Georgetown, South Carolina

I love night sailing. The whole sky puts on a show and I could stare at the stars forever! With that in mind, I left Bald Head Island Marina about 5pm November 7, 2009. The idea was to get out to the Cape Fear safe water buoy before dark. The winds were light but enough to sail with and the current was with me so even with not much sailing speed I was still going 6 plus knots over the ground.

I thought this would be a good time to try the Monitor Windvane and so I did. Son of a gun, it really works - it's a pain when the wind is shifty or very light, but it works and it saves all sorts of power when sailing. I got a pattern for a paddle from Scanmar (the people who make the thing) for a ketch rig so the mizzen boom doesn't smash it, but I think I should have used the light air paddle - the one I made was just too touchy. In light air of less than 6 knots apparent it just doesn't keep a course very well. There's no surprise there because the manual mentions that.

But for longer passages with good wind (10+knots) this baby will save all sorts of power and will steer a darn good course! I'm impressed and quite thrilled.

I'd've taken a picture but it was pitch black by the time I got it all sorted out. Maybe one day I'll do it again and take said picture.

Most of the night was motor sailing. I was running just above an idle - not really good for a diesel but very easy on the fuel. Also, I didn't want to get to Winyah Bay Inlet before daylight so I had to keep to about 5 knots over the ground.

Every so often the wind would increase and we'd be moving right along so I could stop the engine and test the shaft generator. It works, but not below about 4.5knots. Then it uses power rather than generates it. The upside is that at a solid 5 knots it will supply enough power for the autopilot, all the instruments, and the refrigerator. I suspect that at 6 knots, it'll power the water maker, too. But with 10 knots of wind I couldn't test that.

The downside is that it's noisy. I'm not sure if it's the rotating gear or the stress on the v-drive, but I'm going to have to find that out. It could just be that the split pulley isn't balanced all that well. But as an experiment, I'll call it a success!

I arrived at the channel entrance exactly at 7:00am and started up the bay for Georgetown. True, it's like 6 miles out of my way going down the AICW, but I heard it was nice here and I needed fuel anyway. So I stopped at Boat Shed Marina for the evening, putting the boat away and taking on fuel and water. I decided to have a bit of a walk in town and maybe grab some lunch.

Ok, Georgetown is guarded from boaters approaching from the south by the stench from the paper plant. Apparently, the two big employers here are International Paper and a steel mill. The paper plant emits a foul odor that travels at least 10 miles over Winyah Bay. But once past the foul plume, Georgetown is a very pretty town. The waterfront contains a mixture of working and pleasure vessels with a large proportion developed with a boardwalk. It's lovely to walk there.

The main street, Front Street, has a theater and several restaurants and touristy stores as well as a large department store. It is truly like Main Street USA - the kind of boulevard that we pine for now. It is nostalgia made real. It's maybe three New York avenue blocks long. Because it's Sunday most of the shops are closed - but a few of the restaurants are open. Now, I'll do fru-fru eating every so often (less often now while I have no job), and with that in mind, I was looking for a good place to eat.

Way at the far end of town is Aunney's (pronounced onnies , like Donnie's without the 'D'). If you like country food and plenty of it go there. On Sunday they have a limited menu, but not that limited - I had fried chicken, collard greens, mac & cheese, a piece of cornbread, rice, and iced tea for $11.00 - and it was only that because I had all white meat ($1.00 extra - I was feeling expansive). All the women there are super nice and if you like good down-home cooking and good conversation this is the place.

Kindle (yes, like the reading device) was mostly my server. But no matter who ends up serving you, you'll enjoy it and have a darn good meal. You won't leave hungry. I only wish I could have had some of their home-made desert! Mmmmm. Highly recommended! Super friendly!

The east end of Front Street is tree lined and the trees are gorgeous! This is what tree lined streets should look like!

If you're traveling by Georgetown on your way through the ICW, you should stop and set a spell.

See you on the water where I'll meet some new friends tomorrow at an anchorage!

Two Truly Cool Places

'Sailing' down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW) is a dull as dull can be. True, there's some spectacular scenery, but when you get right down to it, it's a slog. Get up, get going, decide on an anchorage or marina, stop, go to bed. Repeat as necessary until you get somewhere interesting.

Having said that, I've looked to stop in marinas that are sort of off the beaten path with good rates or good scenery or both.

When I was getting to Wrightsville, NC for a meeting (also a catching up with friends, doing laundry and looking for an oil pressure gauge), I decided that rather than wait an hour for the Surf City swing bridge, I'd stop at the Beach House Marina. The dockmaster is Earl and the place is clean, very friendly, and at $1.25/ft including electricity a true bargain. Highly recommended.


Surf City, NC is quite a place, too - there's a really nice park that straddles the east coast of the AICW and has long wooden walks suspended over swamps - very pretty. They are clearly new-ish.

Contained in Surf City within easy walking from the marina is everything you could want including an IGA, a slew of restaurants (Daddy Mac's is pretty good - and eating on the deck overlooking the Atlantic is pretty special). There's a little breakfast nook, too, that is dirt cheap - a full breakfast 2 eggs, toast, home fries, coffee and bacon is like $4.99. Can you beat that? I submit not.

The downside to these places is that smoking is allowed in them. Yech!

Ok, so after spending the next day with friends and business discussions and eating and laundry, I got Pelican ready to leave for the 8 am Surf City Bridge opening and promptly ran aground. Fortunately, it was only for a minute. As someone once said, there are two types of sailors on the AICW - those who run aground and those who lie.

So, after a stultifying day, I'm at Bald Head Island Marina. This is a little hole in Bald Head Island across from Wilmington, NC and at the entrance to the Cape Fear inlet. This is a cute little marina on a very exclusive island. There are no cars, just golf carts. It's well manicured. There's a restaurant (Eb & Flo's) that in the season provides conch fritters that I'm told are better than you can get in the Bahamas. Sadly, the season is over and so I can't get any. Feh. Also, if there's a slip that's the farthest from the bright center of activity here on the island, I'm in it.

The winter montly rates here, including electricity, are very reasonable! Hmmm, well, I'm just sayin' here.

Why am I here? Because tomorrow at 5-ish or so I'm leaving for an overnight sail to Winyah inlet for Georgetown, NC. I may spend a couple of days there before going to Charleston. But the point is to have an overnight sail straight away and arrive in daylight.

The weather is supposed to be very nice, if cold. Tonight it's supposed to get to 38 degrees! Eww - I left Connecticut to get out of that crap! Still, Saturday night is supposed to be awesomely clear so I'll be on either autopilot or Monitor Windvane laying on the deck watching the incredible stars! But I'll also be watching.

I hope also to be able, finally, to test the shaft generator. I'm hoping there's enough wind to sail but not so much I'm terrified. I guess that's pretty much what all sailors want...

