Headed to Tampa, at least that was our intention....

In the days leading up to our departure time seemed to fly by. We had sold our truck 2 weeks earlier and were using the motorcycle to get around. On the 29th of Oct. we rented a car and I was able to do the last of the bulk laundry and some provisioning. Friday Dirk drove his bike and I drove the car up to Enterprise to put it in storage. Last minute items got booted from the boat and taken to storage. While we were there we decided to pay our poker league buddies one last visit. So Friday evening we headed to Oscars and said our farewells. Dirk ended up winning the tournament so he was happy. We did however stay another day and returned on Saturday night, Had to get the last fix in. Sunday we visited other friends and ended up having lunch with my Uncle to get our farewells exchanged then it was back to the boat where we piled the last of the provisions we had gotten over the weekend onto it.

Monday was spent doing last minute errands. All the items topside were double checked, I made a big pot of soup for the crossing, items down below were tied down, lee clothes picked up from CB Sails and installed,

and a dozen other things that I'm forgetting at this moment. We had several dock neighbors and friends that wanted say their goodbyes so we all went out to dinner. I hated that we didn't have more time with them but we had to go. Just know you guys that you will all be missed and thought about. In between all this we had been checking and rechecking weather,

calculating times and rechecking everything. From here I will let Dirk put in his guest appearance as he requested to do so and I wasn't going to say no. Dirk, you have the floor.......

Well, today is the day that Nancy and I had been dreaming about for so long. The day that we have worked for since we bought the boat back in 2007.You all know what I am talking about. Today we cut the dock lines and leave everything behind. November 2nd was our official start date. We had been checking the weather for a week now, and according to NOAA the winds were going to be around 15 knots out of the NE with waves around 3-5 feet. That would be a good wind speed and a perfect direction. That being said, we figured it would take us around 40-48 hours to make it to Tampa, depending on our speed along the way. Since we wanted to arrive in Tampa in the morning, we figured a take off time of noon would suffice. After a very restless night we got up early in the morning to do the last minute stuff like saying goodbyes and making final checks on the boat. Came noon we were more than ready. We backed out of the slip and headed out. The CD player was blasting Southern Cross, by Crosby Stills Nash and Young. A few tears of joy and a big sigh…what a feeling. We made it out of the Pass and into the Gulf with no problems. Once in the Gulf we decided to appease the Gods of the sea with a shot of Metaxa. It would have been rude to make them drink alone, so we joined them for a little glass.

