File under: liveaboard problems

Another important habit for every new liveaboard to form is that of checking his or her flipflop each time before putting it on to ensure there's no crab in it.

7/23

We've finished April's ASA 101 book.  We'll forge ahead with the 103 and 104 books while she's in Chicago over FaceTime.  We'll also be conducting an experiment in remote homeschooling as we try to maintain momentum in math with Aud and reading with Lo.

Starting on soft decks this week

I'm going to start taking some concrete steps on this soft deck issue shortly.  April and the girls will be off of Lark for the next 4 weeks so I'm going to attempt to get the cockpit floor done in that time. 

This week I'm going to go have a talk with the experts over at Fiberglass Depot and try to get the cockpit floor clear which will entail taking out the electronics and engine controls and icebox.  

Let the fun begin!

Holy catfish, Loey!

Lo caught 2 catfish from the boat today.  I was able to get the hook out of the first one's mouth which was a big first for me. The second ended up snapping the line before we could land him.  I guess we need some heavier line on her rod.  I'd love to figure out how to bait the hook with something that won't draw catfish though it kinda seems like they'll just bite anything they see.

7/16/2015

More back and forth on cruisersforum about deck repairs these past couple days, and an offer of help from Dad have me feeling better about the project.  I'm going to get over to the Fiberglass Depot up the road and have a chat with those guys about materials.  

San Juan Sailing's Itinerary

I'm so excited! I'm going to take a sailing course out of Bellingham, Washington in the end of August. The course covers three ASA (American Sailing Association) certificates. Not only do I plan on learning a lot, but I can't wait to explore the San Juans!

Check out the schedule for the class!

Day 1 - Sucia Island. A brisk sail across Bellingham Bay to Lummi Island, up scenic Hale Passage, to the most popular of the marine parks.
Day 2 - Stuart Island. Cruise through Dahl's Porpoise territory southwest along Orcas Island to Prevost or Reid Harbors. Both are part of a state park. There is a very nice walk (about an hour each way) from both anchorages to Lover's Leap and the Turn Point Lighthouse.
Day 3 - Roche Harbor. Visit this historic (circa 1880s) resort and marina on San Juan Island to do some docking practice and wander the gardens while enjoying an ice cream cone.
Day 4 - Friday Harbor. Sail around San Juan Island to Friday Harbor, the largest village in the San Juan Islands. Explore this bustling town and enjoy dinner out.
Day 5 – Rosario Resort. Cruise past Shaw and into the center of the islands to this stately resort in East Sound (Orcas Island). Tour the historic mansion, enjoy a swim or hot tub, or hike up to Cascade Lake in Moran State Park.
Day 6 - Inati Bay. Sail east through Obstruction Pass, drop anchor here on Lummi Island.
Day 7 - Bellingham. A morning sail across Bellingham Bay completes your circuit, though truthfully you have tasted but a tiny sample of the delights of the San Juans.

ASA for April

We got April signed up for ASA 101-104 at the end of August at San Juan Sailing in Bellingham, WA.  I'll be taking a week off work for some single parenting fun.

Fishing date illustrated

Lo drew a picture of our fishing date.  

Dink trouble

Apparently these foldable dinghies aren't really intended to be towed 400 miles.  The floor of our West Marine Hypalon AL-290 has begun to peel back at the bow:

We're going to take it for we expect will be a warranty repair, but West Marine won't look at it in the store.  Instead they require us to take it to a service center in Stuart and the service center charges $50 to look at it even if it ends up being covered by the warranty.  So we're not overly impressed with West on this one.

Fishing date

Lo and I tried to learn how to fish today.  She was thrilled with her new rod and though we only caught seaweed we did have a great afternoon together. 

One Year and Counting

It’s our first summer living on the boat. I was worried it would be way too hot and sweaty, but really we are staying far too busy to notice the heat! Plus, we do have air-conditioning, which helps a lot. 

We have crammed in two visits from friends,  four camps (2 each), plus lots of attempting to just do normal summer things, and we are not even half way through. 

First, my beautiful friend Tammy came with her two sons for a long weekend in Orlando. We met at a Disney resort for an action packed several days. We played in the pools, went to downtown Disney and spent a fun day at Legoland. Disney was really busy with lots of people and lines, and I had a problem with continually losing the children! I think I'm out of the habit of being in crowded places with them. Our lives are pretty slow paced these days. I was feeling a little frazzled by the end. It was great catching up with my friend though and her boys are so sweet and fun. The last day the girls said they felt like they were their brothers. We miss those guys!

Michael going down the slide at Disney

Tammy and Lee

Legoland was a breath of fresh air after Disney...no lines, and a fun low key experience

Less than a week later my long-time pal Valerie and her 9 year old son flew in. Valerie and I have been friends since we were in the second grade, and no matter how long we are apart, it is always really easy to slip back into comfortable. We spent our first few days together down in the keys. We went out on a snorkel boat, spent a morning at Bahai Honda and went to Theater of the Sea in Isla Morajada.

