Wow, what a beautiful weekend it was. With fall fast approaching we took this weekend as an opportunity to make a trip to Shell Island for some relaxation. In just a few short weeks we will be pulling the boat for some serious TLC. This being a non-holiday weekend the island was not too crowded. We were the first sailboat to anchor out but was soon joined by some familiar boats from our marina. Guess everyone else had the same idea. The nice thing about Shell Island when it’s not crowded is the seclusion one can feel on the Gulf side of the island. 
What a pretty walk it was on the beach and with the recent storms, there was plenty of pretty shells for the picking. What on earth do I need more shells for…uuugh I can’t stop myself. Dirk and I decided to do a little snorkeling to see what could be found. What we found is that the water felt like fall was here. It was 79 but with a breeze blowing it felt cooler. Guess that’s the last dip of the season for us. Unless of course I wear a wet suit. We also spotted a jellyfish that we had not seen before. The first one we saw was so big I probably would have trouble reaching around it with both arms. The tentacles were about 10 feet long on it. I have a book on board to identify marine life and the closest thing it resembled was a Lion’s Mane Jelly.
Anyone have a clue if this is what it was? Dirk was going to go in and check out a few things on the bottom but after seeing this he changed his mind. Our intention was to have a relaxing day and then try to do a little floundering later in the evening. Well, the winds never died down enough so we instead had a nice dinner of grilled steaks and tomatoes followed by a nice sundowner and sunset. 
Boy, I think I can get used to this. Of course it was to bed early as I always seem to get very sleepy on the boat early. Why is it I can’t sleep at home, yet on the boat I drop like a log? The next morning as usual we are up with the light and after coffee and breakfast we headed back to the marina. We decided to throw out a line to troll and see if we couldn’t catch some dinner. As we were in the pass we got a hit. It was a nice little grouper. 
A few inches too short to keep, darn……. Oh well, at least we know we can catch fish. Back at the marina we took several measurements and made a list of parts to order so in a couple weeks we can pull the boat. Not looking forward to all the work that we are fixing to take on, but looking forward to having it done. We are now officially at 268 days and counting, but then again, who’s counting.
Thanks to Ron & Sonja aboard Conch Clipper for getting this photo of us with the brand new main sail in all its glory. Dirk and I decided a couple weekends ago to take off for a sail. The winds were suppose to be great for sailing. So off we went into the bay, winds between 10 to 20 knots. Beautiful day and great sailing. I usually take the wheel as Dirk drops and rolls in the sails. As we approach the fuel dock I suggest we pull in for a pump out. Any chance we get is a good chance to take. I tell Dirk to take over so I can do my usual getting the lines and bumpers ready drill. Dirk told me to stay on the wheel, that I would do fine. Semi panic took over as I know I have to learn to dock the boat but I wanted notice. Not 2 sec notice. Time to put on my big girl pants and get the job done. Much to my surprise the first attempt and she was docked. Whew! what a relief. Pump out is done and we start to take off. The wind is coming from out starboard side no biggie as it pushed me away from the dock. Yes, Dirk had me pull away from the dock also. But much to my surprise Dirk had big lessons in my agenda today. He wanted me to pull the boat into the slip. What ever happened to learning by taking baby steps. Boy, husbands can be sneaky...This time a much larger panic button was set off. Huh? Me? Our slip is more then mid way down and just going down the way with huge (to me) boats on either side was scary. I hoped no one would be watching as I'm sure my eyes had to look like they were the size of dinner plates. Thank God the wind and current were working in my favor. At least that's what Dirk told me. I kept thinking how am I gonna get this boat between those two concrete pilings without doing damage to us or someone else's boat. I managed to get the nose in but started to drift slightly to port, Dirk kept saying to give it gas. I figure more gas, more speed. Forward speed does not equal a very nice docking in my brain. But I listened to Dirk and gave her more gas. Dirk put the port side bumper out and I basically pivoted around the pillar and pushed forward, Dirk fending off the pillar. Not a perfect docking, but for my first attempt not to bad. I was actually stoked. Although I am not looking forward to doing that again any time soon. So here it is almost October already. We have started making plans for the boat to be pulled so that we can do a few items of maintenance. We need to have a new bottom job done and the thru hull for the overboard waste dump is stuck. Now is a good time to replace it as when we start to travel we will need it. Dirk will take this time to perhaps have the keel joint looked at and also see if the rudder is holding water. When we first had it surveyed I believe there may have been a question about that. We also want to take this time to finally try to de-oxidize the hull and give her a good clean and wax. We actually had someone stop by our boat and ask if it was hard to keep our aluminum boat clean. So yeah, the girl needs her battleship gray hull given some major TLC. Anyone having any suggestions on what to use please let me know. In the coming weeks hopefully I will have some new pics of new projects being done. Please keep checking back and I just want to say thank you to the people that keep checking back and following our blog. Hang in there, it will get more interesting, I promise. Also if you would like to leave a comment please feel free to. I love getting comments.
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guess this hurricane season is upon us with full fury this year. We have been lucky thus far this season. We had gone to Panama City a couple days before Fay was due to make landfall so we could take care of adding more lines and bumpers to Tybee Time. Dirk also rolled up the Gib very tight and we even tied up the new sail cover securely. We have a public marina camera and this is one way we keep an eye on the boat. You get to take control over the camera for a short while and are able to direct it to your boat and zoom in. This is how I was able to watch the install of our new main sail and lazy bag system. So Fay came and went dumping about 4 days of rain on us. Yesterday Gustav passed to the west of us and we didn’t get even one drop of rain. I can’t say the same for my friends and family in and across the state of Louisiana. Fingers crossing I haven’t heard of any damage yet. Now we look to the Bahamas to see Hanna heading for our friends in Georgia. Then of course there is Ike and Josephine pulling up the rear. Wow…Soon this season will be over and summer will be quickly turning into fall. We find ourselves getting more and more anxious to leave. We are now officially under 300 days to go before our journey can begin. Sounds like a long time when you think about it, but thinking of all the things needing to be ordered, installed and done, it’s really not that long. Seeing as we live two hours from the boat it’s not like we have time during the week to attend to it, and most things are taken care of on the weekends. A few things left to research and purchase is a wind generator, and a solar panel. We have also been replacing our existing interior lights on the boat to LED with the ability to have red LED in the same housing makes it nice for night vision down below. Also the power usage on the LED lights is wonderful. Our main power hog right now is the refrigeration. The last owners tried insulating the box a little better but it still runs a lot. We have been also tossing around the idea of getting an Engel refrigerator/freezer. Doing research on them they look as if the power usage is minimal and I like the idea of being able to have my ice cubes for sun downers in the tropics. It will also give me a few more options for long term food storage. As time draws closer we have pulled and tossed a few things off the list that we thought we couldn't live without. Heck, it’s only a 40 foot boat, how much can we take. Plus I know that so many people have taken the same journey with a lot less and are just as happy, if not happier as there aren’t as many things to breakdown. On a different note I was given a book to read by a dock neighbor which is a nice read if anyone is interested. It’s MAIDEN VOYAGE written by Tania Aebi w/ Bernadette Brennan. It’s a story of an 18 year old female whose father basically gave her two options, go to school or sail around the world single-handed in 2 1/2 years. She chose sailing….Talking about what people can do without on a boat, wow. I find that I have not found too much these days to blog about. As weather gets cooler and the major projects begin anew I will be keeping in touch much better. I don't want to bore any readers as I would love for you all to continue following the blog from a land based life to one of life on the water. Uuuugh, I hate the waiting, I wanna go already......
