One Out of Two Ain’t Bad

Thursday February 28, 2013

Time to get back to reality a little bit today. We do have a boat getting ready to go in the water, and as much fun as we’re having taking time away from it, we can’t neglect it now that we’re so close to the finish line of going back in the water. In all honesty, we should have had the day open to do whatever we pleased with it, but there were rudder issues once again. While we were having our fun at Disney yesterday, Serendipity was lifted once again so they could remove the rudder, put a proper fitting bushing on, and place it all back together. Upon inspection though, we realized an issue with how it was put back together. It was done through one of the vendors through the yard, by a newbie that’s not familiar with sailboats. This kid had actually put in backwards. Yes, backwards. Matt had to spend over two hours packed into the lazarette getting it straightened out while I ran back and forth, handing him tools. Eventually it was all straightened out and put back together the way it should be. These are the times I’m very happy to fall into my pink role of cooking and doing dishes and not getting stuffed into dark and greasy corners. Unless a nut or bolt falls into the far reaches of a nook and I’m summoned into the cave to dig it out.

 We may have let ourselves sleep in a little this morning, but it was still near 2:00 once we finished this project and got ourselves presentable enough to go out. After seeing our photos of when we had gone to Blue Springs State Park to see the manatees, Matt’s mom was wondering if we’d be willing to make the trip out there once more with them while they were visiting. We didn’t know how long we’d be able to stay, with it now being so late in the afternoon, but we were up for it if they were. Making a call to the park just before we left, I inquired to see how many manatees were spotted at the park that day. When we had gone last month with Chris, the count was near 120, and of those we probably saw 50 swimming through the creek. Today…there were only 5 spotted. I relayed this to Crystal so see if she still wanted to go, driving an hour out there to take the chance that we may not see anything at all. Since Matt and I had already been there and had already seen dozens, it wouldn’t have been a big loss to us if we didn’t see any. Crystal was ok with that chance too, and we piled into the car to head out.

It was a beautiful sunny day, albeit a bit windy, and I was excited to see the springs in a new light. Literally. Last time we went it was blustery, overcast, and even misted a little bit. Not that I didn’t enjoy that trip A TON, but I love sun and warmth. Turns out I should have been wishing for the opposite. As we entered the park we spoke with the ranger for a moment and she stated that the low number of manatees today compared to when we had come a few months ago was due to the warm weather. I remembered hearing from Chris before that they flocked to the springs when all surrounding areas were cold, since the waters in the spring always stayed a toasty 70 degrees or warmer. I just didn’t know how quickly they hightailed it out of there once the surrounding waters warmed up a bit as well. We were hopeful as we stepped out of the car and walked to the dock that overlooked the creek. This is where we had been surprised the first time by close to 40 manatees all hanging out in this area, as well as schools of hundreds and hundreds of fish.

The anticipation grew as we peered out over the water, but there was nothing there. Not a single manatee and not a single fish. The sunshine that I had been so excited to see just moments earlier was also now casting a harsh glare on the water, making it impossible to see into the water in some areas. The breeze was also kicking up ripples, making it hard to even see the empty sandy bottom. This was not an ideal day to come here. Not for manatee or fish viewing anyway. But on the bright side, the area was still beautiful and there were plenty of trails to walk. Meandering through the sidewalks and boardwalk, we constantly peeked out at the creek at every opening, still hoping for a manatee but not really expecting one. By the time we had gotten to the end of the creek where the spring was, we had seen a few gar fish, but no manatees. And to make matters worse, the setting sun was throwing a glare right over the opening to the spring, making it impossible to see. Matt and I felt so bad that we had made the hour drive all the way out here to not see anything the area was known for, but Crystal and Jack just seemed to be happy to be out with us, and the sun and warmth didn’t hurt. The area was still beautiful with it’s picturesque Spanish moss and palm trees being blanketed in the glow of a setting sun. Maybe the day wasn’t a total waste after all.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Wednesday February 27, 2013

When we were surprised with Matt’s mom’s visit on Monday, it didn’t even take us 30 minutes after them knocking on the hull for us to start planning out our time with them here.  Since we were unfortunately no longer going in the water during their visit, we needed to think of other plans to occupy our time together.  As soon as Matt’s mom asked, “What do you guys want to do this week?”, we simultaneously responded, “Disney World!!”.  We were half joking at first, but then pretty serious.  See, we already had two free day passes that were given to us from our friend Chris, and without ever getting to that side of Florida our whole stay here, it was looking like they were going to go unused.  We even almost gave them to our new friends on Tango, as they were going to be heading there anyway, but didn’t see them again before they left the boat yard and never got to pass on the passes.  So there they were, just burning a hole in our wallet, and I couldn’t imagine leaving the country without someone getting use out of them.  Now that there was a car at our disposal again, as well as willing participants, why not let those people be us?

Getting picked up bright and early at 7 am, we began the two hour drive from St. Augustine to Kissimee. At least three of us were getting super psyched in the car, acting like we were little kids and this was our first trip to Disney World. I even hijacked Matt’s phone to find a clip of ‘It’s a Small World’ to listen to during the ride. I can’t lie though, I really like Shrek’s ‘Duloc’s’ version better. “Please keep off the grass. Shine your shoes, wipe your….face.”.

Our goal that morning had been to get there just after opening, giving us the full day to try and fit in as many rides and attractions as possible. We did get to the parking lot around that time, but oh my god does it take forever to actually get in the park. First we had to take a shuttle to the ticket counter, and then take the monorail to get into the park. Losing that extra hour, we thought we were going to have to start nudging people out of our way just to get to the rides we wanted to go on. Luckily, even though the crowds looked large, the Magic Kingdom is a big place and after sprinting to Space Mountain, we found out the lines weren’t very long at all. Only 15 minutes! There was so much walking through corridors that we barely even had time to stand still before getting on the roller coaster.

