Between the Majors

Location: Staniel Cay, Exumas
Position: N24 11.521 W076 27.207

We left Black Point and headed north (10 miles of sailing) to Staniel Cay. There was a front coming through and we wanted more protection from the westerly winds than Black Point affords.

Just north of Staniel Cay there are two islands named ‘Big Majors Spot’ and ‘Little Majors Spot’. Rachel chose to head up to Staniel Cay and ride out the front “between the Majors” as the channel between the two islands is known locally.

We were joined there by four other boats, one of which was some friends we hadn’t seen since we left Normans Cay about three weeks ago. While we were volunteering at the park, they went on down to Georgetown and are now heading back up the Exumas.

Not much to say about our time during the frontal passage – pretty much just three days on the boat, pointing in one direction when the tide’s coming in and the other when it’s going out. We did enjoy a few walks on the island, lots of reading, and some bouncing about as the winds clocked around ….

There are three big rocks (small islands?) between Staniel Cay and Big Majors Spot. The largest of these contains the “Thunderball Grotto”, famous for its appearance in the James Bond movies “Thunderball” and “Never Say Never Again”, and the Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah movie “Splash”. We’ve been wanting to snorkel it since we’ve been in the Bahamas today we got our chance. Not wanting to sound too blasé the fish and the corals were awesome. People bring breadcrumbs into the grotto and the fish mill around to eat the crumbs. This makes the fish very tame and they will come right up to you and nibble at you. It’s too bad we don’t have an underwater camera.

When we leave we’ll be going out into the Exuma Sound through the Big Rock Cut. This, and most of the other cuts in the Exumas, can be a bit tricky if you don’t get the tides right. The banks west of the Exumas are like a giant table – with every tide change huge amounts of water flow in from Exuma Sound to cover the table, and then back out again as it drains. Much of this flow takes place through the cuts between islands. When the tide is really flowing it's not a place you want to be in a boat, for sure.



We are a bit behind on the Khronicles so here’s a brief update & synopsis to bring you up-to-date:

March 11 – Tuesday: N24 05.977 W076 24.147
We upped anchor and headed back to Black Point to “top off” the laundry

March 12 – Wednesday: N23 57.859 W076 18.933
Wind dead on the nose, motored 13 miles to Little Farmers Cay. Lovely little island with only 50 residents, school with 10 students K-9 grade, a grocery, liquor store and 2 restaurants. Rather a strange combination!!

March 13 – Thursday: N23 37.796 W075 54.889
Had a fantastic sail, 31 miles, down the Exuma sound with 10 knots on the beam to Emerald Bay just north of Georgetown. It’s sails like these that remind us of what we love most about living on Rachel. We spent the night in a marina for the first time since February 1st. The big draw was that the $50 slip fee included free laundry, great showers, easy fueling and free on-request shuttle to the grocery and liquor stores.

March 14th – Friday: N23 30.864 W075 44.730
We arrived in Georgetown, cruising capital of the Bahamas, and dropped anchor off Sand Dollar Beach on Stocking Island. So many boats!! We’ll tell you more about Georgetown in the next Khronicle. And this week we have WiFi on the boat!!

Bimini

Location: North Biminii, Bahamas
Position: N25 43.469 W079 17.864

The crossing to the Bahamas went well, except the wind was forecast to be from the south and it actually was northeast. North wind is not good for crossing the Gulf Stream, but the winds were light and we motor sailed across into a pretty good swell. We arrived in Bimini Wednesday afternoon, got a slip for $30 a night, and cleared through customs and immigration into the Bahamas. Several of the boats that crossed over with us are in the same marina – the price was too good to pass up and the anchorage is reputed to be fair to poor holding.

That night (at about 2:00 am) a barge that was being towed into the harbor ran aground. The tug was working on it for about an hour, throwing prop wash through the harbour. We woke up bouncing then heard a loud “clunk” and felt a shudder. Mark jumped out of bed and rushed on deck. The prop wash from the tug was pushing Rachel’s stern away from the dock, forcing her bow in. He hung three additional fenders to protect her. The captain of the boat across from us also got up. One of the cleats on the dock his boat was tied to had ripped nearly all the way out of the dock. We figured that was the clunk. The tug finally got the barge off the bottom and proceeded up the channel. Not a very relaxing night.
The next morning we had a lovely long walk around Bimini. Everyone was friendly and said ‘Good Morning’ to us as we walked by. As we passed a school the kids were out in the playground. We love the colourful school uniforms: boys wear bright purple trousers and white shirts; girls wear yellow and purple plaid skirts, white shirts and bright purple vests.

