Sailing Judo

Finally got the wind-vane through customs

2009-11-11T19:28:00.002Z

Everything came together and I was able to get the new wind vane cleared through customs. What a colossal hassle.

Apparently warehouses where packages are stored rarely accept anything but money orders for their fees (I was charged for each day the package sat there waiting to get inspected and picked up). They don't take checks, cash, or credit cards. I ended up stopping at a gas station and noticed a "We Have Money Orders" sign on their window... this saved me a stop at a supermarket.

Unfortunately my customs broker didn't tell me they don't accept credit cards. I had to run out to another gas station and use an ATM to get cash for them.

After finally getting the package down to Sarasota from the Tampa airport i was ready to try an install but the rain was coming down and didn't stop all night. The install will have to wait a day or two.

An Adventure of a Different Sort

2009-11-09T19:23:00.001Z

I haven't updated the site in a while. Mostly there hasn't been anything exciting to write about. I've been sailing a bit but its mostly up and down the Sarasota Bay. During the summer it was too hot and muggy to work up the energy to sail, but now that thing are cooling off a bit its a little fun to head out.

This update is mostly about my experiences (so far) of buying an overseas item.

I finally decided to get a wind-powered, self-steering system for the boat. This is probably the single most important piece of hardware after the hull and the sails. Without one of these devices I simply could not make an ocean crossing. Heck, I couldn't even sail down to the Florida keys without this.

The company I'm buying from is in Germany. If you're interested in what a wind vane looks like or how it works are some videos of them in action (click on "Sailing" link once there).

Dealing with Peter (the owner of this company) was fine. We came to an agreement, I paid, and he shipped. Now the adventure starts. (I have never bought anything from overseas before. If you have then I'm sure this will all be boring to you.)

I called the place where the package was delivered to verify it was there and make arrangements to pick it up. The fella on the other end of the phone asks me the value of the package, so I tell him how much I paid. I'm informed that I need to call the Customs Office to see if I can "self clear" the item. Apparently items over $2,000 cannot usually be self cleared but sometimes there are exceptions.

I called the Customs Office and spoke with a friendly person there. However, she told me that this item cannot be self-cleared so i had to hire a Customs Broker.

How stupid is this? The government is deciding that I am not capable of filling out paperwork based on the dollar amount of the item? If they had said I had to get a broker because this was my first time I could understand. But my competence is rated by the value of the item? So now I had to find a Customs Broker.

The Homeland Security web site has a list of brokers they deal with in each city, so I called the first one on the list. It turns out they only broker items that arrive via truck or boat. I needed a broker that deals with items arriving via air. So I call the next broker on the list and I strike gold! I found somebody I could pay to fill out forms on my behalf. This service will be provided for about $200.

Of course, first I have to fill out forms myself that give the broker the right to fill out forms on my behalf.

Now that that part is out of the way my broker has spent half a day determining whether or not I have to pay duty on this item. Apparently she is wading through mountains of books trying to make this decision. I have no idea how much money this will or won't save. All I know is that if the government doesn't charge a duty then there are plenty of other fees they can charge to get their cut.

I'm still waiting on a callback since she couldn't find the information she needed on the first volume of books.

This experience isn't even over yet but I can already tell you that, in the future, I'll buy domestic parts even if they aren't as good and cost more money (which is the case with this wind vane). Its our governments job to make it difficult to buy the things we need elsewhere and they are really doing a good job of it so far.

Sarasota Bay: A pleasant, mid-week sail

2009-06-18T21:55:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday I decided to go for a sail. The sun has been setting around 8:30 local time and the winds tend to be light but consistent in the evening, so after work I called up Wyatt and the two of us were on the water by 5:30.

I’m proud to say that the sail was pretty uneventful. Nothing really bad happened at all. I didn’t forget anything and it didn’t rain. Sweet! I could get used to that.

I decided that now was as good a time as any to see how the boat heaves-to. For those not familiar with heaving-to, it a technique used to stop the boat on the water in a controlled way. This is handy in a variety of situation… for example, if the Coast Guard pulls up next to me and yells, “Heave-to and prepare to be boarded!”, or if I just want to go below decks to grab a sandwich.

This is something they don’t officially teach you in the sailing school I went too, but it is in the “Fundamentals” book. Back when I was getting my certifications I’d asked my instructor to show me how to do it and he obliged. This was in a Catalina 22 and is the only boat I had ever heaved-to with before.