We all loved playing water volleyball in the keys

heading out to snorkel at John Pennekamp

Valerie and Audrey

Theater of the Sea

feeding the parrot fish

Lorelei and the amazing Wilbur

Lorelei found a washed up sea sponge

We also had a 5 days planned around Ft. Pierce where we were hoping for lots of leisurely trips to the beach and a trip to Legoland. Unfortunately, Audrey got really sick and we had to take things very easy. We still made it to Legoland which was really fun, even the second time in two weeks!

fighting with Darth Mal

Valerie and Evan at the Fort Pierce inlet

The week after Valerie and Evan left the girls had their first camps of the summer. I signed them both up for two weeks of camp. For the first round Audrey did sailing camp, and Lorelei did a gymnastics camp.

Lorelei liked camp, although she was one of the younger girls and didn't seem to click with the kids as much. She loved all of the trampoline time though, and was pretty excited about the day they had an ice cream truck come by and she was allowed to pick whatever she wanted!

Lorelei showing off her new moves

Audrey loved sailing camp this year! She was a little bigger and stronger and so she was better able to control her boat and get it to go faster. Also, I don't think it hurt that there was another 7 year old girl in her group!

Audrey with her new pal Ruby

pulling ahead in the race

she has a great memory for knots

It’s hard to believe we have been in Florida over a year now. Last year at this time we were staying in a vacation condo trying to get the boat ready to splash. We have been really enjoying all of our summer plans, but I think the thing we are most excited about it getting back to traveling with the boat. We have lots of different possibilities being tossed around for our next trip, and they all sound great! 

More Summer Fun:

Playing with all of our new legos. After two trips to Legoland we have some cool new pieces. 

water balloons! 

checking out a new water park

fun 4th of July with our cousins

Audrey's first sparkler

Dink barnacles

So it turns out that inflatable dinghy anti-fouling does not entirely prevent barnacles. I put a double coat of it on about 4 months ago.  The dink has spent almost the entire time in the water since then.  Apparently there are no barnacles in the Keys so this has grown in the past 6 weeks or so.  There were maybe 100 or so 1/4 inch barnacles.  They came off easily with the handle of a plastic spoon. 

Not sure if I'll put it back in the water or not. Probably will do so for the next week to determine whether or not this anti- fouling is still basically effective or not.

 

7/2

We had a nice brainstorming session on how each of us can make some money on an ongoing basis when we're out cruising.  We don't need much but it'll be good to be able to make a bit as needed.  

I'm feeling some urgency to get out there for real.  It's been a reasonable amount of time to be living in a marina and getting used to the experience of being aboard but it's time to get going now.  The whole point is to have more of time to myself to spend with my family and see the world.  To do that I must rouse myself from the comfortable rut I'm in.  Again.

7/1

Spent some time researching and trying psych myself up for this deck project.  Honestly makes me miss apartment living.

6/30

We had a deck guy over to have a look at our situation and he agreed with the last guy that it was a 10 or 20 grand job.

I asked him if he'd let me know if he's going to do something similar on another boat to give me a ring and let me come be his assistant and he said he would.

He did give me some reason for optimism though in that I'd been really puzzling over how to deal with having the surrounding core open to the elements once I'd cut open the rotten part. He said that wouldn't be an issue if I used his approach since he'd immediately build a watertight barrier against that perimeter as soon as he had it opened up.  

This is sure going to be a learning experience.

The limits of unlimited towing

Did you ever wonder what the limit actually is on the unlimited towing plan  from TowBoatUS?

Well we know now.  

We got our mail from St Brendan's Isle for the past several weeks and discovered that we had made the entire return trip from Marathon without towing coverage.  TowBoat had sent us a registered letter before we ever left Marathon stating that due to the massive tow bill we'd rung up getting down there they were firing us as clients and including a full refund of our dues for the year.

I honestly can't blame TowBoat.  We cost them several thousand dollars, and they did the deed in the most forthright way it could've been done.  

It was an eye-opener though.  I immediately thought of Rebel Heart and how they were a thousand miles out at sea when their sat phone service was switched off.  

So now we're a SeaTow boat and I'm adding it to our predeparture checklist to call and verify towing coverage every day before we head out.

6/28

I ordered those big deflatable fenders today.  I wanted to have some extra big fenders for a hurricane, but we'd have nowhere to put the regular vinyl ones.  I'd read good things about these so I took advantage of West's triple points weekend to grab them.

Nothing in the 5 day tropical outlook so that's good.

6/27

After having some horrible bug the entire week I'm finally back to doing stuff.  So yeah, gotta wrap up hurricane plans then get back into deck repair.  No idea how to get started on that.  We'll figure it out...

Hurricane planning

I did some more research on tying in the slip and we're planning a couple recon trips to some local hurricane holes.

Hurricane Planning

72 hour todo list 

• fill  diesel
• decide whether J should stay or go?
• decide where the girls will go
• deflate soft dinghy and stow aboard unless anchoring out
• get valuables off boat

• situate boat
• haul out?

• secure boat in slip?
• add lines to better secure adjacent boats?
• min 8 docklines (all new)
• 4 heavy nylon twist
• 4 longer polyester (less stretch, more chafe resistant)
• no more than 2 lines per cleat and piling
• chafe protection
• deploy fenders, fender boards
• how to secure lines to pier and pilings
• disconnect power lines?