Right after that we had a Dolphin swimming next to us, which is a good sign. The weather was just as predicted if not even better. Now this is how sailing is supposed to be. We shut of Max, our trusty Westerbeke engine, and sailed at about 5-6 knots. Everything went as planned. As the sun set it got a little chilly and the wind and waves started to pick up. Even though it got a bit rougher, it was still not a bad sail. By now we had turned a little more to the east and the waves, which now reached 4-6 feet, hit us from the port. We were both pleasantly surprised on how well the boat took the waves. Nancy and I were feeling a little queasy, but other than that we were okay. Butters on the other hand was not too happy with us or anything at this point. He had already blessed every rug with puke and was lying under the bed. We had given him some paste that was supposed to help him relax, but I am not sure it worked too good. The wind now had reached 20 knots, gusting to 25, so we furled in the Jib and reefed down the main sail. Up to this point I always wondered why sailors say that they reef down for the night. I decided to reef the main after the weather got worse. Not a great idea. Nancy took me into the wind; I lowered the main, then tethered in and went forward to attach the main tack to the mast. Hmmmm, did I mention that I had nothing prepared for that. I took a rope from a bumper and used that to tie of the reef point to the mast. Then I tied down the excess sail. Hmmm, I guess having ties for that would have helped. I found another line of a bumper and used it. Now back to the cockpit to tighten up the main halyard. Hey, I had one of those. So after about 20 minutes being thrown back and forth and a few choice words, the reefing was done. Only 30+ hours to go, piece of cake! Nancy and I took 2 hour turns behind the autopilot. Of course in these kind of conditions neither one of us could sleep. So the two hour shifts were out. What it came down to is that we switched out more frequent and stayed behind the helm until we got tired. We kept checking the weather on our C-80, which was a life saver. The forecast had not changed. Still calling for 15-20 knots and 3-5 feet waves. That right there should have given us a clue. When NOAA reports 3-5 feet, just add 3+5 together and use that. That is what we are going to do from now on. By now we were in 20-25 knots and at least 8-10 foot waves. This all was a little scary, but not too bad as long as the engine holds up. My vacuum gage on the fuel filter was going towards the red line, and there was no way in hell that I could have gone down below in these conditions to change a filter. Luckily the engine held out just fine and never missed a beat. Thank you Max! The rest of the night was pretty event less, just very, very bumpy. At times I tried to turn more into the wind to limit our motion to the up and down vs. the up and down and all around. When I turned into the waves, we made about 2 knots over the ground. At that speed we would get there a little past never. Staying on course at least gave us 4-5 knots. The only good thing about the night was that we had a full moon which gave us plenty of light, even though sometimes I think it would have been better not to see what was about to hit us. When the sun came up in the morning we once again checked the forecast and yup, you guessed it, it changed. Now they are forecasting 15-20 knots, becoming 20-25 at night, with 4-6, building to 6-8 at night. My ass I was saying, we had 8-10 now with 25, gusting to 30. After we looked at the charts, we found that the closest shoreline was not only 30 miles away, but also 30 miles almost behind us. So we turned towards Government Cut, which would lead us into Apalachicola Bay. To make a long story a little shorter, we did just that, and after about 30 hours we ended up, totally pooped, in a nice little place called Scipio Creek Marina. If we would have gone there from Panama City, it would have taken us only 10 hours. Oh well. This was by far the roughest weather we have seen so far and we hope this will be the only time that we have to endure it. Never the less it did give us confidence in the boat’s handling capabilities and our sailing skills. I am going to close with a few lessons learned, and then Nancy is going to take back over and finish off.
1. The SR-50 Sirius Wx for the Raymarine was a lifesaver.
2. Reefing the Mainsail before the weather gets bad is a must.
3. If you plan on long trips, and you have the space, I would recommend installing a dual fuel filter system that will let you switch filters without having to shut down. I think I will get one of those too.
4. Hope for the best weather and conditions, but prepare for the worse.
5. The Gods don’t like Metaxa, so use something else.
6. Last but not least Nancy I love you!

I think Dirk summed everything up nicely. Like he said we stayed at the Scipio Marina in Apalachicola. Nice little place in a very small creek with a nice restaurant overlooking our boat. Price was 1.50 per ft. and helpful staff. Since the seafood festival was going on that weekend we had to move down to Carrabelle about a 5 hour motor sail down the inter coastal. We experienced our first ever bridge to go under. I can see why people say its nerve racking as it looks like your mast is gonna hit it even though it says 65 foot clearance. We have a 57 foot mast so with the antenna on top it looks close. We saw the oyster boats out collecting the days haul and a huge number of dolphins. We even saw a bald eagle,my first out of captivity sitting on a channel marker. On the way into the river here Dirk spotted a manatee, I missed it. So we are sitting in a marina called C Quarters. The price was right at 1.00 per ft. water and elec included. If you stay a week you might even get a deal. Clean restrooms and showers, laundry at 1.50 per wash and 1.50 dry. There is a grocery store within walking distance, haven't gone but see others doing it. Seems like a nice quaint town, where fishing seems to be a big part of life. Very nice folks here that seem to think that beer makes a good breakfast drink. So we hangout here till the weather decides to play nice. With Ida out there and the fronts on the move we will try to pick our time wisely. For now we are enjoying the lazy days. We will get to Tampa as soon as mother nature says we can. By the way, one nice book we got before we left that has been helpful has been the cruising guide from Maptech of Florida and the Bahamas edition 3. Lots of good information thus far.

Time to go

I'm writing this wedged in between food stuffs that need to be stowed on the settee. Lots of last minute prepping to be done. Laundry is in the wash, a big pot of soup is being cooked so we have something nice and warm to keep us nice and warm. Last minute items stowed, fuel topped off, and the list goes on and on. Keeping this short as we have so much to do and time is short. Our plan is to leave the marina sometime early by 7am tomorrow. We are looking at about 48 hours give or take to get to the Tampa area. The weather should be near perfect for crossing so we should be getting to our destination sometime early Thursday morning. As soon as we get on the other side and settled I will update and let you all know how it went. Planning on giving an offering to the wind and water gods for safe passage as we leave so perhaps they will be nice to us. Till we reach the other side......

