Winter

Date: November 24, 2014

Location: Blacksburg, VA

We moved back into our house in Blacksburg last week for the winter. It's in the mountains of SW Virginia at 2,000+ ft elevation. The day after we got our furniture moved from a friend's house we had a hard frost and snow flurries! We looked out the window and then at each other - no words were necessary. So far this winter has been a far cry from the last 7 we spent on Rachel. No, instead of balmy it's going to be COLD....freezing cold, not the 70 degrees F cold that we whined about when a cold front came through the Bahamas. No, this is the real thing – 15 degrees F during the day!! Sheesh! What were we thinking???

Even though it's only been a week we are already enjoying hanging out with family and friends here. We are also enjoying being at home again, although it does still feel weird, especially being here and not going to work every day.

And it is so big, compared to Rachel. We open the fridge, “Oooo this is SO big”; we lay in our king size bed, “Oooo this is SO luxurious”; we turn on a tap, “Oooo on demand hot water”; we turn on a light, “Oooo we don't need to check the batteries”; we fill the dishwasher, “Oooo”. We feel so decadent.

The house is in great shape to say it has been rented for so long. We've had the same family here the whole time we've been gone and they cared for it as if it were their own - we are very lucky. Now we have lots of jobs to do over the winter, both deferred and regular maintenance. Nothing too major, just lots of little things that need doing to keep things up. Today, for example. Winter took a little break and it was a balmy 60 degrees F (!!) so we donned our shorts, went outside, and got everything out of the shed and onto the lawn. Then we gave the shed a good cleaning and inspection, then sorted through the stuff, some of which got put back in. Then we made a pile for the dump, a pile for donations, and a pile of stuff we've never seen before to see if it belongs to any of our current tenants. Awesome, that's one thing crossed off our list!

What are our plans you may ask? Well, we're not sure, but we'll probably figure it out over the winter, sitting in front of the fireplace with our mugs of hot chocolate. Now, where are our slippers and woolly jumpers?

Plans

Location: Deltaville, VA
Position: N 37° 32.94' W 076° 19.78'

We have been very remiss in keeping the blog up to date this year. Our last entry had us lobstering in Long Island, Bahamas. Hmm well it's now almost August!!

We had a great but fast trip back north from the Bahamas. We met up with our friends Shep & Deb, to travel north with them from Florida. It's their first year cruising and we traveled offshore together from Florida to North Carolina. We are now back in the Chesapeake Bay using Deltaville, VA as a base for Rachel and are taking side trips to visit family.

We've been down to the outer banks of North Carolina twice, Blacksburg, VA twice and we are now in Connecticut with Mark's mum.

We've decided not to go south this winter. We have seven years of deferred maintenance that we need to do at our house in Blacksburg and some work we need to do on Rachel, as well. The house stuff is easier done if we're living there and the Rachel stuff is easier done if we are NOT living there. So...we've told our tenants we plan to move back into the house when their lease runs out mid November, or , if possible, before. And hopefully won't freeze to death during our first winter in 7 years!!

Hunting lobster

 Location: Thompson Bay, Long Island, Bahamas 

Position:  N 22 21.144 W 075 07.793

We're sitting at anchor in Thompson Bay, Long Island, another of our favorite stops. Julie, as usual, is in the water. Yesterday, she went snorkeling with some friends and found a lobster living in a small cave in some rocks.

Our friends ask “Do you have a spear?”

Julie replies “Yes, but I've never used it. We've only had it for 7 years”.

“You should try and kill the lobster” they say.

This gets Julie thinking, (always a dangerous proposition).

“Hmm how hard could it be? We have friends who hunt lobster all the time. It does seem silly to have the spear and never use it. And some fresh lobster would go down pretty well ...”

That settles it. The next day she dons her snorkel gear and Mark's way-too-big leather work gloves. The spiny lobsters down here in the Bahamas are, well, spiny, and without heavy gloves, it's easy to get poked when you try to handle one. With her trusty pole spear in hand, she sets off toward shore.

The spear has a piece of surgical rubber tubing attached at the non-pointy end, allowing one to pull the spear back, stretching the elastic. When released, the spear springs forward, hopefully hitting and killing the target, in this case Julie's lobster. Unfortunately, the first time she tries, the old elastic gives out and breaks under the stress. This leaves her on the surface with a plain old 5' long spear and a lobster about 8' below on the bottom.