It turns out that heaving-to on a C&C 27 is hard… if it’s even possible at all. The best I could manage was a backed-jib and a very slow sailing boat. The main sheet was completely eased, as its supposed to be, and the rudder was all the way windward, but the boat was still sailing, albeit very slowly, in the direction the bow was pointed.

I’ll definitely try this again, perhaps rolling up the genoa to a shorter length so it catches less wind.

The other failed maneuver was an attempt to sail under the bridge. We probably could have achieved this if my self-imposed rules weren’t so rigid. The wind was coming from the northwest and the bridge was located more of a north-northwest. There is plenty of room in the Sarasota Bay to tack towards the bridge but the Bay does narrow a bit right at the bridge. My self-imposed rule was that we must sail through the center of the bridge where the navigation lights were located, even though we could probably safely sail to the west of that just fine.

We approached the bridge twice, but the first time I miscalculated the angle needed and we had to bear off about 60 yards from the bridge. The second attempt was much closer. We actually got beneath the bridge but we hadn’t gained enough speed to carry us safely through the lull caused by the bridge supports. We had to bear off at the last second or risk drifting into the leeward support.

Still, while it was not successful in that regard, it was a lot of fun trying and it was really nice to pass the evening on the water. I’ll probably try to get on the water at least one evening every week while the sun is setting so late. With the solstice just around the corner (this coming Saturday, I believe) the days will start getting a little shorter, but I’m sure I can keep this up for another 5 weeks or so.

Sarasota Bay and the Gray Columns

2009-06-15T02:52:00.003+01:00

Last Sunday I went sailing with Wyatt, a poker buddy. It was high time I tested out the new genoa and see how she handled. Wyatt volunteered as he’d never been sailing and wanted to try it out.

It had been a while since I last went out and it’s amazing how many lessons one forgets.

I got to the boat a little early to prep her. This mostly meant I planned on stowing things that would fall about once we started heeling. However, once I got on the boat I started looking at the dock lines and tried to figure out a way to disengage them that would make it easier to pull them in when we got back. I still need to come up with a good system that will let me tie up single-handed.

One would think this shouldn’t be to tasking. I’d seen Andy, a neighbor of mine who owns a Morgan 32’, successfully dock while so drunk he could barely talk. If he could manage a single-handed docking in such a state, then surely I could.

Wyatt arrived while I was working this out still, so I gave up on the planning action and just cast off. Time to do some sailing!

The engine still starts up like a charm. I’ve had a couple of mechanics tell me that the engine alone is worth the price I paid for the boat.

We motored out of the marina and as we were in the channel out I decided to test the furling genoa. Untie one line, pull on the port genoa sheet, and the sail unfolded beautifully. The boat jumped forward and she was really hauling! The forecast had said the winds were going to be 5-10 mph, but I think they were a tad higher than that. I’m pretty sure we were already moving near hull speed and I hadn’t even raised the main yet.

Which brings around forgotten lesson number one: raise the main first if you are going to do so at all.

Boats don’t sail well towards the wind with just the genoa up… the genoa tends to cause the boat to bear away from the wind. However, to raise the main sail I needed to turn the boat into the wind. Catch-22 here. Grr.

I went forward to raise the main anyway. The wind was still light enough and we were on a Close Reach and I figured I could man-handle it up. This where I discovered the second lesson I’d forgotten: check rigging before you get underway.

The shackle I use to attach the halyard to the head of the sail was nowhere to be found. I’m guessing that it get removed or misplaced when the sail-maker was installing the furling genoa. Fortunately, I knew I had a spare so I went below to get it. Unfortunately, it was not the right size shackle. This new one was too large to fit through the holes on both the sail head and the halyard. Sigh.

Well… no big deal. The wind was improving and we were well into the Bay now. We headed north under the big bridge and relaxed.

After about 20 minutes of sailing I chanced a look behind the boat and noticed a dark column advancing from the gulf towards shore. Nasty looking rain storm there. It’s interesting in Florida that you can actually see these storms as individual things, almost like large tornadoes with less wind and lots of rain. This one, I judged, would miss us. We were now a couple of miles north of the bridge.

