Cruising LIfe, Repairing things in different locations

The quote is actually repairing things in exotic locations but this didn't seem to qualify as really exotic.  Anyway, we have another equipment malfunction.  We have a very nice fridge/freezer that have chosen this location to start acting up.  Even though David is a genius, he cannot yet work miracles.  He has been through all the steps needed to troubleshoot the problem but had to call in help with actually getting it fixed.  The technician said he had done all the right things so that was encouraging, sort of. He can't make it out until tomorrow afternoon so we sit and do laundry and other maintenance items.  Oh well, that's why we work to build the cruising kitty.

Once again, everything has to come out to dig for parts.

The suspected culprits, that box that has the wires running to it is a controller.

Taking things apart to reach the control in side the fridge.

Poor, sick fridge

In Clearwater

When we crossed the gulf we expected to find shorts weather but not so far.  The wind was blowing straight out of the north so we hung around the boat until the afternoon when we ventured out to see the place around us and get a great meal.  The Clearwater Beach area is typically crowded and full of snowbirds.  A nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to put up with it full time.

Walking along the gulf side street.

Frenchy's is one of our favorite places to eat.  Thank you Cece and Craig for introducing us to this place.

Some of the smaller hotels really make an effort to stand out.  This mural covered the entire side of the building.  On the balcony side, they had life sized statures of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and a Firefighter.

This was the most unusual sunset we've ever seen.  If you look closely, (clicking on any picture will enlarge it) you can see a lot of pale green mixed with the pink of sunset.  Maybe a precursor to the famous "green flash".

On the way to Clearwater

The trip from Tarpon Springs was comfortably slow.  The wind wasn't in our favor so we motored down the ICW from Anclote Key to Clearwater Yacht Club where we had made reservations.  The way was scenic and relaxing, until, wait for it, we ran aground!!  To sailors, this is quite embarrassing and I was at the wheel so doubly embarrassing as the "woman driver" stigma.  In my defense, I was within the channel on the chart plotter and inside the marks but close.  Like all sand, it had moved where it wanted and it wanted to be inside the channel and under our keel.  I tried all the usual things of backing off, turning to deeper water with full power to no avail.  Then we raised sail, David hung on to the end of the boom all in an attempt to lean the boat enough to break us loose.  Mind you, we pay for towing insurance but it is the call of shame and last resort for Mr. Tye.  With a falling tide and sunset approaching, we made the call.With an hours wait ahead of us, we watched the other boats navigate in the deeper water just feet away.  Then, a power boat came by throwing up a huge wake.  Ordinarily we'd consider this to be extremely rude but that day we hoped the wake could lift us off the bar and we'd power to deep water.  Thankfully, that is exactly what happened and we bumped our way along to better water and on to the yacht club.  Once past all other grounding possibilities, we call Towboat US and canceled the cry for rescue.  Once we were settled and went to the Tiki Bar for refreshments we met our rescuers.  They were on the return trip from a parade in downtown Tampa and a few on board were sailors and immediately recognized our plight.  They had hoped they had shaken us free and we were all happy with the outcome.  Small world for sure.  Sorry no pictures of the grounding, I was a tad busy.

Houses along the ICW.  This is typical in Florida now, huge houses built close together all along the water.  In more urban areas, the houses are replaced by condos to stack the tourists in.

Dunedin Bridge going up for us.  Sorry drivers.

The bridge works always fascinate me.  The giant gears and machinery to make it all work

This a a gulf side spoil island.  Since it takes much more of the brunt of wind and waves, the vegetation is mostly scrubby mangroves.  The spoil is the result of dredging the channel.

On the other side of the channel, the more protected islets can support larger trees.

Our first sunset in Clearwater, this trip.  So happy to be in safe and floating!

