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Showing posts with label Sailing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sailing. Show all posts

Sunday, April 11, 2021

Vision 444 - Key West Boat Show

 Key West Boat Show and Additional Information on the Vision Yachts 444

Summary

We had a great trip down to Key West (okay, actually it was the next island up; Stock Island). The Stock Island Marina Village and adjoining Perry Hotel are absolutely beautiful.  If you are in the area and need a place to stay (and have the means!), it is a great resort.  We were fortunate in that we booked it early for the event and got the room at 1/3 the price it was the week leading up to the boat show.  Admittedly, it was Spring Break, so that may be their peak price for the year for all I know.

We had spoken to Tommy and Amy from Sail Away Catamarans a few times before the event and even had a chance to speak with Thomas and Terri, the owners of Kon-Tiki ahead of time too.  What an absolutely great group of people!

Additional Information

Monday, June 15, 2020

We Launched our YouTube Channel

We Launched our YouTube Channel!

We recently launched our YouTube Channel and posted our first video!  



Check 'em out and let us know your thoughts!

Sue and Mike

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Not the Easter Cruise we had planned

Friday, April 11, 2020


This weekend was supposed to be the Easter Cruise to the Beaufort, NC docks BUT, that got canceled because that town doesn’t want us.

So instead of that, we’re doing some maintenance that’s been on my list for a while, namely replacing the coolant pump on the engine.

Everyone that’s ever worked on a boat will tell you that everything takes twice as long as normal.
Well, when the town your boat is located in is on a Covid-19 lockdown that prohibits non-residents from basically going into town, that makes things even more challenging.

Fortunately, everyone in the boating community in Oriental is awesome and willing to help as they can. So we can still call businesses, place an order, give a CC number and they will deliver to your slip! Shout out to Pat, Lori and Teresa at IWPC, and Jim at Bow to Stern Boating!!

The front of the engine had some surface corrosion and missing paint, seemingly from leaking coolant at some point in her past. While the pump and belt were off, it seemed to be the right time to wire brush and enamel paint those areas. Walmart was out of Yanmar Grey engine enamel so black will have to do.

Deciding to do this certainly added a lot of time, but it was worth it since everything was accessible. I also wasn’t thrilled using a spray can inside, but we opened some hatches, turned on a fan and it was fine.  Given the challenging work conditions, it came out pretty good!

Monday, April 6, 2020

A lot's happened in a year of not posting...

What will hopefully be the only Annual Update


Given that aside from healthcare workers, grocery store/food delivery chain employees, the entire planet suddenly has a lot more free time, what better time to try to get in the habit of updating this Blog!

Going forward, I'm going to create at least three types of posts, which can be filtered on the right side, under "Pages".  The current three are

  • Sailing Related Posts - Kind of obvious
  • General Posts - Basically all posts that are not sailing specific
  • Technical Articles - For the dorks out there
So what's happened in the past year.
  • Found and bought a boat (1997 Beneteau Oceanis 40 CC in New Bern, NC)
  • Moved it to Oriental, NC "The Sailing Capital of NC"
    Amazing place, BTW.  Great for a weekend trip.  People are super friendly and it is super relaxing to go there.
  • Had it "on the hard" (out of water) at Deaton Yacht Service to do some work, bottom painting, etc.
  • Named it Betelgeuse. (Brightest star in the Constellation Orion *normally)
    Those that understand how to hail on a marine VHF may get a kick out of this name...
  • Set it up for charter from Bow To Stern Boating.
  • Sailing over several weekends, taking trips to various spots on the Neuse River
  • Went on a weeklong charter with friends down in the British Virgin Islands.  Amazing, amazing trip that I can't wait to do again.
  • Finished out a very successful 2019 at Closet Factory.
  • Returned to the Miami Boat Show.
  • COVID-19 happened, forcing us to move everything to Virtual appointments using screen sharing, eventually stop all of our Closet Factory Operations, temporarily lay off our employees and spend a lot more time at home.


I'll see about posting some more information on some of these bullet points over the coming days/weeks as I have a chance to create posts that include some pictures from along the way.

Thanks for reading!

Step 5 - Buying a sailboat so we can sail more?! - 1998 Beneteau 381

We've sailed a few times, we want to sail more and we want to find out if we can actually live on a boat.

After speaking with Jim at Bow to Stern Boating, we had learned that they would like to be able to have a 38ish foot monohull to add to their charter options.

This is an interesting size boat.  It's plenty large enough to have a comfortable salon and galley, a nice cockpit, two decent size cabins and long enough to be able to reach a respectable speed (see my Tech Article to learn more about boat speeds), but not so long that it is hard to find a dock and not so deep a draft that would make sailing it in the shallow waters of the Pamlico Sound a problem.

