I’ve Had An Affair…..With A House

by with No Comment FloridaFriendsOn the hardSt. Augustine

Saturday January 12, 2013

* Be forewarned, this is going to be a long post with a lot of photos, but we did so much today, and none of it was worth leaving out.

 

We knew Brian and Stephanie were going to pick us up at the boat yard at 9:30 in the morning to go to the farmers market on Anastasia Island, so I had set the alarm for 8:30 an figured that would be enough time for a nice shower, breakfast, and a chance to wish a happy 30th birthday to my best friend Jackie, someone who, had we not shipwrecked the boat, would be with us right now in the Bahamas.  I had been awake enough in the morning to know the sun had been up for what felt like too long, so when Georgie began stirring and rubbing against me I thought it was time to get up, even if I was a little early for the alarm.  Jumping down out of the v-berth and stretching my legs I walked up to the phone which we always keep at the nav station (to force ourselves out of bed to turn it off) and found it was reading 9:20.  Crap!  My utter of shock did not escape Matt, who was already half roused out of his sleep, and within seconds he was out of bed as well, pulling any clothes that were laying around over his head.  Within that ten minutes we were both able to get clothes on, feed Georgie, and rush out the companionway.  Slipping on a brand new pair of Sperry’s I had just gotten (thanks mom!) I didn’t think anything about the fact that they hadn’t been broken in yet, but I figured we’d only be walking around the market and a tour of the college later and they wouldn’t be an issue.

Getting picked up by a family friend of Brian’s, someone we’d be spending the evening with at their house, we were dropped off at the market and free to wander around.  There are surprisingly three weekly markets around St. Augustine, on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.  We’ve heard this is the one to hit, and as soon as we walked up it did not look like it was going to disappoint.  Matt and I had our sights set on finding the guy with the maple bacon doughnuts, but couldn’t go five feet without stopping at one booth or another to look or sample.  A few of the things we stumbled upon were tables full of dips, handmade coconut creations, and a band with about seventeen members, almost all of them on some form of guitar or banjo.

While Matt and I will usually quick browse a booth, smile, and walk away, Stephanie loves to get to know people and will stop and talk to them for ages.  The two of us just feel bad if we strike up a conversation with someone, admire all their goods, and then walk away without buying anything.  Or maybe we just haven’t come up with enough excuses of why we don’t need a sea shell wind catcher or or a tie-dye sarong.  There were a few times the three of us had drifted down five booths and found Stephanie behind us still chatting and exclaiming things like, “You made a plant holder carved from a coconut husk in the shape of a duck?  That’s amazing!”.  Come to think of it now, she’s the perfect distraction  to use while walking away without buying anything because the owners will be so engaged with her they won’t even know we left.  It ended up working out pretty well for us since the only thing we did buy were a batch of mini doughnuts  since our guy from the Lincolnville Market wasn’t there.  Not that there weren’t a million things I didn’t have my eye on though.  I even found the perfect tote for a child that I was tempted to buy and save for if/when the day should ever happen we’d have one to give it to.

Next came the long walk back to town, something I wasn’t expecting.  After the first mile the canvas started to wear and tear on my bare feet, but I continued to hobble along, keeping pace with Stephanie, although the boys had long gotten ahead of us.  We did catch back up just before the bridge when a few out of town college kids, already drunk even before noon, stopped us to see ‘what was happening’ that night.  “You guys go to Flagler, right?”, they asked as they stepped into pace with us.  I don’t know if it was the large amounts of vodka in their water bottle talking, or all of us could pass for under 25, but we had to let them know that “Sorry, we don’t know what’s happening because we’re planning on having a quiet night at home with some friends”.  They told us they’d probably end up in Orlando anyway, which if that is the case, I really hope they have a sober friend driving their asses there.

Now walking on tip toes (literally) by the time we crossed over the Bridge of Lions, I pleaded with Stephanie to take us to Rode Trip where I could be fixed up with some bandages.  What I was actually hoping would happen is she would tell me there wasn’t time and I’d have to pop into the store attached to the marina where upon purchasing bandages I could sneak in a 20 oz Pepsi (or Lime-a-Rita), but she’s too darn helpful and soon we were walking down the dock towards their dinghy.  As we climbed in it hit me that we hadn’t been for a dinghy ride in six weeks, but the motions were still fluid, such as me crawling in so I didn’t fall over the side.  I’ve never been cool enough to just step in one unless it’s starting out on land.  Moments later we were climbing on Rode Trip and I had to give her a big hug since it had been a long time since I’d seen her and there was actually a sense of loss.

While I was choosing which Disney Princess bandage to cover my wounds with, Brian popped off the cover on the floor of the cockpit to show Matt the engine and all the work that had been done to it.  We saw the shiny new paint job, and got a thorough explanation of what had been done since the last time we had been aboard.  Enjoying the sunshine and divinely warm weather hitting us over the weekend, we sat on deck with mugs of cider in our hands and thought “Why wasn’t any of our trip down the ICW like this?”.  It was the cruiser’s dream and it took us four months to experience together.  A bluebird sky with nary a could in it.  Real warmth where it felt great to be in shorts and a t-shirt and have a slight breeze blowing over you.  Just enough movement in the water to let you know you were on it, but not enough to make it uncomfortable.  It was perfect.  It reminded me what was in store for us and that all the hassles we’re having now with be worth it once we’re set free again.  I could have enjoyed it all day, but still on the docket was a tour of Flagler College and none of us wanted to miss it since it was the 125th anniversary and they were offering free admission.  (Thanks again for the tip, Chris!)

I’ve missed you Rode Trip!!

Disney Princesses make everything better.

 

Getting to the college, the long lines that had been wrapping around the block that morning were now gone.  Stepping through the archway entrance we were handed pamphlets and told that a few areas that were normally closed to the public, even during regular tours, would be open today in celebration of the anniversary.  A little history of the place is that it was originally opened as a hotel back in 1888 by Henry Flagler, co-founder of Standard Oil.  Back when it opened the only way you could get a reservation was to book a room for 3 months, and you had to pay for it up front whether or not you used all that time.  It has the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass coming in at 79 windows.  Through extensive restoration, almost everything is original.  From the paintings to the furniture to the Tiffany chandeliers that hang from the women’s wing.  In 1968 the hotel was turned into a college where  students get to keep this piece of history going by attending classes, living on campus in the old hotel rooms (female dorms only), and even eating in the great dining hall.

The first thing we did upon entering was walk down the hall housing the office of the College’s president, something that’s normally closed even for regular tours.  We learned this used to be the men’s hall and and contained things such as a billiard’s room and a barber shop.  Next we climbed the stairs to another area that’s also usually closed to tours, the Rotunda.  Taking in the beauty that the student’s get to enjoy everyday we then made our way to the dining hall.  It’s at this point that Stephanie blurted out, “This is like being at Hogwarts!”.  And honestly, it kind of was.  Just the history and the opulence of the place.  They may not offer Defense Against The Dark Arts, but throw on a knit scarf over a robe and while wandering around in your free time you may not know otherwise.

We had one more stop before Rode Trip’s family friend was to come back and pick us up, the Memorial Presbyterian Church.  But before we could get there I needed food in my stomach.  Three mini doughnuts was not going to be enough to last this girl until dinner.  We wandered aimlessly toward St. George St. hoping to find some kind of bakery or snack shop when Stephanie had the great idea to hit up French Fry Heaven.  We drooled over it the last time they were here, why not stop in and see what all the fuss was about? As we searched through the menu of Angels vs Saints (steak fries vs sweet potato) Matt shook his head about ordering any kind of Saints.  Not as much of a sweet potato lover as I am.  We settled on a bacon/cheese/ranch combo and after they loaded up our cone we went outside to eat.  They were delicious, but if I had known how much melted cheese was going to be on them I think I would have asked for one scoop instead of two.  Everything was drenched in cheese and it was almost hard to taste the french fry.  Brian was sweet enough to let me taste a few of their cinnamon sugar sweet potato fries though, and then going back to help Matt finish ours we were sufficently stuffed.  At $9 for a large fry and soda though, the prices reflected that we were in the heart of a tourist hub.

