I probably won’t  have much to say until I’m back on the boat full time.  Which, fingers crossed will be in April.

Let’s see.. We got 2 new fiberglass propane tanks and set up. So now we have a safe propane system rather than the one that was a couple years out of spec. Now our boat is now less likely to blow up. Guess that’s an improvement.

We found a mast on Craig’s List with the exact dimensions we need.  The sellers are about to cut it up for scrap if someone does not want it, so they are trying to get rid of it cheap. So cheap that we will probably go to Jacksonville and get it rather than even making a carbon-fiber one like AJ was going to do. So I guess that is good news.  There is also a Yanmar on Craig’s List that we are looking at.

The population of this town and the Marina seems to be growing exponentially. Drives keep getting longer and parking more scarce. I think we enjoyed life more on the ball despite the extra “work” it required.  We used to spend time in the cockpit enjoying the evening, the air, the psychedelic colors on the water, being on a boat. Now we stay holed up in the cabin because we are in such a public space. Never come out to see the day. No real exercise or stimulus built into life anymore. Ho hum blah blah.  Why is it that the more mind-numbing the 9-5 activity is, the more mindnumbing I want my post work activities to be? It’s a trap!

But at least the last few months have taught me a few things about myself.  I now know what it is like to live without electricity or refrigeration or most modern conveniences. It ain’t so bad.  And thanks to this job, I now I know without doubt that I am on the right path, because I’d rather go without than sell my time.  No question.  I’m Just counting down the days until I can go back to work on the boat.

I Wanna’ Move to the Pocket

I want to move to Manatee Pocket.   We are here:

Manatee Pocket is where I work. It is just above the “B” bubble.  Look at the sandbars at the entrance. You can’t see those from the water.  looks easy to get beached.  We are also concerned that it might not be deep enough for our 6 foot draft, but we recently were told that they dredged it to 10 feet.  If that’s the case, yay for us.  You can anchor there though the authorities don’t like it. Otherwise you have to find someone to rent a private dock from.

At Sunset on the US1 we are surrounded by millionaires on vacation. On their motor yachts they have the same amenities as a house. – Full size refrigerator, air conditioning, showers, micro waves, hair dryers etc… I can’t even take a shower without walking through heels, ties, and smokey eyes fondling cocktails on the dock in front of the restaurant on my way to the showers.  I wheel my laundry through them too.  I haven’t mentioned the restaurant at the end of D dock.  It is wildly popular. So much so that there is a valet service to park the cars in the marina’s parking lot.  They have about half of the parking space they need.  Like the live music, valet parking used to only happen on weekends. Now that we are in The Season live music blasts 7 days a week and the valet is there 6 days a week.  When I return from work I have to wait in a line of cars, then wait for a valet to move a Porsche or Maserati so I can park my ’98 Mazda truck. I have a marina sticker so they have to give me a space.  That’s right, they move expensive cars move for me nearly every day. I’m the VIP in my dirty mini pick-up truck.

We could hear the live music on weekends in the mooring field perfectly clear. Back then it was guitar drum and base Pretty Woman, Wonderful Tonight, Sweet Home Alabama, Play That Funky Music White Boy.  Now it is a lot of the same but with keyboard, acoustic guitar, saxophone, and back up singers.  And a female to sing new radio songs like “This Time Baby.”  It is our nightly cover band sound track.  10-20 trains come by all day and at all hours of the night. The bridge opens at least once an hour.  People escort their friend and dates to the restaurant via water in their sport fishers blaring their gangsta music to drown out their 400-1000hp engine/s. It’s a hoppin’ place.

But aside from the marina’s odd situation, the number one reason I want to move to Manatee is that it is within a few miles of everywhere we need to go, including work.  We currently have to commute 30 min by car to do anything.  We have to take US1, the 6 lane divided highway that requires an absurd amount of time and gas money just to turn around. I dont even go to the grocery store on the way home from work because it is on the wrong side of the road.  It is endless miles (the entire east coast of FL) of strip malls repeating international chains, McDonalds, Home Depot, TJ MAX, Chilli’s, Wal-Mart, Denny’s, Burger King, Storage, etc..etc..Big signs rising higher and higher than the others. parking lots. Parking lots, None of the parking lots connect!! It’s hideous.   This landscape makes me very very depressed.

