For a long time the website was being slowed to a crawl because google and other search engines would just about hammer the website to a stop as they indexed the sites on the server. I enable server side caching of the websites as static pages to allow them to index the site without causing the database which the site is normally created from to get hammered. I think everyone will notice the the website is a bit faster in the last month or so. (when the server has been up

So what happens is that if you are not a registered member of the website and are not logged into the website/forum then you will get the static pages. If you log in you will get served up pages directly from the database. The static pages don’t update instantly so if your not logged in you might not see a new post on the forums for a few hours to a day or so. If you are logged in you will see new posts instantly as you will get the latest page from the database.

This was a compromise I had to make to still allow search engines to index the website so that people searching for Downeaster Yachts or other terms relative to our site to find us while still giving reasonable performance to our members.

If it is down and you need to contact me you can call me at 843-465-6555 or email me at audeojude@yahoo.com

My company and personal websites as well as all email for them depends on this server also so if it is down all my other infrastructure is down also. Use the above contact info in that case.

Scott Carle

Update as of 5/8/12.. we are still experiencing issues with the DNS server. I am going to have to put a new server in. Hopefully that will happen today or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Second update 5/8/12 I have replaced the server. Hopefully this will fix the issue. We weren’t able to determine what was causing it to power off. After replacing the power supply twice we think it is something in the Motherboard/CPU/Memory. I didn’t feel like troubleshooting [...]]]> I know that a lot of you will have noticed that the website has been down. Well actually it hasn’t been down, but the DNS server that tells your web browser where to go to open the website has been down. We think it was a bad power supply but when we replaced it with another one the server went down again a few hours later. Since since that was a used power supply we are still hoping that it is a power supply issue. I installed power supply number three today. If the server goes down again I will have to rebuild the server or move it to a new computer. The end result is that the server has been down since sometime this past weekend and if this last power supply doesn’t fix it could possibly be down for another few days. Hopefully that doesn’t happen and it is fixed as of now. If not please be patient.

If it is down and you need to contact me you can call me at 843-465-6555 or email me at audeojude@yahoo.com

My company and personal websites as well as all email for them depends on this server also so if it is down all my other infrastructure is down also. Use the above contact info in that case.

Scott Carle

Update as of 5/8/12.. we are still experiencing issues with the DNS server. I am going to have to put a new server in. Hopefully that will happen today or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Second update 5/8/12 I have replaced the server. Hopefully this will fix the issue. We weren’t able to determine what was causing it to power off. After replacing the power supply twice we think it is something in the Motherboard/CPU/Memory. I didn’t feel like troubleshooting it any further with the attendant loss of functionality. My company email and websites depend on that server as well as the downeaster yachts website so I have been hurting pretty badly over the last week and a half with it down more than up.

Scott

I didn’t even know the reverse polarity light worked, let alone ever see it on. I sprung into action. When I opened the shrink wrap door I noticed that my boat was slightly out of position and in fact her nose was about to start hitting our neighbor. This move to starboard had pulled our shore power cord out of the receptacle but only a little. It was enough to cause problems but an easy fix was figured out and life returned to normal shortly thereafter.

Sophi and I are planning to sail to [...]]]> Thankfully we have had a mild winter here in Portland and Seabird has had very few adventures “sailing” on her dock.. Aside from one experience just after we finished wrapping her. I was able to deduce that I, or more likely one of the kind folks that helped me shrink wrap, failed to properly hitch my bow line. A few days later when the wind piped up to 30 knots the line slowly payed out as it was merely wrapped a few times around the bitts. I have never heard a story of a boat misbehaving that didn’t happen in the middle of the night when the operator was in the nude. Seabird must have read this book as I was woken up in the early morning when the electric heater turned off. It does turn off from time to time but I happened to be looking at it out of the corner of my eye and I could not see the little red light. Reluctantly, I got out of bed to find we had no power on board at all and my reverse polarity light was on to boot.

Frankie was very helpfull

I didn’t even know the reverse polarity light worked, let alone ever see it on. I sprung into action. When I opened the shrink wrap door I noticed that my boat was slightly out of position and in fact her nose was about to start hitting our neighbor. This move to starboard had pulled our shore power cord out of the receptacle but only a little. It was enough to cause problems but an easy fix was figured out and life returned to normal shortly thereafter.

Sophi and I are planning to sail to Summerside Prince Edward Island this summer. So we have been thinking of safety and seaworthy issues, as well as some additional features that would be good for the crew while away from the dock.

