...

It's time to end this blog and move on. I've enjoyed writing it and will start a new one soon, but don't expect a link because I plan to write the next one anonymously.

I'd always intended on making a final post, but wanted to wait till I had a job and got settled. Unfortunately, that's proved more difficult than crossing the Gulf, so I decided to go ahead and write the final one without any clear resolution concerning my future or that of the boat.

I'll leave it to your imagination, but I'm pretty sure ....

Houma to Galveston

The trip from Houma to Galveston turned out much better than I'd expected. There wasn't much going on in Houma -- the only places within walking distance were the hospital and a couple gas stations -- and I didn't want to wait around, at $25/day, till the new documentation certificate arrived, so after verifying the USCG had my application, we left. (the certificate didn't arrived until four days after we made landfall)

We got a late start, so I decided to go directly out to the gulf from Houma instead of going through Morgan City to the much bigger channel. Bigger channels are normally easier, but the Houma Navigation Channel is heavily used, so I figured it would be fine if we could make it out into the gulf before it got dark. We stopped for fuel about halfway, which meant we didn't lose much time, and had plenty of fuel for the trip. We made it into deep water, after a bit of drama, right at dusk -- well, relatively deep water at 20+ feet.

While motoring down the navigation channel, I made a few calls to the USCG and a couple of friends who were helping me with the renewal application. Everything was going pretty well until shortly after I got fuel. After a few texts and a call from Paul, I noticed the navigation software had stopped updating. It turned out to be a problem with the GPS software on the phone, and cleared up in less than an hour, but it happened right before dark in a narrow channel as we met a bunch of service boats coming back in. At that point, I figured we were already committed, so I kept going, all the while trying everything I could think of to clear the phone.

Nothing I did worked, but I could still use the charts in the phone -- didn't have any paper charts for this area. It all worked out okay, but I could feel my stress level rise a bit. Luckily, it started working again as we approached deep water. I'm still not sure if the calls or texts had anything to do with it, but it's only happened one other time, so who knows. However, we left on a Friday, which is supposed to be bad luck, so maybe that was a gentle warning for next time.

As soon as I raised the sails and cut the engine, I looked around and all I could see were rigs everywhere, lit up like christmas trees. It got better the next day, but there were always multiple rigs in site the entire trip. We had good wind on the first night, but were becalmed most of the next day. The forecast called for relatively calm conditions for several days, but since I was ready to get the trip over with, and had no desire to just sit out there, we motored most of the second day.

The winds picked up again in the late afternoon, but died again for a few hours the next morning. We motored till noon, then made pretty good progress sailing the rest of the day. Luckily, we were on a reach almost the entire time, so even with lite winds, we did pretty well. The waves were 2-4 feet on the first day, then less than 2 feet the rest of the trip.

The only problem we had the whole time was from a service boat that crossed our bow within a couple hundred yards at 20 knots. The wake was over 6 feet. I should have slowed down, but I didn't realize it would be that bad, and we crashed through the wake at a relative speed of over 25 knots, which wasn't too bad for me because we were motoring and I was ready for it. However, it really upset Zoe. She got bounced around a bit down below. Anyway, I learned my lesson and didn't let it happen again. Mainly because I called every service boat I saw after that and asked them not to wake me. Most of them were pretty nice, but I also took pretty drastic evasive action to stay as far away from them as possible from then on.

We lost the wind again on Sunday morning, but it picked up again shortly after noon. We had to point a little lower to keep up boat speed, then lost the wind again in the late afternoon. By then, we were still too far out to make Galveston before dark, so I was content to slow down a bit. However, after loosing the wind completely, I decided to motor toward the anchorage south-east of Galveston.

The wind picked up again just before dark, so we started sailing again. We were so far north, we could easily pick up the weather forecasts for Cameron and Port Author, but had trouble picking up Galveston -- they kept getting covered by other broadcasts further east. I was pretty sure the current conditions would hold, but we were heading directly toward what looked like either fog or haze, which wasn't in the forecast. I don't have radar, so I avoid fog like the plague. Luckily, I was able to speak to one of the service boats -- the fast ones, 20+ knots, that look like el caminos -- and got a current report. He confirmed the good weather in Galveston would continue for another couple days.

With that out of the way, we continued to close with the coast overnight. I had a lot of trouble with all the lights from rigs, ships, and shore. A little after 0400, we got close enough to make out a bunch of big ships at anchor waiting for a pilot just south of Galveston. We came on in and hove to in the lee of the closest one, then I set my alarm and took a nap. Actually, I took several 30 minute naps.

At a little before dawn, we got underway again and followed a cruise liner into the inlet. I doused the sails once we got inside the jetties and motored the rest of the way in. We stopped at Harbor House Marina for a few days before continuing on to Baytown a few days later. We're currently staying at Bayland Marina on a month to month basis, but hope we can reevaluate our situation by the end of the month and either move or sign a longer lease. Hopefully, I'll have some good news to report later this week. I still need to send in my taxes and get a Texas driver's license, but other than that, all options are on the table.

Galveston

We finally made it to Galveston. The trip was good, but not much wind; We were becalmed a few times and motor-sailed. This was normally in the mornings, but it always picked back up in the afternoon.

We're beat, so a detailed report will have to wait.

Stuck in Houma

I should have mentioned earlier that we arrived in Houma yesterday afternoon, and will probably be here through Monday. I would have continued this morning, but found out yesterday that my USCG documentation renewal was never faxed, so I can't move the boat till that's taken care of. The USCG is very active here and all the way down to the Mexican border, so chances of getting stopped before we get to Galveston are pretty high. I'll call again tomorrow and find out when to expect it by fedex.

Paw watch:

After posting the last entry from New Orleans, we walked around the French Quarter for a while, but didn't stop anywhere, and finally started heading back to the boat around 1800. My iphone told me it was just under 6 miles, and since it was so nice out, I figured we'd just walk.

However, Zoe was worn out by about halfway -- she'll just stop in the middle of the sidewalk and rest whenever she gets tired. A short time later, I got a blister on the top if my right foot, and had to start walking barefoot. Neither of us had done much walking lately, and we weren't making very good time at that point, so the short 2 hour walk was looking more and more like 3 or 4.

My phone was almost dead, so instead of trying to find and call a taxi, I decided to carry Zoe and continue on. I carried her across my shoulders sorta like you might see in a nativity scene. It wasn't bad, and she didn't mind, but it wasn't long before my bare feet started get sore too.

I had no way to treat the blister, but needed to find a way to cushion it for the next mile and a half so I could wear my shoes. Other than some receipts and a few dollar bills in my wallet, I had nothing on me -- I'd forgotten I had my bandana around my neck. I thought about using the paper receipts, but figured they'd get destroyed pretty quickly and I'd end up with a shoe full of spitballs, so I tried a dollar bill.

It worked great. If you ever need to make a quick pad for a blister, try using a dollar -- the paper is almost indestructible. And with all the druggies using them to snort coke, they probably make a good anesthetic too -- at least it stopped hurting during the walk.

When we got back, I noticed I'd lost my last pair of glasses, so we walked down to the local drugstore the next morning to get some new ones -- I stocked up on cheap ones this time. It wasn't far, and though both of us were a little sore, it wasn't until we got back that Zoe started limping. It got so bad that she hardly got up during the trip, and couldn't climb the stairs into and out of the cabin.

She's still favoring it today, but otherwise seems fine. I gave her a half of an aspirin a few times, but couldn't tell whether or not it helped -- maybe she could have used a dollar bill too?

Best Sailing Yet

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Sunday was supposed to be just a short trip to Point Malheureux. However, we got such an early start, and had such good conditions, we ended up going all the way to New Orleans, and anchored in a little cove on Lake Pontchartrain just before dark.

Other than motor-sailing the last hour as the sun set, and a couple hours to make it through the channel and bridges around Rigolets, we strictly sailed the whole day and averaged over 5 knots. On the 12 hour trip, we sailed exclusively, including off the anchor, for 9 hours, motor-sailed racing the sun for one hour, and motored through a restricted channel and bridges for two hours.