The one notable downside is that in that length it is usually not quite long enough to have 2 heads, and at the end of the day, everyone wants their own bathroom!

So, I went onto a few sites to start looking for used boats, surprisingly, quite old used boats (that happen to have been well taken care of).  YachtWorld.com seems to be the go-to source for finding a used boat.  It allows for very easy filtering on Length, Age, Location, Price, etc and really allows you to quickly find whats out there that matches your wants.

What I found were a good number of Hunters and Catalinas.  Both are fine boats, but since Jim knew that we would probably only want to own this particular boat for a few years, he suggested we try to search out a Beneteau or Jeanneau, since they tend to hold their values better and are a little more rare/sought after, making then easier to sell when the time comes.

I focused my search on the southern and mid-atlantic coastal states, hoping to find something that I could, with some help, sail from wherever it lay to Oriental, NC.

Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars (Day 6)

Wow, very delayed in posting this; got stuck in "Drafts".

End of an amazing trip

We ended up doing some work from the saloon in the morning on our laptops, packed up our belongings and tidied up our cabin and then we all headed to West Marine and Sailorman before being dropped off at the airport. 

The flight back to Raleigh was easy and Chuck and Lucy were happy to see us a day early. 


Reflecting back on this trip, we learned quite a few things, aside from just building our sailing skills. 
First, Sue and I don’t get seasick easily.
Second, we never felt claustrophobic or like we didn’t have enough room. 
Third, the Leopard 45 is a beautiful boat and I could easily call it home. 
Fourth, Bob, Melinda and Andy were super easy to spend a week with on a boat (and we’re looking forward to circumnavigating Vancouver Island next year even more!)
Fifth, and most importantly, this trip didn’t push us off of our retirement plan; if anything it has further convinced us!

Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day 5)

Wow, very delayed in posting this; got stuck in "drafts".

Favorable Wind!!!

This was a great day to be sailing!  We were able to leave No Name Harbor with daylight, so we were able to take the tighter, quicker path out to the Atlantic, passing behind Stiltsville. 

We decided to sail ESE to the 3 mile line to empty the holding tanks. We then turned North to head up to the cut at Ft. Lauderdale. The wind was variable, but was mostly coming from the NW, given us just enough angle off the wind to be able to sail along the Southern Florida coast without having to tack too often. 

We played around with the auto helm and learned how to use the auto tack feature, which let us press one button and switch to the other “side” of the wind, the same angle off the wind. We would press the button, then easily move the Genoa from one side of the boat to the other, quickly and easily right from the helm. 

The trip took about 6 hours but only required a few tacks. We were close hauled and fine tuning just how close we could sail to the wind, to limit our number of tacks.

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day 4)

Calm seas, but head-on winds

After a very refreshing night of sleep in an actual bed (not on various spots in the cockpit and saloon), we woke up early to another beautiful day! 

We did our morning checks of the engines, cleaned the raw water strainers and had breakfast. We pulled up the anchor, secured it and the bridle and started our trip up the outside of the Keys.  Our plan was to get to No Name Harbor, located at the very bottom of Biscayne Bay, just South of Miami.
This was one of our stops during our ASA sailing school and is a great anchorage. 

This day was pretty uneventful.  Even though the trip from Boot Key to Biscayne Bay requires a gradual turn to port for the entire trip, the wind magically made the same turn and we motored the entire way.

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day2/3)

Exciting! Time to actually hit the water!! (or did the water hit us...)


7am and we were up and at 'em! Melinda made some delicious egg and asparagus scramble that we had on a tortilla, along with some diced melon.  The folks from American Yacht Outfitters were back by about 8am to get the last few things done.  They wrapped up the rest of the items from their punch lists, the water tanks were topped off from the dock pedestal and we were heading to the fuel dock right around about 9:30am.  Right when we wanted so we could have the best/longest wind for our sail.  Nick, from the outfitters, took the helm to bring us to the fuel dock and after about 50 gallons of diesel, the half full tanks were topped off.

Bob did a great job of getting us out from the fuel dock and back to the narrow channel to Charlotte Harbor, which we would take to get to the Gulf of Mexico.  The plan was to motor until we got out to open water in the Harbor before raising sails. We could see white caps as we headed out the channel and soon thereafter we could feel them too.  They seemed to settle down some as we got into the deeper waters of the harbor.

The topping lift, which keeps the boom from going lower than you want, was replaced when the boat first arrived in Punta Gorda, and when it got replaced, it appears that something was not done correctly as the topping lift line was wrapped around the main halyard.  We had to use a pair of binoculars to be able to tell that was what was happening.  We also discovered, through several failed attempts of raising the mainsail and one ripped-off sail attachment point at the head of the sail, that the short line at the top of the sail used to raise the top bit of the sail against the battens also seemed to have been mis-routed.