She provides Mark with a running commentary.

“I've found it, but the spear elastic broke!”

She dives down 3 more times and shoves the spear into the hole and wiggles it around. The lobster emerges from the hole.

“I've got it on the run!”

Mark, watching her shenanigans from aboard Rachel, giggles and cheers her on. She dives down a few more times. He notices her swimming away from the lobster's hole.

“It's running around on the bottom and I'm poking at it!”

Rachel's captain nearly falls overboard because he is laughing so hard. When asked if there's a problem, he replies “Nothing, dear. Nothing at all.”

Not having any luck with the spear, she swims dejectedly back to the boat.

Score: lobster 1, Julie 0.

A friend mentions that he's heard you can catch a lobster with a mop. Apparently, one shoves the mop into the lobster's hole, twists it about a bit, and the lobster's spines tangle in the mop, allowing one to pull it out of the hole and take it to the surface to the dinghy. This sounds like a good idea to her, so a few hours later (after more dangerous cogitation) she's once again on the hunt, gloved up, with trusty mop in hand.

She spends about 10 minutes locating the lobster and another several minutes “mopping” it. She calls out a progress report to Mark, still aboard Rachel.

“I think I've traumatized it!”

Mark is once again having difficulty staying aboard Rachel due to the effects of his convulsive laughter. Several photo ops are missed because he's finding it difficult to see through the tears.

Julie comes to realize that swimming around traumatizing the lobster isn't going to do the trick and reluctantly gives up, swimming back home with her mop.

Score: lobster 2, Julie still 0

That evening at happy hour she tells friends the story and one of them says “I have a spare elastic if you want it.”

He brings it over and leaves it with her. She installs it on the spear, gives it a good stretch and it breaks! Another dry rotted piece of rubber.

Hmm. (Oh no! More “thinking”!) She decides to cut the ends off the new elastic and retie it with our old string. She whips the elastic onto the string and now she's back in business, after a good test she's ready for attempt number three.

The next day she goes off again. At first she has trouble finding the lobster as the visibility has got pretty bad with lots of sand being stirred up from the high winds. Finally she finds the hole and there's the lobster staring up at her, taunting her. Arrogant beast! She shoots the spear 5 or 6 times to no avail. Finally, the lobster emerges from the hole and, with one last derisive wave of it's antennae, swims, really fast, off into the distance. Wow! She never realized they could move like that!

Score: lobster 3, Julie still 0

Later, we tell other friends the story during yet another happy hour on another boat. After the laughter dies down, Julie says

“I've decided that if it wants to live as much as that, I just don't have the heart to kill it, so I'm going to stop trying.”

Final score: lobster for a win with 4, Sweet Julie still 0, but also a winner in our book.

Volunteering in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park

Location: Cambridge Cay, Exumas, Bahamas
Position: N 24 18.210 W 076 32.375

Wow! It's been over a month since we last wrote. Guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun!

We're just finishing up a month-long stint volunteering for the Exuma Land and Sea Park as mooring hosts at Cambridge Cay, one of our favorite spots in the Bahamas. We did this for three weeks 6 years ago and enjoyed it so much we decided to do it again this year for five weeks.

You can learn more about this exceptional park at their web site: http://www.exumapark.org/) and you can read Khronicles from our last stint here: http://svrachel.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

It's a great deal. We go around daily in our dinghy visiting the other boats collecting mooring fees and helping to manage the anchorage. We also organize the occasional happy hour, clear and maintain the trails, and provide info regarding the island and the snorkeling and diving opportunities nearby. We enjoy meeting and chatting with all boaters and their guests who come here to pick up a mooring and support the park. In exchange we are given a free mooring in paradise, occasional rides down to Staniel Cay for shopping, a bit of gasoline to cover what we use doing our rounds, and, very important, trash pickups every few days!

Julie even found time to learn how to collect palm fronds and weave baskets! Her inaugural effort has earned her some well-deserved praise from other veteran basket makers.  We should mention here that she was given the palm fronds she used to make this basket by a friend who picked them outside the park. The entire Exuma Land & Sea Park Park is a "no take" zone.

The snorkeling around here is exceptional, so we've been treated to lovely fish and coral at one of the several snorkel spots here almost every day, often accompanied by other visiting boaters.

