Cruising to the New Year

December 31, 2015

Today we finally got a weather report from Chris Parker telling us that winds may be more favorable to cross the Gulf Stream.

So time has come to leave Coconut Grove Sailing Club. These have been incredible folks who opened their arms to us since  December 5.

Let me tell you about that day. We left the boat at Another marina and rented a car and drove to the sailing club since we could not get anyone to answer the phone.  Jerry parked the car and sauntered in to find someone to talk to. He immediately met Lauren the general manager who said no mooring balls were available.  You guys know  Jerry so he persisted telling her that he was surgery and needed to be in a secure place. Well she called for dock master and voila we had a mooring ball.

Hmm angels working again! We have grown to love them and promise to be back.

The  Orange Bowl Regatta is going on now so we have had privilege to see accomplished kids sailing their hearts out.

The best part of cruising is the people you meet and the friends you make. We met a lovely couple who cruised the Carribean. She just happens to be an artist. The card is her Bon voyage gift. It will be framed Becca!

We will be leaving from an island just off Biscayne Bay called No  Name harbor for an early start to arrive to the Bahama Bank in daylight.

we imagine it will be crowded but at least we will see the Miami fireworks.
Happy New Year!

Next post hoping to be some pics of crossing and our new Adventure.

Sally

December 25, 2015



I wasn't going to send anything out till we started to cross the gulf stream but too many people are asking.

Sally and I drove to the doctor's office two days early to locate it and be ready for traffic & parking.  I also wanted to give the nurse that arranged our appointment a box of chocolates and it turned out Forest was right, you never know what you are going to get when you give chocolates.  The doctor wanted to meet the man that bribed with chocolates and called us back to his office.  After about 5 minutes of casual conversation he said, I'm not all that  busy now why don't we operate now since you are here.  He cut the tissue out and we were back on the boat in about 30 minutes.  Totally unexpected!  The next day I stopped at a 7 -11 for gas and when I came back to the car, Sally was crying like she had been shot, when asked what was wrong she said the nurse called and said the tissue was clear of cancer and could we come in right away to be stitched up and that's why she was crying.  The doctor is leaving for Guatemala for two months so I will remove the stitches, take a picture and send to him.  

We missed our window the stream has 8 to 10 waves so we are hunkered down in paradise once again, may be able to leave Christmas but not sure yet.

this is for you Mary Gregg. my first official post. Coconut Grove has been outstanding but it is time to move on.
we listened carefully to Chris Parker this morning. We are hoping for a crossing on Wednesday night or Thursday really early!
i promise to do my best to keep up the postings. Since the fun is about to begin.
Sally

December 14, 2015




and here we sits!   Today Tammy & Bruce sailed off into the gulf stream and have crossed into the Bahamas Bank only to push on east.  We, however, must sit here during the ideal crossing weather until I can be cut up again on Thursday.  Then we may be able to tell when we can leave.  I was not going to write anything until after the procedure but my brother came looking for me today (by email) so I figured I'd better let people know.

We are in Coconut Grove Sailing Club mooring field which is about as close as we can get to the doctors without putting wheels on the boat, so we rented a car.  This undoubtedly the prettiest, friendliest and most convenient mooring field/marina/yacht club we have been in.  Coconut Grove is an ultra rich neighborhood with landscaped walks, plenty of greenery and quaint little shops, nothing like Miami.  Not only is Neman Marcus here but  Aston Martin/Jaguar, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Lotus dealerships right up the street.  I could not even look in the window, much less parking next to one.
There were no mooring balls available when we got here but they checked with a guy who was having his boat worked on and rented us his mooring.  (chocolate always works if the mgr is female).    The pictures are of Miami at night, sunrise in the mooring field, and a rainbow showing the sailing club is a pot of gold!   Y'all please check the spot out in satellite mode and zoom in the see where we sit in the mooring field to give you an idea what we are experiencing.

Hanging on the mooring ball in Ft Myers!

November25, 2015


We are still hanging on the mooring ball, literally hanging on.  The wind has been blowing over 20 knots with waves in the gulf 4 to 10 ft. since the day after we got here.  The last trip cured my masochism so we didn't even think about it.  We have gotten a little work done, a lot of rest and more sleep than we need.  We will probably leave here Friday  morning,weather dependent, to catch up with David & Mary Lucas in Marco Island for overnight and then on to Shark River for overnight then to Islamarado.  David & Mary are going to Marathon from Shark R. so we will stop playing leap frog with them.  Tammy & Bruce will continue on with us up to Biscayne Bay where I will get cut on again before heading to the Bahamas.  Sally has become my pseudo mom and called every doctors office in south Florida to get me the best Dr and appt to fit our schedule, not theirs.