Manatee Pocket is a two lane road community. If our boat was in Manatee we could go everywhere we need to go on foot or by bike. I could go to the grocery store  without ever having to get on the highway. There is a vegetable stand down the road.  There are even a few independent restaurants there. Real food at reasonable prices.  Who knew. The industrial district where AJ works and where we do most of our boat errands is also a bike ride away. Being there would save us so much time and money. It would put us in an environment more conducive to daily life not daily survival.  And it just might save my sanity.

Manatee Pocket:

I work on the narrow southern finger of the Pocket right at the bottom of the pic where you see the yellow highway. The view out the back of my office:

There is a straggly haired man who never wears a shirt, and whose shorts have seen better days that lives on one of those boats.  He has that crazy Florida – I’ve never worn a shirt or sunscreen – tan.  I want him to be my neighbor.

We just need an engine. We need an engine to anchor, we need an engine to move.   I think we are going to abandon the Mercedes. It is 43 years old and there is only one place in the world to get parts for it. It has not run in a year now. It is a pity we showed up during the rainy season because perhaps it could have been spared if it had ever stopped raining in Sept/Oct.  For the long haul we need a Yanmar, which has world wide parts support.  Instead of putting anymore time and money into the museum piece we are going to wait for the right used Yanmar and the right price to pop up on Craigslist or ebay. Yay tax return.  We need to prep the boat in such a way as to to make life cheap for years to come. Which means taking our time now to do everything right. The other thing we need to do on the dock before moving and before the rainy season returns is make the boat water tight. The chain plates, windows and cockpit leak. We have to re-grout all the teak in the cockpit, install new chain plates, remove the old ones and seal the deck where they were. Replace the windows – which means replacing the rotting wood panels around them or replacing that with fiberglass board so it doesn’t rot again. Then we should not have constant leaking come rainy season. A dry boat would be nice.

I just want to move. But I would miss this guy. I got another pic of our Heron.

And here is a new fellow hanging out below the gate, and blending into the rusty wall bizarrely well. 

And this is my pic from my weekend in Ft. Lauderdale. 10-16 hours a day for five days is just too much time to spend with your boss.  I malfunctioned. But maintained. This was across from our hotel. Love. I took the pic because of the cars but then realized that the scene was so fresh and  lovely to me because it had a few things I have not seen in a while. Nostalgic construction and young men.  Doing young man things. Like making machines beautiful. I think I miss my demographic. 

The Great Blue Heron

A Great Blue Heron returns to us every night to fish off of our dinghy.  The birds in Florida are huge.  Nothing like the tiny song birds of Arkansas.  Everything is bigger in Florida. The flowers, the leaves, the birds. Everything except for the ants, which are tiny. Teeny-tiny. Itty bitty ants that like to get inside electronics.   The first night the Heron showed up I could have reached out and touched him from the cockpit.  I sat and watched him fish for quite some time. He did not seem to notice my presence, or just did not care. I tried to get some pics a few nights later but it was just too dark for anything to come out, and I did not want to use the flash and startle him. But I accidentally  took one with the flash anyway and he was unfazed. So I tried a few more. He did not even look over at me.  City bird is used to all the lights.

New Page

I added a page to the blog about the boat titled S/V Robin.  It has the specs for our boat as well as the floor plan and diagrams.

It can be found at the top of the page above Venture Minimalists.  I can’t find a way to change the text color so it is light gray and barely noticeable.

A “Real” Job

I am officially employed. Well, I’ve had three jobs since arriving. Seamstress for a week (sweatshop), hostess for a couple weeks, nanny for a couple months, and now Secretary.  I am the sole employee save the owner. So all accounting and business admin falls to me. It’s kinda crazy.  I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

I was going to call the next post Cabin Fever. We had a rough couple weeks. We were agitated, claustrophobic, frustrated, stagnating, and depressed. Nothing was happening. Time to reevaluate everything again. Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I here? Where do I want to be? How do I get there?   The facts and figures of life seem to change so rapidly that we have to update and reboot about every two weeks. The plan today is never the plan tomorrow.