 We ended up seeing and doing so much, I think we squeezed the whole park into one day. You may have to play a little dirty to do it, but it can be done. If you also shove adults and trip little kids, you too can experience all of these during one visit:

  • Space Mountain
  • Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
  • Stitch’s Great Escape
  • The Barnstormer
  • It’s a Small World
  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Swiss Family Treehouse
  • The Hall of Presidents
  • Haunted Mansion
  • Tomorrowland Speedway
  • Astro Orbiter
  • Peter Pan’s Flight 
  • Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
  • (Splash Mountain was closed!)

 

I’m just joking, no kids were purposely tripped, we just got really lucky with very short lines. We did have a panic when we first got there though, of ‘How are we going to fit this whole park into one day, especially since we arrived later than planned?!’. But by the time the clock struck six, even after finding out the park was staying open an extra hour that night, we were exhausted and ready to go home. No fireworks for us this time, just some milkshakes on the way home and the promise of a bed. It was an absolutely perfect day, and I couldn’t be more thankful to Chris for giving us the passes, and to Crystal and Jack for going there with us. Thank you, all three of you, very much!

 

 

 

 

 

Believe It….Or Not

Tuesday February 26, 2013

We woke up to some pretty bad thunderstorms today, which normally for Matt and I, would just mean sitting on the boat and taking advantage of our internet.  But since his mom and step-dad were in town, we didn’t want to ignore them and I spent a little time using that internet access to find some fun things we could do indoors.  It was kind of fun to find out what all the ‘tourist’ spots in the area were, since usually the only places we visit in town are the bars and restaurants.  Jumping on Trip Advisor, I searched the highest rated things to do in town.  Narrowing it down to three, I came up with a tour of a well preserved boarding house from the 18th century, a tour of the Pirate Museum (full of actual pirate information and artifacts), and the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum.  Since we were not the ones who went through all the trouble of traveling over 1,000 miles last minute, I gave the options to Matt’s mom to let her pick.

She ended up deciding on the Ripley’s Museum, with the option to go to the Pirate Museum afterward if we still wanted.  I had never been to a Ripley’s Museum before, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but they had done a ton of them over family vacations and assured me it’s not as corny as advertisements may make it look.  She was absolutely right.  As soon as we walked in the door there was a giant sculpture of Captain Jack Sparrow, made with spare metal parts from the movie set.  Just past that was a Lego photo made by someone from our home town.  All through the museum were little interesting and intriuging artifacts and bits of information.  We actually had a really great time and spent over two hours taking in all the information and sights.  We never did make it out to the Pirate Museum afterward since we walked out of Ripley’s into pure sunshine and warm weather.  We used it to do a little driving tour of Anastasia Island, running a few errands, and made the finishing plans for our trip to Disney World trip tomorrow!!

Captain Jack Sparrow.

Originally made for Art Prize.

Vampire Killing Kit.

This was made from popsicle sticks.

Frickin Bieber.

It took me forever to realize these people weren’t real.

Knock, Knock….Who’s There?

Monday February 25, 2013

If I haven’t mentioned it already, Matt and I can basically sleep through any work that’s being done on the boat. Back when they were sanding the keel at 7:30 am, we slept right through it. This morning, when jackstands were being moved around to get paint on all areas, we slept right through it. I know this may sound terrible to you other cruisers out there, since you know that living on a boat, you always need to keep one ear open at all times for anything that may be malfunctioning, or just doesn’t sound ‘right’, but I’ll clarify. When we’re at anchor, yes, every squeak, creak, or clunk will get attention immediately. But since we’ve been on the hard, we know the anchor isn’t dragging, all the lines are properly tied down, and there isn’t anything we’re bumping into. So we let ourselves fall into comas where, even if we’re aware there is something going on around us, we just go back to sleep. The clammering of the jackstands this morning though, did rise us out of bed a little early, and for the first time in weeks we were up before 8:30 without a purpose. While each sitting on our side of the cabin with laptops placed in front of us, we heard a banging on the side of the hull. It was halfway between a knock and what sounded like the work that had just been going on, and we looked at each other a little confused.

“Is someone here?”, I asked, “Or are they just doing more work to the hull?”. Since I’m always the one to greet visitors first thing in the morning, and they’re always asking for Matt anyway, I waved him to the companionway to find out what the noise was. He stuck his head out first, and then climbed fully into the cockpit. I could hear him talking to someone, so it was obvious that it was a person knocking at the hull, but I had no idea who. Although I couldn’t make out the conversation, it sounded more casual than business, and I called up to him to ask him who it was. Looked a little shocked, he looked down to me and replied, “It’s my mom and Jack”.“Your mom?”, I spat out, “…Who lives in Michigan? Who gave no indication there was a visit coming? Did I miss a text?”. Ok, so maybe those last parts were said in my mind instead of out loud, but I still needed to see proof of this myself. Yanking myself up the top step (still only one..I know), I climbed into the cockpit and then looked down to see Matt’s mom and step-dad standing at the bottom of the ladder. Surprised that Matt hadn’t already done so himself, I pushed toward the ladder so I could climb down and give them both a hug, although once he saw this was my intent, he began moving down as well and made it down before I did.

After giving them big hugs and still being in shock that they were actually standing in front of us, we asked them why they were standing in front of us. It turns out that his mom had a case of insomnia on Saturday night and had spent hours on the computer researching a trip the two of them plan on taking to Hawaii this year to celebrate their retirement. She then thought about our plans for the year, how they had originally intended on visiting us in the Bahamas, but now that we never know exactly where our when we’ll be because our schedule has been so thrown off, she figured that she may as well take the opportunity to see us where she knew we’d be. When she told Jack of the plan when he’d woken up, he didn’t even hesitate before telling her to book the tickets. So here, less than 72 hours after it was thought up, they were now standing in our boat yard in Florida. Some of their big hopes while visiting were warm weather, and seeing us get launched and send us on our way for a second time. Well the warm weather isn’t happening due to a cold front passing through, when we got up this morning it was in the 50’s and getting ready to rain. And unfortunately, they would not be able to see us off either. We’re still waiting for a new bushing for the rudder, and now our launch date that should have been tomorrow, will probably be pushed back until the end of the week. But they still had us, and that was good enough.