We have electric hot water now, but we need to install a loop from the engine coolant to the heater so we may run the engine to create hot water. We have twin head sails to help us get down east, we have also recently bought a used cruising spinnaker to add to our inventory. We hope this addition will ease our dependance on the engine. I have been removing rotten plywood and replacing it with fresh stock. Our port settee backrest was mostly rotten so I ripped it out and made a new piece and added three larger opening doors that secure firmly. What a difference it has made! Even the largest of pots fits through with ease; each door is about 10″ tall and a foot long. I also added a 14″ pull out to the settee as well. It’s a piece of 1/2″ plywood that is bolted on top of the normal seating area. To make it pull out you have to take out 2 pins and slide the board on to a three sided frame I built around the bulkheads and along the length of the settee. I am happy with it because now when people sleep over we can have them sleep on the port side and out of the walk way.

This week I plan on cutting out new cabinet doors under the settees port and starboard, to allow us to gain access to items under the settees with out removing the cushions to get there. Can’t wait! We are also planning on building a small arch to house our radar and solar panel. We are also “thinking inverted” which means, what if we are rolled over 90 degrees or more? What will happen to… everything? In order to keep things in place we are putting good latches on all the boards that don’t even have a hinge; this will keep the doors closed and the contents will remain where they belong. It also means not having any holes on deck, I don’t mean a hole caused by lightning or some other broken thing. I am talking about our dorode vents, hatches and our compainon way. I’ve read somewhere that a 4 inch hole can sink a 35′ boat in about 30 minutes, we have 4 dorodes, does that mean we would sink in 7 minutes? Frankly I don’t care to find out, we will be putting plugs that screw into the dorode vents to keep the ocean out.

The thought of hand steering some 1600 nautical miles is not the most exciting of thoughts and we have seriously thought about a wind vane of some sort but they cost so much money. A cheaper alternative is to attach the sheets to the tiller along with some shock cord, I have high hopes that we will be able to rig something up to keep us away from the wheel. Seabird has a stable design so perhaps with some practice with sail trim we will be able to simply lash the tiller and walk away for a while.

Visit https://sailingseabird.wordpress.com to read more of Sophi and Travis’s adventures with Seabird!

I know for a fact that some of the information is out of date and or wrong. So please if you see information about your boat that is wrong or missing let me know and I will fix it.

scott

Here is the pictures with commentary by Bill.

I thought I would send a couple of before and after pictures of Saffanah as we progress through the retrofit we have been performing for the past two years.

In addition to all of the mechanical and sail handling changes we have made, we recently repainted Saffanah changing her color scheme from maroon and white to black, gold and white

I have sent several posts on the various changes we have made so I will not elaborate – just thought I would let the pictures do the talking about Saffanah’s new cloths.

One of the photos shows the dinghy hanging from the davits we installed to work with our Airies Windvane and which hopefully all can deduce which photos are before and which photos are the afters

Over the years Saffanah’s hull had been badly scratched and gouged from a argument with a mangrove island somewhere in the Keys. So the effort to fair the hull and remove some previous paint jobs took some time. Rather than roll and tip once the hull was patched and primed we hired a professional to apply the final coats of Awlgrip

Here is Pee Wee, the dinghy, hanging happily above Betty, the Aires Windvane.

Recently I have been reading through old blog posts to edit and re-tag things so I can organize the website a bit better.  Many of the early posts focus on financial issues I faced getting into sailing, boat buying and cruising.  Since those early posts I have come very far as I had purchased a boat and have been neck deep in its restoration.  I figure it is time for an update to those early posts and to give readers an insight into where I stand on affording this cruising dream.  For your reference, I began the blog outlining my financial situation in this post: I’s all about the money – pt. 1.  The next few posts discuss how I plan on affording the boat and cruise in posts such as: How I can make money while voyaging,  Cruising Expenses part 1, 2 and 3; and How much boat can I afford?

I spent a lot of time trying to answer the question “Is this possible without being rich?”  What I learned those early days was that cruising is possible no matter your financial situation.  While it may seem like a rich man’s dream to most people, you can [...]]]>

Lately the boat work has been pretty mundane, of the non-blog-worthy type.  I am still in the second section of the cockpit area and engine room and progress is coming along fine.  I have been busy sanding, cleaning, sanding again, them some more cleaning, then a bit more sanding, and so on.  I don’t want to update the blog with too much of the boring every-day details, so I will make some posts when I have semi-completeness to the small projects to display.  Right now the most notable projects are glassing in holes in the section, and replacing a bulkhead.