North Bimini is only 7 miles from top to tail so transportation is mainly by golf cart. We were surprised however how many cars and trucks were on the roads also. Today happened to be the day that the mailboat arrived, this is the lifeline for all the islands. We saw trucks full of fresh produce, TVs, parts, anything that anyone may have ordered from the mainland.

In the afternoon we rented a golf cart with another couple to tour the island. We got most of the way out to the uninhabited end and the batteries started running down. As we headed back to town, the cart was running slower and slower. Whenever we got to a hill Mark would hop out and push a bit to help it over. Still slower. Only about a mile to go. Mark pushed with one leg like he was riding a skate board. Half a mile to go. He gets out, pushes, and jumps back in. Rides for a few seconds, jumps out, and pushes again. OOH! A small downhill run to the rental place! We made it back just as the battery gave it’s last gasp, having just enough juice to get us off the road. Mark negotiated a half-price deal, the trip only costing each couple $5.

A bunch of us made a package deal with a local fisherman for some lobster tails, delivered right to our boat. As a result, we decided to have a ‘seafood soirée’ Thursday evening. We all got together and grilled the lobster and had a pot luck dinner, sharing crossing stories and favourite Bahama stops.

The weather looks like it will cooperate for us to cross the Bahamas Banks tomorrow and then on to Nassau on Saturday, so we’ll probably head out at dawn and spend the night on the banks, then get up early again and head to Nassau. More later.

Day 6 - Squalls!

Date: June 9, 2007
Location: s/v Liberty,
Position: 30 20.38 N 053 47.2 W

We were obviously getting much too comfortable so the weather gods decided to give us a little excitement. During Julie's night watch she noticed quite a large area of weather activity dead ahead on the radar. She kept tracking it as it got closer and closer, finally she decided to wake up Carter to come and take a look. It's always good to get a second opinion. Luckily we ended up sailing right through the radar 'mass' with no rain or high winds.

Later on this morning we noticed a huge area of dense black clouds closing in on us, 'Action Stations'! Batten down the hatches!! Furl the head sail!! John and Julie were in the cockpit they just had time to drop the enclosures when the winds really picked up, the boat healed over, then a wall of rain hit them. Squalls are intense but usually not very long lived. Within a few minutes the wind died down but the rain continued for a while. John and Julie looked like drowned rats but nothing got broken and there was no lightning so we came through unscathed.

We've had a bit more wind and rolling today and the forecast is that we'll get more of the same for the next few days. The only problem with this is that there is increased rolling and pitching of the boat making getting around down below a bit wild. One tends to get thrown around and develop a lot of bruises on hips and shoulders.

A "squall" is a short lived rain storm occuring often in the trades. They are preceded by strong winds and produce heavy rain and sometimes lightning.

Trip so far 890.8 nm (nautical miles)

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Day 5 - Daily routine

Date: June 8, 2007
Location: s/v Liberty,
Position: 29 05.93 N 056 26.53 W

We don't have much to talk about today so we thought we'd update you on a few features of everyday life aboard Liberty.

As none of us are big weather experts, we are using a radio net to follow Atlantic weather. The net controller is Herb Hilgenberg, a.k.a. South Bound II. He is Canadian and for years has donated his time to give weather advice and routing to sailors in the Atlantic. The net is on 12359 KHz every day beginning around 3:30 pm EST, if any of you have the want to listen in.
First, everyone checks in and Herb groups them into locations. Then he steps through the list of boats and gives advice on routing. We had been heading NE since leaving St Maarten as this was good for the wind that we were seeing.

Yesterday we checked into the net and Herb suggested we change our course to due East because there was some storm activity to the North East. We have been heading east for 24 hours and are now ready to change course to the NE and head straight for the Azores.
Oops - belay that - Carter just got off the radio w/ Herb and he's advised us to continue due east for another day or so to avoid some front-generated higher winds.