We started the day sailing both on and off the wind as we followed the channel across the Mississippi and Borge Bays, but only had to tack or jibe about 5 times -- we made Rigolets by 1430. However, once we got onto Lake Pontchartrain, we were able to stay on the port tack the rest of the way. We even made close to hull speed part of the time on a close reach. Later, after the winds started to die down a bit, we still averaged well over 5 knots.

With good winds and relatively calm seas the entire day, I had plenty of time to try different things to see what worked and what didn't. I still don't think I'm very good at it, but I was able to balance the rig and get her to sail with about 3° of weather helm -- she definitely needs at least 10-15 knots of wind though. That amount if wind and weather helm made the wind vane more effective and kept a better, straighter, course.

Another Slip

Since it looks like we'll be here a while waiting on my documentation certificate (that's another story), I figured I'd try to catch up the blog. Instead of one long omnibus entry short on detail, I'm going to post several shorter ones, and try to keep them in chronological order as much as possible.

The day after I anchored off of Cat Island, I decided to tidy up and re-flake the mainsail. The winds had been sorta high the previous day, so I just headed into the wind and quickly flaked it so I could anchor. It wasn't pretty, but with no one around, who cares?

After looking at it all the next day, I decided to quickly re-flake it right before sundown. The wind was still up a bit, 15 with gusts close to 20. I pulled off all the sail ties and the sail unfolded in the wind. After making sure all the flakes were correctly alternating from one side to the other at the mast, I came back to the cockpit and started flaking the lower ones, which are the most difficult, especially in the wind.

I got the first couple flakes over the boom set, but couldn't reach the sail ties in the cockpit, so I tried to hold the finished flakes with my right hand and use my left foot to try to hook one of them. If you want to picture this, I'm standing on the sliding hatch facing forward with my right hand holding the flakes on the boom. In that position, there's nothing else to hold onto. I'm crouching down and twisting to my left and reaching down with my left foot.

I don't know if a wave hit us or I just slipped, but I fell over backwards into the cockpit, and hit my tailbone on the edge of the port locker hatch as I fell. I can't say I saw stars, but for a few minutes I was sure I'd broken something.

I guess that's the good thing about being in shape, you don't weigh as much, and what's there is mostly muscle. After a few minutes on my back, I got up and a few minutes later found I was fine, albeit a little sore. It took a few days, but I don't feel it at all now.

Part of the problem might be a misplaced sense of security due to the new non-skid. I hadn't done the hatch yet, but everywhere I've got it, the footing is so good, I may have let my guard down. I plan to finish the non-skid everywhere before I leave, and try to look on this as a reminder to always hang on tightly with at least one hand -- one hand for you, one for the boat, and flakes don't count.

New Orleans Escape

First off, I have to say that the sailing yesterday was excellent -- by far the best day I've had. I'll write more about it later, but need to catch up first.

1130 - We're having lunch outside at a little restaurant near Shubert's Marina in New Orleans. We anchored nearby last night and pulled in for fuel this morning. They're only charging me $30 to stay at the fuel dock overnight, so we decided to stay -- best price yet.

The back of my iphone cracked during the last trip, so we're going to walk over to the French Quarter to get it fixed. Not sure how much it will be, but it will give me a chance to see New Orleans and get Zoe off the boat for a while -- not that she needs it now.

When we pulled up to the fuel dock, a very talkative older guy helped me tie up -- there wasn't any wind, and I didn't need any help, but it was a nice gesture. Well, the talking got Zoe excited, and she jumped ship. I was trying to get the boat secured so I could go after her, but this fellow just kept talking and asking questions. I should have just gone after her immediately and let him hold the boat, but I was trying to be polite.

I went after her as soon as I could and called and looked all over, but couldn't find her. Finally, someone drove by and said they'd seen her swimming in the channel. He drove me over to the dock and showed me where she'd gone in. I called and called and finally spotted her in the water on the other side. She swam right over and I pulled her out. I sure hope she'll grow out of this, I'm getting too old for it.

1515 - Lunch took much too long (not in NYC anymore), so we had to take a cab over to the repair shop. Even though I'd asked repeatedly to make sure they had the right parts for my phone, and they assured me they did, they didn't. The only upside (after a $22 cab ride) is that now I've seen how they're put together, and the cracked glass back isn't a big deal. And, it didn't hurt that the shop's on the edge of the French Quarter.

We're hanging out in the courtyard of a margarita bar (I think that's part of the name) relaxing and having a drink. It's a little hot now, but we'll walk around a bit once it cools off and may even walk all the way back to the marina later.

New Orleans watch:

I'd always thought the protagonist in A Confederacy of Dunces was a fictitious figure. However, I've already seen several folks on the streets, including the owner of the computer repair shop, who look disturbingly similar to Toole's description of Ignatius J. Reilly -- I'm wondering which came first. The way they dress makes no sense, but then again, why should it?

Trip watch:

I'd planned to write a full entry about the last attempt to head straight to Galveston, but I guess I'll just summarize it here. As I've mentioned, the winds and waves from the south-west (the direction we wanted to go) were stronger and bigger than forecast -- not significantly, but at least 20-30%. Unfortunately, I was unable to make any headway under these conditions, which I had to assume would last for the next few days.

In addition to the weather, a few other problems came up on the trip. First, I noticed the lee side shrouds were floppy in strong winds. Obviously, they'd been that way all along, and probably exacerbated the chainplate leaks -- mast pumping. I tightened them while we were becalmed Wednesday afternoon -- the really strong winds didn't hit till later that evening. However, it still concerned me.

Also, as mentioned above, the glass back on my iphone cracked on the trip. It still works fine, but since I rely on it heavily for navigation, perhaps too much so, and don't have paper charts for the Galveston approach, other than Galveston Bay, I was uncomfortable about continuing with it under those conditions. I feel better about it now, but will probably stay inside for the rest of this trip anyway, so it's moot at this point.

Finally, the luff edge of the top batten pocket ripped out on both sides. Luckily, I didn't loose the batten or sustain any other damage, but had to go without a batten till I could repair it.

I didn't get a chance to fix it till we got to Cat Island. I used some sail repair tape to fix the rips, which worked out fine, but the cause turned out to be a rubber cap from a previous batten had come off and lodged in the socket. Once I removed that, and filed the end of the batten to make it smooth, it seated and looked as good as new.

I'm tempted to stay another couple nights if we can do so for just $30 a night, but I'm also anxious to finish the trip. As Biden said about passing the health care law, taking a sailboat from Huntington, Long Island, to Galveston is a big deal (even without the expletive). I think I'd like to traverse New Orleans at night under a full moon, and just keep going -- we'll see.

It can't be any worse than Hell Gate, and since there's no tide to contend with, it's probably much better, albeit a little more crowded. However, I'm sure barge crews like to sleep too, so it might be much better. At least the amateurs won't be out.

1700- It's cooled off a lot, and a couple smokers just sat down next to us. I dislike smokers, and even though it doesn't seem to bother Zoe, we'll be leaving shortly. Until next time...

Bound for New Orleans

Evidently we were destined to visit New Orleans. We diverted a couple days ago, and should get there on Sunday or Monday. Right now, we're anchored off Cat Island and hope to make it as far as Malheureux Point on Lake Borgny tonight -- hope it's not unlucky for us. That'll put us in the lee of the south-easterlies we're getting now. They aren't strong, but with a lot of fetch, big shallow areas of water can get rough.

From there, we'll head across the lake and rejoin the GIWW at mile 35 EHL -- east of Harvey Lock in downtown New Orleans. Just to give you an idea of how far we have to go, Galveston is at mile 350 WHL -- west of Harvey Lock. I don't plan to stay inside the whole way, but I need to fix a couple things before I do any more sailing and strong winds, including a small rip in the mainsail. I'll write about that and the last trip in the next entry.

