Our Proposed Route

First of all, Renne' is back at her Dad's house as of yesterday.  I had to run to Jacksonville today for weather purposes, and tomorrow if the weather is willing, I will take JonNe' over to Sadler Point Marina for some welding on the davits/tower to make it easier to get the davit lift all the way into the full upright position.

We were discussing our plans yesterday afternoon with Renne's uncle Lee Swallow (he helped us move JonNe' from Jacksonville to Beaufort, SC).  I am including a picture of our proposed route from Key West to Guatamala via the Bahamas, the Virgins, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Caymans, Swan Island, Guanaja, Rowatan, and the Rio Dulce.  Again, this is proposed.  Our only firm date is to be in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands before the 20th of April.

Again this is ONLY a projected route - as with anything we ever do, it is subject to CHANGE - ya know, kinda like we were promised in the last election.  LOL!

So tomorrow night I will be on my own for Sundowners, but Thursday, meet us in St. Cloud.  Love to see ya there.

JonNe'

A Minor Inconvenience!

We left Jacksonville and drove to St. Cloud, Florida on Monday at noon, for a Thanksgiving with Renne's parents and other family members.  We had planned on cooking and eating Thankgiving dinner at the ranch at Overstreet Landing.  It was discovered, however, the natural gas line in the walls of the main house was leaking and we couldn't use the stove to cook with. So, we were torn about celebrating at the ranch or the townhouse in St. Cloud.  Tuesday we began shopping and planning food for a great turkey dinner.  Wednesday we began serious food preparation - cooking pies, mixing dry ingredients for dressing, cooking sweet potatoes, snapping fresh green beans, boiling eggs, cooking the squash, brandying cranberries, etc.  We decided Wednesday that we could celebrate at the ranch, but would have to prepare the food at the townhouse - a 30 mile trip each way.  Thursday morning, Renne' and I got up and finished all of the food preparation, then packed it all in the jeep and set out for the ranch house.  We felt like we were delivering Meals on Wheels!  Thanksgiving dinner consisted of:

20lb turkey
7 lb spiral ham
Cornbread and sausage dressing
Giblet gravy
Fresh snap green beans
Sweet Potato casserole
Squash Souffle'
Deviled Eggs
Mashed Potatoes
Brandied Cranberries
Fresh Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

Needless to say, as always, it was TOO MUCH!!

We had the kids out playing touch football and soccer, driving around the ranch chasing cows on the four-wheeler, and helping muck out the stables with a very sweet 12 y/o young lady who is 5th in the world riding cutting horses.  Her future step-mother, Wilma's daughter, Jody, is a world champion barrel racer.  Wow, what a line of athletes!

Thursday evening, Renne' and I got back to the townhouse, and as we were getting ready for bed, Renne' complained about her abdomen hurting.  That was unusual!  By midnight, she was in a fetal position, shivering and sweating bullets.  By 1230, we were on our way to the emergency room at the local hospital.

Friday morning at 9am, Renne' went into surgery for an appendectomy!

Saturday afternoon - we are sitting in her hospital room while she is eating - no drinking her liquid/jello dinner!  She is doing great!  She should leave the hospital tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.  We will stay here in St. Cloud until her followup appointment with the Internist, and hopefully we will be back on the boat by next weekend.  A delay, but we are more than thankful it all happened here and not while we are out cruising the Caribbean.  There is always a silver lining to every adventure we are experiencing.

So we are not having Sundowners tonite - unless you consider Ensure an adequate substitute.  However, we will be ack to the docks soon, and we will let you know when to meet us.

Until then,
JonNe'

Philosophy - a lesson on who I am

First, I neglected to put a route summary of this leg from Charleston to Jacksonville up in the last segment, so here it is.  I have really enjoyed telling this story.

