Some photos in Clearwater

Here are some photos of the boat in a slip in Clearwater Fl. I also included photos of the view from our cockpit towards the south. Click on a photo to enlarge.

We will be here until Saturday. David Dunagan is joining the crew Friday. The weather is going to be pretty rough in the gulf until Sunday or Monday. We will leave Saturday and go down the ICW for about 20 miles and anchor south of St. Petersburg. On Sunday we will head out for an overnighter to somewhere around either Fort Myers or Marco Island.

We are in Clear Water Florida

We left Turner Marine in Mobile Alabama on Thursday March 4th around 10 AM. We did an overnight run to Panama City Florida. It took us about 27 hours. The weather was pretty good for the trip. The wind was pretty low when we left so we had to motor sail down Mobile Bay. After exiting the bay we took a left and sailed a straight line right into Panama City channel where we tied up at the Panama City marina.

We had some auto pilot problems on the way. The fluxgate compass would not hold a course. I called the factory and they thought maybe it was having some magnetic interference. I did add some additional chain in the chain locker and that could be the problem. We moved that chain to a locker on the starboard side of the main cabin.

On Saturday we decided to leave for either Port St. Joe if the auto pilot was not working or head to Clear Water if it was. The pilot worked perfect so we headed south to a point 46 miles from Panama CIty to miss some shoals before turning southeast. After exactly 17 hours the pilot started doing S-turns again and then failed completely. We had to hand steer around the clock for the next 31 hours. You can't believe how hard that is when you have no land to point to. Luckily the wind was not to strong and the seas were fairly calm. The trip to Clear Water took a total of 48 hours. We had to slow down some at the end so we could run the Clear Water pass in daylight.

We will stay in Clear Water for a few days. I am ordering a new fluxgate compass and we are having another friend, David Dunagan, join us for the rest of the trip to Marathon. We hope to leave here Saturday weather permitting.

Final Preparations to set sail.

We are doing the final preparations to set sail. We hope to leave either this Wednesday or Thursday. We have a good weather window for sailing east and then southeast. We first plan to do an overnight sail from Mobile to Panama City, Florida. From there we will do a two overnight sail to the Tampa area. Will most likely enter the ICW through the Clear Water inlet. From there we will take a more leisurely approach to getting down to Marathon.

We are having a friend from Texas, Dale Bowman, join us for the sail to Marathon. Dale is a great boat handler and has sailed the Pacific coast and also across the Pacific from Chile to Tonga. Dale lives on his boat on Lake Texoma at the Cedar Mills Marina. We will also be picking up another friend from Texas, David Dunagan, in Clear Water. He will sail with us to Marathon also. David was our slip neighbor at Cedar Mills and is the owner of a Hunter 380, Molly Jean.

Photo of where we are.

Here is a photo of Turner Marine. I didn't take it and our boat isn't in the photo but you can get an idea of what it looks like. The Dog river is out the entrance in the upper left. You take a left and go under the bridge into Mobile Bay. It is about 25 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.



We have met quite a few couples and single men that are living aboard there boats. Some are just staying here and others are doing the same thing we are, preparing to leave for south Florida. There have been two boats leave since we arrived. One was a couple, Tom and Lynn, in there early to mid 30's that are fixing up there older boat as they go. They both have doctorate degrees and got tired of the academia world and decided to go sailing. They left last Thursday for Marathon Florida. They had come down the river system from Chicago and arrived here in November. We are going to try and meet up with them there. We are a couple of weeks behind them.

Right at the moment we are pretty much done with getting all the mechanical things ready to go. We still have to provision and we are waiting for a friend from Texas that wants to go with us. We are also going to pick up another friend from Texas in the Clear Water, Florida area once we get over there.

Taking time to relax.

We finally took some time to relax. We drove down to Dauphin Island. It is a beach and resort island about 25 miles south of the marina we are in. We did a tour of Fort Gaines. Fort Gaines is a Civil war era fort that was used to protect Mobile Bay. It is on the west side of the Mobile Bay entrance and Fort Morgan is on the east side of the Mobile Bay entrance. The fort was occupied by the confederates until a battle in August of 1864 when the northern Navy and Army overwhelmingly defeated the southern army garrisoned there.

We then went to a place near the docks where the shrimp boats come in and were able to purchase shrimp at a rediculously low price.

I need to get my camera out so I can start photographing our travels.

