s/v " WIND WARRIOR "

February 10th - Thunderball Cave

2012-02-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone ....

Here's where we are .... we're staying for a few days .... or more.

Today we're diving on "THUNDERBALL CAVE" that was used in the James Bond Movie. Tomorrow, we go to the beach on Big Majors and see the swimming pork chops .... mmmm .... I mean pigs .... heheheh. The water is crystal clear.

We are motoring along at 7 knots in 17 feet of water when I took these. Oh, yeah .... the antenna?? .... without that you guys get no more emails. It's good to about a mile from the base station.

Enjoy ....

February 10th - Staniel Cay

2012-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Lat: 24 10.5N Long: 76 26.5W
We departed Warderick Wells Cay and the weather was perfect (again) but don't worry, today it's blowing a storm.
Like I said, the weather was perfect and the water changed colours from a pure blue to emerald green. It was so clear that you could see what looked like lightning flashes on the bottom as the sun passed through the water.

We were actually motoring along here at 7 knots, even though it looks like we're stopped. Jan says that in her next life she's having a pool and the liner will look like this.
Sooooo..... Yesterday we landed in Staniel Cay.

We were able to grab a mooring just to the north of the village and well protected from all directions except from the southwest.
On the map, just about 100 feet to the south of us is a small island. Although it looks like a rock it's the most beautiful place in the world.
This is "THUNDERBALL GROTTO"! The place they used to film the James Bond movie "Thunderball" in 1964. There is a cave that you snorkel into at low water and inside is a huge grotto full of vibrant fish, brightly coloured corals and crystal clear water. FANTASTIC. When you dive down and look out the far end you can see the opening into the cave from the sea.

I copied these off the internet just so you can see what it looks like.

Earlier in the day Jan & I went for a walk to check out the airport. What a quaint little village of 100 people this is. Everything is brightly painted ....

Even the street signs are pretty

There is a small school here that is for all ages. You can see that not too many kids attend this school.

We continued our ten minute walk over to the airport. Pretty small but the 3000 foot runway is in great shape.
The passenger arrivals and departures lounge are very airy and spacious.
"Come on Kelly & Ryan, we're waiting for you"!!

.....and the airport limo aka. Dingy picks you up here.....

However, we have a marina rented for your arrival here ....

And what time do you get here ?????

Besides ........

If you don't show up, well, I guess we'll just have to saunter on home.

...... and get back to the Staniel Yacht Club

just in timne for LUNCH!!!!

We'll be staying here for another day of sightseeing, then heading down to Black Point Settlement when the wind lightens up.
Have a great night ......

February 8th - Warderick Wells

2012-02-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

Lat: 24 23N Long: 76 37.5W
We left Norman's Cay this morning and headed south to Warderick Wells, about 25 miles away. We have some bad weather coming on the weekend with Easterly winds of 25 knots forecast, so a decision was made to work our way south to Black Point Settlement (south of here) where we can anchor in good holding and good protection.
Boy, what an eye opener we got as we approached. When you Google Earth this area you'll see all these beautiful bright white sand bores that are brought in through the ocean cuts. Nobody told us that they're 5-10 miles long and only 3-4 feet deep. You're traveling down the recommended track in 18 feet of water when you see this absolutely stunning colour ahead and it seems to go on forever. It's really so hard to describe. We tried to cross one of these but the last 60 feet or so and the depth dropped down to 4 feet so we had to turn back .... Talk about heading east so you can go west.....

Basically you just follow along the edge until you get enough water to cross. So, now we're anchored just south of the park HQ's in 7 feet of water and ready for a swim ..... oh yeah, the 7 foot shark that just swam under the boat kind of squashed that idea. It was only a nurse shark, so NO TEETH!!

I took a run into the mooring field this morning and it's fantastic. A very narrow cut that runs around the sand bores that has about 10 feet of water and 15 moorings run by the Exuma Park HQ's. At $20 per day it's a pretty good deal. The beach inside the field is perfect ..... warm, very clear shallow water.

A walk up Boo Boo Hill gave me the opportunity to take some great shots.

Boo Boo Hill is the highest hill you can see in the background.

The top is piled with old boards displaying boat names and dates of boats who visited from teh past.

The water colours at the HQ's dock show you just how blue it is here. We're anchored about a mile outside this entrance to the left.

You know .... after all the planning and preparations we made, this really is an easy cruise now ..... and it sure is worth it.
Next stop ....Staniel Cay ...... sometime.

Sunday February 5th - Normans Cay

2012-02-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

Lat: 24 36N Long: 76 49.5W
Well, who would have ever thought of this place. The anchorage at Highbourne was a bit rolly at all times and there wasn't much of a beach without a bit of a dingy ride.
So, yesterday afternoon, after taking Peter and France for a sail ... they've never been on a sailboat before ... we headed down to Normans Cay. What a great place. Here we are anchored in 7 feet of water off a pure white sandy beach. The water is crystal clear and ashore we can see two small homes and a trailer.
Normans Cay was once under the unfriendly control of drug lord Carlos Lehder. There is a paved (well, coral) landing strip which is still in great shape. Last evening we all go for a dingy ride into shore and walk through the brush to find a bar .... and they have a 42 inch LCD TV .... and we're all watching the Super-bowl. What a unique place.
NOW .... you have to keep in mind that FIVE peo;ole inhabit this island which is 3 miles in length by 1/2 mile wide. We still can't figure out why there were 6 jeeps parked out there.

The bar looks full because there are crews of twelve other Canadian boats in there for the game too.
It really was a nice place, but remember, we're still a zillion miles from civilzation.
The bartender was a bit of a dog, but served up great drinks and ice cold "KALIK" beer.
While Ron was chatting it up at the bar with this younger couple, James and Kelly, from Scotland, he finds out that James had rented one of the two planes out back from the States and they were touring the Bahamas. After a couple beers and a lot of talking, James works in ATC for overseas flights and regularly talks with Gander and RCC Halifax. Well, that's all I needed as I used to work in RCC Halifax (Rescue Coordination Center).
Still after more talking, James makes my day ... YUP, WE'RE GOING FLYING TOMORROW !!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Behind the bar is the old air strip with two Cessna 172's parked beside the welcome sign.

This is Normans Cay International Airport !!
Kelly, you can tell Ryan that this is what to expect when you guys get here.

Like I said, the landing strip is in good shape. We're anchored off to the left. So, today is tomorrow, and Peter and I are all primed and ready to go.
See you when we get back.

WOW !!!

That's all I can say. Peter & I had a great flight with James.
We took off at 11am and circled Normans Cay and Shroud Cay. What colours!! On the south side of Normans Cut we saw the DC3 that the US shot down. It belonged to the drug lord here and the US had had enough of him. We also went through the house ruins and drug lab that he had.
Again .... the colours are spectacular.

James is a great pilot who explained to me that in the Bahamas you use a 50/40 takeoff .... That means that you take off and remain at 50 feet above the runway. When you reach the end and just before you aer clear of the trees, you climb steeply at a 40 degree angle until you reach 1000 feet then level off and head to your destination.

Here we are looking north over the pond in the middle of Normans Cay.
We're anchored to the left side off the beach.

On takeoff you could see the "Welcome to Norman's Cay" sign.

You can see the colours where the pure white sand and the deeper channels meet. Man, I still can't get over the colour of the water down here. When you navigate through the shallow channels it's all by sight and the colours of the water. You go around the coral heads.

James and Kelly got engaged last night on the beach and everyone had a great time. YUP ... He looks pretty young for a pilot ... He's 33.

Here we are flying over the DC3 that belonged to the drug lord here in the 1960's. You can see it in the bottom right of the picture. Can't wait to dive on it.

Oh yeah Kelly & Ryan .... The runway is great but the airport kind of sucks here.

So, with that, I'll bid you good night and we'll see what tomorrow brings.
I wrote this on a wall in the run down drug lords' living room !!

Today, Tuesday, we went for a dingy ride to check out the downed aircraft and discovered this great little beach on the side of Gilligan's Island.
It was going to be a great afternoon of swimming and fishing for conch. We met up with past travelers George & Marianne, from Ont.
Well, George and Ron were the first ones to head for conch country when Peter spied this 7 foot shark swimming along about 50 feet away. So much for snorkeling!! So lets just party on the island. That's twice!!

Ever wonder what a hard bottom Bahamian cruiser's dingy is made of ...?
A couple of 2x4's , a sheet of plywood, some fiberglass and a couple straps to hold it all together. Talk about engineering!!

While Jan was showing off her fantastic tan .....

Ron was out at the top of the world .... well, at least at the top of the island. We found a bench that has "Grampa Ron" written on it. Thanks Guys!!

This afternoon Ron decided to change one of the anodes. During his fifth dive he noticed an nosy shark approaching and after 10 minutes of playing dodge ball around the keel, the shark decided it was going to chase Ron's ass up the swim ladder. How fast can you climb a ladder with fins on?? It was only a small shark ..... But it still had teeth !!
Last night, Tuesday February 08, we all got together on Wind Warrior for sundowners .... and what a great sunset it was.

Tomorrow, we work our way down to Warderick Wells Cay.

Good Night!!

February 2nd - Highbourne Cay & Allen Cay

2012-02-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Latitude:24 36N - Longitude: 76 49.5W
We finally got to depart Nassau after four days at the Nassau Harbour Club Marina. The wind let up to 15-20 knots from the east and we were off for the 30 mile trip across Yellow Bank to Highbourne Cay. Everything went fine until in the middle of nowhere (again) the bottom shallowed and we were dodging black coral heads in seven feet of water, arriving at anchor by 1330. The next morning a Bahamas Defense Force vessel anchored nearby and we were boarded by three very mean looking guys with machine guns on what they called a "routine inspection".

The guy on the right from what we could gather was given this machine gun and told to look mean. The other two came inside the boat, soaking wet and carried on with their inspection which consisted of filling out a lot of paperwork and a quick look around. They were happy when we asked if we could take their pics .... except for the guy on the right .... who just wanted to look mean.
It's funny that in our anchorage we had 12 Canadian boats, 1 USA boat and two multi million dollar mega yachts.
Later in the day we took a dingy ride with Peter and France to the Highbourne Marina. What a beautiful beach. This privately owned Cay has a grand total population of 34. Twenty four of them work at the marina and 10 are constructing roads for a new subdivision. We walked the beach then visited the local bar for a couple drinks and a sunset before returning to the boat.

While there we saw varied sea life like a stingray, conch, and of course NEMO

Not the real Nemo but as close as we could get for now.

Today, Saturday, the crews of five boats were invited by Peter and France to join them on their trawler for a run up to Allen Cay to see the wild iguanas on the beach. We towed three dinghies along so we could all get ashore.

There is a stern warning in the cruise books that thesse things WILL BITE YOU if provoked or teased. Sooooo, as we approached the beach, the initial scouts were quickly followed by many more of the critters all looking for handouts of grapes. This was so cool !!!!
Lat. 24 45N - Long 76 50W

Before we knew it the place was overrun with them.

They looked a lot fiercer than they really were. Like all wild animals they just wanted to be fed and would come right up to you.
They were really kind of cute in the end and didn't threaten any of us. After all, we were on their beach.

Here's a quote form a magazine I read this morning: "Prejudice is one off the most stupid things on Earth because there are so many perfectly good reasons to dislike people on an individual basis". This has absolutely nothing to do with iguanas ... I just had to fill the previous page.

Before we left Allen Cay, George and Ron went diving for conch but all they found was a shipwreck. Great snorkeling in this secluded anchorage.

Back on Highbourne Cay we took in other sights around the marina, and what place wouldn't have their own "house of ill repute" .... or so we thought.

Actually this was just a storage room for boat stuff.

The sunset view from the bar was great.

A good day was had by Ron & Jan

and our new friends from Anticosti Island, Peter and France.
Peter used to be an executive chef on cruise ships. Now you know who cooked the lobsters.

For those of you who complain about garbage collection and those poor guys who work hard on the trucks at Waste Management in all kinds of bad weather (hehehe), take a good look at this .... and you have to deliver it yourself.

On Highbourne Cay garbage disposal fees are as follows:
$5.00 PER BAG for the first two bags
$25.00 PER BAG for every bag after that.

Keep up the good work guys.

Tomorrow, Superbowl Sunday, we deopart Highbourne for Normans Cay.