We may need to make more deviations depending on the wind and weather fronts but we've made pretty good progress so far and not had much rain. We've spent the last 2 days motoring as the wind has been too light for us to sail but that should change in the next day or so, we hope.

We were a bit concerned before setting off on this trip as neither of us has been off shore for long periods of time. We weren't sure if we would be a bit scared, sea sick, or just flip out. Luckily none of this has happened (Editor's note: well, one of us DID see a moustache shop...).

Every day all we see is sea out to the horizon and then sky. I know that sounds like it would get old but so far we are enjoying it. The waves and swells are different every day and we've been studying the clouds, trying to make some sense of the weather. We are not going stir crazy, we've settled into a zone, mentally, and we are feeling very relaxed and laid back.

Of course the weather could change or a ship could appear on the horizon at any time so we do not slight our watches or disregard our safety procedures. We all wear harnesses at night when we are doing watches alone and noone ever goes out on deck without alerting someone.
Something that has really struck both of us is the colour of the sea - it really is a lovely Royal Blue. We never get tired of looking at it.

Half the time we don't know what day it is and only know the date and time because we are making log entries every few hours and changing watches every three hours.

The temperature and humidity have moderated a bit - for the last couple of days we haven't had that hot, muggy weather we'd been having in St. Maarten and since we left.

Khorrection: In an earlier Khronicle we said the doldrums were also known as the horse latitudes. Nay! (neigh?) Not so. All the time we've been spending reading has finally paid off. Though our earlier assertion is a very common mistake, in fact the doldrums live around the equator and the horse latitudes live around 25-35 degrees North - where we are now. We figured we'd best "pony up" to the bar and admit our error.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Day 4 - Wahoo!

Date: June 7, 2007
Location: s/v Liberty, about 380 miles SE of Bermuda
Position: 28 03 N 059 13 W

Mark received some nice fishing supplies (line, lures, swivels, spool, etc.) for his birthday. He and John have been trolling various lures at various depths and distances behind the boat ever since to test them out. We don't leave the rig out overnight, so when Mark came on watch at 6am, he dropped the lure in.


This morning's offering was a simple "silver spoon" on about 15' of Monel wire leader. A couple of hours later, he had a strike!

Much excitement ensued involving the entire crew.



"Play the fish. Let it run some, but bring it in when you can. Without breaking the line!"
"Get my gloves!"
"Where's that gaff?"
"Clear the after deck!"
"Get out the cutting board!"
"Get out the washdown hose!"
"It doesn't look all that big."
"Oh. It looks bigger now."
"Walk the fish forward so I can get the net under it!"
"It's too big for the net. Get the gaff."





Soon we had a nice wahoo aboard - our guesstimate is that it was about 3 1/2' long and weighed around 25 lbs.




Julie is aleady in the galley whipping up a mango salsa with available ingredients to go with it. Carter is figuring out the best method to cook the wahoo, she's a great cook and we are enjoying many wonderful creations from the galley. So it looks like our team work has paid off again and we'll be having a nice fish dinner this evening.
By the way - we may never want to eat store bought mango again, the fresh ones in the Caribbean are AWESOME.




Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Day 3 - Water spouts

Date: June 6, 2007

Location: s/v Liberty, somewhere in the Atlantic

Position: 25 30.19 N 060 23.18 W

It seems some of the most exciting stuff happens on Mark's watch. He's actually seen several bottles, a few fishing floats, some birds, and a packing crate on his watch! This morning was no different.

We'd been playing tag with squalls through the night with occasional rain and a bit of lightning, but no big wind to deal with.

John, Carter, and Mark were all on deck at watch change at 6 am, scanning the horizon periodically, when John said "Will you look at that!"

All eyes East. A waterspout. A tornado on the water. From the deck of the boat, the horizon is about 8 miles away in any direction. We could clearly see the base of the thing spewing out mist, so we know it was less than 8 miles away. Mark ran below, grabbed the camera and woke up Julie so she could see it.

John: "I don't think we want to be anywhere near that"
All the rest of the crew: "Uh...okay."




It lasted about 10 minutes and began to dissipate w/o getting very much closer - understandably to our great relief. As it began to dissipate we noticed more of them along the entire eastern sky - some long and stringy and touching down, some more like cones pointing down from the cloud cover. The whole show lasted about 25-30 minutes.