See you on the water! If I don't, though, steer clear - I'm stargazing!

Engineering a Solution

I'm sure my windlass has not been serviced since I purchased Pelican and given human nature, probably not since it was installed. One of the major service items is to change the oil in the gear case. But it takes two men and a boy to get the darn thing out - and that's what's required to change the oil.


The measure of oil is that it is halfway up the sight glass. Since I couldn't even see the level either because it was too low or because the glass was scuzzed up, I wanted to refresh it but without dropping the motor and gear housing. Both tasks are onerous.

So I had a brilliant idea - namely, drill and tap a hole right in the middle of the sight glass. To drain the oil, remove the sight glass and let drain. I used a syringe to make sure all the oil was out. Then I put the sight glass back in, filled through the newly drilled and tapped hole in the center until the level was just higher than the hole with the syringe and finally, put the bolt back in the hole before it all leaks out - but even if it does leak out, it will leak to just a tiny bit below the optimum level.

The bolt is wrapped with teflon tape that keeps it from leaking, binding, and rotating out by itself. It is only finger tight so there's no strain on the plastic sight glass.

Now all that remains to be seen is what happens when I run the unit with the anchor on it. I expect nothing special besides the anchor going up and down.

You would think that Maxwell would have put a drain and fill plug on the gear case. There is room and it would make maintenance far more palatable.

See you on the water!

Beaufort, North Carolina

Beaufort. BO-Fort. I am not much into shopping boutique stores. I like architecture but I really detest cute. So first, here are some pictures of Beaufort from the boat - this is the town's main waterfront area. The left picture is the Maritime Museum and the right is the Beaufort Town Docks - a very nice place to dock and the people are pretty nice, too. But that's not what I'm on about here today.

You all have seen an historic town. Beaufort looks just like that. To its credit, it has a really good and really cheap diner like place that you can get stuffed for breakfast for around $7.00 and that includes coffee and a tip. They also have a very good and very expensive restaurant called "The Grocery" where if you're hungry and feeling flush, it's a good place to go. Then, there's the Back Street Bar. More on that later in this journey, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

This being near Halloween I thought what I'd talk about is one of the best graveyards I've ever seen. Sure, we have pretty good ones there, but on this side of the Atlantic, if you're thinking scary thoughts about a scary cemetery you are very likely thinking of this one or one so similar that it doesn't matter.

The last time I saw a cemetery anywhere like this was in England. I have to say, though, that I'd be pretty apprehensive to be here on any given moonless night.

This graveyard also contains an area where the casualties of an Indian war in 1722 happened - there are no markers left, but there is a little sign.

I find the graves to be really interesting, if only for their construction. There are a few WWII graves but most of them date to the 1860's and earlier. I'll leave you to contemplate the pictures at least for tomorrow night. You can bet I won't be there.

Well, someone I've wanted to meet since I got involved with the Pearson 424 organization is one Tor Pinney - to say he's sailed a great deal would be vast understatement. He's written a book about preparing a boat for offshore work and he regularly submits (and gets published) articles in Cruising World and other magazines.

Well, as I was putting Pelican to bed upon arriving here a man motored up in his dinghy and it was none other than Tor - we've been having discussions on the board for at least two years. As some of the other members were to meet at the Annapolis Boat Show, he indicated "none of look like we expect." He, of course, is right - we make pictures of strangers in our mind and are almost always surprised at what we see when we meet. I must say, my picture was of a great man with a beard and flaming red hair. I suspect I've read too many comics.

But that he doesn't match that image is not important - he's a terrific guy, knowledgable and experienced, and more than that, willing to share his knowledge. One of the good people in the world, I have to say.

Anyway, he's playing in town Saturday night so I'll pop over for that.

I had a bit of a scare with the dinghy - yesterday in town I came back and two of the chambers were partially deflated. I thought maybe someone was messing with me. I limped back to the boat and pumped them up and they stayed inflated all night. But in the morning I popped over to Tor's boat (Silver Heels) and as I was going one tube kept deflating. "Crap!", I thought to myself, "I have to fix that!"

Once again I limped back to the boat and hauled the engine off, attached the spinnaker halyard to the lifting harness and heaved the whole thing on deck. Using soapy water I sprayed everywhere - I couldn't find a leak -except as Tor pointed out, probably one of the fill valves. Well, there you have it, tightened the fill valve fitting and put the whole thing back in the water and away I went.

Before I left from Stamford, I purchased a Citizen folding bike (the Gotham model with fenders). It is the least expensive folding bike I've seen and it fits under the table, weighs like 20lbs, and rides pretty nicely. It's an all aluminum frame with standard parts. I took it out for a spin today, mostly to see how it does in the dinghy and the issues with loading and unloading it. (There are none).

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Right now it's almost cocktail hour and I thought I'd pop over to town for a bit of a happy hour.

See ya on the water!

An evening at Broad Creek

I know I'm like two days behind. Yesterday was one very long day and today much shorter with a sweet landing.

I left from Coinjock yesterday about 7:30am. There were people to help on the dock so the job was easy. It turns out that you need your up-current end shoved of into the current and nature does the rest. The current through Coinjock must have been running the day before when I arrived somewhere near 4 knots! By the time I turned around to land I was a half mile down the canal!

But I digress - also, since I had dinner at Crabbies I can tell you this: the crab chowder is marvelous. The stuffed flounder was way over cooked. There wasn't enough tartar sauce in the restaurant to cover that baby.

I digressed again, didn't I?

Well just a short while east the canal opened up into the North River which leads to the Currituck Sound out to the Albemarle. Some friends I had met, Tom and Charlene on their Krogen 39 (Forever 39) were overtaking me as I was attaching the staysail halyard - and trying to look all salty, I walked to the mast and gave the halyard a great heave only to have it become unshackled and sail up to the spreaders.

Nonchalantly, I walked back to the cockpit and unfurled the jib. Needless to say there was a good deal of swearing going on - I managed to get the sail under control and off we went at about 7 knots! Woohoo! Shut the engine and sailed! Can you believe it?

Raised the mizzen and all went spectacularly. Pelican was in her glory, I'll tell you - she motors pretty ok, I guess, but when the wind's 20 kts or so, man she GOES!

I was told that the two sounds would be horrendous. I don't know where these people go, but at 2-3 feet, they were totally manageable and not at all rough, really. I mean Pelican handled them with aplomb.

We ended up motor sailing down the Albemarle because I had to make it to the end of the Pungo Canal before dark. Well, not really, but I wanted to. To say that the Pungo Canal is dull would be to be wildly exaggerating. It would be hyperbole. The charts say it's got a cypress swamp on one side. Sadly, the swamp is dying. Boats leaving large wakes wash the soil from the roots with the result that the trees eventually topple. The northern edge is already dead from something or other and the trees nearest the canal are dying. Come see it now before it's gone. Don't leave a big wake.