Mark, Julie & Maureen after a swim

An old friend of Mark's from Copper Hill, Virginia, came to visit for a week, too. We had a lot of fun with Maureen and enjoyed sharing this special place with her. One boat lost their dinghy the night before we took her to catch her return flight. We were lucky enough to spot it drifting out into open water on the banks on our way to the airport at Staniel Cay, giving her the opportunity to also participate in a dinghy rescue! The dinghy owners were very appreciative as you can see from their blog: http://www.sailingkiawah.com/2014/03/ode-to-rachel.html

Mark helped some other friends who were having trouble with their outboard,.  They wrote about us too. http://sailingsimplelife.blogspot.com/2014/02/friends-to-rescue-in-cambridge-cay.html. Apparently we are really popular this year!!

So, here's a typical day as Cambridge Cay volunteer mooring hosts:

6:30 am – Listen to Chris Parker, our favorite weather guy on the SSB (marine single side band radio), make coffee

7:30 am – Fire up the old Pactor modem and check our radio email, drink coffee.

8:30 am – Listen to the Cruiseheimer's net on the SSB, eat breakfast.

9:00 am – Listen to the park mooring assignment net on the VHF, give a 10 second Cambridge Cay mooring status report, do dishes.

9:30 am – 3:30 pm – go for a walk, work on the trails, snorkel, swim, eat lunch, nap, etc.

Cambridge mooring field

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm – do our “rounds” in the dinghy: collect mooring fees, provide local info, and meet the nice people who have come in to visit us for the night. This sometimes takes 2 hours if a lot of new boats have arrived.

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm – happy hour. Sometimes with friends on another boat, sometimes with everyone in the mooring field and anchorage on the beach, sometimes we do a “dinghy raft-up” where all the dinghies off to each other off Rachel's stern and pass appetizers around, sometimes it's just the two of us for a quiet evening on Rachel.

6:30 pm – 9:30 pm – dinner followed by a game or movie, sometimes both.

9:30 pm – Oops! It's 30 minutes past “cruiser's midnight”! Time for bed!

You can imagine the stress we've been under with this hectic schedule. Just joking – we love doing this and really are enjoying ourselves.

There's one occasional exception, however. Whenever the wind is forecast to come from a westerly direction at more than 10 knots, the moorings fill up early, and people come in to anchor because of the great protection afforded here. Anchoring is allowed at Cambridge Cay, but only to the west or the south of the mooring field – not to the north or the east, and not within the mooring field itself.

From the highest point on the island we could sometimes
 pick up enough phone service to look at email

We make sure to announce these rules on the VHF whenever someone calls in for anchoring info so that everyone else who is listening in can hear them (the VHF is like a big party line – everyone listens in on everyone else's conversations). But invariably a boat comes in and tries to anchor where they're not supposed to. Sometimes they'll reply to our calls on the VHF and will move before they get the anchor down, saving them some time and trouble. Other times they'll ignore our calls and anchor anyway. This means we have to get in our dinghy (and the weather has usually deteriorated by this time so the ride can be bouncy and wet) and go over to the offending boat to ask them to move. This is our least favorite part of the job. Most of the time they move without too much protest, but sometimes it can get a bit painful.

 

Maureen chillin' at the beach

We've learned there are several distinct types of “bad anchorpersons”:

The Clueless: this person pleads ignorance and moves readily enough, albeit sometimes with a bit of grumbling. We usually give them the benefit of the doubt as to whether they heard us hailing them on the VHF, and generally end up on good terms with them.

The Exception: this person thinks rules are for other people. Certainly not for them. They usually try to browbeat us into letting them stay, and will only move grudgingly.

The Entitled: this person has “been anchoring here for 18 years and it's the first I've ever heard of this restriction.” They will also only move grudgingly, and seldom stay more than one night – “If I can't anchor where I want to, I'm going to take my ball and go home...”.

Maureen feeding the pigs at Big Major's Spot

The Confrontationalist (our least favourite): this person is usually also an Exception and is sometimes also an Entitled. He will go out of his way to create a confrontation. “What regulation is that?” and “Where is it written that I can't anchor here?” and “Why didn't you tell me BEFORE I got the anchor down and set?” (never mind that we tried to hail you repeatedly on your way in and your radio was “off”). Very little, if anything, will make this person happy. Sometimes we drop a hint that the park warden will be coming by soon with the Defence Forces guys – this is usually enough to get them to move. Once, when a boat didn't answer us when we hailed them, we didn't bother going by (our dinghy was up in preparation for some bad weather). We just called the park office on the VHF, asking them to send the warden down to talk w/ them. The offending boat left right away and we canceled our call to the office – so much for not having their radio on, eh?

