2 Days left till Bahamas 2015

Well everyone cross your fingers.  We are going to try for the Bahamas once again.   Our departure date is Friday (2 more day).  At this point weather conditions are looking favorable for a Saturday evening crossing.  I will try to post once we have started our cross before we get to far out of cell range.   We should be returning back around January 2nd.  Wish us luck and see you all on the flip side.   I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanksgiving 2015

This Thanksgiving we spend with my son David and his lovely family, Emily his wife, Alex and Cole my adorable grandsons.  Kevin and I drove up to North Carolina and had three great days playing with the boys and just hanging around.  There was no rush, crowds, are agenda's to meet, just relax and play.   We arrived late Wednesday afternoon and that evening hung out by the fire pit in their back yard.  Thursday was very relaxing.  All the boys played Lego's and then later on a 4 way race of Mario cars on the Wii.  Friday we went to the park and  walk around the lake, then let the kids play at the play ground.

 

Saturday morning we headed to St. Augustine and spend the afternoon and next morning walking around town, then the outlet mall on Sunda

Pirate fall scramble 2015

Kevin and I were not sure if we would even make it to this scramble.  We have had a lot of rain the past month and the bridge height was cutting it close for us to pass under.
We left Friday night and had a nice north east wind to motor sail south to the Grant Islands.  The Melbourne causeway was our biggest challenge, but we made it under with inches to spare at 63.5".  Our mast height with the lightening rode is 63.5"  the rod just missed, the wind gods were on our side.  We reached the island around 7:30 and had a very peaceful dinner.
    Saturday morning the boats started coming in and by early afternoon about three had shown up.  We could see cloud building to the north and then the rains hit near the Melbourne causeway.  Most of our fellow sailors were caught in the storm.  Where we were anchored the storm just went around us.    Around 4:30 the rest of the boats started getting in one by one.
      The weather forecast was showing another front coming through about 6:00pm so we decided to get a fire started on the island so there would be some hot coals to be able to start the fire after the rain.   The rains come on stronge and furious about 20 minutes later and lasted for about a 30 minutes then the lovely sun was shinning again.  After the storm the boat next to us was almost touching so he attempted to fix his anchor which did not work.  Kevin and I decided it was best to re-anchor and get clear of the other boat.
        7:20pm everyone was making their way to the island and the party began. We all eat, drank, sang, danced and had a lot of fun, despite the late start.  Some of us packed it in early but the rest partied hard into the night.
        Sunday morning Kevin and I set for home around 10am.  on our sail home we past a beautiful schooner heading south.

Memorial Day Weekend Sail 2015

We were attempting to head to St. Augustine for a week with Kristina as our second mate.  the sail to the port was great, we had a south east wind blowing at 20knots gusting to 30.  The decision to go on the outside for a ocean sail was made under the pretense that weather underground stated the seas were 4-6 foot and winds would be shifting out of the west and diminishing to 5-20knots.

We made it out of the jetties around 3pm and started to make our way out around the shoals.  The seas were very rough and choppy with the winds constantly shifting .  Several tacks were made just to make the turn to get out north of the shoals.  Around 5pm Kristina started complaining of a headache and then it was a full blown migraine with in 30-40 minutes.  She tried staying down below where she was out of the sun but cool.   It was 5:30 when Kevin went on deck and noticed we had a ripped main sail, more shredded then ripped.  The sail had shredded at the top and was wrapped around the steps going up the sides of the mast and the spreaders.  With the high rough seas and the sail tangled in everything there was no way to get her down.

6pm, Kristina came up on deck and I noticed she was very pale and shivering.   She stated that she felt like she was going into shock.  I had her go down into the back stateroom to lye down and we opened the hatch so she could get a good breeze blowing on her.  She then started getting sick and had to sit propped up.  In a matter of minutes she complained of losing feeling in her hands and legs and couldn't move her hands, then her arms.  We thought she was having a stroke or possibly a heart attack (since she has a history of cardiac problems)  At that point we call the coast guard and turned the boat for home.  The coast guard meet up with us about 30 minutes later and took Kristina off our boat and rushed her to the hospital.

10pm Kevin and I made it in the port and spend about 45 minutes getting the shredded head sail down, while the coast guard stayed with us, after dropping off Kristina with the ambulance.  We were able to get a slip at the Cocoa Beach Yacht Club and borrow a car to get to the hospital.

Kristina ended up having very low potassium levels causing the muscle contractions and loss of her extremity movement.  She was released around 1am, with her husband meeting her there, then taking her home.  Kevin and I went back to the boat and then headed home the next morning.

Watching your child being thrown from one boat to another in 10 foot seas, with no use of her extremities was enough to do any parent in.  Needless to say, Kristina will not be doing any off shore cruising with us for a long time.