Although they had barely gotten any sleep since they got into Jacksonville near midnight, and then woke up extremely early this morning to dive down to St. Augustine, they still wanted to take us to breakfast to catch up. Finding that the one place I really wanted to go to inside of the Lightner Musem (the restaurant is in the hotel’s old pool!!) is closed on Mondays, we opted for Denny’s instead. And while talking over pancakes and coffee, I realized that this oddly did not feel odd. It wasn’t strange to have them sitting two feet across the table when they should instead be 1200 miles away. It felt normal. Like breakfast with them was a weekly tradition, and we did it all the time. We talked about how things were going with the boat, things we had been up to, and how things were back in Michigan, and with all our family. I had expected for sure that after breakfast they’d need to go back to their hotel and nap or rest for a bit, but instead they wanted a quick tour of the town. After seeing all of the images on the blog, they wanted to check it out for themselves.

Trying to direct a car the best we could through the streets, we failed miserably since we were used to walking or biking, and could for the most part ignore all the one way signs. But we did find an empty parking spot near the town square, so we quickly slid in and filled the meter with enough change to get us through an hour of wandering around. First selecting St. George St, as that’s where all the restaurants and shops are, we window shopped long enough to come up to the Harley shop which we had to stop in. Sitting in their garage back home is a Harley that Jack rides, and just like most people will collect Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses from each city they visit, Jack gets a new Harley shirt from each new shop he finds. Matt’s mom and I tried to help out the best we could, holding up pink flowery shirts, or sleeveless muscle shirts, but for some reason he kept turning each of those down. He eventually did settle on a nice one with a St. Augustine logo on the back, and we were once again out on the street. Although Matt and I mentioned that we had no plans for the day and we could go into however many shops they wanted, I think they just like strolling the street better. We found almost every backstreet that historic St. Augustine has to offer, even going back to the meter to extend our time a little.

We did spend a little time apart to rest and recoup, and then met up again for dinner. Feeling in the mood for Mexican, we took them back to Acapulco, where Matt and I had dinner for our anniversary in December. Once more we got ourselves completely lost on the backstreets while trying to navigate through them with a car. Parking in some random Public lot that we didn’t know if we’d get back to, we walked our way over to the restaurant. I spied a special of ceviche on the billboard outside as we passed through the entrance and made our way upstairs to the tables. Having some chips and salsa laid in front of us, I tried to resist them as I best I could as last time I filled up on too many of them and couldn’t even eat my entree.  With four people chowing down on them this time though, I was still quite hungry by the time my ceviche came, and although it was literally drowning in lime juice, was still a great meal. Another chance to catch up on the past six months and enjoy our little surprise.   I’m actually kind of glad we’re not going in the water tomorrow now, I’d hate to take away from this family time with boat stuff.

You Can’t Live Without It!

Saturday February 23, 2013

I don’t even know if I should let myself hope it, but I think we’re finally getting close to leaving here.  All of the last little bits are falling into place, and with any luck, within one week from now we will be somewhere that is not St. Augustine.  Weather will dictate if we jump the Gulf Stream and head to the Bahamas directly from here, or if we have to continue down the ICW, making any progress south possible while waiting for a good weather window.  But one of the very big things that will help us out with that now is we just had our engine and transmission put back in!  Since we’re not as cool as our friends on Rode Trip and can’t anchor under sail, it’s a handy little thing to have back on our boat.  It’s hard to believe that we’ve now gone a month without them.  (And harder to believe that we’ve been here for almost three months).

One of the even better things about having them finally re-installed, in my eyes at least, are that we can finally get the steps back in.  Ever since I came back from Arizona we have been living with two steps or less on the companionway.  There are normally four.  Can you imagine if your staircase was cut in half, and you only had the top half to climb in and out of?  And if that weren’t bad enough, for the past week or so, it’s only been the top step.  To get out I’d have to get one of my legs or knees approximately three and a half feet in the air and then pull the rest of myself up with the grabrails.  When getting back down, I’d set my butt on that first step, place my hands on the sliding cover of the companionway, and literally swing myself in and drop to the ground.  To have all four steps in again is a luxury I have been drooling about for quite some time now.

We also have a tentative date to get Serendipity back in the water, next Tuesday the 26th. Since we hadn’t given her a good wash-down the whole time we’ve been here, in fear that she’d only get filthy again will all the work being done to and around her, we kept putting it off until the last minute.  Since we are almost to that point now, we waited for the next sunny day to tackle that project as well.  I saw the forecast for today was going to have temperatures in the low 80’s, and thought, ‘What a perfect day to break out the hose‘.  It actually would have been a great day, if it weren’t for the 25 mph hour winds that were blowing through the boat yard.  Not a huge issue normally, but since the cleaner we use for the deck always leaves a residue on our port lights, and Matt had spend a good portion of a day polishing them a few weeks ago, we wanted to make sure they were covered and not affected by the cleaner.  Trying to get those things covered by plastic sheeting and glued down with some Gorilla Tape while the wind tried to whip the plastic up, down, and around was a lesson in team work we hadn’t had to experience in awhile.  Let me just say that we were a little rusty and should work on communication a little bit before we get back on the water.