At any rate, here we are in paradise, having a ball. Our time here is almost up and we'll be moving on to George Town next week to renew our tourist visas.

Until next time, fair winds, be safe, and enjoy!

Junkanoo!!

Location: Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Position:  N 24 52.142  W076 09.878

We've been lucky enough to attend not one but 2 Junkanoos this year. Junkanoo is a traditional Bahamian holiday parade and celebration. See http://www.bahamas.co.uk/about/junkanoo/what-is-junkanoo for more info.

January 1, 2014 – New Years Day

We love Junkanoo. Especially in Green Turtle Cay. It's not as big and fancy as the one in Nassau (there's only one band), but it starts in the afternoon on New Years Day rather than late at night – a much more “cruiser friendly” time of day! We attended Junkanoo here in 2009 and this year made a point of hanging around in the Abacos so we could go again. We enjoyed it just as much as our first time.

The rhythm of the drums, cow bells, whistles, and other noise makers is mesmerizing. The costumes are creative and colorful. The dancing is exotic and beautiful. The shuffling walk of the musicians moves the parade forward at a slow, rhythmic pace, giving everyone a chance to see all of the performers. It's very much a family friendly function, with children actively participating in the parade and in the activities before and after. It's one of our favorite experiences in the Bahamas.

We even managed to get a short movie of the parade before our camera ran out of juice. The video lost some quality when we uploaded it, and the soundtrack doesn't really capture the insistent rhythm of the big drums very well, but it will give you a taste of our experience. This was filmed about an hour after the parade started, so some of the initial “pep” is beginning to 

fade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXAMqlA8STE

See more of our photos following this post.

January 25, 2014

A few weeks later, on our way down the west coast of Eleuthera, we learned that in a few days, schools from all over the island would be sending entries to Governor's Harbour to compete in their Junior Junkanoo. This made Governor's Harbour a “must stop” for us. Luckily, we were blessed with benign weather, since the anchoring there can be a bit sketchy.

Each school had picked a theme and had obviously put many hours into practicing the dancing and music, and creating the costumes from cardboard and different colored tissue paper and other materials. The parade/competition started around 5pm. We found seats in the bleachers so we could see above the crowds that lined the street. Venders were selling food and drinks and all the families were there to see their kids in the parade. Everyone was happy and having fun. We had a lovely afternoon and evening watching and enjoying all of the kids from 5 to probably 12 or 13 years old. They were so cute!

Check this link for more Junior Junkanoo pictures: http://www.eleutheranews.com/permalink/3786.html

A bunch of other Junkanoo photos (not from us):

https://www.google.com/search?q=junkanoo&rlz=1C1ASUT_enBS579BS579&espv=210&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=b5UhU5CrDoWX0QG77YDIDw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1006&bih=621

 

Hatchett Bay

Location: Hatchett Bay, Eleuthera, Bahamas

Position:  N 26 20.995 W 076 29.573

We first stopped here for a quick overnight stay, not even going ashore, last year on our way south. After talking with friends who have stayed here often, we decided to make it more of a destination this year, rather than just a convenient overnight stop. We're really glad we did.

Hatchett Bay Pond is a small, very protected basin on the west coast of Eleuthera and is touted as being the safest harbor in the Bahamas. Several years ago the Bahamian government installed a bunch of moorings and the town makes them available for free.

The settlement on the south end of Hatchett Bay Pond is named Alice Town. Our first day ashore happened to be Sunday. Meandering around town we began to realize that there were a lot of churches for such a small place. Every one of them had people singing, preaching, and “amen”ing. Everyone we met smiled and said “hello” or “good morning” - even the teenagers!

We also heard about a roadside stand on the main road a couple of miles south of town that sells fresh vegetables. The next day being Monday, we decided to go check it out. It was a bit of a walk but we're glad we made the effort. Marilyn and her husband (who wasn't there at the time) have a farm where they grow vegetables, herbs, and fruits. When we arrived we were happy to see a table full of okra, papayas, grapefruit, oranges, tomatoes, squash and herbs amongst other things.