We spent the next couple of hours trying to guage whether we were going to outrun that particular ominous line of clouds and finally did leave them behind without incident.

Mark & Julies/v Rachel
http://svrachel.blogspot.com/

Day 3 - The Horse Lattitudes (a.k.a "The Doldrums")

Date: June 6 2007
Location: Atlantic Ocean – Day 3
Position: 25 30.19 N 060 23.18 W

The weather has been almost ideal for the past few days. We have enough wind to sail most mornings, but by around 2pm it drops us down to around 3 knots so it makes more sense to motor - if we ever want to arrive in the Azores, that is .

As we move along and the weather is being kind there really is not much to do in regard to boat jobs. One person is always on watch but that just means they are in the cockpit looking out, checking the sails if we are sailing or the engine if we are motoring. All of us seem to spend most of our time in the cockpit reading, chatting or just sitting. We are all getting into a pretty laid back state.

Here's a snippets of a normal day's converstion:
“You think the wind is starting to shift?”
“Maybe….no…wait.., I guess not.”
“Hmm… the swells seem to be getting smaller.”
“Looks like..”
"Did you let out the fishing line?"
"Yea"
"Woah. There's a packing crate floating by..... it is BIG!"
"Holy Crap......well at least it's floating 'this side up'!"
“Great dinner this evening, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Gee. Think it’ll rain?”
“Might. Doubt it, though.”
“Hey! There’s a seagull!”
“Cool!”
"What is the depth of the ocean here?"
"6032"
"Is that feet or meters?"
"Dunno"
"Hmm, does it really matter?"
"Wow, look at that cloud - it looks like a mustache shop"
"You are insane"
"Am not"
"Are, too"
"Oh, look - there's a bottle"

All we need to complete our “sittin’ on the front porch” picture is a bug zapper. Oh, and some bugs to zap. Now that would be entertaining. Yawn.

“Ooh! We’ve gained half a knot!”
“ Wha? Did you just say something?”

Mark & Julies/v Rachel
http://svrachel.blogspot.com/

Day 2 - Chillin in the Atlantic

Date: June 5 2007

Location: Atlantic Ocean – Day 2

Position: 23 01.21 N 61 32.49 W
Total miles to date: 315.7


Today is Mark’s birthday – Happy Birthday!!


We finally did it, raised the anchor at 12:30pm on June 4th and set sail for the Azores. As the crow flies, it’s NE and about 2,200 miles from St Martin.






The weather forecasters were calling for 15 kt winds from the South East which is perfect for where we want to go. As soon as we left the anchorage we realized that this was not to be the case. The wind was more Easterly at 15-20 mph gusting to 25. Hmm. Time to switch to Plan B.
We motor-sailed and beat our way up the channel between St Martin and Anguilla. As soon as we got clear of the islands we fell off to almost due North to make the ride more comfortable and cut the engine. We were in pretty big seas all afternoon with waves of 8-12 ft and a few 15-18 footers thrown in. We made good progress and enjoyed a great, albeit bouncy sail. At the end of Day 1 we had covered 178.3 nautical miles – a pretty good run for a sailboat.


The first day we were all getting our sea legs Mark and I were learning the ship’s systems, the way this boat handles, what all the lines are for (and there are a lot of them), etc. Now that we are beginning to get a handle on the day-to-day running of the boat and our hosts are learning what we can and can’t be trusted with yet, we feel like we’re able to participate more actively and take some of the load off our friends.


Day 2

Because the winds are so consistent there’s not much work to do on a crossing like this. We set the sails and the autopilot and leave them, this enables all on board to just chill out! We read, chat and look out to sea, and take our turns on watch. We’ve been kidding around that if something didn’t happen soon we’ll have to start making exciting stuff up for the Khronicles.
We are running a watch schedule of 3 hours on and 9 off. We may switch them around later but for now Julie is on 12-3 (am + pm) and Mark is on 6-9 (am + pm).


