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Our Cruising Dream

Follow our journeys as we, Captains Wayne Harris and Nancy Kahlden, cruise the seas and visit many ports of call.  This has been a dream of ours for a long time and we are excited that the planning, preparation, and bumps along the way are behind us and we are finally beginning.

It began 5 years ago when we met in TASS, The Texas Association of Single Sailors.  Wayne had just bought this beautiful 42' Tayana and was learning to sail and Nancy was learning to sail larger boats after sailing Sunfishes since she was a teenager.   With the help of many TASS friends, we began to understand how to make the boat perform.  The call of the blue seas was whispering to us the whole time.  We loved sailing on Galveston Bay, racing in TASS races, the Harvest Moon races, Vera Cruz races and learning more every time we took DANCES WITH DRAGONS out. 

Now our dream to sail to foreign ports and visit the world by sailboat is coming true.  It hasn't been easy, but we've risen to the challenges and obstacles in our paths to finally make this happen.  The first major challenge was replacing the old Perkins 4-108 engine within 6 weeks of our cast off date.  Wayne, with the help of some wonderful friends, installed a new Westerbeke 55B and electrical systems, as well as new hoses, belts, etc.  We tested the new engine out on a motor to Freeport on Memorial Weekend and exchanged our cruising vows before family and friends.  Our target date to cast the final dock lines off of June 1 was delayed by our life raft not arriving on time.  God is looking after us though, had it arrived and we left, we would have been in the middle of the Gulf as Tropical Storm Arlene blew through.  Instead we cast the final lines off in Kemah, TX on June 8, 2005 and sailed to Port Aransas.  It was a good shake-down sail and we discovered a few things that still need fixing.   We are here now in Port Aransas, getting her ready to sail across the Gulf to Key West and then head out on the Gulf Stream and turn at Longitude 65 and head to Trinidad for the hurricane season.  

We stayed in Port Aransas doing some boat maintenance and tending to family in Houston for a week.  We left Saturday, June 18 at 12:20 PM, and headed out in the Gulf of Mexico with Key West as our destination.  Eleven days later we arrived at the outer channel marker in Key West, Florida, at 5:20 am.  The sail across the Gulf was phenomenal.  Wayne and I don't like to motor much, so we kept the winds in our sails, set at a close haul and tacked when necessary.  We did add 63 hours to our new engine, which is now broken in!  We encountered a few showers for 3-4 days on and off, mostly in the evenings or early mornings, and had only one night of really heavy seas and winds, in which we finally hove to and went below to get some much needed rest.  Dolphins sailed with us the first night and played beside the boat, slapping their tails on the water and entertaining us completely.  A white-wing dove hitched a ride on the anchor for about 3 hours.  We saw a few fish jumping, but never could hook one and a few schools of flying fish.  The full moon was incredible to sail under and lighted our way for almost a week.  Now in Key West, Wayne is doing some small engine repairs and maintenance, and Nancy is trying her hand at a sail repair to the mainsail that ripped when the first reefing tie down wrapped around the reefing line when we were shaking out the 2nd reefing line.  As always, people you meet around the docks are so helpful.  The captain of the 70 foot sailing vessel, "Black Duck," drove us today to Stock Key to pick up tanbark sail cloth.   We've enjoyed many beautiful and peaceful sun downs, sun ups, moon ups, and moon downs along the way, as well as anchored here at Key West.

Tuesday, July 5, 2005.  Reports are issued of a tropical disturbance that has formed in the lower Caribbean.  Within a day, it is named Tropical Storm Dennis.  Projections put Key West in its path.  We have finally finished the sail repairs due to the help of sail maker, Michele Geslin.  It's Wednesday, July 6 and we decide to head further East on Thursday.  On Wednesday, we finish repairs to the bimini and get the boat ready to leave at dawn the next day.  We motor up Hawk Channel to Marathon and luckily get one of the last slips at Faro Blanco Marina.  Most of the marinas are not letting anyone due to the evacuation order by Monroe County due to Hurricane Dennis that is due to strike along the West Florida Keys coast late Friday and early Saturday morning.  We are in a hurricane watch area only by about 3/4 of a mile.  Wayne is a master at securing the boat and we are ready to weather the storm.  By Friday evening, the winds are picking up and we are getting squall lines in the marina.  The boat is taking the winds and waves well.  During the night, the winds increase to a constant blow at 40-45 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.  The FourWinds wind generator is doing a fantastic job of charging the batteries with 13.3 volts and higher during the gusts.  The wind and waves assault DANCES WITH DRAGONS constantly throughout the night, and most of the day Saturday, but the lines hold fast and she is secure.  There was little damage done to any of the boats in the marina and we are thankful.  We were so lucky and blessed that when Hurricane Dennis ravaged Cuba, he was decreased to a category 2 hurricane and never rebuilt while it was close to us.  Our prayers are with the people in Pensacola and the suffering they are going through with the second hurricane in less than a year.  We spent Sunday drying the boat out...we do have a few leaks that will be repaired...and deciding where to head to next.  On Monday, reports of two tropical depressions that have formed off the coast of Africa help us in our decision.  We are going to head east and north tomorrow.  By 11:00 pm, the fifth area of disturbance has now become Tropical Storm Emily with a projected path into Cuba and the Florida Keys.  The boat is ready and we will leave first thing in the morning on July 12.  Our destination is tentatively Fort Pierce to visit Wayne's cousins, but we may bypass Fort Pierce and continue to head further north. 

As we headed around Miami, we received phone calls that informed us we have some things to take care of.  We decided to get in the Gulf Stream and sail with the current further north.  We had a ball!   The current increased our speed by 4 knots and one night, we just took the sails down and drifted ON COURSE with the person on watch waking up every 15 minutes to check our course and look for big ships.  The sail once we got out of the Gulf Stream was enjoyable as well.  Dolphins accompanied us for periods throughout the voyage.  It's fun watching Wayne calling out to them to try to engage them in conversation.  The moon has lit our way and we are amazed by the stars we can see.

We have now arrived in Charleston, South Carolina and are staying at the City Marina.  (Finally we have good access to the Internet and are able to update this website!) 

Hi, this is Wayne , all that other was Nancy. To all our friends that do the maintenance on a sailboat,,,,,,when you take the stainless strainer out of the raw water container BE SURE to stick your finger through the inlet coming from the thru hull valve.....I did just by accident and the inlet was log jammed with seaweed etc!! I guess the inner cooling system was keeping Mr. Westerbeke cool enough because it certainly couldn't have been getting sufficient water from the sea.!!  (I would always look to see how much water was coming outa the raw water exhaust and just figured it was enough. A lot more is coming out now.) Also, check the tension on your alternator belt. (there is another story in that.)

We are just having ourselves a TIME!!!. I got a call from my Brother and he needs for me to go slay a couple of Dragons for him. Sooo, we have put this old girl in a slip @ City Marina in Charleston in case some of you wanna come see us. Call us on Nancy's cell first.  Security is good here and it is a nice marina and Charleston has a lot to see. The current is really cooking as we are in a river and the tidal change is a lot more than Kemah! 

Nancy again,

We are enjoying visiting Charleston.  It is a beautiful city with lots of Southern charm and hospitality.  We have walked the downtown market area a few times and with our cruising friends, Chris and Barbara on Moonsail, visited the Aquarium and Fort Sumter.  Moonsail was docked next to us for 3 days before heading north on their journey.  Wayne and I are getting restless and ready to continue on, but can't quite yet. 

Nancy visited her Dad in Houston for a week and Wayne continued doing projects on the boat and watching the South Carolina River Dogs play baseball.  Eric and Kirsten, another cruising couple, docked next to us and we've spent many evenings enjoying good fellowship and wine.  Gary and Lorrie Powers arrived on S/V Lea with Don Finney, Sunday, August 7.  We are enjoying having dinners and shopping with them.  We helped them shuffle their car from Hilton Head and are enjoying having a car to use now in Charleston. 

We will continue to finish our projects for the next week and then will be heading north for the Chesapeake area.  We seem to be dodging hurricanes at every port.

Wayne again,

The Charleston River Dogs, a minor league team class "A", play at River Dog stadium about a mile from the marina. We've been going to the games and its a lot of fun. Bill Murray is one of the owners and is in charge of Fun. They are headed for the playoffs. We will go to a couple more games before we leave.

Experts are saying at this time that soon to be Hurricane Irene is going to veer off to the north and miss us. It will however delay our departure for the Chesapeake as the water will be disturbed for a few days after it passes thru. (It's ok, maybe we'll get to see the Dogs win a pennant!!!)

Nancy is fabricating a dodger and I am building a protective cover for the auto helm controls. We just got it back with all new knobs on it and we don't want to knock 'em off again with our feet in rough seas.

Its been great seeing people from home. Lorrie Powers is not just a pretty face......that girl can COOK!!!!!! She cooked us up some "kinda fusion something or other" and I Hurt myself!!!
We will catch up with them in the Chesapeake and maybe I'll get to sit down to her table again.

Nancy is a great cooker too. Gary and I are pretty lucky.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005:

We left Charleston, South Carolina at 9:30 am and headed towards our mark in the Gulf Stream to catch the "ride" up to Cape Hatteras and then veer off to head towards Chesapeake Bay.  It was beautiful, but a slow ride to the Gulf Stream.  We had beautiful "almost full moon" nights to guide us, but no wind.  We drifted at night for the first two nights and made little headway, but rested completely.  We were escorted by a school of fish darting in and out from our hull our whole ride in the Gulf Stream.  They would leave the "protection" of DANCES WITH DRAGONS and savagely attack their prey in clumps of seaweed.  Then they would dart back to the boat and swim along side us.  I tried to catch one in a net, but failed. 

We pulled into the Chesapeake Bay on August 23 and anchored in Willoughby Bay.  It is a small bay that was created in 1726 by a hurricane that also created Willoughby Spit.  We met a wonderful couple who offered us the use of their outside shower so we could stand in as much water as we wanted to.  Gary and Lorrie joined us on Friday, the 26th.  We had dinner on Dances With Dragons and enjoyed their company once more. 