January 30th - Bimini to Nassau

2012-01-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

We made it to Nassau (125 nautical miles) and what a beautiful crossing it was.
Bimini is a very unique place. It's only a half day sail from the USA but has that laid back tropical atmosphere. The Florida Keys has nothing on this place. It's very small and quaint and everyone is very friendly and kind. Everyone we talk to has the same opinion and hope it does not become corrupt by the American influence. We spent 5 days in Bimini awaiting weather, so what else to do except act like a tourist and see the place.
I took a walk to the north end of South Bimini Island. What a lovely place. Small stores with unique names like "Buccaneer Booze & Screws" and the "Thirsty Turtle Yacht Club" that contained a small restaurant and bar with on 51ft sailboat. I still don't know how that got in there.

At the north end of the island there is a small ferry that takes you over to the North Island for $2.00. The flats around there are very pretty and you can watch all the Canadian boats as they arrive from the US.

Did I mention all the traffic on the South Island? Here we were at rush hour. No different than at home ...... The driver had his left foot up on the dash and was talking on da cell phone ... hahaha.

The ground transportation here is free....A little rough at the seams but colorful just the same. Just watch you don't step through one of the rust holes in the floor. The front bumper is held on with a rope and the light above it is wire-tied in place.... Sounds like some of the cars I used to drive.

Oh Yes !!!! I forgot to mention how tough this cruising life has become. We are now down to eating from the sea as we don't want to deplete our supply of frozen food too quickly. Every day the local fishermen come around with an assortment of fresh fish and lobster tails. So far we've bought some 36 tails for about $2 each between the three boats. Peter used to be a chef on cruise ships so he had the pleasure of preparing and cooking them.

When we left Bimini Sands at 0830 on the 28th the tide wasn't high until 1030am and at the entrance there was only 5.3 feet of water. COSTELLO and TANGO made it through OK with their shallow drafts but we had to wait inside the Lagoon until nearly 9 to get enough water to get out.
What a perfect day for a crossing of the Bahama Bank. ESE winds about 8 knots (on the nose again!) and about one foot seas.
Unfortunately it was overcast in the morning and all we had to worry about was water-spouts and shipwrecks.

As you can see, we let Chris on TANGO go on ahead to see if we were going to turn to the east before we got to the spouts.

Our timing for crossing the Great Bahama Bank couldn't have been better. The sun came out and the extremely clear water painted a beautiful picture of what is to lay ahead.
For some 60 miles the depth averaged 12 feet and you could literally see everything on the bottom.

We were making over 7 knots when I took this picture over the bow.

Darkness came as we approached the NW Channel light. Sounds like a major navigational aid but it's just a steel pipe stuck in the sand with a small solar panel and red light on the top. This marks the beginning of the Tongue of the Ocean that leads down towards the Providence Channel and on to Nassau.
So, as we were only in nine feet of water in the middle of the ocean, what else is there to do but drop the anchor for the night. We really didn't realize the vastness of the place until we awoke to a spectacular sunrise.
I told you we were in the middle of the ocean.

Sunday morning brought an even nicer day with light winds (on the nose again) and calm seas. We passed the NW Channel light and continued on with our 57 mile trip. The depth on the chart showed over 10,000 feet as we motored on down to Nassau. You can see that just to the left of our boat it's 10,764 feet deep.
In this picture we were just south of Chub Cay. A few very rich people own property here like Shakira, and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters.

LAND HO !!!!(again)
At about noon we could pick up the twin towers of the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, across the harbour from Nassau. You've seen them in movies such as "After the Sunset".

As we approached you could see the place was full of cruise ships.

The ship (Norwegian Sky) Jan & I went on for our cruise 3 years ago was thee but was dwarfed by the brand new Oasis of the Seas. This thing is massive. Norwegian Sky is to the left in this photo.

Our trip through Nassau Harbour DID NOT go without incident. We saw what we thought was a bag r something floating up ahead when we realized that it was a person trying to swim with a back pack on. He had jumped into the water from shore and tried to swim back to his small boat when he was over-powered by the 4 knot current and was destined for sea. After circling, we lowered the swim ladder for him to hold as we towed him back up throught the anchorage to his boat. He told us he was from Spain and never been on a boat until last month. His name is Ankel.
Rescue Mission Completed !!

So tonight we're all tucked in at the Nassau Harbour Club Marina where we'll be staying for a few days of sight-seeing and getting some fresh produce, etc, and awaiting weather before heading down into the Exumas.

BIMINI

2012-01-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

That's right everyone. WE HAVE ARRIVED IN THE BAHAMAS !!

What a crossing. We got up and departed Miamin in the dark at 0500 ... made our way out the cut by No Name Harbor and out into the Florida Staits. The crossing couldn't have been better. Winds East at 15 knots with 2 foot waves. It was a direct motor all the way.
Ted Haight told me that when you arrive in the Gulf Stream you'll certainly know it ... and Ted, you were so right. 30 miles of 3.5 knot current from south to north and the most beautiful colour of deep true blue that you've ever seen. Nothing to do with the fact that the sea averaged over 2,200 feet deep.

LAND HO !! At about 12 noon we sighted the Bimini Islands dead ahead and we were safely tied up to the Big Game Club Marina in Alice Town by 1330.
This little town is so very quaint and there is absolutely nothing modern about it. All the marinas around here are absolutely deserted. We had a 100 berth marina to be split among 7 boats, a four foot barracuda, and a 5-6 foot lemon shark.

The entrance between the North and South islands was very narrow and shallow but we made it inside ok.

The main street of Alice Town is very narrow with a few cars and a lot of golf carts.
That night as we were going up to the restaurant for supper a tremendous fire erupted in a housing complex right across the street. Forty people in seven families lost their homes that evening. There is virtually no fire department here. All they had was a one ton flatbed truck with a couple hoses, barrels of watrter AND NO NOZZLE! Total chaos! The folks in neighbouring homes could be seen on their roofs with garden hoses trying to keep them from catching fire.

Our hearts really went out to all those panicked and crying families and friends. The marina hotel supplied them all with rooms for the night and free food after the catastrophe died down.

The next day Jan & I went for a walk around Alice Town and took in the sights. The water is an amazing colour and the atmosphere is sooooo BAHAMIAN, MON !

This was the entertainment section of town with two sports bars and a restaurant.

After we tried our first KALIK beer we walked over to the beach and stepped into the water. It was wonderful. No sharks at this beach.

Yesterday we decided to move the boat to Bimini South Island and got a berth at the 100 berth Bimini Sands Resort. It was cheaper($1.10 per foot) and better sheltered from the easterly wind. Again, only 6 boats and no sharks or barracudas in sight. The entrance was very narrow with 0.2 feet under the keel. This marina is so American looking.

Personally, I liked the tropical atmosphere of the Big Game Club a lot better (pics below) but the strong currents there and the waves slapping at the stern made it a little uncomfortable. There was Bob Marley music playing continuously in a lush tropical setting. I hadn't seen enough of that place yet.

Today, we'll do a little exploring of the South Island and try once again to fix the new water bladder that's still leaking into the bilge ..... And at 50 per gallon for water you don't want that to continue.

Around the end of the week we're hoping for good weather to make the 60 mile run across the Bahamas Bank to NW Channel light then on to Chub Cay (20 miles) before making the 30 mile run down to Nassau next week.

Depart Marathon for Miami

2012-01-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

On January 17th everything finally started to come together for Wind Warrior and we would finally get to leave Marathon and continue on our journey.
Our old fridge, being the major culprit of our power problems was tossed and replaced with a brand new Adler Barbour system. We thought all was well until after two days the new one wasn't working very well. A rescue call from Mel, the fridge guy, a little charge of Freon, and it was working ... FINALLY.
Our newly installed West Marine water bladder was filled up and all ran out the bottom into the bilge.... not a good thing, so today we have to look at that again.
Tuesday evening was spent over at Dockside Bar & Grill where we met up with Scott Hamilton, who was going to accompany us to Miami and the Bahamas with Esperanza. More bad news .... his high pressure injection pump had bit the dust and leaked oil all over the engine shutoff solenoid. Now it wasn't working either. Further comm's told us that he'd be another week, so we're off without him. See you in the Bahamas, Scott.
Our weather window had come and we had to get back to Miami for the passage to Bimini on Sunday.
Finally, January 18th arrived and we were off. Marathon was left behind for the last time. We journeyed up Hawk Channel for about 60 miles to Angelfish Creek where we followed "Castello" in through the very shallow channel entrance. There area a trawler and draw 42 inches and called the depths back to us. Our original plan was to jump off from there but the "window" closed.

Finally, safe inside we anchored up a small channel in 18 feet of water. A nice evening was had by the three boats crews on Castello before we headed back to our own boats for the night. At 1am we heard yelling down in the mangroves. Chris and Brenda, from "Tango" had gotten caught up in the strong 4 knot current while rowing back and were swept by their boat. They started to be carried on out of the channel. Luckily, they had managed to make it to the mangroves and were hanging on to the roots when Brenda started calling for help.
Ron got the little outboard on the dingy and managed to find them in the dark and tow them back to their boat .... all's well ..... gone to bed for the night as we had had to depart by 7am to have enough water to get over the hump. Zzzzzzzzzzz ... Then, at 5:30am ... BANG!!! RATTLE, RATTLE ... What the hell was that !!!!
As I ran out on deck I discovered that the current had changed 180 degrees and increased. We had run down on "CASTELLO's" chain and it dragged up across our stern. We got them clear and Ron pulled in 15 feet of our chain to get clear of them. Needless to say, nobody slept that night. Morning came and we made it out the bay end of the cut for an uneventful trip up Biscayne Bay to Miami where we anchored in a beautiful anchorage near South Beach.
Enroute, Ron spoke with Dave Gaetz of Misty Seas from DYC by VHF and they were heading down Hawk Channel to Marathon for a few weeks.

Yesterday, Friday, we took a bus ride over to beautiful Miami Beach and toured the historic Art Deco District where they filmed "The Bird Cage". Just how do you get a large Iguana off an umbrella at a restaurant?? Two guys with bins and a lot of yelling!!

A great day was had and today we prepare to leave for No Name Harbour for the night and our 5:30am departure to Bimini.

See you all from the Bahamas ....

January 14th, 2012 - Still in Marathon, Fla.

2012-01-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well everybody, Christmas is over and we are now back in Marathon. What a difference this place is. From very few transient vessels to being loaded to capacity with every type of boat imaginable..... and of all sizes. here's a few of the more notable ones

Everyone is busy carrying out repairs of some sort in order to get on with their cruise.
In this photo, we were all wondering just how many people it really takes to mount a wind generator on a catamaran.

The whisker pole was donated by yours truly so they could create a boom to lift it with.
As for us .... we still have a problem with our power issues. The damn fridge just won't shut off and it's dragging down the batteries by 5 amps per hour. Yesterday Mel came over with his gauges and determined that there is a leak in the Freon system and moisture has gotten into the system. Therefore .... the decision was reached to purchase a brand new Aldler Barbour unit for a mere $1400 and get rid of the problem right away.

Mel drove Ron down to Key West to pick up the evaporator and the new compressor unit was ordered in through West Marine to be picked up today.
Sooooo, this being Saturday night, all the parts have arrived and Ron & Mel will install the new fridge tomorrow afternoon.....Right after we install the new water badder to replace the one that burst.

Did I say money? Seems that the old adage is very true when cruising. All this cruising thing is about is that you move your boat to a new location and continue to dump money into it.

As for the solar panel, we took the advice of others and rotated it ninety degrees to get it out from under the shadow of the radar. Instantly, we started getting 8 amps of current into the batteries when the best we could do before was 1.2 amps
Like I said ... Boot Key Harbour is full of boats right now. It's really funny sitting here listening to the net about how long ... for hours ... they complain and debate about some guy who shoots off a cannon at sunset. Everyone has to analyze it to death.

Well, I guess what keeps you going is friends and family and we seem to have plenty of both.
Yes Girls .... Mom still wears the bib you gave her so she doesn't drop food down her shirt.
In case you didn't hear ... Jan & I were baptized into the harbour last week when getting into the dingy. Ron was sitting in the stern and holding the boat in to the ladder for Jan. The current caught the bow ... Jan lost her balance and landed on Ron. The dingy immediately flipped upside down right off the stern of the boat. Only Ron's pride was hurt and his glasses were rescued the next day by the diver who was scraping the bottom of the boat.
Our neighbours thought this was a new way to clean the barnacles off the bottom of the dingy so didn't help. They might have clued in when they saw the propeller sticking straight up in the air ... duh !!!

The hope right now is that we get all our repairs completed in the next couple days and we're expecting a weather window by Thursday so we head back up to Miami and wait once again to cross over to the Bahamas, some 52 miles away.
Thursday and Friday are calling for Easterly winds 8-10 knots. Should be OK for the run up to Miami.
Scott H is also looking at doing the run up to Miami as he says he's getting tired of swinging from the ball down here.