Making the jog a few blocks over to the church we walked up the front steps and in through the door.  Everything again was so ornate, another building commissioned by Henry Flagler, in memory of his daughter and granddaughter that died during childbirth.  Right after their passing he began building and had it finished in just under 365 days, with the grand opening celebrating the anniversary of their death.  The church was also full of beautiful stained glass windows, all of which had just been restored in the last ten years.  Talking to one of the local college kids that was a volunteer there, he gave us all the facts and history on the church and pointed us to the mausoleum where Henry Flagler, his first wife, daughter and granddaughter have been laid to rest.  Peeking through the bars we viewed the beautiful glass ceiling of the dome and then made our way outdoors to wait to be picked up.  While waiting we were treated to the church bells ringing, something that normally only happens during services.  This time it was to announce the closing of the tours at the college next door.  What was even better, is the bell ringer was never told how many times to ring, so he kept going.  Matt and Brian suggested he go all the way up to 125 to celebrate the anniversary.  He did try to make his way there, but eventually had to give up somewhere around 110 when his arms gave out.

Different styles to order the heavenly fries.

Om nom nom nom.

Someone needs to clean up the bums on these streets.

 

For the final event of the night we were picked up and driven about 20 minutes north of St. Augustine to the home of Bob and Susan, Rode Trip’s family friends that they had been spending the past few days with.  Two things dawned on me as we walked inside their home.  1.  It was our five month cruising anniversary.  Hooray, a reason to celebrate!  2.  This is the first time in five months that we had been in any kind of house or home.  Walking into the hallway and seeing the regular staples of a home, bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen…..it felt like a life I vaguely remember but was light-years away.  We were led right to a three season’s porch where a yummy mango salsa was laid out with chips.  Beers and wine were offered and the six of us sat around talking about boats, sailing, and the four of us travelers, about our travel so far.

A few hours later we moved to the formal dining room where we were treated to a delicious homemade meal that even rivaled Brian and Stephanie’s cooking.  After the meal had been cleared away and I already felt like I couldn’t fit anything else in my stomach, dessert was placed in front of me and I couldn’t turn it down.  Not only did it look way too tempting (it had ice cream, we never get ice cream!), the blueberries used to make it had been brought down from their hometown in Pennsylvania and saved for a special occasion.  Which apparently we were.  How can you turn down an offer like that?  So we continued eating until even the freshly opened bottle of wine at the table became unappetizing and I could not have another bite to eat or drink.  Then the strangest part of the whole day happened.  The six of us situated ourselves back in the living room where an NFL game was playing on the tv.  Somehow Matt and I went from just glancing at the game, to watching plays, and then even slightly understanding them and rooting for a team.  What was happening to us?!  (We are usually interested in zero sports).  Five hours back in a house and we were already becoming domesticated.  Before it could go any further we were taken back to the boat where we could pick up our vagabond life.

Closer To Getting Nowhere

by with 3 Comments Boat workFloridaFriendsOn the hardSt. Augustine

Thursday January 10, 2013

Just as we had rolled out of bed this morning, we got a text from Rode Trip saying that we better be up and ready because they were on their way over to visit.  We had mentioned to them that the keel was coming off today and we all wanted to watch it, and maybe open a bottle of wine to celebrate.  We weren’t given an exact time from the marina, they had only said sometime in the afternoon, so we assumed it would take place between one and four.  Since they had come in late morning and there isn’t much to do while hanging around in a boatyard we thought we’d make the trip up to Sailor’s Exchange (not the bathroom one) since it was on their list of things to check out while in town.  Walking down the dirt road the marina is on, that apparently has been under construction for over a year, we passed the boat yard where Frank and Yu are, and saw them climbing down the ladder from their boat.  We waived and continued on our way until their car pulled up behind us and they offered us a ride.  Piling four people into the backseat of a hatchback was a little crowded, plus it was a very bumpy ride, but we all got there in one piece and tumbled out the doors once they were opened.

Instead of flocking to my normal area of books and magazines once inside, Stephanie and I poked around the antique are for a little while and looked through all the country’s flags that were for sale.    They still haven’t picked up a Bahamian courtesy flag yet, but for the price of $13 they were asking here, they weren’t going home today with one either.  Doing a sweep of the aisles I tried to get interested in all the little blocks and water pumps and things that might be useful to the boat, but they could only hold my attention so long and soon I was in the book corner, flipping through magazines of places we still hope to travel one day.  Stephanie soon joined me and we talked about jumping off points to the Bahamas while looking at maps and where we’d like to check in.  They have a tentative plan to jump out from St. Augustine if the right weather window comes, otherwise, just like us, they’ll probably go over from Lake Worth to West End.  After we got that out of the way and wondered what our guys were up to, or how much money they were spending, we went in search and found them at the check-out counter.  Brian was leaving empty handed, but Matt had found a block with an attached cam cleat for us, and also a casting net for catching shrimp and small fish to be used as bait.  From what we hear they’re supposed to be great, and even Brian has brought in handfuls of shrimp with his already.

Making the long walk back to the boat yard we walked up just in time to see Serendipity hanging in the lift.  Punching the code into the gate and running in we found out that we were too late to catch the full show, the rudder and keel had already been removed.  We missed the big show, but we were still able to watch them set the boat on a new set of blocks just ahead of where the keel remained and then drive off with the lift.  From what we could gather from the workers, the rudder would be shipped off the next day for repairs as it was definitely now obvious that it was bent.  We’re not sure what method they’re going to choose to fix it, but Matt thinks it will involve them splitting it down the middle, making a cast with the good side, molding a new half, and then piecing it back together with foam and fiberglass.  We don’t know how long that will take, but it’s not looking like we’ll be put back together tomorrow as we’d hoped.  Since Serendip will have to be lifted regardless just to get the rudder back on, the keel will stay off as well until everything is ready.  The only good news is they assured us we’d still be stable enough for us to continue to live on the boat on the hard, even without the keel attached.  Music to our ears since we thought we’d be spending that time in a hotel or forced (willingly) to the other side of the state to stay with family.

While Matt went through the details with the yard workers and wallowed in pity that we wouldn’t be put back together right away, Brian and Stephanie and I decided to take up an empty part of the yard to try out the new casting net.  Since Brian already had some experience with his and I’m terrible at learning from books, I need to see it to learn it, we figured it was a great opportunity for me to become a casting pro.  Unraveling it from all the line it was bound in, he showed me the different parts and the steps to get it ready to throw.  Not that I knew anything about casting nets before this, except it was a great opportunity to provide us with some shrimp cocktails, I honestly thought it would be as easy as picking it up and throwing it in the water.  Oh no.  There are many more steps to it than that.  Letting Brain take a few practice runs himself so I could see how it was done he showed me how to loop the rope in my hand and then gather the top half of the net in it.  The next step was to separate half the net from itself by wrapping it across your leg, and then gathering that half to then wrap over your arm holding the rope.  Here’s where it starts to get tricky.  After that part have to look down where the bottom and weighted part is starting to run up and cause two different heights between the net still sitting by your legs (Still with me?  Confusing, I know) and then grab that part and put it between your teeth.  When that’s done you take the net that was draped over your arm and let it fall back down, causing a triangle shape that I can still never make out.  Now you’re ready to toss.  Standing with your back to the area you want it to end up you do some kind of discus toss, letting it release from your arms and mouth, and it should open up and drape over the water.  Theoretically pretending there was water there and not dirt, you’d let it sink for a few minutes and then yank all the line in which closes the bottom and secures your catch.  I did a few practice rounds myself which weren’t as terrible as I thought, but one thing I wasn’t expecting is how heavy the weights on the bottom were and the net did not go very far from where I tossed it.  Looks like if we’re going to be having shrimp cocktails soon, I need to work on my upper body strength.