Recently I have been reading through old blog posts to edit and re-tag things so I can organize the website a bit better.  Many of the early posts focus on financial issues I faced getting into sailing, boat buying and cruising.  Since those early posts I have come very far as I had purchased a boat and have been neck deep in its restoration.  I figure it is time for an update to those early posts and to give readers an insight into where I stand on affording this cruising dream.  For your reference, I began the blog outlining my financial situation in this post: I’s all about the money – pt. 1.  The next few posts discuss how I plan on affording the boat and cruise in posts such as: How I can make money while voyaging,  Cruising Expenses part 1, 2 and 3; and How much boat can I afford?

I spent a lot of time trying to answer the question “Is this possible without being rich?”  What I learned those early days was that cruising is possible no matter your financial situation.  While it may seem like a rich man’s dream to most people, you can cruise on a shoestring and still sleep in the same beautiful anchorage as the millionaire on his motor yacht.  While they may be dining on a $15 burger at the marina, you could be eating a delicious lobster you caught and prepared yourself.  Pride, and good times still in tact…and money saved.  You can even go all out punk-rock style like the guys on S/V Pesilence did as displayed in their documentary here.  Dirt cheap, a little poorly executed, but a killer trip nonetheless.

I always run into this Q&A: “How much does it cost to cruise?”  and the answer is always the same “it costs whatever you have.”  While this may be true, that little quote leaves a lot of guess work on how to get there.  Hopefully my blog can bridge that gap for people in a similar situation as me.  What is my situation, exactly?

• I’m young. Not so much anymore, but when I decided I wanted to persue this dream I was 26 with not much to my name.  Many people finance their dream by selling a house they have been pouring money into for many years.  I don’t have that or a lot of other assets so coming up with a load of cash is a lot more work.
• I’m single. I have only found a handful of young, single guys trying to go out and cruise.  There are a quite a bit of older men who go out single handed and do it on their own, but they generally have a lifetime of work and experience under their belt.  The vast majority of young cruisers are couples who share the load of finances and boat work.  While I have a wonderful girlfriend, this is my gig and I need to make it happen on my own.  Someday I may get married, and hopefully a partnership will be formed for this journey.  But for now I am on my own and need to carry the whole ship.
• I had to climb out of debt. Not only did I not have much to my name, but I had negative net worth.  The first step in this whole plan was to get out of debt, and I was successful in getting rid of the “bad” debt in my first year of trying.
• I’m not rich. While I have a decent paying job I am by no means raking in a sizable cash flow.
• I don’t have a bag of cash waiting for me.  It is very disheartening to read cruising blogs of young people only to find out when asked how they afford their cruise, the usual answer aside from selling a house is a big hunk of cash from parents.  It usually goes something like this: “We saved and saved and it was really tough, and as for the boat itself…well lets say we owe daddy a lot of thanks!”  That isn’t really inspiring, and a little deflating to people like me trying to figure all this out on our own.  Though I credit them for at least being honest if they are candid about it.
• I have no sailing or boating background. I had to figure out EVERYTHING from scratch here.  I had no mentor to show me the way, or even quality time riding around on a boat as a kid.  Most people get into this after sailing all their life with family members or friends, but I know there are a ton of people like me who have seen it from the outside wanting to get in.

Since deciding to chase this dream, I devoted myself to living a frugal lifestyle to be able to save and afford this cruise.  Once I got out of college and entered the work world, I did my part as a dedicated consumer and blew all my money and then some (credit cards!) to afford what I thought was a good life.  Only after a bit of enlightenment thanks to some crucial 3rd world surf trips, my view of this lifestyle drastically changed.  I realized what my dream life was, and buying things to be happy was not it.  The need to save for a dream completely changed how I viewed the things I used to spend money on, and my values shifted dramatically.

I soon stopped wasting my hard earned cash on the latest electronics, nights of black-out drinking at bars, eating out all the time, and other needless things I threw money away on. It was difficult at first, particularly as it alienated me from my friends in some ways.  While they were out drinking late into the night at bars, I stayed at home and read books like Nigel Calder’s Diesel Engine Manual.  While they were poking fun at each other for getting a new car without this bell or that whistle, I was beginning to learn how to do my own repairs and maintenance on my old beater to save a buck.  While they were ready to spill a few hundred on a fancy restaurant just for fun, I was working on my cooking skills so I can eat well on the cheap.