A Labor of Love

Kevin and his crew (James, Kristina and myself) have been working on restoring the decks.  We have been working since January on this project, which reduced our sailing time.  It has involved cutting out the old caulking with a hot knife, then cleaning the remaining caulking out with screw drivers and carpet cutter for any residual caulk the hot knife  didn't pull up.  The last few steps of sanding, taping then re caulking.  A few days later then sanding it smooth and oiling the deck.  Kevin has done 90% of the work and has every right to be proud of his new decks.  This project has taken several months and it will be nice to go sailing.  This weekend is our annual pirate scramble at the grant island, then we will be going to St. August at the end of may.

 

As you can see by the second photo how nice it looks.  We are so thank full this should only have to be done about once every 20 years.  As the admiral, I would like to thank James and Kristina for all their hard work.

X-Mas 2014 Bahamas or Not

Let me back track a little, to 7 month ago.  Rich and Laura Newell on Seafari were planning a three week trip to the Bahamas over Christmas.  We figured since Kristina and James would not be moving back until January 2015, then we would go.  Everything was according to plan until, Kristina and James came home in November.  So we all changed our plans to go to the Keys, then the kids could meet us down there for Christmas. So the week before leaving all the plans kept changing and I was becoming very nervous about leaving the kids alone for their first Christmas in the states and something was nagging at me that this whole trip was a bad idea.  The evening before we were to leave, Kevin and I backed out of the Keys/Bahamas and decided to go as far as West Palm Beach with Rich and Laura.   

December 13th Saturday.

Rich and Laura pulled out at 7:00 am we followed behind around 8:30.  We came out of the channel to our marina and notice we did not have much speed, so Kevin assumed it was the prop needed to be cleaned again.  Just as we approached the first marker entering the ICW he noticed the oil pressure for the transmission was “0”.  We turned off the engine and I helmed making 1.3 knots with just the push of the wind and what little current there was.  I was going to pull out the head sail but the blocks had not been hank- on yet.   After about 30 minutes he filled the transmission fluid (which was below the tip stick) and we proceeded south.    We finally caught up with Seafari just north of Ft. Pierce.  

3:30pm we have anchored just south of the Ft Pierce draw bridge and rafted with Seafari.  Kevin checked the fluid level again for the transmission and it was down some so we decided not to go any further south and head home in the next day or so.  We at least wanted to do a day sail off shore since we were at the inlet.  We had a great dinner and watched the boat parade as it pass right in front of where we anchored.

December 14th Sunday.

Seafari untied and headed out at 7:00am, we followed out about 40 minutes later.  The seas where supposed to be 2-3 feet slow rollers with an ENE wind.  What we had was 4-5 foot chop out of the NW making conditions bad for us with a day sail, but great for Rich and Laura heading south to West Palm.  We spent about an hour off shore then just gave up and headed back in.  Once in the inlet we decided to just head north and anchor at Marker 21 for the evening.

3:00pm reached the anchorage; it is so quiet and peaceful here.  We had an early dinner, watched a movie then called it an early night.

December 15th Monday.

Staying another day at the anchorage, since we really have no specific destination and we are off for the next few weeks.  The captain and I have decided to just play in our own back yard and spend a few days back at dock, mid-week, then head back out and spend Christmas on the hook, with Kristina and James.  I will probably not make another blog posting for this trip, as you can tell, not very exciting, but we are getting some well needed rest and relaxation.  Oh yeah Seafari made the crossing to the Bahamas today, so at least someone made it there.    Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 

Summer Project 2014

I know we have not posted many blogs this summer with travel and work, but here goes nothing.  In the beginning of June I spent a few weeks in the UK visiting Kristina and James.  The country side was beautiful and I hope to go back again soon.  Kristina came back with me and spend about 4 weeks with Kevin and I, it was lovely spending time together.

Kevin has been working very diligently on upgrades to Serena Rose.  Here are a few of his most recent projects;

1. Installing new solar panels on the pilot house roof.
2. Adding a new 12 volt refrigeration cold plates, with a coolant pump from the fresh water tanks to help in cooling.  This reduced some of the volume in the refrigerator, but at least we will not have to run the generator twice a day when at anchor.
3. He replaced some damaged sections of the mahogany toe rail with teak.
4. The next big project is the new Silent Wind Turbine system, which is on order and will be here in September.

Over the summer Sweet Chariot (a sister ship of Serena Rose),  came back to the states after a year + cruise down Island.  Shortly after returning Jim and Tammy sold Sweet Chariot to a nice couple from England; Toby, Sam and their sweet dog Sophie.  Toby and Kevin have been doing a lot of noodling the past few weeks.

Hopefully we will start sailing again toward the end of September.  Hope to see all of our "Just Sayin Pirate" friends out at sea.