A really bad day

Today we moved the boat from the work dock into another slip. We wanted to back the boat in to give us better access to electricity. When we started there was none to very little wind. Once we left the work dock the wind came up from the south which puts it exactly cross wind to the boat. Now here we are with the wind pushing the bow off in a really tight area with other boats around. And of course because of other circumstances we haven't driven the boat since last August so we are somewhat out of practice. We did hit one other boat lightly but there was no damage. We changed our plans to go into the assigned slip forward. We get half way into the slip and discover the pilings are not wide enough for our beam and we stick between them. Also the depth is too shallow and we hit bottom. Thank goodness it is only soft mud. Yes, we did ask about the size before hand and were told we would fit. Another boater comes out on the dock and directs us to another slip next to his boat where we finally tie up.

Things like this really make you question if all this work and expense is really worth it. We sure hope things get easier and more enjoyable.

And then the bombshell hit. We received a call from Sandy's sister, her mother passed away today. It wasn't totally unexpected but is still a shock and saddens the heart.

It's a Clewie Clip!!

It's my party and I'll meow if I want too! It's my birthday today. I am one year old. I have been busy planning a party with my humans. I suppose I will invite them since they are bringing the refreshments. I got lots of gifts. A whole pack of mice, I just love chewing off the tails. I will definitely hide them from my sister. A new blanket and a cute pink collar. I can't wait to try them out.

I really think the humans are a little nutty. I question whether they know what they are doing. We were supposed to be in the warm waters of Florida by now and here we are stuck at the dock in chilly Mobile. It has been so cold that I don't want to go out and explore the deck. Besides that the deck is really dirty. At least it isn't as cold as Ohio was, and what's up with all that white stuff on the ground? Never seen that before. I overheard the humans talking to some other humans and I think we are out of here soon. On the sea again, I can't wait to get on the sea again! Well, I have never really been on the sea, I hope I don't get sick. I have lots of places to hide when it get's scary.

Well, it's time for a cat nap before the party. Bye, Bye.

Finally...Back on the boat

We left cold snowy Ohio on Sunday January 31st and headed for Mobile to get back to the live aboard lifestyle. It took a day of cleaning and getting things straightened up before we could move back aboard but we finally made it. The marina is much different than what we had at Cedar Mills. Floating raised docks can sure spoil you. Here we have pilings with a small finger pier to access about a third of the boat along one side.

The weather was great the day we moved aboard but it is raining now. I have quite a list of things to do to get the solar panels, electronics and other items running again. Also, the VHF isn't working now. It is a power problem that I will have to trouble shoot.

Once we get things finished we will be moving on. I was talking to some local sailors and it seems that crossing the bay to the intracoastal will be much easier than I had anticipated. There's a break! I am thinking we will be here for two or three weeks max. But then I thought we would be in the Florida Keys in earlier December. Ah. everyday is a Saturday when you are retired.

We're still in Ohio

Our boat did arrive safely in Mobile. Turner Marine, is closed between Christmas and New Years so we will be in Ohio for a few more weeks.

It has been quite the emotional ride since we have been here. My mother in law has improved some but I received a call from my brother about my father declining. That was kind of a surprise to me since I had seen him just after Thanksgiving and he was doing fine. He passed away on Monday the 21st. He lived 100 years, 8 months and 16 days. I think he just decided it was time to go and be with my mother in heaven for Christmas. We laid him to rest on the 26th.

I probably won't post again until we are back on the boat. We are still planning on heading for the Florida Keys once she has been launched and thoroughly checked out to make sure everything is back working again.

Getting close to actual cruising.

Three weeks ago we drove to Ohio to be with Sandy's mother who's health had declined some. Last Friday, the 4th, I flew back to Dallas, rented a car and drove up to the lake to get the boat stripped and ready to transport. During the process it was discovered that we had some major damage to our roller furling unit on our genoa sail. It appears it was struck by the mast of the boat in the slip next to us during a storm when the boats were rocking side to side. It is a Harken roller furling and not cheap to repair. It may even have to be completely replaced.

The transport truck will be arriving on December 17th to take the boat to Turner Marine in Mobile Alabama. We had thought of maybe going to Bradenton Florida and asked for a quote to transport there. It is a good thing that I still have good agility and reflexes because I had to catch my eyeballs as they popped out of my head when I saw the quote. Not sure if I got them back in correctly. My vision has been a little off since then.

I found out that another boat on the lake, Sea Mist IV, a Catalina 400, is heading out about the same time we are. They are transporting their boat to Pensacola, Florida, which is only about 14 hours sail from Mobile, or 55 minutes drive. The owner has done a lot of sailing in southwest Florida and we may meet up to buddy sail down the west coast of Florida. They will be able to give us some first hand tips on that area.

Sorry, no photos of the decommisioning process. My camera is 1000 miles away. The next report should be sometime in January when we are back onboard in Mobile.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Y'all.