A new feature.

Within the next day or so we will be installing a new feature on the blog. It's called SPOT. Whenever we are traveling, you will receive an email from us (if you are a subscriber) that will tell you we are OK and include a link to Google maps. Click the link and you will see exactly where we are!
The SPOT system is also an emergency notification/locator system so if we should ever get in trouble, SPOT will notify the Coast Guard of our exact location.
Watch for the test message today or tomorrow.

It's official!

The bird's name is Capt. Morgan.
The final vote was Capt Morgan-6 votes, Hemingway-3, Capt Sparrow-2, Charlie-3. So...
the tiny little bird will be stuck with the official moniker "Captain Charlie Hemingway Morgan." For short, he will be "Morgan," "Captain," or maybe "Skipper." He's coming along quite nicely. He did a very clear wolf whistle today, and is on his way to learning to say "Hello" & "Good morning." He's a lot of fun to watch and listen to. I think we will enjoy having him as part of our crew.
Thank you, Julie and Tim.

2 seconds of fame!

Today, we are watching the "Rally for the Republic," (C-SPAN2) the kickoff meeting for the "Campaign for Liberty. It is an organization started by former Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
At one point during the broadcast they showed a clip of Ron speaking in St. Petersburg and there...right in the front row of the audience...guess who: Bev and I! I guess we have used up 2 seconds of our 15 minutes.
To learn more about the "Campaign for Liberty" see the link on the main page of the blog.

Gustav & Chandra

Chandra has gone home. We put her on a plane for Sacramento yesterday and we miss her already. She is really a neat kid.
On Saturday, we took Julie and Tim out for a sail. They are officers in the Sail and Power Squadron in Clearwater and the Squadron had planned a rendezvous for 1:00 PM. The designated coordinates were about 19 miles from here so it took all morning to get there. As always, we checked the weather forecast and it looked fine. It was a great morning on the water, but by afternoon we were starting to see some T-storms on the radar. By the time we anchored at the designated spot we could see a storm approaching from the east. We sat out the brief storm at anchor, but then we could see that it was followed by a whole line of storms. We decided to head back immediately.
Along the way home, one more storm passed over us. There was wind, rain and few close-by lightning strikes, but the boat handled the conditions well. Chandra and Julie stayed warm and dry in the cabin while Bev and Tim and I stayed on deck. The storm passed by quickly and the rest of the trip home went without incident. We made it back safe and sound, right on schedule. In hindsight (always 20-20) it wasn't a good day to have been out, but I learned a little something about the boat and my ability to handle her in less than ideal conditions. I was nervous, but never worried. Now we all have a good sailing tale to tell.
When we got back to the house and checked the weather on TV it turned out that the storms we experienced were part of the leading edge of Gustav. It seems that Gustav picked up speed during the day and spread out a bit to produce the line of storms that hit us. So much for the "calm before the storm" stuff.

Name the bird 2

Well..we still can't settle on a name for the bird. The poll was a tie between Hemingway and Morgan, and we've had two new suggestions. So here's another poll. Everyone please vote so we can finally name this bird.
Thanks.

Chandra takes a cruise

We just got back from a 3 day mini cruise. We wanted to give Chandra a taste of life on the water.
We sailed out of New Port Richey on Wednesday and anchored off Anclote Key. It was a great day of easy sailing in light breezes. We had to tack several times to make way south, but we had all day to go only a few miles, so we didn't care.
When we got to Anclote and set the anchor, there was a swell coming in off the Gulf. Not enough to be a big problem, except for Chandra who got a mild case of the old "mal de mare." A little dramamine and some sleep and she was fine by the next morning.
On Thursday morning we sailed off anchor and made our way down to Three Rooker Bar. We had been advised to avoid this spot, but the advice was dead wrong. It was beautiful. We anchored in about 8 feet of water in the crescent behind the Bar, had a little lunch and then took the dinghy to the beach. We spent most of the afternoon shelling, swimming and kite flying. It was a great afternoon.
Getting back to the boat, we had a great dinner of pork chops, couscous and "apple stuff." A game of Scrabble (which the bird watched intently) polished off a really great day.
This morning, Bev made pancakes for all, including the bird. We motored back to Tim and Julies because they have to work tonight and that meant we had a timetable for getting back. On they way home, Chandra took the tiller for a while and even managed to steer us accurately through a planned course change by following the rhumb line plotted on the GPS.
"A splendid time was had by all."