We buddy boated to the Hampton River the next day and spent the weekend in Hampton Roads.  I rode a bicycle for the first time in about 20 years.  You don't forget how to, but boy, can I tell that I'm a lot older now.   Both boats decided to head up the Chesapeake to Sarah Creek off the York River.  We all left Monday, August 29.  We arrived and anchored in a beautiful creek surrounded by large old trees and beautiful homes.  We visited Jamestown and Yorktown on Tuesday.  What a phenomenal amount of history happened in the area.  Jamestown is still buried for the most part, but the perimeters of the settlement and some of the old buildings are showing.  We visited the Waterman's Museum in Yorktown and visited the battlefield that ended the American Revolution.  On Friday, Gary and Lorrie left to continue cruising the Chesapeake and Wayne left for Houston, then to Mexico to do a job.  I spent Labor Day weekend anchored in beautiful Sarah Creek.  I watched blue herons fishing and guarding their nests, as well as white cranes.  Osprey build tremendous nests on the channel markers and cry loud warnings as you approach their nests with the dinghy.  Wayne arrived back home on September 8.  We relaxed for a couple of days and decided it was time to move further north as well. 

We left September 11 with the Noah weather channel predicting 10- 15 mph winds and 1-2 foot seas and sailed in strong winds of 20 -25 mph up to the Piankatank River and anchored in Fishing Bay.  The 3-4 foot seas did finally lay down to 1-2 as we were halfway to our destination.  We enjoyed the day though.  It is wonderful to arrive at an anchorage, get the boat put up and relax while watching the sun go down and the moon rise with a starlit sky. 

We are leaving tomorrow to head further up the Chesapeake and into a better "hurricane hole" just in case Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ophelia decides to not do as the predictions have her, which is heading out into the Atlantic, and instead come visit us.  

We stopped over night on the Wicomico River just in a bay outside Reedville to rest and enjoy the evening.  We were up early and headed out as the sun came up.  

September 13, 2005

We arrived in Back Creek off the Patuxent River at Solomon's Island after one of the best sails we have enjoyed.  It is a wonderful harbor with many marinas and a picturesque setting.  We are anchored in the Creek off the Holiday Inn Select dock.  We had dinner with Wayne's cousin, Mark, and his family last night.  We are taking them and their little 4 and 8-year old pirates sailing on the bay Sunday.  We plan on being here a few days. 

We met a family that just purchased a 42' Manta catamaran, "Paragon."  Don, Kim and their son, Max, have just begun cruising. 

September 16, 2005

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, BAILEY!!!!!  (Wayne is the proud grandfather of Bailey, and he will address Wayne as "Captain"...not Pawpaw, not Grandpa, nor Gramps!

We visited the Calvert Museum and Lighthouse.  What a phenomenal museum!  The lighthouse guarded Drum Point for many years.  It was moved to the museum and we were able to explore it.  The museum had many old fishing boats, as well as a great deal of history of the area, as well as an aquarium, and otter display and the new discoveries uncovered in the Calvert cliffs by Hurricane Isabel in 2003.  This is definitely one museum not to miss if you are on the Chesapeake!  We met up with some friends we met at Sarah Creek and spent the day with them.  They are on a trawler, Outer Reef.  Meeting people is one of the greatest pluses of our adventure.  Sunday we took Wayne's cousins and family out sailing.  We had a wonderful sail and "fun was had by all."

Monday, September 19, we left Solomon's and sailed, buddy boated, to the Choptank River to Oxford with our friends, (Terry and Larry on Outer Reef.)  We explored Oxford and then sailed the next morning to San Domingo Creek, the "back door" to St. Michael's.  San Domingo creek is beautiful with amazing homes set in a picturesque landscape overlooking the water.  James Michener is said to have owned a home on the creek while he was writing Chesapeake.  St. Michael's is a laid-back, beautiful city with shoppes and homes that take you back in time.  We walked the town and enjoyed a wonderful meal in the main harbour.  It did rain while we were in town, and I promise Captain Wayne to close the hatches the next time you suggest it! (It took a couple of days to dry the boat out!)

On the 21st, we sailed to Annapolis and are now currently anchored in Back Creek for a few weeks.  We had dinner with Wayne's cousin, Ralph and his lovely wife, Mary.  They have been very gracious and loaned us their truck to use while we are in Annapolis.  We enjoyed a wonderful Mexican food dinner with them, as well as Wayne getting to watch football!  The truck has been a godsend.  We were able to take our batteries to the Battery Warehouse to have them equalized.  They kept our batteries overnight, gave us a loaner battery and didn't charge us a thing!  We feel very blessed to have so many people being so wonderful to us. 

All that was Nancy and this is Wayne...........We have decided that we are glad hurricane season turned us north to explore this Chesapeake Bay. (not pleased that so many have suffered in enduring the storms of course.) This is a wonderful bay to cruise around in. We haven't had any trouble finding really nice places to anchor in. Holding is great for the most part. (Nancy had a little experience with the anchor giving up on her in Sarah Creek while I was down in Mejico but she managed to deal with it.) I had put down a second anchor for her before I left and I think maybe one of em uprooted the other one when the wind shifted and she swung around and then she went running downwind.  (Wish I could've been a little sea mouse on the deck watching her scamper about trying to stop the boat!)

We are looking forward to seeing Tal and Carolyn when they arrive the 7th. We will explore this area with them. Jim and Belinda are saposta come to the boat show and we are looking forward to seeing them as well.

I have not been this relaxed in all of my 56 years I swear! This cruising life just suites me fine. (Nancy has a smile on her face even when she is asleep!)

If Nancy and I have been cruising long enough now to be qualified to give new cruising couples advice we would have to recommend that when outfitting the boat you put four  fly swatters on board,,,,,one for each hand!!! I never knew there were flies out at sea. And they are the vicious bitin kind!!!

enough for now, we miss all of you and we are so happy you were spared any damage to your boats and homes in Kemah. (this is the report we have so far that is.)

It's October 9 and we are still in Annapolis.  We will be going to the boat show tomorrow as the weather is supposed to clear up soon.  We are beginning to get the boat ready for our trip to the Caribbean.  We both are ready to head south, but have thoroughly enjoyed the Chesapeake.  Tal and Carolyn and another good friend, Rodney Watts, have visited and it was great seeing friends.  Unfortunately, Wayne had a job in Mexico and left before Tal and Carolyn arrived and got back home after they left.  Maybe next time!!!!

We visited the Annapolis Boat Show and bought a DC generator and have decided due to the wet and cold weather we are going to have it delivered to Fort Pierce, FL. and install it in warm weather.  We have had 7 days with no sun and we are tropical weather cruisers!  We will be heading south beginning Saturday, October 15.  We visited Ralph and Mary, and their 3 sons Wednesday night.  Mary is wonderful about giving us our Mexican food fix.  Wayne has a great and loving family and it has been great getting together with them. 

We had another wonderful surprise.  As we dinghied in from the boat show, we saw Alexus, Dave and Sandy's Leopard Catamaran anchored next to us.  Our smiles covered our whole faces when we saw their boat and then them.  Dave and Sandy are good friends from Kemah who left to cruise 5 years ago.  They cruised for the first 3 years on a 42-foot Tayana like ours and then bought the cat.  It has been so great catching up with them.  One of the wonderful things about cruising is running into other cruising friends. 

Gary and Lorrie have also anchored in Back Creek and it is great to see them again, as always.  The close friendships we make while cruising will last the rest of our lives. 

We left Annapolis on October 15, to begin our trek South to Fort Pierce, FL.  We had great sails on the Chesapeake the two days we sailed to Portsmouth.  Our first night out, we anchored again at Horn Harbor outside Reedsville on the Great Wicomico River.  We anchored outside the Tidewater Marina in Portsmouth and joined our friends, Don, Kim and Max, on Paragon, for dinner.  It was fun catching up with them. 

October 17 - 18 - We entered the ICW to motor/sail to Beaufort, NC, where we hope to go outside and sail in the Atlantic.  The Gulf Stream is close in to the Outer Banks and we decided it would be an easier go in the "ditch."  We drop anchor along the waterway and enjoy the full moon nights.  We are progressing at about 50+ statue miles a day and should be in Beaufort by Thursday.  The ICW is beautiful.  The banks are lined with pines and many other trees.  The water is a chocolate brown.  We don't like motoring, but are enjoying the beauty of nature we otherwise would not see.  North Carolina is a lovely state.  The full moon "ups" have been incredible.  While in the Alligator River, which I did not see any alligators!, two fighter jets buzzed us.  We waved and on their next fly by, Wayne waved his Marine Corp flag.  On the next fly by, both planes tipped their wings at us and on the fourth and final passage, they performed roll-overs.  It was a great air show and made us so proud of our dedicated service men.

October 19 - News of Hurricane Wilma has made us alter plans once again.  What a horrible hurricane season!  (In many ways we are blessed and our lives enriched by our altered plans, but we hate the destruction the storms are creating.  We would not have seen the Chesapeake and the Eastern Seaboard otherwise.  We were able to visit family and friends and that has been terrific.  We also went to the Annapolis Boat Show and we wouldn't have done that either, of course we would have saved some money!, but really enjoyed the show and the hospitality of the Annapolis Harbor and Wayne's family.)  We have decided to continue in the ICW, until Hurricane Wilma has passed and the seas have settled down.  We can duck into a river along the way to get out of the storm's fury if necessary.  We were able to watch the Astros win the National League Division to go to the World Series.  We were outside Oriental, NC and could pick up the signal.  What a great game!!!!

October 20 - We pulled into the Dockside Marina in Morehead City to reprovision, do laundry, take showers in a shower that we can leave the water running! and just relax before we continue South.  It's been over 2 months since we have spent the night at a dock. 

Hi, this is Wayne, all that other was Nancy,,,,,

We did everything right when we denamed and renamed Isabela........So WHY are these hurricanes after us???!!! Merciful Heavens...when will it end so we can head to the Caribbean.  Well, we are more concerned about all the folks these storms have impacted. we have escaped their destruction some kinda way.

We will try and catch up to Moonsail in Charleston if the forecast for Wilma allows it come daylight Friday.

We'll see. I was in Mejico weathering hurricane Stan when they pulled up next to Nancy in Annapolis and missed seeing them.

Looking forward to getting the DC generator installed in Ft. Pierce and heading to the Caribbean. I suppose I can do it,,,,,,,,where the heck is Jose, Tal and Ted when you really need em???!!!! (seriously, I think I can do the installation solo. well, maybe I will call em a time or two.)

I just can't stop laughin, I'm enjoying this so much. If I could just get Nancy to mind me I'd be in Heaven!!

(Wayne just doesn't get it....I'm his CO-CAPTAIN, NOT HIS GALLEY WENCH!)

October 22 - We continue down the ICW and are now docked at Masonboro Yacht Club in Wilmington, NC.  The weather is supposed to get nasty tonight and we decided it would be much better to be secure and not be worrying about the anchor all night long.  We also will continue to watch Hurricane Wilma's path and how that could affect us.  We also have Tropical Depression #25.  It may affect us next week.  We have enjoyed watching the end of the University of TEXAS game and will watch the 1st game of the World Series....GO ASTROS!!!

October 24 - We continued down the ICW through South Carolina and have now reached Charleston, SC.  We met up with Chris and Barbara on Moonsail and will buddy boat to Florida.  We are going outside into the Atlantic Ocean....we had enough of motoring....we are a sailboat!  The winds should be strong from the North and Northeast and the seas will be 2-4 feet, so it should be a fun ride.  We plan on being in Fort Pierce by Saturday.  

October 28 - We made it to Fort Pierce by Friday about 1:30 PM.  We had to motor sail to keep up with Chris and Barbara, but we had the sails up the whole time.  It was great being out at sea again.  It was good to see green-blue water again and know we had lots of water below us and would not run aground.  (I ran us hard aground in the ICW!  It took about 30 minutes for us to finally get off and that was with the help of a motorboat going around us until a wake was able to lift us up out of the mud.  That will be the last time I "mind" my Co-Captain when he tells me to go closer to the reds!!!!)  Oh, by-the-way, Wayne also ran aground a couple of times!)  We had dolphins following us again and much to our surprise a couple of stowaways!  On Thursday afternoon, a beautiful gray-green little bird with a yellow belly landed on the boat and of course we fed her.  When I say came aboard, I mean came aboard.  She flew below and examined the inside of the boat.  Before evening fell, she chirped and a smaller bird also came aboard.   They stayed the night.  The little one curled up in the covers in the V-berth and woke Wayne up the next morning by gently pecking at his back.  The other bird had slept under the overhang in the galley.  They ate and then the little one flew away after testing the flame on the stove with his beak.  The other bird stayed with us the rest of the trip into Fort Pierce channel, but before she flew away, she hopped on both of us as if to tell us goodbye.  We were sorry to see our "boat bird" leave.  Here is a picture of her.  Unfortunately, the pictures of both birds did not come out.

This is Wayne...all that other was Nancy...I did take us aground but we were in the middle of the channel when I did.

Some of you may not believe this but sleeping with a bird was a first for me.  What are YOU laughing at Tal???!!! 

We will be getting a new prop and possibly a slightly longer drive shaft here in Ft. Pierce so we can motor faster when we absolutely HAVE to listen to that engine noise! Will be working on getting the DC generator installed. I am supposed to go do a project in Invergordon and possibly West Afrika prior to our departure for the Caribbean. Nancy will be here guarding our home. We are really glad to be down south and outa that cold wet north! It was great to see my Family tho and to sail on the Chesapeake.

Nancy again.  We are enjoying seeing Wayne's cousin Laura and her family in Fort Pierce. 

It is also nice just to take a Sunday off and relax, which is what we are doing today. 

November 13 -

We've now been on the "hard" for a little over a week.  It is funny to look over the side of the boat and not see water....instead it's over a 10' drop to hard ground.  We are getting to live aboard while we work on the boat.  It's nice to do some projects we intended to do before we left Kemah but put on hold when we installed the new engine.  The DC generator has arrived, but Wayne is on a job in Mexico so it will have to wait to be installed when he gets home.  I did my first "bottom" job.   We were only going to touch up the keel where we ran aground, but there was too much difference in the paints and we also heard that once the old anti-fouling paint was out of the water for more than 5 days, it would lose its effectiveness.  The boat will probably be out of the water for about 3 weeks.  Since I needed to stay busy while Wayne is gone, I did the entire keel.  I've also installed the new prop.  Of course, I want my co-captain to check out that installation!  I'm learning a tremendous amount about boat maintenance and repair.   I've finished some sewing projects, insulated the hot water heater, and have ordered Lexan to change out our windows.  Once it arrives, I'll be replacing all our windows.  It will be great to see out of clear, not crazed panels.  A couple also leak, so that should be fixed.  (I need Wayne to come home so I can relax!!!!)  It does feel good to accomplish these things.        

November 22 -

Wayne did make it home Tuesday night and I left Wednesday morning to visit my Dad and oldest daughter.  It was wonderful to see them.  My Dad is an amazing man at 91.  He has survived two major strokes.  It was great to see and get hugs from Jennifer and visit a few friends.  I also visited Wayne's mom, Suzie.  Wayne has been working on installing the DC generator while I was gone and now we can finish that project together, although he really does most of it!  I will get busy on installing the Lexan windows.  We are ready to finish our projects and head to the Caribbean.  Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. 

November 28 -

**WH--- It was great to get her out of the shipyard, which we did on Friday. The new prop, plus being able to run her in "position A", has made her able to post some really high speeds.!!  We took her out in the ICW and ran at 2,500 rpms and were making 7 knots!!!  With the old prop and running in "position B" we could only get like 5 knots at 3,000 rpms. This will improve our miles per gallon and more importantly, it will give us the forward thrust we need to keep us off the rocks or off another boat etc.

We took off a window yesterday and we have eight to do.....It is going to be a big job. Nancy's job.  (Thank you Stephanie for your helpful email.  Our windows are just like yours and you saved us a lot of time!)

DC genset installation going well. Look to push the start button this afternoon.

Oh yeah, now that we are experienced cruisers making us authorities on all cruising issues.........NEVER, NEVER, EVER let your Co-Captain distract you and make you forget to open the raw water valve that you closed so you could work on the raw water pump and change the zinc in the heat exchanger. Because when you start the engine it doesn't take long for the high temperature alarm to come on as the engine gets REAL HOT REAL QUICK!!!!  My advice is to always take the ignition key and tie it to the raw water valve, (same applies to the fuel valves if you turn them off!!)

Yes, there is a story that goes with that.

December 14 - We're still in Fort Pierce and will be here until after Christmas.  Wayne did a great job with the DC generator installation.  It works great!  We have started installing new windows on the boat.  We have 2 installed but there was a huge problem with the remainder of the windows.  We have now ordered the Lexan online and it will be delivered next week.  Wayne has decided to cut and drill the windows and then we'll install them.  I know they will be great.  We are thoroughly enjoying the 2 new windows.  It's wonderful to be able to see through them.  In the meantime, Wayne has built shelves in the V-berth locker and fixed the propeller on the dinghy engine.  We've had the boat torn up for a while now, but are enjoying having our home neat again.

I am finally working on the windshield again.  I have tables to work on at the marina so the "glass" will not get scratched.  We've also received the fabric for me to sew the shade awning for the boat so it will stay cooler in the tropics....glad we bought the Sailrite sewing machine!

We've enjoyed meeting new friends in the marina.  We made some great Canadian friends lately.  We shared cocktails and dinner many nights with Ron and Judy on Pioneer.  Don, Kim and Max from Paragon arrived and we had dinner with them as well.  We talk to a number of other cruisers daily.  We are very, very ready to be sailing again. 

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the Best in 2006!

December 27, 2007 - Wayne spent Christmas in Invergordon and I went to Houston to spend Christmas with my Dad and my girls.  My Dad is looking really good for a man in his 90's whose had a couple of bad strokes.  I'm blessed I was able to spend another Christmas with him.  Kristin, my youngest daughter, also had her first bridal shower while I was there.  It was great for me to catch up with a few "kids" I taught from Episcopal.  I can't believe "my kids" have turned into such grown up and wonderful adults.  I also enjoyed seeing many adult friends from soccer and softball days.  I'm looking forward to the wedding in March.  I attended the annual Christmas Eve party at the McKinnons and again I caught up with a number of good friends I hadn't seen in a while.  Then I joined the Szalkowskis for the Christmas Eve service at St. Luke's.  I love bringing in Christmas with the candlelight service at St. Luke's with some of my dearest friends. I enjoyed the traditions I participated in for many, many years.   It was wonderful to see friends and family on my quick trip to Houston.  I would have been lonely in Fort Pierce without Wayne.   Next year we will begin a new tradition of Christmas of celebrating together wherever we are in Paradise!

***WH -- Hi, Got back from a two week project in Invergordon on the 29th and was really glad to be home and happy to see my Co-Captain.

We cut the new windows out of a sheet of Lexan, drilled the holes and finished installing them  yesterday. If Drew and Stephanie had just told me how tough a job it was I would have been satisfied with the old ones!!

Was having breakfast in the cockpit this morning and heard a passel of geese overhead and I looked up and listened closely and I swear I heard 'em honking, "Ahoy Dances With Dragons, hurry up and get headed south, the COLD is coming this way!!!"

Nancy has a wedding dress to make for her Daughter Kristin in Chicago and I have a Dragon to slay in Mexico and two in Nigeria and when I return we are picking these dock lines up and are bound for the Caribbean! Can't wait. Should be the end of this month. (I will be having to work along the way but the company I work for is OK with flying me off of whatever island Nancy and I are visiting at the time.)

On Christmas Eve, my crew and I decided to go out on the town in Invergordon and mingle with the natives some and down a little Christmas cheer and we asked a very fine young Lady from England and works in management on the rig to join us and she did. We all had a great time, except for when the old gentleman came by our table and asked me if Lady Sarah was my Daughter!!!!! (that old fart, I hope he didn't get anything for Christmas!!!)

Also, don't ever try and go "beer for beer" with an English Girl!!!  She hurt all four of us!!

Sarah promises that she and her boyfriend will keep track of Dances With Dragons via email and this website and come join us in some port of call. We hope to see them soon.

Hope to see our TASS friends as well. All of you that knew Nancy and I and sailed around Galveston Bay with us know that our biggest joy comes from sharing this old boat with our friends.

January 2, 2006 - We do wish everyone the best this year.  Our year started off great with the installation of the windows.  Wayne did a great job cutting and drilling the windows.  Together we installed them.  It definitely is a two-captain job!  I'm still working on the windshield....I'm so slow....and hope to have it finished in another week or so.  Wayne is working on other projects on the boat while he is waiting to leave for another job.  We are planning to stay in Fort Pierce for the rest of this month while Wayne does a couple of jobs and I go to Chicago to make Kristin's wedding dress.  We are both so ready to head south, but with jobs and a sewn wedding dress, we will be able to just enjoy our cruise to the islands once the weather window opens up at the end of January.

January 9, 2006 - We had a manatee sighting!  It was swimming in front of DANCES WITH DRAGONS in the fairway.  We, as well as a number of dock mates watched it swim down the fairway and out the marina to Indian River.  It is really hard to see the manatees in the brown water.  You see their swirls and their noses as they surface to breathe.  We could also see this one's tail occasionally.   Fun way to end the day!

WH**Well, I won't be going to Nigeria as conditions there have become too dangerous for Americans to go there. So this means that we will be heading to the Bahamas in a few days and working our way down to Trinidad.

Yesterday I was up in the mast inspecting the standing rigging and found a broken wire in one of  the port side lower shroud lines right at the top fitting where the wires come out. I told Nancy that it would be ok because it was in a lower shroud line and it was ONLY ONE WIRE.  At 0200 this morning I woke up from a really bad dream. We were in the Atlantic and the winds got up, we were on a port tack, the shroud line with the broken wire gave up and before we could point up and lower the sails the rest of the shroud lines on the port side gave up and the mast came down and when I got through cutting away all the rigging and got back to the cockpit Nancy said, "I TOLD YOU YOU SHOULD'VE CHANGED THAT SHROUD LINE OUT IN FT. PIERCE!!!"

Well, I am changing it out this morning. (I would worry about it every time we were on a port tack. It isn't worth it.)

February 4, 2006 -

We are still in Fort Pierce and have made the decision to stay here until after the weddings in March.  The true test of being cruisers is to remain flexible at all times!  Wayne left for Scotland again today, after returning from a job in Colorado on Monday.  We really considered going to the Bahamas and flying to Houston from Nassau upon his return, but we feel safe and secure at Harbortown Marina.  The staff is so wonderful here as well.  We also don't want to be rushed into sailing anywhere.  We've met some wonderful friends as well and it will be hard to leave them as always.  (But that's part of cruising.)

We did take the boat out for a while yesterday and really enjoyed it.  We both love being on the water so much and couldn't stop smiling the whole time we had her away from the dock. 

As of now, the wedding dress is sewn and the bride to be is simply beautiful!  I'm so blessed to be Kristin's mother....Thank You God for that honor. 

The dodger is just about finished.  I get so close to finishing it and something keeps happening.  The last two times the Sailrite machine broke.  We took the machine to Fort Lauderdale to be fixed and we think the new part will have finally fixed it.  Eric, the owner of the Sailrite store in Fort Lauderdale, is a very nice guy and said I will be the "test" for the new and improved part that had been breaking.  I plan on finishing the dodger and sewing the boat awning while Wayne is in Scotland.  We are pleased with the projects we have accomplished since we've been in Fort Pierce. 

We continue to watch the manatees in the evenings around the marina.  It's fun to gather with a group of friends and watch them swim out of the river to open waters, while enjoying cocktail hour and setting sun.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Changing the name Ft. Pierce to "Purgatory".....That is where I think we have cruised to and are doomed to be stuck  in for an eternity!!!!

Work, Family issues, boat projects etc are all the reasons we have been stuck here for so long. We are both so looking forward to bringing the dock lines aboard and heading south. We are also looking forward to going to Houston 7 March to attend my Son's wedding the 10th and Nancy's Daughter's wedding the 25th. We will also get to see all our Nautical friends who we have missed as much as we have missed our Families.

Did anyone find out where Tal's boat snake slithered off to???? Little Alcyone has some wanderin ways about him.

Soon we hope to be able to enter sailing adventures into this website instead of so much blah, blah, blah.

February 22 -

We are enjoying just relaxing and watching the manatees swim up Taylor Creek.  The most we've seen in a couple of minutes is 12.  There were 2 mommas and 2 babies swimming side by side.  We could see their outlines in the water very well and of course their noses when they came up for air.  Below are pictures of some I've been able to capture.  I didn't have the camera with me the day one came up and seemed to talk to us. 

March 29 - We arrived home yesterday.  The weddings were wonderful and it was so good to see our family and many friends.  The 3 weeks went by quickly. 

Congratulations to Jeremy & Rachel Harris and Kristin & Dan Rodriguez!  We wish you all the happiness in the world! 

                      Rachel and Jeremy                                          Dan and Kristin 

April 1 - We have spent the last 3 days getting the boat ready and we are set to leave TODAY for the Caribbean.  We will be able to head out after high tide a little after 10:00 am.  We will be crossing the Gulf Stream, kissing the north Bahamas' banks, and heading East to the Atlantic and then southeast to the Virgin Islands.  We hope to be there within a couple of weeks or earlier. 

W.H.----1 April 06---If someone comes along and pinches me and wakes me up from this wonderful dream I'm going to make them think Roy Rogers, Rambo, Matt Dillon, John Wayne and my Commander In Chief George W. Bush just got through whuppin em!!!

We have been awake since 0200.  Nancy made me try and go back to sleep and after 20 minutes she said, "Ok, ok, go push the button on the coffee pot, you aren't going to let me sleep anyway!!!"  We are so excited about leaving today. Ft. Pierce has been great, we got to see my cousin Laura & her husband Kenny, and Melissa, Rick & beautiful Serena. We got a lot of projects done on this old girl and the reason is we only had enough water under us at slack tide for about three hours so we couldn't go out and play for long. So we accomplished a lot.

Nancy will try to update this log when we reach St. Thomas. (12 to 15 days.) 

APRIL FOOLS!!!!! 

We haven't left yet.  It wasn't Rambo that pinched Wayne, it was the fresh water coolant system.  We were 50 feet out of the slip and the high temperature alarm came on.   We had to change the thermostat and flush the system, which was full of gunk!  By the time Wayne had it all changed out we couldn't get out of the slip.  We will leave tonight at 10 PM with the next high tide!  We did sleep this afternoon.  Both of us were tired having been awake since 2 am.  Thank goodness this happened now instead of in the inlet with a big ship bearing down on us.  Until later....

WH--We left at 10:00 pm and made a great run across the Gulf Stream.

April 15, 2006 - 4:15     1401 miles sailed!!!!!!

Well, part of cruising is waking up and deciding what we will do....we decided to sail to Fajardo, Puerto Rico instead of St. Thomas.  We plan on visiting Culebra Island and then possibly St. Thomas or St. John.  You just never know where we might drop anchor. 

W.H. ---18 Apr 06---Well Cap't Roy would be proud, we sailed 1,401 miles from Ft. Pierce, Fla. to Fajardo, Puerto Rico and we never got off course once, didn't run over any big ships and safely navigated our way thru the reefs of Cordillera approaching Fajardo! Seriously, we thought of the training we got from Roy a lot along the way as we put it to use. ( I'm not the best student in the world, I have to have to actually do it to really learn it.)

Damage report-- Radar reflector ball fell out of the mast and was hitting the hull and I brought it back aboard. Asked Nancy to go up in a 4 to 6 foot sea in the harness and reinstall the flag halyard so a big ship could see us on radar and she refused.........(When she signed on for this adventure she sure came on like she was a lot more athletic. It's ok, I'll run her up there before he head to Culebra in a couple of days.)

Engine overheated a couple of times. We took the new thermostat out and put it in boiling water and it opened but very slowly. Then we put the original in the water and it opened up quicker so we put it back on the engine. It worked fine. However, when the engine is shut off it boils over into the reserve tank and it puts coolant down in the engine drip pan. WHAT THAH ????? I took both ends off the heat exchanger and made sure there was no blockage. We are getting good water flow thru the raw water exhaust. The exhaust elbow is cool,,,,,so WHAT THAH????? Sam Hill is wrong???? Ted, Tal, Jose,,,,,,Hep a
Brothah!! Next I will try to bleed a little more air outa the coolant system thru the pitcock valve on the thermostat housing.

I was beginning to call ZZZjock Coosteaux a Lyin Coonass because we have been on whale watch since we left Kemah, Texas on June 8 05 and we haven't see any and guess what!! A few days ago I spotted two of them about 50 yards to starboard and yelled for Nancy to come on deck to see them. All I could say was "Merciful Heavens". (That is a line I got from Father Calahan in 1967. He used it when he saw this little baby that was about to be Baptized. I used it years later when I first held my two Children and used it again when I saw the whales.) Just to give you an idea as to what the awesomeness level was when we saw the whales.

One observation I made one morning as the sun was coming up and I was on my first cup of coffee was how relaxing it was to have that cool breeze move across me as we sailed steadily towards the mark. I imagined how a fellah that may have carried heavy things around for a lifetime, things like severe regret for wrong decisions made @ crossroads along the way and memories of battles with Dragons on mean trails could lose all of it by just sitting on a sailboat with a cup of coffee in his hand and having the wind blow it all away and sense it falling into the sea and disappearing in the wake. (If I ever run in to anyone carrying this kind of weight around I shall tell them the best way to get out from under it is to buy a sailboat and sail away. )

Will check out the tension on the shroud lines as we got bounced around pretty good a couple of times. It was mostly a smooth gentle cruise down. I think Nancy said it took 14 days. We used the engine for 40 hours. So that is about 40 gallons of diesel.

Going in to Fajardo today to do laundry, check in, see about a new Globalstar telephone as Nancy put hers in Davy Jones's locker half way down here. (Nancy is a wonderful person just don't let her near the water with your phone.....That's two phones since we left Kemah!!!)

Gotta haul Nancy up the mast ,,,see ya.

We had a wonderful 14 days sailing in the Atlantic.  It's amazing what a deep azure blue it is, as well as having different wave patterns and heights.  We had to see what the day would bring.  One morning, it was as smooth as glass and seemed more like a lake instead of the ocean.  The first few nights of sailing was under the dark of the moon and the heavens were amazing with millions of stars.  We were able to wish on a few shooting stars!   By-the-time we reached Puerto Rico, we were sailing under the full moon.  We tried some fishing, but never got anything and didn't fish too much after the first few days.  What was amazing was watching two gray whales pass within 100 yards of the boat.  These beautiful giants would surface and you could see the spray from the blow hole for a long time.  Wayne sighted another 40+ foot whale the morning we arrived in Puerto Rico.  He watched it jump out of the water and twist back under.  I was able to see it surface a couple of times and see its tail before it dove again.  We am amazed at the magnificent world God created.  A few days out, another yellow-bellied flycatcher landed on board, but only for a few minutes.  He got caught up in the dodger and flew away.  Most of the journey was just Wayne and me together on a vast, beautiful ocean. 

We entered the Caribbean through two reefs - Bariles Reef and Hermanos Reef.  There is 2 miles between the reefs.  You could see the waves breaking on the chain of reefs.  We sailed around Isla Palominos and on down to the anchorage at Isleta Marina. 

The tiny part of Puerto Rico we are visiting is a wonderful mixture of hills, cliffs dropping off into the water and green turquoise water.  The hillsides are dotted with colorful homes and large condo complexes.  The people are warm and welcoming.  Rain clouds form in the hills every afternoon and have yet to make it to the boat.  We awaken with a golden sun over the water and then watch it drop behind the hills at night.  So much of Puerto Rico is like being in the States.  There are Walmarts, Walgreens, Western Autos, and of course, the fast food restaurants we are used to.  It is nice to have a "slow" beginning into new cultures.  We are anchored off Iselta Marina, just to the east of the main island.  Fajardo is actually located up the hill from Puerto Real, which is to our west from the anchorage.

April 21 -

We are now in Culebra, anchored in Ensenada Honda and finally have limited Internet access.  This tiny island is again, beautiful.  The hills sparkle at night with the lights from the few homes that dot them.  Frigate birds fly high and are numerous.  There are huge, 3+ foot tarpon fish that swim next to the "Dinghy Dock Restaurant" in 2 foot of water. They are amazing and are well fed fish!  We hope to be able to see some sea turtles, but not sure we can stay up all night to do so! We plan on snorkeling in the next few days before we head to the Virgin Islands.

WH--Jose, Gary, you were right, Culebra was well worth the time. It is beautiful. We dinghied in to the dinghy dock restaurant last evening and met some other cruisers. Lotta nice folks out on the high seas experiencing the same adventure we are.

I have to say with all honesty that knowing Nancy and cruising with her has been a fulfilling time spent. For both of us I'd say, we have taught each other a lot......I have taught her a few knots and how to cuss when working down in a hot engine room. And some other stuff I'm sure but can't think of it at the moment... She has taught me a lot too...,,like how to even the boat up while she is cooking or taking a shower, how to use the cleaning liquids on board, oh and she introduced me to "Mr. Toilet Brush". (Always wondered what those were doing in bathrooms!)

We will probably go to St. Thomas from here and then start heading south stopping at a few islands along the way. We want to time it so we can meet up with our Nautical Loonatic TASS friends in the Grenadines come 1 June.  

April 24 - We left today for St. Thomas.  It was another great sail to Charlotte Amalie Harbor.  Three cruise ships enter in early morning and left as the sun is setting on a daily basis.  Tonight was the beginning of Carnival in St. Thomas and the music blared across the water until wee hours of the morning. We decided to move to another anchorage that would afford us some sleep!  So we did some reprovisioning in town and refueled and watered up at Crown Bay Marina and headed to Christmas Cove off Great St. James Island located off the main island between Lagoon Bay and Red Hook Bay.  It was a quiet and peaceful night at anchor.  In the morning Wayne scrubbed the hull as I snorkeled around the boat.  I was able to see the anchor in 34 feet of water and a sting ray swimming around it. The underwater scenery is absolutely incredible.  I enjoyed the few dives I did in the Spring of 2000 in the Western Caribbean and hope to be able to dive again, but until then, snorkeling is great.   We stayed until a little after noon and headed to St. John. 

We dropped the anchor just outside Cruz Bay and spent a very "rolly" night.  We have decided to believe the cruising guides.  We walked a little in town and after buying new water jerry cans and filling them, decided to head back to the boat for dinner.  Wayne is really anxious to get further east and south, so we raised the anchor at dawn's light and headed to the island of St. Martin/Sint Marrten.  St. Martin lies 100 miles east of St. John and of course, the winds were blowing from the East.  We included two tacks in our course and sailed a total of 133 miles and arrived a little after 36 hours of sailing.  We sailed under the dark of the moon and enjoyed the incredible display of stars. 

April 28 - 9:00 PM - We anchored in Simpson Bay in the Dutch side of the island.  We have toured the area surrounding Simpson Lagoon on the Dutch side, as well as the French side.  The lagoon is split between the two nations and you must check in and out of each side if you drop anchor on the different sides.  To enter the lagoon, you must pass under bridges from either side and they only open at certain times of the day.  We decided to stay anchored outside in Simpson Bay.  It is a good anchorage, though it rocks us more than the Lagoon would.  While hanging out the towels, Wayne spotted a sea turtle swimming in the water and we watched it surface for a breath of air and then dive again.  It's head was the size of a baseball.  I'm certainly lucky to have Wayne on board....he spots all the sea creatures first!

April 30 - Believe it or not, we are still in St. Martin!  We will be leaving in a couple of days.  We are at "Shrimpy's" this morning at a flea market trying to sell our old outdated SSB and the weather fax machine.  It will be great to get the weight off the boat.  We sold it!!!! 

WH-- 30 Apr 06  Yeah, my superior salesmanship sold the old weatherfax and the SGC SSB. (He must be gonna place it in a maritime museum or something.) anyway, its weight off the boat. We were given an ICOM 600 and I just need to get two fittings to hook it up and we can get weather reports and have a way to send out a distress call. (Jennifer and Kristin, don't worry, there will never be a need for us to send out a distress signal. Remember my vow to you. Well, I suppose if she ran us in to an iceberg while she was on watch and I was sound asleep we would need to send one. Well we have the technology now. Don't worry, like I said, I will give up my little piece of wreckage for her like DiCapprio did for Rose.)

As we passed thru The Cordilera, the string of reefs that go between main Island Puerto Rico and Culebra, Nancy was on deck @ the bow watching for reefs and as we passed thru she turned around and asked if we were thru it yet and I answered, "Yes," and she said, "Well, this means I arrived in the Caribbean before you did!"

I like girls real well, I especially like Nancy. But I sometimes think the Good Lord musta got busy with the grand canyon, whales, the moon, the stars, the oceans, and I know it probly took him extra time with TEXAS and I'm sure he always meant to come back and tweek em a little......well Lord, now would be a good time. Just a small tweek. not a big task for you.

We are absolutely having ourselves a TIME! It is so cool to be able to see the anchor in 30 feet of water and be able to dive down and scrub the slime off the hull. I know we have picked up a knot since I scrubbed her.

Know why boats are most always named after Women???? Well, my version is this,,,,,When Women are being good they can be WICKED GOOD,,,when they are being bad they can be really bad,,, but it don't matter, good or bad,,,,THEY ARE COSTING YOU MONEY!!!!

(Actually Nancy is really good and really bad, but she doesn't cost me any money. ) (Nancy edits almost everything I write.) 

NANCY--I have to add this!!!!  Wayne really isn't as bad as he sounds; I'm gradually, very gradually, bringing him into the 21st century and understanding 2006 women!  He truly is a good guy!

May 2 - Well, it's always something!  We now have to replace the propeller on the dinghy.  We will do that tomorrow.  The stores are all closed for Carnival and will reopen tomorrow.  Then will be on our way.  We really, really do love cruising. 

WH 2 May 06---Well at least it wasn't what I thought it was. The new prop will only pop us for about $69. I was afraid it was the lower unit. So, I feel like we won a big prize!!

I wanted to pick the hook up at about daylight in the morning and set sail for St. Bart's but the marine store doesn't open till 0800 and I suppose we need the new prop so we can dinghy at more than one mile an hour when we get there. (It spun the bushing on the drive shaft.)

I don't know what I like best about this cruising stuff...maybe it's getting started to a new destination, maybe it is the water in between, maybe it is first sighting land after being at sea several days, or maybe it is the peacefulness of sailing along hearing nothing but the lines creaking and the water lapping against the hull. Or, maybe it is meeting other cruisers along the way and sharing ideas and experiences with them. Shucks, it doesn't matter what it is I like best about, I just know doing it has made me the happiest I've been in a long time.

May 3-4

We arrived in Anse de Colombier just before evening.  We had the anchor on the ground and were enjoying our evening cocktails as the sun set.  This is a beautiful and peaceful anchorage.  There are 20 boats in the entire anchorage and no city above us, only brush and tree covered volcanic cliffs.  We passed a number of reefs that seemed just to call to pirates with their caves and steep shorelines barraged by waves.  We hiked up the hills to another side of the island and saw beautiful water and houses in a small village in the distance.

The water and reefs are spectacular and I love the mixture of cactus, ginger plants, mimosas and mosses. We snorkeled and I saw a conch shell just below Dances With Dragons.  We then made our way around the corner to Gustavia, the capital city of St. Barts.  A J-Boat race was underway and it was fun to watch the pretty sails.  We have decided to only stay here tonight as there is not a Nissan dealer in town and we still need to get the propeller for the dinghy fixed.  We are heading to Antigua at first light.   

Antigua is beautiful.  We are in Jolly Harbor and enjoying the hills that surround our anchorage.  They are rocky, made from volcanoes, yet covered with a variety of flora.  Century cactus bloom on the hillsides as well.   We will head around to English Harbor and visit Nelson's Dockyard tomorrow and then head for Guadeloupe. 

One of the great things about sailing in the Leeward and Windward Islands is you can always see another island.  We watched the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat sending out ash and smoke.  We were tacking and our tack took us close enough to see it.  We continue to be amazed at the awesome force of nature.

9 May 06 WH--Tal you would really like this place. It gives you the history of Horatio Viscount Nelson when he was just a Captain stationed on Antigua in 1780. (or something close to that.) It gives a lot of detail. He chipped around on his wife Fanny who he married in Nevis. His girlfriend's name was Emily. She had his Daughter and they named her Horatia.  He hated Antigua. He was unpopular with the locals for enforcing the "Don't trade with the American Traitors Act". The locals wanted to hang him. They have restored the place real well. Some of the original buildings are still in tact even after some earthquakes and big storms.

We spent one night there. We were ashore doing the tourist bit and I looked out there for Dances With Dragons and she had drug!!  OH NO!!, panic mode...we dinghied out to her and she had missed another boat that was anchored and stern to the shore and tied up to the mangrove bushes. We were right in between two boats.  If any of you sail to Nelson's Dockyard be aware of the grassy bottom and make double sure your anchor sets really well. (We had the 66 lb. spade, the best anchor on the market, on the ground with chain and we still drug. I put the Danforth down with it and the Danforth was able to penetrate the grass I suppose and hold us.)

May 9 - English Harbor and Nelson's Dockyard is fantastic.  The area is a living documentary to the history of the Harbor.  Restoration of the 18th century buildings is excellent and Fort Berkley is standing strong on the point. We hiked up a road to Fort Berkley and saw a spectacular view of the Caribbean, English Harbor and Guadeloupe off in the distance. 

WH-12 May 06 We had a great sail yesterday to Deshaies, Guadeloupe.  It was 40 miles and only had to turn on the engine for a short time when we ran out of wind at the last. We hate listening to engine noise. If any of you sail to here I have a tip for you.....To check in the cruising guide says dingy to the town dinghy dock and go south up the hill, Its a dam mountain!!!, and you will find the Customs and Immigrations building.  Here is the tip, unless you are Richard Simmons or Arnold Swarzennegger or some other health nut, don't go all the way up the mountain.....Bout half way up you be looking for a very small sign, unofficial looking sign, that reads "Bureu Des Douana".  Then turn right and go down an alley, it WILL NOT look like it could possibly be the way to Immigrations!!, shoo the iguanas and other little scaly hide reptiles away and you will get to a little bldg. that will clear you in. (I need to start working out!!!)

We did work out later in the day when we hiked over a kilometer up that same mountain to the Jardin Botanique, (botanical gardens,) that overlooked the Caribbean as well.  I certainly use different muscles on the boat everyday!!!!  The gardens were spectacular....with so many tropical flowers, hibiscus, plumeria, orchids, candle trees, poinsettias, ixora, huge ficus trees, Hawaiian scheffeleras. rubber plants, and some flowers, as well as fruit trees I had never seen before.  (Wayne was lucky to have all these growing in Venezuela the ten years he lived there.)  I really appreciate and thought of my Mom and her love for gardening that she passed on to me.  I grew so many of the same flowers in gardens at the houses I lived in, but always had to cover them for freezes.  There were some bright blue parrots with orange and yellow on their wings, orange flamingos, and green parakeets with bright red and blue heads. We spent a wonderful afternoon and then ate in a French/Caribbean restaurant overlooking Deshaies Bay and enjoyed the sunset, as well as the meal.  We have also enjoyed the two sea turtles that live in the bay and we see poking their heads up for air every now and then. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 May 13 - We have sailed to Basse Terre, the capital of Guadeloupe.  Once again, Wayne spotted a whale off our port beam.  We were only about 3 miles offshore and it was between us and the shoreline.  We had a wonderful sail, tacked 4 times and arrived at a less than wonderful anchorage.  There is a shelf off the shoreline that drops off to over 100 feet quickly.  We are anchored in 9 feet of water, but the holding is not good and we have drug and had to reanchor once.  We are on a constant anchor watch, so our plans to rent a scooter and head to the waterfalls is out.  There are waterfalls on Dominica which we are heading to Monday, so hopefully we can see them. 

May 14 - Happy Mother's Day to all moms.  Wayne is busy working on installing our "new" SSB today and I'm headed into town to just look around.  One of us has to be on the boat and we can't clear out of Guadeloupe until tomorrow morning.

May 15 - We arrived in Prince Rupert Bay in Portsmouth, Dominica.  The island is mountainous and covered in a lush green every where we look. 

May 16 - We toured the island today with an official tour guide, Stratford, along with another couple we met last night.  Frank and Karen are on a sailing vacation from Michigan and it was delightful to spend the day with them.  We learned a lot about the history and politics of Dominica.  It is in the process of developing, with China and Venezuela helping financially to the infrastructure.  We drove through the mountains to the Atlantic side of the island and saw breathtaking views of the ocean and land.  We visited the Carib reserve, the first people of the island and many descendants of the original people.  We hiked up a trail to the Emerald waterfall and pool.  The mass of ferns, trees and plants twisting upwards to reach the sun was stunning, deep in the rain forest.  I tried to spot a red-necked Amazon parrot, the  National bird of Dominica, but never did see one.  You can only find this beautiful parrot in Dominica.  We continued through the island and then back to the Caribbean side and were able to enjoy the view of the water from high above.  Our guide took us to many vendors and we tasted the fruits of the islands...mangos, pineapples, coconuts, passion fruit and bananas.  We were stuffed when we arrived back at the boat.

Tomorrow we are heading up the Indian River on a boat tour to enjoy more of the beauty of the island. 

May 20 - The boat trip up the Indian River was peaceful and again, beautiful.  I am grateful that the Dominican government protects it's beautiful surroundings so much and doesn't allow for too much development .  "Pirates of the Caribbean" II and III were filmed in the Carib reserve, as well as a few places on the Indian River and we are looking forward to seeing the movies. 

We left Dominica and headed to Martinique the evening of the 17th.  We decided to enjoy a star lit sky and the moon coming up around 11 PM for the remainder of the sail.  It was a great sail, with some motoring when the winds completely died, and then exhilarating when they picked up to almost 20 knots.  We pulled in and dropped the anchor at St. Pierre for the night.  The customs office isn't open on a regular basis so we decided to head to Fort De France at dawn's early light to clear in. 

Fort De France is another beautiful city with a mixture of old and new buildings.  Fort St. Louis stands proud on a peninsula overlooking the bay while across the street from it is a beautiful old park.  We were able to reprovision and enjoy a quiet walk around the city.  We couldn't find laundry facilities so we are heading out tomorrow to St. Anne's to spend a couple of relaxed and quiet evenings in a beautiful bay.  Tuesday, the 23rd, we will head to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

May 23 - I learned a valuable lesson tonight.  I really like the French island supermarkets. They have a good selection of all foods, although all the labels are in French.  I consider myself a fairly good cook....I earned a Bachelor of Science in Home Economics degree from the University of Texas.....and even taught gourmet cooking to an adult class in 1975.  I have been cooking for my family since 1971 and can recognize cuts of meat easily.  However, in a French grocery store where meat is prepackaged and frozen into individual cutlet size steaks and then again wrapped in another layer of packaging with a label, I need to take the French for Cruisers guide with me!  I thought I was buying steaks which Wayne really enjoys.  We had grilled salmon two nights before and the grill was up, so I thought we could grill steaks for dinner.  We were also getting ready to leave the anchorage the next morning and in doing so, Wayne cleaned and stored the grill.  (Thank goodness!)  I started preparing spicy stuffed eggplant while the two steaks were defrosting in the sink which I then intended to chicken fry.  I made the breading for the steaks, cut the packages of meat open and  took them out of the package.  They were not like any steaks I had ever seen before, (they were darker and bloodier with a soft texture,) and I started to think back to cuts of meat I knew.  We had no other meat thawed for dinner, so I decided to chicken fry them anyway with a warning to Wayne that I was suspicious of the cut of meat.  He came down to the galley and smelled it cooking and thought it was chicken fried steak.  You need to understand that I was forced to eat brussel sprouts and chicken liver growing up and knew I would never cook or eat either foods as an adult.  I have not!  Wayne absolutely detests liver and will not even try a bite.  I served dinner and when we tasted the meat, it was definitely beef liver.  Wayne's went immediately overboard and I tried a few more bites.  It wasn't too bad if I took a small bite and ate eggplant in between.  Two bites together and it definitely had a liver taste.  I ate a few more bites and stopped.  Anyway, from now on, I will take the French guide into the grocery store with me.  It has been fun buying food with French labels and for the most part I was able to figure out exactly what it was.

May 24 - We had a great sail to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.  The wind was coming from a reach and we flew the 23 miles very quickly.  We rarely saw speeds below 7.2!!!!  AND, we weren't heeled over...which I have discovered to be Wayne's favorite point of sail....close hauled with the rail in the water.

Rodney Bay is the most modern anchorage we've been too.  The buildings have be built in the last 15 years and are geared for tourists' comfort.  We were greeted by the laundry service, (they pick up and deliver the laundry right to your boat at anchor,) and many fruit vendors.  One vendor, Gregory, is very enterprising and has decorated his wooden boat with a palm covered bimini and lots of flags flying from it.  He is loaded with pineapples, coconuts, papayas, mangos, bananas, tomatoes and will make you a "very good deal!"  St. Lucians are very friendly and welcoming to their island.  We also found this true as we went ashore.  The area built up around Rodney Bay Marina and Lagoon is modern with all the services for the yachting community and, yet, peaceful.  We dinghied around the lagoon and then back to the bay and watched the dark hulled tall ship, The Unicorn, take it's passengers out for the sunset sail.  This is one of the boats used in filming "Pirates of the Caribbean."  As we watched the sun go down from the cockpit, we definitely saw the green flash!  What a great day!    

WH--25 May 06--The sail from Martinique to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia was like a great gift from God!!! Thank you Lord!!!

Lord hear my prayer,,,,,,,Lord I know I didn't deserve it and I am certain there are some reading these ramblings that will agree with that but I promise I will do better. That  run was just perfect, just please give me sails like that from time to time and I will keep trying to be good. Remember Lord,,,,,wind coming at us from maybe just abaft the beam at about 15 knots with us headed to the mark. (20 knots would be ok too as this old girl needs a little push.). AMEN

About the liver episode Nancy went on about...,,,,Look, if one of you come aboard with illegal drugs and I discover them I will sail you close to shore and put you and your drugs off the boat.,,,,, You come aboard this boat with liver in your possession and you will be put off the boat WITH YOUR LIVER and it won't matter how far from shore we are!!!! Liver is nasty and I worry about people that can actually get it down their neck! I suspect they have to be evil as well. In the Marine Corps a hundred years ago on liver day in the mess hall I would do "miss a meal" and wouldn't even walk close to the mess hall while they were cooking the dam stuff! We really enjoyed Dominica, one huge botanical garden. Thank you Captain Cheryl for suggesting we visit St. Anne's, it was worth the struggle getting there. We had to tack about four times as the wind was on the nose at 20 to 25  when we rounded the southwest end of the Island.

Which reminds me...Ben you have ruined my Co-Captain/Girlfriend.  She keeps telling me that you can make the boat go just as fast with all the rag reefed way down and the rail isn't in the water and Lisa can still go below and cook or take a nap or whatever comfortably. "Ben does it this way, Ben puts the traveler in the middle etc, etc."  (Maybe I should fly back to Kemah and get you to teach me how to sail.).

We are going to climb a mountain out on the point overlooking Rodney Bay. It has a fort on it with some canons and such. By the way, they misspelt Rhodney. My first name is Rhodney and I know my Dad didn't misspell it when I was born. They forgot to put the h in it. We will fill our water tanks tomorrow and set sail around sundown bound for Wallilabou, St. Vincent. Bout 60 miles or so.  Gee, I love this cruising thing. Saw a tee shirt in a shop at Rodney Bay Marina that had a sailboat under way on an ocean and the caption read, "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday......SEE, I told you there was no "Someday". 

If you have been dreaming and scheming to "Someday" do this I would suggest you accelerate the process and get started. After doing it for almost a year now I don't think I could recall all the reasons that held me up at the dock in Kemah for so long.

W.H May 31 -We are in Admiralty Bay, Bequia. It's the northern most island in the Grenadines. It is a nice place. We have met some good folks since we've been here.

I am glad I left my pistol in Kemah. I went to buy an 8oz. bottle of oil for the dinghy motor and the guy said $13.00 US. I think had I still had my pistol I would have shot the little pirate on the spot!! I swear we need to do something about these high fuel prices. Nancy and I are battling them by just sailing more. We sit in a current with no wind drifting the wrong way for hours so we don't have to listen to the engine. One we hate the noise, but two it's just too costly to run the thing!

We are going to meet up with the four TASS cats as they exit the Blue Lagoon over on St. Vincent and race them back to Admiralty Bay. It will be great to see them. Don't know a lot of the names on the list Jay sent but we are looking forward to meeting them.

Can't get the SSB to work. Tal how bout coming down to visit us for a while??? Hurricane season is here and we need to make the thing work! We took the old SGC out as the tuner was shot and our friend Dave, as in Nancy and Dave from Ft. Pierce, gave us an ICOM-600. I installed it by the book but I could've dropped the ball somewhere along the way. It powers up but we can't hear anyone talking on it. Electrical things and things that internally combust don't like me. I do know that there is smoke running through electrical wires. In case you have ever wondered....Lots of smoke!!  

June 11 - So much has happened in the last 10 days, and it has been great!  We sailed from Admiralty Bay, Bequia back to Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent to meet up with the TASS charter boats and race them back to Bequia.  (We won, but we had the experience of sailing the passage before and our waypoints were direct, while the charter company put in waypoints that took the catamaran further east then south so the current wouldn't affect them as much.  This wonderful boat just slices through the water with her weight!)  It was wonderful visiting with our TASS friends again.

Now, earlier when we raised the anchors to head over to Blue Lagoon, Wayne got a huge shock to only find chain at the end of the new Spade anchor.  We started to cancel our sail to meet the TASS group, but Jack on Bora Bound suggested we mark the area where the anchor should have been and look for it when we got back.  The cruising community is just amazing at the willingness of others to stop what they are doing and help fellow cruisers in need.  When we got back, we were able to anchor nearly at the same spot we had been in.  Jack and his wife, Linda, immediately got into action with us and we began searching for the anchor.  Jack stayed in the dinghy and pulled me slowly around.  Linda saved the day and found the anchor and the shackle pin lying on the bottom.  Jack then got the air tank and hose and hooked Linda up so she could dive and tie a line around the anchor.  She did, and together Jack and Wayne brought the anchor back up on Dances With Dragons.  Wayne secured the anchor to the chain again.  Thank you Jack and Linda!!!!!

The next day, the TASS group headed to Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau and we stayed behind to pick up Jim and Belinda Wolfe at Blue Lagoon.  They came aboard to sail the Grenadines and then on to Grenada with us.  It was such a pleasure to share our home and adventures with other TASS friends.  We look forward to having many friends and family join us along our journey.

We sailed to Salt Whistle Bay and enjoyed a beautiful evening on a quiet bay.  The next day we headed to Tobago Cays and were amazed with the blues and turquoises of the water.  We dinghied out to the reef and snorkeled among thousands of fishes and coral.  We explored 3 secluded islands and enjoyed breathtaking views from the top of the hills. 

Thursday, June 8, we sailed close by Palm Island and then to Union Island.  We walked the town of Clifton and checked out of the Grenadines.  The next morning at dawn's first light we were sailing to Grenada.  And what a spectacular sail it was.  We made St. George's at the south end of Grenada in 8 hours.  Our rhomb line took us just at the 1.5 km exclusion zone of "Kick 'em, Jenny" an active underwater volcano.  Wayne was fairly certain the volcano would choose that moment to erupt.  It hasn't erupted since 1989.  It didn't but it was fun teasing him. 

St. George's is a beautiful port.  We are anchored in the lagoon and enjoying the island.  It is recovering from Hurricane Ivan which struck in 2004.  The buildings are new and the town is very friendly.  We took a tour of Fort Frederick, a waterfall and a lake formed in a crater of an inactive volcano in the rain forest.  On the drive up to the rain forest we could see the devastation of Hurricane Ivan, not only to it, but the residential areas as well.  The people are working hard to restore their homes. 

~~~~~~~I keep trying to add a picture here....I'm not being successful.  I will continue to try!~~~~~~

Unfortunately, we had to say "Goodbye" to Jim and Belinda.  They are headed back home and we are waiting on a weather window to head around south to Prickly Bay and will sail to Trinidad from there, either Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Our wind generator has worked so hard for the past year in all kinds of winds; light winds at 2 knots and to those from Hurricane Dennis and constant 20 to 25 knot winds more recently, and finally the bearings burned out.  We do highly recommend FourWinds.  Our wind generator has worked when the others in the anchorage are not turning at all and it is much quieter than all of them.

WH--11 June 06  I have to give our friend at FourWinds Enterprises a little plug here. He has been great with tech support from the start regarding the FourWinds II wind generator we purchased from him. We got a regulator from him too, and Tal, Jose and Ted had some conversations with him during the installation in hooking up all the electrical components and he was always available and willing to be tied up on the phone dealing with us. AND he has extended the warranty on the unit and is going to replace the bearings in it. Check his business in Punta Gorda out @ www.fourwinds-ii.com if you are outfitting a boat for cruising.

It really was great to see all our TASS friends and have the Wolves aboard. (Not that we mind having non sailors aboard but it is always a pleasure to have sailors aboard that know how to pitch in like Jim and Belinda. Well, Jim DID break a lotta stuff on the boat while he was here!!!.....not really.)

This snorkeling thing is awesome!!! I now have one of my own. Nancy has introduced me to it and I can't wait to do it again! ......All these years......I sure didn't know people were having so much fun. I am a little angry finally realizing it.  Well, its ok, I'm on track now and I intend to live to be 110 so I have a lot of fun to have before I join the great yachtsman in the sky. Reckon I'll get to sail and snorkel up there? I mean, assuming I make the cut.

I have bragged to all of you about my four Grandsons and I am pleased to announce that my one and only Granddaughter will arrive tentatively 11 July 06. I got to see some pictures of her already. She has a smile on her face. (Probly thinking about going sailing with us when she gets a little older. Maybe like three or four.) Little boys are great to wrestle around on the floor with and play baseball with and such but I have to say when your little girl gets up in your lap and says "I Love you Daddy",,,, or "I Love you Captain". Well shucks, its just something else. Boys are ok tho.

Winds are a little high to make the run to Trinidad from here and since we are in it for the pleasure and not the pain we shall wait for the right window. Its ok, what awaits me in Trinidad is work anyway. I have to be assured Nancy and the boat are in a safe place before I leave for a job.

Most of the people reading this have boats around Kemah and to all of you we say good luck this hurricane season.

13 June 06 --WH--  Got to work six hours yesterday on the head!  (Jim probly broke it just before he disembarked.)  What a nasty job that is.

I learned some more about Women tho in dealing with it.......You can give a girl diamonds or gold and you are assured some extra affection.......You work on a non functioning head for six hours in the heat and finally put it back on line for her and Look, you better break out the chapstix and pucker up because you are in for some kissing and special treatment!!!! 

(After you take a shower that is.)

Carolyn, Cheryl, Chris, Susan I still can't get Nancy to mind me. Would y'all talk to her for me? (Don't bother consulting with Lourdes on it.....I don't think she would give much positive input.)

Listening to the cruiser's net this morning and studying the www for the weather and sea conditions it is looking like possibly tomorrow will be good to run the 78 miles to Trinidad. East to Northeast winds 10 to 20 and 6 to 8 foot seas. Sounds good. She tracks really well with a quartering sea and on a beam reach. We will be headed kinda southeast so maybe if it is more of a NE wind we won't be fighting so hard. (Sometimes we like a good fight tho, we have a Tayana.)

NK - Hey Jim, don't take anything personally; I've discovered Co-Captain Harris always needs someone to blame things on.  It's nice it's not me for a change. :) 

And, I'm waiting on the diamonds and gold!!!!!!!  I might mind then.....NOT!!!!

By-the-way, there are designated jobs on boats...."blue" jobs and "pink" jobs....all head repairs are definitely "blue" jobs!

June 15 - We are leaving for Trinidad is an hour.  The seas have calmed down since yesterday and it should be a good run.  We will be buddy-boating with a few other boats and that should be fun. 

WH--Tom and PJ on S/V Conchd Out gave us a weather tip yesterday they got from
Chris on the SSB and since we are in this for the pleasure and not the pain we decided to wait 24 hours. Should be more of a beam reach than a close haul today and tonite.

June 18 - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL DADS

Not only is it Father's Day but it is our one-year anniversary since we took Dances With Dragons into the Gulf of Mexico to begin our cruising life.  We have finally arrived at our destination of Trinidad, just a year later than we originally planned, but we have loved the anchorages we have been in that year. 

We are staying at anchor in the TTSA Yacht Club and Marina.  We are enjoying the company of a number of cruising couples and have gone to a concert of 6 bands with the different types of music the country offers. 

June 27 - We also went to a leatherback turtle watch last night.  It was fascinating!  It amazes us how such a large turtle, 5 feet long and 4 feet wide can carefully cover her nest of eggs and not hurt them.  The female leatherback doesn't lay eggs until she is 25 years old and then lays 5 - 6 times in a season laying about 180 eggs per laying.  After she lays her eggs, covers the nest, and camouflages the nest and then lay out a diversionary nest for predators, she heads back out to sea and mates and returns in 9 to 10 days to lay the next batch.  There were 3 turtles on the beach laying eggs while we were there.  Two had already begun the process of making their nest and the 3rd was on her way up the beach to pick a nesting spot.  The females look like a huge moving boulder as they make their way out of the water.  The female digs a hole about 3 feet deep with her back flippers and then deepens it until she is ready to lay.  Then she lays the eggs which are a little bigger than golf balls.  Some of the eggs are unfertilized and these provide air spaces for the babies as they begin to hatch and dig their way out of the nest.  While she is in the process of laying eggs, she is in a trance and we were able to touch her head, back and front flippers.  We had to be careful not to disturb her before she began laying or she would have abandoned the nest and gone back to sea.  The process of covering the nest took about 15 to 20 minutes and she would move around making sure the sand was flat again and then made the diversionary nest.  When satisfied with her nesting, she headed back to sea, zigzagging her way back.  We were able to see some baby turtles that had hatched a few hours earlier and the volunteer on the beach saved as these 10 - 11 babies were the sacrificial babies so the others could climb out of the nest.  I enjoyed holding one of these amazing creatures in my palm.  These babies were going to be released a little later in the night.  The babies have to crawl across the sand so they can imprint the beach and then return in 25 years to lay their eggs.  Female turtles are produced by laying the eggs higher up the shore where the sand is warmer and males are produced by laying the eggs in the cooler sand closer to the waterline.  Truly nature is wonderful.

WH--Yeah, these turtles have it going on.

We have made some good friends here. There are a lot of great people out cruising.

Still can't make the genset "equalize" the batteries. It is beating me.

July 22 - Shelby Rachel Harris entered the world.  She is a beautiful dark haired baby.  She is beautiful like her Momma. Can't wait to get there and hold her. Nancy got to go see her when she was in Houston.

WH--8 AUG 06   No Claire, I still can't get the genset to "equalize" the batteries. I give up. We have brought the batts back tho by bringing them up to fully charged more often. I believe that if we get two more 80 solar panels our charging woes will be cured and we won't have to run the genset much. Only when we have a spell like in Annapolis where the sun didn't shine for two weeks and we didn't get much wind.

We sailed over to Scotland Bay day before yesterday along with S/V Vixen. Paul and Denise are aboard Vixen and are a lot of fun.  Sunday there were a lot of our Trini friends there and they were having a time! Those folks know how to party. We woke up yesterday and got to see a lot of monkeys performing their little circus acts in the trees close to us. I know they were performing especially for us, surely they don't just naturally behave that way.

Last week when Nancy was in Houston I took the boat out offshore to macerate and empty the holding tank and just to get out on the water with her. Our friend Deon and his Cousin Darrel went with me. Deon works here at the marina and is working his way thru engineering school. We had a good time. Deon had never sailed but Darrel had been thru sailing school when he was ten. It was a good day on the water.

The macerator pump gave up on me and you all know what THAT MEANS!!! Yep, another "blue job".

The impeller in it went to pieces. Probly got torn up when the little knives in the pump got all bound up trying to chew up some foreign matter. (Ladies, when you come aboard this vessel you will be led to the head and Nancy will give you a lesson on marine heads. MY marine head in particular! She will tell you there are certain things that do NOT get flushed down it!!  You Will pay attention!)

That was a very nasty job. If Nancy had been here she could have progressed greatly with the cussing lessons I have been giving her. I got the job done however and now we have a functioning rebuilt macerator pump.

One thing that came to mind as I was gagging and about to throw up while dealing with the head problem was this,,,,The Good Lord musta given Mothers the ability to eliminate their sense of smell when changing dirty diapers. Ever notice how a Mother can just go right to it and never gag once??? It's amazing. I never changed a dirty diaper, Martha didn't want to have to clean up after me after I threw up.  (I do feel like I shirked part of my responsibility as a Father tho. Well, Martha was always there to do it.)

Since we have been real live cruisers for a year and are "EXPERTS" now we have decided to put a list of things together that we think are needed on a cruising boat.

What triggered this is we read an article written by the King and Queen of Cruisers Larry and Lynn Pardee the other day. These two are famous cruisers who circumnavigated the Planet twice in 28' and 30' boats with no engine, no genset, no refrigerator, just sails, water, BEER, some rum, kerosene lanterns for navigation lights and some food provisions. Not much. Well, we think that's all cool for them and we admire them for being tuff enough to ruff it like that but that just isn't for us. (Nancy says staying in a hotel that doesn't have someone come in at 5:30 pm and turn the covers back on your bed and put chocolate on the pillows and doesn't have a phone by the head is Roughing It!!!)

*** Means absolutely essential

** Means essential

* Means needed for comfort

+ Means extra

                                                        ***ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL STUFF***

Wayne's take:

***A Co-Captain that shares the dream with you. One that isn't real squeamish. She, or he, can't be a whiner, wouldn't take long to get too much of that. (But she has to be someone that will put up with your whining.) Oh and she needs to be ok with getting down in the engine room in places you won't fit in to work on stuff. (And not whine about it.)

(Nancy told me I better put that first.)

***A rough, tough blue water cruising boat, one with a really thick fiberglass hull or steel. (Like Dances With Dragons). One that can save your life even if you do something stupid like get caught in a hurricane, wash up on a reef or ram a semi-submersed ship container 1,000 miles @ sea. 

***Plenty of Beer---Sailors get thirsty

***Some Rum---I'm not a big rum drinker but Chris and Barbara on S/V Moonsail say if you are a real sailor you have to have rum on board.

***An Epirb--One of those things you never want to use but don't want to leave home without.

***Liferaft-- ****  Oh, be sure and make it a big one so you can be comfortable out there bouncing around waiting to be rescued.

***SSB--Ours isn't working but before we head out across the Pacific we will have one that works.

***A functional head

***A functional macerator pump or a functional hand pump so you can empty your holding tank OFFSHORE and not put it overboard in an anchorage!!! You might pull up next to us in an anchorage and we like to swim in that water and snorkel around and scrub the hull. (Believe it or not there are some people that will actually dump overboard in an anchorage!)

***A dependable engine. One with about a 110 amp alternator like the one Tal, Jose and Ted recommended we put on our engine. (When we Have to run the engine it charges our battery bank really well.)

***Enough solar panels and wind generators to "maintain" your battery bank. That means they will sufficiently charge your batteries when there is ample wind and solar. (We are adding two more 80 watt panels.)

***A DC genset-- Sometimes the wind don't blow and the sun don't shine. Ours has a 200 amp alternator on it and a proper regulator and it does a great job charging the batteries. And it uses about .2 gallons of diesel an hour. Takes about an hour and 20 minutes to bring our batteries from 12.2 volts to fully charged.  Weighs 167 lbs. (Some people are buying these Honda gasoline gensets and having to keep a lot of gasoline on board, not good.)

***An onboard fuel polishing system. We can move fuel from one tank to another. We can polish the fuel from off the very bottom of the tanks where all the moisture and gunk collects. The polishing filter is the same as the filter that goes to the engine so when the polishing filter gets gunked up we dispose of it and put the one for the engine in it and put a new one in the engine filter. (Most problems you will have with a diesel engine is with fuel. So I am told.)

***Charts

***GPS (s)

***VHF house radio, as well as a hand held one for the cockpit

***Radar

***Bimini and Dodger (the elements can be brutal. These two things keep you more comfortable thus allowing you to be more rested when you are standing watch.)

***A good sized dinghy that will handle rough water.

***Three good anchors. (We have two @ the bow and one stored below for an extra.)

                                                                    **ESSENTIAL**

**DC refrigerator/freezer

**Gas stove

**2800 amp inverter--(allows you to turn DC battery power in to AC power for things like your computer, TV, DVD player etc.)

**A heavy duty auto helm.

**Steering vane--This little guy allows you to sail off the wind and not use any amperage. (We've found that you have to baby sit it a lot and it needs over 12 knots of wind but when we go to cross the Pacific and other oceans it will really come in handy as the trade winds typically are form the same direction constantly and are strong enough to keep her engaged.)

**At least 240 gallons of fresh water capacity. (Especially if you have a Woman aboard, many times you are dinghying in with five or six gallon jugs for water and it becomes WORK!)  Dances with Dragons has two 120 gallon tanks.

(NK...poor baby; I don't complain about all the cooking I do for this man! ☺)

WH- Yeah well, she could use a LOT LESS WATER!!!!

**A Sailrite sewing machine--one trip to a sail loft costs more than the price of the machine plus many times when you need to repair a sail you are a lot of nautical miles from a sail loft.

                                                              *NEEDED FOR COMFORT*

*An Awning or shade- Nancy says to put this in the Absolutely Essential category but I don't think so. (of course on a real hot day you will think so in the tropics. Nancy just finished ours and it is CADILLAC!! It really makes a difference. It is cooler and that in itself keeps the DC fridge from cycling on so much and of course saves the amp hours for you. It also keeps the sun off all your bright work and keeps you from having to deal with that every few months.)

*A good comfortable mattress that folds in half to easily access the lockers below the bunk.

*Fans

                                                                             +EXTRA+ 

+ Microwave oven 

+Raw water wash down pump so you can spray the anchor rode off as it comes aboard. (This way your anchor locker doesn't get all muddy.)

+You can tee in to the raw water wash down line and install a sprayer that you can use in the galley sink to rinse the dishes when at sea and save your fresh water. (I ran the hose around the engine and if we are having to run the engine we have hot salt water to rinse the dishes off with.) Then we do