Why don’t we have this on the boat?

50 Cent Wednesday

by with 2 Comments FloridaFriendsOn the hardSt. Augustine

Wednesday January 9, 2012

Last week when Frank and Yu had introduced us to Scarlett O’Hara’s here in the historic part of town, we were so enamored with the Wednesday happy hour special that we had decided right there that we’d be back the next week.  Hoping a ride into town in their Subaru we even found a parking spot in the exact lot as last time, although it looked like there must have been an event going on in town because the area was packed.  Even when we walked up to the patio at Scarlett’s every table outside was full and the outside bar was full with plenty of college kids.  It looked like spring break had started, but about two months early.  Walking inside we could see it was just as packed and after doing a lap of the restaurant and going upstairs and down we thought we’d be out of luck finding a table, but just as we were about to leave I spotted a table that had just been vacated.  It was on the other side of a set of stairs that we needed to walk around to get there, but so paranoid that someone would scoop it up before we could get there I threw my purse on the table, almost hitting the waitress that had just walked up to buss it.  Throwing out a quick apology we all rushed around and sat down before anything could happen to our newly reserved spot.

Taking menus even though we already knew what we wanted, the question then became: wings, shrimp, or oysters, and how many of each?  Yu had verified that the oysters she had last week, although delicious, were not very filling, especially in quantities of five or ten.  Craving them since I had seen her sipping on them last week I had been smart enough to throw back a granola bar before we left, but I was still starving.  I knew I could do a combo of wings & oysters, but for some reason in my mind the numbers of the combination seemed very important and it wasn’t until our drinks arrived at the table I was finally able to come to a decision.  Probably because I had just finished updating our cost for the year, and even $0.50 appetizers were throwing me into a frenzy with the budget.  Even a combination of 15 total would only come to a bill of $7.50, but I couldn’t bring myself to go that high.  So I went with thirteen to save myself a dollar.  Yes, I am a little crazy.  Welcome to the world of non-retired cruisers.

Sipping our 2-4-1 margaritas I commented on how many young people were out that night.  “Lots of college kids”, I observed.  “Right”, Yu responded, “They’re all back from Christmas break now”.  Duh.  I had completely forgotten that we were in the heart of a college town.  I don’t know how it didn’t dawn on me since we were planning a tour of Flagler College over the weekend with Rode Trip, who just got down from St. Mary’s.  I didn’t have too much time to dwell on my slowness for long since the food came out and soon my fingers and mouth were stained orange in buffalo sauce.  Between bites of food we talked about what it was like to be a cruising couple, how you’re together all the time, and how the boat is now like a child between the two of you.  We got to hear about some of the stupid things they argue about now that would never have come up on land and I mentioned that when you’re together all day every day it gets hard to find chances to miss each other like what used to happen, even if we were just going off to work.  It definitely is a different lifestyle, but between the four of us, none of us would take our old lives back over what we have now.  And it’s becoming much more rare now that I hear this statement from Matt:  “But we could have had a condo in the heart of downtown overlooking the river!”.

Before we could get into it much further though, we got a text from Brian and Stephanie (on Rode Trip) who said they were on their way to meet us.  After a few minutes of staring outside at street signs and correctly give directions, they were walking in the door and we tried to throw a few chairs at the end of our booth to accommodate them.  They also joined in on the wing special even though the rest of us had finished, and once they had finished we were going to find another bar.  Just before they had gotten there though, and just before the 2-4-1 drink special ended, Matt, Yu, and I put in orders for one more round of margaritas.  Which in our minds meant that he would get one, I would get one, and that would be our 2-4-1.  The margaritas came out and we hadn’t even gotten five sips in when our server comes back with another round on top of that saying “Sorry, I couldn’t hold these behind the bar any longer”.  Apparently 2-4-1 in her eyes meant that we were each going to get two for the price of one.  Specifics.  Gotta remember those next time.  So even though all of us wanted to get out and explore new parts of the town, half of the group was trying to chug down two margaritas each just to get our money’s worth.  I think the good news was that we’d have our fill of alcohol for the rest of the night and could therefore spend less any place we went after.

Relying on Frank and Yu for local knowledge again, we let Yu pick the next bar based on cheap beer prices and the fact they had a pool table.  This next place happened to be the American Legion and had just a little bit different of a crowd than Scarlett’s.    Seating ourselves at a round table off to the side we could tell that for most people inside the bar it wasn’t a place to be lively and upbeat, but a place to drown sorrows.  Hopefully all of our happy chatter wasn’t going to be a buzzkill for their solitude and time spent reflecting.  That thought only lasted a half a second though, and then we went back to enjoying ourselves and enjoying the $1 jello shots they had to offer.  Only one though, I still had four margaritas in me to keep down.  For the next few hours we just spent time hanging out, enjoying old friends and introducing them to new friends.  Yu showed off her pool skills and I tried to find all the techno songs I could on the jukebox.  We didn’t end up closing the legion down, but it was a great night out and I hope we can drag ourselves out of bed in the morning to get in as much time as possible with Brian and Stephanie while they’re here.

The old gang is back together again!

Street acrobatics.

Picturesque St. Augustine

by with One Comment FloridaOn the hardSt. Augustine

Monday January 7, 2012

We have gone back to sitting around the boat the past few days, but the good news is, we got word from our insurance company on Thursday that they are going to proceed with the claim and would be sending a check right out.  Over the weekend we did a few small jobs on the boat that we could, removing a few things that we had the ability to do ourselves and save on the labor.  Things such as remove the rudder, max prop, shaft and strut.  It was all done pretty quickly and easily, so there’s not much to report on it.  Real work should be starting later in the week though, and then I can start reporting on Serendipity’s recovery. So until then, here is a gallery of photos of the beautiful city we’ve been stuck in for the past five weeks.

You, Me and Manatee

by with 4 Comments FloridaOn the hardSt. Augustine

Friday January 4, 2013

Ever since we shipwrecked our sorry little butts here in St. Augustine we have been in touch with one of the locals, Chris, who heard our distress call on the radio and through the magic of Google our website right away online and has been giving us helpful hints on the town and even dropped by a few weeks ago to introduce himself and drop of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever had. Through his helpful hints on the best places to visit in town and help us in any way we could need, he also hinted that he’d like to take us to a natural spring just outside of town to see manatees that would gather there in the winter, if we had the time and the want to do something like that.  Not only was it a very generous offer on his part, but perfectly timed since from the moment we arrived in St. Augustine we’ve had our eyes out for them in the water since they are supposed to frequent the area. So an offer to be taken to a place where we knew they’d be seen was enough to get me as excited as if we were going to Disney World.* After the holidays had passed and schedules were slowing down we set a date and planned to make the drive to Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, about a 90 minute drive from St. Augustine.