I am still having fits with this computer and will try again to send a pic of tonights moon but don't think it will work.

any how, y'all have a great holiday.  Sally baked a pecan pie with my brothers pecans (looks delicious but she won't let me sample it).  Tammy is cooking a turkey (hope it isn't  Bruce) and we will share Thanksgiving on one or the other boats.

November 17, 2015

this is just to let y'all know we are about to move again.  the plan is to meander down the icw towards ft meyers beach to meet up with the David & Mary Lucas in two or three days.

Spot has corrected some of it problems and will be on when we move,

However, I still have computer glitches and don't know when I can send any pics & stuff but will as soon as I can.

November 9, 2015

We tied up along the North T-wall as usual, but this time I insisted on turning around so we are heading out and took the end of the dock.  Every time we have been here and start to leave, the wind and tide pick up and we are in the middle of a bunch of million dollar yachts trying to turn around in a 60' wide canal while the wind is trying to blow us into the big money.  I just knew every slip would be filled by nightfall but the old saying, if you are prepared for it, it just won't happen came true again.  We were the only transient on the dock.

It rained Sat afternoon, night, Sunday and I mean rain.  The wind got up to 28 kts after midnight and I had to get out in the rain and add fenders and retie the boat twice.  Sunday afternoon it became patchy rain so I was able to get the wifi project going.  Just as I was stepping into the bosun chair two cruising friends from Muskogee, OK walked up to see how we were doing.  They had been to Apalachicola staging vehicles for their trip from Panama City and then cross to Clearwater, FL.  We had not seen them in a couple of years and they sold their sailboat and went to the dark side with a Gulfstar 44 trawler.  Good visit and lunch but it cost me a couple of hours and I ended up working in a cold windy mist. 

We plan to leave St. Joe Tues. morning motoring the ICW to Apalatchicola to ready for a Wed jump across the gulf.  The pics were taken with Ifone from the spreaders on the mizzen mast.

Destin is a gorgeous little anchorage, usually well protected tho the grounded boats will probably argue!  The north side is lined with restaurants and bars but quiets down around 1700 but probably not on week-ends, the rest is lined with houses and high rise condos.  The several times I went up to check on  the other boats, there wasn't a ripple in the water and all the neon signs from the bars were reflecting color mixtures that were just boggling.  There are a few liveaboards we recognized from our last stay but about 6 transients were anchored when we arrived. 

We were underway by 0600 and followed the sportsfishermen out for another day of .rocking & rolling into the east wind.  Fog set in once we cleared the jetties and i had to power up the radar, it was just a security blanket here since not a ship channel, and it lifted around 0800.  We decided to bypass Panama City, one our favorite stops, cause we are meeting the owner of Island Time PC, who is bringing us a replacement unit to boost our wifi in marinas.  We came through the entrance to St Joe bay around 1800 turned right and dropped anchor at 1830 on the wrong side of the bay in a easterly wind, but we are worn to a frazzle.

Easting on Encore! We've done this before!

November 6,2005


We got up early after a smooth anchorage night and headed out just as the sun was coming up thru the clouds.  A bunch of dolphins were having breakfast but none were playful so didn't have any shots.  A pretty little red mainship was catching baitfish before going out for a day of fishing off shore.  He cut inside of our track and beat us out to deepwater.  We turned east to a headwind from 10 to 20 knots and waves from 2 to 4 ft. despite the promised 1 to 1.5 ft, made me sorta queasy.  Sally will save tons of money cause I got my fill of hobby horsing and won't ask for quarters at wal-mart to ride the little horse out front any more.  We tucked into Destin harbor early to get out of the waves and spend the night at anchor in the little harbor.  There are 5 sailboats and a powerboat beached from a not too distant storm, ominous sign indeed. 