Getting down to the wire

Here we are staring at the end of October right upon us. Dirks ideal time for us to make the gulf crossing over to the Tampa area is the next full moon give or take a few days. Weather permitting of course. It will take us about 40 hours with an overnighter to get there and if we can have some moon light lighting our way why not. The thing is, the next full moon is November the 2nd. Yikes! that's 12 days away. So we are putting life into over drive as we try and get last minute details done. We knew and know now that our list would never get done, but everything just about that needs to be done is done or there abouts. We said goodbye to our truck last week as we sold her back to the dealership. Boy that was hard to do but it was the best thing as we don't know how long we will be gone for and frankly the thought of putting her in storage didn't appeal to us. Isn't it amazing how hard it is to say goodbye to possessions, first our house, then the truck. So we are down to the Harley for transportation and we have found its interesting buying just enough groceries to fit in the bags. Next week we take the motorcycle and put it into storage along with our other "stuff".

Dirk and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary this month and decided to get safety equipment as our gifts. First thing we got was the "SPOT", the satellite messenger.

For those of you not familiar with it,.. using the GPS satellite system to determine our location and communications satellites to transmit information to chosen recipients we can send with a touch of a button our location out that will include a web link to view our location on Google Maps. Our friends used this last year while they were in the Bahamas and it was nice to get a message and see where they were at. It also has a 911 button that you can push for an emergency. We both got new self inflatable life vest that will work nicely with the harness system we have.

I think the only other thing I need is some foul weather pants. I got myself a nice jacket a couple months back but am having a hard time finding pants. I need to get on it as I think I'm gonna need them for the gulf crossing if for nothing else to help keep me warm.

We stand back and look at the boat and realize she is quickly looking like a cruising vessel. Extra gear is getting lashed on top,wood planks are being installed to lash the extra gas, diesel, and water cans to, and the water line is slowly getting smaller. We also completed a few more projects that we wanted done before leaving. Dirk and I are both vertically challenged people and for us to see over our navigation pod it takes us kneeling or standing on the seat. After even a little while it takes its toll so we decided to install a step for us to stand on. Dirk used marine lumber/starboard, stainless steel legs and rubber feet to make the below step.

Its attached to the propane locker so it doesn't move. Have to say we are loving it and have no problems seeing now. Dirk also installed a new florescent light fixture in the salon as he hates how dark it is when he needs task lighting. Have to say, it does light things up. He also installed me new LED task lighting above the stove area.

With my cutting board on top I use this area the most in the galley and its the darkest spot. The lights swivel 360 and tilt forward and back putting light wherever I need it. I also completed a screen door project I wanted to do. Since we have our cat I hate to close up the companionway hatches when we are at anchor and away from the boat. We do have a full screen for the companionway but to be effective you must be inside of the boat to fully install it. Usually we put it in as good as we can and put the two hatches in leaving only the sliding top open. I am always worrying that he will get out so I figured I could make a sliding screen hatch. Below is a photo.
Now it wont keep all the bugs out as there is a small gap up top but it will do what I wanted it to. This way I can pull the top and slide in the hatch and its seems pretty secure. Guess that's the over protective mama coming out in me.

Well I guess its all over but the crying so to speak. Many years of dreaming, Two years of learning to sail and getting the boat outfitted for cruising and here we are. In about two weeks we will be cutting the dock lines, saying farewell to our dock neighbors and heading south for warmer climates and days full of adventures. I think were both looking forward to meeting the folks that I have made contact with through the Internet and both excited about the life that is ahead of us. Here's hoping you will continue to read our blog and hope that I can keep you intrigued and awed as so many have done for us.