 Picking us up from the marine center in the late morning we spent the drive over catching up on how the holidays went and the new potential of progress on Serendipity. As we were getting close to the springs, Chris had another treat up his sleeve, he wanted to treat us to lunch at a local BBQ place that was supposed to be a great southern experience. He warned that it may be a little bit of a hole in the wall, but from our past experiences, those usually tend to be the best. Being the neurotic person that I sometimes am, I had already viewed the online menu before we ever set foot in the place, already sure of what I was going to order. Maybe it was because I had skipped breakfast in my rush to get out the companion way in the morning, but suddenly everything was looking good and I was back to square one. Luckily Chris was there to save me as he mentioned that between Matt and I, someone needed to get the steak and rib combo. Strangely having had a conversation on the ride down about how much I was craving a nice, juicy, medium-rare steak, I immediately volunteered myself for the meal while promising to give little pieces to Matt.

When the food came out I was faced with two choices of meat, a perfectly baked sweet potato, coleslaw and garlic bread. Usually enough food to last me for three meals but I didn’t hesitate one second to dig right in. True to his claims of it being an extraordinary barbeque experience, the food did not disappoint and most conversation halted while we all savored what was on our plates. Eating much more than I should have I eventually began forcing pieces of steak and ribs onto Matt’s plate before I could fall into a food coma and never leave the table. He was only too happy to pick up my slack before falling victim to overeating as well and swearing off any more food for the rest of the day. Not before getting a 32 oz Coke to-go for the road though. That boy and his pop. I fear if I ever get between him and his addiction.

Rolling ourselves back into the van we made the short drive the rest of the way to Blue Springs, getting more excited with each mile that passed. The day was cool and overcast, and even as we stepped out into the parking lot there was a light mist that settled on our faces, but nothing could bring down our excitement as we walked toward the boardwalk  with views of the water. Stopping just before the overlook on the spring run we began to read the plaque on the area being a habitat for the manatees in the winter months. Still being close enough to the water to see it from where we were standing, Chris nonchalantly goes, “Oh, I see one right there”. Granted he has been here before so the occurrence wasn’t as new for him, but it was enough to stop both our eyes from scrolling the rest of the way down the plaque and dart to the water’s edge.

Since Chris had sent a link to our Facebook page of the area that I scanned before coming, I knew they tried to keep a daily count of the manatees in the spring, which was hovering just over 100, but Matt had come expecting to really seek them out so he was dumbfounded when we got to the wooden deck perched over the water and there were herds of them in the sprawled out below us. Knowing they’d be easy to spot I was just as thrilled to see them and we turned into those six year olds on a field trip to the zoo, feet bouncing on the ground as I looked below. The sight really was breathtaking though, and not what either of us had been expecting to see. The water was emerald green in color and crystal clear. Looking down there were easily twenty manatees below us, some just hovering in one spot, and others slowly made their way through the water. We stood over one as it moved about directly below us, very interested in the pole that housed the camera for live internet feed.

Although I had seen a few years ago (half a life ago, now that I come to think of it), for anyone who has not seen a manatee or does not know much about them, here is a brief history. What we were standing over watching were West Indie Manatees, or the Florida Manatee to be more specific. These are mammals with front flippers and no hind limbs. Adults are approximately 9-11 feet long and weigh from 450-1,300 lbs. They are sometimes called sea cows, and the name fits pretty aptly. They are large grazers of the sea that move at a slow pace without much agenda. One thing none of us knew was their large geographic range, with the West Indies species ranging all through the Caribbean and even over to the east coast of Central America. Should we finally spot them in the wild we may be seeing them for quite awhile on our journeys.

In addition to the many manatees in front of us were huge schools of fish swimming through the water. My initial thought was, ‘I wish we had brought the fishing poles, these things look like a sure catch‘, but of course it was a no fishing zone so we settled for watching them pass by as we tried to guess the species. Using any basic knowledge we had, and eavesdropping on other’s conversations, we gathered a few names of what we thought was treading below us. Turning my back to the water for the first time I was smack dab in front of a very large and colorful sign that listed photos of the most common fish in these waters and what they were. Quickly we were able to go back to pointing them out in the water and calling them out by name. An added bonus is other people who hadn’t yet seen the sign but eavesdropping on our conversation actually thought we were much more knowledgeable than we actually were. Score one for appearances.

 Making our way up the run we continuously got closer to the spring, but also lost sight of the manatees the closer we got. Once upon the spring there was no vegetation and only a few gar fish. The spring itself looked like a gash in the water just a few shades darker than the water around it. There was a large branch resting across the top of it and you couldn’t see very far down, but from images on posters in the area the spring was a popular diving area that went down close to 150 ft and ran at an angle ending 130 ft to the side of the entrance. Not that I’ve ever even been diving before, but it looked a little narrow in some areas and probably would have made me a little claustrophobic, but I have a few friends that probably would have enjoyed it. The area is open to swimming in general in the summer months which looks fun, take a quick dive down and come right back to the surface. Another fun fact about the spring is that it pushes out over a million gallons of water a day. That’s incredible!

Going back to where we had originally started and where 98% of the manatees were gathered. We watched them float around for a little longer before heading to other viewing areas closer to the river, and supposedly where alligators could be seen at times. Yet another thing on the list of animals we have not managed to see yet on this trip. Keeping our eyes peeled in the much darker waters of the river there were no beady eyes hovering at the surface. Just as we looked the other direction there was a thrashing in the water that was quite violent and more than a splash. It was most likely a manatee having a little fun in the river, but none of us saw, and we can’t quite be sure. So to satisfy my imagination and happiness I’ll pretend that it was an alligator wrestling something, other than a manatee, in hopes for a late afternoon snack. What we were able to get visual confirmation on though was a bald eagle resting in a tree top, the second one we’ve seen in Florida now thanks to Chris’ help (who knew there was one that hangs around near the boat yard?) With chances of an actual alligator sighting growing slimmer we headed back to the park grounds.

Just before leaving we took a quick tour of the Thursby house, a plantation built in the mid 1850’s from the first people to settle at the springs. Only the first of three floors was open for viewing and while most rooms were empty of furnishings but housed photos and information of the homes history. Based on other homes of the era that we had toured on our travels south this one seemed to have much larger room, hallways, and even higher doors than what we had been used to seeing. Something comperable to if it were just built in the past 20 years. I think I smell some remodeling? After having covered every inch this park had to offer us we climbed back in the van for the drive home, tired but completely fulfilled. It was such a special and thoughtful trip, and we’re so lucky to have met Chris take us under his wing and share experiences we’d never be able to have on our own. It sounds like it’s going to be the first of many though, so stay tuned as we may actually have other adventures coming up while we’re stuck on the hard.

*He also gave us tickets to Disney World since he gets them for volunteering there.  How nice is this guy?!

 

 

Pleased To Meet Yu

by with No Comment FloridaFriendsOn the hardSt. Augustine

Thursday December 27, 2012

Just before the holidays we had a comment on our website that said something along the lines of ‘Just found your website through your surveyor, we happen to be in the boat yard right next to yours, we’d love to meet up sometime‘.  We love meeting new people, we’ve done it plenty of times through the website, and didn’t think anything of it when we set up the date.  The couple that contacted us are Frank and Yu, and are outfitting their Hans Christian 41, Moitessier, living on the hard in St. Augustine until they are ready to leave.  Yu has been working at one of the hotels in town to save up the kitty and Frank works on the boat with hopes they’ll be tossing off bow lines in late 2013.   Setting a date to meet up for just after Christmas they let us know they have a car at their disposal they said they’d swing over and get us where we’d then run into town to grab a drink.