Sailing with Bob and Melinda on SV Counting Stars! (Day1)

Vendors meeting deadlines and submersible docks



The trip to help move of friends Leopard 45 from Jacksonville to Ft. Lauderdale started with a flight down to Punta Gorda Airport.  We left the ground in Raleigh just in time to avoid the early AM thunderstorms that were forecast to become possible PM tornadoes.

When we landed at PGD airport, Bob was already waiting in baggage claim to pick Sue and I up (which was super nice).  We then went to do perishable provisioning for the trip and divided and conquered the shopping list.  As we were driving to the Burnt Store Marina, Bob warned us that there were a number of people on the boat, trying to get things like their vinyl enclosures and cushions squared away before they departed.  They had been promised that everything would be done by that Friday.  They got close to completing on time.

SV Counting Stars at the Burst Store Marina

Our cabin (Port Aft)

On the plus side, the folks working on the boat, especially those working on the canvas (American Yacht Outfitters) did really nice work.

At some point in the day, we did a little route planing by looking at the weather and by using the route planning in the PredictWind app.  After Sunday evening, the wind turned foul for our trip up the outside of the Keys, so we all agreed that the first plan would be to try to sail as long as we could, hoping to leave by 10am Saturday and arrive in Marathon on Sunday around 6pm.

Bob and Melinda had been using a rental car while there and I helped Bob drop it off with the added help of a friend of their's Mini Cooper to which they were given access.  The line of storms that we missed on the way out extended all the way into Southern Florida, and they didn't miss us on the second attempt. As we were driving back from returning the rental, the skies were getting darker and louder.  We called the rest of our group still at the boat and figured out an early dinner plan to meet at the Marina restaurant.

We got over to the restaurant just before the skies opened up and the westerly wind started kicking up, a lot.  So much so that the fixed docks at this marina were underwater at the peak of the storm.  Andy (he's a 2020 Leopard 45 owner, that we met at the Miami Boat Show when we met Bob and Melinda) had jogged back to the dock to help Bob secure the boat from the high winds and the flood current that was now pouring into the marina at a visually noticeably rate.

They arrived back at the restaurant, with one or two dry spots between the two of them after they were happy with how Counting Stars was situated.  Dinner was actually very good, though our waiter could not remember things like who got the margarita with salt and without, who got the steak sandwich with mushrooms and who without.  These were very serious first world problems.

At any rate, we returned to the boat and soon after the folks from American Yacht Outfitters returned with some very cool "Transom-handles-turned-Transom Steps" and some panels to finish up the enclosure.  I ended up staying out in the cockpit watching and helping for a while (actually, yes helping, I was even thanked the next day when we saw them again!)

After they were all squared away, we all turned in, ready for our big sail the next day!

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Step 4 - Sailing on our Own!

It's been a month and we haven't been on a sailboat, what do we do?

Ever since our Learn to Sail vacation, we have been thinkin about another opportunity to sail.  We still had the potential to sail on S/V Counting Stars in April, and a possible trip with Lisa and Jesse to the BVIs, but that wasn't for a while, so we had to start looking at other options.

A Google Search of "bareboat charter NC" returned a few results, one of which was Bow to Stern Sailing, located in Oriental, NC. They were exactly what we were looking for and they were an easy 2.5 hour drive from our home in Cary, NC.  Oriental is a small town on the Neuse River, a brackish tributary to the Pamlico Sound.  The Neuse River, which starts as a small freshwater river in Raleigh becomes a 2+ mile wide body of water by the time it reaches Oriental and the area sees great wind for sailing.

We called and spoke with them and I wasn't sure if the ASA certifications would be enough, but after a few minutes of us talking they were comfortable that I knew what I was doing and had no hesitations to charter one of their boats to us. They have quite a few to choose from, ranging from a very modest C&C 25 and Cal 25, all the way up to a 42' Leopard catamaran and 45' Jeanneau Sun Oddysey.

Our friends Ray and Lisa were planning to leave their slip in New Bern, just up the Neuse River, and start their 10 month trip on the Great Loop at the time, so we also saw an opportunity to spend some time with them before not being able to for quite a long time.  Plus, another couple that Ray and I both worked with at Device Solutions, Reynold and Cathy also have a sailboat they keep in Oriental.

We figured out what they had available that weekend (March 23, 24th) and settled on an older 32' Endeavor; a pretty basic one cabin, one head boat that was plenty large for the two of us for the 24 hours we'd be on it.



Her interior smelled of diesel fuel, she was rough around the edges and the mainsheet traveler had recently come off its track, and when it did, some of the nylon guides in the assembly went missing.  Other than that, she was plenty seaworthy for our inland needs over the course of one night.

