Tomorrow I meet with my financial advisor. By the end of our meeting I will know what my boat buying budget will be for my solo circumnavigation. While my beer budget will realistically be close to $75,000 at the top end, my champagne taste will yield a Dragonfly 1200. Sometime between now and my 1 pm meeting tomorrow I promise to buy a Florida lotto ticket.
In the meantime, I seriously request suggestions for boats in the 30 foot range. A trimaran is my #1 choice. If I have to…
Continue
Added by Marlene A. Sassaman on December 12, 2010 at 8:26pm —
1 Comment
Well as it seems, with each front that passes through, there are more and more tar balls washing up on the barrier islands. Have seen the work force from BP on Daily basis and I can assure you that an effort is being made to clean up the islands by BP officials. Weather sometimes keeps them from coming out and working , but they are plugging away at it daily.
Have seen as many as 200 people walking horn island picking up and few as 75.
Don't know how long it will… Continue
Added by Capt Chuck Creel on December 3, 2010 at 4:28pm —
No Comments
Apologies for not keeping up this blog. The video we posted yesterday is from our first attempt to sail down the coast from the straight. After that weather broke we high tailed it into Neah Bay...
To bring everyone up to date: We departed Neah Bay, along with six other southbound sail boats when the weather turned, and resumed our original course offshore where we sailed a reach in brisk winds and fairly large seas. All went well until Laura suffered a severe asthma attack. We were…
Continue
Added by Orvil Newton on November 7, 2010 at 3:00pm —
2 Comments
After a wonderful summer sailing to Maine getting as far as Acadia National Park and Sommes Sound, beautiful area, I'm back in Annapolis and find myself crewless. My sailing partner had to get home to help family and now I need help sailing to St Augustine. So if Anyone wants to crew on a beautiful 60' wooden ketch to sunny Florida, here's the opportunity. I'm easy going and experienced and have a well equipped and comfortable boat. I might try to single hand her to Portsmouth, VA, based on…
Continue
Added by Skip Reynolds on October 19, 2010 at 10:27am —
5 Comments
The weekend finally came. The appointed time that all powers would converge to put "Neptune's Toy" in the water for the first time in over three years had arrived. It was early morning when they got started and we had Family and Friends there with us to watch the spectacle and celebrate the "Re Naming" ceremony and festivities. What a great day! Poor Brother Wayne though......he had no idea when he drove over from Tampa with the Captain's Sister, Sharon and Mom Brissont that he was going to do…
Continue
Added by Lady Orca on September 20, 2010 at 9:30am —
1 Comment
After picking up our crew for the trip down the coast in Friday Harbor we returned to Port Townsend for final provisioning. Generally foggy conditions in the strait deteriorated into very low visibility and kept us in Port Townsend an extra day.
We left Port Townsend at 12:20 on Wednesday as the fog lifted but as we motored westward in the Strait of Juan de Fuca the fog closed in again and we found ourselves proceeding in one mile visibility for most of the thirty six miles to Port…
Continue
Added by Orvil Newton on September 17, 2010 at 11:21am —
No Comments
This was a cruise that we have been looking forward to for months! John,II has leave from the Army for 30 days home and the plan was to get to Little Bahama Island for his first Ocean trip and our first real journey in "S/V Neptune's Toy".
So, we planned everything, charted our course, had Port fees ready, documents retrieved and the Sailboat was ready with a brand new jib furler we were really looking forward to using since the bow of that 28 footer tends to bounce around really bad…
Continue
Added by Lady Orca on September 8, 2010 at 10:38am —
No Comments
Since I had to be in Deltaville anyway, to secure my Columbia 8.7 for Hurricane Earl, I decided to take a couple of hours to take some measurements, and shovel out some trash, mostly delaminated plywood.About a 30 gallon trash bag full. Also managed to remove a short wall enclosing the head/shower. Earl, by the way, passed us by with no issues.
Added by Larry Wilson on September 3, 2010 at 6:36pm —
No Comments
If there is one thing certain about cruising, it is that one becomes
very connected to the weather and less concerned with any arbitrary
schedule.
As Laura wrote, we love Port Townsend; especially, the
Boat Haven. Having said that, we are once again spending more time than
we had planned because of adverse weather conditions: Gale warnings to
the north, small craft advisories to the south, rain and contrary winds
here in the port.