All ports eventually did get taped up though, and I was ready for the easy part.  Scrubbing down the deck.  I remember our summers on Lake Michigan when even this simple job seemed like such a pain in the ass, but after living aboard for six months, it was a welcomed relief of a project.  Something that wouldn’t end in ‘Oh s&*t, we’re missing a piece’.  Or ‘Damn it, why won’t this fit?  It used to fit!  Why does everything on this boat keep breaking??!!’.  Just a nice simple scrub down.  I can handle that.  We started on the coachroof and then worked each side, starting at the bow and working our way back.  After each section, we’d hose down and watch the dirt and grime that’s built up over the past few months just wash away and leave behind a clear and clean deck.  And by the time we were finished it actually started to look like a boat and our home again, instead of a never ending construction zone.

The cockpit is still a mess, but since most of what’s out there belongs in the aft cabin, and we can’t get all that squared away until they finish hooking up the engine, that area will continue to be unlivable for at least a few more days.  One project we did still do in there today though was remove the hot water heater.  I had posted on here awhile ago that  we were thinking of doing this, and while the controversy against it wasn’t huge, there was still one there.  I had so many comments from other cruisers saying that we have to have one to take hot showers, or use hot water for our dishes.  That we shouldn’t remove it because you can’t live without it.  And honestly, we did give it a lot of consideration, but then realized we actually do not have to have one.  For most people, their hot water heater is run by a generator or by propane.  Ours however, is run by our engine. Only.  So this means it never gets used.  I can actually tell you how many times we’ve used our hot water heater so far on this trip.  Once.  We took semi-hot showers in the cockpit while traveling up the Potomac, and only because the engine was already running and we didn’t have to take any extra steps.

‘But’, you ask, ‘What will you do then for those hot showers and hot water for dishes if you no longer have a hot water heater?’.  It’s simple, we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing this whole time.  For our showers, we use a faucet that’s hooked up to the water tank from the cockpit.  The water temperature in the tank is usually ambient with the water temperature surrounding us, so never really ice cold anyway.  If for any reason we’re dying to still have a hot shower, we can boil some water using our electric water heater, which only takes about three minutes, and then pour it into a 1 gallon bug sprayer which we’ve attached a shower nozzle to.  Instant hot shower.  As far as dishes are concerned, I haven’t even thought about using hot water for them since we’ve left.  Yes, sometimes there are very greasy messes that hot water could really help out with, but again, for an engine run hot water heater, it would be so much more of a pain to get that going just for a little bit of hot water, rather than boil some up real quick or just use a little extra dish soap.

So as I said, we did think long and hard about it for a few days after all the comments started rolling in that we should keep it, it would be nice to have ‘just in case’.  But, we needed the space for something else.  Something much more important.  Because….we just purchased a brand new four person offshore life raft, and need a place to store it.  We decided against the canister kind that mount on deck, since those are exposed to sun damage and can become unattached if the boat rolls, and opted for a bag balise version instead.  I won’t lie, it’s not as small as we had originally been anticipating when we purchased it.  In fact, when it was dropped off to us at the marina, the whopping 65 pound item looked like it took take my spot in the v-berth and Matt could still ask, “Have you gained a few pounds?”.  So the debate on the hot water heater ended as we had no other option than to get rid of it so we could squeeze the new life raft in it’s place.  After taking apart all the connecting hoses and bringing it to the dumpster (it had a little dent and probably couldn’t have been re-sold), I was sent into the far reaches of the bottom of the lazarette to clean up all the gunk and goop that’s been building up for the past six months.  After I had been sufficiently grossed out but produced a clean white bottom, we slid the life raft into it’s new home.  Hot water, I’ve decided I can live without.  Safety out at sea?  I think that’s my new priority.

 

*Sorry, I got a little lazy snapping photos today and had to use my Instagram ones.

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses a Dinghy

Thursday February 21, 2013

It’s my dirty dinghy, and you can’t have it!

A few weeks ago I was walking by the boat and realized how nice and shiny the hull was.  It had just gotten a good buffing and polishing, but what I really took notice of was the stark contrast of our dirty and dingy dinghy hanging off the davits on the back.  This dinghy was brand new to us just a year and a half ago, and had been in pristine condition when we started our summer 2012 cruising season.  Now it’s covered with rub burns from being tied up extra tight during (short) ocean passages and just general dirt and gunk that hadn’t been cleaned up.  Both our outboard engines are not looking much better, both scraped and scuffed to hell.  And surprisingly, that’s not far off of how we want all of them to look.

The reason for this, is there are unfortunately going to be thieves in the places we’re traveling.  And thieves tend to go for the bright/shiny/new objects that they think they can get the most money from when they’re going to re-sell.  Without getting into too much detail for any potential thieves reading this (not completely impossible),  a lot of objects we own that they like to steal, such as outboards and dinghy, are in a condition that would make them desirable, but they definitely don’t look it.  And although ours are probably not the first items in an anchorage they’d pounce on, there’s still a chance they could be taken.  So this brings us to the question, what can you do to keep thieves from taking what’s yours?  A simple answer would be:  Make it hard for them.  Make them have to work for it, and therefore not worth their time.

Even if our items aren’t as shiny and pretty as the people next to us, most crimes are a crime of opportunity, so we’ve even taken extra precautions besides not having the best eye candy.  Let’s start with the outboards.  We have two, a 3.3 hp and 9.9 hp, but they look old and run down and about to fall apart at any moment.  Their covers are dirty and scratched and beat up like no other.  Back in Annapolis when we were anchored near our friends Kim and Scott on Anthyllide, they offered us a beat up cover for ours, not knowing it already looked like crap, because they said the last thing you want down in the Caribbean is a shiny new outboard.  But even if a thief saw our beat up crappy looking outboard and thought “Hmmmm, I may not be able to sell that for much, but I could still give it to my second cousin’s niece’s brother…” we’re still going to make it hard for them to do so.  Anywhere we go, even in Safe City, USA, everything gets locked up.  The dinghy, the outboard, all of it.  When we were in Detroit, we’d even run the chain through our life vests to keep them from being taken.