Over the past couple weeks we’ve talked a lot about what to do and how long we’ll be here and why. We may just need to get comfortable and settle in. We have been on the boat for four months. In that time we have spent all of our savings, still don’t have a motor or rig, and have been getting by on odd jobs. It feels like eight months.. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that it has only been 4. Realizing that made me feel a bit better.  We spent 4 years saving money and waiting to get on a boat. Now that we have the boat it feels like we should be closer to the nomadic lifestyle we wanted. At 4 months we are freaking like our dreams have crumbled.   So close, so far. But, according to the grapevine, no one preps a boat for long term voyaging in less than 9 months. 2-3 years is more common. So maybe we are right on schedule.

Last week I was snapped out of the funk when the game changed again. We called an electrician.  Our electricity situation was ridiculous. We have been running an extension cord half way down the dock while we are sitting on fully charged and charging house batteries (the solar panel and wind generator work fine). The only reason we do not have power is because a wire got disconnected when the engine came out. And there is a clusterfuck of 100 wires in there. The whole system is a fire hazard. AJ traced all the wiring but did not know which wires in the engine room to reconnect.  Rather than days of trial and error we finally called someone who would be able to give us an assessment of our situation. Like the transmission – sometimes paying for an hour of labor/advice is worth the kick start. The electrician said that re-wiring the entire boat would cost about $15,000. 30% labor, 70% parts. The price of copper is skyrocketing.. but  Yeah.. don’t think we will be spending anything like that, or hiring labor.  But he did say, “I can give you power back right now though if you like.” He peeked in the engine room, put two wires together, and boom,electric light. It’s been three months since we had electricity. I scarcely know what to do with it anymore.  He didn’t charge us for the consultation, or connecting the two wires.

He asked if either AJ or I had a job. He told us that he had to fire his secretary, started telling me about the job, and said that if I worked for him he would help us with our boat for a discount. He talked about it like he was trying to convince me to take the job and start tomorrow.  I already had the nanny gig, but it was only 20 hours a week so I had to consider the switch.  But when I said, yes, ok, I’ll do it, he backed off with “Well sleep on it, sleep on it, we all need to sleep on it.”  I called him the next day as he had asked me to, and he talked for a really long time about how there was something about me that made him uncomfortable, but also something about me that compelled him ask if I needed a job. He seemed to be experiencing some serious internal conflict about hiring me, and was telling me about it for some reason. He asked to meet me for lunch. His main problem with me is that my current life goal is to leave town. I’m most likely going to quit any job with-in the next year. I can’t guarantee anything. Legitimate reason to not want to hire me.  I get it, and was ready to walk away, and not have to continue to be present for all of his deliberating.   But then, upon his prying, I mentioned that I was TEFL certified. Me being an English teacher of sorts was the sign he was looking for.  He is from abroad and wants to improve his English for the sake of his business. He seemed to think that there had to be a reason he was compelled to tell me about the job. He had acquired a stack of 20 overqualified resumes only 24 hours after listing the position. And for some reason, despite his hesitations about me, I was the number one candidate and he didn’t know why. I didn’t know why either.  I am terrible at selling myself,  but I did manage to keep from saying out loud, “Yeah, I really don’t know why you want to hire me either.  I’m clearly not your best option.”

I have such anxiety with interviews and just about every social interaction that part of me does not want to be liked or hired.  I wanted to run away. But I didn’t, and I got the job.  We need cash influx time now. This guy wants to pay me and save us money on our electrical system. Having an electrician for a boss can’t hurt.  And it’s is a job in the marine industry. Connections never hurt. I just had to tell myself, “Take the money. You can do this.”  You are good enough, you are smart enough, and gosh darnit people like you.  Right? I have no idea.