Yesterday, I jumped on an Air Force C-17 bound for Charleston about 3:30 pm.  I didn't get to Charleston until close to 11:30 pm.  What I didn't realize was there was a leg from Jacksonville to McDill AFB in Tampa; a leg from McDill to Homestead AFB in Miami; a leg from there to Dobbins ARB in Atlanta and then, finally, on to Charleston.  I hired a taxi to take me over to the marina at Cooper River to pick up the car, then booked a room at the Red Roof Inn.  I actually was pleased it was clean, relatively new furniture and shower, and a comfortable mattress!  We had accidentally left a dock line and Renne's meds were finally delivered there by mail at Cooper River and I had to pick up her contacts at a local optometrist.

While I was regaling the adventure about basically flying IFR into the St. John's River, I compared it to my flying helicopters for the Navy.  I realized while we were preparing for this adventure in 2010, that who I am is a compilation of what I have done in my life.  I was a helicopter pilot.  I could have requested jet powered planes or prop driven planes, but I chose helicopters.  For much of my Navy career, I was almost embarrassed about it.  Jet jocks looked down their noses at us as pilots who were third class citizens - we didn't fly as fast, or carry loads of weaponry, or catapult off carrier decks.  We weren't glamorous.  We just plucked them out of the water when their fancy jet engines failed or out of jungles and deserts when shot down, saving their lives.  While I was in flight training, I learned to shoot muzzle-loading firearms.  We didn't re-load fast, shoot loads of ammunition, or hit targets at long distances.  We weren't glamorous.  We just kept re-loading, shooting and building rifles and pistols.  And I am a sailor.  I love sailing sailboats.  They aren't as fast as power boats, they require a lot more work, and as the other hobbies in my life, sailboats aren't normally glamorous.

I discovered something about each of these other modalities.  Jets, modern firearms, and powerboats all have a purpose.  To get from point A to point B, do their business and return to point A.  Generally as fast as possible.  The destination is the goal.  What I discovered about flying helicopters, shooting muzzle-loaders, and sailing boats it that it isn't getting to point B from point A, it is the PROCESS of getting to point B from point A.  You have to work at it, appreciate it, and love doing it!

I was laughing about flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) on a sailboat complete with radar, route planning and following, and transponders; everything you need to fly in an airplane or helicopter under IFR conditions, all at 3 knots vs 180 kts or 300 kts.  One of the guys who was listening to our adventures said it was because I like it slow rather than fast.  I realized no, that had nothing to do with it.  It was the process not only the final goal.  The other guy said it was the JOURNEY, not necessarily the DESTINATION.  And that explains who I am.  I love the Journey, not just the Destination.

Renne' is much like me, but she enjoys the Destination a bit more than the Journey.  But we are good for each other, and as we mature in this role of Adventurer's and Sailor's we become GREAT for each other.

So we leave for St. Cloud Monday in preparation for Thanksgiving and we will be leaving for Key West the Monday after.  Our friends, Greg and Linda, have suggested they might get down here to Jacksonville before we leave.  We truly hope they do.  We enjoy having them as part of our lives.  Thanks guys.

So Sundowners at the docks tomorrow evening.  Let us know if you are coming.  We will have to meet you at the front gate of the Naval Air Station.  We will see you then.

JonNe'

We Left Cooper River Early - On Monday

Thursday, November 17, 2011

First of all, I can’t believe it is November 17!  Time is going by so quickly.  It almost seems like yesterday that we left Kemah if February.

We are back in Jacksonville, Florida.  We arrived here yesterday morning after a very interesting night.  

We departed Cooper River Marina, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina at 1200 Noon on Monday.  We left at Slack Tide and Current.  By leaving then, we were at the very height of high tide about to change to low tide (outgoing tide) and fortunately, Mother Nature timed the change from Flood Current to Ebbing Current (fastest outgoing).  So we were heading down the river with the tide going out and the current building up.  Man did we have a ride out!  9 knots at one point.  That was as fast as we were riding the Gulf Stream coming north out of Miami when we left Key West.  Of course when we got out of Charleston Harbor reality struck, and we were headed south to Jacksonville with a slight opposing Gulf Current residual and we were making about 4.5kts on the open water with a southwest wind of 15kts true on our nose.