So that takes care of when you go to shore, but what about back at your boat?  Not that we’ve been any further than the US yet, but we’ve heard of far to many stories of dinghies in the Caribbean that are only cleated off to their boat overnight, and by morning they’re gone.  What we’ve learned from this, is to get your dinghy out of the water.  Every. Night.  There are two main ways that most cruisers can do this.  One is by having davits off the stern of your boat, which will connect to the front and back of your dinghy, and by using a pulley system, lift it out of and suspend it over the water.  The other way is to use a halyard to pull it out of the water near the foredeck of your boat, and either leave it suspended over your deck, or lower it and secure it to your deck.  If you want to take even more precautions than that, you can still lock it to your boat after following one of these steps.  It may seem like a lot of work, but while out cruising your dinghy is your car, and you can literally be left stranded without it.

Having your outboard or dinghy taken is the most common practice of thievery any cruiser will encounter, but what if worse comes to worst and someone tries to board your boat?  The chances of this happening really are incredibly low, but it still deserves attention.  As I said before, I’m not going to write an instruction manual of all the obstacles you would need to overcome to get into my boat, but let me just say that we are locked down, inside and out.  Most cruiser’s will take the precaution to lock down their boat while they’re away from it, but what about while you’re inside?, sleeping through the night.  Sure, you might have a can of Mace (or bear spray) next to your bed, or even an arm knife that your previous boss gave you, but you may also find yourself with not enough time to react to get to it.  There might be a gun at your head before you realize anyone has even boarded.  Think you still have time to use your Mace then?  Think again.  To make sure that never happens to us we’ve outfitted our boat with inside locks on the companionway, hatches, and even have a motion alarm.  I’m not saying it’s impossible for anyone to try and board our boat, but before they get inside, we’ll know about it.  And that will give us plenty of time to jump on the radio, and pull out our arsenal of Mace, knives, and flare guns.*  Wanna try messing with us now?  I think not.  Or maybe I’ll get further if I just ask nicely.  Can you please move on to the next boat?  They have much better stuff than we do anyway.

I spy a little bear spray in the eye.

 

*Mom, this is not meant to scare you (or any other family, friends, and cruiser’s out there).   We are aware of the dangers and keep ourselves very protected.  The chance of a breaking and entering on our boat is close to none.  I actually fear for you more while you’re walking to your car in a deserted lot at night.

 

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The Monkey's Fist

It’s All a Little Fuzzy

Tuesday February 19, 2013

The inside of Serendipity is finally being put back together.When I first got back from Arizona (hard to believe it’s been almost three weeks already), there was literally only one place to sit on the whole boat, and Matt had occupied it for himself. Since there were so many projects being done in so many areas, we needed access to all those parts which meant whatever had been stored there previously was now laying all over the interior of the boat. When the steps had to come off for the engine to be removed, they were nestled into the floor space under the nav station. For easy access to the engine bay in the aft cabin, most of basic storage that we keep in there was moved into the head or placed on the floor of the salon. While working on the tabbing/fiberglassing under the port settees, all of our food storage was moved up into the v-berth. And since the two settees had now become our sleeping quarters while the v-berth was packed, all of the cushion backs were now stored up there as well to allow for a few extra inches of space while sleeping or lounging. In short, of our 34′ boat, only the galley and settees have been usable living space for the past three weeks (four for Matt). That can make a small boat even smaller very quickly.

So for the past few days we’ve been working very hard to get everything back to it’s organized place as best we can. Until the engine is in we still can’t put the steps back (I guess we could, it’s just that constantly adding and removing them becomes a pain in the ass), but we could start to do something about the rest of the junk strewn around. Even though the aft cabin will most likely have to be completely re-emptied and organized once the engine is back in and squared away, we started to put back as many things as possible just to get them out of the way of our everyday living space. The tool bag, vacuumn cleaner, and random spare parts were all placed back in the aft cabin where they were out of sight and out of mind. The next huge thing for me was getting all of our food back to where it needed to be. Not that I don’t love admiring our bottles of wine while they sit on top of my bed, but I would like to get back to that bed as soon as possible. We had done a good job of a lot of the food over the past few days, all the things that are stored near the v-berth bulkhead, but the remaining canned goods that sit back near the bilge and galley could not be nestled back into place until Matt had re-worked all the hoses in that area to get them where they needed to be after fiberglassing the area.

For the next hour I bent over with half of my body dropping into the area where our waste basket normally goes (a full tall kitchen size, I LOVE it), yanking, pulling, and holding hoses in place while Matt arranged, clipped and clamped them. There were a few frustrating moments where our bilge hose had become so stiff that we could barely work or bend it, and Matt had sweat dripping down his back while trying to manipulate it to where it needed to be. Finally between a little luck or teamwork, all hoses were back in place and now our cans could be as well. Is it sad when one of the highlights of your week is that you don’t have to step over 12 cans of tomato paste anymore? Either way, I was so happy to have the rest of the food out of the way and an open floor space to walk upon again. Still on a high from that little victory I even went to work I went on to tackle the job of cleaning up the v-berth and making it into a suitable sleeping space again. All cushions went back to the settees, blankets and sleeping bags were rolled up and put away, and I even brought down our memory foam, which has now taken about 10 days to fully dry out after washing it, and placed it on top of the cushions and covered it with a set of fresh sheets.

Satisfied with the work done that day, I finished just in time for Yu to pick me up for a run to the grocery store. For the past six weeks her and I have been talking about having an oyster night on their boat before Matt and I left. Just up the road from both of our marinas, all the shrimping and fishing boats come in and we’ve heard that you can buy oysters fresh off the boat for a fraction of the price. Since her and I are always trying to go to Scarlet’s on Wednesdays to take advantage of their $0.50 oysters, we thought of how nice it would be to sit on the deck of their boat on a sunny afternoon and shuck our own raw oysters while sipping on some beer or wine. We could be leaving any day now (fingers crossed), and so we had to put this plan into action before it was too late. But Matt being his ‘non-fish/seafood’ person, said he’d only go if we cooked up burgers for him so he didn’t have to eat oysters. That was fine by me, as long as I got my oysters.