Zoe watch:

She's very happy to be at anchor again. The weather was a bit rougher than expected, so after 8 hours beating into 25 knot winds and seas as high as 10' on Wednesday night (0045) , I figured she's had enough, so we headed down wind and ran with with it. By morning, we'd lost about 30 miles, so I decided to divert instead of putting her through several days of that -- we needed to go another 100nm south before heading west to clear the rigs.

It was so bad that she couldn't even get to her water and food, much less go on deck to relieve herself. She can handle 24 hours of this, but I wasn't going to make her put up with several days.

However, it has convinced me to non-skid the cabin soul -- I put down a yoga mat for her, which helped, but the slick vanished teak soul is more show than anything else. The companionway steps were another problem, and I had to carry her into and out of the cabin.

These are all items I've added to list, but It was just a bridge too far at this point.

And We're Off

The weather for the Gulf looks pretty good for the next week. The high winds we've been having should die down a bit tomorrow and shift to the west, so unless something else comes up, we plan to leave by tomorrow afternoon. This means we should reach Galveston by early next week, a few days before the full moon, and since there's no way of telling how long the window will last, I decided not to wait any longer -- also learned my potential crew couldn't make it.

We'll go over tomorrow and top off with water and fuel. Hopefully, they'll let me sit at the dock long enough to do some last minute shopping too. I'll get everything stowed tonight, but the first few days should be relatively calm, so I hope I'll be able to get to anything I missed once we clear the coast.

I spoke to Herb, Southbound II, who does weather routing, and he seemed to like window and the route. I'll check in with him daily to get weather updates and routing advice. I'm really excited about getting going again -- hope I can get some sleep tonight.

I guess I need to take a walk around and make another list. There's always something to do, but other than a couple of small things, I can't think of too much else that needs to be done before we leave. But if there is, I'm sure it will keep me awake tonight.

Zoe watch:

We've had a lot of wind for several days, but she's doing pretty well in spite of it. That includes wanting to sleep on the foredeck in 25 knot winds with 35 knot gusts -- I have make an effort to keep her in the cabin. The new non-skid makes a huge difference.

Aggie Muster

Muster is tomorrow, the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. I found a local group that'll be holding a picnic and muster nearby, but due to the distance and weather, I doubt I'll go. It's going to be held at an Air Force base about 40 east of here, so just getting there would take most of the day, but the clincher was the 60% chance of rain, high wind gusts, and thunderstorms. I guess Zoe and I will just have to have our own muster on the boat.

I spent most of the day working on the chainplates. I'd planned to re-caulk them a few days ago, but it got late and looked like rain, so I waited. Today was great, so I cleaned out the old caulk completely on the starboard side -- the side that was leaking -- and just touched up the other.

However, while I was cleaning out the old caulk, I noticed one of the chainplates had a bit more play in it than I would have expected, so I went below and checked the bolts. It turned out that all the nuts where somewhat loose. Snug enough to require a wrench, but by no means tight, so I re-tightened them all, then redid the caulking.

I used fast curing 5200, and placed tape underneath to keep the wet caulk from flowing out of the joint. They turned out pretty good, but I think I'll paint them once they fully cure just to be safe -- 5200 isn't UV resistant.

After I was done, I started thinking about the loose nuts again, and decided to remove them all and re-tighten them with locktight. I'm sorta lazy, so it took me a while to finally get around to it; While the port side ones were easy, the starboard side were a real pain, but it was the right thing to do, and I'll sleep better.

Zoe watch:

With all the work, I've been sleeping pretty well lately, but still not as much as Zoe. I keep thinking I'm done, and we can just hangout and swim or whatever, but something always comes up -- boats are a lot of work. You can ignore your house, and even your car, but if you ignore your boat, you might end up with wet feet, or paws, as the case may be. My goal is to keep Zoe's paws dry.

Missing Laundry

We're anchored and have plenty of fresh water, so I decided to do a bit of laundry yesterday. I'm using several plastic gallon buckets, so I can't do much at one time, but I was able to wash several shirts and both my pairs of khaki painter's paints.

By the time I'd finished washing, and bleaching the trousers -- they were filthy from anchoring -- the wind was gusting to over 15 knots. I don't have any clothes pins, so I tried to weave the arms through the netting to keep everything from blowing away.

That worked fine for the shirts, but I figured the trousers were heavy enough to take care of themselves and just hung them over the lifelines -- bad idea. As it started to get dark, I went on deck to check and found one pair missing. Luckily there wasn't any current, so they were floating, as if someone was wearing them, about 20' astern.

I dove in and rescued them, then spent a few minutes rinsing the salt out. The sun was going down, and the wind got pretty cold soaking wet out in the cockpit. I ended up using a line to tie them up and brought everything else inside to finish drying overnight. After all the excitement, I slept pretty well.

Zoe

This is just a test to see if I can post photos via email.

Weather Delay

Due to high winds and waves forecast for Saturday and Sunday in the western Gulf, I've decided to delay our departure until it passes through. The upside will allow us to wait for the full moon on 6 May. I've also got a friend who might make the trip but wasn't available until after the 21st. Now, maybe he'll be able to make the trip.

While we're waiting, I plan to do some sailing around here and test out my whisker pole, cunningham, and boom vang, all if which I've recently setup. I also marked my king post on the wheel, and 3 degrees on each side -- 3 degrees is the proper amount of weather helm for a balanced helm. My hope is that these will improve our sailing efficiency and increase our speed.

I've actually been pretty busy lately. Here's what I've done since we got here last week:

- painted on non-skid on the decks (twice -- used salt shaker technique the second time, and they look great)
- setup boom vang and attached it to my stanchion base just forward of the companionway
- setup cunningham on mainsail
- added second mainsail reefing line (actually for first reef point)
- setup jacklines from cockpit to bow on both side decks
- setup whisker pole blocks
- re-tensioned the alternator belt
- checked all seacocks -- opened and closed
- checked fuel filter
- checked rudder, marked king post with tape, and determined the 3 degree location on each side
- added rat lines over the side on each quarter (running from the stanchion base forward of the companionway to the stern) to make it easy to climb back on board
- cleaned the bottom
- reinforced the rudder stops under cockpit (keeps the rudder from turning too far and getting damaged -- port stop was worn down and no longer effective)
- fixed rudder post collar
- tightened rudder post stuffing box
- tightened steering cables
- adjusted wind vane control lines
- moved dinghy from foredeck to cockpit locker
- re-caulked chainplates

Wow, I got tired just typing that.

Zoe watch:

She's doing great, and really likes sleeping up in the bow when we're at anchor. Now that we've got a little extra time, and I've got all my jobs taken care of, I'm going to take her swimming tomorrow -- she's not getting fat or anything, but I'm sure she can use the exercise.

Gulf Passage Planning

The boat's mostly ready to go, so I've been spending a lot of time planning the route and watching the weather. The next window should open on Tuesday and last at least a week. Of course the systems are coming my way, so that'll shorten the window some. I can only see a week out on Passageweather.com, but right now it looks great.

The only problem with this window is no moon, but I'm not sure I want to wait for the next one. However, no moon does have an effect on the route -- making me want to go further south to give the rigs a wide berth. Right now, we're looking at just over 600nm -- anyone want to come along?

If the forecast holds, we should make pretty good time. I've only made a few trips so far, but with good wind, we've done over 100nm a couple times, and even when we beat to weather and had to tack back and forth to make headway on the trip to Carabelle, we still averaged around 80nm, so I'm optimistic we can average 100.

That means about six days, and since we're planning to leave Tuesday evening and wouldn't want to make landfall at night anyway, I'm hoping for just under seven days, which would make it Wednesday 25 April. Of course, if we only average 80nm a day, arrival could be a few days later, perhaps the weekend. We could also put into Freeport first, but it all depends on the weather and how well we do.

We'll go over and get fuel, water, and more provisions on Tuesday morning, mainly fresh fruit and stuff you can eat right out of the bag. Then we'll take one last look at the weather, and if everything looks good, we'll head out.