It all paid off though, as I was able to get rid of a whopping $12,000 in credit card debt in 9 months and began to save aggressively afterwards.  Every last penny I didn’t have to spend I stashed away as part cruising/boat fund, part emergency fund.  With such a strong motivating force, it became easier and easier to save.  All I had to do is ask myself “what do you want more, this thing or another month added to your cruise?”  Easy choice for me.

Around this time the world economy started to crash, and the company I worked for in Orlando wasn’t immune to its effects.  Lay-offs began sometime late 2008, and new rounds would happen every few months.  I felt somewhat secure at the beginning since my department was still getting work, but I was still uneasy.  The uneasy feeling helped me save even more aggressively and stash away that emergency fund.

In May of 2009, I was in the middle of the boat search and Windsong popped up on the radar.  For reasons discussed throughout this blog, I took the plunge and took her on as my own.  Unfortunately, 3 weeks after buying her I was cut to part-time status at work.  The cut in my income couldn’t have come at a worse moment, and perhaps I was stupid for buying the boat in such uncertain times.

I spent the next 6 months working on a part-time status, but keeping my income up for most of that time by cashing in saved vacation.  I was extremely lucky  that Windsong’s previous owner let me keep the boat at his dock for free.  If I had to move her into a slip I paid for, I would have been hurting.  I went further into super-saver mode, and became almost annoyingly thrifty.  I was able to pad my emergency fund quite healthily and continued to keep my eye on the sailing dream.  Then on December 30, 2009 I was laid off completely from the company.

Of all the financial advice I have received over the years, I am probably most thankful for the emergency fund rule.  I had about 6-9 months of living expenses saved up so I was not in ruin due to the layoff.  What was terrifying, however, was the prospect of owning the boat during this time and the thought of spending that cash which I hoped to one day use for the cruise.

Lucky enough, the stars aligned for me and I was able to secure a job with a great company in St. Augustine only a few weeks after being laid off.  I’ve always wanted to live there, and couldn’t be happier with how things turned out.  Even better, we agreed that I wouldn’t start until that April.  This gave me the time I needed to move Windsong around Florida via sail instead of trucking it like I originally intended.

I have lived here in St. Augustine more than a year now and have been restoring Windsong ever since.  People ask me often how much I have spent on this restoration so far, and the answer is “not much”.  It took me nearly this much time just to take the thing apart in a method that would allow me to put it back together one day.  All that required was a few hundred dollars spent on tools and various supplies such as sandpaper.  Other than that most of the money has gone to storing the boat in the yard.

That brings me to a point that I didn’t necessary overlook, but underestimated as a big expense: storing your boat.  When I was looking into a boat that would need a lot of work, I researched what it cost to keep a boat on land while working on it.  I was deceived by incredibly low prices such as $3-4 per foot per month, which I later learned was for boats just being stored…not worked on.  If you want to work on your boat most places charge a daily fee that borders on ridiculousness.  Luckily I was able to find a yard that charged a reasonable rate and had good facilities.  I pay close to what I would pay if I had my boat in the water, roughly $12 per foot per month.  With taxes, electricity, and now mast storage the actual cost is about $560 per month.

If you are considering buying a boat that can’t be hauled out of the water, be sure to take into account slip, mooring or storage fees because they can be easily overlooked.  While I am able to afford the yard fees, it eats into the amount I can save each month.  I still stash away a good bit of cash each month, but I know all of that will evaporate soon once I start buying things like rigging, windows and restoring the engine.  For now, it is smaller expenses such as epoxy and fiberglass supplies, paint, pricey plywood, etc as I begin the major repairs and restoration projects.

I continue to lead a frugal life and have completely shifted my way of spending (or saving, actually) to be a way of life instead of a temporary jaunt to afford something.  Much like dieting: it only works until you stop.  You have to live it, breathe it, make it your way of doing things.  Living beneath your means is not easy, but with a worthy goal you will find the motivation.  I want nothing more in this world than to be able to do this journey, and with that always in the front of my mind I can easily not buy whatever tempts me.  I am happy that I have learned to live comfortably on a lot less than I used to as I will have to once I set sail regardless.

This is sort of a disjointed post, I know, so I apologize for not really going anywhere with it.  I just wanted to give an update to say that things are going well on the money-front…for now.  We shall see how it goes once I need to drain my savings for the big ticket items, but now that I know how to save I’m not worried about replenishing the bank when I need to.