• anchor out?
• get anchors and chain aboard
• place anchors in an equilateral triangle
• 10:1 scope
• heavy duty snubber
• get to hurricane hole
• vero mangroves?
• okeechobee waterway/indiantown?
• canal?

• batten and seal all hatches

• close all seacocks except for cockpit drains
• close 
• engine raw water
• A/C raw water 
• head inlet
• head outlet
• head sink inlet
• head sink outlet
• galley sink inlet
• galley sink outlet

• open cockpit drains

• bung exhaust

• secure boom

• cover cockpit instruments

• take as much below decks as possible to reduce windage
• lifeline netting
• mainsail
• mainsail cover
• jib
• staysail 
• cockpit shade
• forward shade cloth
• aft shade cloth
• winch covers
• windlass cover
• cockpit seat cushions
• jib sheets
• stay sail sheets
• other loose lines
• helm cover
• binnacle cover
• companionway cover
• propane tanks (ok to keep aboard?)
• anchor (unless anchoring out)
• outboard (unless anchoring out)
• grill
• jerry cans (ok to keep aboard?)

• secure everything below

• pack up for everyone leaving
• sternos
• water filters
• tent?
• people food
• dog food?
• water
• batteries
• valuables
• gas
• cash 
• clothes
• first aid
• pap

• pack up for whoever's staying with boat
• water filters
• people food
• dog food?
• batteries
• cash 
• first aid

• leavers leave

links

• Atlantic 5-Day Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook
• Atlantic Tropical Weather Discussion

research

• Each year, on average, two hurricanes will come ashore somewhere along the Gulf or Atlantic coasts
• Florida is struck most often
• A study by MIT after hurricane Gloria found that boats stored ashore were far more likely to be saved than boats stored in the water.
• If you plan to anchor, check your charts to see how much water your boat will be anchored in. The best anchoring is usually in sand, followed by clay, hard mud, shells, broken shells, and soft mud. Also, water can sometimes be blown out of the harbor, leaving boats stranded briefly. If this happens, your boat would rather settle onto anything but rocks.
• If a category one storm is expected, the likely surge (according to the Saffir-Simpson scale) is only 4’ - 5’; a category two surge is 6’ - 8’; a category three surge is 9’ - 12; a category four surge is 13’ 18’; and a category five surge is above 18’.

Planning to plan

We're shooting for a crossing to the Bahamas around Thanksgiving.  We have a lot to do first, including some deck repairs and a lot of education and experience building.  

We'll also need to first survive hurricane season so my first priority is to get written down a bunch of things I've had floating around my in my head about that, and to get everything bought and prepared that we won't have time to do if we should find a storm aiming at us.  Dear blog, I intend to be accountable to you for this.  

school 6/3/2013...sort of

We were all a little exhausted from our busy weekend with friends in Orlando, so after the basics of Math, History and reading, we played legos all day.

No Name Harbor to Ft. Lauderdale

It was a great day for sailing, and we were finally able to get the sails up! Jacob did so much work on the halyards while we were in Marathon that we were able to put up both the jib and the staysail. Unfortunately the Main halyard was twisted so we weren’t able to get that one up. 

We pulled in nice and early to Las Olas Marina right downtown. We were a little worried that this was going to be a very expensive week with all the marinas we'd called charging over $3 a foot per night. Thankfully we found this municipal marina which is much more reasonably priced. 

I really wanted to stay at a marina because of the heat. We have air conditioning but it only works when we are plugged in. The days have been getting up to 85 degrees and that makes it really sticky in the boat! Since it was Mother’s Day, Jacob let me twist his arm and find a marina. 

side tied in No Name Harbor, giving Sweet Pea one last potty break before we hit the road

story time with Daddy

The staysail and the jib

Audrey did some rainbow looming for Sweet Pea on the trip

1st Overnight Passage - Marathon to No Name Harbor

We did our first overnight… on purpose.

The plan was to leave Marathon on Friday afternoon as soon as Jacob could get off of work, bypass Rodriguez Key, and make it to No Name Harbor (one of our favorite anchorages on the way down).

We had planned to have Jacob take the first shift, and then wake me around 3:00,  but Jacob didn’t want to leave the helm so he let me sleep until we were pulling in to No Name Harbor and he didn’t sleep at all. It made for sort of a rough day in No Name Harbor. We decided to side tie to the sea wall instead of anchoring in the harbor.

We are getting pretty good at docking and un-docking. The sea wall was nice because we didn’t have to stick Sweet Pea in the dinghy. She could easily get off and walk around the beautiful state park. We ate at the Cuban restaurant overlooking the harbor.  Not very good food, but the view is awesome.

The four of us also walked over to the beach and played for a while. The state park doesn’t allow anyone to stay tied to the wall overnight, so we decided to anchor just outside the harbor in order to get a nicer breeze. We had a beautiful sleep with a fresh breeze blowing through the cabin, and only had to get up once at 2:00 for an anchor drag alarm that turned out to nothing but the tide changing. It was good though, because being as close to the beach as we were to our anchor, we needed to know.

Dolphins off the starboard bow.

playing at the beach