Sunday, December 26, 2010

A door closes...

and another one opens.
This will be the last update on this blog for a while. Walkure is presently enjoying a long overdue and well deserved rest. She is sitting "on the hard" in Driftwood Marina. Bev and I have moved aboard Queequeg, where we will be living for at least 6 months or so. Our current plans are to live and work on Queequeg until she is presentable and suitable for cruising. Walkure will remain in storage until we can afford to ship her north to serve as our "summer home" while we visit family. We are hoping that someone in the family will take an interest and help us maintain her in good shape. We have too much "sweat equity" invested in her to let her go.
For those of you who subscribe by way of Yahoo groups, you will no longer be getting automatic updates unless you sign up for the Yahoo group based on Queequeg's blog. To sign up, go to Queequeg's blog:

http://www.svqueequeg.blogspot.com/

Scroll part way down the page and look on the right hand side for the Yahoo Groups button. Enter your email address, click the button and follow the instructions for joining. The group is moderated, so I will have to approve your membership before you start to receive automatic updates.

Bev and I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures in Walkure. We have certainly enjoyed our time on board this unique vessel. But the time has come to move on. Queequeg will take us places that Walkure cannot, and get there a lot faster. Once repairs to Queequeg are complete, look for more of our adventures as we cruise the Bahamas and beyond.

Thanks,
Mike, Bev and Morgan

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Morgan enjoys his morning coffee...



Well, not really, but he thinks he does. Actually, the cup is empty (parrots aren't supposed to drink coffee, but he always tries.)
It's been a busy few weeks since our return from KW. We've done a lot of cleaning and painting on Queequeg and we've rebuilt the subfloor and installed the new flooring in the aft stateroom, the galley and the nav station. We put down a temporary floor in the dining room pending other repairs. The bottom has been sanded, the prop polished and the new cutlass bearing installed. Once the bottom gets a fresh coat of paint, we'll be ready to launch.
It will be sad to leave Walkure, but it will be a joy to have the extra space. We definitely have mixed emotions about the move. But Queequeg will take us place Walkure could not (and vice versa.) We are hoping to keep both boats, but that decision will be dictated by finances.
For now, Walkure will take Queequeg's place "on the hard" in Driftwood Marina and Queequeg will take Walkure's place in the harbor. There's still a lot of work needed on Queequeg and it will be a pain in the a#* working on her while living aboard but again, finances dictate choices. Storing Walkure on the hard instead of Queequeg will save almost $100 a month, plus we won't have to take a cab back and forth every time we want to work on her. That alone saves $15 a day. So...working while living aboard is the only choice.
Our ultimate hope is that we can hold out until my Social Security kicks in. Then we will truck Walkure somewhere north to use in the summers, and keep Queequeg south for the winters. Again, money will tell the tale.
Be sure to check the Queequeg blog for the latest pictures of our progress.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A little vacation

We just got back from our little "vacation" in Key West.
The trip down was easy, no wind to sail with so we had to motor all the way, but it was pleasant anyway. We anchored out the first night in Newfound Harbor, then went to Key West the next day. Our usual anchoring spot in KW is now blocked off by the Navy so we anchored just north of Wisteria Island. The next morning, we found we had dragged about 100 feet, so rather than risk dragging while we were ashore, we went around Fleming Key to the mooring field. We should have known something was wrong when we saw that the mooring field was nearly empty!
We took a ball, then went ashore in the dinghy. We signed up for the ball for a week, then went to Casa Marina to register for the Meeting of the Minds, the annual Parrothead convention. We heard a great band "Latitude," enjoyed a free margarita and then listened to Eric Stone. After Eric was done, we went to Kelly's for wings. It was a good day.
The next day we went ashore again, got our "goody bags" and heard Brent Burns, Jim Morris and Sunny Jom White. We also had a chance to chat with Howard Livingston, but didn't get to hear him play.
The following morning a strong cold front came through and the wind picked up to 25 knots out of the north. Now we know why the mooring field is nearly empty! There is NO protection from a north wind and guess what? The strongest winds here are always from the north. We ended up not being able to get off the boat for four straight days. We missed the best parts of the MOTM convention and spent the four days in bed watching DVDs.
The trip back was OK, just enough wind to sail, but of course blowing the wrong way. We did sail parts of the trip and motor-sailed the rest. We were happy to get back to Boot Key with its 360 degree protection. This place certainly lives up to its reputation as one of the best harbors in the world.
Latitude

