Bath time!

Yesterday I decided to finally give the boat a good cleaning. I bought a 50' length of garden hose, some Simple Green cleaner, and a sturdy broom/brush at Walmart and headed down to the dock.

You have to use a little caution when cleaning a boat as everything you do goes straight to the water. My Aunt Mary had told me Simple Green was a good cleaner since its environmentally "not bad" and does a decent job of cleaning. While I am not generally a "Green" type of person I think I will being leaning in that direction in the future. Most cruising sailors tend to become so simply because its part of the lifestyle (ie, solar panels for power, less plastic because you can't throw it overboard, etc).

My little rented dock space has power and water but I have to provide my own cables and hose. The cable I already had (came with the boat, thank goodness) but the hose was a new and necessary purchase. Not only is it handy for cleaning the boat but now I can finally refill my fresh water tank.

The cleaning job went pretty quickly... one of the small benefits of only have a 27' boat. Mostly I just had to remove a lot of bird poop off the deck. Afterward. as I was stowing everything, I found a near duplicate of the brush I had just bought. Sigh. That would have saved me $7 if I had seen that before.

My Other Blog

A quick note to point out that I made a second blog. Its generally technical in nature so it won't interest most people.

However, I *did* just post about the game I made. It a lot of fun and everyone can download it. If you have comments, please feel free to leave them on the other blog so I can find them.

Fort Myers to Punta Gorda

As mentioned in my last blog I had to move my boat from Fort Myers Beach to the slip I'm renting in Punta Gorda. There wasn't anyone handy to go with me on this trip so I did it by myself. A little challenging since I knew I'd have to dock a couple times (once at a fuel station and then again when I pulled into my slip). However, armed with some tunes, bottled water, my cell phone, and my charts, I didn't expect any serious issues.

Did I say charts? Oops. After the 5:00 AM rise and an hour long drive down to Fort Myers I discovered that I had forgot my charts. I had placed them the previous night at the foot of my bed so I wouldn't forget them. Guess that wasn't such a good place after all.

The problem now is that to get the charts I'd have to spend two more hours driving my car, but I didn't have two hours to spare. High tide in Fort Myers was at 7:45 AM and, according to the people at the boat yard, it was important to leave their yard around high tide. Also, I knew the trip would take approximately 9 hours and I absolutely did not want to navigate an unfamiliar harbor, by myself, at night. Sunset was at 5:48 PM (if memory serves) and it would be dark by 6:20. I needed to be out of the yard by 8:30 at the latest.

For those unfamiliar with boating and nautical charts, they look like a map but they are far more critical than road maps. A body of water as big as the Gulf Mexico is easy to draw on a regular map. However, to a sailboat with a draft of 4' 3" deep it is incredibly important to know how deep the water is at a given location. There are many places along the coast that look nice and deep over a mile from the shore that are really only 2' deep at low tide. Nautical charts show how deep or shallow given areas in great detail, as well as where certain navigational aids are located. Sailing without them in an unfamiliar area is fool hardy at best.

I decided to forego the charts and leave the boat yard ASAP.

I *had* studied the charts quite a bit the previous night so I had a pretty good idea of what markers I needed to hit to avoid shallow areas. Also, as I got underway, I called my cousin at the house and asked him to take the charts with him to work. As I needed course corrections I'd call him with my current GPS location and he could advise me which bearing I should follow.

This worked out pretty well. As I was skirting Sanibel Island I needed to find out how close I was to the shore. On the water you can see approximately 7 miles to the horizon, but its very difficult to judge how far away an object on the shore is. I knew I was closer than 7 miles, but I needed to be further than 2 miles or I'd come close to some very shallow water. I called Jimi up, gave him my coordinates, and he said I was 2.5 miles from the shore, and if I followed bearing 220 for another 4 miles I could start heading NW at about bearing 290.

I kept him appraised of my location every couple of hours and he pointed me in a new direction when needed. It worked rather well.

In the end, everything worked out just perfectly. I glided into my slip at around 6:15 PM or so... it wasn't quite dark as I was tying up the boat.