A sister ship badly damaged

The Anemone, a Bolger AS-39, was badly damaged in a storm in Canada. A 3 day nor'easter caught the crew by surprise with its intensity and duration. Anchored 100 yards off a lee shore, they were caught in 7 foot waves and their anchor line chafed through. The boat was pounded on the rocks for several hours until a crane could be brought to the site to lift her off.
This particular AS-39 (one of only 2 that I know of) was built with a steel ballast plate bolted to her bottom. The 1" thick steel was severely dented and twisted, causing who-knows-what damage to the plywood structures behind it. In addition the bilgeboard trunks were heavily damaged.
The crew, Jean and Gabby, are OK, but are now scrambling to find a home ashore while they repair Anemone, which had been their home prior to the storm.
I wish we could be more help, but our circumstances and location don't lend themselves to offering any more than a heartfelt "Best wishes!"

There's another one!

Yep, there is yet another AS-29. It's "Zephyr," built in Minnesota by Marc Lindgren and now owned by Sandee and Matt DeLapp of Wyoming. They are planning of starting the loop soon, so maybe, just maybe, we will run into them somewhere along the way. Here are a couple of pictures of Zephyr.

Morgan?

My daughter, Jennifer, suggested "Morgan," as in Captain Morgan. Cute. I will add it to the poll.
There is now a poll on the blog site to register your vote on the name.

Hemmingway?

So far the suggestion for naming the new bird are:
"Mist" - Mist was the name of one of the Valkyrie (Walkure).
"Signy" - Also, one of the Walkure.
"Phoenix" - as in rinsing from the ashes.
And finally "Hemmingway" as in a former Key West resident.
I'm leaning in the direction of Hemmingway, but I'm still open to suggestions. So come one folks, send in your suggestions.

Getting to know you...

We're starting to get to know the new bird. (He/She is still nameless, so come on folks, start sending some suggestions.)
We also spent some time today cleaning the barnacles off the dinghy. We will also have to do a lot of scraping on the boat to get rid of what has grown since the last cleaning in Marathon. Here are a few pictures.

A new bird

Well, we're back in the "Florida sun," such as it is today. We flew back to Tampa yesterday, picked up Chandra at the airport and took the Supershuttle to Tim & Julie's house. As we were getting settled in I noticed the birdcage had a lot of new toys in it. As I looked closer, I saw this little bird. Julie had gone to the pet store the day after Barney died and bought this little Quaker Parrot. I guess this settles the decision about getting a new bird.
We don't know the gender (a DNA test is the only way to tell) so we are searching to gender-free name. So...once again I am asking our readers to suggest a name for our new pet.

More baby pics

Bev would never forgive me if I didn't include more pics of her granddaughter, Kahlenn, so here they are.

Talk about bad timing

Here we are in Blackstone MA and watching the reports on TS Fay. The current forecast is for Fay to hit Tampa as a Cat 1 hurricane about noon on Tuesday - exactly when we are scheduled to fly in to Tampa. Yikes! And of course the airlines wants an arm and a leg to change the reservations, and they haven't yet heard about the hurricane. So here we sit, waiting for the airline to realize that there won't be any flights into Tampa on Tuesday. Yuck.
While we wait, here are a few pics of our trip north. I've included a couple of pics of the Grand Opening of the Middletown Vet Center, of which my sister is the new team leader. (You old rockers might recognize the tall guy at the podium as John Hall from the band Orleans. He's now a Congressman.)