Autohelm Issues

Well tomorrow came and after a good breakfast, we thought about our problem with the autohelm.  We were not willing to cruise much farther without it and needed to figure out our options.  After talking with our friend Jess who had experienced a similar issue, David dug into the aft end of the boat.  This involved pulling everything out of the aft lazerette and climbing in there.  I've spent some time in there when we installed our stern ladder and it's not a place to hang out and relax.  Anyway, with a line of inquiry supplied by Jess, he found the problem.  Apparently a fitting has been slipping down from its correct position and with all the pounding from the trip across it came completely out of alignment.  It was not a super simple fix but it is now fixed.  We had been trying to figure out how we'd afford a new one so we're both happy sailors!  We plan to motor down to the Clearwater YC and sit for a few days, do laundry and use someone else' water to shower.

Going in deep.

Lots of stuff fits in there.  This is only some of what came out.

Working in tight spaces, a lot by feel only.

Levering the part back into alignment.

Just in case you wanted to see what it looks like all back in alignment.

Anclote Key

Anclote Key is just west of Tarpon Springs.  Ordinarily we would make the trip up the river and stay in Tarpon for a while but when we arrived yesterday afternoon we just wanted to stop bouncing around and get settled before the forecasted rain showed up.  Plus, we knew we would have to deal with the autopilot issues eventually.  We have anchored in this area before and it is beautiful.  The island has a state park complete with a light house you can visit.  There is a ferry over here during the warmer months and we're in a popular anchorage. Right now, however, we have the place to ourselves.  The weather is too cold and wet to make the trip over to the island, maybe next time.

The Anclote Lighthouse.  This section of land is really not much more than mangroves and there is a lot of shallow water so the lighthouse is crucial to people navigating around here at night.

Not sure of the story on this boat, but it's bound to be a sad one.

Happy man after a safe trip, warm shower and cold bubbly.

Across the Gulf of Mexico

We have crossed the gulf from various spots to and from the panhandle and some are better than others as far as equipment working and comfort.  While this crossing started out a bit challenging but ok it didn't stay that way.  We left with strong winds of 15-20 knots, well within our comfort zone and sail plan.  We were running pretty much before the wind so we had the boom tied off to one side (prevented) and the jib poled to the other side using our spinnaker pole.  This is a great way to go long distances but does reduce your ability to make quick changes.  We left Panama City with the forecast of the winds easing to 10-15 kts. all the way across the gulf with the waves dying off to 2-4 feet around midnight.  What we got was quite different.  The winds continued to build all night as did the waves.  Before things did calm down, we were seeing steady wind a bit over 25 kts with gusts as high as 33 kts.  This converts to almost 40 mph and the waves were in the 8 to 10 foot range.  In the middle of the trip, the waves were coming at us from different quarters making it like being in a washing machine.  While we never feared for our lives, it did make the ol' fun meters peg out in the negative zone for both of us.  The queasy feeling didn't leave until long after we were at anchor.  During the trip, we did start to reevaluate our long term cruising goals, such as, do we really want to do this for days at a time?  Oh, to add to the lack of joy, our autopilot quit on us about 70 miles (12 hours) offshore.  Since both of us were feeling punk, we were laying on the cushions in the cockpit taking turns looking around for other boats then laying back down.  When the autohelm gave out, we had to take turns keeping the boat on track, usually for no more than an hour at a time.  As things started to calm down, we were better able to stay for longer periods. Since we have been completely spoiled by the "third crew member" there was a relearning curve of maintaining our heading with the confused seas.  We were so glad to finally get the hook down and have things settle down.  The cabin looked a wreck as things were tossed around.  Fortunately only soft things like blankets and pillows and changes of clothes.  It looked sort of like my cedar chest had exploded.  After getting things all sorted out, we had a nice soup supper after toasting our safe arrival with a bottle of bubbly.  Sitting here the day after, we did an after-action analysis and think our only real mistake was trusting the forecast.  If we had instead reduced sail before dark, we would not have been faced with having to go on a tossing deck in the dark to undo all our preventers and take the pole down so we could reconfigure our sails.  One huge plus were the two new LED spreader lights we installed.  They made the foredeck much safer to work on and I was able to work things from the cockpit since I could see what needed to be done.  While we're not in a big hurry to experience it all again, we know that Blue Moon and we can take it.  Of course, being able to find a safe anchorage and "think about that tomorrow" was a nice thing too.

Headed out the St. Andrew's Bay pass.

