In the Navy

Let me set the stage for you:  I was on watch somewhere between Charleston and Virginia Beach.  It was the midnight to 3 am shift, pitch black, moonless night.  Craig was asleep down below in our cabin, Dan was asleep on the settee in the salon (the girls were in their cabins sleeping too).  The wind was light and we were motor sailing. 

I was minding my own business scanning the horizon front and back to make sure I knew where other boats were.  All of a sudden I hear this loud boom, like an explosion.  Dan sat up as I screeched from the sound.  We determined it was a sonic boom.  At the same time, I saw this very bright light that looked like it was coming right at us very fast.  I was convinced it was a helicopter and it was going to hit our mast, it was flying so low.  Keep in mind that when you are the only one awake, out in the middle of nowhere, your mind can plays tricks on you.  I’m just saying.

I think I told Dan that that bright white light was freaking me out at least 5 times.  I think he got it when he said “I think we’ve established that”.   He told me it was a fishing boat and that they meander around haphazardly and to just keep an eye on it.  So that’s what I did for the rest of my watch.  I went to bed at 3 am when Dan came on for the dreaded 3 to 6 am shift.  When I awoke in the morning, Craig and Dan told me that when the sun came up, they could clearly see that in fact it was not a fishing tournament going on (as Dan first thought).  It was the US Navy.  We sailed right through their circle of boats surrounding an aircraft carrier.  Yikes!  Dan said they followed us for about 10 miles during his watch.  Double yikes!

We were joking that they watched us with their night vision binoculars and that “Anything Goes” is now classified.

On our way into Rhode Island, off the coast of Connecticut, we encountered a submarine – the US Navy once again.  This is particularly funny because our friends on Escape Velocity warned us of possible submarines in Montauk Bay.  When I told our trusty captain, he laughed at the thought.  Low and behold, we saw a submarine!  We watched to see what direction they were going and determined we were in their way.  No sooner did we decide that, we heard two short horn blasts coming from the sub (two short blasts means that they are changing course to port).  They passed us at our stern.  We joked once again that we were their nemesis and they recognized us by our ‘screw signature’.

Proof positive!

We Made It!

Hallelujah!  We made it to Rhode Island (Massachusetts to be exact) in one piece, safe and sound.  The boat has a few repairs necessary in order to move on safely and comfortably.  Captain Dan was the best insurance we could have purchased.  We are tied to the dock at Dan's friends house in Swansea, MA. between Bristol and Somerset on Mt. Hope Bay.  We have fresh water, power, access to a washer and dryer and a car to go to the store.  It is so beautiful here in New England.  It reminds us a lot of Northern Michigan.

 Enjoying the ride through Newport Harbor

 A round the world trimaran sailing (practicing perhaps?) in Newport Harbor

 Goof Balls!

 Newport Harbor where the America's Cup took place.  We arrived just after the race had finished for the day. 

 Lighthouse entering Mt. Hope Bay

Seawater rainbows in the trampoline

 

Dan's friends houses (yellow & red roof to the left)

Yesterday, we decompressed a bit, ran some errands and the girls played on the beach.  Kate was first off the boat and almost immediately slipped on a rock and sliced the bottom of her foot open.  As Maggie screams "Kate's gushing blood!".  Luckily for us, we have a doctor on board.  He cleaned it up and put a few steri strips on and she was as good as new (but can't walk on it for 3-4 days and no swimming for a week or so).

Kate squeezing Maggie's hand while Craig cleans out the cut.  OUCHY!

Later that afternoon we were invited to a BBQ at one of Dan's relatives houses in Bristol.  Dan comes from a big family!  After dinner, we went to a concert at the waterfront park.  The night was complete with a cup of Del's infamous frozen lemonade!

