Friday, March 1, 2013
Well, we made it back to Florida in one piece and are safely tied to a dock at Port of the Islands Marina.  I will try to summarize our trip and you may find a few posts with pictures only as there are so many pictures and so little memory left at my age.
This year was busy with company of friends and some family coming and going in a steady stream with one party leaving in the a.m. and the next arriving in the p.m. and we had a blast sharing our experience.  We would love to have others visit us in such beautiful surroundings and get a look at things that most would never see in their lifetime as cruise ships don't take you to Thunderball Grotto or pull into Rose Island or Allens Cays and anchor in 4 feet of crystal clear water but there's only so much time and so little space so maybe next year.  We ran out of time this year and things I really wanted to do with the Patricks' weren't all possible due to the broken stay on the boat.  We were afraid of losing the mast in rough water while waiting for the new stay to arrive from Florida so we didn't move too far while they were on board.  I really wanted to take Shawn out in the deep water and crank the sails up and put a couple lines out and troll at 8 or 9 knots and wanted to sail with them to Allens Cays and let them see a real dark night unpolluted with any light and so many more stars than you ever see anywhere else.  As it was, Shawn helped me change the stay and I'm glad for the help.  Thanks Shawn.

On top of the roller furler is a plate held on with 2 pins are driven into the aluminum extrusion.  Corrosion from the different types of metal being in contact made the pins loose and one fell out and down between the furler extrusion and the cable and during use it splayed the individual wires out making the stay weak and it broke there.  It could've been alot worse than it was as the mast could've went over the side or stern and killed someone in the process.  I still have to dismantle it again to replace the pieces at the top of the furler that were lost when it broke but otherwise it's better than ever as I had a turnbuckle installed that wasn't on the old one and it's now fully adjustable and properly tensioned all around.  The furler, for the non sailers, is a device that the front sail is attached to that turns or undwinds and lets sail out to work and when you want to bring it in you pull a rope and the sail winds back up around the furler for compact storage.  All this turns on the wire or stay that supports the mast in the forward position of the boat.  There are six stays all together that share the load and 3 largest are in the range of 52 feet long and 10 mm thick stainless steel cable.

                                         Great place to dismantle a broken stay (Coyaba in foreground)

                                         Shark cruising by while dismantling the stay

                                         Brandy at Thunderball Grotto
Shawn and Leslee Patrick and their 2 kids, Brooklyn and Little Sir Farts Alot (Greg) flew down and joined us for a week.  Traci made Sir Farts Alot excuse himself from the table and run outside to the front of the boat to do his business so it became known as "the poop deck" and when he said he needed out from the table, everyone wasn't long moving to get him out there.  Traci fed us all burritos one night for supper and they were good but the results afterwards produced enough gas to fly the space shuttle into orbit and back.  She had such a good time with the kids that now she's talking grandchildren and is for sure going to be one of those meddling grandmothers.

                                         Shawn, groping Leslee, Brooklyn and Sir Farts Alot

Traci and I left Rose Island just outside of Nassau to head north a couple days after the Patricks left and it was a little rough but not choppy so I decided to throw the pink squid looking lure that has been onboard since we came up from Grenada.  There was a large debate over the effectiveness of WD40 on a lure which involved this very squid like lure 4 or so years ago.  Traci commented on the fish pole and muttered something about time being wasted and I commented that I was going to catch supper but first I was worried about a supply ship that seemed to be coming right at us.  We watched and though it appeared that he would likely pass behind us, I was concerned for the large amount of fish line and pink squid looking lure trailing behind us so I picked it up and began to reel in fast.  About 3 or 4 cranks into it and bam I had a fish on.  He didn't want any part of coming to the boat and the ship was bearing down on us so I asked Traci to give us 10 degrees to the left and she also pushed the throttles ahead some more which made it even harder to control the fish.  The ship appeared to go 10 degrees to his port as well thus avoiding our boat, fish and pink squid looking lure (with NO WD40 on it Shannon) and the throttles were pulled back and the fish slowly was brought to the stern of the boat, thrown inside the cockpit and given a shot of some rot gut rum that Paul bought on the Grenada trip and no one could drink.  It was a Mahi Mahi and he is delicious.  That's not a whale beside him in the below pic, it's me, I'm on holidays, give me a break.  I so wanted Shawn to catch one of these cause I so wanted to eat it.