Sure enough, in about 10 minutes we saw the storm hit the bridge. One minute the bridge was clear and big behind us, and the next minute it was gone—devoured by a gray blanket. There was literally no sign this massive structure ever existed. The sky above us was still nice and clear although the breeze was really picking up now.

Out of the blue Wyatt came up with an idea. He asked if one of the padlocks I had sitting around would fit in the halyard, and if so, could we use it to raise the main. Good idea! I wish I had thought of it. In fact, I was a little flustered that I didn’t. I grabbed a padlock and tested it out… it fit perfectly.

And thus came the third forgotten lesson: remember lesson one. I started to hoist the main and had Wyatt turn us into the wind. Several things happened… none of them good. First, as Wyatt turned into the wind we hit a radical new point of sail which called for an adjustment on the genoa. We heeled *way* over very quickly. Secondly, I heard all sorts of crashing from inside the cabin at which point I recalled I never did get around to securing everything inside. And finally, it was all for naught since, as lesson one told us, you can’t turn into the wind very well with the genoa alone and there was no way I could raise the main with the wind.

I gave up on the idea of getting the main sail up now. We kicked back and relaxed again (I’d deal with the mess in the cabin when we got back to the dock).

After another 10 minutes of very nice sailing Wyatt spotted another storm approaching, only this one was going to hit close to where we were and definitely in the area we were sailing toward. Time to turn about and head back to the now visible bridge behind us.

Unfortunately, there had been a slight change in the wind and sailing back to the bridge mean sailing close hauled. This was going to be hard without the main sail up. We did the best we could though by falling off the wind a little and settling into a close reach.

However, this dark storm heading towards was getting larger by the minute. I kept a close on eye it over the next several minutes and came to the conclusion that we were going get drenched. It was just too big and we weren’t sailing as fast as we were. When the gray blanket covered the windward shore and completely obscured it from view I knew the time was upon us. I secured up the genoa (Woot! Love that roller, baby!) and started the engine. 30 seconds later we were completely drenched.

When this baby hit us it was like stepping into an episode of The Twilight Zone. Our world was immediately reduced to a 60’ circle around us. The rest of the universe was gray and empty. I’d been steering by sight and now I had nothing to steer by at all. If I had been less occupied with engine and genoa I might have glanced at the compass to get a heading but, alas, I hadn’t. Wyatt volunteered to go forward and extend my visual range by 25’ or so.

Every so often the gray would thin out and we could see as far as 150’. While I couldn’t see land or any channel markers, it did let me spot a boat that had been under sail and also headed towards the bridge just before the storm hit. Those folks were still under sail although they seemed to be having issues with their genoa, but their heading was far more to the starboard than mine, so I adjusted my course to match theirs before the visibility dropped off again.

Finally, we got close enough to make out the bridge ahead of us and the storm eased up a little bit. By the time we hit the channel markers to the marina the storm had let up to a soft rain and visibility wasn’t too bad. However, we were definitely done. Both Wyatt and I were very soggy and the breeze was more than just a little cool.

Docking went very smoothly. I’m not certain I could have pulled it off single-handed yet, but it went very well and I was glad I planned it out before hand.

Once the boat was tied up properly I looked into the cabin to see what the earlier commotion was. Egads. It was a huge mess. And a bit soggy too. I straightened up best I could and offered Wyatt a towel and some dry clothes. (The clothes were quite funny on him. He is easily half my weight although about the same height. Thank god my shorts are mostly draw-strings.)

Once again I had turned a leisure sail into an adventure. Wyatt was entertained and wants to go again. I’m not sure I can promise him another adventure like this one, but odds are something will pop up.

Stuff that's happened lately

2009-06-06T16:41:00.001+01:00

Hello everyone!

Its been quite a while since my last blog entry but things have been happening. As I mentioned in the last entry I had moved my boat to Sarasota. She’s docked at Marina Jack’s which is right in the middle of downtown Sarasota and only a short trip to the Gulf.

I’m presently living on my boat “part-time”. The marina rules state that they cannot have full time live aboards and give a definition of what they mean by “live aboard”. Since I work in downtown Sarasota—only a 15 minute walk from the marina—its very convenient for me to stay on the boat. However, since they have a clearly defined rule and I can’t really afford to get kicked out of the marina, I still spend a few nights a week at Jimi’s in Port Charlotte (which is about 50 miles away).