Some completed projects

So we have been home here on the boat for a couple weeks now recouping from all our travels. We saw so many incredible places, ate so much wonderful food and visited with so many great friends and family, but it is now time to get with the program. Here we are in the second week of October and we are feeling the crunch of time upon us. A few things that are now completed worthy I guess of mentioning are a few canvas projects that got completed. Before we take off we decided that we wanted to have a sun shade made for the boat that would keep the direct rays of the sun off the deck in hopes that the boat would stay a little cooler. So we had CB Sails come by and design a sun awning for us that we would work but would still allow us the ability to walk the side decks and have access under it. In the past we have taken a tarp and draped it over the boom and tied it down to the toe rail. Other then looking like a gypsy it works pretty well but doesn't afford you the opportunity to sit under it. Below is a photo of what we had made. I can take my port a seat up there and sit under it, I can walk under it which is a plus with no ropes to weave and trip over.
I think the only thing I think both Dirk and I wish that we had done differently was to extend it forward to the bow. Oh well, its made now....We may order some sunbrella to match and make it ourselves one day as we need to make some sort of covers for the water and fuel jugs we will be carrying. Also looking at this photo you can see our yellow generator sitting up front where we normally keep it tied down. I decided to make a cover for it as most boaters realize that anything left out in the suns UV rays will slowly begin to break down and become brittle.

Now it is at least protected from the elements. Not too shabby as I had no pattern to go by.

Another sewing project I got into one day was replacing the life sling holder. The life sling is a throw able life ring that is attached to a long section on nylon rope which is in turn attached to the back rail of the boat. In the event of someone falling overboard the bag is opened and the life sling thrown to them. Then it is just a matter of pulling the man over board back on board. Well the bag was probably as old as the boat and was looking a little worse for wear as the photo below shows.

So I decided to put my still working on sewing skills to a test and make a new one that would match the canvas on our boat. Below is the final product which I was very proud of I have to say.

The final canvas job was done by CB Sails and was something that I guess we could have done without but we are happy with the job they did even though it took a huge bite out of our cruising kitty. Our salon cushions were the original foam that the previous owner had recovered. It was all well and good if you didn't have to spend too much time on them but for sleeping or lounging about and watching TV they weren't the most comfortable. So Dirk and I had the bright idea of adding more foam to them for a little more comfort. Well when we tried to over stuff the cushions we busted the seams in several places. There was a couple options we had but we of course decided to go with the most expensive and get brand new cushions made. The living room suite we had in our home cost less then these to make, but we are talking about a boat. Everything cost more, why is that? I guess because it can. Well we decided on a nice sunbrella that would be about the same colors as our cat. Geeeze the things we do.....I wanted to be able to hide his hair as much as possible and I have to say it is working. Just don't sit down with anything dark on, I cant see where to vacuum it up anymore. The first photo shows the full salon with the filler put in that makes up into a bed. The second photo shows the filler removed The lighter material really makes the salon look brighter and more airy. So I'm thinking that this is the final big money project. Ha! don't we always think that....We have been doing a few things here and there and when I get a list I will report. But here we are like I said almost mid October and time is flying by. We are like two horses at the gate bucking to get into the race. We are so ready to start our migration south and to begin our new adventures. Please keep tuned in as we make our final preparations for our first leg of our journey to begin.

Land & Air Travel, Germany Part II

Well we did make it to London and we did make up some ground but not enough. As soon as we landed we figured that we could just scurry through the airport and catch our plane in the Nick of time. How wrong were we? As we are running down the corridor we realize that there is a line and someone checking each passengers ticket to direct them to the next cattle gate. We were directed to a line that was for a shuttle to the other airport terminal. Uuuuughh...So we hop on the bus and ride over to the other terminal and get corraled into an area for passengers missing their flights. Yadda yadda yadda long story short we finally made it to Hamburg Germany and hit the baggage claim. There's one, two, three, three, three, and of course it was mine. Why is it I cannot fly into Europe without my bags showing up when I do. So we do the usual claim and we will wait till they deliver it in the evening. Dirk's mom is waiting for us with the usual roses in tow for us. Of course first things first, we have to have our doner and beer for our first meal.

As the evening progressed it was obvious that my luggage would not arrive till the next day. Dirk was set as everything of his had arrived. I had absolutely nothing except what I was wearing on my back. Digging through his stuff I found something to wear to bed. Yadda, yadda, yadda again and finally after 4 days my luggage had been found. Wonder what strange lands it had been to. We must have called the airport a million times and they must have recognized Dirks voice and thought oh no, not again. Lucky for me his mom called a neighbor who was about the same size as me and she was kind enough to loan me some clothes. Our first week was spent spending time with Dirk's mom eating out at some wonderful restaurants and visiting family members. Here is Dirk and his mother toasting to seeing each other once again.