I better go do some work before the admiral fires me but I'll try and put some more pics up tonite.  Bye for now and thanks for reading about our misadventures......
Dave and Traci

Finally got internet

Hi All:  We had to make our way to Nassau to drop off Brandi and Brock, pick up Shawn and Leslee Patrick and contact Tropix Air to see about delivery of a new forestay we had to order from Fort Lauderdale as ours snapped just as we were leaving Staniel Cay heading for Compass Cay to swim with the sharks.  I phoned work while I was getting a signal and spoke to Shane and figured I better go to Starbucks and update this blog or I may never get per diem again.
On January the 2nd we left the marina at Naples with Johnny Hamrick on board with us and headed south in the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Sable where we anchored for the night.  Next morning we headed for Long Key and dropped the anchor there for the night and Johnny's wife Sara joined us for the next night and then her and Johnny left next afternoon for home at Port of the Islands and Traci and I sat out some weather until the 6th.  Crossing the Straits of Florida and the Gulf Stream for the first time in a year produced a lot of moaning, creaking and groaning but she finally took a pill and went to lie down, the boat did fine.  Johnny and Sara flew over and joined us for 10 days and they left and Brandi and Brock arrived same day.  In both cases we headed south and snorkelled at Thunderball Grotto, anchored off Norman's Cay, one of our favorite places, and found Macduff's closed and some major construction going on, our hearts were broke.
We left Staniel with Brandi and Brock a couple days ago to go to Compass Cay and were then going to head to the Land and Sea Park and decided to throw up a sail to make some time.  I was unfurling the Genoa when a loud snap was heard and the mast shook around alot and the front stay with the roller furler on it was all floppy like.  I furled it in pronto, climbed the mast and brought some ropes down which we secured to the front in various places to keep the mast from falling like a tall pine tree and maybe hurting someone in the process.  We did an about face and headed into the island with the pigs on it and anchored right in front of Paul and Shannon on Coyaba.  Paul came over to help out with the dismantling of the stay and furler and then he and Shannon came over that night and we played a round of Pictionary which us guys lost at.  I used Paul's sat phone and called a sail and rigging place in Fort Lauderdale and ordered a new 3/8" stainless wire stay and fittings and turnbuckle and it's been sent all ready so it's on it's way.   Originally we were going to have it sent to Staniel but we had to get to Nassau, about 100 miles away, to drop off and pick up so we had it sent to an office here and on Monday I'll call and get the skinny.
I'm running out of time here at Starbucks so I'll cut it short and get some pictures up.  My laptop will not charge it's battery anymore so it makes it more difficult than ever to get online somewhere and update but I will every chance I get and when we get back I'll flood the site with the rest of the stuff.
                              Storm clouds while crossing the Gulf Stream, on radar below.

                                                Lost some instruments after putting trim on...........

                                                 Leaving Florida, Daruma = 1 crabtrap = 0

What storm clouds look like on radar

Crossing the Gulf Stream in the a.m.

We left Port of the Islands on Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. or so to go out the canal with the tide and stopped for the night in a cove between Middle and Southern Cape on Cape Sable.  The waters were smooth Wednesday and Thursday with little wind which was mostly on the bow so not much good for sailing.  We saw lots of dolphins and a few large sea turtles, one had two Ramora hitch hiking on his back.  We arrived at Long Key on Thursday afternoon and have been sitting waiting for the wind to switch from NNE to ESE to make for a more comfortable crossing.  Anything from the North is in opposition to the Gulf Stream and causes some large waves and could be dangerous.
After dark, where we are sitting, the tide comes in and brings jellyfish with it and they light up like Christmas lights with a soft green glow and stay lit for 10 seconds or so.  If your lucky enough to see one light up close to the boat, you can see a soft green light come on and rotate clockwise around in a circle within the thing and the next time it lights up it's rotating counter-clockwise, like a little led light being swung around in a circle.  Neat stuff.  I wanted to update before we left as we won't have any access to internet or phone until next weekend at best.
It's not letting me upload photos from my camera or laptop right now so we'll have to throw them up on the next one.
Cheers,
Dave and Traci

Hi All:  Have been working hard on poor old Daruma to make ready for the Bahamas in a few days. (Jan. 2).  Weather allowing, we are heading on Wednesday at high tide, about 7 am, out the canal and into the Gulf of Mexico to see what the world has in store for us this year. 
Above you'll see the Admirals kitchen, we're supposed to call it a galley, after Traci painted and ripped up the old flooring.  Below are pictures after we went at it for a few days.

I'm expecting a few quality meals now ;)  I still have to pull some drawers out and reset the frame and roller rail thingies so they fit better but pretty much everything else has been touched and fondled in some way, new propane line and valves so we don't have to run outside and shut it off every meal.  The oven is next, gonna pull and have a look at everything but I think I'll do that while lolly gagging in the Bahamas.