We haven’t seen any fish and until last night hadn’t seen any other boats. Our night watch includes sitting in the cockpit do a 360 degree check around the horizon every 10 minutes and check the radar every 20-30 minutes. After not seeing anything all day this seemed almost a redundant task but that night we saw 4 boats. When you see the lights of another vessel the next job is to figure out which way it is going, and plot it’s course to make sure we aren’t going to collide. Good news – we didn’t collide!!! Now, that’s a successful night watch!


The wind has died down a bit today. We are getting closer to the Doldrums and may need to motor some later today or tomorrow if the wind gives out on us.


Mark & Julie

s/v Rachel

Sint Maarten to St Martin

Date: June 3 2007
Location: Marigot Bay, St. Martin
Position: 18 04.01 N 063 05.91 W

Yesterday we made a big move from the Lagoon at Sint Maarten (the Dutch side of the island) to Marigot Bay, an open Bay on Saint Martin (the French side of the island). While it’s a bit more touristy here, we also think it’s much nicer. Clear water in the anchorage, French food, and we’re at anchor instead of tied to a dock. We’ll add this to our list of places to visit on a return trip with Rachel.

The plan was to get up early, hit the outdoor produce market, a couple of supermarkets, and the bread shop for last minute supplies and then set off for the Azores. The shopping trip took longer than we had anticipated so we decided to get some lunch ashore then head back to the boat to stow everything and set off on Sunday. We found a great French restaurant and ate delicious French food. We all decided it was well worth the delay.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Getting ahead in the Netherland Antilles

Date: May 31 2007
Location: FKG Rigging Dock, St. Maarten
Position: 18 02.06 N 63 05.13 W

We're in Sint Maarten. The island is half French and half Dutch, currently we are in the Dutch section. It's been hot and muggy, but when the breeze is blowing, it's not too bad. Our hosts have air conditioning and we've been using it liberally in the evenings. What a treat!

About s/v Liberty from her owners:
"She is a Whisstocks 55, although she is really 58' in length. She was designed by Steve Dalzell and built of aluminum in Woodbridge, England, in 1988. She is a cutter rig, and her beam is 15'1", draft 7'2", and the top of her mast is 75' off the water (so pray no one has to go up during the trip)."

Here's a link to some info about the designer:
http://www.landingschool.edu/news/bbs.pl?read=17

Our first impression of St. Maarten is that there's a lot of work to do <grin> and some of it is smelly (more on this below)! Our gracious hosts have been great. They have made us very welcome and are bending over backwards to make sure we are comfortable and have food/snacks that we will enjoy. In return we are trying to help them get all their "leaving the dock" jobs done. Mark has been helping getting stuff stowed, setting up the fishing pole, inspecting and fitting sails and running rigging, doing plumbing jobs, etc. Julie has been helping prepare meals and freezing, provisioning, laundry, running errands, etc.

It seems the price of a private cabin on Liberty can be steep. Yesterday Mark noticed a puddle of water on the head floor. Further inspection involving mirrors, flashlight, gymnastics, and the ALTK (appropriate language tool kit) yielded a leak in the waste pump.

Hosts: "Gosh. It wasn't leaking before."
Julie: The Look.
Mark: "It wasn't me!"
Julie: Another Look.
Mark: "Don't Look at me like that!"

Mark was "given the opportunity" to swap out the pump. A couple of hours later the new pump was installed, he was successfully disinfected, and we were back in business. What a way to "get ahead"!

We should be leaving the dock today, fueling up and sailing over to anchor on the French side to finish provisioning. We are planning on having a bit of a ramble around and hope to have lunch there, too, as French food should never be missed, if possible. If all goes well, and the weather gods are smiling, we plan to leave for the Azores on Saturday or Sunday, June 2nd or 3rd.

We'll try and get out another Khronicle before we leave, but don't hold your breath. There's a lot to do, and we may not have an internet connection after we leave the dock.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Yawn

Date: May 28, 2007
Location: Somewhere above Virginia
Position: Sitting up, nodding off

We left St Mary's on Friday morning bound for the Yeocomico River. We had another lovely, relaxing sail across the Potomac River which is about 5 miles wide at this stretch. We were having so much fun we tacked back and forth across the river a couple of times criss crossing with our friends on their boat.

This was followed by the usual cruising routine: we found a nice anchorage and dinghied over for a little walk around the town of Kinsale. Like many other small towns on the bay it used to be a thriving hub linked to civilisation by ferries. When the ferry stops running the town sort of
fades away.