Anyway, I ended up at the end of the Pungo River Canal in a terrific anchorage just to the right of the last buoy. For those of you following me, you know were I was. The night was cold, drizzly, and damp with a pretty strong wind from the north. All snuggled up in my bed with lots of pillows I slept the sleep of, well, the sleepy. It was marvelous.

This morning, however, turned out to be a bit less sanguine (incidentally, I love the word 'sanguine' - it's from the French word for 'blood' (to parenthesize parenthesis - so is 'exsanguination' another terrific word but hardly useful for this blog) ) . As I left the anchorage, the fanbelt that runs the alternator and the fresh water pump on the engine broke. After much hopping about swearing, I had to anchor again and rip the boat apart to change the belt. This took about an hour.

Well, then I was off again! Today I made it to River Dunes, in Broad Creek on the Neuse River. It sounds like a gambling casino but it's not. It's a lovely water community in a place that you'd never expect. Broad Creek is a little, shallow creek with a pretty good anchorage. When you motor up it there's a little channel off to the port that you would think goes to someone's home. But a little way in, it turns into a masonry lined channel that opens up into a large basin with a marina inside! You could not be more surprised than if you walked into a dumpy looking restaurant door and inside was this huge gourmet dining establishment! (Incidentally, I had another surprising thing to compare this to but it is a family blog after all.)

It's a most modern facility and I got to stay on a 'T' dock for $1.25/foot for the night! Can you believe that? That's like when I started sailing! It's almost cheaper with electricity ($5.00) than the friggin' moorings at Sagamor Yacht Club. I mean, really!

So that's today's adventures. More when I get to Beaufort, NC where I pick up a mooring I've rented for a month for next to nothing.

Frankly, this cruising life has started out totally ok!

See you all on the water!

Resting at Great Bridge VA

Well, we made it to Great Bridge, VA Friday afternoon around 1:30ish. We were very happy to get into the Atlantic Yacht Basin that Cory has been to many times, and recently I have with him. It's a few hundred yards east of the Great Bridge Bascule Bridge on the south shore of the ICW. Because it's in a fresh water section of the ICW, there's no tide to speak of unless there's a strong wind out of the east that piles up water here.

This place is a full service yard - they have any number of large and small boats in various stages of repair at any one time. Lest that give you the impression they work willy-nilly let me disabuse you of that notion. Every work site is clean and well maintained. The yard people wear their safety gear and seem, to me anyway, to work a good day's work. I'm impressed.

Their marine store isn't like any other. Because of the work they do, it's well stocked with things you need and need badly. There's no frippery there, I'll tell you what.

The dock masters are knowledgeable and really helpful.

As you know if you've been following my SPOT information, we started out around 9:30am Wednesday from Great Kills Yacht Club. There appeared to be wind filling in from a direction we could sail in - we were headed out to the Sandy Hook Channel. The breeze was light and as it turns out we couldn't sail. We didn't find that out until all the sails were raised, though.

So, essentially, you leave the Sandy Hook Channel when you can clear the shoals and make a right any stay on that course until you hit (figuratively) Cape Charles at the entrance to the Chesapeake.

Because the weather for Thursday was going to be 20kts out of the southwest (in other words, right on the nose) we decided to run a little closer to the coast. In any case, we were making good time until Thursday around noonish when the wind settled in right on the nose (as predicted). We were 20 miles out with seas building to an uncomfortable 2 - 6 foot chop and pounding into it. Pelican does not like to motor into that. Neither does her owner.

We worked our way west with the staysail and mizzen until we were in around 35 feet of water just south of the Delaware River. From there you can almost make a beeline to Cape Charles.

The engine was behaving beautifully until we were about an hour from Cape Charles at about three in the morning. Then it stopped. Plenty of fuel. Pump working, but air in the Racor. Long story short, the original rubber fuel line had a gotten a split in it and we were able to get a good connection to the fuel pump and get the engine running again after about an hour and a half.

As we rounded Cape Charles the wind died (because we could have sailed into the Chesapeake otherwise) and we got to Norfolk about 7:30am. We went through the assorted bridges until we got nearly to Great Bridge. There the Dominion Boulevard Bridge (aka 'Steel Bridge') only opens on the hour. Of course we were an half hour early (we had just missed the opening). So we tied up to a dock nearby to wait.

After the Steel Bridge, there is the Great Bridge Lock which opens when? On the hour on the half hour. Fortunately they were opening the gates as we came up and we got in right away. Actually, we were looking to tie up to wait and wanted to see what the signs said at the entrance so motored up there. That's when we noticed it was opening. If you were in a boat in that lock opening - really, we're sorry.

Ok, well, the lock takes a half hour to cycle and then there's the Great Bridge Bascule bridge which opens when? On the hour. If you're really, really lucky you can catch them all and make it through in an hour. If you're not, it's two hours. We weren't.

So Friday at the Atlantic Yacht Basin we really didn't do anything - had some wine and cheese and went fairly early to the Mexican restaurant across the road - El Toro Loco. It was awful. Not at all recommended. We forced ourselves to stay up until 8:00pm. Woohoo! what a wild bunch we are!

This morning, Saturday, we all got up early, had a cup of coffee and Cory and Jim were on their way home via taxi and train (Amtrak from Newport News). I did laundry, changed the oil in the engine, and replaced the faulty fuel hose which I had purchased Friday afternoon in the hopes of dealing with it then.

After that, I moved across the canal to a free dock and am here now.

On the dock with me is a DeFever 53 owned by Karen and Jeffrey Siegel who happen to own and run a site ActiveCaptain, an interactive cruising guidebook. This is a great site, too, that is constantly being updated by cruisers! It's free but you have to register. I just started looking at it and I can totally see its utility. I think I'll be on that site pretty often!

It's such a good site, you'll see it on my sidebar.

Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Coinjock to have a 32oz. steak. No, not really, but to gather myself together to go down the Albemarle Sound. Hopefully the bridge will open on the Alligator River when I need it to...

So there you have it! The first exciting days of what promises to be an exciting trip!

See you on the 'ditch'!

Day One - Great Kills, Staten Island, NY

Here I am at the Great Kills Yacht Club in a small harbor on the southeast corner of Staten Island - I left Stamford CT this morning at 7:45 and had current with me all day except for about a 20 minute period through Hell Gate.

It was a beautiful day! Partly cloudy and in the high 40's. It could only have been better if the wind wasn't on the nose all day! But that's sailing in Long Island Sound and New York Harbor!

Still, a very pleasant day all in all. New York Harbor was busy as usual. Of course I had to take a picture of 'The Lady'.