My mother came down for a week stay and during that time we went on a short sail into the gulf. Peter, who had helped me move the boat from Punta Gorda to Sarasota, and his wife Jeanne came along for the ride.

The wind and weather reports had forecast a sunny day with reasonable wind and waves in the Gulf to about 2 foot. When we cast off the wind was a little low and the waters in the Sarasota Bay were a tad choppy. Not bad, really, but I should have taken this as a warning.

We motored south--against the wind--to get to Big Pass. As we entered the 25’ water right before we get to the channel markers at Big Pass we got a look at the Gulf waters. The waves look a tad bigger than 2’. They sort of looked huge.

However, that stretch of water is really, really shallow. In fact, there were birds actually walking on water between us and those waves. The Gulf waves hit that shallow area and crest, making it look much worse than it really is. I kept thinking that all the way up until we made the turn into the channel markers where we finally had real access to the Gulf. The waves were definitely larger than 2 foot… more like 4 foot with a 5 second frequency. Ugh.

Jeanne hadn’t been on a sailboat before, and I knew my mother was very uncomfortable with water, so I decided maybe we should head back. However, the whole crew assured me that they felt ok and wanted to go ahead and try it. It wasn’t a matter of safety with me, I was 100% confident in my boat and knew she could handle way more than this, I was just concerned about the comfort of my crew. Since they wanted to keep going I was game.

The next 15 minutes were pure torture with a dash of adventure. I was correct when I mentioned the behavior of the waves in relation to the water depth. I had miscalculated the affect it would have as we went through it into the relatively calmer waters of the Gulf proper. The boat pounded through the channel and finally into the Gulf. Unfortunately the wave heights were still a little larger than anticipated, but manageable. I went forward to manhandle the sails so we could finally cut the engine. This was the adventure part.

Anyhow, once we got to sailing and shut of the engine it was a very enjoyable sail. There were some green faces when we turned around to head back and boat settled into a corkscrewing motion, but we adjusted course somewhat to alleviate that.

That’s the only time I’ve been out since the move to Sarasota and now.

I’m a little disappointed in myself that I haven’t gone out more. With working full time and a side job that consumes much of my weekend its not as easy to just toss the lines and cut loose for a couple of hours as I thought it would be. However, I have been getting some work done on the boat.

I finally got my furling genoa installed. This was one of my big ticket items and something that I felt had to be done before I head to the oceans. I had some minor work done on the diesel engine which a surveyor had told me was critical (cracks in the exhaust hose). The interior of the boat got a thorough cleaning while my mother was here. I’ve also replaced the dinette table with something that was more comfortable to work on.

My next projects are some work on the mast which needs a windex (a device which shows the direction the wind is coming from) and the anchor lights replaced. I’m also getting the steaming light replaced as it stopped functioning during the trip up from Punta Gorda. The biggest project, and the last “critical” one before I can make passages, is some form of self-steering.

I plan on doing some sailing on the Sarasota Bay this weekend. In fact, I’ll probably be headed out with Jimi and Arrielle as soon as they get back from Arrielle’s bowling league outing.

Until next time!

Punta Gorda to Sarasota

2009-03-07T22:40:00.004Z

A good weather window, crew, and a day off from work. Everything was pointing towards a good opportunity to get my boat from Punta Gorda to its new berth in Sarasota.

I was pretty certain as early as Tuesday that I would be making the trip. The forecasts were all pretty good and, almost as importantly, I'd already paid for the slip. My boss gave me the okay to take Friday off work so I could have a 3 day chance to get the boat up there. Its roughly a 60 mile trip by water and, while the forecasts were good, all that could change.

Also, I had planned on making the trip single-handed. Jimi's work has been picking up to the point were he has to work on the weekends now. While he wasn't sure what the upcoming weekend would bring, I had a feeling that he wouldn't be available and planned accordingly.

However, I got news that a poker-buddy of mine was interested in going. While I knew that I could make the trip by myself, its much nicer to have crew. My boat doesn't have any self-steering yet and a solo trip would mean I'd have to man the wheel the entire trip. So when Peter volunteered I was relieved.

Of all the trips I've made this one had the most planning go into it. I printed out weather forecasts (including some excellent information like wave height and frequency, wind directions and strength predictions, and all in 3-hour intervals), tide predictions all along the route, and reviewed the charts for hours. I bought food and water for 3 days. Over the last week I had filled all my fuel cans
with diesal and made sure the boat's tank was full. I was prepared.