I have been entrenched in solitude for the last 4 years. I have been waging a  battle with social anxiety all my life, but it seems to have amplified since I got back from Germany.  Livnig in a country where you don’t speak the language really cuts down your conversation/interaction time, especially if you’re not very outgoing.  It’s easy to slip into invisibility when you can’t really talk to people anyway. And I couldn’t work in Germany. I am seriously out of practice after three years away.   When I find myself in a social situation unexpectedly I get a fight or flight shot of adrenaline. When you have a hard time talking to people already, being on a stimulant makes it so much worse.   The thing about stress/anxiety disorders is they can strike when you think everything is fine, all the sudden, without warning you become a crazy person.  After it happens you feel devastated. How could I be fine and functioning one minute and have absolutely no control the next? That just adds to the anxiety and makes you fearful of venturing out. What if I do crack? AT work??  I had to put that from my mind. Maybe what I have really needed all this time is a job. Maybe all of that time spent alone was the catalyst for my heightened anxiety in the first place. Being a paranoid hermit seems like a strange personality trait for a traveler to have.  I feel like I am becoming the old man that sits on the porch with a shotgun in the middle of the woods.

This job means AJ can focus on the boat and not on making money, which is a more pragmatic solution for our situation. Poor guy needs a break after 11 years of Army. I have worked 10-11 hours a day for the last seven days.  So far I have not cracked yet. Not at work anyway.    I am in the office by myself all day, and training at night when the boss can be there.

Right now we are smack in the middle of “The Season”.  January- March are the busiest months of the year for the marine businesses of Florida. For every business really because so many people come down here to escape the cold. So all of this overtime and extra business should fizzle out in a couple months.  This is my first week in the office and I think this is going to work well for me.

The New Year

Tags

Sailboat, sailing, Travel

I wanted to have a world map somewhere in the cabin. For Christmas my mom sent me the map I found online that would just barely fit on the bulk head wall. It is made of Tyvek, which feels like paper, looks like parchment, and is water proof. I was pretty thrilled the map came in such a material. Who knew they made such a thing and that it would be the cheapest kind. On New Years day we moved the shelf from under the oil lamp to under the clock to make room for it. We put small grommets around the perimeter and screwed it to the wall through the grommet holes with finishing washers.

Now I can stare at the geography of the world to my hearts content. Maleop, Choiseul, Lambok. All sorts of places to know about. The map is a constant reminder of why I am doing what I am doing. When I look at it the annoyances of the moment melt into day dreams of the future that I have to create. It helps me maintain a broader perspective which is always beneficial to my moment to moment emotional state. When I am pissed about hitting my knee on the table again, with a glimpse of the map I am distracted by the thought that the majority of the human experience does not include winter. Most if humanity lives in perpetual summer between the thirtieth parallels. Winter is a somewhat unique human experience.

Speaking of winter, a cold front moved in on January first with a low of 42 degrees. I did not think I would ever get to say “Brrr” in Florida. We even had to light our propane Cozy Cabin Heater. It keeps the cabin about twenty degrees warmer than outside. The cabin, not the V berth. I was ecstatic to get to put on jeans a couple weeks ago. I did not know how much I loved jeans until I got to slide them on after months of weather too hot for them. I never want to have to wear anything else ever again. If it is too hot for jeans it is too hot to wear anything at all. And you can’t do that. So you see my point. But it’s summer in most of the world, thus my life for the next five to twenty years will be spent without seasons. That is so strange. So I relish these moments in jeans and boots and my favorite hoodie. Oh happy day.

It was in the forties at night and in the sixties during the day for a week. Some great things about cold weather besides jeans are that the necessary activities of daily life improve comfort rather than detract from it. Cooking on a 95 degree day heats the cabin to well over 100. I’d rather not eat. Cooking on a 55 degree day makes your cabin nice and cozy. Produce stays fresh, we can buy cheese, the head does not stink. Hard work makes your warm, not stinky. I think I am alone in Florida in my sentiment, but this is freaking awesome. I was feeling great, that is until six days ago when I sprained my ankle. I spent the last week stuck on the boat with my ankle wrapped trying not to move around much. I can limp around a bit now, but I need to stay off it for the most part for another week.

