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!