The biggest unknown in the trip was if I could do it in one day. Mary had told me she'd made the same trip before and she had stopped overnight in the Venice inlet (where there is a free anchorage) which is about 4/5 of the way to Sarasota. Based on the tides (which were sort of against me for the first 5 hours of the trip) I suspected that I'd have to anchor the night in Venice.

Peter and I arrived at the boat at 7:10am on Friday morning. It only took about 10 minutes to get the boat ready to cast off. Mostly this was just checking the fuel and getting all lines in. I started the engine and gave the boat some throttle to clear the dock and head out the channel... only the boat didn't move.

Low tide was at 6:45am. High tide wouldn't occur until 10:45pm! My keel was firmly in the mud. This, of course, hearkens back to my single-handed sail 6 weeks ago where I discovered that the canals in Punta Gorda are much lower than they are supposed to be. I knew the tide would be very low, but I hadn't realized that my boat was actually sitting in mud when the tide was at its lowest.

Well, I had been aground before as anyone who reads my blogs knows, so I knew how to get out of this. Peter and I leaned as far as possible to one side of the boat to lift the keel out of the water and I tried shoving off the dock. No go. Attempt two was grabbing a pile with a boat hook and attempting to pull while Peter gunned the engine. No go. Attempt three was attaching a line to a piling and
pulling while doing the engine thing again. Nope.

Finally, Peter suggested lowering the line on the piling, and I attached the other end to a winch. This method showed some promise and ultimately worked when we throttled up the engine. This had an unfortunate side effect of crushing one of my lifeline stantions when the boat lurched free and I was unable to ease the line on the winch in time... but I already needed to replace another stantion that was
bent in exactly the same way by some previous owner.

At last, we were free and on our way. It was now 8:00am... a loss of 40 minutes.

The 40 minutes disturbed me more than it should have. Despite having planned on anchoring in Venice (I had printed special instructions on exactly how to get there and made myself familiar with the charts of the area) I was really hoping to make it all the way to Sarasota in one day. Most sailors will tell you that you shouldn't be worried about time while sailing, its the journey that matters. Its obvious I haven't discarded all my old habits and worries yet.

However, the trip down Charlotte Harbor went well. I raised the sails as soon as we got in the main channel but I kept the engine running. This motor sailing technique was really moving us along quickly... we were making over 6.5 miles an hour according to the GPS. We reached Boca Grande almost right on time with my original estimate... we were approaching it right at noon.

Boca Grande is the pass from Charlotte Harbor into the Gulf of Mexico. Since the tide was coming in we had to fight a strong current as we entered the outlet. Our speed as we approached was down to 5 mph or so.

As we got closer and closer I kept looking at the charts. Its a really peculiar bit of water, where the channel has areas that are more than 50' deep, surrounded by others areas that are only 2' deep. This makes for excellent tarpin fishing (or so I'm told). Because of the shallow areas you have to carefully follow the buoys which lead southwest to the gulf... the opposite direction I wanted to go. I noticed a very narrow path which was literally 30 yards from shore that, if done properly, would let me bypass the buoys and head straight north along the shore, then eventually out to the deeper gulf waters. This could save 45 minutes to an hour!

As I was thinking this and looking towards the area I would need to sail, I noticed a mast moving behind the beach. Another sailboat was taking the reverse of the course I was considering!

Let me tell you, I was very tempted to try it. But better sense finally prevailed and we headed to the first of the buoys. I don't know if I could have done it or not. If I had noticed this small path earlier I might have asked around on the net to see what others have experienced there. But the risk didn't seem worth the gain now... after all, we had somehow made my original planned time to Boca Grande despite the late start. Perhaps we could make up more time on the journey north.

we kept motor-sailing even though I despised the engine noise. We were really make good time as we went north, sometimes reaching 7.8 mph. The were close hauled for several hours. The breeze felt good, the sun was shining, and the gulf waters were beautiful.

At some point Peter was fiddling with the GPS and finally discovered how to enter way points. I'd never bothered... I really hated the clunky 1980s feel of this particular model and basically just used the thing as a speedometer and for coordinates. Peter was not deterred by the fact that we couldn't find the manual and kept poking it until it yielded results to his satisfaction. Eventually he was able to state we had 15 miles until we reached the Venice inlet. Then 10. 5. And then we were there.