Above, the little engine that could with a shiny new exhaust mixing elbow with stainless steel bolts and washers and a shiny new fuel filter and primer bulb inline to help with the task of bleeding the fuel system.  It also got new exhaust hose, the fuel injector pump and injectors were sent to Orlando and rebuilt and set up and reinstalled and the injector timing set and today both engines are getting an oil change. 
The guest bedroom got a new toilet, (head), sorry Brandy, you still have to pump it, new starboard bilge pump, the water maker is now hooked to port and starboard water tanks, the fuel tank has been emptied and about a cupfull of water removed, the windows have been resealed, a new radio with the ability to show other vessel names, direction of travel and speed (called AIS) and transmit this info onto the chart plotter has been installed, a broken wire was found and repaired on the fluxgate compass, a speaker for the new VHF radio was installed outside so it can be heard, some leaky old plumbing has been removed, the bilges have been washed and vacuumed out and I'm in the process of experimenting with a $30.00 gyro and voltage regulator from Radio Shack which should work and be able to be added to our course computer.  I'll keep ya posted on that one.
Wednesday is the day so I'll make a real effort to document highs and lows of this years trip.  We have a new camera for underwater so there should be some tropical pictures on the way.

The guy on the no fishing sign above was sitting there when Traci and I went for a walk to throw the garbage in the bin and stayed there while we went and got the camera.  He wasn't afraid at all unlike myself, I've had previous experience with owls........
Regards!
Dave and Traci

Mutiny on Daruma

Nope, Traci never took over the ship, she's the admiral, it was this guy.......

John and Sara Hamrick, a couple we met at the marina, went on vacation to the US Virigin islands and we gladly offered to watch their cat named Crew. Crew is not a suitable name, nothing Crew about him, he's the captain, owns the whole ship, don't forget it.

During the storm, Isaac, he was a little nervous due to the noise of chop on the water slapping the sides of the boat but after the storm he settled right into letting us know who the boss is. This morning I'm at the table reading up on another new toilet we just aquired and enjoying my last coffee of the day when Crew leaped up on the table, walked over my coffee and stuck his right hind foot right into the cup. It was still a little bit warm, hot even so he jumped clear of the cup and ran across the table and went to Traci's fruit basket, pictured above, that he claimed days ago as his own, and proceeded to clean the coffee off his foot. John and Sara are picking him up today and tonite they'll be wondering why he's so full of it and won't sleep. I hope he has a caffeine withdrawal headache tomorrow, that'll learn him. We had to clean up the spatter and little coffee foot prints while he just lay there and look at us so innocent like.

He is a little cutie. You can pick him up and flip him over and rub his belly or when he reaches out to get your attention he never has his claws out or when he chews on you it's always gentle. There is a resident little lizard who lives in the mast and jumps down and crosses the windows every night at sundown going out to roam and feast on bugs. Once and while he hesitates on a window and Crew saw him just above the chart table on the outside. He jumped up on the table and cocked his head side to side and gingerly reached up and softly touched the window where the outline of the lizard was. Cute moment but otherwise the hurricane was inside.

When we travelled from Grenada on our maiden voyage I kept a blog on some site with lots of pictures and a timeline of events from start to finish. Every new entry prompted the site to send emails to everyone on your list to tell them to check the blog. It was all good until the moderator shut it down and discontinued the site. I wrote and asked him if I could get all the stuff I uploaded but was unable to so it is pretty much lost forever. On this journey, I asked Paul and Shannon Baynham if they wanted to join us and learn (or suffer) right along with us as we brought the boat back to Florida. Paul and I used to talk of this sort of thing years earlier when Traci and I ran a little marina on the St Lawrence River and Paul and Shannon kept their house boat with us. We'd sit around a fire in the evening, might have had a beer or two, and discussed retirement and sailing the southern waters as I always thought this is what I'd like to do. One year we sat around the fire talking the same old dream and Paul said "I think we'd like to join you." I thought something along the lines of "long ways away" or "we'll see" or "I'll be lucky to live long enough" or some such thing. Low and behold, Paul and Shannon helped us make our (or my) dreams come true and after our journey they purchased a motor catamaran and we finally met them on anchor in the Bahamas last January. During our journey they kept a blog of the trip and after their cat purchase started another blog which is linked on this blog. I was trying to find their blog recently in a search engine by searching Coyaba, the name of their boat and came across a book called Coyaba by Shannon Baynham. I thought "She's turned their blog into book form." They are currently in St Augustine working on Coyaba and I emailed to tell them we wouldn't be able to make it up to see them and Shannon asked for our mailing address. I thought "She's going to send us a copy of the book Coyaba I'll bet." Below is what we got.