While everything turned out pretty well I'd have to say in hindsight that it was a pretty dumb move. I'd have been in deep trouble if I lost cell service while offshore. I was only about 4 miles off the coast at any given time, and I figured I'd be able to retain a signal, but it wasn't guaranteed. In fact, there was one point were I had no bars for about 45 minutes or so. Could I have made it anyway? Perhaps. There would have been a really tricky area between Boca Grande (the entrance to Charlotte Harbor) and the turn north to Punta Gorda that I could have conceivably ran into significant trouble.

Anyway, that all being said, it was a great trip. The Gulf of Mexico is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to sail on it more.

Stuffing Box

As with nearly all previously used vehicles my boat has a few issues. Some of them are pretty minor and can be ignored or inexpensively fixed. However, others are not so simple. My current issue is the stuffing box.

If you have never heard of a stuffing box it is a like a bolt and nut system that joins the propeller shaft to the engine. At one end of the bolt is a rubber hose that is clamped on to the hull close to the propeller and the other end is the nut, which is hollow, that attaches to the engine. The hollow part has some special waxed rope in it that keeps the water coming up the shaft from spilling into the hull. (Detailed pictures at this site.)

My stuffing box has a leak. In fact, it was leaking so bad that my bilge pump was firing off about every 5 minutes while the engine was off. It wasn't leaking when the mechanic and I inspected the boat after I bought it. The implication is that the previous owner lied to me when he said he took the boat out frequently... it probably had not gone out in at least 6 months.

The site I referenced above with the pictures explains how to re-pack the stuffing box so that I could stop the leaking. However, this is much harder than the site imples when the stuffing box is still on a prop shaft and the boat is in the water. First, getting to the stuffing box is a huge challenge for somebody of my girth. It can only be reached through a cockpit locker (which is under a seat). I was able to squeeze myself into this narrow compartment (for which I am thankful nobody was nearby with a camera) however I was unable to get both my arms into the area where the stuffing box sits. With only one arm I was unable to apply the wrenches needed to move the nut.

Since the stuffing is not supposed to leak at all while the boat is just sitting in the water (as opposed to when the prop shaft is turning, in that case its supposed to leak a few drops a minute to lubricate the shaft) and in my case it was literally leaking 10 drops a second (I counted) I felt I needed to get this fixed ASAP. I called a few boat yards and finally found one in Fort Myers Beach... about a 7 hour trip from Joshua's house. My Aunt Mary, Bo, and I made a day of it and motored down there.

The trip was nice and relaxing. Its technically still on the Okeechobee Waterway, and the first 3 hours were just like a continuation of my previous trip. We had a lock and a couple of bridges to pass. we briefly entered the Gulf of Mexico as we made our way into the Matanzas Pass. We found the boat yard pretty easily and I met with the repairmen.

I left my engine running as I re-explained the problem to them. One of the smaller fellas there jumped in the locker to take a look at the issue first hand. His "Holy Shit! There's water spraying everywhere!" exclamation made me happy we got there safe.

Anyhow, a couple days have passed by since I got the boat there and the costs keep going up. The stuffing box was salvageable but the guys are cleaning it up nicely and re-packing it. The rubber hose was completely shot. It had rotted through in a few places and thats where the water was coming from. To replace the hose they had to completely remove the propshaft. This caused an issue because the prophaft was severely scored and frozen into place with the stuffing box. They had to cut the propshaft off which means I had to buy a new one of those. Also, there was a minor crack in the hull where the propshaft exits and this needed repaired too.

Over the phone this was supposed to cost me $500-600. Now its up to $1,400.

This is a HUGE set-back to me. I'm spending $1,400 on something completely unexpected. It had to be done, of course. Its better to spend the money than to sink. However, now I cannot afford the furling genoa and solar panels which were my first planned purchases. Grrr.