Eric Stone

Brent Burns & Mike

Sunny Jim (left) and Jim Morris
Now its back to work at the hospital for Bev, and for me, getting Queequeg ready for launch.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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Tuesday, November 09, 2010

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Monday, November 01, 2010

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Sunday, October 31, 2010

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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Just a little update

Everything is going well here in Marathon. We've spent the last two weeks working on Queequeg (see separate update on the Queequeg blog) and now we are planning a little R&R. Tomorrow, assuming the weather holds, we will take Walkure down to Key West for a week or so. There's a big event down there called "The Meeting of the Minds (MOTM) and we are registered.
MOTM is the annual convention of "Parrotheads" and this year's theme is "Gypsies in the Palace." It's basically an excuse to eat too much, drink too much and listen to some great music. All our favorite artists will be there; be sure to check out all these great musicians. Most of them have their own websites and many have their MP3's for sale on Amazon. Here's a partial listing:
Eric Stone
Howard Livingston & Mile Marker 24
Jim Morris
Sunny Jim White
Brent Burns
Kelly McGuire
Latitude
Gene Mitchell
And maybe, just maybe Jimmy Buffet. He's not scheduled, but he sometimes just shows up at his restaurant in KW. We've learned the little insider trick to see if he's "in the house." (Sorry, that information is "need to know.") We know for sure that several members of his band will be in town, so who knows?
After our last trip between Key West and Marathon, which ended with us setting anchor outside the harbor at 10 PM, we decided that this time we would do the trip in two days, with an anchorage at Newfound Harbor about half way there. This should make an otherwise tiring trip relatively pleasant.
Look for SPOT updates as we make our way to KW.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Marathon

Well, we're back in Marathon...and we finally got to sail across Florida Bay!

We've now made 5 trips across the Bay and each time either there was no wind or we broke something on the sailing rig and couldn't sail. But this time it was different. We started out from Little Shark River at first light on Monday morning. The wind was a light NNE so we motor-sailed for a while. After we pased Cape Sable the wind picked up and it started to get difficult to handle the boat with the motor running. So we shut off the motor and sailed the rest of the way, dodging crab pot floats about every two boat lengths. It was a grueling 10 hour game of "dodge pot" but other than that it was a pleasant sail. The boat handled well in the 10 to 15 knot NNE wind and we made it to the 7 Mile Bridge without incident.
Once we arrived in Boot Key Harbor we discovered that the draw bridge was being worked on and we couldn't pass through until the following morning. It was nearly sundown and we were tired from two back to back 45 mile days, so we chose to motor around to Sisters' Creek and enter the harbor. As we left the creek and entered the harbor we spot the bridge in the open position! Dang it, the workers had just gone home and left the bridge open after all.
The marina office was closed so we just chose our own mooring and checked in the next morning.
Tuesday it rained nearly all day, over 8 inches total! We had to bail the dinghy twice.
On our trip down, we had a hitchhiker, a little Florida Scrub Lizard we called "Gary." We didn't mind having him along as they eat bugs!
We also finally made it ashore at Cayo Costa and spent a few hours on the beach. We've anchored in the little bay (Pelican Bay) a few times before but never went ashore.
At one of our anchorages (Lemon Bay) we anchored a few hundred yards farther south and were treated to a bald eagle sighting. The eagle just sat on the sand bar for nearly an hour, just watching the water.
We finally made a visit to Queequeg on Friday and found that there was water inside again, but not nearly as bad as before. I guess the first task will be to get the bilge pumps operational, and then track down all the leaks so this doesn't happen again.
We also made some new friends on board a really pretty old Chris Craft sailboat, Yellowbird. I didn't know Chris Craft ever made sailboats and apparently theirs in number 78 out of only 80 boats built. They've done a fine job restoring it. We had them over for dinner on Friday evening and they had us over for drinks and a tour of the boat on Saturday. Terry makes jewelry and presented Bev with an anklet.
Yellowbird

Our hitchhiker

Sunset at York Island

Anklet by Terry

Bald Eagle

The Beach at Cayo Costa
Next week we will start the process of getting Queequeg ready for launch. Given that we got back to Marathon a bit later than we had planned, it looks like the launch won't be until some time in November. Be sure to watch the Queequeg Blog for updates.

Monday, October 11, 2010

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Sunday, October 10, 2010

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Saturday, October 09, 2010

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Friday, October 08, 2010

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Thursday, October 07, 2010

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Tuesday, October 05, 2010

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Monday, October 04, 2010

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Saturday, October 02, 2010

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Friday, October 01, 2010

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Thursday, September 30, 2010

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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