Non-skid

I finally painted non-skid on the decks today. I used a single part and mixed the sand directly into it. It turned out okay, but since the sand is relatively heavy, it tends to sink down quickly and thin out.

Sprinkling with a salt shaker would have been better, but that would have required a second coat to seal it -- not an easy thing to do while living on the boat with a dog. However, it should be good enough for this trip; I plan to strip it off once I get her out of the water anyway, so I didn't want to spend too much time on it.

I setup the second reef point last night, and plan to re-caulk the chainplates later today or tomorrow. We can't leave till at least early next week, so I'll continue to work on her while we wait, but I'm starting to run out of stuff I can do while she's still in the water. I'll probably just work on cleaning up the cabin and stowing gear, while keeping an eye on the weather.

Trip watch:

I've been planning the trip and setting up waypoints. If we leave from Daulphin Island, 50nm west of here, and stay south of the rigs, the distance to Galveston is right at 500nm. That's about 100nm longer than the more direct route, but that would mean dodging rigs, some possibly unlit, all by myself with neither radar nor moonlight. At roughly 100nm per day, it's just one more day, so I don't think the time will be a big deal as long as the weather holds. It'll sure make make it an easier and more relaxing trip.

The forecast calls for strong winds through the weekend, so we'll hunker down until at least Monday or Tuesday, then get fuel and water on the way over to Daulphin Island. Leaving from there makes it a little shorter trip, so we're planning to anchor for the night and get an early start the following day.

Waiting on Weather

We're anchored in Big Lagoon west of Pensacola waiting for the next weather window to cross the rest of the Gulf.  We left Panama City Sunday afternoon, and would have rounded the delta but ran out of wind so we came back in.  It's no fun being becalmed with 3-6' seas.

I got an updated weather forecast Monday night about 140nm east of the delta that called for little or no wind west and south of us for the next couple days, then building wind and seas for most of the western Gulf beginning on Friday.  That didn't leave many good options in that direction, so we headed north.  It turned out to be a great three day sail, so everything worked out well.

We left the Panama City Marina fuel dock at 1330, and had planned to anchor near the inlet and leave the following day.  However, it was a such a good sailing day, we ended up sailing right out into the Gulf and headed south -- couldn't point any more westerly.  As we approached the anchorage, I could see it was crowded with lots of power boats, so I tacked to starboard and headed toward the inlet.  It's not very wide, and with the wind on the nose, I wasn't sure we could make under sail, but after the first tack, I decided to go for it.

I pulled in the jib so we could point higher and wrapped both sheets a single time around the winches and just held them without cleating them off.  We had to tack back and forth 5 times through the channel, but there wasn't much traffic, so after about 20 minutes we made it through.  It was the most fun sailing I've had yet.

Maintenance watch:

My stuffing boxes are the type that always leak a little, but I've noticed the one for the rudder post has been leaking more and more forcing me to pump the bilge a few times a day.  I had to empty the starboard cockpit locker to get to it, but once I got down there, I could see the collar connecting the post to the steering quadrant was loose and had slid down the post. 

It was sitting on the stuffing box, and probably loosened it as well.  I also noticed the hose clamps were loose.  I slid the collar back up, cleaned the bolts and used lock tight to keep them from coming loose again, then tightened up the hose clamps and stuffing box.  I also tightened up the steering cables a little to take out the slack.  It still has a little give, but is no longer sloppy.  That should help make the wind vane more responsive.

The next job was to resecure the batteries.  I added some padding to keep them from shifting, and redid the tie downs.  They might still move a little, but that's the best we can do until I get a chance to build a new battery box.

I also setup the whisker pole control lines.  I'll deploy it later today to make sure it all works well and the blocks are in the right places.  Luckily, I can do all of this without unfurlng the jib.  Here's a link describing how it's setup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II589dqAzLo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I like this system because you don't have to pull in the pole in order to reduce sail or tack.  Those are important considerations for single handers.

Finally, I hope to non-skid the side decks before I leave.  There's a bit of a fly issue here, so I need to make sure I do it either early in the day or late in the evening, but since I'll be using a single part paint, it should go on easy. I'll probably just mix the sand right in the paint, and only give her a second coat if need be.

Zoe watch:

She's doing great, but when it's rough out there, she has a really hard time going on the side decks.  That was another reason for coming in when we did -- it just wasn't fair to her, and could have gotten dangerous under worse conditions.  I won't take her out again without non-skid if there's any chance of bad weather

Panama City

We pulled into Panama City Marina -- very inexpensive -- last Thursday right ahead of a line of thunderstorms. We'd left Carrabelle, actually just off Dog Island, on Wednesday morning, and hoped for a quick and uneventful trip around the capes, but ran into heavy thunderstorms that afternoon just south of Cape St George.

I'd modified my reefing lines since the last storms on the Ft Meyers to Carrabelle trip, but then waited too long to reef, and had a little trouble. I tried to pull in the jib first, but in 30+ knot winds found I couldn't physically do it, so I had to use one of my jib winches. That worked great, but I still had to reef the main.

I let loose the halyard and went forward -- I'd already let the sheets fly -- but had a lot of trouble getting her down. I even rigged a downhaul thinking it was due to the high winds. I wasn't able to get it down far enough to hook the cringle, but figured with the down haul around the winch and cleated to the mast, it was good enough.

However, when I got back to the cockpit, I discovered the clutch was stuck. As soon as I popped it, the mainsail sagged, so I went forward again and hooked it. This is at least the second time I've had this happen, so I should have known better. Anyway, we hove to for a bit, then I put out some jib, and we began fore reaching south away from the shoals until it passed over and the winds died down. By this time we'd cleared the first cape and could head more northerly.

The winds were mostly from the SW, the direction we needed to go, so progress was slow, however, we were only about 30nm from Panama City at dawn the next day. At this point, we were around the capes and should have had an easy run up the coast, but without a whisker pole, we couldn't sail too far off the wind, only 5-10, without the headsail collapsing and loosing way. The forecast for the afternoon called for worse thunderstorms than the day before, so I decided to go ahead and motor sail to beat it in, which we just did.

The marina was only 1.12/ft, so I decided to go ahead and come in for a few days to make it a little easier to visit my Marine buddy, Terry, and his family. They took me out to breakfast and later to dinner on Friday, and I took Terry out sailing Saturday. They also took me over to WM to pick up some gear I needed to setup my whisker pole.

I epoxied the end back on today, but also need to setup the new blocks I picked up for the guy lines. Once I do that, get water and fuel, we'll be ready to go. The only question now is where.

I don't see any reason not to go out to the gulf, although the winds might be pretty light. I can work my way a little south and west to check out my whisker pole, then either continue on or head back in and wait for weather. I figure we can go as far as Biloxi before we have to commit.

Hopefully I'll be able to post another entry before we head out, but it's quite possible the next one will be in Galveston -- at least I hope so. However, I'll still be posting my position on shiptrak.org, NV5L, so you can always follow me there.

First Crossing

We completed our first crossing, 250nm in 3 days and 5 hours, and anchored late yesterday off Dog Island -- Zoe liked the name -- in St George Bay near Carabelle, Fl. That's less than 80nm a day, and nothing to brag about, but since most of it was spent sailing to weather, i.e., into the wind, it's not really that bad.

On top of that, I was a little seasick for much of the trip, but felt much better once I got my sea legs on Sunday morning. However, by that time we were loosing the wind, and it was too late to make it around Cape St George and Cape San Blas. We ended up motoring for a few hours on Sunday until the winds picked back up, and sailed into St George Bay by around 1700.

All in all it was a great trip. This was my first extended trip offshore as well as the first time I was over 30nm offshore. It was also my first multi-night voyage. I was unsure how well I'd handle multiple nights standing watch alone, but after the second night, I fell into a routine and all went well.

At first I was a bit worried and set the timer on my iphone to ever 15 minutes. I'd try to sleep down below, getting up each time it went off to check for boats. I later got more comfortable and extended it to 30 minutes and was able to actually sleep some, and even dream during that short time. However, I'm concerned about relying on the iphone timer, so I'll get a few kitchen timers before the next trip.