It was about 4:00pm as we reached the way point where we could turn into the inlet and anchor for the evening. We could make phone calls, eat dinner, perhaps play a game of chess.

Or... we could keep on trucking up the coast and see if we couldn't hit way point number 2... the Big Pass inlet at Sarasota... before the very real deadline of 6:30pm.

I've had several knowledgeable people tell me that Big Pass is a very treacherous inlet. The dock master at my new marina warned to absolutely not try to enter that pass at dark, and a couple of co-workers who fish in the area said the same thing. I knew that the sun would be setting a roughly 6:30, and once it set we would have only another 10-15 minutes of light left. That meant we had to hit the first buoy before 6:30pm if we wanted to enter the area safely.

I decided to go for it. We'd made good time so far, meeting all my mental way points almost exactly at the time I was hoping. I was confident we could hit the mark here, too.

So onward we went.

The gulf breeze really kicked up a notch while we headed northward on this leg. I was a bit put off by that since the forecast had been for 2 mph winds at this time of day. I was more put off by the fact that we were now heading right into it. I had to take the sails down because they were starting to luff quite a bit and were now probably hindering us rather than giving us a boost.

Because the wind had picked up so much that meant the previously glassy gulf waters had now started to get a bit more frisky. The waves weren't much larger than the predicted 1 foot or so, but their frequency had definitely increased and we were starting to catch a lot of spray.

As the sky turned orange and the sun was hovering over the western gulf we hit the first marker for the Big Pass. The sun set a couple minutes after we passed it and it as 6:30pm on the nose.

Unfortunately, it seemed a lot darker than I expected. It was pretty hard to make out the next buoys in the fading light. Peter was forward spotting the markers and, based on advice from the dock master, I stayed to the far right of the channel. In fact, I was actually out of the channel by a few feet. I was very nervous as we hit depths of 6 feet and less.

However, with Peter pointing out the channel markers and a few other boats in channel at the same time, we navigated the hazardous part without incident and entered the main part of the pass with depths as much as 25' and more. That was nerve wracking, but probably not as stressful as the ICW trip Jimi and I had made at night, in the rain.

There were actually a few other special moments as we approached the marina. We were following a cruise boat called "Marina Jack II" which, of course, I had seen at the marina several times. I naturally assumed it was going home and we could just follow it in. Turns out they had more cruising to do and motored right on past the channel to the marina. Luckily we had another boat we could follow in as we still were having a hard time making out the channel markers into the marina.

We docked safely in my new slip and Jimi was there to help tie us up and give us a ride home. We celebrated the successful adventure by having a steak and a drink on the way back to Port Charlotte.

Events: The Good and the Bad

2009-02-28T20:13:00.000Z

I couple of noteworthy items occurred this last week.

The first is that I finally got enough money together to secure a slip in Sarasota. My boats new home will be in Marina Jack's, a very nice marina practically in downtown Sarasota.

It's a 12 minute walk to work from my slip. This is much nicer than the previous 50 minute drive I had from Jimi's house in Port Charlotte. This will save me almost $400 a month in gas. There is an Irish Pub and Restaurant called O'Malley's about 4 minutes away. I haven't been there yet but I'm crossing my fingers that its a decent place. There are also several other nice restaurants and social establishments nearby.

The cost to get in there was much less than I originally expected it would be. Lets just say the fuel and time savings driving back and forth to work *more* than make up for the slip rental.

Of course, I still plan on spending time at Jimi's. I'll probably drive down there at least once during the week and then on some weekends.

The second noteworthy event was my foray into boat plumbing.

If you've ever wondered what changing a marine toilet would be like; wonder no further. It sucks.

The toilet on the boat has leaked since I bought it. There was a small crack at the base of the pump and, whenever the pump was utilized, waste water would ooze from it. I discovered this immediately and in my capacity as captain I ordered it never be used again. This law made for some discomfort during my lengthier journeys, but the law was observed.

When I secured the slip in Sarasota I knew the trip would take about 2 days. And since I figured Jimi and Arrielle would be coming with me it seemed wisest to replace the toilet with a new working model.

I went to West Marine and bought the same model I currently had. I was worried about the amount of space the new toilet would take up... the current one fits exactly into the space available, not even a quarter of an inch on either side. Buying the same model helped put my mind at ease there. Then came the dreaded part: installation.