When Yu picked me up she said that Frank had already gone up the road to pick up the oysters, and since we wanted to eat them while they were as fresh as possible and not have to put them on ice, we’d eat as soon as we got back from picking up burger supplies for Matt and Frank, and lots of wine for us girls. She also mentioned that the only size they were able to purchase the oysters in was one bushel, and a bushel….had 150 oysters!! It was $40 for that, which, price per oyster isn’t bad, but we were happy that Zack and Alex were still around to help us eat everything. Yu figured out that between the 4 people planning on eating oysters that night, we’d still get about 35 per person. Remembering that I made a whole meal out of them back in St. Mary’s, I had no worries that my 35 would be more that enough to fill me. We picked up some Rose and Sauvignon Blanc to drink, a few burger patties and buns, and went back to Moitessier where Matt had walked over to meet us, to begin the feasting. Thinking that the burger patties would just go straight on the grill, as I would normally do it, Yu prepared them with bacon, fresh basil, fennel seeds, and a bunch of other things that I would never think to put together, but honestly made one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted. I don’t know how I never got the skill to randomly put together amazing meals like all of my cruising friends do. Is it something that’s inherited?

Taking our food outside and to ground level, we all got our burgers down in record time, and started Frank on shucking the oysters. There was only one shucking knife, and even though I had brought one of our straight screwdrivers hoping it would do the job, it unfortunately did not even come close. So Frank would shuck, and one by one, set each new open oyster on the table we made that was filled with lemon wedges and cocktail sauce, and the oysters would be picked up and eaten as soon as they hit the table. At the rate we were able to eat them, usually one every 5-10 minutes for each round of people, it was a good thing we also had the burgers to keep us from going to hungry or getting too drunk on the wine. We were having a great time enjoying the warm weather outside, eating the freshest oysters one could get, and sipping on glasses of wine. I’m hoping it’s not the last time we see Frank and Yu before we get going, but what a way to go out it would be.

It was only a few moments after this that Matt reminded me that we had brought laundry with us to do (the only other place is three miles away on Anastasia Island), and so I trudged the bag to their laundry facilities to get a load going. After it was started I went back to the group where everyone was spread out on the ground below, all full from our food and just enjoying the company. By the time I had to go back to unload from the dryer and fold the clothing, it had gotten cool enough though that everyone had moved indoors. Since I had been gone from the action for so long, ‘perfectly’ folding our clothing to fit back in our bag, Yu was sweet enough to check on me and even bring me a coffee mug of Rose`. I had been getting tired enough again to be ready to fall asleep, but once on the boat I pounded the can of Monster I had bought at the grocery store and was able to get a little bit of a second wind. We turned the salon into a dance floor and posed for photos with silly sunglasses. A good portion of time was also spent trying to name my intoxicated alter-ego, and after the culmination of what has been weeks of deliberation, Yu finally decided on Cabernet. I guess I’m a little bit trashy, and a little bit pimp ‘n ho.

It didn’t take long for my second wind to die out though, and once again, before midnight was even upon us, both Matt and I were ready for bed. I’d really like to think it’s because we’d been going since five o’clock in the afternoon and not because we’re coming down with mono or something worse. Cause even if I’m half asleep when this boat launches, heaven help me, I will be going somewhere. I love you St. Augustine, but I am ready to get out.

The Green Fairy

Monday February 18, 2012

So yes, I had a run in with the green fairy.  But first, yesterday’s work.  We’re really getting down to it now, almost in the water, but there are still a few jobs that need to be tackled.  One of those was getting the rudder lifted back in place.  It had been installed on Thursday along with the keel, but had not been lifted into place and the bottom was resting on a piece of plywood on the ground instead of sitting about 12-14″ off the ground as it should have been. The rudder itself is not terribly heavy, about 70 pounds, so lifting it back into place and securing it should not have been a problem.  But every time we lifted it up to try and shimmy the post into it’s hole, it was so tight!  When we did this last spring back in Muskegon it had been a 5-10 minute job with Matt pushing from the ground and me in the lazarette, ready to tie it off as soon as it was in place.  This time however, we were both below pushing up and were making little to no progress.

Under our boat are tons of little 2x4s and other pieces of scrap wood.  Working with all of our might to get the rudder lifted two inches off the ground, we’d slide a piece of wood under it and take a break.    Panting and lifting, we did this routine again and again, each time trying to slide a few more inches of wood under the rudder to hold it in place. After nearly 45 minutes of work we had finally gotten the rudder to where it needed to be, and found out that it wasn’t sitting right with the bushing. Down it had to go again.  Matt went back into the  lazarette to do a few more adjustments (sorry I don’t know what they are, but you can e-mail him if you’re curious) and then it was back to trying to lift the rudder a second time.

 Except this time proved even harder as the post seemed to be even tighter in it’s hole than last time.  We were struggling with every centimeter of progress we made.  Once it was up again, Matt went to check it in the lazarette and found once more that it still was not sitting right with the bushing.  Once more it went down, and once more we were breaking our backs trying to get it back up.  After the third time of finally raising it and it still not fitting properly into the bushing, we realized that the bushing that had replaced our old one when the rudder came back from being straightened is not the right shape for our rudder post and will need to be replaced.  We called defeat and promised to have a talk with the service manager the next day.