We had a bit of a sit down in the shade and a lovely chat with Marilyn. When we gave her our boat card she looked at it and said “Blacksburg, VA. I almost went to Virginia Tech!” Small world eh? She is a construction project manager and her husband is in construction. They are trying to make a go of the farm and then she'll be looking for some project management work. There is quite a lot of home construction going on in Eleuthera so we wished her well in this endeavor.

With a bag full of goodies we hitchhiked back to the boat. Within a couple of minutes 2 construction guys in a pickup truck stopped to give us a ride. We clambered into the back and off we went. It didn't seem nearly as far on the way back, although we did have to stop for an errant cow in the middle of the road!

They stopped at a little local bar called “Da Spot” for lunch, and being on the lookout for local dining opportunities, we decided it was a good day to treat ourselves to lunch, too. We'd heard this place had good food and was a good place to mingle with the locals. They have a fixed price $7 lunch - it was delicious, especially when accompanied by an ice cold Kalik beer. Mmmm.

We ended up spending a week here. The people were really friendly and helpful, the little grocery was really well stocked, and we walked up and down every road in town and across the island to the beautiful ocean side beach a couple of times. Julie even came back from the beach with a pocket full of sea glass! We visited all the little shops, had a nice wander around the graveyard (which was right on a beach), and generally enjoyed ourselves meeting and chatting with the locals. All in all it was a very enjoyable week.

Unfortunately, our camera battery chose to run out of juice just as we arrived here and we discovered that the charger was back in Florida in our van. Oops! Luckily some friends were able to find it and take it to our mail forwarding service. We got it in our next mail package, forwarded and delivered to us at the end of February by a visiting friend. Guess you'll just have to take our word for it...

Merry Christmas To All

Location: Manjack Cay, Abacos, Bahamas

Position: N 26 49.318 W 077 22.079

We crossed over to the Bahamas from Ft. Pierce, FL on Sunday December 15^th. It was a less than ideal weather window but our boat jobs were done and it looked like the best opportunity for at least the next week. So off we went, hauling anchor 3:30 am, slack tide at the inlet. The winds were a bit' on the nose' so we pounded our way across the Gulf Stream taking lots of water over the bow. Mark spent a lot of time down below feeling ill and Julie hunkered down under the dodger and tried to stay dry. 

We got onto the Little Bahama Banks before sunset. Then the winds died down, and we were treated to an amazing light show, thunder and lightening, beautiful but a bit disconcerting as we were the only tall 'tree' in a 20 mile radius! Nothing close enough to be worrisome, but a bit nerve wracking when we discovered our radar (we often use to track storm paths) had quit working. Around midnight the storms left us and the wind filled in from the North. After that we had a wonderful sail the rest of the way, arriving at Green Turtle Cay around 9am.

We've spent the last week walking, resting and generally enjoying ourselves. Hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones. Cruising is great for meeting people. This was what we really missed on our camping trip this summer. We just didn't meet as many people camping. When we're anchored, we'll dinghy by a boat and if people are sitting in their cockpit, we'll stop and strike up a conversation. One thing leads to another and the next thing you know we're having happy hour, going for a walk, playing music, and we're all the best of friends. Not with everyone we meet, but I guess we do all have this bond of being a bit intrepid, being out here, and relying on each other in hard times for a specific tool, advice, borrowing an item for a recipe, etc. After all, it's not like we can just look up stuff up on the internet or pop over to the corner grocery.

Manjack Cay is one of our favorite stops in the Abacos. An American couple, Bill & Leslie, own quite a big chunk of the island. Over 22 years they have built a lovely home, established extensive trails and gardens, and they welcome cruisers to come ashore and share the results of their efforts. We've made it a point to anchor here for at least a few days each time we've come through the area, and, along with other cruisers, gone ashore for walks during the day and happy hours on the beach in the evenings.

We were pleased when Bill & Leslie invited us to share Christmas dinner with them and about 30 other people at their home. We had a delicious meal on their big wraparound porch. Everyone had a wonderful time and we met many new friends. Of course, we were all missing our families, but the camaraderie here was the next best thing. 
 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, a Cheery Boxing Day and a happy and fulfilling New Year

Now we're talking

Location: Vero Beach, Florida
Position: N 27 39.709 W 080 22.359
 

We escaped from the dock last Sunday and the past week has been awesome. We've been moving some and exploring some. Hanging out with some of our favourite cruising buddies and having quiet time alone. Exploring new places and visiting old favourites. All in a week. Now we're talking...this is cruising and why we love it.

