Last leg of Journey... Cool Hand Too... our first long trip

7/22/2014… Tuesday -There and back again…. A sailing adventure.

Honestly, if a dragon would have risen from the Gulf with a wizard or Orc on its back, I don’t think Tom nor I would have blinked twice. I might have fumbled for my camera, nevertheless I don’t think it would have phased us.

We left Sailors Wharf on Saturday, weather forecast called for hot, windless, calm seas, days and nights. Which of course means that somewhere there is a storm headed our way. Our first leg took us to Fort Myers. We stopped outside Saturday night and endured the pitch and roll of 3 to 4 ‘waves worked up by the storms both in the Gulf and on shore. I slept very little. I have a new learning curve, figuring out what all the clink, clanks, bangs and bumps are. I finally dozed off when a particularly large wave rocked us causing the doors to slam.

 Sunday morning we went into the marina where we met up with Tom and Joy; friends from Kemah that are on their way to the Keys. We also met up with Terry and Susanne long time sailing friends from Muskegon. We were surprised at how empty Moss Marina was. They have gotten rid of all the derelict boats, cleaned up the lounge and have plans to start remodeling the docks. I like Moss because it is so easy to explore, get groceries, and plenty of restaurants to choose from. It will be interesting to see what they look like the next time we make a trip to the west coast.

After fueling up and getting our first sticker shock on diesel, Cool Hand Too has twice + the fuel capacity as Cool Hand does, we stayed one night, filled the fridge with ice and cast off lines and headed south. The run was considerably faster than our trip to St. Petersburg, but we were still finding small surprises with the new boat. Our refrigerator does not work, the air conditioner does not work, the chart plotter will just shut down for no reason, bilge pump is not automatic and oh by the way so dirty that it wasn't pumping out the water fast enough- yep we had gallons of fresh water in the bilge which means one of the fresh water tanks has a leak somewhere.  Oh well IT’S A BOAT.

Monday night crossing the gulf we were surrounded with lightening on the horizon. Good news we did not hear the thunder until around 1 AM. We decided to drop anchor and go into Boca Chica in daylight, all in all it wasn't too bad of a night but I didn't have Sirius connected so could not see the track of the storms. One amazing thing about sailing in such open water is witnessing the wonder of weather. Clouds billow up then flatten out, you see rain falling, layers of clouds lit by lightning, layers of wind, so many shades of gray massed in such energy with the sun, stars and moon competing for space or time in hopes that someone below will stop and gather it all in and remember those ever changing moments.

We arrived in Boca Chica, snug to the dock and Tom already running errands by noon. We are hoping that the Repair person for the Fridge can come out tomorrow. Tom will be working through his list of “TO DO’S” then he has his surgery on Thursday. It will be interesting to see how much a one armed man can get done. J

This was the ladder that we climbed to bring
everything up into Cool Hand Too 

Lightening on the horizon AM 7/22

This one we heard rolling across the water in the wind.

Leaving Tampa Bay

First sunset, I don't believe the adage about red skies at night 

Rain over Key West ... going to get wet.

Moss Marina .. Sunday 7/21

sunrise 7/22

Moving, from one boat to another

July 17^th Sailors Wharf, St. Petersburg Fl.

Swapping out stuff. Boy howdy did we have stuff.

We arrived at Sailors Wharf on Friday evening, too late to get rent a car so we spent the remaining day light hours exploring CHT and starting to pack up our stuff. My first priority was the galley and while packing I cleaned and scrubbed and cleaned. I thought CHT would be in the water next to us but

IT’S A BOAT…. So the best laid plans go helter skelter

I packed things in Grocery recycled bags, trying not to make them heavy. Saturday morning Tom and I started to hike things off CH (floating in the water tied to a floating dock) walk them up a ramp, across the lot to CHT up a ladder into the cock pit then down into the cabin. Cool Hand has air conditioning, the window unit that we dropped into the front hatch. So everything has to be lifted over that. CHT has no power and the sun was baking down on her. Inside even with hatches open it was over 100 degrees.
I started organizing the galley, taking stuff off that was of no use to us and trying to arrange the space to maximum efficiency. We worked at this all day Saturday, had lunch at Jack London’s Pub worked into the evening and decided to stay at Comfort Inn. No showers at Sailor’s Wharf.