And as we’re finding as we’ve been slaving away these past few weeks, working earns needs playing hard.  Which is why when Yu told us that friends of her and Frank’s were in a town for a few days and they were all going out, we jumped at the chance to join.  It wasn’t set to be an extravagant night out, we’d just meet Yu at Casa Monica and have a drink there while she was finishing her shift, and then we’d head over to White Lion for their Monday $1 specials.  Frank picked us up in his Subaru hatchback, and while squeezing two more people into the car, we were introduced to Zack and Alex.  They knew Frank and Yu from New York, and also have done a fair amount of traveling in their time.

Turns out they had spent some time on the water as well, but not quite in the way that any of us are used to.  Traveling to India they gathered a group of close to 20 people and built paddle bikes that they then took all the way down the Ganges River, pulling off to the side to camp each night.  Talk about hardcore traveling!  While finding all this out about them, we had entered Casa Monica and took a seat around a couch while Yu waited on us.  I had been dying to try this martini she had on girls night out, a French 75, but she also had another surprise in store for me.  Knowing that I have never had Absinthe, and having it behind the counter, she brought out a glass of that for me as well.  I even got to partake in the tradition where you light a spoonful of sugar on fire and then douse it in water, slightly watering down the drink as well.  I may have gone a little crazy on my ‘splash out’ and ended up with water all over the table, but I think with some real practice I could get it down.  I was so excited to drink Absinthe and experience the green fairy for the first time, until I took my first sip and realized it tasted like black licorice.  Probably my least favorite flavor in the world.  I still wasn’t going to let that stop me from enjoying my very first Absinthe though, and continued to sip it with a sour expression on my face, quickly chasing it with my very tasty martini.  I guess in some circumstances, double fisting is necessary.

As soon as Yu got off work, we made the walk down St. George Street to the White Lion, hoping we could still show our faces there again after all the crazyness that ensued on Frank’s birthday a few weeks before.  Luckily the same bartender was not working and we did not have to feel embarrassed about all of our dancing on stage and literally through the whole bar.  I think they did have posters with our faces somewhere though, lot letting us have access to the jukebox, because the whole time we were there it was not operating for money and the only music playing through the speakers was controlled by the bartender.  I can’t believe they don’t want us playing our random collection of techno and folk and rap music.  The bar was just as empty as ever, so we took it upon ourselves to mill around it, moving from tables inside to ones outside and back.  I feel like Matt and I are starting to come down with something though, because after only one drink there and the clock having struck just past midnight, we were about falling asleep at the table and ready to go home.  Promising we’d ‘continue the party’ at Moitessier, we got everyone back to the car and then forced them to drive us back to Serendipity.  No 3 am parties tonight.  That’s ok though, tomorrow we’re doing oysters and cocktails and should be rested enough to stay out all night long.

 

It Takes Four to Tango

Saturday February 16, 2013

(Photo courtesy of Four 2 Tango)

 

I have been racking my brain trying to remember what we did yesterday, but I can’t come up with anything.  My guess is that we ran more errands, nothing interesting happened, and that’s why I can’t remember it.  The only thing I do remember is that I made a kick-ass chicken stir-fry for dinner.  It was soooo good.  The other thing I remember, is that while taking a quick bathroom break while the rice was cooking, I met a really nice family out in the yard, on the way back to their boat.  We started chatting, and it turns out, they knew who we were!  What?!  Or I should say, they knew of our story and how we ended up in St. Augustine.  They even told me, “We specifically avoided the St. Augustine Inlet and went down the ICW instead because of what happened to you”.  How interesting that our fate could have the impact to change other cruisers plans.  In any sense though, we all laughed at what a small world it is and decided to all get together the next night over dinner and discuss our cruising disasters.

Before we could make it out for dinner though, we had to spend the day doing…more boat projects.  And for me that meant…more sewing.  Ugh, the dreaded sewing.  Yu still hadn’t come back to get her machine yet, I think she was enjoying her time away from it as much as I was starting to dislike having it around (for the sole purpose that I couldn’t get out of my work now, the machine still rocks), so I had to tackle the job of the pucker I had put into the bimini while trying to fix a not even noticeable ‘taught-ness’ on the sides.  The good news was that since it was the weekend I had the shed to myself with all the space necessary to work, but on a downside, there was a huge dip in temperature so it was freezing out along with 20-25 knot winds blowing all around.  Since there was no one in the yard and no one to impress, although, who am I really trying to impress anyway?, I stuck it out in my sweatpants and bundled up in long underwear and winter hat.

Trying to set my materials down on the picnic table by the vending machines, the wind was so strong that it kept trying to pick the bimini up and turn it into a sail.  We already have enough of those on board, so I wanted to stick to the project of making it pretty and giving us shade.  Moving to another picnic table around the corner I spread the cloth down but still had a nice breeze cutting around and getting in my way once in awhile.  Getting to work, I didn’t follow the rule of three and honestly thought it would be a 30-45 minute job. I mean, I just had to rip out a seam about 8 inches on each end, let the fabric out a half inch, and stitch it back up.  Nuh uh.  This caused a ripple in the fabric that I didn’t find until it was already stitched.  So back to seam ripping it was.  Except this time I had to take out the whole length.  I don’t know why it wasn’t working out, but try as I might, I could not get rid of the ripple and was going to have a small bunch of fabric somewhere.  Finally I decided that I’d put it close to the center where the solar panel would hide it and called it good.  I don’t know why I didn’t just leave it as it was the first day.  To me, it had looked perfect.  Close to 4 hours of work later I was finally finished, and also famished.