Anyhow. I pick the boat up tomorrow and I'm told it will take about 8 hours to motor from Fort Myers Beach to Punta Gorda Isles, which is where my slip is going to be for a few months while I continue working on the boat. This trip will be the first one I've done by myself on this boat. I'm a little nervous about it in some respects because I'll be entering Charlotte Harbor for the first time and its really nice to have somebody else helping watch for markers and whatnot while entering an unfamiliar harbor. Guess I'd better bone up on my charts now.

Okeechobee Waterway

I bought my boat in Lantana, FL. This town is on the east coast of Florida, just south of West Palm Beach. I needed to get the boat from there to where I am going to keep it in Punta Gorda, FL which is on the west coast (just north of Fort Myers if you are looking at a map).

The best way to get from the one spot to the other is the Okeechobee Waterway. This system of locks and rivers runs east-west through the middle of Florida. It starts near Stuart on the east coast (about 45 miles or so north of Lantana) and ends in Fort Myers. It runs through the middle of Lake Okeechobee which is a very large lake sitting in the south central part of the state.

I did some fancy talking and was able to get my cousin Jimi to agree to go with me on this trip (expected to take 3 days). We had some company driving over to Lantana: my Aunt Mary (Jimi's mom), her husband Bo, and Jimi's daughter Arrielle. Mary went with us to take a look at the boat and to drive my car back to the west coast.

This adventure started on Saturday morning, Oct 25. This trip didn't start off too well. After stopping for a restroom break in a small town on the way there I got into an auto accident. Some gal was I backed into each other at a gas station. Technically she was at fault since she was back out of a parking space while I was already in the roadway, but the damage was minor and nobody was hurt. Still... not exactly the way I wanted to start a three day journey.

Anyhow, we got to Lantana and started working on the boat. We had to provision it which meant a run to the nearby supermarket, and we had to throw a lot of items out of the boat that had been there a while (old food, trash, etc). I had my charts and some other guides to the waterway. Around 4pm Jimi and I finally cast off and we started motoring up the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) towards Stuart.

10 minutes after casting we went under the first of many bridges. The bridge height was listed as 35'. Since my mast height is 31', and the previous had told me owner VHF antenna extended the mast to 34', we still had a foot clearance. Scary, but not a problem. The only snag is that the previous owner clearly didn't know what he was talking about. My antenna hit the bridge.

Argh! As we are passing under the bridge Jimi is looking up. "Hey. We hit the bridge." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I looked myself. Sure enough, the antenna smacks a girder underneath the bridge. By this point its really too late to stop, so I try turning right where the bridge appears to have a tad bit more clearance. No help. On the last girder a 3 foot section of antenna splits off and falls into the water. Sigh. I feel sort of like Malcom Reynolds in the movie Serenity when a chunk of his ship falls off.

There's still a good 2-3 feet of antenna atop the mast and we can hear radio chatter. While this incident may have affected some range it appears to be minor and no reason to stop the trip.

We pass several more bridges without sinking or damaging the boat.

Because we got started so late, night came much earlier than I wanted. Darkness, combined with rain that came in intermittent bursts, was starting to make travel very difficult. After the sun went down Jimi had to take a flash light forward to see if he could hit the reflective channel markers so we could find our way up the ICW. We finally decided that it would be best to call it a night when we found a marina that had transient slips. It was almost 9pm when we finally arrived at one.

When we arrived at the marina entrance, it was hard to tell what to do. It was somewhat marked, but it was narrow and very hard to see. We decided to dock at a restaurant near the marina. We figured if we had something to eat at this restaurant, then they wouldn't mind if we parked the boat there while we walked to the marina and checked it out. This turned out to be a pretty good move. We were a little surprised they let us in as most of the patrons were really well dressed, and Jimi and I were wearing wet shorts and shirts. But they did. They had excellent fish chowder and a shrimp appetizer that Jimi and I split.

There are several minor injuries and funny stories to be told about here, but I think I'll just say that we finally were able to dock at a slip, get some sleep, shower the next morning, refuel the boat, and move on.

Sunday we made some good time as we sailed up the ICW. This part of the ICW is very picturesque, with million dollar mansions lining both sides of the waterway as we made our way to Stuart.