Bow to Stern did a great job of getting us checked in, providing us with PFDs and taking us on a tour of the boat's systems.  We moved our things onto the boat and after getting things situated, Jim and Mark helped us throw off lines so we could head out into the creek that fed into the Neuse.

Heading out to the Neuse we had to go under the bridge for NC 55.  Upon leaving the dock, we were told, as long as you see air under the horizontal concrete portion of the bridge, just above the water level, the boat will fit.  We motored for about 5 minutes before getting to the bridge.  It looked close, actually really close, but sure enough there was "air" and we fit.

We continued out the marked channel for a bit to get to deeper water and then raised the mainsail and unfurled the genoa. Seemingly at the same moment, we got the first of what would be many gusts that day.  This was the first time we'd been on a monohull.  It heeled a lot and very quickly.  Sue was pretty sure we were going to capsize and had a look of panic in our eyes.  For a moment, I was afraid she was going to be demanding a return to the dock.  Luckily she didn't, and after we got things right, we spoke of how it would be very difficult to actually capsize this boat in anything but pretty severe wind.  But, given that gust, we decided to reef both sails.

We headed on a Northeast bearing, on a port tack beam reach and we both eventually became very comfortable with the heeling, but, admittedly, it did take some time for both of us!







We only had about 5 hours to sail before having to head back so that we could meet up with Ray and Lisa, whom were motoring our direction from New Bern.  South River was our target; we were told by Bow to Stern that it wuld be a great place to visit and we'll have to make a return to there in the future, but honestly, we just wanted to get out and sail.  And sail we did, for about 2 hours, then we hove to and made and ate lunch.

After lunch we continued south a little more, even getting on a wing-on-wing run for a bit and then decided that given the change in direction of the wind we should head back since we would be beating back to windward on a zig-zag path containing quite a few tacks, including a few thrown in there to avoid some shallows.  It was honestly great fun and a great re-fresher of all the great things we learned in our class!

We got our friends Ray and Lisa on the VHF radio and they told us that one of the two, deep free docks in Oriental was available.  They had reserved a transient slip a few down from there and our other friends Reynold and Cathy were at that same marina for an event for their sailing club.  It seemed perfect!


We motored up to the dock and were coming up on it okay, and then a gust came from our stern and what seemed like a well lined up approach quickly turned into one that would overshoot the dock.  We some verbal guidance from Ray on the dock, I ended up pulled further into the dock area, which was actually a double dock, with a fuel dock on the left and the free dock on the right.  In this 40 foot wide by 50 foot long area, I ended up performing a 180° turn, pulling up on the port side instead of the orignally planned starboard.  Ray, Lisa and Sue helped us tie off and then joined us on our boat, along with Reynold and Cathy for a quick "success" beer before walking over to their sailing club party.

After hanging out with them for a while, visiting both of there boats, we headed to dinner right down the street from the marina.  The food was good, or it could have been that anything would have been good after the excruciating wait.  At any rate, we all returned to our respective boats with a plan to meet up the next morning for coffee and the local coffee shop.

The forecast was for overnight lows in the upper 30s.  Luckily, I had planned for this and we brought our zip together sleeping bags.  We decided to sleep in the convertible salon instead on in the forward V-berth.  Not sure why, but it wasn't that great of a decision, because it wasn't that comfortable.  The diesel fumes became quite noticeable with the boat all buttoned up, but the sleeping bags kept us super comfortable temperature wise, even when we opened a hatch for some fresh air.

After the morning coffee and hanging out with Ray and Lisa, we untied and made the short motor back up to Bow to Stern to return the boat.  This time I was at the helm as we passed under the bridge.  There was still air between the water and the concrete, so we proceeded.  There must have been less air though, as the tip of the VHF antenna clinked off of each rib of the concrete underside of the bridge!

After finding the right slip, we found Jim and Mark ready to help bring us back in.  They gave us some guidance, as the boat exhibited very strong prop walk to port when in reverse.  I was able to bring the boat in cleanly and they helped us secure the boat.

We tidied everything up, trying to put things back exactly as we had found them, and then carried our things back to the car for the trip back home.

Then I asked one more impactful question of Jim, "So are these all owned by Bow to Stern, or are they owned by private owners".  He replied that it is a mix of both.  Hmmm.  Given that our one day of sailing cost us $500, I was interested to learn more about a possible way to sail more without it becoming a very expensive expense.  Turns out they were looking for a another boat in the 38 foot range to add to their offering.  They had such a boat in their fleet last year and it did very well.

Interesting...a little too interesting...

-Mike

Stap 3, Day 7 - Last Day on "About Time" and "What the hell happened last night?"

At 7:45am we woke up to the sounds of voices in the cockpit of the boat.  Voices that we didn't recognize.