Giving directions for the 1/4 mile drive next door (no, really, we are that close to each other) they picked us up after dinner where we then told them since they were the locals we were at the mercy of wherever they wanted to take us.  Jumping into the car we did introductions and they almost apologized for sending an invite to meet us over the internet.  ‘We didn’t know if you guys would be weirded out, some people you’ve never met send you and e-mail and want to get together.‘.  We also then found out that they’ve spent all of their time getting their boat ready so they haven’t been out cruising yet to find out that’s how you meet half your friends.  People you’ve never seen in your life that stumble upon you and since you have this huge common link you don’t think twice about a chance to get together and share experiences and revel in the fact that there are other people out there who are just as crazy as you are.  So were we weirded out?  Not at all.  It’s how I met one of my current best friends that I now talk to every day.

Taking the car to the center of town and actually being able to grab a parking spot because of Yu’s access due to work, we headed out on St. George St, a cobblestone road shut down to traffic and is filled with bars and restaurants.  They did have a certain place in mind to take us, but after getting lost in conversation and having passed it without realizing we just kept moving on to the White Lion, the place I had mentioned a few posts ago for having $1 tall boys on Monday nights.  A few days late, or early, for that special but after finding a table in the corner as well as some relatively cheap beers on the menu.  It’s always nice going out with another couple that understand your budget because they’re on it too, and you can share in the experience of looking for the best deal.

Before drinks could even come out we were deep in conversation about boats, mostly into all the work that has been put into Moitessier.  Having spied on them through their blog (as everyone with a blog will do) we had already seen many of the projects that had been undertaken, and the beautiful woodwork Frank had a hand in.  I still couldn’t get over a propane tank he had made from scratch and tried to think of an excuse of why Serendipity might need something similar just so we could have something that stunning on our boat.  Trading all kinds of stories we found out about their wedding in Barcelona, their time spent living in New York City, and Yu’s previous career as a fashion designer.  Upon hearing that I couldn’t pay attention to anything else boat and my mind wandered to cute outfits that could be made if I could wrangle up some fabric.

We must have been having great conversation though because before I knew it we had gone through two drinks at the bar and were making plans to go back to Moitessier for a look-see and a night cap.  Feeling bad about finishing the alcohol of people we just met there was a quick stop at the gas station where Matt and I grabbed a six pack and some mini frosted doughnuts before we all went back to the boat yard.  Climbing up the ladder to the deck it just felt like normal as opposed to stepping off a dock or taking a dinghy over.  We got the quick tour of the boat, which felt twice the size of Serendipity.  For the first round of drinks we all gathered in conversation about how we came into sailing and first boats we owned.  Sitting at their settee (which is probably the size of our whole salon) we were able to look around and see the hard work they’ve put into their boat and how stunning it looked.  Although they got a great deal on it and are putting in the work to make up for it, they are going to (and already do) have an amazing boat when they’re finished.

While the boys talked more boat, Yu and and I got lost in our bottle of wine and conversations of Theology.  In my head I was sounding witty and astute, but going onto the second bottle of wine I wouldn’t be surprised if I was W. Bushing my way through the conversation, making up words and ideas that only made sense in my head.  The conversation between us must have been very fatiguing since we were both ravenous and Yu needed to heat up some pasta for us to snack on while we went back to our conversation.  By the time the last sip of wine was taken from the second bottle we opened my eyes were drooping and all of us were ready for bed.  Giving hugs and saying good-bye Matt and I climbed down the ladder and Frank drove us back to our yard.  Looking at the clock as we passed through the gate we realized it was four in the morning.  Hopefully all that wine wasn’t making me miss signs to get the eff off their boat because it was getting to late, but I think all of us were having such a good time that none of us realized how late it had gotten.  But if we can find new friends that we get so lost in time with our first night out, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other and it’s going to make our time here much more tolerable.

I Won’t Be Home For Christmas, You Can Count On It

by with One Comment FloridaRants and RavesSt. Augustine

Tuesday December 25, 2012

So here it is on Christmas, and we’re sitting in a boat yard in Florida, on the hard for three weeks now. Not exactly where we thought we’d be at this time, and not where we wanted to be either, but you take the cards you’re dealt and do with them what you can. We’ve had multiple offers to spend the holidays with friends and their families, but we decided that if we’re not going to be with our own family we’d rather spend the holiday just between the two of us. Although thank you very much to everyone who offered to take us in. And we did try to make it home to see all our family and friends that we left behind, but we just couldn’t find anything cheap enough to justify the trip. Plane tickets, car rentals…dropping hints to family to send one of the two our way. None of it worked and  I was even completely ready to hijack Rode Trip’s rental car, steal it from them while they were sleeping after having gotten us to Pennsylvania. It’s really not that far from Michigan. You think I’m joking, but I was really at that point. Either Matt’s more sensible or a better person than I am, and he talked me into staying in the boatyard. (Although I think my plan would have worked)

 The days leading up to the holiday have been very uneventful. We forced ourselves off the boat on Saturday to do just a little provisioning and stocking up on things. This has started becoming a common occurrence with us, going to the store every few days, not even because we really need anything, but just to get ourselves off the boat. And as much as I hate to admit it, the landlubber life has already started effecting me. During that grocery trip all I could think was ‘We better really stock up, because what if Monday or Tuesday comes around and we don’t have something that we need. The stores will be closed and what will we do then?’. It took me a moment to remember that we only used to have the opportunity to go to the grocery store every few weeks, or having to going on foot, that was as often as we wanted to go. Ran out of milk? Don’t eat cereal. No fresh meat? Heat up a can of soup for dinner. I’ve already become spoiled by the convenience of getting whatever I want whenever I want it that I don’t remember we used to go even more so without, and we’ll (hopefully) be back to that soon.  Right now it’s still a few miles round trip on bike, and everything we buy has to fit in our backpacks or strap on to the bike rack, but for us that really is convenience.

Since then we have done nothing. I partly blame it on insomnia and some very odd sleep schedules we’ve been having lately. With no early morning departures or places to be, we’ve fallen into a habit of watching t.v. until just after midnight (or 2 am for Matt) and allowing ourselves to sleep in the next morning. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll set an alarm for 9:00 to force myself out of bed and get a little writing done or do something even mildly productive. Somehow both of us had a terrible bout of insomnia the night before (or morning of) Christmas Eve. We tried to go to bed at 1 am and after an hour of laying there we weren’t any closer to sleeping and got back up, just surfing the web and trying to make ourselves tired. At 3 we tried to go back to sleep and again had an hour where sleep was completely eluding us. Back up and on the computers. Soon it became a joke to see if we could stay up until the sun rose since it may as well have been three o’clock in the afternoon to us. Finally at 6:30 am my eyes were starting to droop enough to the point I thought I could try bed again and Matt was thirty minutes behind me. Needless to say, we were completely useless after we woke up for the day at two in the afternoon.

Even though we weren’t good for much of anything else, we were still able to participate in a little holiday tradition we’ve had going since 2004, which is watching ‘Love Actually‘ within a week of Christmas. It it such a great movie, and my second favorite movie of all time, only coming in after ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’. And after having watched it nine years in a row now, I’m pretty sure I have all the lines memorized. Which is fun for me, but not so fun for Matt when he has to suffer thrugh the next week of me quoting lines from the movie in the most random ways, and always in a British accent. Like when I hand Matt something he isn’t expecting and he asks “Is this for me?” and I reply with “It’s all for you….sir.”. Or even more randomly when they don’t fit into the conversation at all and I just blurt out lines like ‘Which doll for Daisy’s friend Emily? The one that looks like a transvestite, or the one that looks like a dominatrix?‘. (Referring to Barbie dolls dressed in feather boas and leather skirts) I’m so lucky that he puts up with me.