Boat headed in the pass.  Plenty of room for both of us.

Gorgeous sky.

This was about all the sunset we got.  No red sky at night sailor's delight for us.

Running wing and wing.

A nice ending to a tough trip.

Saint Andrew's Bay Yacht Club

One of the great benefits of belonging to the Fort Walton Yacht Club (besides the wonderful people) is the reciprocal benefits of visiting other yacht clubs and meeting more wonderful people.  All along the Gulf coast and all of Florida we are welcome in sister clubs.  In fact, we have visited and been welcome in non-coastal clubs such as the Chicago Yacht Club.  Note to fellow cruisers, good to be a member, worth the price of admission.  I know where all the washer and dryers are located, rates are wonderfully low for slip and fuel, and never had a bad meal.  A definite win-win for cruisers and other boaters.  No, I did not get paid to say that!  Anyway, with our engine issue resolved for now, we came to the Saint Andrew's Bay YC to enjoy a shower with their water, a nice meal and some great company.  We met folks who are serious racers, fun cruisers and generally nice folks.  Tomorrow we plan to cross the Gulf of Mexico to someplace farther south on the peninsula.  Where and when we make landfall will have a lot to do with the wind and the consistent speed we can make.  The wind direction will also play a factor.  We want to sail comfortably which means we want the wind to be off our beam (alongside us).  That way we won't heel too much and the ride will be smooth.  Since we don't have reservation or a particular interest in a spot, we will aim for anywhere between Tarpon Springs and Bradenton YC on Snead Island. We will configure the boat for offshore in the morning and leave about 8am putting us across by Saturday night-Sunday morning.  See ya'll then.


The back lawn and docks of the club.

The street entrance to the club.  We've always arrived by boat so only see this when we go out walking.

 



Blue Moon as seen from our walk.

Blue Moon up close.



Cute planters that need to come to our yard!!!

Almost show stopper

When we settled into Smack Bayou David did the responsible thing and checked the engine out.  What he saw was bad news, oil in the low part of the engine pan.  We couldn't do much about it then and decided to worry about it tomorrow.  In the morning he pulled the things apart and started hunting for the culprit.  After lots of wiping, tightening, running the engine, more tightening and more running he thought it was fixed.  We took it for a long run down the back and back and all seems well.  Alleluia!!!



Oh no!!!




Oh Yes!

Blue Moon on the dock after a successful test run.

One happy man.

Things to see from the water

The world definitely looks different from the water.  If you spend your life on the water, these pictures are not any big deal.  If you spend most of your life shoreside, they can be fascinating.  I spend enough time ashore to think their cool to look at and imagine.

These big ships are identical but we couldn't figure out what they were built to do.

Panama City is on a deep bay with a wide opening to the Gulf of Mexico.  They are constantly trying to attract shipping business, especially from the Panama Canal Zone, hence the name of the city.

This is a Catalina 25.  Our first monohull was this same model.  We called it our 4-door family boat since it was a huge change for our Hobie 18.  We would take us and the three girls for weekend cruises.  It was a great platform to learn how to cruise.

One of the big boats headed to the gulf.

The great white hunter.

All these containers full of stuff going somewhere.  Every cruising sailor's nightmare is to run into a container that has fallen off in the middle of the night.  They aren't lit and they don't show up well on radar.

This paper mill has huge piles of pulp waiting to be processed.  Looks like sand dunes from a distance.

There is a test center for new engine development in Panama City.  You might think it's an exciting job to jet up and down the waterway but I bet it gets monotonous after a while.

Smack Bayou

After a nice motor down the ICW, we were able to sail the rest of the way to our anchorage.  We like Smack Bayou because it is secluded and has 360 degree protection from wind and waves.  We've never been in with Blue Moon but took it slowly and soon were all snug and secure for the front blowing through.

Com center for Pat.  David has the single sideband by the nav station.

Snug anchorage off the ICW

Marsh grasses are home to so many things.  Thank goodness no mosquitoes this time of year.

Huge osprey nest.  Quite the view for their hunting grounds.

Managing 12 volt power for keeping the computer and phone fully powered.  It unplugs for easy stowage.