Long story short, the Captain stayed out very late (4am-ish), eventually walked back to the boat, but "decided" to stop and take a nap on the front lawn of someone's house.  After his nap, we woke up and called an Uber to take him back to the boat, not quite sure of where he was.  It turns out he was only a 5 minute drive to the boat.

Oh, and then there was Charles, he was one of the voices we heard in the cockpit, along with two others, all of which returned to the boat at 7:45am.  Charles was probably a little drunk, but his two drinking buddies were pretty well gone.

It took some time to get rid of them, but after we did, we had breakfast, had a quick review and then took the final test for ASA 104 (we scored 95 and 99).

We were 101, 103, 104 and 114 certified!

We cleaned, packed up and said our farewells to the Captain, Charles, Caroline and "About Time".

Given that we had some time, we had the Uber take us to West Marine, just to look around.  From there we walked to a restaurant/bottle shop for lunch.  We still had time, so we walked to Sailorman which is another sailing supply house (right down the street and owned by the father of the wife half of Sailing the Space Between).  Then we took the Uber to the airport to end our vacation and start thinking about our next chance to go sailing...

- Mike


Step 3, Day 6 - The trip back to Ft. Lauderdale

Day 6 was the trip back up to Ft. Lauderdale.  

We started the day early and were all eating breakfast before 8:00am. After breakfast we performed Engine Checks.  One of "About Time's" engine was new, the other was original.  It was quite easy to tell which was which (both visually and audibly).

After the engine checks and topping off the oil in guess-which-engine, we took the ASA 114 test.  I got a respectable 94%.

Before leaving the Harbor, we did some close quarter motoring drills and then left the harbor and  turned south to go around the Southern Tip of Key Biscayne. After getting just beyond the bottom of the Key, we turned, raising the sails and headed out to sea for a mile or so, then turned north to head towards Ft. Lauderdale.




We had great wind and the benefit of the Gulf Stream, so we were moving along at a very respectable 10 kts!

Eventually the wind shifted and weren't getting quite as much speed, but I ended up at the helm for the last part of the sail, and we changed our heading to 270° (west) to head into Port Everglades.  We had a wind directly on our stern, so we ran wing-on-wing for a while (the mainsail on side of the boat and the headsail on the other).  The Captain trusted me enough to do this, without us setting up a(n accidental jibe) preventer.  Using the windex at the top of the mast, I just steered us to stay as close as possible to being directly on a run, to keep both sails happy.

Eventually, we had to turn on the engines as we entered what can become a very busy inlet to the ICW.  Once inside the channel and on the ICW, it opens up and we did a 360° turn, with a brief stop while heading 90° so that we could face the wind, drop the mainsail.  We also furled the genoa during our turn when we had enough wind on the headsail to make sure it furled cleanly.

We headed north on the ICW, waited for the first bridge to open, and then proceeded through, turning immediately west so that we could stop at the fuel dock.  I pulled us up along side as the rest of the crew ready fenders, docklines and got us tied up.

After topping off the tank, the others took turns at the helm, practicing turns as we went the rest of the way to return to the dock from which we started.  The size and number of million dollar plus boats and houses along that section of the ICW is hard to believe.




We got back, took showers at the bathroom in Blue Water Sailing School's office and then got ready for our last dinner together as a crew.

Dinner and the rest of the evening was kind of crazy.  Our Captain, with life and limb responsibilities done for the trip seemed to let himself enjoy the eating...and drinking more than during other parts of the trip.  Our two other crew members, Caroline and Charles also seemed to ramp up on the enjoyment (which was kind of saying something).  We still had one test remaining and it was the longest and hardest of the four, so Sue and I enjoyed ourselves too, but to a more modest level.

Before walking to dinner, everyone enjoyed some/many drinks in the cockpit (the exterior "hang out" area on a sailboat, usually where the helm station is located).  The rest of the bottle of vodka was finished off, as were some beers as was the rest of the bottle of rum.  We then walked to stop #1; a Mexican restaurant.  Well, four of us walked, one of us stumbled.





We enjoyed some Margarita's and appetizers and Caroline didn't seem to slow down on the drinking, as she started to become louder and louder.  Oh, and she also fell off of her chair at the table, at which point she decided to leave our group and go make friends with a group of ladies at the bar.  None of us stopped here, nor felt bad enough for her new friends to retrieve her. :-)

With our appetizers and drinks done, we settled up and prepared to walk to stop #2 for one of the Captain's favorite places to get a Cheesesteak sandwich.  Then Caroline couldn't find her phone.  We called it and no luck.  After looking on the floor, in the restroom, near the bar, on the chairs (and I think the captain wanted to pat down her new friends at the bar), Charles decided it was time to give up, not dwell on it and use it as an excuse for a phone upgrade. I felt bad she couldn't find it, but was happy to be able to move on.