Barney, RIP

We have some very sad news to report. Bev and I are in MA visiting her family. (Last week we were in NY visiting my family.)
We left our bird, Barney, in the care of our friends Tim and Julie. It was Tim who rescued Barney after he was hit by an SUV last year. They continued our habit of allowing Barney some time out of his cage each day. A couple of days ago, they let him out and he seemed content to sit on top of his cage, as he usually does. Julie turned away for a moment and Barney decided to fly off his cage onto the floor. Their dog, Angel, pounced on Barney, perhaps thinking he was her squeaky toy. Unfortunately, Barney was far too delicate for Angel's rough play and his neck was broken.
Barney has been a much loved part of our crew and he will be missed.
Of course, Bev and I are second-guessing ourselves about having his wings clipped and about not taking him with us on our trip north, but it's too late for that now.
The boat will not seem like home when we get back and there's no Barney.
We don't plan on getting another bird before we get back to Marathon. We want to give ourselves time to get over losing Barney.
As a last tribute to our little pet, here's a last picture of Barney.

Venice

We're now in Venice, taking a little break in our trip. Pat and Peter, Bev's friends, are letting us stay for a couple of days in the resort condo they manage.
We've been traveling up the coast slowly because of the daily round of thunderstorms. We've decided to travel only in the morning and be safely tucked into an anchorage by the time the t-storms get started. So far, it's a plan that's working well.
After our stop in Goodland (see the pics of "Spammy Jammy") we worked our way up the coast to Boca Grande. We had a good time there on our way down to the Keys, but this time we were disappointed. Everything was closed. So we moved on to Englewood where there is a nice anchorage. We got to see fireworks on the Fourth. The fireworks were all over the place - we didn't know which way to look as the fireworks were all around us. The anchorage was also a short dinghy ride from a nice restaurant called the "White Elephant." We had a good meal and a few drinks there.
Now we are just a few more days from Julie and Tim's. We should be there by next weekend.

Confused?

OK, I know I just threw you all a curve ball.
Yes, we changed our plans. We decided that we were starting out just too late too make it to New York this year and still be back in the Keys in time for Bev to return to her job at the hospital. Our friends Julie and Tim in New Port Richie offered us their dock for the summer so we are sailing there and flying home to NY and MA. We'll have to wait until next year to complete the loop.
This gives us the opportunity to work on Tim's boat and maybe get Julie and Tim to sail south with us in the fall. Tim has no time to do the work himself and I could use the cash so it should work to everyone's advantage.
Besides, as Frank Bamma once said "The best navigators aren't sure where they're going till the get there...and even then they're not sure."