While I was at least say 50nm offshore, I didn't see a single vessel, so I could have easily extended it to an hour or more. It all depends on where you are and the likelihood of encountering another vessel. At night where I was, that risk was practically zero, however 30 minutes seemed to work fine, so I'll play it by ear next time..

Although most of the trip was pretty bumpy, the only bad weather we had was on Saturday. A couple lines of thunderstorms passed over around 1000. We had winds up to 35 knots, heavy rain, and some lightening, but no strikes nearby.

As the horizon darkened and the thunderstorms approached, I rolled in most of the jib and by the time I had the main double reefed, the winds had already picked up. I disengaged the wind vane, which worked perfectly throughout the trip, and removed the plywood vane so the winds wouldn't damage it -- learned that off North Carolina last fall.

We didn't get any rain with the first line, but before I could set up and start sailing again, a second line approached. This time I could see we were in for some heavy rain -- the sea was flattened and covered with smoke. It was pretty awesome. It was warm out, so I only had on shorts, my foul weather jacket, harness and tether. I got soaking wet and started getting cold, so I finally just hove to and went below to wait it out.

Even hove to, the boat was making a terrible motion, hence the seasickness. I guess it was more like fore-reaching. I played around with it, but couldn't quite get her to "park." Had I felt better, I would have done more experimenting, but fore-reaching was fine. So I turned on the anchor light, and tried to sleep till it calmed down.

About an hour later, it finally calmed down, so I tacked, shook out the reef and started sailing again. The wind had also shifted from the SW to the WNW, so we steered a northerly course, which was the best we could do since our destination was NW of us. Within the next hour or so, we picked up speed and the motion got worse and worse as the winds got up to 25 knots and the seas about 6', mostly on my beam and port quarter.

At this point, I reefed again -- only set up to double reef at this point -- and hove to. Since this wasn't in the forecast, and I'd been out a couple days, I tried to get updated weather from the Maritime Net. However, the NOAA forecast they read me was basically the same one I'd had before leaving, calling for 10-15 knot winds and 2-4 seas from the SW.

I asked one of the controllers to check passageweather.com for a more accurate forecast, but for some reason, he was uncomfortable with that. He finally did go online and look, and the winds forecast for my area were consistent with what I was experiencing. However, when I asked him to tell he how long it was expected and in which direction the winds would be lighter and from a favorable direction, he refused to help.

He kept saying he couldn't advise me and was unfamiliar with the site. All I wanted him to do was tell me what the forecast showed -- it's essentially a series of weather charts every 3, 6, or 12 hours showing wind speed and direction. Pretty simple stuff I routinely relayed to other mm's, but I finally gave up and signed off.

I figured my best bet was to continue north -- actually a little east of north -- and wait for the winds to abate, which they did after a few hours. I was then able to point a little higher, and still hoped to clear Cape San Blas before the winds switched to the NW and began to die down on Sunday and Monday.

Although I made good time through the night, by Sunday morning we were unable to make much more progress westward without tacking and heading SW, so I decided to make for Carrabelle instead. Even so, we started loosing wind and motored a few hours to make sure we could get far enough west to make the inlet and get in before dark.

Luckily, the wind picked up again in the afternoon, and we were able to sail the last couple of hours all the way through the inlet and to the anchorage next to Dog Island. It's not well protected, but we're in the lee of the island right now and the winds are light. We'll move over Apalachicola and a better anchorage either this afternoon or tomorrow.

Position report watch:

I tried to post my position 5 times during my crossing, 2 with the MMSN, and 3 with the Waterway Net, and only 3 of them actually made it to shiptrak. Although the two posted to the MMSN -- actually the same report I tried to send two separate times -- got posted, both had inaccurate positions, and one was off by a full degree, that's 60 miles. Part of this is a bad antenna, but it's not rocket science either, and with patience accurate positions can be taken and reported.

The reports I made to the Waterway Net shouldn't have been a problem, since my antenna works well on 40-meters. However, even though I specifically asked them to post my position to ship track, and they said they would, only one was posted, and it was posted by my friend Paul, KM4MA, who's also a MMSN net controller.

Needless to say, I won't be checking into the Waterway Net again, and certainly won't give them a position report unless I personally speak to Paul. Paul's one of, if not the, best net controllers out there. There are also half a dozen or so other MMSN controllers who are just as good and can also be trusted to take, and enter, accurate position reports, but unfortunately some of the others seem more concerned with rag chewing than looking for and helping maritime mobiles. It's almost as if they consider a weak mm an annoyance.

I'd noticed, documented, and reported the alarming number of reports I'd heard on the air that never got properly entered, but after the negative reactions I got to this and other comments I made concerning handling of mm's, I decided to leave the net. This crossing was sort of an experiment, and the results weren't terribly promising. Therefore, I plan to get setup to use Winlink exclusively from now on.

My only problem right now is a power hungry laptop, but I'll replace that before I head out again. They are getting better and cheaper all the time, so I'll wait till right before I go.

Zoe watch:

Alas, she did not enjoy the first part of the trip at all. In fact, she, willingly, stayed in the cabin for almost the entire trip, only coming on deck Sunday when things calmed down a bit. We'll both get better with more experience, so I think she'll be okay. Right now she's sleeping on top of the deflated dinghy on the foredeck, and happy to be at anchor, as am I.

On The Gulf

We made it to Cape Coral late yesterday afternoon, and moved to a better anchorage, Glover Bight, this morning. I've been working on getting the boat ready for our short passage over the Gulf for the last several days, and hope to leave tomorrow morning.

I dove down and cleaned most the bottom earlier this afternoon, but had to stop before I could finish because of all stuff in the water made it impossible to see. It was actually pretty clean, so I may or may not try to finish up before we leave. The best part was that the prop looked really good too.

Trip watch:

We're hoping to leave tomorrow morning bound for Mobile, Alabama. It's around 400nm, so I'm figuring about 4 days. However, we won't be too far off the coast of Florida, so we might duck in somewhere along the way if need be. The weather looks really good for the next several days.

The trip here from Titusville went really well, though I did have to sit and wait a day before crossing Lake Okeechobee. We crossed on Monday and had great weather. We even got sail all the way across before loosing the wind. The only bad part of the trip was facing the sun every afternoon for 5 days and getting sunburned -- mainly my bottom lip that wasn't shaded by my hat.

Hog Point Cove

We made it to Hog Point Cove last night, and will get underway again shortly. We tried to sail a bit the first few hours, but with little room and a head wind, we didn't make much progress.

It did give me a chance to checkout a few things, and all went well, so all in all I was pleased. We did cover 40nm yesterday, so it wasn't a bad day, however I got a little too much sun and will wear trousers and a long sleeve shirt today.

Zoe hung out in the stern sheets the entire trip and seemed to enjoy it, even with a life jacket and tether. I tried to keep her shaded in the 80 heat, but that was mainly in the afternoon. We had about 50% cloud cover in the morning, and an apparent wind of around 20 knots all day -- 2-3 points off the port bow -- that helped keep her cool.

Bound for Fort Pierce

We plan to leave tomorrow morning bound for Fort Pierce on the inside. We'd hoped to go outside from Port Canaveral, but with the wind out of the SE for the next several days, the direction we need to go, I decided not to wait any longer.

It's about 75nm, so it'll take two days on the inside as apposed to an overnighter on the outside, but without a favorable wind, who knows how long it would take. We'll top off again on fuel and water there, and maybe make another shopping run.

With any luck, we'll be able to start up again either over the weekend or early next week. St Lucie is an easy inside or outside half day run, so I might stop there as well. That also gives us the option of continuing south or going across the Okeechobee. At this point, all options are on the table and revolve around the weather.

The Great Northern Migration

The Great Northern Migration has begun once again. Over the last few months I've noticed fewer and fewer boats heading south, while more and more have started heading north. For a while, the numbers were roughly equal, but it seems like the flood gates opened up last week.

