Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Vero Beach

More southbound chugging today. We motorsailed with main and genoa all day, averaged around 7 kts and made Vero Beach 30 minutes before sunset. A bit risky as the places to anchor before Vero are pretty few and far between, but we made it in. Rafted with a Canadian couple from Ottawa on their way to the Bahamas. The municipal mooring field is very inexpensive, like 13 bucks, but they raft the boats 2 and 3 deep. Nice facilities here and a super tucked in spot. Cuttyhunk with manatees and palm trees.

Will be an easy run to Stuart tomorrow. More muni-moorings there. Seems a Florida trend for the towns to set up very cheap moorings to keep the vagrants out... Someties we're the vagrants. They are trying to outlaw anchoring. Not sure if I agree but the super cheap mooring fields with great showers, laundry and transportation, I'm a fan of.

We had some dolphins do the "playing in the bow wave" thing again today. We see dolphins every half hour, but it's really cool to have them so close to the boat. Like watching whales, it doesn't get old.

I had lots of help at the helm today. Lex stood a long watch mid day and Tyler took the wheel for an hour at the end of the day. Liza had a short trick as well. Pretty soon I'll be starting rum drinks at noon while the crew gets us where we need to go! (just kidding mom...)

More tomorrow, we haven't had a real wifi connection for a bit, so no photo uploads, but we'll find one.

A couple of updates,

We are migrating the blog to www.schnauck.com - but the old address will always work as well. Also, we ported the home/Lex cell number (781-834-2888) to google voice. So we now have 781-834-3332 and 2888 as goog numbers so we won't loose them. Three numbers (617-872-1763) now ring on one cell on the boat. We killed my cell service with AT&T and will shut the Verizon service when we cross to the Bahamas as it is astinomical for roaming. All numbers will roll to voicemail and we will be able to get messages when we have wifi in various spots.

I am going to "Jailbreak" my iPhone and buy a SIM card for it in the Bahamas when we can, so we have a cell in case of an emergency. I'll post the number when we get it.

Titusville

More chugging today although we motorsailed to get a few more tents with the west wind as we traveled the "ditch". Lots of dolphins again today and we spotted a couple of manatees, but never really got a great view for a picture. The fat seals seem to be elusive. ;-)

Titusville had a good grocery store that was super cheap - "Save-a-Lot". It's like the job lot of grocery stores. Margarete will like this - Captain Razorback for 2 bucks....

Pretty uneventful day, got diesel and water this AM and started a bit late, around 0845 and got to Tiusville at 1530 or so. We saw the folks from Duxbury at the dinghy dock when we got back from the grocery. We'll have them over for a drink later down the road.

Thanks to Karen W. by the way for the grocery bag! It gets plenty of use.

We'll shoot for an anchorage north of Vero Beach tomorrow and should be in Stewart the next day. We'll hang there for a bit before pushing down south.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Cheap Flights to Bahamas!

Just got an email from JetBlue

$129* from Boston, MA (BOS)
to Nassau, BS (NAS)

This fare is valid for travel between Dec. 6, 2011 - Feb. 15, 2012.
Fare is valid Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays only.
Blackout dates: Dec. 16, 2011 - Jan. 3, 2012.
Valid for US-originating travel only.


*Taxes, fees and restrictions apply.

Daytona Beach

Chugged upwind in the ICW today down to Daytona Beach. Beautiful day a touch over 80. We had a boat hail us from behind Rising Tide, and they said they lived in Duxbury, kept the boat in Cohassett, and best pals are NBYC members....small world.

We got in around 1500 and found the anchorage we were shooting for to be shoaled up and too shallow. I didn't want to risk running farther south and not having a home, so we pulled into the muni- marina here. We'll top up fuel tomorrow AM and make the run to around Titusville tomorrow. Next stops will be around Vero, then Stuart where we hope to catch Good Trade and then spend some time with Randy in Hobe Sound.

We found a good pizza joint close by, topped up the tanks and hit the hay. A bit too early to bed for me, so now I'm typing at O - dark thirty....