And here I am with Dirk's Oma. This woman amazes me, she is 101 and still going strong.

So our first week passed so quickly and we planned on doing a little touring for our second week there. I had been to Germany a couple of times but had never left the city of Hamburg and surrounding areas. So on Monday we took off with our sights set on Berlin. His mom was kind enough to let us borrow her car and of course we had to do the test drive right away on the autobahn. As his moms words of warning" don't drive fast" were ringing in our ears all we could do was watch in amazement as the trees and cars zipped by us and the speedometer kept climbing. 140 mph was the point where we felt like enough was enough. It was fun, been there, done that but now it was time to travel at a safer speed so we kept it around 80 to 100 which was good cruising speed.

Above is our little video we took to show his mom how well her car flew.

We planned on staying 2 days in Berlin as it is a huge city and we felt like it would take us that long to see. We actually did the tourist thing one day and booked a bus tour of the city and it was great. Get on where you want, get off at points you want to see. Take your time and within 15 minutes there was always another tour bus there to take you to the next stop. We enjoyed Berlin but we both felt it was a bit too touristy for our taste. We saw the usual spots, Berlin wall, checkpoint charlie, plenty of churches and a palace that had beautiful grounds to walk.

Two photos of the Berlin wall. Top one shows pretty much the condition of the remaining wall. People have done their share to chip a piece off and now it is fenced in to preserve what is left. The bottom shows some roses left by someone that I thought was a nice. In Sept. of 1989 the wall began coming down and Dirk was there to partake in gaining his piece of the rock. Kinda cool taking part in history and having video and photos to show for it along with a nice chunk of the wall.

Tuesday evening we headed to the small town of Potsdam to have dinner with an old classmate of Dirks. Beautiful old town with cobblestone streets and such the look of the old Germany I was looking for. Wednesday found us heading to Dresden. Most of the city had been destroyed during the war but they are still rebuilding it and it is beautiful. We decided to head into town that same evening and selected the old section. Well for two days that was all we saw. Breathtaking views every corner you turned and just when you thought it couldn't get any better it did. Both Dirk and I were very camera happy and ended up with over 200 photos most days.

Here is Dirk enjoying one of our favorite German beers, Warsteiner

After leaving Dresden we headed for a day in Rothenburg. A quaint city surrounded by a wall and largely left intact from the war. Cobblestone streets and old charm is what I loved about this city. We thought about staying here overnight in a little B&B but the rain finally came and it didn't seem it was going anywhere. So we decided to head on to our next destination which was Wiesbaden. This is the city that Dirk was living in when we first met. He was actually stationed at the military base there. So we managed to find the American Arms hotel and got a room there for 2 days. Geeze I felt like I was back in the states, this is the first time in 2 weeks I was hearing English spoken. Well, besides my husband speaking to me. Here we actually hung out and relaxed a bit from all our travels and one day we took a beautiful drive up the Rhein Valley. Here you will see one town after another dotted along the Rhein River. Shear cliffs behind and many castles overlooking the water. We did hike up to several, one of which was open to the public that we were able to view.

Here is the castle that we hiked up to and toured.

So here it was I think Sunday so we decided to head back to Hamburg as we had one week left till returning home. Our final week in Hamburg consisted of more of the same from the first week. Visiting old friends and family of Dirks filling everyone in on our plans of the future. Our final week flew by so very fast and before we knew it we were back on a plane headed for Tampa. We left Hamburg and had to fly back via London again. This time not only did we have to change terminals but we had to change airports. We landed at Heathrow and had to take an hour long bus ride to another one. Once on the plane however we were flying right into Tampa so no more stops or layovers. Just almost 9 straight hours of flying. I did get in 3 movies that had not seen before. Nice airplane, every seat had its own television and about 40 on demand movies, television shows and music to listen to and watch. Once back in Tampa my sister picked us up at the airport and shuttled us back to her house where we had our kitty waiting. He had been staying with her family and two other cats for 6 weeks now. But we were reacquainted and he didn't seem too angry with us. Two days recouping then we headed the 7 hours back to the boat here. Wow, its been a while and we were here to stay. We were a bit traveled out and glad to be back. So since we have been back it has been business as usual of course with a few days here and there to take off for the island and enjoy some R&R. I will be posting some of the Germany photos for anyone wanting to take a look under my albums which is top left of the blog. Give me some time to post them, I will make a notation when I do. Also keep checking back as we have accomplished lots of projects in preparation of us taking off for points further south here shortly. I will try to post that post this next week.