Also, I'm testing my video - clearly I need to work on that bit - a short one is 185Mb and that's too much. Maybe I'll figure it out by Norfolk!

Tomorrow will be our trip offshore - Cory and Jim will be with me. We should arrive at Norfolk on Friday morning and make it to Coinjock.


While I was here, I met the owners of Roving Seas, an Island Gypsy 44 that I passed in the East River between the Throgs Neck and Whitestone Bridges. They had hailed me earlier and we'd discussed our plans so I knew they'd be in Great Kills. It's so seldom anyone gets a picture of their boat underway, I thought I'd take a couple and email it to them.

Brian and Jan could not be nicer. We had a bit of discussion and wine on Roving Seas before they had to head off to meet their son for dinner. They also turned me on to a great site, Cruiser's Net. It's all about cruisers helping each other out. While I was waiting for Cory and Jim the next morning I helped them off the dock.

Their goal is Marsh Harbor, Bahamas, too, so I hope to see them there!

See you on the ocean!

And Here We Go!

Today is Monday, October 19th. This is the day before I leave for a winter of cruising down the east coast and to the Bahamas. Everyone here at the marina and all my landbound friends have been so incredibly wonderful and supportive of this trip.

This, of course, causes some conflicting feelings - How could I leave my incredible friends? How could I not, knowing how they support the journey?

I'll be leaving around 8:00 am tomorrow morning to catch high tide at Hell Gate, East River, New York. The last couple of days have been cold, miserable, rainy, and windy. This morning there was a layer of ice on the dock! I'm getting out of here not a moment too soon!

My first stop is Staten Island, NY where I'll be staying at the Great Kills Yacht Club in Great Kills Harbor on the south east side of the island. Although the entire trip will only be about eight or nine hours it will be, I hope, a bit of a shakedown of the new stuff like the shaft driven generator (if it works, there will be a post about it next) and the Monitor Windvane steering system that has been rigged for the trip.

The other day while I was stocking up at BJ's, I found a Panasonic SDR digital camcorder that's just a bit thicker than an iPhone and uses SDHC memory cards for about $199. There are higher definition units like the Flip Mino or Mino Ultra. They are small, easily downloaded but limited in how much video they store before you have to download them or erase things.

The Panasonic SDR-SW20, with standard NTSC video, has several great advantages - one, it's water resistant to 1.5 meters (almost 4 feet), it is dust resistant, it is shock resistant to drops up to 1.5 meters and finally, it uses SDHC cards that can carry up to 16GB of storage for about three hours of the highest quality video. For 8GB cards, about an hour and 40 minutes. At standard quality, it's much longer.

The fact that it's waterproof is a real plus because I can use it while sailing (expect some videos tomorrow - not great ones, but some nonetheless). Also, since it's hard to get a picture of rough weather that really looks like it feels, I hope to use it in situations where you shouldn't take a regular camera.

The other attribute that is important to me is the fact that I can change a card when full and continue recording without downloading. Although it may never happen that I need to, it is certainly a nice option.

This afternoon I'll be hosting a quiet wine and cheese party for friends at the marina - nothing terrific, just a little get-together. They won't be awake when I leave tomorrow so I'll just be slipping away into the morning...

Today is a wonderfully sunny day - with winds from the north at 10 to 20kts. If the boat isn't ready by now, it will never be. So today is pretty much a waiting day - I'll nap and straighten up things and so forth. After the little party I'll be heading off to bed. I'm so excited about leaving that I'm fairly shaking to get away!

In the grand scheme of sailing, this is a fairly calm adventure. I'm not rounding Cape Horn or even Cape of Good Hope. It's just that I'm going for a long distance (to me) and to new (to me) places and seeing new (to me) friends and visiting old friends.

If you'd like to follow me on Google Maps, I have a SPOT Personal Tracker. This little device has several functions that allow friends to see where you are. You can follow me by using this link http://tinyurl.com/WhereIsBobFine - kindly set up by my 424 buddy Pat. The real URL is ugly.

About the SPOT device: it is meant to be a personal safety device - not to replace an EPIRB that an oceangoing boat needs, but since it's based on the Globalstar satellite system, the coverage is pretty good everywhere except near the poles. I don't plan on going to either pole as I've heard they're really cold. Maybe in a few years after global warming takes effect. (I'm joking here - don't go all postal!)

Operating SPOT once set up and services purchased on the site is really simple - you can see from the picture that there are four buttons. The On/Off button is self-explanatory. We've all seen and used them. Of the other three, one is 'Ok' which if pressed for two seconds sends an email with a message that I'm Ok, and you can see where I am using a link to Google Maps. Holding the button for 4 or more seconds starts tracking so that every 10 minutes a position is marked on the map and you can follow it at the link above.

The next button is a personal 'help' button. This one sends a customized message that I'll follow up with later - essentially it's for when I'm stuck but don't really need the Coast Guard or Marines to get me. It will actually ask for lawyers, guns, and money - facetiously, perhaps, but I'm in a bind.

The last button is '911'. When you purchase the service, this bad boy will get the Globalstar monitoring station to call the authorities to help you - obviously, on the water, it will be the Coast Guard or the Navy or the Marines. On land, the police or rescue people. You press this button, you'd better need serious help or you'll be paying for the efforts. Fortunately, the button is recessed and you need to hold it for 10 seconds or so. There is no 'test' function. You press it, you're going to be visited by some highly trained and very serious people. Perhaps they'll even be heavily armed.

I'm also maintaining a maillist that I'll post to (and my 'Ok' and 'Help' messages go to). All you have to do is send an email from your account to sv_pelican-subscribe@finesoft.com - you don't need a subject or message as they're ignored. Then you'll join the 10's of people following me!

Well, that's about it for today. I hope to see you on the water!

Finishing Projects - Holding Tank & Macerator

Here's the thing - as humans we're mostly interested in what goes into us and less so the other end of the process. This is certainly the case with me, so when I started the holding tank project a couple of years ago I stopped when the holding tank was installed and functional. But the design of the project was far more ambitious - it had to perform several functions and allow flexibility.

Here are the specifications:

• The head discharge has to be able to be switched overboard or to the holding tank.
• The holding tank needs to be well vented
• The holding tank has to be able to be emptied through a pumpout, through a macerator pump and finally, as a last resort, a manual pump.
• The pumps (manual and macerator) have to be able to take a suction from either the holding tank or the bilge satisfying the need for a manual bilge pump operable entirely from inside the closed up boat (SOLAS requirement).

So, with that said, the first thing I needed to do was put in a holding tank. Pelican didn't come with a holding tank - just an Electrasan. The Electrasan isn't very useful because it isn't legal in the U.S. and off shore you don't need it. In addition, it is a power hog using about 6 amps per flush. It really draws much more, but only operates for three minutes. True, you don't have to use it by just pumping through it added a lot more hose and wiring and took up valuable storage space.