Christmas morning we woke up with the excitement of any other day. ‘Oh, what, it’s Christmas? I didn’t even remember’. It wasn’t even until a few hours after we woke up that we looked over at the presents and cards we had received from family but refrained from opening, hoping it would get us a little into the holiday spirit. There were humorous cards, a little Christmas money, and Matt even got a few new shirts. On any other day I would have been ecstatic to open the gifts we received and feel thankful for everything we’d gotten from our family and friends, but even gifts (and money!) couldn’t take me out of my funk and I spent the day in a depressed mood. Who knows if it was because we were in a pile of dirt and rocks all by ourselves, that we weren’t with friends and family, or we knew that even all of our cruising buddies were with theirs, it was just a shit day and I wanted it to go by as quickly as possible. And with being the only one on board that felt like that, there was no company for my misery.

Originally thinking that I’d use this day as an opportunity to try and re-fit the fitted sheets for our v-berth I had planned on dragging the cushions over to one of the ship sheds which would be completely abandoned on this day and have all the space in the world to spread things out. I’ve found that sewing projects are much tougher when you’re trying to measure a piece of fabric and you can’t draw a straight line because the 2×4 table that’s your only flat surface won’t allow you to mark the length you need in one shot. But while having my little self pity party I couldn’t assemble the motivation to get any projects done and sat around on the computer all afternoon, not doing anything of real importance, except writing a few Thank You cards that I wanted to get out the next day.

For our big Christmas dinner I tried my hand at making orange chicken and while it didn’t turn out a total disaster, it looked nothing like what we’d be served at Panda Express. So if anyone could give me hints on how to bread chicken in a 10” skillet I think it would make my life a lot easier as we now seem to try and make Chinese food at least twice a week.and I have become no closer to mastering it. Dinner was enjoyed in front of a glowing tv screen while watching Rambo which is something we’ve both made it 30 years without watching up to this point. Then throwing on a Christmas themed movie I relaxed with a glass of red wine in my hand and cat cuddling in my lap. Surprisingly that was all I needed to turn my day around and I could go back to feeling content again. Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that keep you going, and I guess for me it’s movies and wine.

 

If I’m Lying, I’m Mayan

by with 4 Comments FloridaOn the hardSt. Augustine

Friday December 21, 2012

Although the yard has now shut down until after the new year (not a big deal for us since the insurance company still hasn’t approved our claim yet), they decided to shut down with a celebration. A little cook-out with grilling and drinks that we had just found out about the day before the party, to be held for employees and anyone like us that’s stuck in the yard for the holidays. The party started and noon and went until ‘question mark’, usually once the beer runs out, so we used the morning to run errands since once we get settled in the afternoon it’s hard to force ourselves to do anything. We got back just as the tables were getting set up and waiting on the boat for a few minutes until we could be a few minutes fashionably late we made our way over to the masses. The grill was fired up but the first round of burgers and dogs had already been passed around so we found the beer cooler in the back and made some conversation with a few of the employees that have been helping us along since we’ve been here.

 When the next round of food was ready we filled our plates and placed ourselves along the long picnic table between other cruisers in the yard. One of the women sitting next to us we had just met a few minutes earlier as we had scouted out the beer cooler together and then for a bottle opener as both her and I seem to have taste for beers without twist off caps. Sitting at the table we also had the chance to meet her husband who I’m pretty sure is actually Jeff Bridges since he looked and sounded exactly like him, but was just going as another alias to try and lead a life out of the spotlight. (I’m onto you ‘Marshall’, aka ‘The Dude’) As we told them the sob story of how and why we were stuck in the boat yard in the first place they countered it with an even worse story of how their catamaran ended up on some nasty rocks where it stayed for a few days until multiple towing attempts were able to get it off. Their boat survived and after a year of extensive repairs to the hull they were back on their way again. I can’t remember if that was before or after they were de-masted off the coast of North Carolina, but it seems they have worse luck than we do and each time they just pick up the pieces and keep moving on.

One other thing we learned from them was how easy it is to become stuck in a boat yard for long periods of time. Any boater knows that you can expect most projects to take at least three times as long as you originally expect them to. Things never go as smoothly as you wish them to in your mind, they’re more labor intensive than you think, you don’t have the parts you need, and usually one project breeds at least two new ones. We’re hoping that because professionals will be doing the work on Serendipity that we won’t run into some of those issues, but on the flip side, The Dude warned us that when someone else is working on your boat you’re on their schedule. And you may not always be at the top of their list. No one here at the marine center has made us feel yet that this would be the case with us, but let’s just hope that once work starts we get a speedy recovery.

The party was a big hit and while there we gorged ourselves on more hamburgers, hot dogs, oyster, pie and beer than we’d normally eat in a few days. True to my prediction, people started disbanding as soon as the cooler began to empty, and true to our holiday traditions, just like thanksgiving, we closed the place down and continued to sit around with drinks in our hands as the mess around us was cleaned up. This time we did help some things get into the trash though, so I don’t feel quite as bad as last time. Then standing in the hot Florida sun (nicest day we’ve had here so far) we continued our conversation with our new friends until our beers were empty and we parted ways. Getting anything else productive done for the rest of the afternoon was not going to happen so I got online to tell my friends Merry Christmas and I love them (‘Cause if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you, eh?’) before passing out for a spectacular afternoon nap.

Waking up the next morning I found that the world did not end, but I’m pretty sure hell had frozen over. It had gone from sunny and mid 70’s the day before to overcast and 50. One of the things we had made sure to pick up the day before while out and about was getting a small space heater for the boat. We currently had a camping heater that runs off those little green cans of propane, but a can only lasted a few hours and it could become very expensive keeping ourselves warm over the winter while constantly having to refill them. So instead our new heater plugs in to any AC outlet and has been doing a fantastic job of heating up the boat.

And what does one do on the day the world is supposed to end? Well, if you didn’t know, there’s supposed to be a time that goes along with the date, 11:11 am, so when that came and went I tried to think in terms of time zones, but it wasn’t looking likely that I was going to perish in two hours either. So I sat at my ‘desk’ with cat on lap and tried to get some work done. Coffee was made to stave off the cold, but it was obvious that we weren’t going to be going into the cold that day, just another day hanging around Serendipity in the boat yard. ‘Summer vacation’ continues and each day we keep wishing we’ll get to the point when school will start again. Or that summer vacation will be bathing suit and beach weather and it would be easier to force ourselves outside. Maybe warm weather would also force us to be more productive on the boat as it always seems easier to pick up a project when the sun is shinning and a nice breeze is blowing through the hatch. It looks like we’ll have plenty of time though, to find out what will force us out of our lazy lifestyle and give Serendip all the care and work that she needs. Or we can continue to sit around and wait for the zombie apocalypse to bring us down since the Mayans apparently got it wrong.

Fa la la la la

by with 3 Comments FloridaFriendsOn the hardSt. Augustine

Wednesday December 19, 2012

Sitting inside the cabin in the early afternoon, just like we’ve been spending most of our days lately, there was a knock on the side of the hull and I sprung up to the cockpit. Peeking over the side a loud yell of “Friends!!” escaped by mouth, because standing on the ground were Brian, Stephanie, Scott, and Kim. This was not unexpected as we had been planning on their visit for some time now, but it didn’t make seeing them any less exciting. Not even bothering to put on shoes I bound down the ladder landing on the rocks in my bare feet and attacking my friends with bear hugs, one by one. After nearly four weeks we were reunited with our boat buddies, although just for the day since they were visiting in a rental car before Brian and Stephanie drove it up to Pennsylvania for the holidays. By the time I was done squeezing the air out of everyone Matt had made his way down the ladder as well and began showing off the damage while Stephanie and I, both worn out on boat issues, sat back and caught up on every day life and how we were dealing with sitting in one place. While everyone was checking out the hull they must have thought everything was being held on by a piece of thread because seeing it in person they kept commenting “Oh, that doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would be”.