Stuart is the point where, if we continued north on the ICW, we could eventually go all the way to Chesapeake Bay, or we could hang a left and hit the Okeechobee Waterway. Hang a left we did. The bay we entered was absolutely nuts. Some parts of the waterway were so shallow that my depth finder was telling me we were water only 4'6" deep. Since my boat requires 4'3" before it goes aground my knuckles were white as a tried to follow Jimi's directions to the next channel marker.

We finally passed through that watery hell, stopped for some fuel, and then continued down the waterway to the first lock.

Locks, in my opinion, are insanely incredible human inventions. St. Lucie Lock raised us almost 8 feet. I think I have a couple pictures included of us entering or leaving a lock (we were both a little too busy for a camera while at the lock). For those that have never seen a lock, here is how it works in a nutshell. When the front doors are open we sail in and the lock employee directs us where to tie up. There are lines in the lock that we grab and loop around cleats on my boat. Then the front door closes and the back door opens and water comes flooding in (at a controlled, reasonable rate) until the water level inside the lock is the same as other side. The water is pumped out after we leave so he can open the front door for the next boat.

The locks are big enough for 3-4 boats and, of course, service traffic in both directions on the waterway, so its a tad more complicated than I describe above, but you get the picture.

From St. Lucie lock to the Fort Mayaca lock (which is the lock connected to the Okeechobee Lake) there really wasn't anything terribly interesting to write about (I am skipping the totally frustrating part were we got attacked by 20 million midges). The sun had set before we reached Fort Mayaca lock so we decided to tie up to some pilings for the night at the lock's entrance.

This turned out to be an incredibly great move.

The next morning (Monday) we were up early and through the lock by 7:15am or so. Okeechobee Lake is huge. There was lots of wind. With huge bodies of water and lots of wind comes really rough water conditions. We were getting 3-4' swells, coming very quickly, with so much wind that a lot of the swells were breaking. It would have been a nightmare trying to tie up to a piling in conditions like this, and we certainly would have gotten no sleep.

Crossing the lake was a very uncomfortable 4 hours.

The rest of the trip was more of the same. Bridges, a couple of locks, and lots of beautiful scenery. For the most part traveling this waterway is very peaceful and relaxing.

Unfortunately, due to various waits bridges and locks, and also the late start we got on Saturday, Jimi and I didn't get to our destination before nightfall and we didn't want to risk navigation errors in the dark. We stopped at a town called La Belle which had a public dock along the waterway. We tied up there and called for family members to come and pick us up. Jimi had to work the next morning and I felt a shower and a comfortable bed was in order.

The next day I drove back (its about a 45 minute drive from Jimi's house in Port Charlotte to La Belle) and finished the boat move to its temporary destination at my cousin Joshua's house which is located right on the Okeechobee waterway. It was only a two hour trip from La Belle to Josh's house and a couple of Josh's employees helped me with the move.

I've resisted the urge to tell a bunch of funny stories because a) I'm tired of typing, and b) you're probably tired of reading. Suffice to say, three days of travel with 2 people who haven't been down the traveled route on "new-to-me" boat creates tons more comical material than I've relayed here.

I have placed some pictures of this adventure on my Picasa site:

http://picasaweb.google.com/danny.agle/OkeechobeeWaterwayTrip#

My New Home

I bought my boat last week.

She is a C&C 27 built in 1971 and has hull number 13 (meaning this was the 13th boat this builder made). The "27" indicates she has a total length of 27 feet.

C&C is a Canadian manufacturer with a good reputation. While the boat's age is pretty old this is not really a bad thing. Boats built before mid to late 70's had a lot thicker hulls than their more modern cousins. She feels very solid.

I have placed a few pictures on my Picasa page. They should be viewable at this address:

http://picasaweb.google.com/danny.agle

Right now her name is the "Interceptor" which is the name the previous owner gave her. She had another name before that but I'm not sure what it was. I have yet to decide if I am going to change her name. While I've motored her for several days (more on that in another blog) I haven't had the opportunity to sail her. If a new name presents itself then, I'll change it.