Sunday we had a visit from my sister Chris and Arnie. She brought me a lovely bag that will be great to carry project up on deck. We enjoyed an early dinner at Jack London’s pub, then took them to see CHT. We continued the packing, lugging, hauling, lifting then called it quits around 6 pm.

Monday the crew was back working and we realized CHT would not go into the water until the end of the week. We did catch a small break in the moving. They had a pallet box that we could load up and they took it by fork lift to CHT, lifting it up so that we could empty a load all at once. We managed two load like this before the rain started. I stayed on CH and cleaned and scrubbed out the bilge, bathrooms, walls and other stuff.

A note on packing… I tried the vacuum sealed bags…. They do not hold up to heat. They were great in the air conditioned environment of CH but once they transferred to CHT and the overheated air. It was a disaster. Several of the split. I would not do that again. Moving things in the Grocery bags turned out to be the best way to move things. Loads were manageable. Next time we will have a cooler with ice on the both boats. Right now there is not even a prospect of a bigger boat.  

Wednesday, I went to a supposedly air conditioned laundry to get bedding, rugs, towels and clothes done. It was not air conditioned and I was serenaded by three screaming children and two yelling mothers, nevertheless, prices were reasonable and the laundry did get finished.  We continued to move things. I realized I have an exceedingly large stash of yarn that I have to work through, before I should buy anymore.

Thursday, Cool Hand was moved to the haul out well, and her mast, canvas and davits removed. It will still be a week before she is loaded on a truck for shipping, but Tom wanted to be there to make sure everything came down alright.

Cool Hand Too had her name on her bow now. Tom discover several of the sea cocks were corroded adding something else to our repair list. We did find a place to put the freezer on board, and our scuba equipment. Tom has a long list of thing to do once we return to Boca Chica. We believe we will have Cool Hand Too in the water Friday the 18^th and plan to head south on Saturday. We still need to be back in the Keys for 7/24 and Tom’s Surgery. 

One of our favorite resturants

one day of easy moving

This catamaran was being repaired then put back in the water 

dinner at the Fourth Street Shrimp store

Tom Helping with the rigging

Small additions and information

Hello again.
Some have asked about the transmission. Yep we just had a new one installed April of 2013. Tom believes a gasket has failed andit would not hold the transmission fluid in. Every time he added some and we tried using the transmission it would leak out in minuets. Needless to say we did not want to burn up the transmission so it was used in extreme emergency only. The good news - we could still start the engine and keep our batteries charged to run lights, chart plotter, Sirius, and refrigerator.

We were surprised that we ran out of water, but then we have never run for 5 day. The other odd thing was our accumulation of trash. Never thought much about it before but after 3 days it was getting annoying. I am rethinking packaging for food, which was the largest portion of what we had - that and the paper towels used to clean the bilge the first time. For a long haul trip we are going to have to compress our waste.

Again we can't thank Andre and Tow Boat enough. His little boat brought us to safety and then he went back to Venice that night. It was a long haul for him.

We also had a visit from SV Ashley Light and her skipper, checking to see if we were all right. We were drift sailing north of Fort Myers and though several motor vessels saw us, no one inquired as to our well being. It is nice to know that people do look out for others, and made us more aware to do the same.

Sun Set 7/11 BCNM

no wind, flat water

always had some rain, storm clouds on
the horizon

Tom and I thought of him as the Little Engine that could
Following a boat that is towing you is work, for both boats. 