On the move again

Well, it's been an eventful few days. We left Marathon last Friday and sailed to Long Key Bight for an overnight anchorage. The next morning we headed up the "Yacht Channel" across Florida Bay to Flamingo. We should have not bothered. The marina at Flamingo (just about the only thing in the whole "town") was virtually shut down. Sure, they had plenty of slips available and would be happy to charge us to rent one for the night, but there was no electricity, no water, no fuel. So we left and anchored just outside the harbor to get an early start the next morning.
When the sun came up, we had a perfectly delightful sail (beam reach) all the way around East Cape Sable. We anchored off the beach between East Cape and Middle Cape. We had miles and miles of beach all to ourselves. Well, we did have to share it with the mosquitoes.
The next morning we sailed as far as the Little Shark River, chased by thunderstorms the whole way. We made it in safely, tried a couple of spots before we settled in to one we really liked. Just as we started to relax a huge thunderstorm hit. There were lightning strikes all around us, loud thunder, torrential rain and high winds. But our anchors held, and we had a good night once the storm abated.
BTW - we found out how the Little Shark River got its name - SHARKS! Yep, the river is teeming with sharks.
The next day T-Storms were in the forecast again, so we planned a short day. We sailed a few more miles up the coast to a spot called Turkey Key and set three anchors between two of the little Keys that dot this area of the coast, known as "Ten Thousand Islands." Not long after we settled in, a huge storm hit just north of us. The weather service issued a severe weather warning. All we got was some wind and waves. The wind was something over 35 knots (the wind generator shuts down at 35, so we could tell.) Again, the anchors held and we had a good night's sleep. The next morning the mosquitoes were so thick around the boat we could not go on deck for a moment without spraying ourselves.
We planned a fairly long crossing for yesterday and the winds were light so we motorsailed the whole way. It was a nice crossing to Gallivan Bay, but as we came into the marina, the control cables on the engine failed. I could not shift out of forward gear! We rammed the dock pretty hard, knocking Bev off her feet.
Now we are settled in for a few days' rest at Calusa Island Yacht Club. We have to stay here until the new cables arrive. Fortunately, the Yamaha dealer is only a 5 minute dinghy ride from here.
Since we have to stay anyway, we are planning to attend "Spammy-Jammy" on Saturday night. It's an annual party they have here to commemorate Hurricane Andrew. Everybody along this coast has a "ditch bag" or hurricane evacuation kit ready at all times during the season. One of the key components is a can or two of Spam. Since the kits hardly ever get used, it is necessary to replace the older cans once in a while. So...after Andrew passed by, a few of the locals went - in their PJ's - to the "Little Bar Restaurant" to compare their recipes for Spam. Now it's become a huge party with live music, cooking contests, poster contests and "mass quantities" of libations. Of course, I will be cooking up a batch of my world famous "Spambalaya."
From here, it's up the ICW to Marco Island and Naples.

Movin' on

In a few days we'll be saying goodbye to Marathon and Boot Key Harbor. Bev's last day of work (for this season) was Friday. That leaves us free to head out as soon as we get the boat ready. We're not sure if we can make it all the way to NY by our target of late July, so we may have to get as far as we can, then rent a car a drive the rest of the way. It's not what we would like to do, but with 1500 miles to go and six weeks to do it, we may simply run out of time. Don't forget, we have to sail south again and get back to Boot Key by November 1.
One evening last week, a boat broke free of it's mooring and started drifting through the harbor. Alex and Dave from "Argo" headed out to intercept the runaway boat, and I got in the dingy and motored out to help. We tied up the boat to a mooring ball and notified the marina staff. Fortunately there was no damage and no injuries. Just one more reason to never trust just one line. Always use more than one line to tie up.

They say...

if you hang out in any harbor long enough, you'll bump into someone you know. And sure enough, this morning Bev and I were having breakfast at the "Stuffed Pig" and there at the next table was Phil and his lady Wanda. Phil was our next-boat neighbor at South Pasadena. Small world.
Also, on a recent trip to West Marine via dingy, we passed our old anchorage neighbor from Key West "Aurora." Capt Jeff wasn't aboard, but his boat was tied up at the dock.
Also, we recently learned of the passing of another old neighbor, Tom from Pasadena Marina. Tom was the owner of "Spooky," the "marina cat." He was quite a character. He had sailed his boat all over the Caribbean and had written an extensive collection of short stories. He will be missed. Fair Winds, Tom.
On a happier note - we now have a refrigerator! Yep, thanks to Aunt Kay (who passed away a few months ago and left me a small trust fund) we have the means to install a compact fridge and a wind-generator to power it. Finally, no more trips to shore just to buy ice to feed the ice box. And no more paying $2 and up for a bag of ice. Wow! What luxury!
Today's picture is quest for information from all you smart folks out there. What is it? We found this critter climbing all over our hull. It looks like a really big shell-less snail, complete with small eye stalks. It looked like it was searching our hull for something to eat. Apparently he doesn't like barnacles because he could have had his fill on our hull! If you know what it is, please let us know.