We motored!  Those of you who know us will have heard the axiom we use.  If you are cruising on a sailboat, you will spend:

50% of the time MOTORING,

15% of the time SAILING,

15% of the time MOTOR-SAILING

And,

20% of the time SAILING when you should have been MOTORING!

So far, that has been completely true – and always will be if you have ANY type of plan in place!

So we chugged along all Monday, and Monday night.  Gorgeous weather, not a cloud in the sky.  An exquisite view of the Milky Way with the Trillions of stars out there.  The ¾ moon shining down as we rounded 2045 (8pm for those of you who live in Rio Linda) – Talk about a wonderful way of communing with nature with no traffic out there AT ALL!  We were alone in the world.  

Tuesday morning dawned with high Cirrus clouds building and later lower Stratus clouds – to the point where by mid-afternoon we were completely cloud covered.  The early warning of the cold front that would be passing Tuesday night if we stayed around.  Tuesday afternoon found the seas building around us and we started bouncing a bit.  By the time we were well south of Hilton Head and abeam Cumberland Island (Latitude 31 degrees), about 1600 (4pm) we heard the first call on the radio:  “This is US Navy Patrol Aircraft calling the sailboat at 30 degrees, 28  minutes by 081 degrees 45 minutes”.  That wasn’t quite our lat/long – close, but not ours.  The aircraft continued, “you are about to enter a live fire exercise area, and you need to leave immediately.  He never received a response.  The sailboat obviously was not monitoring Channel 16.  We looked around because we knew he was near, and saw his sails on the horizon to our left.  We heard this radio call four times over the next 20 minutes.  Hmmmm, that wasn’t quite our lat/long, but I called the Navy Patrol Aircraft anyway to verify he was not calling us.  When he responded, I asked him if we were at a good lat/long and heading.  He came back a few seconds later stating if we proceed as we are, we should NOT be in harm’s way.

By 2200 (10pm) we were hove-to trying to rest prior to making our run into the St. John’s River so as to arrive at 0745 for Slack Tide and Current to make the run up-river on the flood (incoming tide) and ebb current (slowest).  About midnight we heard the announcement again, but more emphatically with a longer and more detailed statement, “This is US Navy Patrol Aircraft calling the sailboat at 30 degrees, 28  minutes by 081 degrees 45 minutes.  You are entering a Live Fire Target Range using missiles, there was an announcement in the current Notice to Mariner’s declaring this a hazardous and dangerous area to be in.  If you do not make an IMMEDIATE turn to 220 degrees and proceed at that heading for 10 miles you may be in danger of being hit.  Your safety cannot be guaranteed”

With that, we decided to leave our hove-to position and head on to the mouth of the St. John’s.  We didn’t want to dawdle too long here.  As we made our last waypoint with 3 miles left to our entrance we heard the same patrol aircraft calling ANOTHER sailboat, but telling him to make an immediate right turn to a heading of 280 degrees for 40 miles to get around the live fire range.  We added an item to our pre-departure checklist – check Notice to Mariner’s before leaving!

So our trip in from the hove-to position 13 miles from the mouth of the St. John’s was just as interesting.  We were in the FOG again.  Now prior to leaving Charleston, remember, I climbed the mast to fix the radar.  That was good, because dense fog is not my idea of a fun time.  Renne’ and I had discussed heading into Jacksonville at night, and I had to admit to her that going in under just lights of the waterway was not comfortable for me.  She thought it would be easier than going in under the fog bank we were in at that moment.  I commented it was no different than flying IFR.  I had a GPS/Chart plotter with my route plugged in (the IFR airways charts and instruments), Radar to see ahead of me in the fog (equivalent of having Flight Center following my progress) and AIS (Automatic Information System) to see and identify traffic around me (IFF Transponder).  Here we were flying into the St. John’s River, through the jetty (MUCH NARROWER than the Galveston Jetty), and up the St. John’s until about 1000 (10 am) at a blazing speed of - 3kts!  There was traffic in the ship anchorage we had go around, fishing boats (who were as NUTS as we were) out there in the goo we had to avoid, and a dredge out there calling us for permission to cut across the channel in front of us to avoid collision.  If it had been at 180kts, I would have felt Renne’ could  have just passed her IFR check flight.  We spent most of the night and morning in fog so dense we couldn’t see the bow of the boat twenty feet in front of us, but we could see 12 – 24 miles ahead of us and in most directions around us with the radar.  We actually felt very safe!  I am sure the traffic around us thought we were freaking nuts though!