Tampa Bay sky line on a stormy day

There is a Coast Guard station at the entrance of
Salt Creek , 

sun set sailing wing to wing

I love this bridge crossing Tampa Bay

Transitions- Leaving BCNM for St Petersburg

Transitions

July 7^th 2014

We finally left Boca Chica Navy Marina casting off all lines by 8 AM. Weather reports gave us iffy winds on the Gulf side but that didn't bother these intrepid sailors, we have a motor on Cool Hand. Pop up thunderstorms were already showing up on Sirius…. Not close enough to worry about, but made great photos.

This is a transition trip for us. I don’t want to say that it’s Cool Hand’s last trip. She has been our home for over two years, through rough seas, low tides, snow, a wedding, finding lost family and meeting many new friends. Cool Hand is a wonderful lady and we were looking forward to this trip…

After clearing the inlet to the Marina we found the Atlantic side a tricky ride in rough seas more in the 2’+ range and I had a chuckle seeing a sail boat being towed.  We had to quickly do some reshuffling, stowing and cleaning up as we were tossed about. Lost my favorite measuring cup and a flower pot that never held water as advertised. Good news the pot was empty, bad news the coffee maker, with coffee grounds and coffee, made a spectacular bounce from counter to floor. Glass, pottery and coffee grounds are hard to clean up while in a moving boat.

The sun heated up the cockpit and I pulled out our trusty cloth and soon had it pinned in place, however it was hot, and the inside thermometer was reading over 100. I put wet wash cloths in the refrigerator. Tom laughs until I give him one and he realizes how refreshing they are.

We were within 4 miles of our turn north when Tom went to check the bilge. Here is where the best laid plans started to fall apart. We had transmission fluid in the bilge water. Time to rethink options.

We are in a sail boat so …. We will sail to St. Petersburg

We did call Tow Boat US to bring us out transmission fluid and as soon as their boat was off in the distance we had NO  wind. For the next 4 hours we drifted semi aimlessly watching storms on the horizon. Drifting to near an artificial reef Tom used the motor for 15 min. completing our turn north. Again very little wind…. Then we were in 15 + winds, reefing sails and watching the weather. This was a portent of our entire journey. We were to be hot, sticky, in the doldrums with no horses to pull us out or slaves to row us out into wind. Storms, lightning flashes all round. Cooking was just not a thing to do. I made sandwiches and we had cold salads. We catnapped, pulled in the sails and drifted and slept praying for wind that was not attached to a storm. Rain was welcome but we were only blessed with it twice.

 Our trip which should have taken maybe 3 days was in its 4^th day when our friend Terry suggested to call Tow Boat to see if we could be towed the rest of the way. We were just North of Fort Myers with over 50 miles still to go and creeping along at less than a knot. Making the call we found out if we could get to Venice then they would tow us the rest of the way in. We had 34 miles to go and it took us from Wednesday until Thursday around 10 PM to make that 34 miles.

Andre arrived around 10 and finally at 7 PM we were snugged into our berth. Five days without going ashore.We went 200.5 nautical miles in 5 days. Five days of sponge baths and only our hair washed. We used all the water in our holding tanks, a good thing I brought gallon jugs of drinking water. We spent Friday night on board with the Air Conditioner on full blast.  Cool Hand brought us here, maybe under tow but we are safe and now gathering up the memories to transfer them to Cool Hand Too.

One other odd thing,we were boarded by fish and game at 11 PM on Thursday, apparently we looked like illegal fisherman, or drug smugglers or something.I guess we needed one more thing to make this a trip to remember  This trip was the hottest and slowest one we have made, but all it all 

IT'S A BOAT 

leaving BCNM

Sail boat being towed .... little did I know 

From a distance the black cormorants looked like people

Red skies at night sailors delight... not hardly 

Sunrise and storms

for a while we were sailing with only the jib 

Tom getting ready for our first downpour

Sirius view of weather around us

sun set 

it is a little fuzzy but we are the blue ball

day four 

sailing wing to wing

Captain Andre, and Tow boat. We had to fight ebb tide going into
Tampa Bay, Thunder rumbling all around us.  Interesting.

a temporary hitch hiker... that is how slow we were going.