We're to have a west wind today, so we'll hope to sail some of the ICW and save some fuel. More tomorrow. Y'all enjoy your day. ;-)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

St. Augustine, Fla









Offshore Passage to St. Augustine

We left the Turkey day anchorage at 0700 bound for Beaufort (Pronounced Bew-fert - not to be confused with Bo-Fert, NC).  We had to wait a bit for the bascule bridge just north of town and anchored just above it for 45 minutes or so.  It's one of the bridges with a goofy schedule and doesn't open on request or every hour and half hour like many in the ICW.  We pulled the hook and passed through at 0900 and tied up at a fuel dock to take on fuel and water for our run outside the ICW that would let us avoid Georgia and the super skinny water we have been hearing about since New Jersey.

I made a few new pals on the dock as the water tanks filled and managed to pull a small convoy together for the run out the Beaufort inlet and the ensuing passage to Florida.  The forecast was excellent, calling for 3-4' seas out of the east and 10-15 knots out of the northeast with seas subsiding to 2-3 feet and winds decreasing to 5-10 knots by sunset.

I wish I could miss sales forecasts as often as NOAA blows their numbers and still get paid....

We had a great sail heading out of the inlet, chatted up a few boats heading our way and even had one woman call us on the radio from a passing trawler to say how great Zusammen looked under sail with our big ensign flying from the backstay.  (kids and Lex were below schooling, maybe she was really commenting on the captain?)

We saw a bunch of dolphins playing in the long inlet, the kids saw a few do flips in the air which was a big hit.  The seas were only around 2' inside the inlet which extends for a number of miles.  As we cleared the last of the sandbars to our north (which protect the inlet from waves) the seas picked up a bit to maybe 4' but we had good wind on our stern as we turned right to 210 degrees to make St. Mary's Inlet and Fernadina Beach, Florida.

Sailing dead down wind in a cruising boat is a bit of a challenge and I always run through a barrage of tactics that really don't work to make anything easier (save rigging a preventer, which does help).  Sailing wing and wing in a quartering 4' sea is noisy and a challenge to hold while steering.  I chatted with a couple of the boats behind us about their plans.  One was flying only a genoa and another was sailing a hotter angle, going farther offshore and planned to drop down when the wind shifted to the east in an hour or so.  I stuck to the rhumb line and wrestled the downwind leg with both sails in around 15-20 knts.

We got a call from the folks running farther offshore (they were now well out of site) around 1500 and they said they were bailing out and heading into Savannah, GA.  They had a LONG way to go to get back into Savannah, but they weren't in any rush.  I am sure we'll see them again on the way south or down in the Bahamas.

When they bailed out, I was a little anxious as the wind was significantly higher than predicted and waves were now well over 4' regularly.  Were we making the right decision?  I checked the forecast again and seas and wind were still predicted to subside.  Bailing to Savannah would mean entering in the dark and we would have to go back outside from there as Zusammen is too deep to travel the ICW in Georgia.  We pushed on.

Happy Destiny a Tartan 4300 was still behind around 4 miles and chugging along at about the same pace.  The wind started to move a bit east and we were more happily sailing on a broad reach.  I chatted with Happy Destiny some about arrival times, and even though we had been told we could get into Fernadina Beach at night, we both decided to push for the next Class A inlet, the St. John's River.  The inlet to inlet distance was 117 miles as opposed to 98 or so.   The extra miles would get us in around or just after sunrise and with the seas now more like 4-6'  with an occasional rogue bigger, I felt much better about getting in to a new inlet with a fair tide and current, in daylight.  Additionally we would have a huge lift from a 3knt+ current in the inlet at St. John's river that would carry quite a bit south in the ICW and allow us to get all the way to St. Augustine if the crew could manage the extra distance.  We agreed to chat every hour with Happy Destiny, welcome conversation on lonely watches.
We altered course a few degrees to the east and sailed on.  As the sun was setting we were still making over six knots and having a nice sail but the sea was rolling us quite a bit, and nobody felt much like dinner.  Liza was the first to crash and Tyler was a champ staying up with me and then Lex though the first night watches.  Some great conversations were had during the wee hours with the boy staring up at the stars in the cockpit while I was driving.