Unfortunatley the only restaurant in town was closed due to plumbing problems so our new dinghy got a workout and nicely transported all four of us up the river to another eatery and back. We spent an uneventful night on the hook, and in dead calm, motored back to the Coan on Saturday.

Sunday was spent packing, organizing, taking care of business, etc.

Now we're on our way to St. Maarten for our 'big adventure'. We got up at 2:00 this morning and our friends (proof positive of the friendship) dragged themselves out of bed to drive us to the airport in Richmond for our 6:00 am flight. Entirely too freaking early for civilized cruisers, we all agreed.

We left Rachel safely tucked in at the dock on the Coan River where our friends will keep an eye on her until they return to England later this month. We have spent a companionable month together and look forward to seeing them again in the fall.

We'll try and get out a few Khronicles while we're gone via the blog or email - we're not sure which will work best for us en route. Hopefully they will be more entertaining - it's just too darned early today to be witty. Yawn.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

St. Mary's

Date: 5/25/2007
Location: St. Mary's, MD
Position: 38 11.406 N 076 26.117 W

Finally!

We actually went sailing!

The anchor light works!

The engine starts reliably!

We're relaxing!

We sailed from the Coan River across the Potomac to the St. Mary's River yesterday in 5-10 knots of SE wind. A nice, slow, relaxing, and easy sail. We sailed into into the anchorage and dropped the anchor, pretty as you please, without running the engine.

St Mary's is a lovely spot with a college and a historical reconstruction area we had a walk around and then back to Rachel for dinner. It certainly is nice to be sleeping at anchor again with the gentle rolling of the boat.

More soon.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Finally aloft

Date: May 22, 2007
Location: Coan River
Position: 37 56.657 N 076 28.891 W



The view is great!



We got a new bosun's chair before we left Deltaville and Mark finally made it up to the top of the mast. Twice, so far! We know many of you have been wondering if that would ever happen !! Actually he liked it so much he's thinking of building a nest up there and moving in with the resident bald eagle.






We've been having a bit of trouble with our anchor light, which is quite a necessity when you are anchoring out. Mark has narrowed down the problem and may only need to make 2 or 3 more trips up the mast to get it sorted out .



Julie is still too chicken to go all the way up, but we did hoist her about 1/2 way for practice. She doesn't have that "nesting" feeling yet, but we're going to work on that. We'll let you know how it goes.



We are no longer stuck in the mud. The water finally flowed back into the Coan and we are now afloat again. We've had fun investigating the little tributaries of the Coan in the dinghy and are happy to report it quite nicely transports 4 adults with no problems. Creatures we've seen aloft (other than Mark) are orioles, heron, osprey, geese, and the occasional bald eagle.



Mark has been helping our hosts at the Coan build steps, cut down trees and has even tried his hand at fishing from the dock! Julie has been working on her tan.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Sitting in the mud

Date: May 16th, 2007
Location: Coan River
Position: 37 56.657 N 076 28.891 W


We finally left Deltaville last Tuesday and had a lovely 2 day sail up the bay to the Coan River. Well, lovely other than some slight electrical problems causing the iron monster (the engine) to not start. More on that later.

Some friends have offered to let us keep Rachel at their dock while we're on our trip to the Azores. We're there now, checking it out to make sure she'll be safe while we're gone.

We arrived near high tide and could see a lot of barnacles exposed on the dock pilings (you don't usually see barnacles at high tide), but weren't concerned since our friends had assured us there was plenty of depth in the slip. We had barely squeezed in, however, when we felt Rachel touch bottom which is, luckily, just mud and sand. We gave our friends 'the eye'.

"Wow it's an unusually low high tide!" they said.

That evening at low tide we noticed that our waterline was higher than it usually is - we could see several extra inches of bottom paint in the stern. Walking around on deck did not produce the usual swaying that we love when living aboard. We gave our friends another 'eye'.

"We've never seen the river so low!!!" they insisted.

So here we lay - sitting in the mud waiting for the river to rise, doing boat jobs that didn't get done in Deltaville!!

Aaaahhhhh..... How sweet it is!