I didn't send anything

2012-01-01T14:33:00.001-08:00

The video that went out by email to my 300+ contacts was NOT sent by me. I received it in email and just deleted it. Do not open it as it is a heck of a virus.
I've thanked the person who sent it to me !!
Sorry about all this.
Ron

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

2012-01-01T06:16:00.001-08:00

I believe the song goes "Well our bags are packed and we're ready to go........"
Actually, one bag is packed.... full of boat stuff, so we can get things up and running again.
We have our new WIFI antenna (which looks like a big stick of dynamite with a long wire coming out of it, so that should be fun with Homeland Security :( )........ two new thermostats for the fridge, so we know that nothing will ever go wrong with it again since we have a spare, numerous fittings for water tanks, solar panel installation, stainless U-bolts, etc and for the cockpit..... 2 sets of solar powered Christmas lights and two solar powered spotlights.
At least we'll be well lit up.
After hours of research and discussion, we've realized that the entire power problem on the boat has probably been a result of us closing a cupboard door where the fridge compressor is located. Who knew that you need to have a lot of fresh air passing over it to keep it cooled down. As the book says "If you don't have a good air flow, the compressor will warm up and won't shut off...... BINGO!! Hope that's the problem !! Why on earth would the past owner of the boat write on the inside of the door...."Keep open when fridge operating"......... Now we know.
We have the diver set up to clear off 6 weeks worth of barnacles that have grown on the hull from sitting still.
So....."With one bag packed and three more to go", we're ready to leave on Thursday morning to return to Wind Warrior and continue with our journey.
The plan is to spend the week getting the boat up and running again so we can head back to Miami and join the other Halifax area boats,.... wait for good weather to cross, then head out for the Bahamas and land in Bimini.
Failing to find Bimini, I guess we'll see you somewhere on the other side of the ocean in about 6 months (hahaha).
Hope everyone had a nice and safe Happy New Year, 2012

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

2011-12-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FOR A PEACEFUL AND HAPPY TIME !

We thought we were in for a green christmas but it sure doesn't look like it anymore. Wind Warrior l is nicely tucked in down in Marathon under the watchfull eyes of Eric & Scott who regularly email us to say that things are OK.

So, here's what's going on in Nova Scotia. It's a beautiful site after three months on a boat enroute to Florida.

Marathon

2011-11-22T09:46:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone,
Before we left the boat in Marathon we installed a 210 watt solar panel across the stern posts to help generate power to the batteries (it only took a couple trips up to Miami), however, we're getting a shadow from the radar dome and have to re-arrange the panel to get it out and producing like it should. Hopefully we can just rotate it 90 degrees and run it fore & aft. You can see the shadow cast across it in the picture below.
This was an adventure in itself as we rented a car for the trip to Miami and had no idea where we were going ..... Bought this huge panel (65" X 37") .... stuffed it into the trunk with a 1 foot overhang sticking out and drove home to Marathon. On the way back we discovered that RON forgot to measure the distance between the posts where we were going to mount it. As it turned out the space was 1 inch more than we needed.
You should have seen us at 11 o'clock at night loading this thing across the top of the tender (and it took up the whole front end of the boat) for the trip out to Wind Warrior, then lift it onto the deck without losing the whole works, and us, into the water. Finally, we had gotten a very rare night where the wind wasn't blowing.
We finally have the windmill generating power when the wind blows. The problem there was a broken wire inside the post.

Scott hadn't shown up yet by the time we left so we have another friend Eric looking after things for us. Wind Warrior is in good hands. Eric's going to make contact with Scott to help out while he's there.

The problem with our batteries seems to be a faulty thermostat in the fridge that is forcing it to run 24 hours a day at 5 amps per hour. We removed it when we left and are taking it home for repair or most likely replacement.

Other than that, the boats' in good hands while we're gone and Eric is keeping us up to date on her. He's doing a great job.
Nothing else to report for now.

Marathon Florida

2011-11-19T09:59:00.000-08:00

The boat is in the hands of a friend we met in Marathon.
We're still having a lot of trouble keeping the batteries charged so it makes it very difficult to even turn on a light at night. The problem seems to be that the fridge will NOT shut off which is drawing 5 amps per hour and between the wind generator and solar panel we're only recharging at about 3 amps per hour during the day so the barrel is getting empty.
Hopefully it's just a matter of replacing the thermostat in the fridge when we get home so it'll shut down when it gets cold.
I also found out that a solar panel cannot have any shadow over it as all the units are hooked up in series and that a shadow really cuts things down, so now it's a matter of rotating it 90 degrees to get it out from under the radar shadow. Hope that works.

Well, the blog probably won't get updated again until after Christmas for those of you following it.
See you in a couple of weeks.

Miami to Marathon Sailing

2011-11-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

FANTASTIC SAILING !! We left Miami in about 25 knots of wind and 5 foot choppy seas, but after 10 miles we were into the Hawk Channel on the outside of the Keys, which is protected by a barrier reef, and the seas died down to 1-2 feet but we still had plenty of wind. We sailed down to Marathon all the way through the Hawk Channel. For all you armchair sailors who dream about sailing in the Gulfstream....... if you look at the horizon in the video you can see a thin strip of darker blue water. The "Stream" was 1-2 miles outside of us. Poor tender getting dragged along at 7-8 knots all day. Marathon is a great place with plenty of moorings and plenty of stores. We're still trying to get the lay of things down here and are getting real tired of not having enough battery power to run things all day, so yesterday we jumped in the rental car and drove back to Miami where we bought a 210 watt solar panel and a 2000 watt generator (for when the sun isn't out). We also have to get the wind generator working properly. Now for the big job..... off to West Marine to buy enough material to "create" an arch to mount the panel on up between to radar mast and windmill mast. Oh yeah, the panel is 65 inches long and the space between the poles is 66! Perfect fit. When all is said and done we'll be lighting up the whole anchorage with cold beer in hand.
By the way... the sunsets here are spectacular...... and we don't have a tan... hehehe.

Miami, Florida

2011-10-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

Oh alright, so I slacked off for a couple weeks. Well, we've still been on the move and we're now in Miami, Florida at the Dinner Key Marina ... And it's raining like hell.
Last week we picked up Lew Page in North Palm Beach and headed out for Fort Lauderdale, via the ICW. Man what a sight we had. The huge houses just got bigger ... and nicer ... and bigger still.

It took Lew a couple days to relax and forget about work but things finally started to go better with a few rums in him. "STOP TRYING TO WORK FROM HERE LEW !!!" "THE WORLD WILL GO ON!!"
We landed in a mooring field across from the Las Olas Marina in about 7 feet of water ... WHAT TIMING !!!!
Throughout the night 200ft mega yachts started arriving, some under tow, some escorted by Tow Boats US boats, and others ... they just used their twin screw, double bow thrusters ... and fully automated, computerized docking systems.

The Fort Lauderdale boat show was about to start in a few days and they were loading up the docks. I honestly didn't think it was possible to fit that many Mega Yachts into such a confined space.

Lew was so excited at this sight that he went up on deck watching most of the night .... and I must admit that I had my fair share of observing time. The loading went on well into the next day, but we had to get going and head on down to Miami.
As we motored down the ICW the homes continued to get bigger. Man there's no shortage of money around here. Some of the boats that were parked in front of these homes were so big that they made the house look small.

Except for this one. Word is that the owner purchased four $10 million homes on this piece of land and raised them. WHY you ask???
So that he could build this $100 MILLION home on the same spot !!!

Well, we can't put the 75 plus pictures of homes in here so you'll just have to take our word for it.
As we departed Port Elizabeth, the weather was very favourable with 4-6 ft seas on the quarter and 15-18 knot NE winds pushing us along at a wonderful 7-8 knots.
When does sailing become a race? ... when Lew sees a bout about 3 miles ahead of you and you know you can take him before the turn off into Miami .... and we did it with about 200 yards to spare.
The weather was very hot and sunny so it's time to cool off a little.

Welcome to ocean sailing Lew !!
"Come on Lew ... We're slowing down !! Get back in the boat before a shark eats you !"
So Miami it was ... until we heard a broadcast from the US Coast Guard that the main channel past the cruise ships was closed for security reasons..... so with a little alteration to port we headed off down past the container piers and straight into downtown.

Around the corner and past the Miami Yacht Club where we anchored behind some huge condos in South Beach.

What a great day that was. Being so close to South Beach warranted a swim in the ocean in the afternoon followed by a great walk and dinner on Lincoln Street, which is a two mile long pedestrian mall loaded with shops, stores and piles of places to eat. Fantastic!
With Hurricane Rhea hurtling itself around the Yucatna Peninsula, it was decided NOT to head on down to Marathon as there would be much more protection for us under the lee of huge high rises in Miami than in the lower keys.
With three days to spare and nowhere to go we headed down through Biscayne Bay to Key Largo where we spent the night anchored off a local Angler's Club and Marina. Nice place but they didn't accept visitors.
What to do next .... ??? Let's head back towards Miami in the morning, about 42 miles to the north, just in case Rhea comes after us as it was now a category 2 hurricane.
WE STRUCK GOLD upon arriving in No Name Harbour at the south end of Key Biscayne. For all you NS boaters ... this place is Rogues Roost .... only bigger and with a huge bar up at the end of it.
Lew was FINALLY settling down ... hehehe ... and a great time was had by all.

The fee .... $20 per night to anchor, as it was within a national park ... and payment was on the honour system.
Too bad we didn't land there first instead of Key Largo.

A great evening was had there then after a wonderful sail we arrived at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove (about 5 miles south of Miami) .... 585 berths plus 270 moorings ... but no fuel dock, and we haven't fueled up for a week. No problems, we're only down 20 gallons and our three jerry cans hold 15 so in they went. Now we have enough to get us to Marathon.
Last night proved very nice with dinner and a live band at Scotty's Landing Restaurant. We got back to the boat well after dark but just in time to experience the worst wind storm we'd ever seen. Instantly, it started to pour and the wind piped up in excess of 50 knots. You couldn't see anything and the three of us stood there in awe for a minute until the extra dock lines came out to keep the boat from getting beat up against the pilings. By the time we got this done (about 15 minutes) everything went calm, the rain stopped and it was a beautiful night. The local boat owners said it was great because now they didn't have to wash down their boats.
Today, Lew parted his way and flew back to Halifax. In his own words .... "From 90F to 7C, This in not a good thing". With a final drink of our favourite Mount Gay Rum, the taxi arrived and after some goodbyes he was gone.
It was a great week Lew. We'll have to do it again. By the way Lew, the thinder, lightening and rain and wind has returned tonight .... THANKS!
It's about time you RELAXED!!

Tomorrow it's departure time for Jan & I, as we leave this pretty city and head out into Hawk Channel (behind the reef) and sail on down to Marathon and into Boot Key Harbour.
Still no internet coverage so you'll get this update really late from Marathon.

October 30, 2011
In case you thought we fell off the earth, we didn't. We're having a really hard time getting on line ... and that's going to be rectified very soon.
Anyway, we made it to Marathon (Boot Key Harbor) in the Florida Keys, this afternoon. Had a tremendous thunderstorm this morning. WE WERE ANCHORED IN A LITTLE HARBOUR called Metacumbe Bight in 7 feet of water with 125 feet of anchor chain out ... get that one ... we weren't going to drag in any winds. Lew ... I found the leak at the mast and fixed it.
Don ... Thought I had the port water tank fixed but something let go again yesterday.

October 31, 2011
Here we are in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Fla.
I pointed to our home for the next while.

October 16th - St. Augustine, Florida

2011-10-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Today, we arrived in PORTUGAL or SPAIN!! ... But it sure could be. No, this is St. Augustine, Florida. After a nice day at sea we turned in to this tiny little inlet with BIG breakers on both sides. I wasn't quite sure how to get in safely but a quick call to BOAT US on the VHF radio and they gave me a clear picture of where the sand bars were. At this point in the day we were looking more for the liquor bars. After rounding the last bouy and turning the corner, what a shock. We were met face on by this very large, very fortified, old Spanish fort with guns pointing from all sides to protect the port.
The Castillo de San Marcos as it now stands, was constructed between 1672 and 1695 and with it's commanding site on the west bank of the Matanzas Bay allowed it's guns to protect not only from attack by sea, but also the ground to the north against land attack. You had to watch those French you know from sneaking up from behind.