 Inviting them on the boat we showed some of the damage to the woodwork and where the tabbing had cracked. Then it was time to hear what was holding them back as well, and each couple told the horror stories they were having with their engines and all the work that was going into getting them fixed. All the trials, errors, and lessons learned from taking on the projects themselves. Sitting in the salon with a drink in our hands and enjoying some incredible mint and chocolate chip cookies Kim had made we went through every detail of what we had been up to for the past few weeks until it was like we had never left each other’s sides. Everyone was also able to fawn over Georgie (or Peaches as Brain likes to call her), and Kim, who was very jealous of Tasha’s photo op with Georgie sprawled on her lap, was able to get her own. While the night was still young though and our stomachs were starting to growl we packed all six of us into the compact car in search of a good yet reasonably priced meal. Since Kim and Scott had been here before they recommended a Bohemian type cafe offering things from pizza to gyros to tacos. I tried my hardest to talk the guy behind the counter into giving me the Thursday night happy hour special of a taco plate and a beer but was unfortunately turned down, although very politely, since it was neither Thursday nor happy hour.

When we finished eating we decided to leave the car in the parking lot and walk into town since there is rarely a place to park unless you’re visiting a certain establishment, and only while you’re there. It was weird being swept back to a life where you even had to think of such things as parking since now we tend to forget that things like that are even necessary. Having been just outside of the ‘Nights of Lights’ I waited for Stephanie’s face to light up as soon as she saw them coming up to the Lightner Museum, and boy did they. The way the lights are set up here really is like something out of a fairy tale. There’s not too many to make it gaudy or overdone, but just placed perfectly on every arch or wrapped around each palm tree. It’s easy to see why they’ve made National Geographic’s Top 10 Places to See Holiday Lights, in the world!

Wanting to share the beauty of the courtyard inside the Lightner Museum I began to lead the pack up the pathway where we became blocked by one of the trolley tours that had stopped right in front of us, blocking our path forward. Everyone on the trolley was in good spirits, yelling out ‘Merry Christmas!’ to anyone passing by, and they were also wearing what looked to be 3-D glasses. Stephanie, being a pro on anything fun, explained they enhance things like Christmas lights, changing the bulbs into shapes of things like stars and snowflakes. Overhearing us, a guy on the trolley pulled of his pair to hand around to the group of us as we each held them up to our eyes and went ‘ooh and aah’ as all the lights turned to snowflakes. Why weren’t we going on this tour?! It looked amazing, plus everyone riding was in such good spirits that it didn’t take us long to start yelling ‘Merry Christmas!’ back to anyone that smiled at us. Once the trolley left and we had given the glasses back I was really excited to go show the courtyard now, only to find the gates locked. Peering behind the cast iron bars, Kim and I did our best to describe the beauty to Stephanie, the coy pond in the center with the stone bridge that crossed. Luckily this will not be their only visit down though and the next time they come we might find the gates open, or at least a way to scale them.

Continuing down the street we were shown a statue down an alley way by Kim that has an interesting back story from the last time they were here, and pressed our faces up against the shop windows on cobblestone roads. Carrying on we did more window shopping, looking at stain glassed masterpieces and popped into an art gallery with some beautiful pieces of work that could regrettably not be photographed. (And regrettably they got that message to me too late) Next door at A1A Aleworks I pointed out the microbrews to Brian and we agreed that we’d have to stop in for a round the next time around. Across the street, Stephanie and I lost everyone else as we wandered around a soap shop, picking up scented candles and soaps while admiring all the displays.  Back on the street we ambled down historic St. George Street while moving about aimlessly through other shops including a chocolate shop and a magic store where we were treated to a ten minute magic show demonstrating all the tricks available for purchase.  There were a few that we were almost tempted to buy, the flaming wallet at the top of the list.  I mean, who wouldn’t love to be standing at the Starbucks counter and when you open your wallet to pay the bill it bursts into flames?  With a candid camera type show the wallet would pay for itself…and keep itself stuffed.

Progressing on we stopped for a quick disco party under some strobing green and red lights on an open patio.  We found French Fry Heaven and perused happy hours and daily specials at restaurants.  Showing them the $4.99 beer and hand rolled cigar combo that was popular at a few shops we were unable to convince them of it at this point, but maybe ‘next time’.  At one point Stephanie exclaimed, “This town is amazing!! I’m having the best time ever, and I haven’t even been drinking!!”. So we’re pretty sure it won’t be hard to lure them back for maybe even a full week once Rode Trip is up and running again.

By the time we were ready to head back to Serendipity we were so high on the presence of each other, the beauty of the town, and the cheer of everyone around us that we could not contain our own excitement or Christmas spirit. There were not as many trolleys running now, but each time one did we would yell out at the top of our lungs, a chorus of mismatched “Merry Christmas’” between the six of us. By the time we got back to the side street that housed the rental car I think a few of the drivers began to recognize us and probably thought we were drunk or just harassing customers. As one trolly pulled on to King Street we belted our normal chorus, but no one on board responded or even looked at us. It’s like their conductor got on the speaker just as he spotted us and told everyone to ignore the group of crazies off to their left. Treating us like a group of Tyrannosaurus Rex’s he must have advised, “If you don’t move…they won’t see you”. We weren’t going to let the tourists dropping energy levels ruin the rest of our night though as we hung out in the parking lot testing out Brian’s new pole spear before climbing back up Serendipity for a night cap.

Being the amazing friends that they are, Kim brought rum for us to drink, and Brain and Stephanie had made their own ginger beer. With Dark & Stormies in hand we spent the next few hours relishing in each other’s company for as long as it could last. For a short period we weren’t three boats that weren’t stalled from traveling, we were our old gang, laughing and socializing, and looking up more crazy videos on Youtube. (Really Scott and Kim, you hadn’t heard about Double Rainbow?) When it was time for everyone to leave I had the instinct to stow away in the trunk, following them along and letting the good times continue. But all good things must come to and end and the high we’d all been feeling through the day suddenly plummeted as we realized the fun was over. But in the morning that low will be replaced by the excitement and anticipation that we’ll get to do it all over again someday soon.

 

 

 

If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Electronics

by with 2 Comments If I Knew Then What I Know Now

December 18, 2012

Love having this little baby in the cockpit.

We’ve only been cruising for just over four months now, but it’s already been plenty of time to figure out what works and what doesn’t as far as all our electronics go.  And that’s not even in a ‘broken or working’ sense, more of a ‘this was a good purchase/feature, or not’.  Because if we knew then what we know now, we probably could have saved ourselves a lot of money on things we added that aren’t really that necessary.  While talking to our friends Ron and Jackie who will hopefully be on our tails in just a few years, they asked what the best pieces of equipment to outfit their new boat with are, probably thinking they need a lot of the top of the line pieces we just purchased.  Some things we’re definitely happy we got and will be recommending they do the same, but some things we got were just….unnecessary.  So if we could help more than one person with outfitting their boat in preparation to go cruising, we happy to throw out some opinions and advice.

But remember, this list is just meant to only be a piece of advice and our personal opinion.  Every sailor is going to have a different idea of what works for them and it may not match with ours.

What we Love

This is a list of what we feel are the best purchased we made as far as electronics.  Things we couldn’t live without and we would definitely recommend to other boaters.