November 5, 2015

This is a new operating system and has many kinks, so bare with me.
I spent last night on the boat trying to get as many last minute tasks completed as I could before liftoff.  I awoke at 5:30 and tried to complete a few more before Sally brought breakfast from Hardees.  She got to the boat at the same time Bob Riggs came down to bring a repair part  from  Pensacola at 0700.  Buck Monroe came by to help untie the lines and send us off at 1020, so much for the real early start.  We entered a glass smooth bay and had to motor all the way to the ICW.  Saw a lot of dolphins and butterflies, both good omens for me but can't figure out why butterflies are in the middle of the bay.  Once we got in the ditch, we looked back to see and eagle looking back from a dead tree.  When we got past Ono Island we could see the smoke trails from airplanes practicing for this weekends big show with the Blues, look close over the condos on the left and you can see two airplanes.  We couldn't see the sunset but saw some fantastic scenes of the sun playing peek-a-boo in the clouds.  As we headed towards Perdido Bridge I could see a red triangle in the distance and could not make out what it was, but it was in the channel and the same height as the markers, turned out to be a cute little sailboat with two kids loving life to the fullest.  Just as the sun set a couple of old stearman ww2 trainers came over headed to the show.  I don't know how this system will do so I am splitting up the pictures into two groups with a following email.

4-23-2-15

I was very apprehensive about this anchorage being comfortable in southern wind but it turned out to be my future anchorage of choice on the L.A. coast.  The water is clean, clear and most importantly flat.  We had 2' to 3' waves in the ship channel coming in but Pellican Island totally protected us.  I flat lined from 8pm till 7:15 am this morning but still feel like a zombie and since we left before the boat (or us) was ready I will borrow from Lahowind, "cruising is just fixing the boat in exotic places" and deem this anchorage exotic!

I spent the day getting the boat seaworthy.  Everyone that saw us off had the look (and saying to themselves)  that they hoped God would really take care of fools this time and they would never go to sea on a boat with such a haphazard deck and to tell the truth I would have said the same thing only out loud!  We just had to get away from being able to go to Ace or Home Depot and just concentrate on safeing up the boat.  We may head out tomorrow morning

I did not take pictures today, only worked but promise to take some tomorrow.  All we saw were pelicans, blue herons and fishermen.  Hundreds of helicopters flew over training or supplying the oil rigs, we even had a low level pass by 3 homebuilt ultralights in sorta formation.

Debbie Badelamenti, a director at the Grand Hotel, our friend and neighbor, wrote that when she heard we had departed, she scrambled the "Joshua" their schooner that I sent a picture of yesterday.  She had taken every roll of toilet paper the hotel had and was sending out to us.  When the captain saw how low we are in the water he turned back saying we couldn't put one more roll on board!

4-24-2015




We are almost shipshape but too many people are asking if we found home that close to Fairhope, so I will finish underway.  All that is left is minor stuff, like attaching the chain to the spare anchor, tying the dingy on board, you know those minor little things.

One of the ultralights from yesterday came by just past sunrise and circled us once for a kodak moment.  We had dolphins before sunup and several pods before we got past Ft Morgan, Sally says it is a good omen.

Sailing past the lighthouse was a treat cause I didn't even know it was there, we have always taken the ICW east or west, not through the ship channel.  I was also not aware of the large number of oil platforms in L.A.

Holy mackerel Andy, I remembered to put out a hook and caught supper, a 4 or 5 lb king mackerel.  Tomorrow's supper.

We had light winds, almost enough for a good sail and had decided to go into big lagoon for the night but changed our mind and going to sail overnight.  About out the time we changed course a pod of dolphins came up to play with us.  I will try to send more pictures of them after this.  It was quite a show.

4-25-2015





The good winds that were forecasted through the weekend, 10 knots out of the SE with 1 ft waves were only to be a few hours.  About midnight, Zeus must have gotten a little perturbed with us and awoke King Neptune so two of them battered us like a badminton birdie for about 30 hours.  The winds were 18 to 24 with waves 4 to 6 with an occasional 8. We could not think  of holding any course, just kept pointed as close to the wind as we could.  We could not even go to Cuba, maybe Mexico!

Just after daylight, Friday morning a freak wave broadsided us so hard it broke the brazing holding the autopilot arm to the rudder quadrant.  We lost all steering so I tore the bed apart  to get to the rudder shaft, the autopilot arm was blocking the rudder from turning, once I disconnected the arm the rudder could move. Now, steering was akin to riding a bronco while wearing  a blindfold.  I searched my garbage bins for several hours looking for ideas on what to do, while also trying to relieve Sally at the helm every so often cause her arms and shoulders were on fire from being so overworked.  We tried tacking to go to Panama City but could only head back where we had come from.  I finally got a brain fart, took an old genoa track, cut it down, and with two "c" clamps, was able to hold the broken part in place so we could use the auto sparingly.  That really helped but by this time Sally was through with sailing after hand steering most of the day in these conditions.