On "our" day we journeyed to the Castillo and witnessed them demonstrating the cannon firing. Funny how all the commands were in Spanish except for the last one...."HOLD YOUR EARS ... FIRE!!!!" What a loud boom that made for. The guys explained that with this little 6" gun they could fire a connon ball 1 1/2 miles ... but witht the 16 inch cannon that was built in 1613 in Spain, they could send one of these things 3 miles with some amount of accuracy.

Now, this Castillo never lost one of the 10 battles it was in. The walls are 40 feet thick and made of Coquina, which is a substance made of shells, sand, salt water and lime. Better than cement as it will absorb a striking of a cannon ball and the cannon ball would fall to the ground in the mote. At the end of the day, the soldiers would all go and collect the French cannon balls and the next day they would just fire them all back at the French. Talk about recycling.

St. Augustine was first discovered by Juan Ponce do Lion in 1513 and claimed for the king of Spain. There is a statue of this short discoverer in the main square by the bridge. Oh yeah, he was only 4'11" tall but was the tallest man on the ship as he refused to let anyone taller than himself to go on the trip.

The word here is that the statue has Juan pointing to the north, as a jesture that all the French could go back to the north from where they came.

As one entered the harbour past the Castillo, it was very obvious that this treasure was Spanish. The architecture, the tiny streets, even the Ponce de Lion (or Bridge of Lions) had the flavour.

The Bridge of Lions as seen here is a double bascule bridge and opens on demand except during rush hour. At night it is all lit up.

This is the Anglican Cathedral of St. Augustine. At night the dome is lit up and it looks like gold.

This is the old church of St. Augustine with his statue above the main doors.

These are some of the buildings belonging to the Flagler College.

This building is the city hall and it still carries the architecture from the past.

Another photo of the Flagler College buildings

Aviles Street is a prime example of the narrow back streets here that are full of small pubs and shops. The road is made of inlaid brick that has been in place for over 300 years. Many of the back streets look like this one.

Jan has always wanted to take a horse drawn carriage ride, so since it was such a beautiful night we decided to go. It was amazing driving down the very narrow back streets. The feeling alone took you back 300 years.

Told you it was all lit up at night.

We were on a mooring for a couple nights right off the historic waterfront district and got a full appreciation of the city by night ... the foood .. the music, and the people atmosphere.

And the night view

Day one was finshed off with at terrific sunset. One of the prettiest yet.

Day two started out with a great breakfast of scrambled eggs cooked by chef Ronaldo, then it was time to go sightseeing again. We bought tickets for $10 each that would allow us to travel on this small train all around the city and get on and off at over 21 different stops including the original Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. That place was full of interesting stuff. The train ticket was valid for 3 consecutive days.

The next morning it was time to depart this beloved city and head on down the ICW for Daytona Beach ... and that's where we are now .... at the HALIFAX HARBOUR MARINA ... and get this .... we're the ONLY boat at this 553 boat marina that actually has the word "HALIFAX" on the stern as a port of registry.

As a funny add-on to this ... yesterday we got an email from Larry Guptil who told us that he was watching the 3rd round of the PGA in Georgia when prior to going to break they scanned the harbour in Brunswick Ga.
In Larry's own words "They showed this nice looking sailboat for about 10 seconds and I thought, GEE WHAT A NICE BOAT ... Hey I know that boat ... Holy Gees, that's Ron on the Stern and Jan driving !!!" Man, you never know who's watching you these days.

Nite all ...

Charleston to Brunswick, Georgia

2011-10-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we've had three very long days. Ina a nutshell, we left Charleston 3 days ago and followed the ICW through some more swampland and anchored in a little isolated creek called Tom Point Creek. From there we left in very dense fog for the open ocean 6 miles away and once we got to the inlet the fog cleared. It was quite choppy for 6 miles until we got through the surf and into some deeper water ... yeah right ... 27 feet deep at 18 miles off the coast. The seas were about 3-4 feet on the nose so we just jammed our way along until we got to Savannah.

The Savannah River is 17 miles long up to the city so we opted to anchor just inside the mouth and up a small creek.

This morning we left Savannah and after 11 hours, arrived in Brunswick, Georgia. We're only 15 miles from the Florida border, so tomorrow will be a short day offshore to Fenandina Beach, Fla. where we'll stop and get some badly needed rest.

Today I took this picture ... enjoy.

TONIGHT IT'S BLOWING VERY HARD AND IT STARTED RAINING AGAIN.

We're in Florida

2011-10-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I sure haven't been keeping these up-to-date. Sorry about that folks but we've been out to sea lately.
Soooo, as the title says ... We have arrived in Florida. Today we arrived in Fernandina Beach, Florida just in time for a beautiful sunset.

As stated earlier, we've been at sea for a number of days. In a nutshell, we finally got out of the Isle of Palms (near Charleston) and sailed up through the harbour without stopping. On the west side of the city was a 200 foot sailboat that had the tallest mast in the world. Very high as you can see.
By the way, the boat to the left of it was about 100 feet long.

So, on we motored, back into the ICW until 5pm came around and it was time to stop for the night...But where? ... All we see is swamp all around us...There are no cities or towns along here. Jan finds this small creek called Tom Point Creek. It gave us some shelter behind some trees in a place about 75 feet wide and 10 feet of water. Plenty of room here. There was no mention of all the gnats, mosquitoes and flies, but that has to be expected in a swamp.

It was really quite nice when we entered, however, in the morning when we woke up the fog was as thick as I've ever seen. You couldn't see any of the banks around you and the tide was now high so you didn't know how far these shoals came out.
So, once again we headed off into the unknown aiming for the North Edisto River and out into the Atlantic Ocean bound for Savannah, Ga.
Thank God our plotter was accurate.

By the way, I figured out where the Louisiana saying Ieeeee! comes from. It means IEEEEEEEE ... Get your ass out of the water before the gators get you!!!
Oh yeah, this reporting to Homeland Security ??? They have their spies all over the place down here.
Take a look at these two checking us out ......
"What do ya think Fred" ... "Well I don't know what that silly looking red flag is on the back of their boat Ralph, but it ain't American for sure".

"Let's call in the rest of the guys and see what they think." "After all, this is a private country ya know and it's only open to members."

All kidding aside folks, US Homeland Security has been very professional when we call in and they always thank us for reporting.
So on with the story ....
The last two days have been rather straight forward at sea. We weren't ready for the fact you have to go 5 miles out to sea to get around the 6 feet of water in the approaches to the inlets, or that at 25 miles out to sea there is only 32 feet of water under you.
The only real danger out here is getting run over by a shrimp boat or tangled up in their trawl if you get too close. You can usually see them miles away and to enlarge their rigging so you can see them better, they carry hundreds of birds.
We called numberous "shrimpers" to arrange passing but nobody would answer.

After two long days (with short stops at night at Savannah and Brunswick), we finally arrived at Fernandina Beach, Fla.
This is a very quaint little town that was first built and settled by the Portuguese in the late 1700's and followed by the Spanish in the early 1800's. There is a large fort at the entrance to the river inlet.

The historic downtown area is beautiful and peaceful. We took a walk through the streets and saw some of the old buildings and Jan was interested in a date with some old pirate guy.

Ron was trying his hand at borrowing this bike to get back to the marina.

Well, all in all, it was a great day of sailing and discovering new areas. We're settled in at the Fernandina Harbour Marina for the night and it's not very crowded here.

Tomorrow, it's back to sea for another round of get those sails working as we continue to head south to St. Augustine.

Isle of Palms Marina

2011-10-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, since there's nothing else to do, I took a couple of photos of the marina here. Not a bad place.

Now all we need is some nice weather again. I think I'll change the oil this afternoon ... booooring !!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. For us? ... ours down here isn't until November 30th, but then we'll be in Barbados for that one.

Yesterday we drove down to Savannah to check the place out. The historic downtown area appeared very old but very run down as well. Not nearly as nice as Charleston. Just a whole different attitude as well ... Must be all those boiled peanuts .. YUK !!

Well, today is the Thanksgiving storm of the south. It's been blowing a constant 35-40 so far and supposed to get worse. We had bands of rain last night so this storm isn't far off being a hurricane except that the pressure isn't low enough. We're tied up at the Isle of Palms Marina about 18nm (nautical miles) from Charleston... broadside to the wind, so we're doing a bit of rocking around and our poor fenders are now only about 3" thick from the pressure on them. Guess we have a couple more days here. Anyway, we're safe and NOT going outside as the surf alone is over 10 feet today. Have a good turkey dinner.

Myrtle Beach to Charleston, SC (Almost)

2011-10-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we left Southport, NC a little later than expected and thought we might head out to sea at Little River. However, that was only a 4 hour day and the inlet was very shallow, so we made the decision to keep right on going down the ICW until 4pm when we would set anchor for the night wherever we were. WELLLLL !! What a mistake that was, as I'll go into later.
We are getting very tired of traveling through swamps and never ending swampland and really can't wait to get clear of it.

We saw our first pelicans today but not much else in the way of wildlife.

Why are we getting tired of this swamp stuff .... you follow the ICW marker buoys ... Nothing to see but really brown water and trees growing in the swamp ... and turtles sunbathing on the stumps.

The ICW is no longer straight but winds through narrow passages of not much water.

As we rounded one bend in the river we came upon a sign announcing the Osprey Marina and its' gas prices. Basically, you entered between a couple small buoys and a break in the trees. This small marina turned out to be the prettiest we'd seen and at a dollar per ft, it turned out to be a great deal.

So, now we get back to Myrtle Beach. The ICW passes around the back of Myrtle Beach with its' hundreds of golf courses and very large homes. We really can't understand why they have such magnificent homes. Here's a couple of photos of some of the standard homes in the area.

Really it was a nice change from the same old swampland from the week before.
As we progressed further down the ICW, the houses started to disappear and you wouldn't believe what we were into again .... That's right ... MORE SWAMP! Only this time it was more like a huge 60 mile grassland that they call a marsh. No tree, no houses and every now and again, you'd look a way out and see a sailboat sitting in the grass about 2 miles away. It had motored up one of the creeks through the marsh and anchored for the night.

This thing is huge. You can see horizon all around you and there is absolutely no protection from the strong wind that blows through. Around 5pm we finally found a small creek with 12 feet of water in it and tried to anchor for the night. Unfortunately, the wind was strong and the bottom hard with oyster shells, thus the anchor would not set.

The sun was quickly setting so Jan & I decided to make a run for the Charleston area as it would have been suicide trying to navigate the swamps in darkness.

As the sun started to go below the horizon we could see a bridge ahead and knew we must be close so, we put the pedal to the metal, as they say and at 8.5 knots we made it to the Isle of Palms Marina just before it really got dark. After a very long day, times were good. We had a great dinner and a bottle of wine, then sat back and listened to the live entertainment playing Jimmy Buffett music. We had arrived in the south.

Today, October 8th, we checked the weather and see that a tropical storm is enroute up from the Miami area that will shed rain and a lot of wind on us until Tuesday, so we decided to hunker down here, rented a car and drove into Charleston.

First we had a short stop at the vast beach they have here and as you can see it was very windy.

What a great day. We love this city. Everything is so old, clean and tourist oriented. On our narrated bus tour of the city we saw many, many old civil war era homes, the downtown market and the slave markets of the early 1800's. This place is so rich in history.

Nearly all the homes are "single homes" and they're called that because they are very narrow across the front but deep down the sides. They are only wide enough to have one single room. These homes look like they are built sideways with long balcony's called "piazza's" (pee-at-zas) down the full side of the house ... and always two stories of them.

In Charleston, they have a free trolley bus system which runs about every 10 minutes so there's never a long wait.

The day was nicely finished off with a very fine dinner at ... "THE BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP COMPANY" ... and what would it be without a bucket of Cajun shrimp and a large cold beer.

The inside of the restaurant had many items used in the movie including the white suit that Tom Hanks wore, and a description of the sets used to film the movie in the Beaufort area of SC ... NOT Greenbow, Alabama. Ron just had to purchase that big red ball cap with the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company crest on the front.

We finished our day with a couple phone calls home and a great Skype call to Jill, Mike and the kids.

As I siad, with the storm that is coming we're just going to hunker down till Tuesday when it passes.

Tomorrow, we take our rental car for a drive to Savannah, Georgia for more sight-seeing.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO OUR FAMILY & FRIENDS IN CANADA !!

Surf City to Southport, NC

2011-10-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

We left Surf City yesterday to follow the ICW down to Carolina Beach then took Snow's Cut across to the Cape Fear River and down to Southport. The ICW is very narrow as you can see in this pic but it keeps you well protected from the seas outside. We follow the white line down the center on the plotter.