Actually, installing the new toilet wasn't too bad. Its removing the old one that sucked a lot. Even though I hadn't used it in 4 months there was still plenty of shitty water (literally) in the hoses. The next hour of labor was pretty foul.

I finally got the old one out and the new one mostly in (having some issue with driving the screws in... they are in very awkward, hard to work in space). The hoses and fittings were all properly connected and my initial testing showed no major leaking connections. And most importantly, I didn't sink the boat.

I don't really like doing this type of work, I never have. However, I do find some satisfaction in getting it done. I also learned some important things about the boat which I might not have noticed otherwise. First, I have a through-hull valve that is frozen open. This is very bad. Luckily, this particular through-hull is connected to another valve which allows me to shut-off the flow if needed. I also have a better feel about how the plumbing system works, which is good because if it ever fails catastrophically while I'm sailing around the world there is now a better chance I can diagnose and fix the issue.

Anyway, this is how I spent my Friday evening.

Unfortunately I had to delay the boats move to Sarasota. Between the toilet job and some rough weather coming in on Sunday it didn't seem prudent to try to do it. Hopefully there is a good weather window next weekend.

A mid-week single-handed sail

2009-01-29T19:31:00.001Z

I went sailing on Wednesday and, all in all, I had a pretty weird day.

Early in the morning I got the urge to get on the water. I knew the weather was supposed to be pretty decent and when I checked the web I was told it would be 80 degrees with winds 8.5 mph with gusts a tad higher. Practically perfect! Then I checked the tide charts to see how safe the Charlotte Harbor would be. According to the predictions low tide was at 10am and water levels would be just a couple of inches too low, but if I waited until 11:30 or the water would be several inches above the low chart depth and that would be no problem for me.

(Side note: charts all have soundings letting the navigator know how deep water is in low tides. The tide predictions tell you how low the water is in relation to the charts. So if a sounding says the water is 5 feet... and at low tide the prediction is -0.5, that means the water depth is actually only 4'6". Normally the prediction doesn't go in the negatives, but winter time on the gulf coast of Florida has some wacky tides. My draft, which is how much below the waterline my boat goes, is 4'3".)

The plan was to go out single-handed. I had never sailed single-handed before (the trip from Fort Myers Beach to Punta Gorda was done by motor the whole way) and was looking forward to see how much of a challenge it would be. I got to my boat at 11:00 and was ready to head out at 11:30.

As I eased the boat out into the channel from dock I encountered my first oddity.

The channel is supposed to have a minimum depth of 5'6". There are numerous sailboats much larger than mine (implying they have a greater draft) in the same canal system and while the depth should have been 5' even at low tide we were now 90 minutes past that and the level should have been close to normal.

However, leaving the dock my keel touched bottom.

It wasn't a big deal... it really just sort of scraped mud for a couple of feet and since I was using the engine while in the canal I easily went over it. It kind of put me in a weird mood though. This shouldn't have happened. I'd been over that spot many times in the last few months even when the tide had been lower and never touched ground. Very strange.

Anyhow, there were no other problems as I headed out to the bay.
The wind was picking up and I suspect it was a little more than the anticipated 8mph, probably closer to 11 or 12. This didn't worry me a whole lot although I knew it would make raising the sail a little more difficult. I decided I would forgo using the genoa... the sail in the front of the boat. It would be a little unwieldy in the wind and would probably exhaust me fighting to get it up. I opted for just the main sail.

When I reached the middle of the harbor I turned the boat into the wind and put the engine in neutral. Its important to keep the engine running in this case so, in the event of an emergency I needed to quickly move the boat, it would be ready.

Raising the main by myself, and without anyone to keep the boat facing into the wind, was a chore. I fought the wind, the choppy waters in the bay, tangled lines... I'm sure any film of the situation would have been hilarious. It took me about 15 minutes and the current from the incoming tide moved me upriver (the Peace River empties into Charlotte Harbor) close to a quarter of a mile. The boat was drifting close to the center of the channel so I wasn't too concerned.

Once the sail was up and the boat was moving I let out a sigh of relief and cut the engine. It was a hassle, but I now knew it was doable. Goal achieved. As I leaned back in the cockpit to relax and cruise the boat around the bay I spotted a big problem.