Virginia Beach

It has been a relaxing day here in Virginia Beach, anchored on Lake Wesley, while we wait for our weather window to open again.  The temperature was a cool 68 this morning with wind blowing from the north.  Craig and Dan got the dinghy motor cleaned up and working again.  Yesterday we ended up rowing our dinghy back to the boat because there was water in the fuel.  Row, row, row your boat.  Not!  Craig had to come rescue us in the kayak.  It didn't help that we had little helpers named Kate and Olivia.
Today I took the girls around the corner to the beach to play in the waves.  We had quite a bit of drama when the waves were breaking over the back of the dinghy and flooding the boat, as we approached the beach.  A nice man helped drag it up the beach.  All the while I was wondering how in the heck we would manage to get it back in the water!  It's funny now to think back on the debockle we had getting it back in the water, complete with me up to my waist in the water (no swimsuit, mind you).
We are planning to leave tomorrow morning for the last leg of this passage, with the final stop in Rhode Island.  We'll be in touch soon.

Virginia Beach

Olivia and Kate enjoying the kayak

Playing in the ocean!

Virginia Beach on Dwellable

Another Detour

We decided to leave Charleston without fixing our autopilot because we had a good weather window to get around Cape Hatteras (notourisly dangerous in bad weather).  We left Charleston Friday afternoon under a crystal clear, blue-sky.  The harbor was dotted with sailboats and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge in the background.   We sailed passed Fort Sumter and 2 tugboats pulling barges.  The winds were mild and all was good.  No one threw up on this leg, although I came close once.  We sailed for 3 nights and arrived in Virginia Beach on Monday afternoon.  We ducked into Wesley Lake (just off the ocean) to wait for the cold front to move through.  In the afternoon, just after we fueled up and put water in the tanks, a nasty thunderstorm barreled down on us.  We decided to stay at the dock until it passed.  We were really glad we did, as this squall brought very strong winds (sustained 34 knots registered by our wind vane), lightning and heavy rain!  The wind whipped our full enclosure from its snaps (we’ll have to repair that!).  Since we were still at the dock, we took full advantage of the city water supply and took much needed showers!  We anchored the boat, ate soup complete with focaccia bread from the St Augustine farmers market for dinner and hit the sack early.

The winds are blowing out of the north today (Tuesday June 26) just as predicted and it's much cooler.  Offshore (in our path) the winds are 20-30 knots with 7-11 foot seas.  We are going to sit tight here in our protected lake until the winds change and head out in the morning.  It should take us 2 ½ days to get to Rhode Island from here (Friday).

 Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

 Fort Sumter

 Riding on the bow in the harbor

Tug Boat pulling a barge

A small interruption

They say that your first passage, something inevitably goes wrong.  Well for us it was 2 things.  We had to make a detour to Charleston, South Carolina.  We arrived at 3:30 am this morning.
We left St. Augustine fuel dock and passed under the Bridge of Lions at 4:30 pm Tuesday June 19th.  We headed out to sea to find the Gulf Stream.  About 20 miles off shore, we were headed north to Rhode Island.  Yeah!  The seas were rough and the winds were about 15-20 knots.  We were better prepared this time by taking our sea sickness medicine ahead of time.  The winds were from the North East, which wasn't perfect, but we knew they would be changing by morning to a more favorable direction.
The first item to go was the autopilot.  It shut itself off around 11 pm, sounding an alarm.  Autopilot is like cruise control in your car.  It drives the boat for you, on the course you set to your destination.  It is truly a wonderful electronic to have on board.  And when it doesn't work, that means you have to steer the boat 100% of the time.  This is hard to do for 6 days straight, 24/7!
Then at about 2:30 in the morning, the outhaul snapped in half.  The outhaul is the line that keeps the main sail tight in the boom.  This was  a brand new line we had made before we left.  Seems the guy from the store sold Craig the wrong line. The learning curve is sometimes pretty steep!
So, here we are in beautiful Charleston fixing the boat.  We called a rigger (line specialist) to make us a new outhaul with the correct type of line.  We are waiting for the autopilot repair guy to come out and take a look to see what's wrong.  In the meantime, we gave the boat a bath, Craig fixed our steaming light and also repaired the wind vane at the top of the mast.  We'll let you know when we are ready to head out again.

Guess where Craig is taking this picture from?