Look out Clive Cussler!

We are blessed with the best of friends.

Dave & Traci

Tropical Storm Isaac

Hi Everyone: I haven't been updating as of late cause I think it may be a little boring to some people to read a sailing blog about a sailing vessel being upgraded or repaired but on the other hand when I do tell of things I've done I get some reasonable questions from a few readers like David's question about hooking the water system into the marina water which I ashamedly have never answered, so sorry David. Also I think it's a pretty fair record of what has been done to the boat should we ever have to sell it. I've done so many things to the boat and not documented them in any way and my age I'll never remember until it breaks again but once I start something I seem to forget about taking pictures of before and after, shame really.
To answer your question David. I cut what I recall to be about a 2 7/8 hole in the stern and caulked with Dow 5200 and mounted with stainless screws a pressure limiting water connection. Before this I mounted a carbon filter available in the RV section of Walmart on the spigot. Inside the boat I changed a few of the original water lines which were metric to new 1/2" line and tee'd this into the cold water line that runs to the shower mounted on the transom. I turned the water on and watched my water tanks to make sure that my 2 12 volt water pumps had check valves in them and didn't feed any water back to the tanks. They don't and now I'm thinking I will put a by-pass around the pumps with a valve in it so I can open this and fill my tanks while still hooked to supplied water through the carbon filter and maybe never have to open the deck fill fittings again. The whole operation was pretty easy and painless and so worth doing. The 35 psi that the marina water is regulated to is nice in that it doesn't create any leaks or faucet drips in the on board plumbing unlike the 65 psi that the onboard pumps provide.
With Isaac being hyped up so much on the news as being possibly a cat 2 hurricane and smashing it's way up the center of the state I thought I should have engines ready to run, water tanks full, freezer full, all the canvas off etc etc but as it was I was in California until Saturday evening with Isaac supposedly hitting us on Sunday evening or Monday by noon. Then I started thinking what if they cancelled flights into southern Florida and Traci was on the boat alone then I started to panic. I thought "the news likes to hype things up to keep you watching so calm down and check NOAA and Wind Guru and see what they say." As suspected, we were due to catch the edges and remain on tropical storm watch but I have to say that working on Friday in California took some concentration to keep my mind from wondering and thinking the worst and Saturday nothing flew fast enough to get me back there. Saturday evening I removed the solar panels on the Bimini top and the top and Traci pretty much had everything else lashed down or removed and the offers of help and calls of concern where above and beyond and I thank you Grady Chance and Paul Baynham, someday when you need me I'll make sure I'm there. I was more nervous than I'd ever let on but all for not. Wind got up to around 40 mph and probably gusted to 60 or so and it rained cats and dogs but when we thought about it, we've been caught sailing in similar weather and faired well so we missed the bulk of it and are thankfull.

Above are pics of the heat exchanger on one of the engines as I removed the end cover. I noticed 2 black fingers off of a raw water pump impeller and I cursed a wee bit as I just changed the raw water pump last year. The next one shows the exchanger plugged about 50% and the last one shows the cap and the left side or intake side plugged with the 2 rubber fingers and mussels. I cleaned the exchanger in a few minutes with 50% muiriatic acid and water and it looks like new again, shoulda took a picture. Got it back together and then hooked the engine cooling to the heat exchanger in the hot water tank so that when we run this engine it will circulate hot antifreeze through a radiator in the hot water tank and heat some water for showering and dishes without electicity. Filled it all back up with antifreeze and started to mount another new alternator and smart regulator. Not done yet as I have to take the alternator apart and by-pass the regulator.
On a great note, the marina bought a brand new house boat for live aboard folks to do laundry in. It has 2 brand new washers and dryers, a shower and bath room. They also gave us an efficiency to use during the storm as the short back and forth motion was making Traci a little motion sick. I offered to pay but they said no as I help him around here now and then and it was appreciated. Turns out we didn't need it but we did do some laundry in it and watched some tv.
Sorry for the boring update, promise lots of underwater pictures when we hit the Bahamas in January.
Dave

Com'on December

Bonjour and similar greetings to all:

I haven't alot to add as we are still sitting in the relative safety of SW Florida and the Faka Union Canal, working on the boat when I get the energy and flying around the country from the Fort Myers airport to try and earn money I'm paid every 2 weeks.