On the way we were very pleased to come upon a pod of dolphins and while Jan steered the boat Ron was running around the boat with the camera trying to collect a few pics.

This guy stayed with us for about 10 minutes.

The trip was pleasant but we had to watch for shoaling as we passed by the various inlets from the ocean. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get outside to sail because the depths were too shallow.

On the funnier side, we passed this house with a huge statue of Neptunes wife . I think the guy was trying to burn her at the stake.

She was made of the finest sheet metal that money could buy.
At last, the release from the strong currents of the Cape Fear River and a sharp turn to starboard……. And there was the littlest of towns called Southport, NC. The folks here are so friendly. We found this little restaurant / bar with an old dock in front of it where we tied up. The cost….? FREE!! on the condition that you purchased a meal in the restaurant. The food was great and so was the atmosphere with music playing all day long and into the evening.

The Yacht Basin Provision Company was a very unique place. Our first dinner was cheeseburger and fries for Jan and a big plate of shrimp and conch fritters for Ron. Speaking of shrimp….. at night the boat is alive with a crackling sound, ever since Morehead City. That’s the sound of shrimp snapping under the hull…… as explained by the locals.

It seems that it doesn’t matter where we end up each evening, the atmosphere is still great and followed by a great sunset.

We met new friends from Charleston, SC, Mark & Linda Smith who own a trawler Krogan 36. We had such a great time with them that we decided to stay another day. Mark was an ex US Navy Captain and Linda was a nurse so we had a fair bit in common. They had a couple bikes on board so Mark & Ron took a long ride to Walmart to gather some supplies as we’re all leaving tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning we head down the ICW again as far as Little River, NC which is on the NC /SC border. .. a distance of about 30 miles. From there we’ll head offshore to Georgetown, SC and bypassing the Myrtle Beach area of the ICW, Inside the route is 84 miles as it winds it’s way down the coast. By going outside onto the sea the distance is shortened to 51 miles.

Night y’all

Morehead City to SURF CITY ... USA (NC)

2011-10-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, today we FINALLY thought we were done with the swampland but NOOooooooooo! We left Morehead City this morning and decided to follow the ICW down towards the SC border.
After a while the shores were beginning to be lined with houses and every single one of them had a looooooong dock that ran about 150 ft out into the ICW.
Some of the homes were a little bizarre but most of them were modest…. But all are built up about 20 feet on stilts.

This afternoon we came around one corner and bang into a US Navy patrol boat at the beginning of Camp Lejune which is a huge Marine Corps Base.
The base straddles the waterway and on the port side of the ICW is a big swamp that has tanks, missile launchers, busses and other targets strategically placed. They shoot at these things from the other side of the ICW from about 2 miles away, with tanks and other heavy weapons. Man, these things were blown all to hell.

Near the end of the run through the base were confronted by 5 very large and very heavily weaponed zodiacs. These guys could take on an army…. And win. They looked tough but they all waved as they went by.

Like I said…. They looked tough and scary, but at the end of a hot day a nice swim is always in order.

Late this afternoon as we were approaching the SURF CITY SWING BRIDGE we decided it was time to hunker down for the night. The charts showed the Beach House Marina up a creek off the ICW just north of the bridge…… and they had fuel and water…..so we decided that we’d go there.
Things went well as we rounded an island and started up the inlet when BANG!!!! OH SHIT!!!! We were hard aground on a sand bank. What the hell was that?

After ten minutes of rocking the boat with the engine running full astern she finally came off and floated free. I told Jan I’d take it from here and BANG…… we were up on another sand bank.
I’ll guarantee everyone right now that there is absolutely no growth on the bottom of our keel.

As we got back out into the middle of the channel we saw a big sign that said….”Beach House Marina is here… with an arrow pointing to port, NOT OVER THERE.

We got in OK and fueled up before making our way to a dock for the night.
After a cold drink we walked one block to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean then had dinner overlooking the sea. The evening was perfect and the sea was calm. That’s when we made our decision to go outside on the sea for the next couple legs because we miss the sea so much.

So, tonight, we’re in Surf City, NC and enjoying it.

Later……

Alligator River to Belhaven, NC

2011-10-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, just when we thought we were finished with running the swamps for a while, we’re right back in it. It seems that North Carolina is 90% swamps.

The small marina we stayed at had a great replica of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse right at the end of the fuel dock. We had to have a picture of it…. So here y’all go.

We left the small Alligator River Marina this morning after a great shower and breakfast at the local Shell Station, and after clearing the swing bridge ran south down the huge Alligator River about 10 miles until we came to another swamp. We entered the Alligator River-Pungo Canal. A 20 mile cut through the bush and swampland. It was generally a boring run compared to the last few days and the only wildlife we saw was ONE white-tailed deer at the side of the canal.
We did pass a tug and barge combination coming the other way. I still don’t know how they made it through the twists and turns at each end.

One thing that really bothered us was that here we were in this no wake natural environment when this big asshole 65 ft powerboat came running up behind us throwing a 4 foot wake. I called him and finally on Channel 16 asked him to slow down before we got killed by his wake. We pulled over to the side and he passed us after substantially slowing down.

Like I said…… it’s a no wake zone and this guys wake was really destroying the shoreline. The big powercat that had passed us earlier (at a decent speed) was zig-zagging across the channel and not letting this guy pass until he slowed down.

So, today we did about 40 more miles of swamp, canal running and there is really not much to see.

After we exited the Pungo River we entered a small community called Belhaven, NC to look for a marina or anchorage but the wind was high and the docks were not very good, so we left and ran down the ICW another 5 miles and found a great anchorage in 8 feet of water, in a place called Slade Creek.

A very nice sunset followed supper and Jan was busy in her usual place completing her journal.

Oh yeah…. Here’s one I forgot to mention to ya………
Ever wonder how it feels to go under a 64 foot bridge with a 60 foot mast? The first time we did it we crawled through and took a lot of pictures. Now?....... we just keep on truckin at 7 knots as we’ve gotten used to it.

Tomorrow morning it’s 60 miles down to Morehead City, NC, closer to the Atlantic Ocean.

See ya’ll tomorrow.

Oct 2nd - Morehead City, NC

Hi Guys,

CIVILIZATION AT LAST !!!!!!!!!

For the past 3 days and 150 miles we’ve been travelling through swamps and creeks……… and today we finally arrived in Morehead City, NC……. Where there are actually people.

After leaving our anchorage this morning we continued down the Alligator River to the Pungo River then out into the Neuse Rive and on to Oriental, NC. The trip was basically uneventful, but the closer we got the more houses we started to see, and the more boats we encountered.

We passed a tug this morning that had 6 barges in tow and the last one dragged about 1,000 feet of hoses behind. That must have been a handful getting that tow hooked up.

After leaving the Alligator River we were met by a few flipper type dolphins playing in our bow wave but by the time I got the camera they had moved on.

Near Hobuken, NC we passed a boat that very well could have been used by Tom Hanks, as Forest Gump for catching shrimp.

Oh yeah, LANE……. We saw another boat for you…… What do you think?

This one doesn’t require as much work as the last one.

When we arrived off Oriental, it was only 1;30pm and the day was very short so we continued on down the Adams Creek to Morehead City, where we tied up for the night at the dock right off the “Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant” right on the downtown waterfront. It’s very beautiful here and for $25 per night we had the best room in the house,

The sunset was once again fantastc as you can see.

So tomorrow morning we head down into South Carolina and will anchor wherever we get to.

All the best

Great Dismal Swamp Canal

2011-09-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we did the sightseeing thing in Norfolk and had an enjoyable day. We did a small run on “The Tide” which is basically a 3 car transit train, from one end of the city to the other. When rounding one corner it looked like the Battleship USS Wisconsin was coming straight down the street at us. Man what an impressive sight.

These things are monsters as compared to the other destroyers. The Wisconsin was built and served in WW2, Korean War, Vietnam and was the first US Navy vessel to fire a cruise missile into Iraq during the Gulf War.
There is a nice museum here on the waterfront with tours of the ship.

This morning we got up early and departed Norfolk for the Great Dismal Swamp Canal……. Even though Jan would rather we went down the Virginia Cut, as it’s a little wider and much deeper. I on the other hand wanted to escape the never ending bridge openings and tug & barge traffic.

Well, as we passed the last bridge in the Elizabeth River, I saw a little brown sign pointing to the Great Dismal Swamp and made a hard right. I only recognized the sign because of Scott’s blog. So, before Jan had anything to say, I had swung the boat hard to starboard and into this very narrow area of swampland and continued down towards the locks. Boy was she mad…… but too late now….. it’s too narrow to turn around and we only had 0.5 feet of clearance under our keel.

Well, what a great decision this turned out to be. We arrived at the Deep Creek Locks a little early and had to anchor until they started to open to take us in. The lock operator was a fantastic tour guide.

As you can see, we’re about half way to Marathon with about 1100 miles to go. Told you it was a long trip.

After clearing the lock we entered this magical kingdom called the Great Dismal Swamp Canal and followed it for 28 miles where we arrived at the North Carolina Visitors Center……. And they had wonderful docks right on the canal. We only had a few bumps on over saturated logs that had sunk to the bottom but generally had about 7-8 feet of water the entire way.

Oooops……. There’s another overhead branch of a tree that we nearly took out with the shrouds. Let me explain here folks…….. the canal is basically a cut ( that was supervised by George Washington and started in 1793 and completed in 1805. It was dug by hand by slaves.) through a swamp that is about 50 feet wide and 45 miles long. They call it “the ditch” because that is what it is.

The water is so tanic in colour that it stains the bow of the boat with the ICW Mustache.

However, this cut is very magical and beautiful. Today , it was in the mid 80’s and we enjoyed the sunshine.

So, as the sign says…… “WELCOME TO NORTH CAROLINA”
We arrived at the visitors center about 2pm today and decided to stay the night with Dick & Kate Robinson who we basically followed all the way here. The dock is very nice and Jan can just step right off the boat and onto the dock. I went over to the visitor center on the other side of the pontoon bridge where the young lady described how an alligator was run over last week by a car and that there are cottonmouth rattlers in the woods, etc.

Jan’s afraid that something is going to crawl across the deck tonight and fall down through our hatch and onto the bed.

So, here we are at the dock at the Visitor Center. We had a nice supper at a picnic table beside the canal with more new friends, Dick and Kate.

Tomorrow morning we leave and run through the pontoon bridge and southern locks and may stop in Elizabeth City for the night.

Oh yeah……. Been through the Dismal Swamp and got the ball caps !!

Sept 30th- Dismal Swamp to Alligator River

Today was the best part of travelling so far. 80 degrees and sunny. This morning we left the Dismal Swamp Canal and headed down the last locks before heading down Turner’s Cut.

This part is absolutely breathtaking and far outways the dismal swamp section. The water, to Jan’s delight is about 14 ft deep and a bit wider. The wildlife was everywhere……. Turtles, snakes, birds, …. You name it and we saw it.

This is much more like motoring through a Cyprus swamp than we’ve seen so far. There is a constant layer of green swamp leaves and huge pines and Cyprus trees. We’re the only human beings for miles.

The whole family is here today!

Jan tried to run this poor guy down as it was swimming for it’s life…… probably could have killed you with one bite!

We passed under the bridge at Elizabeth City and as it was only noon we decided to cross Albemarle Sound and down to the Alligator River….. a distance of about 25 miles.

Tonight we’re at the Alligator River Marina and tomorrow it’s off to Moorehead City.

Mapping the Trip South

2011-09-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Click on the "View Larger Map" link to follow our trip South

Solomons to Norfolk

2011-09-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Man, I hate this internet service down here. Even though I have 4 bars here I still can’t get onto an internet connection. So I guess I’ll just have to load this onto a stick drive and find a library somewhere,

The trip down from Solomons to Deltaville was very easy but it was a long day. We saw our first pelicans of the trip…. About half a dozen of them and are they ever funny when they crash land in the water. They open up their mouth a bit and try to skim the surface but every single time the water catches them and they go head over heals into the water……. Really clumsy. They really do remind me of the pelican in Nemo.

As we made our approach to Deltaville we were greeted by two “flipper” type dolphins right at our bow as they jumped out of the water. They didn’t return to play in our bow wave.

The approach to Deltaville is extremely narrow but rather well marked and with the help of Dozier’s Waterway Guide which also shows aerial photos we made it in very easily.

We anchored just off Deltaville Marina and it was a very peaceful place. I thought I might walk up into the boat yard to check out the boat that Pat & Ted are looking at but couldn’t find it. There were about 50 boats neatly aligned in rows. I asked a guy why they were all hauled out of the water ane he told me that NO locals owned them. It was all people from around the great lakes, etc. They leave them there for the summer then return in Mid October, launch them and head south for the winter. He told me that in three weeks the place would be empty of boats……..