The Passage from Arkansas to Southwest Florida

I arrived at my mother's on Friday afternoon after leaving Phoenix just Wednesday night. Despite being on the road so much I actually felt pretty good. There's something romantic about the traveling the American highways, and whatever that magic is hadn't left just because I'd stopped for a few days on my journey.

My mother's boyfriend Larry has built a 3 hole golf course on his property that sprawls across almost 4 acres of land. He hasn't done anything special with the grass on the land, so its fairly rugged and the greens are, if anything, more rugged than the fairways. We had to adopt special rules and scoring since its almost impossible to actually putt on the greens. We played where each hole would score 2 points: 1 point to the person with the closest to pin on the drive, and 1 point to the person closest to pin after 3 shots. Its quite a bit of fun... We must have played 8 matches or so in the few days I was there.

On Monday my mother and I opened a bank account in the nearby town which was one of the main reasons for my dropping by there on the way to Florida. Since I won't really be able to deal with things like paying bills and depositing checks while I'm sailing in some distant ocean my mother will act as my agent. While I'm sure we could have used my Phoenix based accounts via the web, its just simpler for her to deal with a local bank. Once we finished with that business, I got the itch to get back on the road. So I did.

My route from my mothers to Florida was not as simple as the route from Arizona to Arkansas. I needed to go through Memphis, but from there my options grew. I decided to take what appeared to be the straightest course which leads from Memphis to Birmingham to Atlanta, then south past Tampa to Fort Myers. I started the trip by taking small rural highways from Melbourne, AR to Memphis, TN.

I had been warned a couple of times about Memphis. Nobody in Arkansas seems to think very highly of the place. When I got there I had to agree. I found the freeways to be more than a little confusing. Google maps showed an easy connection from I-40 to highway 78 I needed to get to Birmingham, but I never saw a sign for it and ended up going the wrong direction for a while. It really didn't take me more than a couple of minutes to know I was past my connection, but the highways there don't lend themselves well to people who want to turn around.

Instead, Google maps showed me what appeared to be a main road that ran from the 40 to the 78 which ran through town. Let me tell you something if you don't already know... just because Google maps highlights a road doesn't mean its a main thoroughfare. The roads it led me on were tiny, sometimes scarcely wide enough for one car to go through. The navigational hazzards in the area, combined with constantly having to look at my iPhone screen to see if I should be passing certain streets soon, left me feeling rather irritated.

My frustrations didn't end there. When I finally got on "highway" 78 my poor car begain to take a real beating. The road there is absolutely terrible. Potholes every few feet, narrow lanes, huge semis, untimed lights every quarter mile or so... its a nightmare. It stayed a decrepit road until I hit the Mississippi state line where it miraculously polymorphed into something decent people could drive in peace on.

My next waypoint was Tupelo. I'd been told of a good restaurant there so decided to try it out. I took an exit and followed to the signs (I don't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it has an Italian name and there are signs for it on the highway).

Tupelo is a really nice town. It has a good vibe to it. The people I talked to in the restaurant were really nice (food was pretty good, too). I wanted to stay in town a little longer, so I found out where the theaters were and bought a ticket to see Chuck and Norah's Infinite Playlist. While waiting for the movie to start I chatted with more folks at the Applebee's bar across the parking lot. Everyone was really friendly.

I liked the movie.

Time to get back on the road. It was getting a little late by this time but I decided I wanted to get past Birmingham so I wouldn't have to deal with traffic in the morning. In Birmingham I had to switch from 78 to I20 which wasn't really a challenge, but I did encounter more awful roads. I guess these older American cities just don't care about their highways like the west coast cities do.

The next day I made Atlanta and got on I-75 south, the last highway change I would need to make. About 5 miles south of Atlanta I ran into a massive traffic jam. I can only assume there must have been an earth shattering accident cause we, my fellow travelers and I, were immobile for almost 90 minutes. We finally had some police direct cars off the highway for a detour, which consumed another 45 minutes, before I could get back on I-75 and moving again. I've since heard that this is normal for Atlanta.