Three days ago AJ threw his back out. He has residual issues with a collapsed disc in his lower back. So now we are both hobbling around. Now, as in January 10^th, the same date that is in the upper left corner of this post. I am excited about that. And about the fact that I have had the map to look at while I am boat ridden. We are in an internet dead zone and there is not a lot for me to do in this condition. So I am dreaming about the route we will take and passages we will make. Dreaming may be the keyword here, but without the dreams that lead to goals we would go nowhere.

Right now the goal is to be out of here by May. It is currently Caribbean Cruising season. Cruising season ends and hurricane season begins in April. We expect to be equipped to leave Florida by April. We won’t be able to go south because it will be the wrong season, and we do not want to stay in Florida for another summer anyway. Not to mention FL is as much in hurricane alley as the Caribbean islands. So we will go North. North up the Eastern seaboard to Nova Scotia. Stopping in DC and NYC etc.. Then cross the North Atlantic to Ireland or France in May. June July and August visiting Newcastle, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and the like. Go down the west coast of Europe to France, Spain and Portugal, pop into the Mediterranean for October – December. Cross the Mid Atlantic from Portugal/Morocco to the Caribbean in December, ( the middle of cruising season) bop around the nations there, be in Panama ready to cross the canal by March/April. Then head out to the Pacific. We could start with the South Pacific, Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Australia, Indonesia, then north to Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, India, Sri Lanka. Then there is a choice to make. We could go to the gulf of Aden and chance hosting Somali pirates to get to the Mediterranean. But why? We will have been there. We can go to Madagascar and South Africa and cross the Cape of Good Hope in in the wrong direction and shoot across the Southern Atlantic to South America. Maybe we will be such salty adrenaline seeking seamen by then that crossing the Cape backwards will seem like a necessary accomplishment. Or, it will be an easy “F” that. Who knows. The third option would be to turn around. I would like to cross the Indian ocean from India and see Madagascar and South Africa. But instead of continuing west past storms or pirates, go back across the Indian east and go North to Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan. We have to go to Japan because I want to swim in the hot springs with the snow monkeys. So we have to work Japan in somewhere. Who would not want sail into Tokyo harbor? And who in their right minds would not want to make the acquaintance of these citizens of Earth?

They seem to have things figured out.

From Japan maybe go a little farther North to Russia, then the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, Canada, California,then just keep going south, Mexico, Central America, Peru, Argentina. Cross cape Horn the right direction. Who knows. The first part of the plan, crossing the North Atlantic, depends of completing the boat in the next three months. Tick tick tick. We’ve got to reassemble and install the engine, restore the 12 volt power, install new chain plates, patch the deck from old chain plates. Find, make, or buy a Mainsail. Build the carbon fiber boom and mast, replace/reseal the windows, bottom scrape and paint. I think we can do it. Some things could be done while while going up the east coast. There is nothing like the threat of tropical summer weather to motivate me to make it work. We will be out of Florida by May. Whether we will be ready to cross the Atlantic, or miss the window and continue to equip until the next optimal season on the Northeast coast, I don’t know. We just have to be nomadic by April. That is what matters. That is when the life we want begins. The ability to stay on the move is all we really need to be happy. Being stuck here takes a toll on our sanity. The point of this lifestyle choice is to be nomads with a mostly self sustaining, debt free-micro home that can take us anywhere in the world for almost nothing. You don’t have to pay for the wind or the sun or the fish. Just port fees, diesel, and propane. And those can be of rare use. All we want is the freedom to roam. We are so ready to get out of here.

Christmas Visit

Tags

cruising, dinghy, open dinghy, Sailboat, sailing

AJ’s parents arrived late the evening after Christmas.  AJ inherited his interest in sailing and wooden boat building from his father. AJ’s dad, Phil,  trailered an 18′ open daysailing boat he built while AJ was in college all the way to Stuart to take it out sailing on the river. It had been out of use since he raced it at the Texas 200, a 200 mile long open boat cruise on the Texas Gulf coast. First thing the morning after their arrival, we launched it at a park down the road and motored over to the courtesy dock at the marina.