While Charles and I were inside looking, Sue and Captain were outside with Caroline, preventing her from getting into some random person's car, because she felt like talking to the driver.

On to Stop #2: Parrot.  Caroline was still in a deepening "loud, happy drunk" state as we got a table at Parrot. We all ordered and soon noticed most people in the bar/restaurant staring in our direction, their attention drawn by Caroline now at full, outdoor voice volume.  We all moved to a separate room of the place, trying to distance ourselves from the others in the bar.  That was good for a while, but it was obvious that Caroline had not "crested" yet.  Charles soon realized it would probably be best for everyone, if he took her back to the boat to turn in (sleep it off).  When grabbing hold of her to take her back, he all of a sudden reached into her bra and pulled out, wait for it...her phone!  Our jaws hit the floor.

After "properly putting her to bed", Charles returned to hang out and drink for a while.  Soon after, Sue and I were done, and we decided to walk back and get some sleep.  Charles and Captain Keith decided to stay out (more on that in the next post).

We returned to the boat, walked into the salon and happened to notice Caroline at the bottom of the stairs to the starboard hull that she and Charles' cabin were in and she must have forgotten to put clothes on.  We both pretended to not notice and turned in for bed.

Step 3, Day 5 - Man Over Board! (practicing)


Another strong breeze for another great day of sailing!

No test today, so we just had sailing and MOB (Man Over Board) recovery practicing.  We left from our mooring ball with Sue at the Helm and took us expertly out of the narrow channel, especially given the current and wind, which was stronger as we left the protection offered at the mooring ball.

Captain Keith gaves just a destination and asked us to come up with the plan and the expected ETA.  We plotted the course, factoring in some tacks we would have to take and gave an estimate of 12:15p.

We arrived to what was basically a wide open spot out in Biscayne Bay and we started learning and practicing four methods of MOB recovery:
  • Figure 8 - Good if you are in warm water and are not really in a hurry to get the victim back on board and want to go on a bunch of points of sail.
  • Broad Reach/Close Reach - A lot quicker and involves only two points of sale.  
  • Quick Stop - By far the easiest and quickest way to recover a MOB, except...
  • Motoring - Probably the prefered way, assuming the motor starts or is already running.
Sue and I both did quite well on the practice of each type and recovered our victim on the first attempt and since I was the last to go, I stayed at the helm and took us back to No Name Harbor for our second overnight stay there.  When we pulled in to No Name Harbor, there was a spot on the sea wall in front of a monohull and behind another catamaran, captained by the friend of our captain that happens to be another BWSS instructor.  I manuevered us into the spot, and using both engines, was able to very smoothly pull us basically moving sideways and did so well enough to get a compliment from a person that was walking by.


We "got to" empty the holding tank, another valuable skill that I was just not that eager to learn.  All that being said, it was actually a very easy and really not that gross of a job.

With that done, I went for a walk on the seawall and noticed a couple coming to tie up on an older monohull.  They were on vacation from Switzerland, on a boat that he owns and keep in Ft Lauderdale for the couple of trips he gets to take a year.  They were super nice and happy that I was so eager to help get them tied up that they offered me a beer and we sat and talked for a while.

Sue found me and let me know that there was a manatee up near the harbor entrance that was eating seaweed from the seawall. I was stoked, I really wanted to see a manatee during this trip!


It is quite obvious why they are often called Sea Cows. Its back was covered with algae and a few boat scares :-(, but very docile and happy to be moving along the seawall, eating as it went.

We had another great meal (steak, potatos, salad, asparagus wine) prepared by Captain Keith, but soon after we were all zonked after being out in the sun all day and all of the grinding involved in the MOB drills, so off to bed we went.

-Mike

Step 3, Day 4 - Great wind!

This was a great day to sail.  A nice consistent 20 kt wind and otherwise nice weather in Biscayne Bay!

So, I had to get up around 3am and re-apply bug spray because the mosquitos were finding me through the hatches we had opened to get some airflow.  I managed to walk up in time to re-apply before beocming light headed from lack of blood supply.


I wake up for good around 6am to a beautiful sunrise above the Atlantic visible from across the small, 200yd wide key.
 


After breakfast, we walked up to the top of the Boca Chita Lighthouse, which is usually closed.  The view of Miami was pretty amazing!




I took the helm to bring us out of the anchorage and into the narrow channel as we headed towards Coconut Grove; our next stop. We continued to take turns at the helm practicing points of sail and taking turns grinding the winches and were averaging around 8kts, which is about top speed for a 37 foot catamaran.
Sue taking her turn at the Helm

When we got to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, we picked up a mooring ball and then, using the Sailing Club's shuttle dinghy service, we took a trip to the clubhouse to take a shower while the opportunity presented itself.