Date: May 13th, 2007
Location: Jackson Creek, Deltaville, VA
Position: 37 32.86N 076 19.78W

We haven't been keeping up with our news very well during the past week, mainly because (like almost the entire time since we left our jobs) it's been work, work, work. So here's a brief synopsis to catch you up:
We finally got Rachel into the water just over a week ago, May 4th. It's about time, eh? Until then, we had focused on all the "below the waterline"
jobs, so now it was time to get Rachel ship-shape above the waterline. We decided to take a slip at the marina for a week while we brought the various systems online, moved more stuff onto the boat, and continued sanding and painting the dinghy. On Friday morning (May 11th) we left the slip, moved about 100 yards to the anchorage in Jackson Creek, and dropped the hook - long trip, huh?
We are still surrounded by stuff that we need to find homes for, but, considering that we made a whirlwind trip down to Blacksburg last week and returned with another full van, we're not doing too badly. We can at least now sit down on the settee and find some of the things we look for. You can hear lots of "Hmm did I put it in this pile? Or is it in that locker behind the settee? Or maybe I put it down in the bilge?". One of our near-future projects is to do an inventory of all the lockers so we can find stuff when we need it.
We still have one coat of paint to put on the inside of the dinghy, hopefully this afternoon if the weather wizards are right. Then we just have to fit it out with various bits of hardware, etc. and we can start actually using it. About time!
It's been raining off and on since last night, so we're having a nice, relaxed morning doing some "inside" stuff that's been on hold while the weather was nice and relaxing a bit. Our hope is to leave Deltaville and actually start sailing in the next few days.
So we're sitting here, swinging on the hook, listening to the wind generator (we call her Wendy), charge our batteries, being quiet and domestic, gently rocking, and thinking "Aaaaahhh... how sweet it is."

Ready to launch

Date: 2 May, 2007
Location: Deltaville, VA
Position: 37 32.916N 076 19.765W - don't forget to check our position on Google Earth

We're officially living aboard Rachel now along with piles of our worldly
goods. We've spent our first k aboard working like dogs - again! Some of you know how much work is necessary to liveaboard, the rest of you just think we have an easy life lounging on deck, drinking margaritas and
watching the sunset!! Not so!! Hopefully at some point in the near future we will get to launch the boat and start having fun!! Although we hate to admit it, we are actually having fun getting our boat jobs done. We do seem to have a lot more achy joints and muscles than in our previous life, though!!

Check out the blog for pictures!! http://svRachel.blogspot.com/

Dinghy Progress:
Mark finally did the dirty deed. After we spent all winter building our new dinghy, Mark sawed it in half. We can hear you now - "What!?! No way!!!" Yep. It's a nesting dinghy and will fit inside itself on our foredeck (we
certainly hope so, anyway...) allowing us to have a larger dinghy than we would with a non-nesting variety.

Rachel Progress:
Mark is working on the through hulls and prop doing maintenance, continuing the dinghy project, and preparing Rachel's bottom for painting. Julie borrowed some scaffolding and has sanded one side of Rachel's teak and started refinishing it, in preparation for a new metal rub rail which will protect the woodwork.

Stowing Progress:
In between all our outside projects, we are also slowly finding homes for and stowing all of our belongings. And that's just the start - we have to make another trip to Blacksburg to pick up the rest of the stuff we couldn't fit in the van on the first trip! And it's not so easy living aboard when the boat is in the yard - getting on and off requires climbing the ladder to get up on deck.

Friendship and Fun Progress:
We are re-establishing our friendships with our Deltaville friends in the evenings at the marina and in the boatyard. We're hoping to launch in 8-10 days, then maybe we'll be able to kick back and sip a few of those margaritas...

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Still on the hard

Date: 2 May, 2007
Location: Deltaville, VA
Position: 37 32.916N 076 19.765W - don't forget to check our position on Google Earth

We're officially living aboard Rachel now along with piles of our worldly goods. We've spent our first week aboard working like dogs - again! Some of you know how much work is necessary to liveaboard, the rest of you just think we have an easy life lounging on deck, drinking margaritas and watching the sunset!! Not so!! Hopefully at some point in the near future we will get to launch the boat and start having fun!! Although we hate to admit it, we are actually having fun getting our boat jobs done. We do seem to have a lot more achy joints and muscles than in our previous life, though!!