Once at the marina, they came to see our boat in the daylight.  AJ’s nephew Dean immediately looked around, plopped down in the cabin and exclaimed, “This is miserable.” I cracked up.  Still do everytime I think of it. Also, while AJ was pumping our sink’s foot pump to fill up his water bottle Dean asked “What are you doing!?” AJ explained that in most houses, city water is run through a series of big pumps and/or towers that pressurizes water to come out of the faucet at home, but since a boat is not hooked up to the city pressure system, the water must be pumped somehow, so we had a foot pump.  To that he replied, “That’s terrible.” Maybe the boat life is not for him, though he did seem pretty impressed with the 100 foot mega yacht just down from us.

After taking the daytime tour of SV Robin, we all boarded Andrea Christine, Phil’s 18′ dayboat, and headed towards the bridges that lead to the inlet. The mast was too tall for the first bridge, and we did not want to call for it to open, so dad dropped the mast while underway, we motored under the bridges and raised the mast again once through.  Oh to have that sort of flexibility with Robin!  We sailed down the river towards the St Lucie inlet. The wind was strong and Phil is apparently quite the boat designer, as his old-style standing lug rigged 18 footer sped away from just about every sailboat out that day, even with a reef tied into the sail.  Dean wanted to go to the beach and we were going to try to sail there, but three hours in we realized we would not be able to make it there and back before sunset and had to turn around to return to the marina.  No beach that day, but a (mostly) WONDERFUL day of sailing.

It had been warm that afternoon but on our return the clouds started darkening and we got caught in a hard but brief and cold rain. Dean and I wrapped ourselves in a towel. AJ was at the helm and decided to stand up, take the brunt, and make a game of it.

We arrived back at the marina cold and wet and hungry and stopped for dinner.  Andrea and Phil went to take the trailer back from the park to their hotel and Dean came back to our boat. He had seen our fishing poles and wanted to go fishing. AJ took him to the bridge where people often fish just behind D dock.  Dean cast the fishing line into the water, waited about five seconds, reeled it back in, cast it out again, waited about three more seconds before stating “Man, fishing takes a lot of patience.”

On the second day we went to the beach as Dean was promised. It had been in the 80′s the previous week, but that day it was in the high sixties.  Luckily, the water temp was still in the 80′s so one could swim, but  Dean was the only one who ventured in.

We got back in time for a quick sunset sail around the mooring field to check out the boats that had arrived this season.  This boat is a warship just off the line when the Korean war ended.  IT never saw service, and was going cheap. A couple made it their home and now use it to cruise the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

A house boat on anchor in front of the mooring field.  Gin palace, Floating trailer, Keys Condo, whatever you want to call it, I still think they are kinda cool if voyaging is not your thing.

The mooring field

On the third and final day we sailed up the river the other direction. Water front homes line the river’s edge, and we just casually looked in their back yard, lounged about and nibbled lunch over the course of a day of sailing.  What I enjoyed most about sailing in an open boat of that size was that I got a sense of the physics of sailing in a less anxiety-inducing way.  In our small dinghy you are not so much sitting in it as on it.  As expected of a 7.5 foot boat, it heels dramatically and bounces violently in wakes. We sat inside the 18 footer and could feel the heel of the boat and get a sense of when and why it moves without feeling like you are going to fall out. The only other sailing option we have is the big boat. Also an anxiety-inducing ride considering you are dealing with such a large vessel and your home. So I thoroughly enjoyed the day trips up and down the river in that happy medium, small enough to be able to see and understand everything that was going on, and stable enough to let you pay attention. 

After the last day’s sail, Andrea and Phil hopped off at the marina to grab the trailer while AJ was entrusted to bring the boat back to the park to be tailored and prepped for the trip to Arkansas.  Dean seemed to have adapted to the slower pace of sailing by the third day, when AJ offered, Dean was excited to take the helm. After piloting for a while he said “I like sailing.”  Dean was an impressive skipper for 10 years old.  I think the three days may have changed his mind about sailing and speed of life in general.  We were glad to finally spend some quality time with our nephew and parents, and glad also that Phil brought the right tool to do so.