Sept 27th - Deltaville
That’s right folks, We’re in Norfolk now…land of the US Navy. Everything here is Navy right from the massive Naval Dockyard at the approach to the James River all the way to the entrance to the Elizabeth River and the Inter Coastal Waterway at Mile ZERO. We got fuel at Tidewater Marine right across from downtown Norfolk then went out of the marina to an anchorage with about 12 other boats swinging from the hook. As we approached our anchorage spot we saw that there was another identical boat to ours.
It belongs to Mike and Francie from Chicago who are also making the trip to the Bahamas.

Just after dropping the anchor and pouring our celebratory drink to cheer the weather Gods a couple pulled up in their tender and quickly announced that they were Ken and Merydie on Quick Sticks, a Bristol 29 out of Lahave River Yacht Club. We knew a lot of the same people. The name on their tender was “the twig”. How cute.

Well, all 4 came over for the evening and we had a great time.
This morning we’re going over to inspect the other Gulfstar 45.

See what I mean……. Nearly identical.

Like I said folks, Norfolk is all Navy. Here’s a few shots of some of the ships here.

USS ENTERPRISE – Doesn’t look like the one in Startrek

These two were in dry-dock.

Oh yeah…. And Garrett, you’ll love this one. As we were coming up the harbour we were met by this HUGE steel Transformer. He looked like he just wanted to bend down and scoop us up…. Hahaha

So, the Norfolk waterfront is rather pretty at night and Jan & I had a relaxing evening with new found friends. I don’t know how Jan is coping with all the stress

We’re staying here today to do a little sightseeing and some $4 appetizers at the marina, then heading out tomorrow morning.

Solomons Island, Maryland

2011-09-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

The other day…… and I have no idea what day it is anymore…… Jan says it was the day before yesterday, we left South River for Solomons Island. There was absolutely no wind or waves so it was motor again…… we’ve been motoring since we left Cape May due to lack of wind.
Well, the trip was very uneventful until we were about 10 miles from the turn towards Solomons when we heard this tremendous roar coming up behind us. It was a fleet of 50 foot, high speed racing boats doing as one of the drivers told me, about 130mph. …….. except for the “Miss Geico” racing team. This boat is amazing… twin jet engines in this 55 foot catamarin that sounds like a Boeing 767 taxiing down a runway. The rooster tail was about 20 feet in the air and there was a low flying helicopter right beside it doing the film thing. These boats were here for a Nascar on the water race and boy were they loud. Unfortunately I missed the pic with the helo because by the time I grabbed the camera they were passed us.
Gotta like the towing vehicle they have.

So, today was race day…….. and what happens when you try to round the very last buoy on the course at 180 miles per hour?????? LOOK OUT…… big splash as she flipped through the air. We saw them towing the boat into our marina……. As it was sinking……. with the owner on the bow hanging onto the tow rope. They hooked onto her with the slings ang got it out of the water quickly. Nobody was hurt.

After things calmed down I went for a stroll and found these terrific deals on sailboats for anyone with a good weed eater. Lane…. I think you’re looking for a new boat.

Today was a bit of a down day for us and we found a marina that charges only $1.00 per foot/night. This got us a marina, water & electricity, WIFI, laundry, showers and a pool and a courtesy car for 1 hour to get groceries, liquor, etc.

Not only was this a car…….. it was a black, diesel powered Mercedes Benze. It rode hard and nothing worked in the car but it served it’s purpose.
Tomorrow morning we’re heading south again for Deltaville, Virginia, about 50 miles down the coast and about 50 miles north of Norfolk, Va,
Now, some of the emails we receive are saying…”Is that as far as you’ve gotten??” WELLLLL…. For all you non-sailing types, the entire trip is the better of 2,000 miles and is a lot further than the page in your atlas. You can drive it in under a week……. But try walking it at a quick pace. That’s how fast sailboats go under power…… 50 miles per day if you’re tying up at night.

Right now we’re about 5 days ahead of schedule and holding.

Here’s some pics of the racing boats that were here today.

So here we sit in between some pilings at our berth at Calvert Marina….. nice and peaceful…. And quiet for the night. It was a little tight getting in here and with the fenders out we got stuck between the pilings and couldn’t move any further.

See you in Deltaville,

Baltimore to South River, MD

2011-09-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

This morning when we woke up it was raining so we decided “why stick around here when we could be putting on the miles?” So up went the enclosure and away we went.
Baltimore is an interesting place with many marinas and very different ethnic neighbourhoods. Our original plan was to just run down under the Bay Bridges that connect Annapolis with the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. We’ve been OVER that bridge many times over the years but this was the first time we ever passed UNDER the bridges.

Man they’re a peace of engineering. Take a look at all this steel. One bridge is used for each direction of travel.

The bridges are 5 miles long and have a vertical clearance of 163 feet in the main shipping lane. That’s about 15 feet higher than the bridges in Halifax. This is a massive structure.

Annapolis is the capitol of Maryland and is the mecca of the yachting community. As we were only about 3 hours into our days run we decided to bypass Annapolis and run a further 10 miles south to a beautiful river called South River.

Here’s a quick fact for you about the Triton Light in Annapolis:
There is no mistaking the intersection of the Severn River and Spa Creek, near Annapolis Harbour at the US Naval Academy-extensive dormitories, football fields, the long seawall and perhaps most notably, Triton Light. An important navigation beacon for cruisers, the light also holds special meaning for the “midshipmen” past and present.
The light is mounted atop a green/aqua triangular cylindrical pedestal on a concrete base. Triton light flashes a unique 4+5 pattern every 30 seconds.
The light was donated to the Academy, named after the Greek god by the Class of 1945 and was first lit in 1959. Shortly after Triton Light was installed on the Yard, the nuclear powered submarine USS Triton completed a historic submerged circumnavigation. Noting the shared name, the Triton’s crew collected samples of water from 22 seas through which the boat had passed. Those waters now fill the globe held inside the light.
(taken from an information pamphlet on the US Naval Academy).

At the entrance to the South River, we passed our first very unique Chesapeake Bay lighthouse, now fully automated, but none the less standing proudly as a navigation mark.

Once inside the river we found an absolutely gorgeous little creek called Harness Creek. It’s an extremely well protected anchorage from any weather up this 1 mile creek which maintains a depth of 10 feet throughout. That’s where we are tonight.

The water is warm and I had a great swim after supper. Oh Yeah…… my turn to cook tonight.

In the morning we’re heading 50 miles further down to Solomon’s Island where we hauled out our last boat “ECLIPSE” to transport her home to Dartmouth.

Baltimore, Maryland

2011-09-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

On the go again ! What a beautiful day we had again today. It started with friends departing for other areas of the Chesapeake, then Buddy Shephard, the Chesapeake City dock master, arrived to bid us farewell and ended up driving Ron to the grocery store, bank, liquor store and finally a bait shop so he could finish outfitting his new “big game” rod & reel. Don’t know what he’s going to catch but it better not be too big!

So off we go after bidding farewell and head out in what remained of the Chesapeake Canal and into the throws of Chesapeake Bay.
The wind was on the nose AGAIN, so sailing was out of the question. It would have been nice in the 6 INCH seas and 10 knots of wind but that didn’t happen…….. soooo peaceful……. when out of nowhere….BOOM!! BOOM !! BOOM!!....... then we saw the splashes in the distance. Jan said “man they’re shooting at us”. A quick look at the chart and we identified Gun Powder Neck…….. and off the shore it said “Proving Grounds”. I guess they were just trying to prove how loud a noise they could make. Actually, it was a well marked off gun range with armed patrol boats to keep folks out. This lasted about an hour but it was neat watching for the big splashes after the shells hit the water about ½ mile offshore.
So off we continue right down to Baltimore. Our approach was very easy and we were met by a departing cruise ship, “Enchantment of the Seas” and two very heavily armed Coast Guard escort vessels, one of which came screaming out ahead of the ship and directly towards us…….. now really, I left my unacceptable apparel at home.

As it turned out, the guard zone for the ship was 500 yards, and although we were outside the channel, this polite young lady on the bow stated that we should move a little further away. WHY SURE MAM!! The fact that she was standing behind a 50 cal heavy duty gun permanently mounted on the bow had absolutely nothing to do with our decision to comply. It was just her polite tone of voice. Oh yeah, as they approached, they came in nice and slow….. unlike the navy in Halifax has who seem to take great pride in trying to wash you off the boat with their bow wave.

Our trip up the Baltimore harbour was nice, lots of ships in the beginning then miles of marinas. We decided to do a little sightseeing so we went right to the end of the Inner Harbour and found the city docks right off downtown where we stayed the night, had a great meal at the Cheesecake Factory on the waterfront, and took in the sights and sounds of downtown.

It was very pretty. They have a fantastic brick laid boardwalk surrounding the harbour that is very well lit and was full of people walking as it was a warm, balmy evening.

The USS Constitution lies at her berth and serves as a museum to the Civil War days.
Anybody know what this contraption is??

It’s a street sweeper…… for on the harbour. It runs around all day long sweeping the debris, chip bags, cans, etc up into a containment bin on the deck then unloads it at night.
We wondered why the harbour looked so clean. GREAT IDEA!!

It’s raining here today so we think we’ll just put up the enclosure and head on down to Annapolis.

Up the Delaware

2011-09-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

Well today we finally had some good luck. We’re here in Chesapeake City in the middle of the C&D Canal and the girl in the hotel gave me their password…… So now we’re finally on line again.
Our run down from Atlantic City to Cape May was relatively pleasant with seas on the quarter at about 5-6 feet. It was starting to get a little rough by the time we turned into the Cape May inlet but once inside we were pretty well sheltered. What a surprise we got when we entered the inlet.

Here was this big, so to speak, ship, right smack in the middle of the channel with it’s decks awash. I told Jan that I thought it had run aground on the 13 foot patch and sank there……. However, as we approached, it started to move to the side. As it turned out, the ship was a dredge belonging to the US Army, Corps of Engineers and it was dredging the shoal to make it deeper there.
So, we entered Cape May harbour and proceeded down the very narrow channel to a point half way down and just before the Coast Guard base where there were about a dozen other sailboats and we anchored among them.
That night, you guessed it…. WIND !!! Here we are swinging from an anchor and the wind instantly comes up around 35 knots and stayed there all night. Once again, we stood watches to ensure that we didn’t end up on the beach. Three other boats drifted during the night but got their anchors reset before going ashore.
After the wind abated Jan & I headed up the small harbour towards the canal entrance and got fuel from a local marina. Very close in there with no room to manoeuver.
When we got back to the anchorage, low and behold was the 38 foot steel sailboat Argo V from Rimouski, QUE, with Eduard & Mona on board. We had first met them 15 years ago in Halifax and hadn’t seen them since.
We spent a calm evening at anchor and departed the anchorage in the morning for the 50 mile trek up the Delaware Bay to the C&D Canal to head over to Chesapeake Bay.

The ship channel is quite narrow in the bay and we had to stay close to the edge while dodging 150,000 ton tankers and bulk carriers as they came in at full speed towards Philadelphia.
The lighthouses in Delaware Bay are quite pretty to look at. Most are red and stand alone maintaining a lonely vigil to keep ships safely out of danger.

At last, after some ship dodging and passing by a huge nuclear power plant in Stony Point, NJ we arrived at the C&D Canal.

What a welcome site……. No more ocean travel…… no more big seas……. No more fog…… just some relaxing travelling on our trip south……. And relaxing it was until…… SHIT !!! Jan yelled down to me that the train bridge looked a little low. When I looked up it looked just fine so I told her to keep going. ……… SHIT!!!! For the second time……. From the time I looked out until now, the bridge had been lowered down to it’s 45 foot clearance height to allow a train to cross over it. Now try explaining that one to your insurance company……. “My boat sank because it was hit by a train”!

Sooooooo, it was round and round we go until the train cleared and the bridge raised up again to it’s 160 ft clearance. Man that was a close one! Off we go again and soon arrive in the beautiful little village of Cheapeake City. We’d been here by car a few years ago in the winter and kind of knew what to expect but as you can see from the pictures, this place is beautiful. 99% of the homes were constructed between 1853 and 1854 and still stand as they did back then…… Brightly painted and well maintained. There are plaques on every street corner describing the history of the homes in that area. I took a lot of photos of these beautiful homes, each one looking like a doll house with the odd Inn thrown in. In a nutshell, the entire town was constructed around 1854 for the construction crews who built the C&D Canal. Some of their descendants still own these properties today.