Many people think that if you have a boat that's pre-MSD laws you don't have to upgrade to a legal system ever. That could not be more untrue. If you have a pre-MSD law boat without a holding tank and you change even one hose, you are required to upgrade to a legal system. So, adding an Electrasan constitutes an upgrade triggering the need for a fully legal system.

I purchased the new 30 gallon HDPE tank online from Plastic-mart.com - they had a standard one that fit in the lower bilge area. Tall and narrow and I asked them to spin-weld all the fittings I needed to one end - those being the inlet (1-1/2"), the suction (1-1/2" with a tube to the bottom), and two vents (1"). There is an excellent discussion by Peggie Hall on head and holding tank installation here: http://boatbuilding.com/article.php/MarineSanitationFactvsFolklore. Using her ideas and discussions and my nuclear reactor operations background I came up with system that would meet my needs.

Installing a holding tank is actually really simple. I added an 8" inspection port to the tank so that I could clean it if it really becomes necessary. I'm hoping never to do that, but hey, you never know. As you can see at the left, I've cut out the hole for the inspection plate. You can also see the tube that goes to the bottom for pump outs. When you order the tank, make sure they know its final orientation and that you need a bottom suction. I used the inspection plate as a pattern for the hole I cut.

You'll notice there are two 1" vent fittings on opposite corners. The more ventilation a holding tank has, the better. It is the anerobic bacteria that smell badly - the aerobic ones are the ones that actually break down sewage. That's why a sewage treatment plant aerates the sewage as part of the clean-up process. More often, holding tanks have insufficient ventilation in the form of one 5/8" vent.

The bilge behind the keel of Pelican is 5 1/2 feet deep from the cabin sole, about three feet below the top of the keel. I don't really need that much bilge space so I figured it was a great place for the tank. It's hard to show that here, but you can see there's a lot of volume down there. These two pictures show the bilge before the tank goes in and after it's mounted.

As an aside, the inspection plate from Seabuilt, Inc.
has been discussed before in another post. It is a sturdy, easy to install, and leak-proof system for installing inspection ports in almost anything -from fuel to water to holding tanks. They aren't for highly corrosive materials, but there are few of those aboard Pelican. The design is so elegant that I used it for putting an access plate in the base of the mizzen mast for wiring. It works like a champ.

Next, I plumbed in the tank as normal - vent hoses go to fittings on either side of the hull in as short a run as possible. Also, the hoses have no loops or sags. This is very important so that a water seal doesn't occur in them. The fittings are as high on the hull as possible below the bulwarks. There's nothing special about them except they're stainless steel. The deck pump-out fitting is installed on the starboard side because there's a closet I could run the hose through easily and many of the overboards are already there. You can see the 'Y' valve on top of the tank.

Once you get used to drilling or cutting holes in the hull, doing it in the deck is easy. I ordered a stainless steel waste fitting for the deck from Marine Parts Depot who I've used for all sorts of stainless fittings. The waste fitting doesn't need a key to open it. There's a lever built in so that you can leave the boat and the pump out person can do the job without searching for a key. When you cut a hole in the deck, though, where it's cored, make sure you seal the core with epoxy before installing the fitting.

I've installed a macerator pump and manual bilge pump in the same closet as the vent and pump out fitting. This looks really complicated but basically it allows you to use one pump at a time to either pump the bilge or pump the holding tank. For those of you thinking ahead, there is a check valve to prevent pumping the holding tank to the bilge. After seeing this all together I think I should have done it all with PVC pipe and PVC valves - it would have been a little less expensive, but far less leak prone. Someday, if it all goes wrong, that's the way I'll rebuild it. But for now, it doesn't leak, it doesn't smell, and it seems to work as planned. And what could be better than working as planned? I submit nothing!

Next up, water maker installation and shaft powered alternator.

I'm leaving to go south soon! I hope to meet you on the water!

When you're afraid it means you're about to have an adventure

A few weekends ago I was going out to meet my friends Laura and Cory at Duck Island Roads, a small island near Clinton, CT. The plan for me was to leave Friday afternoon, travel about 4 hours and then anchor for the night, continuing on Saturday morning.

Well, the normal weather pattern for the Long Island Sound is for storms to pass north or south following the coast of Connecticut or Long Island. Guess what? Not this night. There were severe thunderstorms north and as I travelled I noticed that they were travelling not from the southwest to the northeast but from the northwest to the southeast!

Pelican is a sturdy vessel, but her owner can sometimes be a little lax putting things away. Even in the Sound waves can become rather large and short. Still when things start flying is not the time to start putting them away.

Anyway, with the radar on, I watched the storm center catch up to me and then inexplicably match my speed. With winds steady at 30 knots and gusting higher the seas built to 4-5 feet on the beam quickly. Then came the rain. I've not seen rain like that in a long, long time. Within seconds it beat the seas flat. Amazing cloud-to-cloud lightning, too.

I called Laura and Cory who had decided to pull into New Haven's Morris Cove and wait for me. They suggested I try a bit of sail so I did! Just the staysail. With that alone and the wind on the beam I was going 7.5 knots! Woohoo! Really, a very wet woohoo at that.

Other than being noisy, Pelican was behaving in a most reassuring manner. It means to me that I made the right choice in her. More on that in another post, though.

Eventually the storms cleared as I entered New Haven and tied up to my friends. It was a late but deserved cocktail hour, for sure.

Although it was nervous-making, it was not fearful in any way, shape, or means. What is scary right now is knowing there's a deadline for my cruise to the Caribbean. And that's the next adventure I'm going to have!

See you out there on the water!

100 Days

It's mid July and the season here in the northeast, especially around Long Island Sound has been rather crappy - mostly rain and cool. Still, I've been working on Pelican - two current projects are installing the water maker and replacing the lifelines.

But the real issue now is that it's 100 days (plus or minus) before I leave for a long cruise to the Bahamas. That means no more fooling around. Ok, maybe a little fooling around. But not the massive, time consuming fooling around!

There are other projects that got done on the sly, as it were, where I just needed to get them done. One was replacing the emergency start battery and adding one to that bank - the original was a group 31 flooded cell battery that got cooked as all my systems are set for AGM batteries. I figured if one was good, two would be better and then realized that two wouldn't fit in the volume I wanted them in. So I made a shelf in one of the lazerettes and mounted one there.

Another project that just needed to get done was a new solar panel - no big deal but I replaced what I think was an old 80 watt panel with a 130 watt Kyocera panel and the difference was appreciable! In good sunlight the panel alone supplys 70% of the power required for the autopilot, instruments, and refrigerator. Not bad. And the panel is smaller than the old panel. Moreover, solar panels are as inexpensive as they're going to be for a while.