I'm not really keeping track, but I've seen at least a dozen just this morning. They almost look as if they're in formation, one after another. Since I'm headed south, I kinda like it -- fewer boats where we're going.

The charts should arrive to today, so I'll start south in the morning. Depending on the conditions, I'll either anchor in the Banana River this side of the locks, or continue out Port Canaveral tomorrow afternoon. I should be able to post a few more updates, but don't be concerned if I don't -- cell service only extends so far offshore.

However, I will be posting positions via winlink/shiptrak. The trip to Clear Lake is around 1,200nm, so I figure it'll take around 2 weeks. I may or may not make a few stops along the way, e.g., the keys or possibly Mobile, but prefer to go non-stop. I'm still testing out gear and getting to know the boat, so I expect to have a few issues and wouldn't be surprised if I had to stop a few times.

Waiting on Charts

My Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, and Clear Lake charts won't arrive until next Tuesday, so I can't leave until at least the middle of next week. Hopefully the beautiful weather we're having will continue. At least it will give me a chance to finish up a few more things and do some sailing. I'd like to try out my new reefing lines.

Ready to go

We plan to start moving again either today or tomorrow. We got fuel, water, and more provisions late last week, and I took Zoe to the vet for her shots and heart worm medication a couple days ago, so nothing's really keeping us here.

I do have a few more things I'd like to do, but she's more or less ready. We plan to sail most of the way from now on, so our progress won't be terribly fast. We hope to anchor near the Canaveral Barge Canal tonight -- only about 15 south.

Reading

I've mainly been reading a lot lately, so there hasn't been much to blog about. I've finished a few books, and read parts of several others -- ones I couldn't get into and put aside.

For example, I finished Vanity Fair and liked it so much, I decided to download and read The Pilgrim's Progress as well, but put it down before I even reached a description of the fair. I'll try to pick it up again later, but at least I have a good idea what it's about.

Instead, I picked up Treasure Island, and should finish it tonight. It's not bad, but probably falls somewhere between Captain Blood and The King's Own -- Captain Blood being the better of the two. It's all pretty light reading, mostly with a nautical theme, but I'm also trying to mix in a few classics.

To that end, I read part of Dubliners, and plan to start Ulysses soon -- I really love my Kindle, in fact, I downloaded almost a dozen more books over the weekend. There's nothing better than anchoring out away from everyone and curling up with a good book, except maybe writing one, but I'm not there yet.

Line watch:

I've been pretty lazy lately, but did learn how to splice the other day. I made an eye-splice in one end of my double reefing line. The first try was a failure, but the second was acceptable -- it's just a neat way to hook the end over it's cleat at the end of the boom. I need to make another one for the single reef line. I cleaned up the boom as well, but need to remove a few more things and add others before she's done.

I also learned how to whip the ends. It's much easier than I'd imagined, but it too took a couple tries. I need to make up a few lines to secure gear on deck or to the stanchions and stern pulpit, but was waiting till I could do it correctly. Now, I guess I'll have to get with it.

Antenna watch:

I played around with my antenna tuner and by using an old wire cut for 20-meters, was able to almost match the performance of my vertical dipole. So, as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to mount the tuner under the lazarette, and make up a set of multiple tuned long wires and radials -- sorta like a fan dipole -- perhaps just 20 and 40 meters to start with.

In fact, I'm actually going to make up a fan dipole first, then connect it to the tuner lugs. That way, she'll already be resonant on 20 and 40 meters, giving me the best performance possible on those bands, with the tuner taking care of the other less used ones.

Once the tuner's working well, it'll allow me to use the radio when underway without having to worry about hoisting the vertical dipole which I can't use when sailing due to chafe.

Battery watch:

I think there's something wrong with my charging system, and I may also have a bad battery. I've been having trouble with the alternator, but haven't found the problem yet. Sometimes it just doesn't want to put out enough voltage to charge the batteries. However, the problem is intermittent, as it worked fine today.

The batteries are another matter. I have three of them that are all the same and divided into two banks. Two are wired together in series and used as house batteries, while the other is primarily a starter battery, but can be used along with or as a backup for the house bank.

The starter battery is wired directly to the starter and alternator (need to add fuses at some point), and there is a battery combiner that connects them all together when the charging voltage on either side reaches 13 volts.

That part works fine -- except for the recent alternator problems. However, the two house batteries don't seem to keep a charge nearly as long as the single starter battery (I can switch between the two banks from within the cabin). Therefore, I think one of the house ones must be bad, especially since they should last twice as long. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait till I get to Houston before I can test them.

Zoe watch:

We finally had a bit of cold weather, and even a little rain, but unless it's actually raining, she still prefers to sleep on deck during the day. If it's hot and sunny, she'll find shade either on one of the side decks or on top of the coach roof next to the mast. But she's normally right up in the peak of the bow or on top of the forward hatch.

Time to Reorganize the Cabin

We stayed here in Titusville a little longer than originally planned, mainly so I could go to Hamcation which I missed due to weather, but now it's time to start moving again. Most of the repairs I wanted to do have been completed, however, I'm now having trouble with the alternator, and the broken mounting bolt worked its way out again.

I'm not sure what's going on with the alternator, but it doesn't seem to put out as much voltage as before. This could be a loose belt, or something worse, but I plan to break out the manual and call the manufacturer before I get too concerned. I might just need to work on the mounting brackets again so I can tighten the belt. Unfortunately, it isn't easy to get to all my tools, which is why I want to reorganize the cabin first. That's also been one of the problems with fixing the broken bolt.

I got a good start the over the last few days and reorganized much of the forecastle. At least I can find stuff now, but I still need to organize all my fasteners and put them in the plastic jars I've saved -- peanut butter has really come in handy. However, the biggest problem I've had is getting to my tools. I foolishly buried a lot of them in the lockers under the port side cushions behind the table. With limited space, I end up stacking lots of big stuff -- dog food, guitar case, etc. -- on top of those cushions, so I have to move everything to get to them. And that includes the cushions themselves.

So, I've decided to put all the paint and other stuff that I hardly ever need under there, and move the tools over to the starboard side. Hopefully, once that's done, it'll be a little easier to tackle the rest of the maintenance problems.

We had a lot of wind yesterday, gusts up to 35 knots, so I didn't do much more that read and follow the Knicks game. I'm not really a basketball fan, but Lin's story is a really good one, and I'm glad he's doing well. I also enjoyed Jon Stewart's video, but didn't think the SNL bit was very funny.

Cool Stuff

I always enjoy learning cool stuff. One of my favorites has always been using the sun and you wrist watch to find true north. Of course that only works for local time, i.e., your local time zone, so it's not much help offshore.

However, I just learned a great way to tell time anywhere in the northern hemisphere at night. All you need to know is the current month. Basically, you use the big dipper as the hour hand on a 24 hour clock, which turns backwards, and adjust it based on the current month. If you're interested in how it works, take a look at this page:

http://www.johnpratt.com/items/astronomy/telltime.html

and if you'd like to see and read about an instrument invented during the Renaissance to help do the calculations automatically, take a look at this:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal_(instrument)

Steve, VA7SKM/MM, checked in again tonight from the Beagle Channel on his way to Punta Arenas. I mentioned in a previous entry that this was my longest contact, 5,700 miles, but since then I've had a contact with Paul, VK2HMV, near Sidney, Australia, 9,360 miles away. Although I probably won't be able to beat that one anytime soon, it must be noted that the one with Steve was boat to boat. I think Paul has a beam antenna and runs power -- something neither Steve nor I do.

I also heard Jan, KC2IOV, tonight. She left South Africa last week on her way to Hobart, but couldn't quite copy her, so I let another station work her. She's a few hundred miles south-east of the Cape of Good Hope, around 8,000 miles away.

I think I've written about her before, but if not, please take a look at her web site:

http://www.svnereida.com/

She's been attempting a solo, non-stop, circumnavigation for the last few years, and while she's completed at least one, she's had to stop and restart several times. That's mostly due to gear failures and a capsize last year. Her blog makes interesting reading. She even met the queen -- she's a brit.