Friday around 1800hrs we  tacked to the East and it looked like we might be able to make it 60 miles to Port St. Joe to rest up, clean up all the stuff that was dumped into the floor from the bucking bull. As soon as we turned a family of cliff swallows (?) landed on the boat and found a place to get out of the wind, the pic of the bird on the vent has the others huddled in the upper left.  After midnight the wind died so I started the engine so we could make it into St Joe by the weekend.  After a couple of hours the engine decided it had enough and quit.  The wind picked back up and we sailed in to St Joe Bay dropped the hook around 10 am.  Spent the day in caskets cause we just died.  One of the birds died in the night so we had a burial at sea, took me forever to make a little flag to wrap it in.  The others left at daybreak, leaving us with thoughts of avian flu!
Look at the pic of the waves breaking over the bow and notice how much Sally is enjoying this.  Ah. . . Sailing!

April 23, 2015


We are finally about to cast off again for parts unknown.  We do not have a destination nor schedule to get there, just heading south.  We will probably leave the T pier Tuesday morning.  There are a lot of new people joining the mailing list this trip so you old timers will have to just bear with us when I explain or tell things you already know, and some are non boaters.

There is about  2 cubit feet of unoccupied space so I imagine we will have to make one last trip to the store for more toilet paper.  The up side is, the paper lining the hull is really great insulation!

I wrote the above Monday evening intending to send it out to notify everyone we were leaving but fell asleep before I could.  I slept on the boat Monday night since we had loaded booze and firearms and spring break is on so the thief is probably back from Auburn.

Tuesday about 10:30 I rowed the dingy around to load it onto the davits and one of the lifting rings parted company with the rail and had to lift it onto the bow so we could leave and repair later.  Luckily David Lucas was helping us cast off cause I had turned into a zombie by then and could not think or do much physical labor so David helped get it onboard.

Time kept creeping up and at 2:20 we disconnected everything and pushed off with David's and Tyler's much appreciated help.  We cleared the jetty and markers and headed south, raised the sails to do a blistering 3.5 knots.  This only lasted its customary 2 hours so when we slowed to 1 knot fired up the engine.  After much deliberation decided not to do the ICW and went to the golf course anchorage between Pelican and Dauphin islands.  On the way down the bay we saw the schooner out of Point Clear for the first time, maybe Debbie Badalamenti send it out as a bon voyage.

I have a SPOT Messenger. I am sharing my location information with you. Click on the link to see where I am.  In the upper right corner of the spot sight you can click on satellite view and see more about where we are.  When we are underway it will send an update every 15 min.

4-25-2015



We are almost shipshape but too many people are asking if we found home that close to Fairhope, so I will finish underway.  All that is left is minor stuff, like attaching the chain to the spare anchor, tying the dingy on board, you know those minor little things.

One of the ultralights from yesterday came by just past sunrise and circled us once for a kodak moment.  We had dolphins before sunup and several pods before we got past Ft Morgan, Sally says it is a good omen.

Sailing past the lighthouse was a treat cause I didn't even know it was there, we have always taken the ICW east or west, not through the ship channel.  I was also not aware of the large number of oil platforms in L.A.

Holy mackerel Andy, I remembered to put out a hook and caught supper, a 4 or 5 lb king mackerel.  Tomorrow's supper.

We had light winds, almost enough for a good sail and had decided to go into big lagoon for the night but changed our mind and going to sail overnight.  About out the time we changed course a pod of dolphins came up to play with us.  I will try to send more pictures of them after this.  It was quite a show.

4-25-2015

The good winds that were forecasted through the weekend, 10 knots out of the SE with 1 ft waves were only to be a few hours.  About midnight, Zeus must have gotten a little perturbed with us and awoke King Neptune so two of them battered us like a badminton birdie for about 30 hours.  The winds were 18 to 24 with waves 4 to 6 with an occasional 8. We could not think  of holding any course, just kept pointed as close to the wind as we could.  We could not even go to Cuba, maybe Mexico!

Just after daylight, Friday morning a freak wave broadsided us so hard it broke the brazing holding the autopilot arm to the rudder quadrant.  We lost all steering so I tore the bed apart  to get to the rudder shaft, the autopilot arm was blocking the rudder from turning, once I disconnected the arm the rudder could move. Now, steering was akin to riding a bronco while wearing  a blindfold.  I searched my garbage bins for several hours looking for ideas on what to do, while also trying to relieve Sally at the helm every so often cause her arms and shoulders were on fire from being so overworked.  We tried tacking to go to Panama City but could only head back where we had come from.  I finally got a brain fart, took an old genoa track, cut it down, and with two "c" clamps, was able to hold the broken part in place so we could use the auto sparingly.  That really helped but by this time Sally was through with sailing after hand steering most of the day in these conditions.

