It is 8:30 AM and 34 degrees. Nuff said.
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Free Navigation Program with AIS
Most people are familiar with Seaclear as a free navigation program with AIS to see ships. I just discovered, at least new to me, another and, I think, better one. For the link, just click on the title or goto http://opencpn.org/ocpn/
You can get free charts from NOAA, but you will need an AIS receiver and antenna to make that work. Otherwise it looks like a really good general navigation program. Certainly the GPS is quite accurate. And it is FREE! Don't want to bother downloading NOAA charts? There usually is a disc you can get cheaply on EBAY (about $10 +/-) with all the charts.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Sunset
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From the back of the boat at St. A. The color should be more red than the camera made it.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
PredictWind app downgrade
I had a really nice app call PredictWind, even though the "tracking" part didn't work. It would predict winds up to 5 days in advance and was almost as accurate as NOAA. Now it has been "updated" so that it only works for one day, which is useless, so I am recommending that you DO NOT use this app. In fact, feel free to complain to them at support@predictwind.com.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Birthdays this week
Poor unfortunates whose birthdays are within a week of Xmas. Melissa...today. Sarah...yesterday. Dave on Xmas Eve!! Julie on News Year Eve. What were those parents thinking in March? HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Christmas in St. Augustine
Didn't get to fix the pump until the next day and we still have refrigeration! I went home for Thanksgiving and came back Dec. 3. Florrie has joined me and we will be spending Christmas in St. Augustine then (knock on wood) off to Vero for a short visit and picking up some stuff to bring to Bahamas for a friend. Hopefully leave for the Bahamas in early Jan. I just read in a cruising magazine that several of the places in the Abacos were damaged by hurricane Irene but should be back to normal by now.
The picture was taken off our sternat the marina on the San Sebastion River.
Friday, December 9, 2011
pumps
Well it has been three hours fixing and refixing and refixing the water pump for the fridge compressor, only to test it and find leaks. Bah! Humbug!
After the first failure I noticed an O-ring on the bottom of the bilge. Tried to put it on several times...all the time on my belly reaching down into the bilge...but it wouldn't go. Then I noticed that the fitting already had an O-ring in it so I exchanged the one for the other and it seems to be working. How the ring got into the bottom of the bilge, I have no idea. The strainer had to be replaced with a new one then done again, after a long search, with plumber's tape. Of course, every other connection had to be redone with the tape too. Each individual part seems to be working but it needs to be reassembled and tested again. So I took a break and my wrists now hurt just typing. Maybe after a nap.
After the first failure I noticed an O-ring on the bottom of the bilge. Tried to put it on several times...all the time on my belly reaching down into the bilge...but it wouldn't go. Then I noticed that the fitting already had an O-ring in it so I exchanged the one for the other and it seems to be working. How the ring got into the bottom of the bilge, I have no idea. The strainer had to be replaced with a new one then done again, after a long search, with plumber's tape. Of course, every other connection had to be redone with the tape too. Each individual part seems to be working but it needs to be reassembled and tested again. So I took a break and my wrists now hurt just typing. Maybe after a nap.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
A new book
Click on the title above to be linked to a site where I just wrote a book based on an Eileen Quinn song (with her permission): "My Grandma and Grandpa went to sea". It is not for sale but was fun putting it all together. Click on the book to see the next page.
Monday, November 7, 2011
a sinking
Click on the title to be linked to a story about our neighbor who was rescued by the coast guard and local police after apparently hitting the jetty at St. Mary's inlet. They are OK but the boat was lost. The boat is not a shrimper but a trawler. Don't know the details yet.
Be safe out there!
Sister ship to Sweet Carolinecharterworld.com
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Dolphins surfing
You know how dolphins like to ride the bow wave? And what do we do but make our way to the bow to watch. Well this time I stayed in the cockpit while about 30 dolphins came to play with Harmony. While there I noticed them surfing down 5 foot waves behind us and pass us as the wave did. They would travel in groups and inspect us as they passed. It all makes sense but it is the first time I had noticed and really watched it. Unfortunately, I was too busy watching to remember to take a picture so I found this video of surfing dolphins:
http://youtu.be/bWauuX_1KH8
and this one of a dolphin stampede:
http://youtu.be/AR9JX2fRk3c
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Catamaran Harmony in Florida
I left the boat at River's Edge, formerly Oyster Creek, Marina and flew home until Early Dec. Been in contact with a couple of boats going down the ICW and am so happy we went outside. They are now stopped for a Nor'Easter with gale warnings all along the coast. Not a comfortable time to be moving. Maybe Tuesday they will be able to move again. I was on the bow either watching dolphins or fixing the head.
Sunset at sea.