For anybody that hasn't been offshore (this is really near-shore, but out of sight of land and lights) at night in a boat, you should put it on your bucket list.  You'll never see more stars.

Lex and I stood the last hour of dark together as the radar filled up with targets as we approached St. John's River inlet.  We sailed around a bunch of shrimpers (I think they were shrimping...) and finally made it to the jetties.  The current was tearing and we blew in at almost 10 knots.    Happy Destiny and Pura Vida  were not far behind.

After Liza had presents and some birthday goofing around while underway, we all decided to press on to St. Augustine.  We didn't complain about the motoring as we were all pretty tired of the quartering sea outside and the flat calm of the ICW was actually very welcome.

The kids ooohed and ahhhed at the houses in Florida along the ICW.  The morning was sunny and warm and you could feel a significant change in the humidity.  All great stuff!



Liza's new penguin watch from G&P 


Making cupcakes with leftover batter (rum cake was requested)

John making candles from toothpicks as we couldn't locate the real things

Cool aircraft carrier we saw in Beaufort, SC

A little chilly leaving Charleston

Parting shot of the 'Battery' in Charleston

Pelicans

Great paint job on this sport fish

Friday, November 25, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! (yesterday)

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! We finally left Charleston, which definitely gave us a reason to be thankful. (I am also very thankful for my family and friends and being able to take this incredible trip) We traveled down the ICW, as the wave height was too big to get outside.  I cooked a Thanksgiving feast, which everyone seemed to enjoy, even a pecan pie! My turkey came out surprisingly well, I was a little nervous about the roasting capabilities of my oven.

We anchored just south of Brickyard Creek, a very quiet spot with 2 or 3 houses nearby.  We were quite near the channel and the boat was hit by sticks every now and again, moving with the current, which was a bit disconcerting.  It was a beautiful night, very clear and calm.  This morning we left at 7 to make a swing bridge that opens on the hour.  When we got close, we realized that it doesn't open for rush hour, 7-9, so now we are sitting at anchor waiting.  Its a lovely morning, very sunny, a bit cold though.  We're hoping it will be the last morning of jackets.  We're going offshore today at Beaufort, and planning to come in again at Fernandina Beach Inlet.  It was 20 degrees warmer there this monring.

Liza just woke up, came running thru the boat saying "I'm 9!!" We told her not until tomorrow, to which she replied, "but it was tomorrow yesterday!" Poor Lize, what a disappointment!



Monday, November 21, 2011

Magic Kingdom

Really fun day yesterday at the Magic Kingdom! It was extremely crowded, but we still had a great time, and maximized our use of the Fast Pass. Eliza's favorite ride was Space Mountain...go figure. She wanted to ride it again, but we couldn't fast pass it and the wait was 70 minutes!! Tyler loved Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. I was in the front seat with him on Splash Mountain and was soaked from head to foot. Luckily it was 85 out! We met the Borduas family for lunch, which was great. We have a special picture to post of John and Kyle when they forward it. We stayed at the park from 9 a.m. until 7:30, and then went to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Planet Hollywood. The restaurant was a lot of fun and the kids loved finding movie memorabilia they recognized. We were back at the hotel by 10 and collapsed into bed. Today we laid by the pool until 11, and now are getting in the car for the drive back to Charleston. We will be moving back onto the boat tomorrow!!!!
Pulling the sword from the stone! Seemed to work every 3rd kid for some reason...
Main Street Disney
Trying to keep the kids under control!
Planet Hollywood
Leather outfits from 'Wild Hogs'
Sailing ship from 'The Princess Bride'

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Great Day!!