Friday around 1800hrs we  tacked to the East and it looked like we might be able to make it 60 miles to Port St. Joe to rest up, clean up all the stuff that was dumped into the floor from the bucking bull. As soon as we turned a family of cliff swallows (?) landed on the boat and found a place to get out of the wind, the pic of the bird on the vent has the others huddled in the upper left.  After midnight the wind died so I started the engine so we could make it into St Joe by the weekend.  After a couple of hours the engine decided it had enough and quit.  The wind picked back up and we sailed in to St Joe Bay dropped the hook around 10 am.  Spent the day in caskets cause we just died.  One of the birds died in the night so we had a burial at sea, took me forever to make a little flag to wrap it in.  The others left at daybreak, leaving us with thoughts of avian flu!
Look at the pic of the waves breaking over the bow and notice how much Sally is enjoying this.  Ah. . . Sailing!

The good winds that were forecasted through the weekend, 10 knots out of the SE with 1 ft waves were only to be a few hours.  About midnight, Zeus must have gotten a little perturbed with us and awoke King Neptune so two of them battered us like a badminton birdie for about 30 hours.  The winds were 18 to 24 with waves 4 to 6 with an occasional 8. We could not think  of holding any course, just kept pointed as close to the wind as we could.  We could not even go to Cuba, maybe Mexico!  

Just after daylight, Friday morning a freak wave broadsided us so hard it broke the brazing holding the autopilot arm to the rudder quadrant.  We lost all steering so I tore the bed apart  to get to the rudder shaft, the autopilot arm was blocking the rudder from turning, once I disconnected the arm the rudder could move. Now, steering was akin to riding a bronco while wearing  a blindfold.  I searched my garbage bins for several hours looking for ideas on what to do, while also trying to relieve Sally at the helm every so often cause her arms and shoulders were on fire from being so overworked.  We tried tacking to go to Panama City but could only head back where we had come from.  I finally got a brain fart, took an old genoa track, cut it down, and with two "c" clamps, was able to hold the broken part in place so we could use the auto sparingly.  That really helped but by this time Sally was through with sailing after hand steering most of the day in these conditions.   

Friday around 1800hrs we  tacked to the East and it looked like we might be able to make it 60 miles to Port St. Joe to rest up, clean up all the stuff that was dumped into the floor from the bucking bull. As soon as we turned a family of cliff swallows (?) landed on the boat and found a place to get out of the wind, the pic of the bird on the vent has the others huddled in the upper left.  After midnight the wind died so I started the engine so we could make it into St Joe by the weekend.  After a couple of hours the engine decided it had enough and quit.  The wind picked back up and we sailed in to St Joe Bay dropped the hook around 10 am.  Spent the day in caskets cause we just died.  One of the birds died in the night so we had a burial at sea, took me forever to make a little flag to wrap it in.  The others left at daybreak, leaving us with thoughts of avian flu!

Look at the pic of the waves breaking over the bow and notice how much Sally is enjoying this.  Ah. . . Sailing!

4-27-2015

Saturday we were still a little sluggish but tried to straighten up the boat as best we could.  We had high winds and rain most of the day.  I reworked the auto pilot control arm so that we could have the bed back.  The C clamps holding the bar onto the quadrant were too long and stuck up two inches higher than the bottom of the bed.  I found one small C clamp and to hold the bar down had to use pipe vise grips, it is all temporary and will re-braze as soon as I can, but we have the bed back.

Sunday Sally was still straightening up while I worked on getting the engine to run.  Took most of the day to find a cracked seal in the fuel filter housing and was able to start it around 2000 hrs.  Nothing, absolutely nothing feels better than success, except maybe clean, cool sheets on the bed when you are exhausted.

About noon we looked up and a beautiful trawler was headed right for. us.  It turned out to be the Mary D. owned by Mary and John Mcgill, on their way to Port St. Joe but were sent to check on us by Bob and Vicki Riggs.  They dropped anchor a little ways off and dingyed over for a short visit.  