The only other semi-noteworthy item was the number of highway patrolmen I saw on I-75. In my entire trip thus far (about 2,300 miles at this point) I could have counted the number of cop cars I'd seen on 1 hand. From the Georgia/Florida border to the first Tampa exit I saw I counted 24 highway patrol cars... and I'm sure there were many I missed camping out in rest stops on the other side of the highway.

Anyhow, I made it safe and sound to my cousin Jimi's house. I've had a few interesting new developments arise in my quest to get on a boat and start voyaging which I'll relate next time.

The Passage from Arizona to Arkansas

I've been in Florida a week now and am starting to get settled in (not really a good thing since the whole idea was to get on a boat). I've finally got a spare minute so I'll update everyone on the trip from Phoenix to Port Charlotte.

I left my house around 6:30PM on Oct 1. My car was completely packed as I had several items, including Stella, that I needed to deliver to my sister Jamie on the other side of town. Its a little weird how *little* I was able to fit into the Caddilac... I think I might have been able to squeeze more into the Jetta. Oh well. Bygones.

Anyhow, after dropping off Stella, a TV, and a couple of other smaller things at Jamie's as was at least able to see out the windows again. I decided to hop on I-10 East and start rolling.

A curious thing happened on the way to Tucson. The more I drove, the more I found myself haveing to scrunch my neck to see out the rearview mirror. I didn't really notice it at first. Later I thought I must be on a slight hill as I could barely see the cars behind. It wasn't until I was almost in Tucson city limits that I knew for sure the backend of the car was sinking.

On a lark, I decided to see if I could get a hold of a friend I hadn't seen in 4 or 5 years that, last I had heard, lived in Tucson. I couldn't believe that I actually had Linette's numbers in my phone and that they worked. I got a hold of her and we decided to meet for some coffee (which neither of us had, but that wasn't the point) and catch up. It was nice to see her again.

I decided to see what I could do about my car's rear-end while in the parking lot. I assumed it was a weight issue and figured I needed to change the what items were stored where. I moved the heaviest boxes to the floor of the front seat, the medium weight boxes to the back seat, and kept the lightest items in the trunk. Once I got back on the road the car seemed good. I could see just fine out the rear window again. Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

After heading down I-10 for another 45 minutes or so I noticed myself having to duck my head to see out the mirror again. Argh! There really wasn't any more weight I could shift around and the car didn't seem to be driving any differently. I guess there was nothing I could do. I made it to Wilcox, AZ and found a Motel 6 to crash for the night.

The next day I hit the brief stretch of New Mexico on I-10 which made somewhat nostalgic. Seeing the names of familiar towns on road signs made me flash back to my early teen years which I spent in a tiny town on I-40. While I hated growing up in New Mexico while I lived there I now look back and am thankful I did... the environment and schools there are better than the city, IMO.

I hit El Paso shortly after that. Its a much larger city than I thought. The highways there are extremely confusing which I'm guessing has to do with Mexico being on one side of the highway and Texas on the other. I had planned on stopping there for breakfast, but my attention was 100% on the traffic and the roads, so I decided to just get out of there as fast as possible. There is little, if any, El Paso of the old western songs left.

I can't remember the tiny town I stopped to eat and refuel. The restauraunt boasted "world famous" chicken-fried steak. I found it to be mediocre. The salsa they served with the chips as an appetizer was top-notch though. Almost burned a hole in a me. I wanted more but the 5 alarm fire in my mouth stopped me.

The drooping back-end issue continued. Every time I stopped the car for gas and food the back-end seemed to right itself. After 45 minutes or it was droopy again.

West Texas is a big, empty space. Accordingly, they set the speed limit to 80 mph so it doesn't seem as long between places. While I did get from point to point faster, it still seemed a long way between places.

Another thing I noticed was a freakish number of FedEx trucks driving westward. I must have seen over two hundred trucks between El Paso and Odessa.