I have to say that our day at Disney today was far better than we could have imagined. We went to the Animal Kingdom, and rode every ride possible, saw tons of animals, and a couple of shows. The Lion King show was excellent, right off Broadway, really impressive. The scariest ride was Mt. Everest, and I think Eliza will probably now never go on a roller-coaster again! It was pretty scary, but I loved every second of it! The definite highlight of the day was when we were asked to be in the Mickey Holiday parade. We were dressed up in costume and put on our own float! The parade was 45 minutes thru the park, with hundreds of people waving and taking our picture. We felt like celebrities, and by the end our cheeks were hurting from smiling for so long. Tyler said he couldn't do it again, but Liza said she could do it every day of her life! Tomorrow we are going to Magic Kingdom. Coincidentally, the Borduas family are here, so we look forward to meeting them and going on some rides. Check out our parade pictures below!! Guess who enjoyed it the most?
Grooming goats!
Check out the mouse ears in the wool!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Disney!

So we left this morning at about 7, and drove the entire 6+ hours without telling the kids where we were going. Tyler asked questions non-stop for about 5 hours I think. We really thought they'd figure it out, especially when we gave them the hints that there were animals and rides! We even got into Orlando, and saw huge signs for Disney World, and still no idea. When I couldn't take it anymore, and basically told them, they both said that they knew where we were, and that Disney was here, but it was something they never thought they would get Daddy to go to! Crowds, rides...not his favorite, and they know it! They both thought there must be something else here that they were being taken to. It was pretty funny. We all are excited to go to Magic Kingdom tomorrow. Its supposed to be 81 and partly cloudy, perfect!

We're going to DisneyWorld!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Surprise for kiddos...

So.....
Zusammen won't be back in the water until Monday/Tuesday.  I just put the kids in bed and packed the rooms.  We're going to move out to Orlando and take the kids to Disney for a couple of days.  I can't wait to start driving and not tell them where we are going!  It's a good 6 hours down there, but we're getting pretty tapped out with Charleston.  We were planning on doing a Disney trip for a couple of days when Zusammen was down around Daytona, but given the (gulp) near month we have been in Charleston we won't want to slow the migration down once we get rolling again.

Anybody with Disney intel (Gina and Steve?) - call me in the car tomorrow!

The long term forecast still looks good for an offshore run on Tuesday/Wednesday, but a lot can change.  I told a pal today on the phone, "we're like the bumper sticker - One Day at a Time".  We're hoping we can put some serious miles under the keel when we push off next week and get to some Florida water for Thanksgiving and Liza's Birthday.

I'm sure there will be lots of pictures in the next couple of days.  We'll keep ya posted...

Had a nice day today - I did some lighting stuff on the boat while Lex taught - IMTRA lights look great and really brighten the old girl up!  Back to l'hotel for lunch and then we all went off to a local park - very cool place with integrated website to narrate the nature trail on your iPhone.  Pretty neat.

Off to bed - can't wait to goof on the kids in the morning.  I think I'll tell 'em we're doing a field trip to a Math Camp or something...

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Saturday and Sunday

We spent all afternoon yesterday drying out the boat for her water test on Monday. The yard is going to dip the boat to make sure the rudder is no longer leaking. We also started a new project (of course) to address the issue of water in the southern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. Water is hard to find, and when you do, its about .50 per gallon, which means $50 every 5 days for us. Too expensive when you have no income. So...we have added y-valves to our scupper pipes, and connected a new line to the water tank filler pipe. With just an inch of rain, we should get a good amount of water in our tank. In case any of you are thinking, "ewwwww, wouldn't that be dirty?", we have 3 filters that all our water always runs through. I also add a tsp. of bleach to our tanks with every fill, to help keep everything clean. Our water actually tastes a lot better than the water here in the hotel.

Other excitement, Eliza lost a tooth yesterday! She was so pleased about it. I have included a picture of her, the gap is really hard to see because her teeth are so small, but its her bottom left jaw.

Today so far we have had brunch, and now the kids are watching the Harry Potter extravaganza that's on this weekend, John is reading, and I'm keeping y'all up to date. (so southern aren't I?)