Ready to feed that appetite, we went to visit our new friends.   At 7:00, we boarded Tango, a 35 ft Tobago Catamaran owned and operated by Andy and Robyn.  Traveling with them are their two daughters, Madi and Peyton, who greeted us at the salon table as we sat down.  Also at the table was an awesome spread of homemade salsa and guacamole.  Cracking a beer I began to dig right in.  Let it be know that there are always manners among cruisers, but when it comes to food, it’s a free for all. So while sitting there and eating some amazing and fresh salsa with a few tortilla chips, we began on the conversation of cruising and our trips thus far.  Not before we could be gifted an adorably cute vase that Madi had made for us earlier that day, and even collected flowers from the field across the street to fill it.  Cruisers, I have to tell you, are some amazing people.  While learning more about each other, we found that Andy and Robyn had left in October from the Chesapeake.  Turns out they were practically on our tails, having left just after Hurricane Sandy.

We joked about our troubles so far, and how we both swear that there was a bad weather cloud that followed us all the way down the east coast.  I don’t know how many times each of our boats had heard, “It’s unusually cold right now, I swear, it’s never like this around this time of year.  It was so nice just before you got here.”.  We both agreed that hearing that gets old very quick.  And then it was on to the topic of groundings.  They already knew all about ours, so there wasn’t any new news there, but they did have their own to tell back from when they were in North Carolina.  It was something where they eventually got off by themselves, but the kicker is when they hailed they boat they just moved out of the way for to say they were grounded, all this boat came back with was “Bummer”, and then sped off.  But I’m sure we’re all learning so far as we get further into our adventures, is when issues like this happen, even if they piss you off at the time, they’ll always make for great stories later.  Cause what fun is it getting together with other cruisers to swap stories if you’ve only had smooth sailing?

Andy and Banyan.

Love Actually is All Around

Thursday February 14, 2013

Valentine’s Day in the yard, and even though it’s cold and raining out, the feeling of love is all around.  Ok, maybe it’s only emanating from Matt and I.  Not because we’re so in love (although we are), but because Serendipity is literally being pieced back together.  After a few delays getting the keel on earlier this week due to bad weather, we’re finally going to have a boat again that can move through water.

The skies were still a little gray this morning, and when we woke up we had no idea that the keel was still planned to be put on, thinking that any chance of rain might keep the 3M 5200 compound from setting.  This is what’s getting slabbed on in the cracks, a VERY strong adhesive, so it was important to us that it set properly.  We were actually sitting on the settees when I saw the travel lift on the side of the boat, and I thought they were putting in a new boat next to us.  But then my mind comprehended that there is no space for another boat next to us on our port side, and so I looked over to starboard and saw the other side of the lift on that side.  We quickly hopped up and raced out onto the deck.  I don’t know why I only thought this would be a 1o minute job, but I did, so only grabbing a fleece and slipping on my flip flops, I climbed down the ladder.

Getting a little snap happy with my camera, I started treating it like my kid’s first day of school, taking a million photos and hitting the record button each time the engine on the lift would fire up.  They got her up in the air pretty quickly, but then there was a lot of other work to be done on their end before the keel could actually go back on.  We stood there for a few minutes, kicking at the sand, without much to do.  Starting to take a little walk around the yard, I realized that we hadn’t eaten all day (I was just starting to fix lunch when the travel lift came) and I needed to have food.  Well of course in our rush to get the process started we had left our bike keys up on the nav station, and now with Serendipity hovering 15 feet in the air with no ladder attached….walking seemed like the only option.  Except our boatyard is a mile from the main drag in the historic part of town, and the only thing there is a Subway.  Not that I think a one mile walk is out of the question, but I knew on foot it would take me close to 45 minutes round trip, and I didn’t want to miss out on any of the action of the keel going back on.

I had almost resigned myself to hearing my stomach growl for the next hour or two when we remembered that our friends Patty and Terry had left another bicycle to the yard, after it had taken a little dip in the ocean, and Patty replaced it with a new and fully working one.  We weren’t sure about the brakes, that were now supposedly a little suspicious, but it wasn’t locked and I only needed to take it down a dirt rode.  Walking it from the shed into the yard, I tried to have Matt lower the seat for me, but that was also now a little rusted and not going anywhere.  I figured I’d stand if necessary, but I needed my food, and I needed it quick.  Getting out to the road I noticed the tires were also nearly flat, making this a very, very difficult bike ride.  I was tempted to set it on the side of the road and start walking instead, but even this slow flat tire bicycling was faster than my walking.  When I got into the Subway I was so sweaty and out of breath that the guy behind the counter had to ask me if I was alright.  But after a few minutes of panting I was able to get my order out, and upon receiving my sub it was back to the bike for the exhausting conclusion of my ride.

Arriving back at the yard I found Matt hovering by Serendipity, watching as a thick, gloopy coat of 5200 was spread across the keel.  We took our sandwich to the picnic table which was just out of the howling winds that were beginning to pick up, and kept stealing glances over to our boat to see if anything big was about to happen.  Nothing did while we were eating, so when we finished, we wandered back over to check on progress.  There was a light drizzle coming down now, and our big fear that the adhesive compound wouldn’t set was coming back up, but we were assured that it would be fine, although it put a giddy-up in their step, and work was happening much quicker now.  Wanting to make sure everything was still completed today, Matt asked if the rudder was still going on, since no one was paying much attention to it.  It was probably a project they were going to save for the very end, but with the rain coming down now, we wanted to make sure it wasn’t skipped in lieu of getting out of that rain.

The guy working the keel assigned two other guys to work on the rudder, one to lift the boat back up a little, and one to position the keel for when it came back down.  Yes, visible progress again!  It wasn’t long after that the keel was now ready and with the travel lift up and running again, and a few hand signals, Serendipity was placed back down perfectly on top of the keel that she had been missing for a month.  There was still the work of getting all the bolts tightened, nothing that we could help with or even see, since all the work would be done on the boat, so we went to the office to get warmed up.  I couldn’t watch the rest the rest of the work, but I was still as happy as could be.  I can actually taste how close we are to leaving now. Getting Serendipity put back together was the best Valentine’s gift I could ask for.  It definitely beats out the Valentine’s Day a few years ago where we spent the evening running speaker wire for our home theater system.