I stopped just before Odessa for fuel and saw my first live buffalo. There was a small zoo/park next to the gas station and a couple of buffalo stood close to fence. Seeing them in person is sort of odd. They are much smaller than one would think. I guess I always envisioned them like cows with a large hump on their back. In reality they are more like those miniature ponies with a hump on the back. The hump came up to my eye level, so its head was close to the middle of my torso.

Also at Odessa I checked my tires. My rear tires were almost bald on the outter edges, but seemed very good on the rest of the tire. The "almost bald" part worried me something fierce. How long had they been this way? Would they last the rest of the trip? As I left Odessa I worried about this more and more and finally decided it would be prudent to have them checked out. My iPhone was able to tell me that there are Discount Tire Companies in Texas, so my new plan was to stop before Dallas and look for a DTC in the morning.

Dallas is pretty big, so I stopped in a suburb before it, checked into a Motel 6 again, and went to find some food. While eating at a Chili's, I discovered that there was a Discount Tire Company literally across the street from where I was. Talk about good fortune!

In the same conversation I learned about the tire store I also had a revelation about the quality of the education system in Texas. Both the waiters Chili's that served in my area were young. Young enough, in fact, that the bartender had to bring me my drink because they were too young to serve it. After finding out about tire company I asked if my server if he had any advice about traveling through Dallas... that I was on my way to Little Rock (only about 3 hours drive from Dallas) and wanted to know the most direct route.

He looked at me and said he'd never heard of Little Rock then went to ask his co-server. Apparently he also had never heard of Little Rock so they asked what part of Texas it was in. I explained that Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas and that its NE of Dallas. They latched on to the "NE of Dallas" part and were able to give me good directions from there.

If any of you readers ever find yourself in Texas and needing directions I hope you find this information useful.

The next morning I went to Discount Tire Company as soon as they opened. The fella that helped me decided that my tires would *probably* be fine, but if I wanted he had some used tires he sell me for half-price which were in better shape. I agreed and they went to town. Apparently early morning is a good time to go there. There were 5 people working on my car. It took about 5 minutes for them to make the change and have the car ready to go.

The rest of the journey to my mother's house in Arkansas was pretty uneventful. I'll write about the second leg of the trip next blog.

In Arkansas

I'm at my mother's house in Arkansas. I have very limited internet accessibility so this isn't a very large update. Also, I can't really get any work done here, Steve. I'll get to it when I get to Florida.

I actually got here Friday afternoon. It was a pretty smooth drive. I'll fill in details later.

Heading Out

Quick post here. I've decided to leave a little earlier than planned. I've already said my goodbyes to most folks, my stuff is packed, and there's just no reason to stay.

N 33 34.897 W 112 08.293

I should be out of town by 9:00PM or so and on the road. I'll write again when I got to a good spot--assuming something interesting pops up.

My Old Blog

My old blog site is still available (probably for another 6 months) but I won't be adding to it anymore. It has my sailing-related stories for the last year and it basically chronicles my decision to do the cruising lifestyle, my learning experiences, and a couple of adventures.

For those interested go to: http://www.danagle.com and click on Blog.

Eventually this blog will acquire stories you can all laugh at. Its almost inevitable since I do dumb things when I get on the water.

T Minus 4

Two things of note yesterday.

In the morning I had my old house cleaner come by to give my house decent cleaning before I left. Since I'm a little low on cash we came to an agreement, she can take most of the stuff in the house that I hadn't sold.

This was good for me in several ways. I was mostly going to have to just throw things away that I couldn't sell, but now she would take them out of the house for me. Also, I got the yard done which was sort of a big deal. My neighbors tend to call the city on me when weeds get over 6 inches. Since I'm leaving in a couple days but the house is still in my name, I'd get fined from the city if I didn't take care of it. It should be good now for a few months... long enough for it to sell, anyway.

However, she wasn't supposed to take things I needed for the next few days. I *thought* we had went over this pretty well, but she still managed to take all my towels, my shower curtains, and my cat's litter box before I could notice. Grr. Very frustrating.