Visit http://www.thequestforwindandwaves.com/ for more stories by Erick.

http://www.latitude38.com/

July 15, 2011 – Baradel Island, St. Vincent & The Grenadines

Allen and Kate Barry, liveaboards and worldwide cruisers for 20 years aboard the San Francisco-based DownEast 38 Mendocino Queen, report they were assaulted and robbed around 10:45 p.m. on the night of July 2 while at anchor just off Baradel Island in the Tobago Cays Marine Reserve of St. Vincent & The Grenadines. Having spent thousands of nights on the hook from Hong Kong to East Africa, and having travelled to and through 35 countries by boat and land, this was the first time they’d been assaulted. This is an edited version of a report by Kate.

“We spent the day snorkeling the outside edge of Horseshoe Reef, where we found sharks, a good number of turtles and a lot of reef fish. Because of a tropical wave, only four boats remained in the anchorage that night. Night came on very dark with no moon. And thanks to the wind, the surf on the reef, the chop lapping against the hull, and the ground tackle groaning, it was not a quiet night.

“At about 10 p.m., Allen, who was [...]]]> I spoke with Mr. Andy Turpin the Managing Editor at Latitude 38 where this story was published. He graciously consented to us re-publishing  it on the Downeaster Yachts website. Please take the time to jump over to Latitude 38′s website and check them out. They have a great free periodical that I think compares with any of the subscription periodicals. It actually is probably better in many respects.

http://www.latitude38.com/

Medocino Queen Attacked in the Caribbean

July 15, 2011 – Baradel Island, St. Vincent & The Grenadines

Allen and Kate Barry, liveaboards and worldwide cruisers for 20 years aboard the San Francisco-based DownEast 38 Mendocino Queen, report they were assaulted and robbed around 10:45 p.m. on the night of July 2 while at anchor just off Baradel Island in the Tobago Cays Marine Reserve of St. Vincent & The Grenadines. Having spent thousands of nights on the hook from Hong Kong to East Africa, and having travelled to and through 35 countries by boat and land, this was the first time they’d been assaulted. This is an edited version of a report by Kate.

Allen and Kate Berry suffered a violent attack on their boat Mendocino Queen on July 2 while anchored at the Tobago Cays. Photo Courtesy Mendocino Queen © 2011 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.

“We spent the day snorkeling the outside edge of Horseshoe Reef, where we found sharks, a good number of turtles and a lot of reef fish. Because of a tropical wave, only four boats remained in the anchorage that night. Night came on very dark with no moon. And thanks to the wind, the surf on the reef, the chop lapping against the hull, and the ground tackle groaning, it was not a quiet night.

“At about 10 p.m., Allen, who was below reading, thought he heard a slow-running outboard, so he went on deck with a big flashlight and shined it about. He caught a glimpse of a small boat motoring away. About 10 minutes later, there was a sound at the bow, and Allen, who had come below again, went on deck to see two men wearing masks board the bow of our boat. One raced down the deck toward Allen, with something in his hand.

“Allen rushed below and grabbed the first heavy object he found, which was the 4 D-cell flashlight, which is about 14 inches long. He also yelled for me, as I had just gone to bed. Allen started back up the companion stairs, which were now blocked by one of the boarders. Allen repeatedly struck the man with the flashlight and kept screaming, “Get off my boat, you motherfucker!” at the top of his lungs. The boarder was trying to force his way below by kicking Allen in the arms, chest and face, and kept screaming “I’m going to kill you, motherfucker!” Allen’s resistance gave me enough time to get on the VHF and put out a distress call. There was a lot of noise, and the vessel anchored closest to us heard both the commotion and the VHF call.

“The man attacking Allen got a hold of the flashlight about the same time I finished the VHF call. I attacked him with my fists, at which point he hit me over the head with the flashlight, splitting the skin on my scalp. Blood poured down my head and over my neck and shoulders. The second assailant then pointed a gun at my head, by which time the other man had a knife to Allen’s throat.

“By this time the VHF was alive and loud, as the woman on the boat next to us kept broadcasting, ‘A vessel is being boarded and attacked in the Tobago Cays.’ She kept repeating the message over and over, in a loud and agitated voice. Although there was no chance of our being rescued by authorities for hours, it made the assailants very nervous to know their crime was being witnessed and reported. They were obviously anxious to leave.

“Nonetheless, the main assailant kept the knife to Allen’s throat and kept screaming over and over, ‘Where do you hide the money, motherfucker, you can die tonight!’