New Anchorage

As I mentioned yesterday, we re-anchored just south of the causeway so we'd be in its lee today when the winds picked up. The front blew through last night, and the sky began to clear as the sun came up this morning. The north-east winds are slowly picking up, but haven't really gotten much over 15 knots yet.

However, the skies have completely cleared and it's turning into a beautiful day. I'm sure the wind and waves will continue to build, but right now it's perfect -- a cool breeze, blue sky, and a bright warm sun.

My GPS indicates we may have dragged anchor a little to the north-east last night before the wind shifted 180 degrees, but everything seems fine now. I'll check again later today as the winds pick up to make sure we stay put. We might have a fouled anchor chain keeping us from swinging further to the south-west. If that's the case, we may drag later, which will necessitate re-anchoring.

I may put out a second anchor just in case, but will wait till this afternoon before making any decisions, after all, it could just be a display issue with the iphone chart plotter.

Hamcation

I had planned to ride over to the Hamcation in Orlando with Paul, KM4MA, tomorrow, but with nasty weather forecast for the next couple of days, I probably won't. It's deceptively calm right now, but the winds should start to pick up later in the day, with rain and gusts up to around 25 knots forecast for Saturday and Sunday. They are also warning that the ICW will be rough, but haven't issued a small craft advisory or anything like that.

We're anchored in a wide section of the Indian River with plenty of fetch, so it can get rough with winds over 15 knots. At 25, I probably wouldn't want to get out in the dinghy unless I had too, and in any case would end up soaking wet even if it wasn't raining.

We moved a little further north the other day to get away from some boat anchoring a little too close, but are still over half a mile from the railroad causeway. The high winds are expected from the north, and since it was pretty bumpy here a few days ago with similar, albeit slightly lighter winds, we're going to re-anchor right up next to the causeway and get in it's lee.

Re-anchoring is a bit of a job since I have to pull the chain and anchor up by hand, but I don't mind it much. However, it's still much better than bouncing around for 48 hours. I suppose we could go into the marina, but at $50 a day, it starts to add up. And we might find ourselves stuck there longer than we wanted since I'm not comfortable singlehanding her in high winds in tight spaces like a marina.

It's just better to avoid those situations in the first place. Once things calm back down, we'll go in for diesel, water, and other supplies, and start heading south again.

Loosing Sleep

We've had a lot of wind for the last several days, and both Zoe and I have had trouble sleeping. The winds were only about 20-25 knots, but since they were out of the north, north-east, and east, where we've got a lot of fetch, the waves built up and knocked us around a bit. Although they only built up to maybe two feet, the period was so short, 1-2 seconds, in the shallow water that we were constantly bouncing back up and down.

It finally calmed down last night and we both slept well. In fact, it was very pleasant this morning too, and up until a few minutes ago was flat calm. The forecast is calling for another day of winds, but I hope it'll calm down sooner.

I want to re-caulk the chainplates before the next rain, probably Thursday, but would prefer to do it when things weren't bouncing around. Not only does that make it a neater job, but it gives the caulk time to set up.

Dinghy watch:

I haven't done much to the dinghy lately, but did attempt to order a new sail last week. I'd gotten an email from the maker saying they were back in stock and tried to place an order, but they dropped the ball and didn't ship it, so I cancelled the order yesterday. I can't sit here forever waiting on something that may or may not be on the way.

However, I did talk to another outfit the sells kits. They'll also assemble them for you, but the lead time is much greater, so I'll have to wait till I get to Houston before placing an order. I like the idea of making my own sails, so I may try to gen up something out of some old scrap canvass and see how it goes.

I still need to rip the 1x2 oak strips down for the gunwales, but may wait on that as well. In any case, I need to wait for a calm day so I can make a straight cut.

Radio watch:

I've been taking daily position reports from Mike, WA9DOS, as he crosses the Atlantic singlehanded. He should make Grenada this weekend. I was a little surprised that I was the one normally hearing him, but I think it has more to do with my antenna than anything else. I also had a check in from Steve, VA7SKM, last night, who's down in the Straights of Magellan, 5,700 miles away. That my longest contact to date.

A lot of the other net control stations use beam antennas that concentrate signals, both receive and transmit, in a particular direction. If they aren't pointing in the right direction, they won't hear a weak signal. However, if they know where to point, they can work stations I can't hear. I use an omnidirectional antenna, so I hear pretty well in all directions. I personally think that's the best way to run a net, but not everyone agrees.

I also only run the standard 100 watts. That way, if someone hears me ask for check ins, I'll probably hear them as well. A lot of stations run amplifiers, up to 1,500 watts, and can be heard half way around the world. Combining that with a beam antenna, they get a lot of stations trying to check in that they can't hear unless the happen to be pointed at them.

This can be very discouraging, and I've given up even trying to check in with some stations because, although I hear them quite well, I know from experience they'll never hear me. They generate huge pileups, large numbers of stations trying to check in all at once, which makes it even more difficult for weaker stations to be heard.

During those times, I keep off the air and listen for maritimes. If I hear one, I'll put out multiple calls trying to get the attention of someone with a stronger signal who can notify the net control station. It doesn't always work, but usually I can get in relatively quickly, however it has taken up to 15-20 minutes a few times.

Key West watch:

I'll probably be ready to move this week, but may stay here a while longer. I've heard reports that the Keys are getting very crowded, and I'm not thrilled about that prospect. I fixed the broken mounting bolt and painted the portholes, so other than some caulking and repacking the stuffing box, there's nothing keeping me here.

Unfortunately, this isn't a great place to sail -- too shallow. I don't really want to go down to the Bahamas either, so I'm not sure what I'll do, but I have at least another month to kill before I can continue on to Houston. I suppose I could go sooner, but who knows? I don't want to sail in frigid temperatures again.

Mounting Issues

I've still got plenty of work to do on the boat, but have mostly finished the portholes, at least for now. I hope to fix the broken bolt, and repack the stuffing box shortly, however, I'm not sure about mounting the new winch on the mast.

I made a pad put of an old piece of teak, but I'm not sure it'll work. The mast is oval, so I need to put something flat between the winch and the mast, but I'm afraid I'd have to take out so much material from the center of the teak pad that it would loose it's integrity.

Unfortunately, the old stainless steel mounting plate won't work as is -- the holes are wrong and the new ones would be too close to the old ones. In any case, I have to remove it, so I'll see if moving it'll work -- I'm not worried about the through holes in the stainless steel, just the mounting holes in the aluminum mast itself.

Zoe watch:

After making the teak pad, I was covered with sawdust, so I decided to take a quick swim to clean up. Zoe joined me, but neither of us stayed in very long. It got up to close to 80 today, so it actually felt good, but still a bit too cold for comfort.

Crowded Anchorage

The anchorage off Titusville is pretty big, even with the encroachment of the municipal mooring field -- which is probably illegal, but that's another story. Even so, a few days ago, a small ketch anchored within a little over a boat length away from me -- about 50 feet. It was late in the day, and the wind wasn't expected to shift during the night, so I decided to wait till the next day to see if he'd move.

Unfortunately, the wind did veer a little, and since he was just off my bow, I let out more chain just in case he dragged. It was gusting over 20 and the holding here isn't great, so I was up all night periodically checking on him and even put out fenders just in case. I would have moved during the night had he not been over my anchor at the time.

At about 0900, he lowered his dinghy, and I figured he probably wasn't going anywhere, so I yelled over and asked how long he planned to stay. He answered a few days, so I told him I'd move since he was too close -- which I did in 20 knot gusts later in the morning. He tried to say I didn't need to move, but since he'd already demonstrated bad judgement, I waved him off.

I can't understand why someone would want to anchor that close to another boat with so much space available. Just to give you an idea of how much space, another six boats anchored nearby the following day and a half in the same general area, and none of them came within 100 feet of me or anyone else. The closest two where about 150 feet away. In fact, there's still plenty of room for another couple of dozen boats.