We had intended to…
Continue
Added by Orvil Newton on September 1, 2010 at 2:10pm —
No Comments
We arrived in Grenada 2 weeks ago and have been busy tracking down and fixing our gremlins. To date we have ordered our new jib, and finally have the freezer working again. Nutmeg icecream all round! One of the first things we look for on arrival...Grenada is the only place you will find nutmeg icecream, fantastic! We are presently on the lookout for some engine parts, a never ending battle no matter what island you are on. Sad to say Grenada is following suit with many of the other islands…
Continue
Added by Val on August 28, 2010 at 9:44am —
1 Comment
The day came when the Marina staff strapped her in and up she went, gracefully emerging from the water for the first time in at least 10 years.
We expected the 3 inches of sea life on the hull, so as they scraped the hull free of most of that we felt pretty good.about what we were seeing at that moment. Once the Sailboat was in the yard and began to dry a bit we were able to see more and more little blisters showing up, but they looked small so after a few weeks of drying out Captain John…
Continue
Added by Lady Orca on August 19, 2010 at 8:45pm —
No Comments
Jealousy, that eenie, meanie, green monster that invades my soul at the sight of certain individuals, consumes way too much energy. As a practicing counselor for 30 years I know that jealousy is simply an emotional response to my own insecurity. It is my belief that I am not good enough coupled with the delusion that someone else is better than me. Simple solutions are to ignore those I am jealous of, reinforce my own knowledge and skill, or just hold my head up high and pretend to be…
Continue
Added by Marlene A. Sassaman on August 16, 2010 at 8:00pm —
3 Comments
by the First Mate
Anacortes, Cap Sante Marina
We had
originally planned to head from Friday Harbor directly to Port Townsend
but upon reaching Cattle Pass we once again found it enshrouded in fog
and decided to turn around and make for Anacortes instead.
We
spent our afternoon wandering the shops and pubs and visited my favorite
store, Marine Supply and Hardware Company is said to be the oldest
marine chandlery on the West Coast (202 Commercial…
Continue
Added by Orvil Newton on August 14, 2010 at 11:10am —
No Comments
I have just finished changing all my lighting over to LED's, it was definitely a trial and error effort but here are the advantages:
1. my Amp hours has been reduced (with all lights, cabin heads, galley nav, anchor light etc on) from 44 amp hours to 6
2. my average amp hours has been reduced from 18 to 2,5, (this would be at anchor with the salon lights on)
3. my anchor light uses 1.2 amp hours versus 8
4. my solar panel (a 75 watt 3,5 amp) takes will trickle…
Continue
Added by Ron Manicom on August 12, 2010 at 3:25pm —
1 Comment
When Captain John and I began our sailing ambitions in 2005 we purchased a sweet 27 ft Watkins to hone our skills on the Indian and Banana Rivers around our area. It was a quaint boat with all the essentials and in decent shape so, after much studying, Capt. John and I embark on our first day trip out on the water. We managed fine getting out of the Marina, and motored out just far enough to get the sails up. Well, all went as planned and we proceeded to play with the sails and catch the wind a…
Continue
Added by Lady Orca on August 10, 2010 at 10:08am —
4 Comments
If in 2012 you choose to endure the forthcoming tidal waves and hurricanes at sea, you absolutely need to have an unsinkable boat at your disposal. But the boat shouldn't only 'not sink', it should not capsize either. Consulting…
Added by Capt. John on August 3, 2010 at 12:00pm —
4 Comments
Unfortunately, our service provider has changed their data storage plans forcing us to remove music from our network.We are disappointed to lose a feature like that and hope to find a way to add it back on in the future.
Apologies to those whose profiles have…
Continue
Added by SeaKnots on August 1, 2010 at 2:30am —
No Comments
So where are the "single sailors" who are looking for a soul mate? So many on the single sailors list are couples! I've been sailing for 8 years and would love to find a "soul mate" to enjoy the ride with for long term.
Added by Sward Lockwood on July 24, 2010 at 7:41pm —
28 Comments
Well, we got lucky when another Tropical Storm "Bonnie" fizzed out prior to landfall here on the gulf coast. It was a good news for an area still dealing with the oil mess however, this I expect was the first of several potential storms yet to develop this season. Even with this, it's still a great place to live and sail. Just remember "The Mississippi Gulf Coast is open for business"
Added by Kurt on July 24, 2010 at 9:45pm —
No Comments
In my last post I lamented about the challenges of selecting compatable crew. Having had three team members seek greener pastures, I was torn between frustration and disappointment. The disappointment arose when I questioned for a moment the consequences of my behavior which led to a divorce from a trio I had come to care about. The frustration was facing the challenge of seeking replacements. Fortunately, finding replacements was easier than I thought. Wtihin an hour any sadness I felt was…
Continue
Added by Marlene A. Sassaman on July 11, 2010 at 1:00am —
No Comments