In getting a boat ready for offshore use there are safety issues that must be addressed. A great source of information is the International Convention for the Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS). In addition to many other pieces of maritime safety information, they have a checklist for getting a small yacht ready to go offshore. The checklist is provided to anyone preparing for a Marion or Newport to Bermuda race, and inspected for and enforced. It's no joke, and luck favors the prepared.

In any case, many of the items are good seamanship and common sense - all openings should be latched to prevent opening in a knockdown or rollover, for instance. You could look at the post on the new floorboard openings if you like to see how that's done.

Another issue that's important and often overlooked is lifelines. Most lifelines are vinyl covered stainless steel with swaged fittings. This is fine for new boats or boats that are not likely to see severe weather (most in marinas fit that description, sadly). But the SOLAS standard is bare stainless steel so that if there is corrosion at the ends or the middle it's obvious and repaired before someone falls through it, in theory.

Anyway, my lifelines were coated and there was apparent rust at the terminal ends so I thought I'd replace them. I have access to swaging machines and terminals and so forth, but I saw that Suncor Stainless makes SOLAS approved lifeline kits that are installable with simple tools. "Hey!" I thought, "That's for me!"




The kits come in four flavors - with and without gates and with or without coating on the wire. I chose 4 bare wire with gates kits. From West Marine with a Port Supply discount, they were $215 each. Pound for pound, they're about $30-$50 more expensive than having to purchase the fittings and doing it yourself. Still, they are several hundred dollars less than having a rigger do the job. Pictured at the left are the tools you need - I purchased the wire cutter since I needed it anyway as an emergency tool.
One item not shown is LocTite thread sealant. You need a little tube of it and I used the medium strength stuff 'cause you never know...

There's a specific order you put the lifelines together in - from the bow to the gate, from the stern to the gate, and then the gate. Before starting, however, make sure your stanchions are aligned properly, straight up and down, and if there are adjustable supports, make sure they're well attached. It will make your life easier in the long run. In the picture at the left I've installed the turnbuckle for the bow on the new spool of wire. The instructions are short but complete inasmuch as there are really only three moving parts, the collar, the wedges (three held by an o-ring) and a bronze washer. The only vague part is how tight to make it. They say in the instructions tight but not too tight. That will differ from person to person, I think.

Let's just say that I installed the line from the bow to the forward end of the gate and from the stern to the aft end of the gate, which is what you see here.

Note: This is important! Whenever a piece has adjustment, put it half-way before measuring and cutting the wire! Open turnbuckles 1/2 way. Unscrew pelican hooks halfway.

Anyway, the gate eyes screw onto studs and have lock nuts behind them, so I just installed the one end in the stanchion, took the left over piece of cable and mounted the pelican hook, hooked the hook and measured to the back end of the gate as you see to the left. I cut the wire and assembled the whole thing. The eyes are put on with the LocTite. That's the only place I used it.

Here's the gate eye completed. The first lifeline took me about an hour to install. The other three went in in about two hours. As it turns out, I didn't know the pelican hook was adjustable so I didn't unscrew it when I made my cable and it turned out too long - not a lot too long, but enough to droop and not give a great sense of security. After calling Suncor I found that you can reuse the fitting if you haven't damaged it by over-tightening. Otherwise, you need new wedges and bronze rings. No big deal.

Each set comes with 40' of cable. That should be good up to a 48-50' boat as I have about 6' left over from each line. The Suncor people are easy to deal with and are knowledgable and friendly. Highly recommended.

As I mentioned, the 100 day mark is here - so I'll be working tirelessly between sailing and partying to get the boat ready. The major safety equipment is in, with the life raft being the most recent expense - with recertification and a hydrostatic release, it's $1300...

Still, I'll see you on the water!

A Haul Out and Much More

The last month has been a whirlwind - a trip up the Hudson River to White's Marina in New Hamburg, NY, a trip to England, a haul out, return trip down the Hudson, Memorial Day weekend at Mystic, CT and finally just now flying to Savannah, GA to pick up a boat for a delivery to Connecticut.

There's no real wonder I didn't post earlier. But here goes.

I decided to bring Pelican to White's Marina for several reasons. The first is that they are extraordinarily nice people who are honest, hard working, and extremely fair. It's a rare marina these days that actually wants to help boaters - that take the boater's needs into account. That's not to say they give away the farm, but they are fair and that's all we really want.

The trip up the Hudson was with friends. We left Stamford, CT on a Friday afternoon with the idea that we'd get to City Island for dinner. Well, best laid plans and all that. About an hour out, the engine started to overheat requiring running slower and slower (what little wind there was was on the nose - big surprise there). So we arrived an hour later than we wanted. As it turned out because of traffic everyone else arrived an hour late too!

So, after a terrific meal at the City Island Yacht Club where the new steward is absolutely top notch, we all toddled off either home or to bed depending on where we came from.

The next morning, the plan was to go to the City Island Diner for whole wheat pancakes but as we had to make the tide through the East River and Hudson we took the time to replace the raw water pump. Guess what? That wasn't the problem; and this is key: If you've had zincs disappear in your raw water heat exchanger then there's a really good chance that the zinc oxide (the white stuff that falls off the zincs) is plugging the tubes. In fact, 3/4ths of my tubes were plugged with that white paste. Running a coat hanger through (gently) fixed the problem and we were good to go with a half hour to spare!

I'd like to say that the trip up the river to Haverstraw was magnificent with great sailing and beautiful scenery. But it was a gray and cold day and the leaves weren't all out. But we made it to George's Island in Montrose and anchored for the night. Susie made some delicious shishkabobs and salad and we had a grand old time - there wasn't another boat around!

The next day was totally sunny and we travelled slowly up river past Tomkins Cove, Indian Point, Peekskil, the Bear Mountain Bridge, Garrison, West Point, Constitution Island (and World's End), Cold Spring and Storm King, Breakneck Ridge, Newburgh and Beacon, Chelsea and finally White's Marina in New Hamburg. Although all motoring, it was a beautiful trip. The stripers were running and the river was thick with little fishing boats. The Hudson Highlands is one of the most beautiful places in the world in any season.

Bob and Suzie went home to Connecticut and I stayed on the boat - I left for England the next week for a week and returned to help with my haulout.

Once Pelican was out of the water I had a bunch of projects I wanted to get done - the foremost being moving the boottop stripe to where it belongs. The previous owner had decided to lower it (most cruisers raise it every year or so!) and had curved it as well so that it was down at the bow and stern. This resulted in it being continuously under water.