The City docks here are the best value you’ll
ever find as the sign says…..

Frequently, we look out ahead of us and see some huge vessel transiting the canal right off our bows……..

……. And we’re rafted here among friends.

Tomorrow, we leave with the current and head out into Chesapeake Bay and stopping in Georgetown, on the Sassafrass River, or continue on to Baltimore. We’re about 5 days ahead of schedule so that gives us a little more time to enjoy the Chesapeake Bay cruising grounds..

Atlantic City to Cape May, NJ.

2011-09-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

Sept 17th Atlantic City to Cape May, NJ

OK, last night I left you with some pics of Atlantic City as we entered there at 10PM.
This morning we left under cloudy skies with the wind about 10 knots from the NW. WELL…….. that didn’t last long. Going out through the inlet the seas were up to 3 to 4 feet…… and it was very choppy.

That’s fine, once we would alter course to the south, the seas would be on the quarter…….. and they were…… except that they built to 5-6 feet. Running under a full jib and motor sailing, it was quite comfortable all the way to Cape May, at the bottom end of New Jersey.
Once arriving at the inlet entrance, the large swell followed us right up the inlet and to the harbour mouth.

Oh yeah, half way into the inlet there was a ship that looked like it had run aground on the 13 foot patch. It was right down to the gunnels under water and broadside to the wind. As we approached, it started to move and we discovered that it was a work ship for the US Army, Corps of Engineers, and not in trouble at all.

We rounded the turn into the harbour and headed for an anchorage on the port side where numerous other sailboats were anchored. The channel here is very narrow so you kind of just drop your anchor along the outer edge…… but not too far because the rest of the harbour is only 1-2 feet deep. Guess you could walk home if you had to.

Our plan was to leave here tomorrow for the treck up the Delaware Bay, however, we just listened to the forecast and it’s suppose to blow NE 25/30 and gusting to 35 knots. Looks like we’re swinging from the hook all day tomorrow again.
Well, here’s a few pics of Atlantic City during the daylight.

Sept 18th, At anchor in a storm in Cape May, NJ

Ok, so we expected a bit of wind here and there but not like this. This is two very severe wind storms in three nights. Tonight we’re anchored in 10 feet of water just north of the Coast Guard Base in Cape May and it’s blowing from the NE at 35 and gusting to 40 knots. The waves in here are only about 1 foot but I’ve learned a few things so far about wind storms.

1. We take the mainsheets off the boom and just tie a single line to the traveler and leave it slack. That way the boom is allowed to swing freely and stay pointing into the wind rather than trying to sail the boat up over the anchor. We sit quite calmly.

2. BRAD…… thank you so much for trading anchors with me. The 45 is very good for us and is holding extremely well.

3. Bob C. at DYC……. He talked me into buying the new electric anchor windlass from him. Works great and it sure makes it easy to get the anchor back.

4. Ted Haight……. You told me that I needed at least a 15 ft bridle on the anchor chain as a snubber….. You were so correct. Ours is working well, although in wind like this I’m thinking of making them even longer as we still get the occasional “BANG” when the anchor chain tightens up. We need a little more elastic.

Like I said, it blew like hell all night and I saw 3 boats on my watch decide to drag across the harbour before being brought under control.
This poor couple in the 30 ft catamaran held well all night beside us until about 5am when the anchor decided to go for a walk. It’s now 7:30am and they still can’t get the dam thing to set.

Thanks again for the heavy anchor tackle guys.

Today, it’s supposed to keep on blowing so I think it’ll be a long day. The seas outside are forecast at 8ft so we’re just going to stay put. I sure wish they made that bridge over the canal about 5 feet higher so we could take the short cut to Delaware Bay.

Good Bye New York ... Hello Atlantic City, NJ

2011-09-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

We departed Atlantic Highlands at 10am and headed out into 4 foot seas trying to get around Sandy Hook. Once there we started running with the seas and the wind on the quarter. Within minutes everything flattened out…. 102 foot seas and bright sunshine….again…. with the wind out of the NW at about 10 knots. Man, it must have been funneling straight out of New York Harbour. At 20 miles south of New York City you could still see the Manhattan skyline.

We had a wonderful day of motoring in calm seas down the Jersey Coast. Did I mention that from one end to the other it’s just one big….. no, huge beach with high sand dunes right up to the houses…… and piles of water towers. We should have counted them all.
As you come down the coast, you really don’t want to hit bad weather as there are only 3 places that have inlets from the ocean.
So, we completed our 96 mile day today in 12 hours and are now anchored right dead center in Atlantic City Harbour…… all by ourselves… in 10 feet of water… right below the Trump Taj Mahal hotel and a few other big ones as well.

Talk about something bazaar…… here you have this long, flat coast with nothing but miles of beach and homes and all of a sudden you come on this huge city full of lights with all the casinos and buildings lit up all night long.
I’d love to go for a walk down the famous boardwalk but we won’t have time tomorrow as we’re leaving early for Cape May at the entrance of Delaware Bay. Perhaps we’ll rent a car there and drive back here for a day of sight-seeing.

Pat Haight told us that you could see Atlantic City from a long way off…… well, we picked it up at 20 miles and after it got dark, you couldn’t miss it…
Lights everywhere including one giant building that is being used as a billboard of neon lights. That’s the blue and white one on the right. We could actually read the printing and watch the video adds from 10 miles away. Talk about entertainment!!

Tomorrow morning it’s off to Cape May…. 46 miles further down the coast where we’ll put in, stock up a little in preparation for the 80 mile trip up Delaware Bay to the C&D Canal over to Chesapeake Bay.

New York City - Sucked in and Spit Out

2011-09-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

That's right. We got sucked down the East River and past Hells Gate and spit right out the bottom of the harbour at a speed of 10 knots.

Sept 14th

We're now at Atlantic Highlands, NJ south of NY. Jan finally got to see the Statue of Liberty and said it was impressive. I liked the skyline of Manhattan.
New York kind of sucked us in from the north and spit us out to the south. 9.9 knots all the way through. It's really hot here right now and I'm sweating to death.
There are about 200 boats on moorings in here.

It all started on our approach to New York City...

The planes! Going into LaGuardia... buzzing in over our heads, a few feet off the water before landing on the strip on the water. That's not bad enough... they take off over our heads as well and bank to the right as they are not allowed to go over the city. I prayed for every plane that took off (I prayed they would stay in the air and not fall on us! Same as the planes landing... no landing in the river when I was in it!!!

The buildings on the east river have been built right out over the river.
……… and the Empire State Building certainly stands out well above the entire city.

Quite a rush coming through Hell Gate! Saw the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, the Hospital for Special Surgery (right on the water) and NY City Medical Centre that were all very impressive. Went past Rikers Island...YIKES! A body would be hard pressed to escape from there with all the fencing and razor wire! QUITE A SCARY, INTIMIDATING PLACE!
The bridges... the Queensboro, (both the car bridge and train bridge), the Williamsburg Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhatten Bridge, (it also had gondolas for communiting back and forth from downtown Manhatten across the river)

Running under the Brooklyn bridge at 10 knots was a rush.

Lady Liberty is everything I expected. WOW!

Lower Manhattan from the water looks like a bunch of lego blocks.

Now... the vessel traffic! Crazy... holy snappin! I thought at one point they were going to run us down what with all the ships and ferries... dear God there must be a zillion ferries!!!
Finally we got through and passed under the Verazano Bridge. The water was so rough in the harbour we thought for sure that it would be worse on the way to Atlantic Highlands. Once through the bridge and all the traffic left behind, it was a lovely motor on calm seas.

Here we sit on mooring T-6, in Atlantic Highlands, having a light drink of rum!
They have showers here and I see one in my future tonight!

As we were coming into here I learned how to navigate by posts in the mud with triangles! Sheesh!

Hard to believe that this morning we were sitting here in bathing suits and tonight in the mooring field it's blowing 35 to 40 knots with waves breaking over the top of a 6 foot breakwater. They're a good two feet on our side of the breakwater. On the bright side, we had an incredible sunset once again and if the rhyme is correct then we're in for a beautiful day tomorrow to head down the Jersey coast to Atlantic City.

Hope everyone is having as good a time as us.

New Haven, Conneticut

2011-09-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today was an awesome day. We left New Bedford four days ago and headed to Bristol, Mass where we met up with the old owner of the boat, Mike, and had a very pleasant layover for a couple days. The weather has been wonderful with temps in the low to mid 80's with lots of sunshine. While in Bristol we rented a car and made the trip down to Wickford, RI to the consignment store and picked up a few items..... for Ron, including a nice fishing rod and stainless reel. Now I just have to get Jan to like fish...

On Sunday morning we left Bristol Yacht club, motored down passed all the millionaire mansions in Newport and headed out to sea and towards New London, Conn. Man what a busy place..... ferries every half hour......ALL NIGHT LONG!! At our mooring it was roll, roll, roll.

This morning we left New London and had a great day in SW winds of 5 knots and seas less than than one foot. We arrived in New Haven, Conn in time for a great BBQ and even better sunset. We were greated by a pudgy lighthouse that reminded us of the pudgy little "cake boss" guy, Buddy.

Did I mention that the temps down here are in the range of 80F so the order of the day is shorts with or without Tee-Shirt.

The forecast is much the same for tomorrow so we're off at first thing for the Approaches to Hell's Gate at this end of East River, New York. We'll stay there for the day to await a favorable current into New York City on Wednesday.

Wasn't Pretty but WE'RE HERE

2011-09-08T10:28:00.001-07:00

Well, sorry I havn't been updating but things were a little busy. On leaving DYC a number of our friends showed up to cast us off and bid farewell.......... perhaps they just wanted to get rid of us... just kidding. Wind Warrior, loaded down to the waterline sailed smartly off down the coast and stopping at Liverpool, NS enroute to Shelburne. We arrived in Shelburne on Thursday afternoon and in checking the weather forecast for the Gulf of Maine, saw a two day window with forecast NE winds 20knots....... so we went for it.

Leaving Shelburne at 6am we headed off to Brazil Rock and caught the tide perfectly flooding the Bay of Fundy. Wind Warrior motorsailed along at 9.3 knots passing the buoy. The night watches were spectacular and as Jan said..."I've never seen stars so big before", as the sky was alight with millions of very bright stars. The sunset and sunrise were equally spectacular.

37 hours later we arrived at anchor in Provincetown, Cape Cod.

Grumpy, Timmy the Turtle, and Suzie the seahorse were glad to see land as Grumpy was getting VERY IMPATIENT!!!

Sunday was a down day so we did a little sightseeing in Provincetown.... and boy did we see some unusual sights. The day was a balmy 83F with bright sunny skies. What a welcome !!

Ron found his hero..."CAPTAIN RON" and Jan was in heaven in the Christmas Store.

The "babies" looked like dogs and the green guy was actually a human statue who stood there for hours without moving. I walked right past him twice and didn't realize it.

Labour Day brought continued strong SW winds of 20 knots but the seas were low so we decided to head for Cape Cod Canal........ and like the title says "Wasn't pretty, but we're here" tells it all. Five miles out of Provincetown the engine quit...... not even a burp. I changed the filters and still nothing....... and the wind was now up to 25 and gusting to 30 knots right out of the SW. The seas were also building to 4 feet. This is easy....... reef down and let's sail it to the canal........ "Wind Warrior" was truly living up to her name as she handled the weather with relative ease. However... you have to have an engine to enter the canal........ {Thank God we had Tow Boat US insurance}. A quick call to them and out they came at a gallop from Onset, Mass.

This was great, a free tow the length of Cape Cod Canal right to a mooring in Onset Harbour.

Like I said...."Not Pretty but we're here".

That night Don & I ripped apart everything that leads to and from the engine and at last...... a hard piece of plastic (like a hunk of a straw) was lodged in the fuel line between the Racor filter and the fuel pump. How that ever got there no-one will ever know. With the line cleared the engine roared to a start and hasn't faultered since.

Don & Heather Robinson left us the next morning after 6 days, rented a car and drove home from Onset. Haven't heard from them yet so I hope they arrived OK.

So, next step...... onward from Onset to New Bedford. A relatively nice day with distant fog and calm seas. When passing the Cape Cod Canal ship channel in Buzzards Bay we met up with Serenity V, a Morgan 41, also from Dartmouth Yacht Club and Bruce and Colleen were happy to see us. A quick chat on VHF and it was arranged to anchor beside each other in New Bedford. That's where we are today, waiting out the rain and generally crappy weather before heading out to Newport, Rhode Island tomorrow.