On sailboats there is a mechanism called the main sheet. This is the line (usually comprised of several block and tackles) that connects to the boom, in turn allowing the sailor to catch or release more wind into the main sail. There is *significant* amount of force applied to the boom, which in turns applies it to the main sheet. The problem I noticed is that the shackle which unites the boom and the mainsheet had broken and the boom was being held in place by a small hook in the shackle, and the hook was straining mightily in the increasing wind.

A swinging boom has got to be the single most dangerous thing in all sailing. I've read many stories of accidental jibes (where the boom swings from one side of the boat to the other) killing sailors. If it doesn't kill them outright, it will often knock them unconscious and overboard. Imagine Paul Bunyan swinging a 12' long aluminum baseball bat and aiming for the fences.

Was I, at that moment, in physical danger? Probably not. My head and body were below and slightly behind the boom. However, all the time I'd been hoisting the sail and moving between the mast and cockpit I had been in severe danger. Egads. That alone was enough to freeze me in place a few minutes thinking about it.

Even as I sat there contemplating that the wind was getting noticeably stronger. Any other time I would be ecstatic to have strong winds hurling me at top speed along the water, but now it was just getting more and more dangerous on the boat.

And so ended my single-handed sailing debut. I started the engine, turned the boat into the wind, then jumped to the mast and started lowering the sail. It was almost as much work taking it down as it was raising it. With the sail down and somewhat secure, I jumped back into the cockpit and fixed the boom with the boom-vang (a line which prevent the boom swinging around when not in use). No longer in danger, I sighed (I had *really* wanted to enjoy this more) and changed course back to the canal system.

As if to add insult to (near) injury the boat ran aground as I was on the final approach to my docking space.

Unlike before, I was coasting in and had made my final adjustment. This bit can by tricky with two people, let alone single-handed. I have to judge the correct speed to coast into the dock, slow enough that I don't hit anything too hard, yet quickly enough that the boat doesn't drift or turn. At the last second I have to turn the boat alongside the dock, then jump forward and grab a line and attach it to a post on the dock... all before drifting past the post. To envision this, its like parallel parking between two cars with no brakes.

As I was getting close the point where I make the final steering adjustment the boat jarred along the ground and came to a complete stop. Argh!!!!!

I knew this wasn't really a problem, but I was already pretty angry about how the day was going and now I was just plain pissed. I put in the engine in reverse, gave her some throttle, and worked the boat off the ground. After a few minutes of manuevering back through the canal I was ready for another shot. This time I had make sharper turns to avoid the spot where I had just went aground. This is not ideal since it now left me with a couple seconds less time to catch the boat on the dock as I coasted past it.

Fortunately I made the catch just fine. After 30 more minutes of securing the boat from the sail and a few other related chores I was ready to go home.

One thing I had noticed throughout the day was how hot it felt. On a lark I checked the weather site again when I got back to the house. The day's high was 89 degrees! Whoever forecast 80 should be fired. I mean really... how can a forecast be 9 degrees off?! The web page still listed the day's high as 80, even though the current temperature right next to it said 89.

Well... no more sailing for me until I can get the shackle fixed. I don't know how much its going to be but I certainly won't be able to afford it until I start working.

Till next time....

Couple new photos

2009-01-05T20:48:00.002Z

Not much to comment on. I wanted to go sailing this weekend but the weekend was crowded with other events (namely football and Arrielle's birthday).

However, I did add some new photos to my gallery which I took a few weeks ago. They are of Jimi, Arrielle, and I out on Charlotte Harbor. I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday around midday. The harbor gets a little busy out there (although nothing resembling the San Diego Bay) on the weekends with the racers and whatnot.

Here is the link to my gallery...

Dan's Online Gallery

Bath time!

2008-12-29T19:43:00.002Z

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

2008-12-18T19:34:00.002Z

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

2008-11-13T20:08:00.002Z

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

2008-11-06T13:57:00.001Z

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

2008-11-04T00:09:00.002Z

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

2008-10-31T14:13:00.000Z

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

2008-10-15T21:53:00.003+01:00

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

2008-10-14T16:19:00.001+01:00

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

2008-10-05T17:11:00.002+01:00

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

2008-10-02T00:13:00.000+01:00

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

2008-09-29T22:11:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-29T21:51:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-28T19:54:00.001+01:00

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

2008-09-26T18:01:00.005+01:00

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

2008-09-26T07:44:00.003+01:00

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.