Timing is everything

I don't have enough time in the day to get all the postings I wanted to get written and get ready to leave on our first ever long passage.  So, instead, I will give you the low down of what is going to happen and then I will play catch up later.  So it might seem like we are going forward and then backwards again.  I tried to post Maggie's video tonight but it said it was blocked for some reason.  Stay tuned for that....

This past week has been another whirlwind of activity.  Instead of packing, we are happily unpacking.  It's like being in a new house, only smaller, waaay smaller.  It's like going back to your first apartment but with a husband, 3 kids and all their 'stuff'.  But I am not complaining.  It was a beautiful sunny, warm - not too hot, kind of day today.  Every other day has been interrupted with a huge thunderstorm and was sticky humid and hot.  Again, I am not complaining.  There has been a plethora of things happening to the boat - either by us or by the St. Augustine Marine Center.  It's hard work getting a boat ready for a life at sea.  There are lots of new systems to get up and running - like the all important wifi connection! 

Our captain, Dan, is arriving tomorrow and we are planning to leave on Tuesday.  This is, of course, if the wind cooperates and changes to anything without the letter "N" (which means winds out of the north).  If we can't start our passage, we could go up the ICW (inter-coastal waterway) until the weather window is just perfect.  Say a prayer, cross your fingers, stand on your head....whatever it takes so we can be freed from the dock.

At Last

Let's see, where to begin?  It's been a long time since the last posting and I truly apologize.  Without further ado, let's begin from the start, or the last posting, to get you up to speed.

On our boat, at last!

To our devoted followers, our occasional followers, our random followers and everyone in between.  Our adventure has begun!  WooHoo.  It’s hard to believe that nearly 12 months ago we decided to take the leap.  We could not have done it without the support and encouragement of our family and friends, even though some of you thought we were a little nuts at first.  Cheers to you for helping us get here because without you, we’d still be stuck in Dallas!

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends that are our family away from home.  Maggie and Kate both had going away parties hosted by their friends.  Kate's was a surprise to boot!  Craig and I also had our own amazing Bon Voyage party hosted by our wonderful friends.  It was a glorious Caribbean affair, pool side that lasted (for some of us) until 3 am!  Thank you!!

 I won’t dwell on the negative, horrible, grinding facets of getting here.  Except I will say that despite having 3 garage sales, giving stuff away and putting items out by the street with signs that say “free”, we have a LOT of stuff.  Where did it all come from?  I do hope we come home and realize we don’t need it and can get rid of more!!!   We did fit a lot in the attic and had room to spare in the storage unit.  Phew!  This, of course, would not be complete without some sort of mishap, or two.  The electricity went out on the third floor 2 days before Craig was leaving and Maggie's ankle swelled up and started hurting again (hence the boot in the pictures) at the same time.  We scrambled to get an electrician to fix things and raced up to the storage unit to find the box that had Maggie's boot. 

Road Trip!

At the airport, ready to take off

Craig and Maggie's road trip to Florida was delayed by a day because we just unequivocally ran out of time.  That and we realized we were not spring chickens and didn’t want (or need) to pull an all nighter to get things done.  The movers were delayed, which conflicted with the carpet cleaners and the car still needed to be packed.  It was downright chaos down to the wire.  In the end, everything got done and the car was locked and loaded.  To say that the car was packed, would be a gross understatement!  Is it illegal to drive that way? 

Don't let me forget the army of people that took over the care of our children while we were in a packing frenzy.  To all those who took the girls unselfishly, a HUGE thank you.  At one point, I was telling someone that I felt bad for my kids that I hadn't spent any time with them and had to stop mid-sentence and say, who am I kidding, they are having a blast.  It's like summer camp, only better! 

Olivia, Lydia & Kate 

So here we are, in Florida, on the boat, in the water, at the dock, waiting for the many boat projects to be completed and the "weather window" of opportunity to come-a-knockin'.

P.S.  I am having serious wi-fi issues and can't seem to get my pictures to load up in a timely fashion.  It's on the 'list' to get it up and going, but it is not a priority at the moment.  Sorry.  I will add the pictures a little later.