WE'RE OUTTA HERE

2011-08-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the big day. The boat is pretty well ready and the crew has the pre-departure jitters....... or at least the skipper does.
Kelly and Ryan are ready to take over the house as soon as we leave.
The blog will be updated as we can.
Thanks to all our friends who have helped out over the past 3 months.
Pictures will follow when I can get them on.

OUR GOING AWAY PARTY

2011-08-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night at Dartmouth Yacht Club, a lot of our friends got together and threw us a little going away party.......... disguised as a dock party. Don supplied the ribs and chicken while everyone else kicked in with salads and deserts. The whole night was organized by Bob, Don and Ian and it was a great success. Lights on the dock added to the party atmosphere.
Thanks to everyone for the lovely card and the gifts. We'll carry them with us for the entire trip.
Your help over the past few months is really appreciated....... and YES everyone....... as every guy knows........ the louder you curse at something, the faster it gets done.
All the best and good boating.
Ron & Jan

WE WANNA GET GOING !!

2011-08-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

whaaaaaaaa!!... We wanna get going!! .......... Stop dragging your ass and get us out of here!! ......but unfortunately somebody up there doesn't want us to leave yet.......... First the hurricane.... then the earthquake in Virginia....... Oh well, with the hurricane coming up the coast it's probably better to stay put until next Wednesday...... and that gives us another week to get things ready.

The Countdown Continues

2011-08-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well, time is sure flying by. With only a week to go before we leave for the Bahamas the list of things on the "to-do list" is very quickly dwindling. Starting Monday we start stocking things up and tying up any loose ends. The Insurances, the boat survey, the construction and the re-wiring so as to comply with everyones regulations. We've also been in contact with US Homeland Security about reporting procedures and paying for their "DAYCAL"

This week we created storage areas under berths, wired all the navigation lights. Received our emergency beacon, and replaced our 35 pound CQR anchor with a 45 pound Bruce anchor that will certainly hold us in a storm, and a whole lot more. The stainless steel plate under the chain should protect the deck from dropping a raising 200 feet of anchor rode. ''The last item we "created" was a small boom for raising the outboard motor from the tender. It can also be used to assist a person back on bard from a man-overboard situation.

Here's a few pics of the things we accomplished.

No More Brute Power

2011-07-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

These past couple of weeks, as time nears for our departure, Wind Warrior has received a couple new gifts. I've installed a new Anchorlift Anchor Windlass to replace the old manual windlass and followed that up with a new deck washdown pump for keeping the chain free of mud as it is hauled up. So that's the end of me hauling up a 45 pound anchor by hand. It works great and brings up the anchor at a rate of 3.5 feet per sec. I installed two foot switches on the deck just beside the windlass...... one for up and one for down. The anchor chain wll also free-fall when I release the break. The 45 pound anchor and 200 feet of 3/8" chain will certainly hold the boat safely.
Not just a matter of installing the motor...... I also had to install a battery and box up in the anchor locker near the motor so that I didn't have to spend $600 on battery cables up from the back of the boat. Everything is fiberglassed into the hull so nothing is going to move when the boat heels over.

We've completed obtaining all our charts and the new liferaft arrived last week.

Now to my next project........ the volume knob on the stereo is acting up....Hehehehe

Everything is going very well and finally coming together.

That's a BIG Mast

2011-06-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well......... I didn't think this day would come. The boat is now launched and today, with the help of a lot of friends we got the mast stepped and later the boom on.

We started around noon putting the mast together on saw horses and later gathered up a few friends to move the mast on a dolly over to the DYC mast crane so we could hoist her up. At 60 feet and weighing in at about 500 lbs it was quite a chore to get everything together. After about half an hour she was up and standing on her own......... AND NOTHING GOT BROKEN !!

So now she's back at her dock and looking great.

Tomorrow, we tune the rig and get some sails on her.

Bottoms Done

2011-06-12T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well, Here she is after 2 1/2 weeks of crawling around on the ground, slogging about in three inches of water while we blasted the old paint off....... followed by a heavy grinding to remove what was left, and finish everything off with a finer sanding to remove everything down to the bare gelcoat. Now she's all set with 3 coats of epoxy barrier coat followed with 3 coats of antifouling. Jan was a great help in all the repainting. Everybody is asking if she's a new boat. WIND WARRIOR looks fantastic ... and we're both proud of her !

Today I removed the winter cover from the cockpit. All that's left now is to replace the rudder, hook up the propellor shaft and get set for launching later this week.

HOOOOOOORRRRRAAAAYYYY !!!!!!

WOW !! What a Difference

2011-06-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

WOW !! What a difference a couple weeks of hard work makes. The bottom is now completely stripped and ready for the bottom paint. GREAT BOTTOM !!.... 25 year old hull and not a blister..... a few war wounds in the form of scratches but otherwise unscathed. I took these pics from different angles. For those of you who have NOT had a chance to remember where all this work on the boat began, I've included the first picture of the original bulkhead that was removed and replaced. There's no saying that we don't know every inch of her by now. We're still on schedule for our Wednesday launch for the 2011 season.

THE WORK CONTINUES

2011-05-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

That's right........ We're not living out of a suitcase for the next year so it's building shelves, book cases and drawers in the boat to make it more liveable. Now that it's spring comes the big question.... "What the hell do I do with the bottom paint?" So, after changing my mind numerous times I've taken on the task of stripping the hull down to bare gelcoat and applying an epoxy barrier coat to protect the hull from osmosis in the warm tropical waters, the reapplying new antifouling for this coming summer.

After a couple days of pressurewashing to remove about 75% of the old paint I followed it up with a good sanding. Ever see a "real" Papa Smurf ? Man I was blue at the end of each day.

Hopefully the boat will be back in the water before the end of June.

Enjoy the pics.

WINTER vs BARBADOS

2010-12-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

With the boat hauled out of the water for the winter it's time for a little sojourn in the sunny south........ so off we went to Barbados. It was terrible...... yeah right !! Sunny, lush green everywhere and beautiful warm, clear waters.

The seas off north point were fantastic with waves around 35 feet crashing against the 80 foot cliffs in sharp contrast to the calm waters we experienced on the south coast.

On one of our day trips we happened upon a bunch of green monkeys. That was a lot of fun.

Hope you enjoy some of the pics and a video that we took.

ENOUGH ALREADY !!!

2010-11-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

Man, is this rain ever going to stop? After 5 days of solid rain we've had over 200mm down and

it's not suppose to stop for another 2 days. Our normally lazy and nearly dried up Sackville River is a raging torent and all the low lying areas are now awash. If this keeps up we'll have to change the name of the boat to "NOAH'S ARC".
Baseball Anyone??? or would you prefer a game of Water Soccer?

Take a look....... it sure makes for some crappy sailing days.

Hurricane Earl

2010-09-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Last week was exciting with the onset of Hurricane Earl. It was suppose to miss us in Halifax but at the last minute took an unexpected turn straight at us. Most of the bigger boats at DYC were either hauled out of taken to a mooring. With sustained winds of 65 knots the marina system held out well. Here's a little video clip of the conditions. Glad I wasn't on this boat.

"Our Cape Breton Cruise"

2010-08-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

We spent most of the month of August on a cruise to Cape Breton Island and ejoyed the Bras D'or Lakes. The swimming at Clark Cove was exceptional with 80 degree water.
Our trip up the Eastern shore was very picturesque as we following the well marked inshore route for a good portion of the trip and stopping at Shelter Cove, Liscombe, and Port Howe enroute to St. Peter's Canal via Canso. What a shock we got when crossing the Chedabucto Bay in 25 knot winds and 7 ft seas that made things a little tricky.
Our 2 weeks in the lakes were extremely enjoyable with fantastic weather and warm waters. We visited such places as Clark Cove, Marble Mountain, Little Harbour Baddeck, and Seal Island before leaving the Lakes to the north for a weekend visit to Sydney. Boy did I calculate the tides wrong. Did you know that running the engine at 3000 RPM against a current caused by the entire Atlantic Ocean trying to flood the Lakes will only get you about 1 knot in the vicinity of Big Bras D'or? That's right.... it took us an hour to pass through the 1 mile narrows.
Sydney was very relaxing..... and what a site to see the giant fiddle on the Cruise ship dock. How Cape Breton can you get?
After a nice weekend at the Royal CB Yacht Club we made the run back into the Lakes and hit the incoming tide just right..... 9.5 knots in the right direction this time.
A few more lovely anchorages found us again at St. Peters Marina to re-suppy and fuel up for our trip home.
Four days of Easterly winds and high seas brought us back to Halifax to end a wonderful cruise with friends Don & Heather of Meridian.

The Navy's in Halifax

2010-06-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

This week marks the 100th aniversary of the Canadian Navy and will end with a full review of the fleet by Queen Elizabeth II and an overhead airshow. Here's some pics.
Here's an energetic imaginative fellow who designed his boat to be completely powered by the wind. The prop is connected to the windmill and turns faster as the wind speed increases. Costs absolutely nothing to enjoy a nice day on the water.
The work on the boat is still continuing but at a slowing rate. I replace the galley countertop to match the rest and update the look of things.
Enjoy

LOOK..... WAAAAYYYYY DOWN !!!!

2010-06-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Today a trip to the top of the mast was warranted. I had to replace the old VHF antenna wire as the shielding was quite rotten. This was SUPPOSE to only take a half hour or so..... YEAH RIGHT!!
While Dave went over to his boat to get some twine to fish the new wire through the mast I thought I'd grab some pics of the marina.... from a birds eye perspective.
Enjoy.....

Finally Done..... Time to get Sailing

2010-06-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

With the interior work completed it's time to get sailing. Everything is up and running perfectly.

Keeps on Ticking & Ticking

2010-05-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we installed the new stack-pack with the mainsail. Looks good but we haven't used it yet. Our new propane stove also arrived and is now in the boat.
With a little time on the rest of the wiring everything will be set to go away next weekend.

The Boat is Back

2010-05-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

We launched the boat yesterday and she looks great. Nearly everything is back together after a long winter and it finally looks habitable again.
The yacht club has installed the new breakwater extension and everything is moving forward to the summer.

It's All Coming Together....... Finally !!

2010-04-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes a boat owner feel better than to see the final product as it all comes together. The nav station has been re-built along with the entire starboard side of the cabin.

The hull has been compounded and waxed up and she looks like new.

Just a few more cosmetics to go and we'll be ready to launch next week.

I Love New Wood

2010-03-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

FINALLY, I get around to creating the long overdue settee-back and bulkhead. The new 3/4" teak plywood is a dream to work with and will sure make a difference after everything is back together.

Why Own A Boat

2010-03-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

We as boaters must accept that our homes will never be the same again.... Teak.... Teak... and more Teak. However, after it's all done we get the satisfaction of knowing that we've done our best and that the boat looks good as a result of our time and hard work.

Mid-Winters Workings

2010-02-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

With the mild weather we've had all winer it's really easy to get things together and start the sanding and varnishing process to make our boat look brand new. The main cabin is mostly sanded and we have our re-uoholstered cushions back and ready to install.

When spring comes and we finally get everything back together she's gonna shine.

Bulkhead Replacement

2010-01-19T14:35:00.000-08:00

Well, Today I got down to the dirty work and finally got the nav station bulkhead removed. What a mess. So tomorrow we pick up the new teak to replace the bulkhead and seal the ends before sanding and varnishing and installing it. All the rest of the teak trim is sitting downstairs awaiting a new finish. Here's a couple pics of the before and mid-stream of this project. This was a much bigger job than I thought.
The cushions have all been re-upholstered and look beautiful. A very nice royal blue colour. That should bring out the colour of the re-finished teak.

Coming Home - Cape Cod to Nova Scotia

2010-01-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

Our four crew members, Don, Dave, Jan & I made the trip from Cape Cod Canal to Shelburne, NS in 42 hours. A highlight was passing through the Cape Cod Canal at nearly 12 knots. At the entrance our plotter was showing a steady 10.3kn. Here's a few pics of our crew on our first adventure.

Our Brand New Engine

2010-01-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

After a lot of delay Wind Warrior finally received her brand new Yanmar. It took a couple days to complete but now everythings up and running well.

Our New Enclosure

2009-12-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

The addition of our new enclosure in the fall will certainly add to our sailing season.

OUR NEW BEGINNINGS

2009-12-27T18:00:00.001-08:00

Sept 2, 2009 Wind Warrior became a truly Canadian boat with a new powerplant, name, and a new home at Dartmouth Yacht Club.

She arrived from Bristol Rhode Island after a long and adventurous sail up the coast to Nova Scotia.