We arrived in downtown Jacksonville and stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant at “The Landing”; a popular social area restored downtown, and then set out for Sadler Point to pump out our holding tank prior to heading for the Naval Air Station (NAS).  Actually we are two miles from the NAS marina, but they don’t have that capability.  By the time we had finished that project, we decided to stay here.  So we are tied to the dock at Ortega River Yacht Club.  We missed Don Finney and Elaine by a week here.  They are down in Ft. Lauderdale and perhaps when we leave we will catch up with them.

So we had Sundowners last night with our friends Bruce and Gina, but missed having you join us there.  You really will have to come down to the docks one evening.  The Tinto Verano’s are fabulous!  So perhaps tonight, 6:30pm at NAS Jax.  See ya’ll there!

JonNe’

We are getting ready to leave some time this next week

When Renne' and I arrived back from Spain in September, there was a Maxi-60, round-the-world race yacht tied up at the far end of the transient dock, where they dock the mega-yachts that very occasionally end up here.  It was a bright yellow, and I had planned every day to walk over to take a look at it.  But getting things done here on the boat, relaxing, getting ready for our next adventure meant I ignored the Maxi's presence and I never got over to look at it.

While we were at the Annapolis Boat Show, prior to heading to California, we spent a few hours at a seminar "Laying Plans for Your Long Term Passage" listening to Lin and Larry Pardy (the patron saints of cruisers),

Liza Copeland (frequent author and contributor to Cruising World),

Don Street (solo cruiser and serious author of books on the Caribbean),

 (Don Street and Liza Copeland - Annapolis Boat Show 2011)

and Brad Van Liew (the only American to race solo around the world three times and two time winner of the Velux 5 Oceans solo race around the world 2002-2003 and 2010-2011),

 (Le Penguion)

needless to say, it was an impressive lineup for a panel.

So when Renne' and I returned from California, there were two changes to the docks:  First, the Maxi-60 was now docked next to JonNe'. 

 So do you notice a similarity to the picture above??  Well, we didn't even know who the boat belonged to until the other day when our diver told us it belonged to Brad Van Liew!  Needless to say, we were a bit shocked by the whole deal.  Then I started comparing things!

First:  There are no shackles on board.  Every piece of equipment on the deck is held in place by line!

 Even the bowsprit bobstay is line - NOT STAINLESS STEEL!

Now I found that amazing.  However, not as amazing as the fact there is NOTHING inside this monster Maxi-60 for the most part.  There is a genset (enough to power a watermaker as he stated at the seminar) for battery power for the electronics and sails!  There is no head - he used a bucket.  There is no galley (he used boil bags of dehydrated foods), there is just a hollow shell with sails in it and some spare line!  So who needs comfort!  And he completed this last trip in 158 days!

So I walked around the dock for perspective.  Now I will be ascending the mast today to fix the radar, replace the spare halyard we had to cut which is still at the top of the mast, and replace the American Flag that is in so need of replacement-but the flag halyard jammed and I have to replace that too.  So when I looked at JonNe' and Le Penguoin from a distance I felt dwarfed!

Can you say dwarf in the presence of a giant?  Shoot, the top of our 63' mast doesn't even reach his second set of spreaders.  Now I absolutely HATE going aloft to the top of our mast in a slip.  I can't imagine having to go aloft that high, by yourself, at sea!!  Makes me shudder!