Monday morning they hoisted anchor & headed to the St Joe marina and since the engine would run, we followed.  We got tied off, hooked up, signed in and headed up the dock for a burger.  We had just been seated in the restaurant when Debbie & Bob Kinler from FYC, & Sally's yoga partners, sat down to chat, 10 minutes  later Mary & John joined us making a wonderful hour long visit, much to the dismay of the waitress.

5-5-2015

This is not a journal of the trip, I still haven't finished enough chores to compose one yet and I'm stillachillin!

jerrys awesome nav station

Several have asked how was our crossing from St Joe and I thought I'd let you decide.  The attached pictures are of the nav station on Encore.  The first is as I installed it just prior to departure.  I needed to open the vertical panel on the left to adjust a few things but found it would not open without me removing the light.  The west marine store in St. Pete has a light that will allow access so I decided to wait till I replace the light to make the adjustments.  The second two pictures are after we arrived and as you can see the light is not damaged nor is the panel but it is open wide.  Now I will have to remove the light in order to close the panel so as soon as I get the new light this will fade into never never land to be with the gremlins that caused it.  I have no idea how the panel could get past the light without at least bending it, but I certainly know how the helm felt when it happened.

5-13-2015

As most of you know we were beat up pretty bad from Mobile Bay to Port St. Joe, an unintended stop over to get out of the wind and waves.  We spent a week licking our wounds and patching up a little damage.  We got a good weather forecast for 4 days of 5 -10 knots of wind and 2 ft seas so we headed out.  Just before sundown we reefed the mainsail just in case (for nonsailors, tied the sail halfway down to lessen its power in a blow). We were motorsailing so I opened the valves to divert engine coolant to the water heater to heat our shower water.  After about 5 minutes Sally shrieked, "there is smoke coming out of the the steering pedestal" so I went to the engine room which was full of steam when I opened the door so I shut the engine down waited for it to cool and replaced the coolant. When I restarted the engine, the coolant boiled out but the engine was only 180’, nothing but the coolant was hot.  I remembered Mike Connel telling me about a coolant vapor lock so I  bled what air out that I could. Restarted but no luck, so I since we had no phone service, I got out Nigel Calders book and he confirmed what Mike told me but added that most heat exchange water heaters will have vapor locks at some time in their life.  I shut the valves to the heater, replaced the fluid again, problem solved.  I know this was lengthly and TMI,  but not if it ever happens to you and you remember this!

After about 16 hours of beautiful motorsailing all hell broke loose again but this time we were hesitant to use the rigged auto pilot.  The winds were 18 - 22 knots with steep 4 -6’ seas.  After daybreak the winds were 22 - 28 knots, seas 8 - ft.  and on our nose.  I may have been in stuff this bad but was never sure but this time it was daylight and I was sure.  For a couple of hours when we would drop into the trough of a wave, the crest was even with the bimini top or above.  We still had the reefed main up to steady the boat and only with it’s help could we motor diagonally across the waves.  The winds dropped to forecast levels so we motored into Clearwater Beach, another unintentional destination.  All the overheating and torturous demands I put on the engine started the oil well in the bilge again so we decided to go back to fairhope Monday and replace the engine and trans.

Sunday night a Sailor, Ron Long, two boats down from us heard we were crossing and since he was single handing and had never crossed the gulf asked if he could tag onto us.  We left Monday morning and motorsailed toward Port St. Joe.  About an hour out we were sorta buzzed by an Coast Guard C130.  It circled several times so I thought we had set off the epirb.  Ron told us he had taken on water near Key West so the coast guard dropped a swimmer with a trash pump to pump his boat out.  I had read the report on Boat US about the key west incident so I thought maybe they were surveilling him instead of chasing me.   Before we left Fairhope I bought a FLIR camera/scope so in case one of us fell overboard at night we would be able to spot them.  I took a picture of the tagalog boat a little after midnight and pitch dark.   It was 93 yards away when I took the pic and I attached it to this, we will always have flir for night trips

5-23-2015

Welcome to the family, Jerry. I guess the sail by Honeymoon Island did it and it “seemed like a good idea”. And you have “inherited” 2 sister-in-laws, 3 sons, 8 grandchildren, 1 niece, 1 nephew, 3 great nieces, and 1 great nephew. WOW, you had a choice with Sally, but the rest you just got !!!

Thank you for taking such good care of my sister……

So glad you have joined our family and Happy Sailing on Encore.

This was our announcement of marriage on March 23, 2015. we had planned on announcement from the Caribbean, but oh well, now the rings can come out!