We left the dock in Green Cove Springs timing it perfectly to get to the Jacksonville railroad bridge in time for it's 2pm afternoon opening. We were tootling along the St John's River enjoying being back on the water and finally moving again, when we heard a boat call the Coast Guard asking about the bridge opening times. The Coast Guard told them the bridge would be open from 10am to 1 pm. Huh? This was completely different from the info we had. Apparently they had changed the schedule just for that one day because there was a Jaguars football game downtown! Yikes! This made a huge difference in our plans!

We figured out that if we hightailed it at near full throttle we'd make the 15 miles in time to get there BEFORE it closed from 1pm to 4pm. Well, we did make it, thank goodness, by about 8 minutes, and even got to see the beginning of the game from the river! With a 2 jet flyover, cannons, fireworks, and a view of the huge TV screen in the stadium showing opening ceremonies there was lots to see. We caught the outgoing tide down the St John's river making 8 knots at times and luckily had no big boat traffic to worry about. The St John's is a major shipping river with massive freighters bringing cargo to and from Jacksonville, it can get pretty scary, especially with the strong currents.

We spent a lovely, quiet, full moon lit night anchored by the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) just off the St John's and the next day traveled down to St Augustine, one of our favourite stops. Being the oldest city in America, you can imagine there is lots to see and do there and especially when you get to do it with good friends you haven't seen for a while. So we spent 2 days socializing and exploring then we were off again down the ICW. We spent 3 long days motorsailing in cloudy, sometimes rainy, weather which wasn't very fun but hey, we were on the water, moving, and we were happy.

We stopped at a new-to-us anchorage near Melbourne, Florida called Dragon Point. There used to be a huge sculpture of a dragon on a spit of land at the mouth of the Banana River, it is now a crumpled pile of concrete and chicken wire, but the spot still holds the name. We had friends who just spent 10 days there and sang it's praises so, as there were big winds forecast, we decided to hunker down there for a couple of days with our good friends on Barefootin. And we were able to get some cleaning done on the decks as we were enjoying sunny 80 degree weather for a day before the winds picked up.

We explored the area by dinghy and afoot, socialized, and while it was windy and rainy, even got to spend some time reading and relaxing. Aaaah, sweet!

Yesterday we moved down to Vero Beach, another favourite stop. Lots of cruising boats are rafted up on moorings and there'll be a huge pot luck gathering with over 100 cruisers for Thanksgiving on Thursday. We know lots of people here and we're sure we'll know lots more before we leave.

 

Happy Thanksgiving,

One step forward …

 Location: Green Cove Springs, Florida

Position: N 29 59.325 W 081 39.657

Rachel's been back in the water for, let's see, two weeks. Wow – just two weeks? It sure seems a lot longer than that.

After getting launched we moved ½ mile to Reynolds Park Yacht Center. It's a little more expensive but much cleaner and nicer. We still had many jobs to do that we needed to be on a dock to accomplish, so we figured this would be a great place to do them. A good decision, as it turned out, since it seems like we've been taking two steps back for every step forward.

For example, Mark needed to align the new prop shaft, which turned out to be a much bigger job than anticipated. One of the rear engine mounts was rusted and, try as he could, he could not adjust it, so he decided to replace it. This meant raising the back of the engine a couple of inches so he could slip the old one out and the new one in. Good thing he did, as the mount was broken, too. One thing led to another, blocks and tackle tied around the boom and led to a winch, crank crank, only 1/8” left to go, and CRACK. Huh?? The boom gallows shattered (this is a curved piece of wood that the boom sits on when not in use). It was dry rotted. The good part is that he did finally manage to get the engine mount installed and the engine and shaft aligned.

While this was going on Julie established herself in the lovely big lounge with her sewing machine for a few days to work on a new bimini, the shade cover for the cockpit. With two big tables, lots of floor space, and ample lighting the space was much better suited to her needs than down below in Rachel's salon. A lot of cutting and sewing, a couple of test fittings followed by a final fitting, and we now have a nice new bimini. With the bimini on, Mark was then able to reinstall our second solar panel.

The next step was to cut and sew the piece of canvas that goes between the bimini and the dodger called the connector. The dodger serves as the boat's windshield and the front of the connector attaches above it to – you guessed it – the boom gallows. Which was in many small pieces.