We then walked into the Coconut Grove area to go to one of the Captain's favorite stops; a very good Indian Restaurant. A few other bar stops on the way back and then we finally returned to About Time, but not "in time" to close all the hatches before the rain storm came through.  Our fellow students ended up with a pretty wet bed, the salon was pretty wet and we were fortunate that the only thing that got wet in our cabin was my iPad, which is in a waterproof case! We all helped to dry off things and then head to bed.

- Mike

Step 3, Day 3 - Let's do some sailing already!

Sue and I woke up at about 700 am and I decided to go for a swim in No Name Harbour.  It was a little cold at first, but I fixed that with a lap around the boat. It is a really nice State Park and would be happy to return here!

Once everyone was up and moving, we pulled the hook and moved over to the face dock while there was an opening.  Captain Keith made us a breakfast of Pancakes and Sausage.  We gathered up the track on the boat and deposited that while we had the opportunity.  

We then took the first our our tests, the written exam for ASA 101.  I aced it at 100%! 

We left No Name Harbour around 10:00 and returned to Biscayne Bay were we headed mostly North, tacking back and forth until about 12:30p when we hove to so that we could have lunch.


After lunch we all took turns practicing all the points of sail.  For those of you that don't know, that would be:
  • Port Tack, Close Hauled (heading up as close to the wind as possible)
  • Port Tack, Close Reaching
  • Port Tack, Beam Reaching (wind directly on our port beam)
  • Port Tack, Broad Reaching
  • Running (directly down wind)
  • Starboard Tack, Broad Reaching
  • Starboard Tack, Beam Reaching
  • Starboard Tack, Close Reaching
  • Starboard Tack, Close Hauled
After we all took our turns at the helm, we continued on towards our anchorage, however our VMG (Velocity Made Good) was not very good at all, so we turned on the motor to make sure we'd make it to Boca Chita anchorage before dark.

We tied up and went for a walk around Boca Chita.  So, so many mosquitos.



Spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, maybe a few Dark 'n Stormy's and then off to bed around 9:30p.

-Mike

Step 3, Day 2 - "Sailing" down to Miami from Ft. Lauderdale

We woke up early, un-tied and cast off with Sue at the Helm, motoring the 30 minutes down the ICW.  We timed our departure so that we could make the timed openings of the two bridge between the boats slip and the cruise ship port of Port Everglades, where we would access the Atlantic.



We entered the Atlantic and turned South to head to Miami.  Unfortunately, the wind was directly on our nose, so it was about 6 hours of motor-sailing along the coast.


Sure, we would have preferred to sail, but it was a really relaxing trip and Sue was driving the boat like a boss!


After motor-sailing, we entered the Miami area, motored past the Miami Boat Show location and then down to No Name Harbour, where we dropped anchor and stayed the night.
FYI, the mosquitos AND the no-see-ums both found me quite delectable.  Grrr.

On the plus side, the first beautiful sunset of the trip!

- Mike

Step 3, Day 1 - Provisioning for our week aboard our classroom, "About Time"

Saturday night, after being introduced to the boat and each other, we sat down in the Galley and came up with a meal plan and then a shopping list, by grocery store department, for the week to come.  We walked about a half mile to a grocery store, broke up the list and went shopping!  We also walked across the parking lot to the liquor store for some other essentials ;-)

With our three carts worth of bagged groceries, we hailed an Uber XL for a ride back to "About Time".  We stowed all of our groceries in the galley, which honestly all seemed to disappear in to so many nooks and crannies.  While the boat lacked in storage in the cabins, there is a surprising amount of storage in the galley/saloon.  We honestly probably could have provisioned for 150 meals instead of the 75 we provisioned for.

For dinner, we walked about 10 minutes to go to a burger place called BRGR STOP.  Glutenous menu of piled high burgers and milkshakes, which were really good.  Unfortunately, the place decided to have a DJ with blaring music starting at about 9pm, which effectively ended our conversation and completely ruined our otherwise good experience.  Why must places do things like that?!

Back to the boat for an early morning trip down the ICW (Intra-Coastal Waterway) to Port Everglades and the open ocean.

- Mike

Step 3: BWSS Course C+ Cat: Advanced Catamaran Skipper

Time to Learn to Sail!!


The Boat Show was fun and helpful, but not the main reason for the trip.  What is this sailing thing about anyways?!

We started the day (Saturday) in Miami and took an Uber up to Dania Beach to look at a few boats for sale, just to get an idea of what'd out there and see some Leopard 44's currently on the market.  We're currently thinking that getting a 3 or so year old used boat will get us the best value; that's when the depreciation is worst and when the first owner is usually doing upgrades to the boat, that we would likely want or at least appreciate.