Dinghy Progress: Mark finally did the dirty deed. After we spent all winter building our new dinghy, Mark sawed it in half. We can hear you now - "What!?! No way!!!" Yep. It's a nesting dinghy and will fit inside itself on our foredeck (we certainly hope so, anyway...) allowing us to have a larger dinghy than we would with a non-nesting variety.

Rachel Progress: Mark is working on the through hulls and prop doing maintenance, continuing the dinghy project, and preparing Rachel's bottom for painting. Julie borrowed some scaffolding and has sanded one side of Rachel's teak and started refinishing it, in preparation for a new metal rub rail which will protect the woodwork.

Julie sanding Rachel's bottom

Mark paints the bottom, now we are ready to go in the water

Stowing Progress: In between all our outside projects, we are also slowly finding homes for and stowing all of our belongings. And that's just the start - we have to make another trip to Blacksburg to pick up the rest of the stuff we couldn't fit in the van on the first trip! And it's not so easy living aboard when the boat is in the yard - getting on and off requires climbing the ladder to get up on deck. Friendship and Fun Progress: We are re-establishing our friendships with our Deltaville friends in the evenings at the marina and in the boatyard. We're hoping to launch in 8-10 days, then maybe we'll be able to kick back and sip a few of those margaritas...

Deltaville Bound

Date: 22 April, 2007
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Position: Crammed into the van...

... along with most of the stuff we're planning to shoehorn into Rachel. But not all. Nope. Between the dinghy (still not finished, of course) and all it's associated parts, epoxies, paints, sander, vacuum, extension cords, etc., etc., the stuff we've been purchasing for Rachel over the winter, our clothes, tools, sewing machine, food, wine, and all the other assorted crap we're taking, the van's full. Plus, it looks like we'll have to make a return trip next week to pick up the things we couldn't fit this time around.
We learned some new boat math this week: you start out with 10 boat jobs, do 7 and then you only have 8 left.

It's pretty much the same when moving out of your house, too. We've been hoping the hit the road "tomorrow" for the past 4 or 5 days. But the good news is, it looks like we'll actually be heading out tomorrow. The real tomorrow - Monday, 23 April.

Yesterday we took a few hours off in the afternoon - the first break we've had since we quit work! Sheesh! We loaded the dinghy (raw epoxy on the inside, primer on the outside) onto the van and took it to the lake for it's maiden voyage. We popped a bottle of Champagne, made some generous offerings to Neptune and Poseidon, then proceeded to drink the rest as we cruised around the lake.

Dinghy Progress

The bottom is all finished (except for one more sanding and the paint), and we are now adding the gunwales. It's a clamp intensive project as you can see.

Stepping Off the Treadmill

Date: 30 March, 2007
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Position: Lounging in the sun

"Nobody on their deathbed ever said 'I wish I'd spent more time at the office'."

And so it begins. Today was our last day at work. Well, "last day at the office" would probably be more accurate. We still have plenty of work ahead of us just to finish getting our house ready to rent. We have been very lucky so far, in that we already found great tenants and have signed leases in hand. Now we just need to get rid of even more stuff, move a bunch of stuff, and somehow still manage to have some fun.

"He who keeps his nose to the grindstone ends up with a flat face."

If all goes as planned, we'll move onto Rachel in mid-April and spend a couple of weeks prepping her before putting her back in the water - where she belongs! Then we'll finally be able to spend some time sailing in the Chesapeake until it's time to head to St. Maarten for our trip to the Azores.

The dinghy is coming along pretty well and will progress even faster now that we won't be interrupted by that whole pesky "job" thing. We have one more coat of epoxy to apply to the outside before we can sand and paint, and we have the gunnels, some seats, and a few other bits to attach inside. We're hoping to get out on our local lake for a christening and maiden voyage before we head to Deltaville.

That's pretty much it, news-wise for the time being. We've taken the plunge, it's scary and exciting. Some people look at us like we are insane for giving up all the security and our 'safe' life. Others tell us they are jealous. We're kind of hoping "jealous" wins out over "insane"...

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out and proclaiming, 'WOW, WHAT A RIDE!!!'"

We plan to keep that in mind.


Fair winds,
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel