Unveiling the latesest Sailorette Chic !!!

Procrastinating @ Rodriguez Key ...

So, here we are ,anchored out at the infamous K - Rod !?! How people can hang here for 21 days to await a weather window to cross to the B'mas is a complete mystery to me . For let's face it : There is absolutely nothing here .
Nevertheless , it's the first time we pulled in here and you could say we are awaiting a mood window to cross over to ' the other side '.
I still got about 250 pages in my book (Winds from the Carolinas /Robert Wilder, A powerful Novel of the old Bahamas that fuses Adventure :) , Passion :D and Romance :p ... )to read before I can go home . We went out to see the "Christ of the Abyss' bronze statue in John Pennekamp state Park , but as soon as we got to the reef line the swells built up to 3-4 feet , so picking up a mooring or getting in and out of the boat was completely out of the question .That was dissappionting ,but not unusual for this spot .
Today we'll sail over to Indian Key ,do a little History Tour .
Hmmm, nothing like exploring The Fabled Florida Keys...

Message in a Bottle !!!!

July 29th, 2010

We always wanted to get a message in a bottle - so there you have it ! :)

Two hardheaded women couldn't find " their " captains to take them sailing the Abacos, Bahamas for the summer, so we had to take the wheel in our own hands.
Left our homeport Marathon , Florida Keys ,and seven adventurous weeks ago and 1000 miles later we are in the middle of the Gulfstream ( N 25' 33.065' W 079'56.365' ) facing the U.S. Coast and reality.For this is it .We did it !!!
Livin' up to our boat's name " Quixotic ", we refused to abandon our dream despite popular belief that this voyage was impossible , and with our last ounce of courage we set sail.
We faced adversity ranging from storms, groundings, engine trouble , way too much fun ( IS that possible ? ) to emotional and physical challenges. Did I mention the hammerheadshark ????

However, like Eleonor Roosevelt said: " Each day do one thing that scares you ."
We are proud and happy !!!
Cindy and Andrea
P.S. Let us know where and when you find this message by sending an e-mail to :
cindymaesanborn@gmail.com

REALITY !

 

West End to Bimini

So , it's Tuesday , July @7th , and we're in West End again , getting ready to treck back to Florida . Tomorrow morning we're heading to South Bimini ,get a good night sleep , then we head across the stream to No Name Harbor , the weather report calls for calm seas and sunny skies , going across the Gulfstream I'm not picky , as long as I don't get my ass kicked I'm good . Life is fantastic ...

We sat for a moment and just soaked up the peace of the night , the island dark and silent , the full moon glittering like a million stars on the calm ocean and “Quixotic” gently swaying . I cried when we weighed anchor , for turning the bow of our boat to sea didn’t promise the usual thrill of getting to explore a new island .
This was it . We are heading home ….
We arrived at Great Sale Cay last night and saw the most perfect sunset , not a cloud to mar the view , just awesome .We finished the evening off with a nice dinner of spear fished grunts (?)
We still got a couple of days to travel, and we take the time to reflect on an awesome trip .To say we had it all is an understatement, I don’t think I ever had better… And we got time to make plans for the year to come , all the new ideas and energy needs to be put to good use . They say you gotta have a plan , so you can get rid of it to free yourself for the life that awaits you . Looking back at the last year I have a hard time to keep my anticipation of things to come in check.
Cindy is polishing our isinglass and has this bright smile on her face .” I can see clearly now !!! “ she announces
.Isn’t this what this whole trip is about ….

Foxtown - and the motor is still running...

So we're rightfully freaked out to pull in in Foxtown. This is the place we sailed in last year without our engine , got caught in a storm with 60+winds and dragged for half a mile through a mine field of rocks , no motor to save the night - but we just had to see these people who helped us out like family. And - off course they remembered these crazy american chicks , sailing all by themselves , what's wrong with them ???
Well, this year we're returning from a successful ride all the way to Little Harbor and back , and the crew here is delighted , the tennage girls inspired and we are full of the mopst delicious cracked conch and lobster in the whole Abacos.
I dove the anchor and the holding is murky at best , nothing but grass and silt , but having the engine on standby will make all the difference in the world. We've learned sooo much , I'm proud.

Manjack Cay - Back to Paradise !!!

So towards the end of our journey we’re coming full circle .
We left all the debauchery and mayhem behind us , leaving Green Turtle Cay after a day of rest and reading on my part ( Goddess, my battery was sooo in the red ) , Cindy going out to see Barefoot Man Playing at Nipper’s , both of us happy to be moving on .
We’re at Manjack Cay , I see 3 houses on the hill , a lovely palm beach with a little tiki hut in the water ,a place just as I dreamed of as I envisioned the Bahama’s . The wind is still honking , but we accomplished the perfect anchoring , plopped it right in the middle of a nice sandy spot where it set right away , the Bruce anchor , my favorite trouper out there , only trumped by a shiny stainless delta , the boater’s wife’s diamond ….
So we arrived early afternoon and immediately launched the dinghy to go exploring . Checked out the wrecks and speared 2 grunts - Yoooh !?! - before Barry , the barracuda caught up with us and stopped the fun .
High tide led us dinghy down the slough forever , and when we got back to the boat we where so high as we haven’t been since Double Breasted Cay .We both agreed that it was fun to do the Regatta and all the partying , but this exploring the islands, hunting and chilling is what this trip is all about .
Today we went to the beach , tied up our dinghy to the Tiki hut and followed a trail all across the island to the atlantic shore . Being without our tour guide we didn’t bring no bugspray , so we traveled with quite some speed to leave the moskitos in our wake (Yep , and no beer for the halfwaypoint either , didn’t we learn anything ????).
Oh my goddess, the vista was just breathtaking …
There were those awesome rocks in the surf on the white ,white beach , looking just like The Bath , BVI , except there wasn’t a soul on the beach . So we went skinny-dipping and snorkeled around the rocks teeming with exotic fish , just spectacular . Realizing this was our last chance to inhale the freedom of these untouched islands was quite painful , a little like dying , but we’re soo grateful we had the chance to do this trip …

Change in weather - Change in plans !!!!

We're still in Great Guana Cay , Tropical Storm B... is blowing 40knots + winds and we're tied down in a marina and chillin' .Not much we can do than wait it out , read a book , enjoy internet and get ready for the long treck home . The weather will be fair next week , so we decided to cross the gulfstream from West End , which will bring us far up the Floridsa East Coast , but that way we'll make it in time so Cindy can see off her son.
I'm totally lived into my new lifestyle , every day we have to make decisions about our next move , I'm calling them " Decision 2010 " ,and all of them follow a simple pattern : Either I AM happy, or I am NOT happy ... And so I have to make my choices accordingly . Life is simple .....

Little Harbor - Turnaround point !!!!

Little Harbor , a tiny artist community at the end of the world - ahem I mean Abacos - surely let’s the creative juices flow . A perfectly protected natural harbor , complete with caves on a cliff wall , a perfect halfmoon palm beach ,the sound of the atlantic surf in the distant , wow ,what an awesome place . And to think that only 50 years ago a family arriving on their schooner claimed this place as their home , the first inhabitants of a gem untouched.
We’ve been here for 5 days now and we start to know the few locals by name .The wind has been howling ever since our arrival , but we were able to explore Old Johnston’s Bight in the Lee of the island .Thanks to Charlie , an old Bahamian Lobster fisher from Grand Cay ,we actually found the Blue Holes there .
We had Internet for 24 hours, so we touched base with friends and family . Talked to my parents and both my kids on Skype , and even though the connection got interrupted quite a few times , you must admit it was awesome to see them from this isolated spot in the world.
We had plenty of time to do some reading ,and the little girl in me actually painted a watercolor of Hopetown .It was the first time in 20 years that she had a chance to play and I’m truly inspired.
Little Harbor is the turnaround point of our trip and it’s unbelievable to imagine that 5 weeks have passed. We’re hoping to make landfall on Florida’s coast around the 29th , so Cindy can go and see her son off to his 3rd trip to Afghanistan . I guess being out on the ocean makes one realize how precious our time on this planet is and we get our priorities straight.
I’m sure we’ll be back in Marathon before school starts , but for now I’m gonna look forward to do some more exploring and sail the crap out of this boat , for turnaround point on this journey also promises down-wind sailing -Yeah !!!!!

Little Harbor

There is nothing nicer than being hunkered down in a safe harbor when the wind is howling outside . turtles are swimming around our boat and except for Pete's Pub and gallery there is nothing but peace here . Or rather dramatic landscape with caves on a cliff and the ocean pounding the rugged coastline. I was inspired enough to actually paint , the first time in 20 years , it is quite awesome here . But tomorrow we'll start our treck back , first stop Lynard Cay, for we need the help of high tide in the afternoon to get back out of this anchorage. had 24 hours of internet , enough time to skype with family and kids , which was awesome !!!!! So we're off to Marsh Harbor for provisioning , till then , fair weather and always a handfull of water under the keel .

Matt and Pavla bringing home the Conch !!!

Racing the doldrums

Our first race in the Regatta was by far the most “ interesting “and challenging race I’ve ever been in.
We had Steve, a diehard ‘Stink-potter’ , and Amy , an experienced all women’s crew racer, on board , so I’d figured a little extra muscle and racing experience leave us in good shape . Little did I know ….
It started with the search for the committee boat and said search never ended !?!?!?
Would you believe it , we eventually found the orange start line mark and Amy , who’d done this Regatta before , assured us to look for a powerboat with an orange flag .
Oh well, we had the start mark , so if we could only look for boats with yellow ribbons , the sign of the Mothertub-class , we’d be in good shape . One skipper assured us we hadn’t started the race yet , another said we were on , and all of the sudden there was ‘Abaco Glow’ ,a high-profile race -boat, struggling to keep their spot on the startline and I was seriously squeezing them out of their position and so tight on them- what a thrill !!! Especially since I thought I hadn’t started yet and was ruining their all- year -anticipated effort for them, so I let them go and tacked. After the race , Steve admitted he wanted to scream, but when he saw me calm on the helm ,he didn’t want to be the first one to freak out , and we all had a good laugh over that moment .Well, as soon as ’AB’ passed us I saw the yellow ribbon on their backstay and made a 360’ around the mark and followed them .Not having found the committee boat , we’d never seen the course board either , but that turned out to be no problem, for “Quixotic” ,our mother tub ,wouldn’t point upwind at all and we soon fell way behind the rest of the fleet. Soon we popped the first beers and were just about to turn on the stereo when we got close to the first mark and into complete doldrums . Now let me ask you if any of you ever tried to sail a heavy boat as ours at 0.7 knots and then tried to tack her . Talking about some whiteknuckle sailing , concentrating on every little move she made , I was pretty stressed out , while the rest of the crew slowly but surely passed out on me .We eventually called our ’Iron Genny’ to the rescue and motored back home ,so we could make it to the award ceremony that evening . ’Abaco Glow’ did win first price that day and we regretted we ruined their effort to beat their last years time . Only a couple of races later the skipper of their boat Sean approached me to compliment me on my move that day .His words said a lot about the race that day : We were so jeaulous, for you were in the position we wanted to be in and we were quite impressed ,until you fell off and we realized she also didn’t know what was going on .
So imagine you in a race , you don’t know where the startline is , you don’t know when you start and you don’t know the course !?!? Unbelievable …..

P.S. Crossing the Finish line we found the Comitteboat to be a big sailboat ,duuuuh….

I think the day of the Stranded Naked Party we started to limp a little bit , but we soldiered on for this was supposed to be the mother of all parties .
1200 Cheeseburgers ,300 Hot Dogs,150 Pounds of French Fries and 100 Gallons of Rum punch and Margaritas each , plus everything required to set up a beach party with games and music on an uninhabited island and return it to pristine condition afterwards - WOW!!!!
All this was organized and paid for by a guy named Bobb Henderson , an American Cargo jet pilot , who lives on the houseboat” Stranded Naked “and followed the whole Regatta all the way to Hopetown with it.
When we arrived by dinghy on Fiddle Cay , the party was already in high gear . There were a gazillion of boats rafted up in a big semicircle around the beach and the line for the cheeseburgers reached far into the water . I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more fun . We were all friends this day and even met Jess ,who’d spent the winter with her daughter and man in Boot Key Harbor .
Talking about Boot Key Harbor , I think I feel a “Stranded Naked Party” coming on….

Two hard-headed women visited the hanging-tree on Alans-Pensacola Cay

Boy ,oh Boy , the crew of Quixotic is lost in PARTY CENTRAL , but it’s just way too much fun !!!!!
After spending 2 weeks either at sea or out in the islands ,we’ve finally made contact with civilization again . We’ve arrived at Green Turtle Cay 4 days before the infamous “Stranded Naked Party “ kicks off the annual Regatta Time in Abaco - uh-oh - BIG MISTAKE !!! We’d spent the first night outside the harbor for Quixotic needed a little help of the tide to get her heavy bottom in and following the dockmasters advice on recognizing him : Just look fo da most handsome mon in da whole Abacos, we met Kevin , the lead singer of the “ Gullyroosters” , Bahama’s # 1 Band. Green Turtle was still totally deserted , so we went to see them play at the ‘Bluffhouse “ and at the ‘Green Turtle Club” and we danced and danced and danced…….

Need Vacation - HELP !!!!

Yeah , we survived Regatta time in the Abacos ,with all the trimmings and wipped cream on top !!! What an awesome time it was . And now we have internet access - what a rare commodity -and my laptop is low on power !?!This Stranded Naked Party and all the mayhem that went with it - I'm exhausted and looking forward to a couple of days of vacation . Life is awesome ......

Living of the fat of the land...

Tough life this cruising...

Tough life this cruising…

Woke up this morning to absolute peace , no nagging voices in the back of my head reminding me of the things that need to be done , no traffic, no hussling and buzzling neighbors ….just the gentle wind humming in the rigging, the lapping of wavelets against the dinghy on our side, the occasional deerfly that made it’s way out to our boat , hmmm…..
When we arrived here on Alans-Pensacola and cruised into this nicely protected anchorage we had to make some serious decisions regarding our anchoring. We had plenty of swinging -room and no tidal surges to worry about , so should we put out two anchors tonite or not ??? This is a rather personal question in my opinion , for the real issue here is actually how to deal with a squall - if we have to get one .Our candidates at hand are our trusted Bruce anchor , heavy and on over 100’ of chain ,handled nicely by our electric windlass. And then there is another substantial CQR anchor on 60’ of chain and plenty of line , handled - or should I say struggled with - by the two of us with little success , for A this thing weighs a ton and B the advantage of the swiveling shank of the CQR turned out to be more of a disadvantage in our last anchorage , for it turned the anchor on it’s side and never set right at all. And what do we do if we’re in a squall and we are dragging , how am I gonna make sure I’m not running over one or the other in the chaos of a sudden hit .Well, all things considered we put out our trusted trouper only and figured we can always run the motor in idle should he give up on us .And as I said in the beginning , it is a rather personal question , for in the end it’s you who has to deal with the consequences of this call.
We had a wonderful peaceful full moon night ,Steve ,who’s also on his way to Green Turtle Cay ,came over for Sundowners and we swapped stories and ate more conch-salad ..After 4 days of living of the fat of the land /sea I’m totally craving for a cheeseburger and - surprise - he has Bubba - burgers in the freezer , so we’re on for Cheeseburgers in paradise tonite .
Hmmm, tough life this cruising…..

Paradise found - so why are we leaving ????

Paradise found - so why are we leaving ????

This got to be the most beautiful island we’ve seen in our lives.
“ Quixotic “ is tucked in behind Sand Cay and Double Breasted Rock , and one of the many pleasures here is to watch the white, white sandbar come out of the water with the tides. The colors of the water as the sun rises is totally out of a magazine , a heavenly array of whites, greens , turquoise , just pure heaven….
Another high-point is exploring the underwater world .We met Steve of “Floridaze” yesterday who happily jumped at the opportunity to have dive -buddies and play tour guide . He had been here many times, and knew exactly where to go. We explored a sunken plane wreck that was ruled by a good size lionfish. He had run into a biologist who’d showed him how to prepare those spiny creatures for dinner and supposedly they have very nice white meat - and no wonder since they are eating all the beautiful fish on the reefs. His gem though was a set of seven good size rocks covered with coral and fish of all colors , we just hung there as if we ‘d landed in an aquarium, nice !!! That turned into our favorite spot , especially since it was surrounded by all the conch we ever needed. We could’ve stayed there forever if it wouldn’t have been for the bouncer the other day who in no uncertain terms made us aware it was time to get out of the water . It must’ve been the biggest shark I’ve ever had the pleasure to share the same spot with , he came out of nowhere directly at us ,and all the foolish notions of carrying a spear with you to defend yourself seemed utterly ridiculous .The time it takes your heart to skip a beat is how long it takes him to make the decision to snack you or pass - and as soon as he turned I looked for Cindy behind me and I guess there must ‘ve been an urgency in my voice as I said the single word “ shark ‘ for she immediately followed me back to the dink , trying to swim the fine line between calm restraint and panic. You bet we were done swimming for the day ..We had some good-size conch in the dinghy which we prepared into a delicious Conch-salad the other night and we’d invited our neighbors Scotty and Peggy of “Black Gold “ and Steve over for Sundowners .
Yesterday we just drifted with the tide down the northern sleugh and enjoyed all the exotic fish and corals , it was pure bliss and we forgot time and got ourselves pretty good sunburns . But it was so worth it , what a life .We caught ( ?!?! Yeah right , they were moving fast ???)more conch and sat down on the sandbar cleaning them up, keeping some of the guts of the conch for fish bait ,,but law-abiding folks as we are we stayed away from the summer crabs ,since they’re out of season , and instead bought 7 tails from the locals that drove by in the evening. Now tell me what those babies look any different in our cooler than if we’d gotten them ourselves ? A little disturbing thought , so we gonna cook and take care of them today . Most folks look at our paranoia and excuse us with the fact we’ve stayed in the Keys far to long.Hmm, I wonder what that means , I thought we live in paradise…
All the power boaters around us are complaining about the wind , which is stilled blowing somewhere between 15 and 20 knots , but here in the anchorage it feels wonderful. I haven’t broken into a sweat ever and the bugs can’t make it to our boat , so we are happy…

We have arrived...

We have arrived…..

We really didn’t have a plan where to go after West End ,leaving our journey open to the wind and fate ! Best is to talk to other sailors, see where they’re heading ,so when we heard them talk up a storm (?) of praise about an island called Double Breasted Cay , we checked back with our collection of guides - and sure enough , it was supposed to be the most beautiful Cay in all of the Bahamas. So why didn’t more people go there , we’d never heard of it ? Well , we were soon to find out…
We motored through a nice cocktail of dark and stormy , either no wind or all hell , one of them packing winds so fierce, it slowed us down to 1.2 knots under full power - but it rewarded me with nice photo of nasty weather.We reached Great Sale with the fading sunlight , no diving the anchors there , so we slept with the GPS on anchor-drag alarm - just in case . No serious cocktail-hour there , but we where rewarded with a calm night and actually got to go sailing the next day . The wind was huffing steadily at around 15 knots and “Quixotic “ proudly showed us what she was made of. It was a day we had worked for so hard , all systems up and running , flying 7.2 knots ( YEAH !!!) by little Cays in beautiful weather on our way to paradise.
Double Breasted Cay has two little sleughs to get into some nice protected anchorages and as we were getting closer to the island ,we realized we can’t make out the channel. All looks fine on the chart plotter ,but all we see is a little opening between jagged coral rocks we wouldn’t even try to get our dinghy through , not to mention the mothership . And could we really trust “Charmaine “ ( The Garmin GPS ) blindly , for obviously once we ‘re in that tight a quarters there’s no turning her around . Well , the prudent mariner and Cindy , the proud boat owner, took over and we turned our boat around and decided to explore our options by dinghy.
I’m sure you can imagine our disappointment when we finally had Quixotic anchored , done diving the anchor to make sure she’s set and the dinghy ready to go, the wind started picking up to a good 20 knot speed. No way were we entering that narrow gap in these conditions , and none of us felt great about leaving our home out there on her own , what if she starts dragging while we ‘re out there looking for our anchorage ???? Oh well, I guess we were off to another night out in the open ocean, GPS on drag - alarm and the boat rocking and rolling . But we all know what an awesome sleep we can get when the cradle is rocking like that ,and again the goddess had mercy on us and sent all the squalls the other way.
Next morning we went exploring and talked to people in the anchorages , nothing like some local knowledge . We found out we had to consider tides and currents to make our entrance and being kinda still in the open water - exit mode in case of a storm , we choose a nice spot tucked in behind the island. So we moved Quixotic around the island to our chosen spot and once we got her anchored we realized the tidal current had gained some dramatic speed and it pointed our transom directly into an ugly set of rocks . Morale and the sun was getting pretty low by then and we kinda questioned our capability here , when we got a call from Scotty and Peggy on “Black Gold” over on the other side of the rocks . “ Are you girls staying out in the open ocean again tonite , or are you coming in over here now that it is slack high tide ? “
I haven’t heard a nicer way of someone telling me I’m messing up , so I replied “ Heck no. I’d just love to spent another night with my GPS on anchor-drag !?! “ I think having to deal with my heavy german accent he must‘ve missed my dripping sarcasm , for he backed off immediately and wished us a good night. Oh ,you should have heard me come back at him : “ Hell no , I AM NOT HAPPY !!! “ just short of screaming help . He told us that boats actually make it through that gap in the rocks all the time and he and another sailor came over in the dinghy to guide us through to safe haven. An hour later we were showered and relaxed in this absolutely beautiful spot between a heavenly sandbar and a coral rock island and the gentle breeze that was rocking our ship out in the open ocean was gently caressing our tired bodies. The moon was lighting the sandbar to a glowing white and we knew then - we have arrived…

Any excuse for a beer - only 99 miles to West End !!!!!

underway ....

Bite off more than you can chew-then chew it !!!!

Saturday June 19th,2010 West End -Grand Bahama Island

Wow , what a ride !!!! It all glows in pure bliss of victory as I sit here in the Old Bahama Bay-Yacht Clubhouse sipping a Goombay Smash ...
Left Boot Key Harbor on Thursday afternoon to anchor "outside ", regroup and relax for a funride with the Gulfstream from Marathon to West End .I really appreciate Peter Barker , who sails this awesome australian raceboat Cole 42 "Bow Tie Lady 'around the world , for giving us a completely new view on the opportunity we have here . After years of listening to sailors scaring the hell out of me about the mighty stream ,he made me aware of the positive sides of this natural phenomena.If used with common sense -as in avoid any northern winds -this powerful stream will give you an extra 3 knots if you go with the flow .And what's the point of hugging the coast when you're surrounded by spualls that leave you blinded and with no space to evade them . After the breakdown on the Burdines fueldock it took quite some spirit and perserverence to get our act together and to realize the boat will never be perfect ,but we were ready to deal with all the extra challenges . So we had a great dinner and a generous amount of liquid courage only to find a broken fiddleblock on the mainsheet before we went to bed . I have to give cudoos to Bruce for a last minute swift kick in the butt to accept fate and just get the f... out of here and use our brains to deal with it and get sailing...
So at 6:30am we got underway , hit the Gulfstream and took "the elevator" along the Florida Coast . The wind blew a timid 3-4 knots , so our 7-9 knots in the stream created a pleasant breeze and we had an awesome relaxing day . As soon as it got dark the little squalls to the port and starboard got intensified by an impressive lightshow and about 9:30 pm ,halfway between Bimini and the mainland, the squalline crossed our path from east to west as far as we could see. Oh well , turning back wasn't an option at this point of the voyage , we had already celebrated our 99 miles to West End with a beer and so we soldiered on . The lightning around us was just horrendous , with lightningbolts glowing for a minute before letting go and we realized chances of getting fried are quite on, so we went through all the worst case scenarios , got the fire extinguishers into the lazaret - who wants to go into a burning boat to look for them ?? Went through our exit procedure in case we 'd have to leave the boat , our bags ( as in ditchbag ) were packed, we were ready to go and once there was nothing left to do we sat there and sang up some songs and kept in mind we've had a good life and all. At one point we had FIVE lightning bolts touch down next to us and I was almost craving the sour gummiworms we had stowed in the ditchbag . At around 12:30 pm we were about over of heading into the storm and since we were out in the open ocean ( Thank you Peter ) , we turned the boat away from the storm and just looking at the whole affair to the starboard made us feel so much better ,one of us actually got to put in some shuteye , and by 3:00 am the sky was a sea of stars and our bow-wake a sea of fluorescent plankton , hmmm , life was good again and the memory of shit in our pants faded away in the ecxtasy of pure cruising bliss. We reached West End at 9:30 am in the morning and hooted and hollered when I screamed "Land Ho " !!! I couldn't believe it , only 27 hours to West End , thanks to the powerful stream right outside my homeport - at my service !!!
And to quote some famous writer (???) (Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes) :" To reach the port of heaven , we must sail sometimes with the wind , sometimes against it ... but we must sail, and not drift nor lie at anchor ."

Leaving Boot Key Harbor @ Sunrise

DAY 1 !?!?!

Actually , HOUR 1 ,and I thought we're going sailing today , but, on the way to Burdines to fuel up, our heatgage jumps up to 210F -Houston , we have a problem !
So instead of sailing it's back into the engine -room , pleasantly heated up , thank you very much , and we're on for a Lesson called " The Cooling System " . Thank Goddess , Bruce is right on hand again to walk us thru the Freshwater Cooling System , the heatgage , the sending unit - yep , heard of that one before and now I also know where it is and I'm in the process of learning what a royal pain it is to get it out .Cos' you'd think it's easily accesible since it's right in your face , but there isn't a tool around to take it off without ...well, we'll see ,because we're on that one right now .At least we had a new heatgage and sending unit on hand to play'em out against each other to see who's the culprit.
Needless to say morale on board is low, and we're certainly living up to our boats name 'Quixotic ' meaning trying to acomplish the impossible, since neither one of us is mechanically trained.
Off course we ended up having to take the raw-water plumbing and one fuelinjector out to get the job done ,and we ended up replacing both parts since they go together, but as the day is wearing on I'm adjusting to the reality of cruising . You just don't have a choice but do anything in your power to keep the boat running or you're going nowhere. And since we decided to sail to the Abacos and would like to keep our Iron Genny on the ready we ARE putting in the extra mile and effort to get what we want. And we're learning exponentially .....like it or not .

Getting ready !!!!

What you mean getting ready , I AM ready !!!!
Another super - exiting year has passed and it's time to head out to sea again and let the wind blow all our landlocked worries away .
To me getting ready is definitely part of the trip. Going over the boat and making sure that the ship's tight is certainly a worthy challenge and in the face of survival everything else in life falls back into it's proper place . Ah, the simple life...
Some things may never change , so we're still waiting for the bilgepump to start running so we know our watertank is full - Welcome aboard Quixotic!?! The bilepump is running and nothing is coming out - oh crap , we have a problem...But not to worry , we have three of them puppies lined up for duty and the 5-gallon bucket is still on the list .
On the bright side, the engine jumps to life on the first crank and he's humming smooth as ....well let's not go there , but I'm sure every sailor has a little bit of a love affair going on with their motor , especially in times of desperation.
Not to mention crawling through the engine room is almost like a homecoming -oh the fun we had last year digging around with the fuelinjectorpump . I was almost a bit disappointed not to see that bar installed down there , but hey , I guess this trip we're not planning to spent our time in the hole .Hmm ,I like it !!! The deck is shining with a new white coat of paint , so no more burned feet to save the day - yeah !!! The new Bimini and crystalclear isinglass dresses the boat up perfectly , not to mention the bold pink doormat , we're stylin' baby ! So there is still a number of odds and ends to take care off , but the day will come we'll call it quits , then on with the fresh food , the dinghy and outboard and off we 'll sail before we forget why moved into this walk-in closet:)