The Leopard 45s are brand new and are selling at a premium.  Again, we love that boat, except for the 4'11" draft (and the brand new price tag).  The Leopard 44 is almost as nice, available on the used market (sometimes) and has a 1 foot smaller draft.  We looked at two 44s and it was obvious that the mainteance done by the previous owners makes a big difference in the look of a used boat.

I digress.

We arrived at BWSS and were pointed to the boat we'd be living on for the next 6 days.  It was a 2001 37' Island Spirit named "About Time".  The boat was nice enough, sailed really well, but showed her age and lacked cabin storage space.  She is a 4 cabin, 2 head boat which looks like Leopards of that vintage and was also made in South Africa.

The Salon (living room, of sorts) was plenty large for the five of us (Sue and I, our Captain and another couple that would be taking the course as well).  They Galley (kitchen) was also fine, maybe a little cramped for five, but it was really the cabins where the size seemed small.  Plenty of room to sleep, but when getting ready for the day or ready for bed, there was really only room for one of us to be in the cabin at a time.  For this class, it was fine, just sayin'.

-Mike

Miami Boat Show - AKA More HP and Bigger Masts

Miami Boat Show - February 14-19, 2019 - Miami Marine Stadium

Miami is not known for being a reserved, sleepy hamlet and that is reflected in the boats, yachts, electronics and people we saw at the boat show!

We rented an Airbnb in downtown Miami, right next to the water taxi stop that would bring you to and from the boat show.  Unfortunately, Lisa and Jesse were not able to join us, last minute, because of a new job Jesse had taken that required him to be at the Pentagon for a meeting the Friday of the Boat Show.  Didn't seem like going to the Boat Show was more important than whatever the meeting was about, so we understood their not being able to make it, but were disappointed to not be able to spend a few days with them.

Leading up to the Boat Show, we booked some appointments to look at Catamarans like piqued our fancy.  It is possible to schedule an appointment to see a yacht while at the show, but you may have to wait a while, but honestly, booking ahead of time sends a clear message that you are serious and not just a looky-loo.  We had done our research before the show and knew a few makers whose yachts we wanted to visit, namely Leopard, Fontaine Pejot and Lagoon.  We also wanted to visit Just Catamarans, a yacht broker that is based in Ft. Lauderdale (and another company we learned about through Gone with the Wynns).

We scheduled these appointments for Thursday, the first day of the boat show, which they call the Premier Day and for which they charge a little more for admission.  Our hope (which seemed to pay off) was that attendance would be lower that day, given the price and the fact that it was a Thursday, which would allow us a little more time to see boats and speak with their reps.  We were reserving Friday to look at all the indoor portion of the show, for things like electronics, furnishings, water makers, little boats (you know, under 25') and all manner of other things, mostly related to boating.

Seeing "fishing" boats with four 300HP outboards was commonplace, motor yachts with three decks abounded, sailing vessels up to 77' long and 36'wide could be ordered.
(Lagoon Seventy-7 - with optional Owner Cabin swim platform, 'cause why not)

We learned a few keys things.  
  • We didn't want a catamaran with daggerboards (sure, higher performance, but the draft gets so deep with them deployed and you don't want to hit a reef with them down)
  • We didn't like the interiors of the Fontaine Pejots
  • We didn't like the exposure required to get to the flybridge on all of the newly designed Lagoons.  The Lagoon 42 was okay, but that will be phased out soon.
  • We were amazed by the 50' (aptly named) Exquisite Yacht, but way outside of our budget.
  • We absolutely love the Leopard 45 (except for it's now monohull-like draft of 4'11"')
    The draft on the predecessor Leopard 44 is only 3'11" - a world of difference
  • A LOT of people in this community follow and respect Gone with the Wynns.

Probably one of the best parts of the trip to the boat show was that we met and made freiends with Bob and Melinda, owners of the new Leopard 45 that was on display at the show (new owners often show their boats at one or two boat shows as part of their purchase agreement).  They are a few years off from retiring and their yacht, S/V Counting Stars will become their retirement home.

They are super sweet and spent a great deal of time with us, since we were so enamored with their boat and have similar plans to them.  They invited us to the Leopard Owners party held at the Leopard slips at the end of the day, which allowed us to meet just amazing, down to earth people, all owning and mostly living on Leopard Catamarans.

More amazingly, Bob and Melinda invited us to help them move their boat from Punta Gorda, on the west coast of Florida to Ft. Lauderdale, with a stop at Key West after an overnight sail AND to sail around Vancouver Island in the Spring of 2020 with them!!

The trip to moving their boat is coming up (April 19th) and as long as things are running smoothly at work, we'll be going!

-Mike