Pearson had left a score in the molds so that you could easily see and tape where the line was. Using that as a guide, I taped off where it should go and wiped it down first with a hull cleaner (they come either as phosphoric acid or oxalic acid) to get rid of the brow staining, then wiped it with acetone to remove waxes that the acid doesn't remove and then painted it with Interlux one part urethane paint with Teflon - especially for boottop stripes. After the acetone, I sanded with the recommended 320 grit wet-or-dry paper and then wiped with acetone once more.

I found the best way to apply it is with a foam or really short nap roller and then tip it off with a brush. It requires at least two coats and preferrably three. You must wait 16 hours between them and sand with the wet-or-dry 320 grit paper between coats. So basically, it takes three days for this project.

I recommend that you use the fine-line tape for the edges you want and then extend the protection with 2" blue masking tape. I know that I'm an accident waiting to happen when it comes to painting. So the more protection I afford myself, the better it goes.

After the last coat, I removed the tape and retaped with the 3/4" fine-line tape below the boottop stripe to keep the bottom paint off the gelcoat. This would leave a nice 3/4" white line below the stripe and the bottom paint for a little definition.

Next, I bottom painted with Petite Ultra plus which is their top-of-the-line paint. It's expensive at $200 per gallon, and here's the key - do not apply it with fuzzy rollers. Apply it thinly with a very short nap roller. It goes a long way if done right. One gallon did the whole bottom with a little left over for the poppet pads.

I spent a day waxing the hull - removing the previous owner's boo-boos and scuff marks and scratches as well as I could, then waxing with Royal wax with Penetrol added like Herb does. It really works great! The wax lasts for a season.

Finally, I was truly tired of living aboard out of the water and wanted to go back in. As I was being picked up by the travel lift, I noticed water coming out of the keel at the bottom - and really smelly water at that. Upon further inspection I found that there was a crack about two feet long aft of the ballast that was weeping the full length. I also discovered that the smelly water was coming from leaking fittings on the top of the holding tank that was over-full. Yuck and more yuck.

Well, my friend, Leigh, came up to provide moral support (and incidentally figure out what the problem was) and I went to work. First, you need to know that the initial impulse is to use a hot air gun to dry out the crack and epoxy over it as a pretty quick repair. Don't do it. It will remain wet and it will continue to leak and epoxy doesn't bond to wet stuff. You'll probably try it anyway, but I warned you.

Ok, so now the correct way to fix the problem. I ground out the crack to be about 3/4" wide by as long as it was on the keel - about two feet - beveling it outwards at a 45 deg. angle. I probably could have gone farther but there was a really good bonding surface. Using rags, water, and finally acetone I cleaned up the hole and made sure that there was no water in the bilge that could leak out.

With epoxy and mat I bridged the hole and added about three layers overlapping the previous' edge by a bit. Leigh was cutting strips as I needed them. I let the first layers set up until they were stiff, but still tacky - about 25 minutes. Then I started in earnest laying strips one to the left and one to the right overlapping by a half inch or so.

Once I built up a half-inch that way I made a putty of chopped strand and epoxy and filled the remaining space until it was to the right level at the bottom of the keel. I let it set some and then put three increasingly wide layers of mat to finish it off. Finally, I made a paste of epoxy and filler and put on a skim coat for fairing.

This sounds faster than it is, believe me - this kind of work requires patience. Don't rush it. Wipe the area between coats with acetone to remove the blush. Once the skim coat set up, I did a quick sanding to smooth it out and then bottom painted the repair.

As it turned out I was the third person to make this repair but the first one to make it properly. I think the boat will fall apart before this repair does - or at least I hope so!

The next morning was a Sunday and I didn't expect to get launched but son of a gun, Chris White came down around 8:00am and kindly dropped me in the water! It took me about and hour to get the holding tank pumped and re-rig the headstay and babystay and head down the river lickety-split. I had the current with me from New Hamburg all the way to Alpine, NJ!

I had to anchor for six hours for the tide to change again at the Battery and left around 9:30pm for the rest of the trip. Once again, it was all motoring but going around the Battery at night and up the East River is a really special treat. Once out past the Throgs Neck Bridge it was just a slog to Stamford where I arrived at 5:00am. Oh, and it was COLD on the Sound that night!

Although I was tired, I went to work and got home at my regular time. So I can function for well over 24 hours without sleep - this is important for a cruiser, I think, especially for longer passages. The downside, of course, is that when you do sleep it's long and hard. I went to bed at 6:30pm and didn't wake until the alarm went off the next morning. That's less useful for cruisers...

Pelican looks absolutely stunning - like a new boat! So it was all worth it. Also, the bilge is staying dry now - something it didn't do before (water apparently leaked in, too).

Next up - Memorial Day at Mystic Seaport!

The season's here and I hope to see you on the water!

Wow, it's March Already

Here it is, March 22nd. I have been bad about updating this blog, but to be fair I've been busy. Also, it's been darn cold here in the northeast.

Just like last year, all the little bits and pieces I purchased over the winter are being installed. I added a line brake to the boom for the reefing lines, a few well placed cleats for the halyards, most of a HAM radio installation (which also includes no small amount of studying for the tests) and getting equipment that needs updating updated (EPIRB and others).

Here's a tip: If you are going to sail away from the United States you need an FCC Ships Station license. Nothing is required except for $150 or so and when you apply check all the services you may use (for instance, EPIRB, VHF, radar, etc. - you don't need INMARSAT, but it's up to you). If you want to add a service later, it'll cost you another $150.

Anyway, that's not the tip. The FCC will give you a new MMSI number. If you've programmed your radio with the number from Boat U.S., you may have to send it back to the manufacturer to change it. All DSC enabled radios will allow at most 1 change to the MMSI number. The reason for this is to prevent someone changing the number and making false distress calls. The Standard Horizon GS5500X doesn't even allow one change. I didn't know that the Boat U.S. number wasn't good for overseas operation.

Here's another tip, though: if you have an EPIRB and you have not registered it with NOAA, do so. If it came with the boat, make sure you update it to your contact information. If you have an older non-406MHz unit, dispose of it. No one is listening to the older frequencies and it will leave you with a false sense of security. Registering is free and takes all of a few minutes to do here: http://beaconregistration.noaa.gov/. You'll need your EPIRB's unit identity number (UIN) which is provided by the manufacturer and is on the unit itself.

The only difficulty is if it was registered by the previous owner with a different vessel name. The process is a little convoluted but it's absolutely doable. The end result of this process is a sticker for the EPIRB that shows you've registered it. It's good for two years and it's free.


Before leaving, I plan to purchase another EPIRB that deploys automatically. The manual one will go with the ditch bag.

It's amazing on how much effort it is to get a vessel ready for offshore use. Not just physical work, but expense and thought and learning. It's often hard to look at your boat and think of all the things that make general travel safe. Most of us sail in pretty benign areas (at least on the east coast) and have many choices for ports when the weather turns crappy. Once you're offshore by more than about 50 miles it's a total free-for-all. By the time you'd make safe harbor the weather incident will probably be over. This is why the SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) requirements are so strict.