Ironically, I'm sure she won't understand the value of much of the things she took. For example, one box had a bunch of cabling in it. There were at least 3 HDMI cables in there (each cost about $80), a cable that allows multiple computers to share a monitor and keyboard (about $90) and some high-end speaker cable which runs about $9 a foot. I'd be surprised if she didn't just throw it away.

The other event of the day was the last Dubliner open-mic I'll probably ever get to attend. It was a really fun night too. My sister Jamie and her roommate Heather came by. Jacob brought his piano and, with some help from Dave Russell, we played "The Night They Drive Old Dixie Down", "Magnolia", and "Desperado". I think it sounded really good.

Krystal gave me the gift an extra song! :) The list for the night got a little full and she have folks play only 2 songs instead of 3. I gave her a pouty face she caved in and let us do 3 since it was my last time. Billy Brett also gave me a CD of some of his old material. I'm listening to it as I type this... its really cool!

I'm really going to miss this stuff.

T Minus 5

There are quite a few things I'll miss when I leave. When you've been rooted in one spot for 22 years (I moved to Phoenix in 1986) you tend to make plenty of connections to people and things.

I think the #1 thing I will miss is the music scene. There's something about performing with people that gives an extra little connection. Not only will I miss the people I've played with, but the act of playing music too. I've probably connected with more people in the last 3 years than I did during my many years of playing in the SCA.

Not to say I won't miss friends I made in the SCA though. Since the SCA was my first social activity I took up in Phoenix, the friends I've made there have been around the longest. However, people in general are probably what I'll miss the least since I'm sure we'll still be in contact.

I doubt I will miss the desert. I've never really been a fan of Arizona. I've always preferred the ocean to brown shrubbery and ratty-looking palm trees. I admit there are sometimes some spectacular vistas to be had, especially in New Mexico, but all in all I'm just a water person.

Good Sailing Books

For an idea about what my plans might entail a good book is "Maiden Voyage" by Tania Abei. The book is an autobiography of when Tania sailed around the world by herself when she was only 18 years old. Its very good reading. I don't think my adventures will be quite as harrowing as hers, but many of the places I intend on going are places where Tania went during her circumnavigation.

A book I am currently reading is called "Blue Latitudes" by Tony Horwitz which is an interesting look into Captain James Cook and his voyages of discovery during the late 1700s. Captain Cook is responsible for most of the charts in the South Pacific (some of which were still in use as recently as 1990). The author pointed out something really interesting to me... the original Star Trek series is largely based Cook's adventures. Cook sailed into previously uncharted waters looking for new territories. He went ashore with landing parties comprised of his doctor, a scientist, and some red-jacketed marines. Even the famous line from Star Trek "to boldly go where no man has gone before" is very similiar to a quote in Cook's journal.

T Minus 7

Seven more days until I leave Phoenix and head towards Florida, the first stop on my new, more adventurous life.

For the last few days I have been fretting over the route I'm going to take to get to Florida. The quickest route is I-10 all the way across the country. However, there are two factors which pointing me to a different path. First, I-10 runs through Houston which is still reeling from the hurricane season. I've already been through a town that was devastated by a hurricane (Punta Gorda, Florida only 2 days after Charley ripped through it in August, 2004) and I don't really look forward to seeing that suffering. Secondly, my mother would like me to visit her in Arkansas.

I think I've found an ideal route. It's not efficient, but its a route I've never driven before and that is almost as important as achieving my objects. The first few days of my adventure should begin by discarding the "optimum path". If I had more money I'd probably take a less direct route... something that let me see even more of the country I am soon departing. Alas, money is still a factor in my life.

Anyhow, I celebrated my coming departure with some former co-workers and friends this evening at the Tilted Kilt. It was great to see them again. Its a little sobering to think I'll probably never see most of them again. We had some drinks, ate a light dinner, and jawed about movies, work, and life. Same thing we would have done if I weren't going off to see the world. I rather like that... while the topics may have been trivial they struck me as "more real". Kind of like eating comfort food.