    • Autopilot.  Hands down this is the number one best purchase we could have added to our boat.  Any time we’re out on the water it gets used.  I could not imagine having to steer by hand for hours on end, it’s both physically and mentally tiring.  With the set up we have now we only hand steer through narrow or winding areas like inlets, rivers, canals.  Whenever we’re in a big body of water we just engage the autopilot and keep an eye on the horizon, and on the chartplotter, changing course by a few degrees or multiples of 10 when we need to.  I don’t think we’d have the discipline to be on the water without it.  I tip my hat to any of you that do.  (Our autopilot is made up of Raymarine SX10 Computer; Raymarine rudder position sensor; Raymarine linear drive type 1; Raymarine st6002 head unit).
    • Cockpit mounted VHF.  Don’t worry, that’s not the only one we have.  There’s also a Standard Horizon GX2100 at the nav station.  But I have found it almost indispensable to also have one in the cockpit at all times.  It sits right next to the wheel and the autopilot controls, and we have it on whenever we’re traveling.  It’s usually just monitoring channel 16, but any time we need to hail a lift bridge, respond to a hail from a passing boat, or hail Tow Boat and the Coast Guard (cough, cough), it’s always at arms reach.  Rarely do we ever use the one at the nav station while we’re traveling, and since I, helmsman and VHF correspondent, can’t be at the wheel and down below at the same time, it makes it very handy to have one available above deck. (Our cockpit mounted VHF is a Standard Horizon RAM 3)
    • AIS. Automatic Identification System.  This favorable little device is a tracking system used on ships for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data.  We only have the receiver part of this which means that we can pick up other ships transmitting, but not the transceiver which would allow them to pick up us.  It’s still very useful for us though since who we need to keep the biggest eye out for on the water are the large containers/tugs/ect., that are traveling in the 10-20 knot range and are not likely to change their course to move around us.  Meaning that on a bad night they could run us over before we ever saw them.  But with AIS they send out a signal that we pick up on our chartplotter which shows their location, their speed, their direction, and usually their destination.  We also have a way to set it up where our GPS reads their coordinates and speed against ours and will notify us if we’re on a collision course and can tell us when it will happen down to the minute.  This takes so much pressure off on night watches or when you’re exiting the Charleston Channel at 5 am and you can’t tell if those bright lights are 1 mile away or 10.  (Our AIS is Standard Horizon GX2100).
    • Vessel Systems Monitor.  Although this falls into the somewhat frivolous category since there are other ways around getting this information, we still love ours.  In one little screen that we have mounted at the nav station it shows the current charge of our batteries, how many amps we’re bringing in from our solar panels, how often our bilge runs in a 24 hour period, and even the level in our holding tank.  There are so many other things it monitors as well: all voltage, amperage, watts, frequency, ect.  But did you hear me?, it monitors the level in your holding tank!  Which means that I don’t have to squeeze myself into a lazarette, unscrew the top to the holding tank, and put my face up against it to see how full it is.  I have a pretty strong stomach, but constantly checking poo levels does not fall into the category of things I like to do.  (Our VSM is a Blue Sea Systems 422)
  • LED Lights.  Any lights we have been able to change to LED, we have done so.  From cabin lights, to the masthead light, to our navigation lights.  They are incredible at conserving energy which is great because we make all of our own and it’s all we have to go on.  LED lights use 1/10th of the power our original lights did, so we don’t feel bad lighting our cabin up like a Christmas tree at night.  Plus with sunset coming so early the closer you get to the Equator, you want to make sure you’re never left in the dark because you’re worried about conserving your power.  Now if we could just get something going with these in the cockpit, we’ll be all set!  (We currently have Sensibulb and IMTRA LED lights, but have been having issues with the Sensibulbs flickering)

One thing about life aboard: you learn to appreciate the glow of a good bulb like it’s a best friend. When the sea is dark and the wind’s humming through the rigging, there’s real comfort in a well-lit cabin. It’s not just about seeing where you stashed the peanut butter—it’s about creating a little bubble of warmth and safety in the middle of all that wide, endless blue. And when that light doesn’t flicker? That’s gold.

We’ve started eyeing some updates for the cabin lighting setup—something with a bit more charm and a lot more reliability. A las sola lamparas caught our attention recently, and not just because the name rolls off the tongue like a sunset cocktail. They’re sleek, simple, and made for folks like us who don’t want to waste a single watt. The designs seem tailor-made for compact spaces like ours, casting light exactly where it’s needed without draining the battery bank.

Of course, boat life means nothing is plug-and-play. Mounting, wiring, and testing all take time—time usually spent dodging weather or fixing whatever the sea threw at us that day. But little by little, we’re building a space that feels like home. A good lamp may not solve all your problems, but it sure makes troubleshooting in the dark a lot less miserable.

What we like but could have done without

These are the things that although we like them and have not had any issues with them, were not necessary purchases.  Either there was a cheaper route we could have gone or a roundabout way we could have done it.  But since they’re already on the boat…..happy to have them!

    • Chartplotter.  For those of you who follow along you know that I love my chartplotter.  I stare at it all day long whenever we’re traveling because I constantly want to know our position, our speed, and even the time of day.  (Imagine me whining ‘Are we there yet?’.)  I live by our chartplotter.  But there’s another and cheaper way we could have done this.  Introducing…. da da da daaaa…. an iPad.  It can do the same exact thing as your chartplotter.  All of your charts can be loaded on there, it can talk with your other devices, and you can take it anywhere.  There are also really nice waterproof cases that make it almost indestructible on a boat…given that you don’t drop it in the water.  It’s what our friends on Rode Trip have been using and they’ve been very happy with it. (Our chartplotter is a Raymarine C95)
    • Instruments.  Things like depth sounder, wind speed, and boat speed.  These are very important things and I’m not discrediting them altogether, but the reason they make the list is because all that information is viewable on the chartplotter.  The instruments we have came with the boat, but honestly, they’re never looked at.  Remember how my eyes are always glued on the chartplotter?  Most of the time we don’t even see the ones mounted in the cockpit because they’re covered with chairs or lines. (Our instruments are Raymarine ST60)
    • Radar.  This actually is something I would consider a necessity.  It’s just something that, surprisingly, we haven’t used very much yet.  That’s probably because almost everywhere we’ve been so far in the U.S. is so well charted that we don’t need to check it against radar.  It will go on sometimes during night watches just as a little something extra, but then you have to be zoomed in very close (usually within a mile or two of your position) on the chartplotter which in turn doesn’t give you the wide view and a chance to see other boats transmitting AIS.  I’m sure it will become very useful once we’re out of the country and the charts may not be as up to date, but at the moment it’s not getting the kind of use we thought it would. (Our radar is a Raymarine 418)
  • Handheld VHF.  That’s right, we have three on board.  And guess which one never gets used? In fact, the only time it ever did get used was while coming up to locks on the Erie Canal and I’d be standing at the bow with boat hook also in hand, hailing the lockmaster.  Which could have as easily been done from the cockpit.  They’re usually short range, die quickly, and may not be as waterproof as you’d hoped.  (My fault for leaving it out in a rainstorm)  That’s not to say they’re bad all together.  If you buy a good one, keep it charged, and stow it out of the rain it could be a very good alternative to a cockpit mounted VHF.  (Our handheld VHF is a Uniden Atlantis 250)

Now that I’m finished I’m actually surprised by how many things are in the ‘need it’ category instead of the ‘it could have waited’.  Sorry Ron, looks like you will have a lot of shopping to do for Hullabaloo.  But again, what works for one boater may not work for another.  There are tons of variables to take into consideration: type of boat; sailing destinations, personal preference; level of proactiveness (I’d say we fall somewhere in the middle there).  But I think our best advice would be ‘You won’t know before you leave’.  Meaning, it probably will take a few months of living on the boat, traveling, and finding out for yourself.  So if you have the ability, leave with the bare minimum and stop along the way to pick up the things you find you need.  Preferably while you’re still in the U.S., it would probably make it easier to get what you’re looking for and have all the necessary tools to get it installed.

Busy day in New York Harbor.