There are a few pictures and a couple thoughts I wanted to share while I'm inspired (this really means I'd rather do this as opposed to some of the chores I should be doing). Great word, inspired.

Traci, the love of my life, the conqueror, looking like she just taught this aligator a "who's the boss" lesson and wants my Dad to know that this could easily be him if he doesn't tread lightly around her. This is how they get along and love each other.

It would appear that this big fellow is cruising around the boat waiting for revenge upon Traci but the truth is that it is now mating season and step on the deck at any given time and you'll see at least 3 of them.

Work progresses slowly on Daruma. It's hard to cut a precise angle on a piece of aluminum step trim with a hacksaw and one has to keep in mind the method and lengths of various attaching means or one will have a variety of screws hanging out of the bottom of the tunnel under the boat.

We broke down and purchased a new camera that is supposed to be good to 33ft of water depth, shoot video and add gps info to your pictures so I imagine they could be added to a program like Google Earth showing the exact location the picture was taken.
I've often thought and tried to put into words why we choose to live this lifestyle so it could be explained to those who look at you like your from another planet or have a deathwish or something and the best explaination I could find was written by someone else in a copy of a magazine. It's sorta long but is a great summary.
"In half and hour we'll be anchored in the cove and I'll fix dinner without a microwave, food processor, blender or hand mixer. I'll knead bread sans Kitchen Aid dough hook, I'll wash the dishes with a non-electric foot pump, and we'll spend the evening reading by oil lamp rather than the blue flicker of a TV. (or I'll beat Traci at a game of crazy eights) Our weekend is a far cry from the work week in our condo in the central west end of St Louis, (our floating house on the river in the suburbs of the big city of Cardinal, Ontario) but it's one we hope to adopt full time soon. Our family thinks we're crazy, and aquaintances look askance at us whenever they hear of our plans to sell everything and sail away on our 42' Tartan. (our 40' cat) "Why would you do that?" they ask. So why indeed? It's a multi-faceted answer not easily understood by someone who doesn't sail. There is the need to be rid of the noise of the city, the confines of the cubicle and the hectic pace of living today, but to claim that as the whole answer cheapens the reality. How can I adequately describe the feeling of accomplishment to someone that sailing on and off an anchor gives me, or prop walking the boat to a perfect landing on the dock (few and far between) or weathering a nasty blow and having the old girl deliver us safely through it? How can I describe the caress of the breeze flowing over my face from the V-birth hatch as I rock to sleep gently in the anchorage, or the smell of baking bread wafting out into the cockpit as I read the piece of literature that I always told myself I'd get to some day when I had time? Oh yeah. Time. To read. I guess the best answer is a simple word. Freedom. Everywhere there are efforts to control my life, to fill it with an ever-escalating volume of input. Working in a windowless cubicle for a living, hammering out design jobs for a marketing firm, (not me), my day is handed to me in minutiae ad nauseam. The relentless deadline pressure to complete projects with which I have absolutely no meaningful connection drains me emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. The television programmers attempt to feed me a list of things they feel necessary for my happiness, providing a parade of fashionable role models to that end. The news networks fill my mind with fear and leave me looking over my shoulder every time I exit my car in a parking garage. There is the illusion of freedom to choose the way I want to live, but it occured to me recently that my life had changed course somewhere along the way, choreographed to some score written by the author of The American Dream - someone elses dream. Then through a bit of serendipity, I was introduced to sailing. It was an epiphany. As a weekend live-aboard, I'm untangling myself from the maze of competition for my attention, opening myself to new things. Would I have seen the flock of white pelicans soaring above me this morning if I had been stressing on the commute? Not likely. Would I take the time to feel the elasticity of a perfectly kneaded ball of bread dough yield under my hands? More than likely, I would buy a highly preserved loaf from the store on my way home, late from work. Being free doesn't mean living without responsibility. Every choice I make is balanced with an equal measure of it. Is it risky? Sure. There's no one to blame if I fail, but neither can anyone else claim responsiblity for my success. I could sit in an armchair watching my life pass me by in Technicolor, but I've decided to live it by sailing. It's not for everyone, for sure. It's demanding, it's difficult, it's challenging, it's sometimes scary, it's peaceful, it's amazing, it's infinitely rewarding.
Kinda sums it all for me 'cept I haven't kneaded dough on Daruma as yet, I don't work in the cubicle, we don't sleep in a V-birth and we do a little more than weekends but the rest is spot on. Our clock runs a little different speed........