This afternoon we went to the beach and played for awhile. The kids found lots of hermit crabs, and played in the tide pools.
















Thursday, November 10, 2011

An Update and some clarification on Zusammen Status

So after speaking to my pal Rick and Bruder Tim, I thought I would post a bit of an update.  Zusammen is on the hard at City Boatyard which is 12 or so NM northwest of the City Marina that we were at for the last two weeks.  The boat was partially repaired at the dock at City Marina.  The pushpit (solid part of the lifelines in the stern), the davits (thick metal arms that hold the dinghy out of the water while sailing), dinghy and dinghy outboard are now all repaired.  The davits and pushpit had to be removed and sent to a stainless welder to be straightened and polished.  The dinghy had been scuffed where it contacts the starboard davit arm and the outboard was painted; it looked like an angle grinder was run up the lower unit (part that is in the water while driving).

While Zusammen was undergoing these repairs we were going back and forth with Knucklehead's insurance company about a water leak that we discovered.  It took us over a week to finally nail down where it was coming from.  We did so after speaking to many experts and pals (Big "shout outs" to Dick on Cambia who spent sleepless nights pondering our challenge while pinned to a dock in Florida; George C and Bob M for answering countless queries).  We had eliminated all likely spots that this leak could be coming from and were left with the rudder post.  In Zusammen, the rudder is mounted in a tube that is fiber-glassed into a space between the hull and a structural "box" that sits above the hull by ten inches or so.  That box (shaped like a trapezoidal prism inside the hull, wide side down) has only a couple of holes in it, making inspection of the rudder post impossible.  We tried mirrors, lights, digital cameras and video.  The insurance company would not authorize any work to be done to fix the leak because they couldn't see it.  Any further work would be on my nickle unless it was later proven to be caused by the accident.  Great.

We believed, that this leak had to be caused by the accident as we never had this much water in the bilge before...I hired a surveyor (Janet Peck - she's great) to come in with an arthroscopic scope connected to a video camera and a computer for capturing what the camera "sees".  She climbed into the lazzerette, got the camera rolling and after a few minutes, I heard "Ahhhhh, there you are" from the bowels of Zusammen. (Get it, "bowels" - athroscopic scope?, ok I won't quit my day job.  Wait, I don't have a day job...)  The cause of the leak is a small bit of "tabbing" around the rudder post that has broken free from the hull.  "Tabbing" is heavy fiberglass cloth that is laid into corners at angles to join structural components of the boat.  when the bottom of the rudder was pushed hard sideways through the water (as we spun 180 degrees during the accident) the tabbing at the post was pulled up from the hull creating a weak spot that water could "weep" through.

The surveyor captured video, wrote a report and sent all this evidence along to the insurance company.  The insurer wanted to inspect Zusammen when she was out of the water to make sure the leak wasn't the cause of an impact, like a grounding or hitting a log or something.  When they were satisfied, they let me know they would pay the bills associated with the repair as well as a place for us to stay and rental car.

I was down at the boat this AM and the rudder was pulled out last night, the rest of the autopilot gear was pulled this afternoon, their team had a meeting to devise a plan and to get the quote off to the insurance company (I can't even guess - but not cheap).  I feel confident that they will do a good job.  The surveyor know they glass guys at the yard and recommended them for this work.  I am hoping that we'll have holes cut tomorrow and they guys will be well on their way.  I'll head back there early during school time and check in.

A huge relief to find the problem and be getting fixed by good guys.  Lex and I are a bit stir crazy in Charleston and want to keep moving south, but the kids are having fun and the weather has been great, so no worries.  We'll be in southern Florida soon.  If we get a good weather window, we'll try to go outside from here straight to Feradina Beach and then another outside jump to Saint Augustine.  We'll keep you posted.

Thanks to Kinder for getting us some new lights and Bill for some advice.  Best of luck with the boat search and the new boat (respectively)!

Beautiful Beach Day!