The second changed was the Gulfstar 46, Ragtime, we crewed on during our third place finish in the 2011 Charleston Harbor Leukemia Race is now docked here.

Yesterday, I worked on the SSB (Single Side Band) Radio, and we have gotten the anchor windlass working again.  From here I need to finish the SSB, get the radar antenna working, the new AIS with radio working, and the dinghy mounted back on the foredeck.  Then wait out the weather to make the trip south.  It doesn't look too good for Wednesday, and if we aren't out by Saturday, the 19th, we will probably scrap the trip and head south after Thanksgiving.  Now that seems really cold!!  So wish us luck.

We had Tinto Verano's (red wind coolers from Spain) again last night with a friend who came to visit.  We were down below, though as the temp keeps dropping after dark.  So come visit us tonight!  We will have Tinto's for Sundowners again!!

Best for now,

JonNe'

We are back aboard

FINALLY!!!

First to our friends, family, and followers who have religiously been stopping by for a visit here - thanks, we really enjoy hearing from you about our adventures!

Second, we haven't stopped cruising, we have just been land cruising for the past few months while we wait out hurricane season.  We got started late in the cruising season this year (February 13th if ya'll remember) from Texas, so we really want to get going as early as possible this year.  We laugh about our schedule, however, since arriving here in Charleston, we have put 1,006 miles on the boat, about 7500 air miles under our belts, a couple of thousand train miles, and almost 18,000 miles on our car and a couple of rental cars!!!!  Now that is land cruising!  For gas, the least we paid was $2.87 and the most in the US was $4.49.9 (in California).

We arrived back in the marina last night about 11:30pm after driving from Houston to Pensacola, then to Jacksonville, then up north to Charleston.  Renne' has a doctor's appointment this morning she has been waiting for since September.  I have new glasses to pick up, and a whole list full of things we have to get done on the boat before we leave.

Looking at the calendar, it appears that we have about 9 days to accomplish the list.  I will feed daily updates on what all is being done.  My first project will begin today.  I have to stop by a Radio Shack to pick up an AMP Pin Puller for a repair on the Lighthouse windass.  I have to replace some pins in the remote switch as well as replace the solenoid for the foot switch.  Hopefully that will fix the windlass so Renne' can get me up the mast this weekend.  Hopefully we can recruit a third individual from here on the docks to assist us in getting the radar ready to go.  I also have to go all the way to the top to untangle and replace the spare halyard we were using to raise the dinghy when we ran into the problem with the windlass.  That should be the start.

My projects include:
1) Modification of the dinghy davits - need some welding done
2) Repair of the Radar Antenna
3) Replace the spare halyard at the top of the mast
4) Install new AIS antenna
5) Replace bow dock line chock - which got ripped off in bad weather while we were in California
6) Install the Single Side Band radio - Finally
7) Straighten this place up - Renne' is really good at doing this project
8) Various sewing projects - Renne' really wants to using this "New" Used Sewing machine.

As with all lists, I am sure this will multiply.  You all know the axiom of starting one project and three more will arise as a result!! 

So for now, gotta fix breakfast, get Renne' to her Dr.s appt, and various shopping requirements to get this place really liveable again.

Surprisingly, however, all of our electrical systems work, including the heater.  Wow, heat in 52 degree weather.

So warm sundowners on the dock tonite.  Decaf Coffee and Kaluha sounds really good to me right about now.  See you guys then, bring your own cups!!

For Now,

JonNe'

Special shout-out to Paul at "The Boaters Resale Shop"  in Kemah for having the exact replacement chock for the bow - and for only $5.00.  We haven't been able to find it anywhere else!  Paul, we are so lucky to have you guys in our home town as well as on-line my friend!!  If you haven't met Paul and his staff yet, stop by the store!
www.boatersresaleshopoftexas.com