Now, what to do about the boom gallows? We went to a local sawmill and, as luck would have it, there was a big chunk of cypress sitting there. The owner cut a 1.5” thick board off the chunk, squared it up, and cut the board into several 1/2” thick strips with his band saw. All for only $10, wood, labor, and all – one of the best deals we've ever lucked into!!

After a stop at a lumber yard, where we bought some clamps and a piece of plywood that we then had cut into three pieces, we headed back to Rachel. We screwed the three pieces of plywood together to make them thick enough, then cut out an arc with the same radius as the old boom gallows. The plan was to use the two plywood pieces as a press to curve and clamp the wood. After a bunch of epoxy and 3 days clamped in the form followed by a couple hours of sanding – voila – we now have a nice new curved boom gallows made of laminated cypress. Sorry we forgot to take a picture of this process.

So now that we have something to attach it to, Julie can finish the connector.

Then yesterday, right after we released the boom gallows from the form, we ran out of water. Okay, time to fill the water tanks. Starboard first, then move on to the port tank. Julie opened the deck plate, put in the hose, and waited. Okay, it's full...OH NO!! That wasn't the WATER deck plate, that was the FUEL deck plate!! We now had a fuel tank that was half full of water and half full of diesel fuel!! What a mess!! Just when we finally felt we were starting to make progress.

After everything else we've had to deal with, all we needed was another major task. Needless to say we were both pretty upset. After learning that it would cost over $300 to have a fuel polishing service handle the problem for us, the folks at the marina said they'd deal with the contaminated fuel for free if we could get it out and put it into containers. So Julie went to Home Depot and bought ten five gallon buckets with lids. Mark hooked up an old oil change pump and we proceeded to fill the buckets. Luckily diesel fuel floats on water, so by pumping the water out of the bottom first, we were able to salvage about 20 gallons of fuel. We'll still have to run it through our homemade water separating filtration system a few times before we can put it back in the tank, but at almost $4 / gallon that will save us a few bucks.

And then, to top it all off, a cold front comes through and we find ourselves sitting down below this morning while it blows in the high 20s gusting into the 30s and the mercury falls so far we're wearing fleeces and slippers!! At least we're able to plug in our little heater to take off the worst of the chill. Can't do many boat jobs in this weather, but at least we're getting some time off and you are receiving this update.

We need to get off the dock and get moving further south so we can return to fair weather, fun, and friends!! Hopefully we'll be on our way in the next few days.

Full Circle

Location: Green Cove Springs, Florida
Position: N 29 59.091 W 081 38.894

After a great three months of visiting family and friends up and down the eastern US Wanda has finally delivered us back to Rachel. It's been a great summer filled with spending quality time with our grandkids, families and friends interspersed with sightseeing. 

Wanda has performed beautifully, carrying us and all our gear over 14,000 miles this summer with no breakdowns and no problems at all. What a great car she's been – we couldn't be happier with her!

 We watched Jeseph, Tigerlily and Baylen surfing, and we all had fun camping. We got to see Alex AND Emma play football and took them for an overnight sailing trip visiting at our old haunts on Claytor Lake. We enjoyed a nice long visit with Mark's mom and some of his New England family and hooked up with a high school buddy of Mark's who he had not seen for about 15 years. And we met up with some Canadian cruising friends in Niagara Falls.

We did a couple of house sitting stints, too. One in Blacksburg giving us chance to spiff up the garden at our house, and one in Floyd County near the Blue Ridge Parkway, where Mark used to live, giving us the chance to re-connect with old friends there too. When it was time to head south from Virginia we meandered our way back down to Florida taking 3 weeks and visiting Mark's brother & sister-in-law and numerous cruising friends along the way.

We were rather apprehensive about how Rachel would look after sitting in the yard in the hot, muggy Florida climate all summer. We're happy to report that she fared very well, looking only a bit scruffy and with only a bit of mildew down below. So now we're up to our ears in boat jobs getting her all spiffed up and ready for our next adventures. We're hoping to be finished with our below the waterline jobs by midweek - then we'll at least be back in the water to finish up. We won't bore you with our long list of jobs, a picture tells a thousand words.

Julie was on a scaffolding scrubbing and waxing Rachel the other day. A guy who was working on his boat next to us said to her “I wish my wife would work on our boat” Julie's reply “I wish she'd work on our boat too” .