Hitchhiker. Stayed with us for a day and a night. We thought she was a seed eater but she enjoyed a moth she found.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Less than six days from KeyportNJ to St. Augustine
We are now in St. Augustine having arrived just before 2PM on Thursday to have made the entire trip in less than six days. While it is snowing in NY, it rained a little here. I had a great crew for the trip but they left at 5 this morning so I am alone. Got the laundry and a few little jobs done and will be eating leftovers again tonight. I tell you, it ain't easy being me.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
South Carolina Coast
We have made really good time. We are just south of Charleston, SC having come west to prepare for some weather on the nose. We left NJ and had a very fast sail down the NJ coast reaching Norfolk in 40 hours. It usually takes us 48+ and we were sailing all the way. By the time we reached Cape Hatteras we had only motored 17 hours total (3 days plus of only sailing) Coming down the NC outer banks we reached a sustained 10 knots several times arriving at the waypoint 3 hours earlier than anticipated. Since then we have been sailing on a broad reach in 15 to 20 knots. Yesterday, the wind died and we turned on the motor about 6pm and motored all night. In fact we are still motoring waiting for the wind to come in but it will be from the SW...on the nose. We are off St. Helena Sound and, if the wind doesn't come sooner, may get to Hilton Head by late afternoon. Man plans and God laughs. Anyway, there are places to duck in and get to the ICW so when the wind does come in at 15-20 knots on the nose we can still make time on the ICW. Predictions say we could go back out on Friday to a Northerly 10-15. Well, we'll see.
The crew has been fantastic. We are eating well and getting sleep. I take the watch from 7-12, after dinner. Joe comes on from 12 to 3 and Merrie from 3 to 7 (she really likes the sunrise). During the day no one is really on watch and people can take naps if needed.
The boat has been doing well overall. The night before last, at 4 AM i was woken up with the autohelm not working. We checked it out and the linear drive motor had come unattached. Joe and I put it all back together by 6AM and off we went. Later that day, I was checking the fluids on the starboard engine when I noticed that the fanbelt had broke. I replaced that with a spare, one of my favorite muscle jobs, and it has been working for the last 14 hours.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
5th Season Begins/photo captions
In the order they appeared, this is what was supposed to go with each of the photos I posted yesterday.
Getting Harmony ONTO the dock.
(It was very windy on Friday morning.)
Loading her up!
The fearless Captain.
One crew aboard.
(Joe looks really happy to be on this off shore trip.)
Fair winds and see you soon - Florrie & Lew.
(Lew will fly back before Thanksgiving, then we will both go to wherever the boat is stored and take off for the winter.)
Roy to the rescue, they need help!
(Roy is the club's launch Capt.)
All three aboard and off the dock!
(I wish I had a picture of Joe leaping aboard at the very last minute with Roy ready to release the bowline.)
Warm weather, here they come.
(It was a cold, windy start but within a couple of hours the winds had calmed.)
Main up, the adventure begins.
(Lew wrote Saturday evening that they had had all but two hours of sailing and they were ahead of schedule. By now, Sunday morning, I imagine they are Quite a bit south of Norfolk.)
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
The Story behind the pictures.
The first photo is Florrie's grand-nephew and niece.
Lew asked me to tell this story to our boating friends. On September 29th I drove to Maine to surprise my niece for her 50th Birthday.
It was a terrific surprise but the real adventure occurred the next day. Betsy and her 20 year old son, Shane, were scheduled to take their first sky dives, as a joint Birthday celebration. Rick (Betsy's husband) and I went along to watch. It was fascinating to listen to the instructor, Scott, a diver with over 10,000 jumps, talking to the 6 new jumpers.
It was a terrific surprise but the real adventure occurred the next day. Betsy and her 20 year old son, Shane, were scheduled to take their first sky dives, as a joint Birthday celebration. Rick (Betsy's husband) and I went along to watch. It was fascinating to listen to the instructor, Scott, a diver with over 10,000 jumps, talking to the 6 new jumpers.
We waited hours for the clouds to clear. Then we waited for the 40 MPH winds 5000 feet up to calm down.
Scott, on the left, and the other tandem divers waited around, too. I asked the divers if it is always such an adrenalin rush to jump. Absolutely! But the diver in the stocking cap told me that the most scared he has ever been was on a boat in a storm! These guys pay money to jump out of planes as often as they can, but a boat on the water is worse?! (All of a sudden I didn't feel like such a chicken.)
Finally Scott and one of the other pros went up in a small plane to "test" the winds.
Finally Scott and one of the other pros went up in a small plane to "test" the winds.
I AM SOOOOOO GLAD that the first time I ever saw anyone jump it was NOT Betsy or Shane!!!!! They were up so high we couldn't even see the plane or the divers until they opened their chutes - and THEN they were PIN DOTS!!!! Pretty quickly they became about as big as the head of a pin. Scott had\s lost count of his dives at 10,000. It takes 20 tandem dives before someone is allowed to jump alone. I am impressed. It was still too windy so we waited around for another hour or two, then Betsy & Shane got rain checks for another jump within the next 2 years. I don't have plans to watch - but who knows?
When it is done right - the landing is quite awesome.
When it is done right - the landing is quite awesome.
(Pardon the amateur entries! - Florrie)
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