Land & Air Travel, Louisiana & Florida Part 1

Life is flying by and we have been all over the place and have crammed in so much lately that our heads are spinning. Early August found us in Natchitoches Louisiana, the city I was raised in visiting friends and family that I have not seen in many years. A week was spent there catching up on old times and laying out our cruising plans for those that would listen. What can I say, we are excited and want to tell everyone. We then made our way to Baton Rouge where we attended a friends wedding. It looked like a convention of lots of us that use to work in the photo industry together. Good times was had but we had to head south after 2 days. We then ended up an hour away in the Big Easy. (New Orleans) I have a sister that now lives there so it was nice to visit her as we did what one always has to do when you go to New Orleans. I call it the Bourbon Street walk. Simply cruising up & down the street timing your bathroom breaks with the next cocktail as you don't just go in for the bathroom. No wonder Bourbon smells like it does....Anyone else notice it has the distinct aroma of yesterdays garbage with an undertone of someones puke and a nasty men's bathroom stall? Hummm, pretty much sums the smell up quiet nicely I think. But, that's New Orleans.....Anyway we spent two days with my baby sister playing catch up as we haven't seen each other in two years. Wow, time does fly....
My sis and I

Dirk and I in front of the Funky Pirate

Becca, Dirk, and myself as the evening progressed.

We drove back to Panama City and spent one and a half days trying to prep the boat for any hurricanes or storms that may come through in the next 3 weeks. This meant removing the canvas, tying things down and stowing gear. We ended up taking the dinghy off the davits and putting in on the bow of the boat upside down. We did leave the sails on but wrapped them tightly in hopes that they stay that way. At the time Bill was out in the Atlantic and there is where we hoped he would stay. The next morning found us heading to my sisters home close to Tampa where we had been just a few short weeks ago to drop off or cat Butters. My sisters family agreed to take him in for about 6 weeks while we did all of our traveling. That was a major load off our minds and we knew he would be in good hands. We got there on a Thursday and we had Friday to get everything washed, packed and ready for our 3 week trip to Germany. Saturday found us at the Tampa airport flying into Philidelphia and then onto London and finally into Hamburg. We took off out of Tampa with no problems and we had a one and a half hour lay over in Philly so we took advantage of the USO there. I had never used the services of the USO before but I have to give these people cuddos. They treated every service member active and retired like royalty and I felt truly pampered there. They had a room to stretch out in if you had a long lay over. Another room for eating with a nice little buffet of fresh fruits, yogurts, bagels and home baked sweets. Too bad we didn't have a longer layover, one that we had control over anyway. We were at our gate awaiting take off but there was another plane using our platform so we had to wait until they departed. Well of course the weather was raining buckets which led to that plane not leaving and us having to wait. Finally we boarded about 1 hour late and then had to sit on the tarmac as we had a line ahead of us waiting to take off. Not a problem but we only had a two hour layover in London and that window was closing in on us. Because of the bad storms along the east coast we were able to get a very nice tail wind but it wasn't enough to get us to London in time.

Land & Air Traveling

Dirk and I have been gone away from the boat since about 8th of August I guess. We have been doing some traveling, visiting family and friends everywhere from around Tampa Florida up to Louisiana and now in Germany. We will be here for another week and a half doing some sightseeing and visiting his family. Taking in lots of sights, eating lots of wonderful food and seeing some beautiful cities. Last two days found us in Berlin and today we head south to Dresden. So forgive me for lack of post, honestly I have started writing them but get distracted very easily. We are really enjoying the travel but are actually looking forward to getting back to Tybee Time because we know that in a very short time hurricane season will be behind us and we have much to do before taking off. So let me get back to Germany, be patient, and know I have not forgotten the blog. Till later..... Tschuess (Bye)