What is a minor nuisance day sailing becomes possibly life threatening on offshore passages. One of my pet peeves was that several drawers in Pelican didn't have latches and on port tacks tended to open - they never fell out, but I never pressed the rail into the water either. So my first project in March was to put latches on everything that wasn't. Although I don't really care for the fingerhole type of latching, it's what I have and it'll have to do. Finger hole latching invites broke fingers. At least the holes are big enough for some wiggle room.

Sure, in port it's a nuisance in port to have to unlatch drawers every time you want to get to something, but it's a small price to pay to keep knives and stuff from flying about when you least need it.

Once the cover came off (I forget how much I enjoy the light streaming in) it's apparent how dusty the boat gets during the winter. Light is wonderful, but shows everything! So now Spring Cleaning is in full swing. Swiffer pads are the best for dusting! I wish they had one with oil for the wood, too. If I find another product that works well on the interior teak, I'll post it.

Well, I'm off to do more stuff! The bad thing about boats is that projects never end. The great thing about boats is that projects never end!

We'll all be on the water soon! See you there!

February Is...

Here it is February, or actually, the middle of February in the northeast. February is the 3:00am of the year - it's the darkest time of men's souls. The fevered activity of the holidays have given way to a certain lethargy.

It is the time of the year that causes one to ponder the upcoming warmer months and their activities. Things like removing the boat cover. Sailing on weekends. Completing tasks that you really promised yourself you were going to do during the winter but just could not bring yourself to get them done.

February is the month to sleep. It makes one appreciate the concept of hibernation. It is, with the exception of Valentine's Day, a month with nothing to recommend it. Sure, the days get noticeably longer - a few minutes each day - but it's cold and windy and causes one to scootch down in ones covers for another hour of two of sleep.

February doesn't have the promise of March. It doesn't have the excitement of January. It is the stuporous month like the hour after a great big meal before you go to bed. It is such a boring month that we've started consulting with a largish rodent to see how long this plunge into cold and boredom will continue.

The death and cold of winter is stark in February. There is no promise of spring. Intellectually, of course, we know spring is coming but from day to day there is nothing to indicate it. Passing through February is like swimming through molasses. It becomes an effort to do anything.

Of course, your experience may differ. But for me, February is a black hole. I've been living under a green boat cover for three plus months, even in bright daylight I need lights. The heaters run constantly and I am veritably shaking with the effort to not scream.

It is very fortunate, then, that February is so short. I suspect that Pope Gregory also knew that the shorter the better for February. Sure, let the sylvan month of July and the halcyon month of August get an extra day each! And take it from February so it gets itself over faster than any other month.

For all of you with a birthday in February, I salute you! Happy Birthday! For myself, I'd just as soon skip directly to March.

Anyway, the truth of it is that the year continues and soon the cover will be off. Those projects like the wash down pump and water maker and macerator pump and HAM radio and other stuff will get done in the spring. When the social support system shakes itself awake from it's winter's slumber. When you can work outside without four layers of clothing. When the first faint traces of a tan occur if only on one's bald spot.

C'mon March! Hurry it up!

See you all on the water soon now, oh, so soon!

Happy New Year 2009!

Wow, it's already the middle of January! Happy New Year!

I can't believe it - in a few days Barack Obama will be President with all the hope that brings. He's got a tough row to hoe, but he's picking a cabinet of people who are as smart or smarter than he is whether he agrees with them or not. That is the mark of a true leader - he knows he doesn't know everything but he employes those who do know to advise him. That's quite a change from the last eight years.

That's it for my political statement.

Ok, the country is in the middle of a blast of cold - the last couple of days have not gotten out of the low teens and the nights have been in the single digits. That makes living on a boat a challenge. It becomes difficult staying warm, I must say, even with the heaters running.

My original plan was to prepare the boat to travel to England by travelling up the coast and visiting Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland for the winter, and then on to Ireland and England. I find that I am not that enamored of the cold. So I do believe there's a change in plan.

I'll be heading south for the winter. Since visiting the Bahamas this summer I have become enthralled in the possibilities. I've also seen some wonderful places on the Intracoastal Waterway where I could very easily spend days ore even weeks exploring. And then there are the Bahamas!

The plan after that is to start north in the spring, stop at Bermuda for a bit, head on over to the U.S. and travel to Maine and then hop off to England directly. Some 30 days later or so arriving there or Ireland and after that England. I'd love to explore the Baltic countries. But who knows? Life is what happens when you're making other plans.

There is a point here, no matter how veiled. Plans change. My cousin has expressed a great interest in doing the 'Great Loop' in his boat. His wife is not interested. So that may be an interruption in the trip to England as well. It's too bad there aren't two of me. Ok, maybe not.

As the time draws near, though, I am more frantic - there are so many things to do that it seems insurmountable. I have to install my HAM radio and get my license. I have to decide to inspect my liferaft or purchase a new one, I have to install tiedowns and new grabrails, get my HAM General License with the Mobile Marine designation. Prepare first aid kits, stow everything in an orderly manner, refurbish and install the watermaker, purchase and install solar panels and shaft generator, install a washdown pump. Also, I need to haul the boat, service her, install the hailer and digital TV antenna, check all the rigging, take care of the teak, and fix whatever breaks. As Charlie Brown put it, "Yaaahhhh!"

And those are just the big projects....

Still, there has to be time for fun. This whole project must be fun. It has been and continues to be argued that man is not meant to be happy. I think that's pure hooie. We are not meant to be happy all the time, surely, as that indicates a mental deficiency, but overall we can live happy lives and we can enjoy life without hurting others. Happiness comes in many forms. The pursuit of happiness can be accomplished without destroying the planet. The big question, however, is whether we are capable of performing such a feat. I sincerely hope so but am not sanguine.

Wow! The new year certainly gets me waxing philosophically!

With the circulators running in the marina, you could almost believe you're at anchor with the waves lapping gently at the hull. I am so hopeful of this summer's activities. In the cold and dark of living below a Fairclough cover in winter hope for warmth and sun and swimming and sailing and cookouts and exploring and lazy days at anchor and exciting days under sail and clear nights under the stars and sailing under the full moon and safe harbor in a thunderstorm and cool showers on hot days and fishing and fresh mussels, clams and oysters and all those times with friends or alone grows like a sprout from a seed in a little plastic pot that you keep on the window sill and sometimes forget to water but then do and feel bad about it because you did forget but then forgive yourself because you know the little plant doesn't hold grudges as it just wanted a little water to be happy.

Be well, keep warm, and we'll all be on the water soon! See you there.