Wednesday, June 30, 2010

It's official!


Yep! It's now official - finally! The Irwin "Queequeg" is now officially ours. It has taken since May 7 to get this all sorted out.
When I first took possession of Queequeg, I noticed that the hull number on the Canadian paperwork wasn't a valid hull number. It didn't have enough digits. So I took a pencil tracing of the hull and oops! That number didn't have enough digits and even had one digit that was different from the Canadian paperwork. Ugh. So I checked the old US Coastguard documentation and found yet a different number with the right number of digits, but still one digit didn't match the actual number on the hull.
So...when I went to the Tax Collector to register the boat, they wouldn't let me because of the hull number mixup. I had to get an officer from the Fish and Wildlife Commission to come out to the boat and do an inspection. Even he couldn't sort the numbers out. He said he would take copies of everything and send a report to the state capital in Tallahassee to see if they could sort it out.
Finally, last week, I got the letter from Tallahassee with a hull number on it, but it said that I would have to jump through all sorts of bureaucratic hoops to show proof of ownership. Well, it's now all sorted out. I went to the Tax Collector today and was waited on by a young lady named Sandra who was very patient. She listened to my tale of woe, looked at all the paperwork I brought and took everything to her supervisor. When she came back she was smiling. She typed a few things into the computer, wheels started turning and Voila! A registration sticker and document came rolling out of the printer. The title should be here in 10 days or so.
As the Grateful Dead said years ago "What a long strange trip it's been!"

Saturday, June 26, 2010

The New bowsprit


Here's a picture of Tim & Julie's new anchor roller/bowsprit that I built for their boat.
Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Friday, June 25, 2010

So, what have I been up to?

To get an idea of how I spend my time these days, see Tim and Julie's blog at:

Blog of the S/V "Love is All"

There are some pics of me working on the new bowsprit for their boat.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A weekend Luau





This past weekend, Bev and I took Tim and Julie out to Three Rooker Bar for a Luau sponsored by the Gulf Winds Sailing Club of which they are members. We had to take Walkure as their boat isn't ready for cruising yet.
We left Saturday morning and sailed on very light winds the 12 miles to the little sand bar. We set the anchor, hooked up the dinghy and went ashore. There were some games and a lot of great food. I played guitar for a little bit. Around sunset it looked like a thunderstorm was headed our way so we went back out to the boat to get things secured, but the storm dissipated before it reached us.
The next morning we went ashore again so the girls could do some shell hunting. After a late brunch we set sail to come back to New Port Richie. Of course the wind was right on the nose so we tacked back and forth for a couple of hours (great sailing, but little progress toward home) and ended up motoring into the headwind to get back before dark.
All in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Check-in/OK message from Mike's Spot SPOT Messenger

Mike's Spot
Latitude:28.2355
Longitude:-82.74205
GPS location Date/Time:06/06/2010 18:05:30 EDT

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=28.2355,-82.74205&ll=28.2355,-82.74205&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Message:This is Mike and Bev on "Walkure" just letting you know that we're OK.

Raising the safety factor for millions who step into the outdoors each year, SPOT notifies friends and family or an international emergency rescue coordination center with status messages based on situation and need. Ask for Help (or SPOT Assist), Alert S.O.S., Check-In/OK and Track Progress-all with the simple push of a button.
http://www.findmespot.com

Looking for a great way to share SPOT tracks and waypoints, stories and photos? Head to http://www.spotadventures.com and see how users are creating their adventures and sharing them!

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Check-in/OK message from Mike's Spot SPOT Messenger

Mike's Spot
Latitude:27.73639
Longitude:-82.70413
GPS location Date/Time:06/05/2010 13:21:30 EDT

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27.73639,-82.70413&ll=27.73639,-82.70413&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Message:This is Mike and Bev on "Walkure" just letting you know that we're OK.

Raising the safety factor for millions who step into the outdoors each year, SPOT notifies friends and family or an international emergency rescue coordination center with status messages based on situation and need. Ask for Help (or SPOT Assist), Alert S.O.S., Check-In/OK and Track Progress-all with the simple push of a button.
http://www.findmespot.com

Looking for a great way to share SPOT tracks and waypoints, stories and photos? Head to http://www.spotadventures.com and see how users are creating their adventures and sharing them!

Friday, June 04, 2010

Check-in/OK message from Mike's Spot SPOT Messenger

Mike's Spot
Latitude:27.46289
Longitude:-82.69218
GPS location Date/Time:06/04/2010 15:10:57 EDT

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27.46289,-82.69218&ll=27.46289,-82.69218&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Message:This is Mike and Bev on "Walkure" just letting you know that we're OK.

Raising the safety factor for millions who step into the outdoors each year, SPOT notifies friends and family or an international emergency rescue coordination center with status messages based on situation and need. Ask for Help (or SPOT Assist), Alert S.O.S., Check-In/OK and Track Progress-all with the simple push of a button.
http://www.findmespot.com

Looking for a great way to share SPOT tracks and waypoints, stories and photos? Head to http://www.spotadventures.com and see how users are creating their adventures and sharing them!

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Not to worry...

I know we haven't sent a SPOT message in a couple of days. We have stopped at Venice to visit Bev's friends Pat and Peter. We'll resume our trip tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Check-in/OK message from Mike's Spot SPOT Messenger

Mike's Spot
Latitude:27.10836
Longitude:-82.46113
GPS location Date/Time:06/01/2010 12:05:28 EDT

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27.10836,-82.46113&ll=27.10836,-82.46113&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Message:This is Mike and Bev on "Walkure" just letting you know that we're OK.

Raising the safety factor for millions who step into the outdoors each year, SPOT notifies friends and family or an international emergency rescue coordination center with status messages based on situation and need. Ask for Help (or SPOT Assist), Alert S.O.S., Check-In/OK and Track Progress-all with the simple push of a button.
http://www.findmespot.com

Looking for a great way to share SPOT tracks and waypoints, stories and photos? Head to http://www.spotadventures.com and see how users are creating their adventures and sharing them!