That's still a bit close for me, but I prefer to be alone anyway. Bill, KI4MMZ, told me a few days ago that there's going to be a launch on the 19th, so that might explain the additional boats, or it could just be random. I'm still planning to head down to Key West, but want to finish up all my little projects here first. However, I'm beginning to worry about how crowded it might get down there -- everyone seems to be headed to either Key West or the Bahamas.

I should finish the potholes by the time it rains on Wednesday, and hope to replace the broken bolt sometime along the way. I would have tackled the bolt earlier, but the wood I need to use to block up the engine is buried somewhere in the forecastle, so I decided to rearrange everything first instead of making a bigger mess by just searching for them.

Also, I'm a bit under the weather from the recent cold snap and loss of sleep the other night. Nothing to worry about, but I've had a sore neck and headaches. While I'm used to a sore neck, this is a little worse than normal and interferes with movement. So I'm taking it easy and doing a little recreational reading, currently The King's Own, which is pretty good.

Zoe watch:

She's gotten so used to sleeping next to me when it's cold, that she tends to curl up next to me almost every night now. She hangs out on deck or at the foot of my bunk most of the day and although she curls up at the foot when we go to bed, she's almost always next to me when I wake up.

When it's really cold, I'll drape the sleeping bag over her, but she'll move out from under once she warms up. We've had a few nights in the 30's, but mostly it only gets down to the mid-50's. I image she'll move back to the foot, or even the cabin sole once it finally warms back up. Heck, I might even sleep on the sole if it gets too hot.

Another Broken Bolt

I changed my oil yesterday and while I was cleaning out the drip pan under the engine, I noticed a bolt. Although it was broken off, it was still pretty big, and I recognized it was from the engine mounts.

I replaced one in City Island, but in retrospect, I should have replaced them all. It's the lower starboard one that bolts the mount to the transmission bell housing. I bought new bolts today, but may try to lift the engine enough and reuse the broken one temporarily.

It broke off inside, so it still has a little over a 1/4" of meat. I filed off the end, so I should be able to use it. I also bought a new set of easy-outs, but I'm not sure I can get a drill down there to drill out the old one. I'll tackle it tomorrow and see how far I get.

Porthole watch:

I pulled all the screens and cleaned up the portholes a bit today. I still need to use a brush and naval jelly to clean them up before painting. The screens trap water, often salt water, and really accelerates the corrosion process.

Luckily, it's warm enough to do this sort of work. It's been a year and a half since I cleaned them up, and although they aren't that bad, they're essentially bare aluminum now, so I need to protect them before they disappear.

Provision watch:

I had to go ashore to dump my trash and the old oil, so I left the dinghy at the dock and walked to the auto parts store to pick up the bolts, and on my way back, picked up another load of groceries. Not sure how much I've got, but I'm going to try to keep track, so I can better plan next time.

Stocking Up

Although I haven't settled on a route yet, I have decided to winter in the Keys, probably Key West, and continue on to Houston in the spring. So, in order to avoid the high cost of provisions in the Keys, I'm trying to stock up here.

I've already made two trips to the grocery store, once walking, which limited me to about 60 pounds, and the other with Paul, KM4MA, yesterday. I will probably make another trip to pick up a few more things before I leave, but I think I've already got about 3 month's worth.

Hopefully, I'll be able to augment that by fishing along the way. I bought some fishing gear before leaving Huntington, but haven't used it yet. I'll also need to buy a fishing license, as well as a net and anything else I find I'm missing, before I leave Titusville.

Dinghy watch:

Paul has the same dinghy and had to redo his gunwales too. He took me by the local hardware store and helped pick out the appropriate fasteners. He's also going to give me a piece of fire hose I can use to make a fender cover for them. Once that's done, she'll be as good as new. Well, except for a sail.

Haircut watch:

I finally got tired of dealing with my hair, and reluctantly cut it just before Christmas. The first try wasn't terrible, but I re-cut and evened it up again after New Years -- and have to say it doesn't look bad.

I've got really thin hair, as opposed to coarse, not quantity, so it isn't easy to cut. At least I've never found a barber who could give anything short of a high and tight that didn't look jagged. So, even though it isn't perfect, it's still better than most I've had -- of course Zoe's the only one who sees it anyway.

Boat watch:

The portholes are starting to corrode again, so I bought some paint and will clean them up again and paint them. I'll use a zinc chromate primer and engine enamel, but may need to fill them with epoxy first -- the lip where they seal has been eaten away on a few of them. I'm going to do them in place, so I'll probably just do one or two at a time -- total of six.

Zoe watch:

With the warmer weather, she'll often sleep in the shade, either on the side deck, or under the dinghy on the fore deck. I think she prefers being under the dinghy on really hot days because she also gets a nice breeze up there. Unfortunately, that area will go away once I move it abaft the mast -- hope she'll forgive me.

Made to Hawaii

I took the last half hour of net for Gary, WB6UQA, tonight, and was surprised to get a check in from Hawaii. Randy, KH6RC, checked in right before the end of the net. That's over 4,700 miles on a great circle -- pretty cool.

I'm not sure if that's my longest contact or not, but I've spoken to Europe several times, so I'll have to look into it. Anyway, making it all the way to Hawaii is pretty cool, and from a boat ta boot...

We're anchored off Titusville. It was a long day, so I'm pretty beat, but I'm glad we did it in a single day. We left at a little before 0900, and anchored just before 1700, and I never left the wheel.

Titusville

We're going to try to get down to Titusville today. It should be an easy trip, but might take all day. I'm just waiting for the sun to come up and burn off some of the frost.

I took the dinghy over and picked up fuel and water from the Halifax Harbor Marina yesterday. I called around first and found the prices varied by up to a quarter a gallon -- HHM was the cheapest, as well as the nicest. I got 20 gallons of water and 10 gallons of diesel. The diesel topped me off, but I could take on another 40 gallons of water if I wanted.

In fact, if it had been foggy this morning as forecast, I probably would have done so, but it looks pretty good right now, so I'd rather get underway early. I just need to straighten up the deck and cabin, pm the engine, and weigh anchor.

Antenna watch:

I've been having a problem with my VHF antenna, so I went up the mast a couple times yesterday to see if I could fix it. I replaced the short cable up top, which did have a short, but it looks like either the cable in the mast, the bulkhead connector at the top of the mast, or the antenna itself is bad.

It's unlikely a problem with the antenna, but unfortunately the other two aren't easy to replace while the mast is up, so there isn't much I can do about it right now -- at least by myself. However, I do have the parts on board to replace the cable and all the connectors.

As a temporary solution, I made a small dipole and hung it from the starboard spreader, but will need to come up with a better mounting system. I'm also considering getting a whip I can mount on the stern pulpit as a backup. I'll look into it once I get to Titusville.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year...

There's not much going on here. I tried to help Bill out with some antenna problems, but without a car or license (lived in Manhattan too long, I guess) I wasn't able to run down and get parts, so I ended up not being that much help.

We moved down to Daytona Beach a few days ago, about 40 miles, so at least we'll be able to load up on supplies and fuel before we leave. It's going to be pretty cold for the next couple of days, but after that it should warm back up nicely.

We'll head down to Titusville, then hopefully out the Port Canaveral inlet. I've decided to go down to the keys via Miami. It'll take a few days, but we should be able to make short day hops on the outside most of the way. We just need to stay inside the Gulf Stream.

Reading watch:

I've been spending a lot of time reading lately, mostly on the kindle. However, I've also been studying the Bowditch. It's a little dry, but I'm trying to get more proficient in navigation, particularly celestial, and weather. I normally mix it up with other books on the kindle.

Right now, those include Robinson Crusoe (which is sometimes dryer than Bowditch) and Bligh's account of the mutiny and subsequent voyage across the pacific in an open boat. I read the trilogy many years ago, but this is the first time I've read Bligh's account. It's pretty good.

Zoe watch:

Zoe enjoyed visiting Bill's house. In addition to a couple of car rides, she got to hang out with his cats -- she didn't even chase them.