“Allen lead him to the V-berth, opened a cabinet, and pulled out a zippered leather satchel that had a $ sign on it. He opened it and pulled out envelopes labeled US$, EC$ and EURO. ‘Where is the rest of your money, motherfucker?’ the assailant demanded as he pushed the knife a little harder. ‘That’s all there is,’ I told him. ‘No, wait,’ I said, ‘there’s a little more in the nav station.’ We went there and he snatched the change purse I pointed out to him.

“The assailants were anxious to leave, as the VHF was still broadcasting the attack. They left me sitting on the cabin sole bleeding and took Allen on deck, the knife still pressed to his neck, still screaming about killing him and him dying. Figuring they were going to knife him or throw him overboard, Allen tried to come up with a plan. But they simply boarded their little boat — it looked like all the other local boats in the area — and took off.

“We were able to contact some friends on boats on the hook at Union Island’s Clifton Harbor, and they contacted the police, who asked us to come to Union Island to file a report. The idea that we would raise anchor at midnight and risk the many dangerous reefs in the area was absurd. This is a ‘daytime only’ area of navigation. Our friends stressed that this had been a serious crime, a violent assault with weapons and injured people, and finally shamed the police into acting. A Park Service boat arrived at Mendocino Queen about 1:30 a.m. with four police and two Park Service people. A report of sorts was taken on folded scraps of wet paper. We were impressed that at that hour of the night, the authorities managed to assemble a boat and six officers and travel in poor weather to respond to this incident. The officers were kind and concerned people, but there was really nothing they could do for us.

“When they left, we locked up our boat before we went to bed. We hadn’t done that in years. The next day we went to Union Island, where we were extremely well-treated by other cruisers.

“Looking back, we seemed to operate on ‘automatic’ during the assault. We don’t recall fear — there was no time for it. We fought until there was no more point in it, then more or less went along with what the robbers wanted. Which was money. When they left, we did the practical things, like inspect for wounds and wash up blood. We were on the radio a lot of the time. A neighbor offered to come over, but we declined. It was a poor night to launch a dinghy, but we appreciated the offer.

“We don’t wake up at night with the memory of this. We are not suspicious of every local boat we see. And we want to continue onward. We always knew this could happen, and it could have been much worse. We could have been hurt or killed. We could have been emotionally traumatized. We could have been, but we were not. If this had happened early in our cruising days, it may have been more unsettling. We have been living aboard and cruising for about 20 years, and we’ve been to 35 counties by boat and by land. We know the risks that come with this lifestyle, and we willingly take them. It’s our life, and we like it.”

In the last issue of Latitude, we wrote that we thought the Caribbean was a much more dangerous area to cruise than Mexico. It’s incidents such as this, plus last summer’s brutal beating of the late Mike Harker of the Manhattan Beach-based Hunter 49 Wanderer III that make us feel this way. In Mexico, almost all the violence is narco-vs-narco or -government. In the Caribbean, there is lots of ‘rob ‘em because they’re rich or white’ kind of crime, often very violent.

- latitude / rs

We had a plan tho, after a little puff we would back up quickly and hope we could turn the bow east and head out to sea, no luck, the  wind prevented me from turning and pushed us back into our slip. we stopped and tried again, this time with a little better angle as we didn’t tie up to the dock. On try two, Seabird was pushed back into a slip but we did make progress as we fell into the next slip toward the open ocean. Thankfully a stranger who must have witnessed the goings-on came over and offered to help, I asked him to push the bow as hard as he could which he did and we  barely avoided Hi Voltage, Central Maine Power’s service boat, then had to avoid a large fishing boat on the very end of Dillimo’s dock and a lobster boat on the Portland Pier side…. to say it was stressful would be an understatement; once we escaped the docks we both wanted to have a mooring. We took a second to breath then raised the main sail but it wasn’t until the engine was off before we could breathe.

I had the first reef in the main just to be safe until we rounded Bud Light, after seeing the conditions while facing the open ocean we set the sails for a downwind leg. Wing and Wing I was able to [...]]]> The sun was up and the wind was down on Saturday April 30 2011, Sophi and I decided to sail. The only thing in our way was a North wind… let  me explain, a north wind will push our boat back into our slip and or not allow us to point the pointy end east to get out of the dock area.

We had a plan tho, after a little puff we would back up quickly and hope we could turn the bow east and head out to sea, no luck, the  wind prevented me from turning and pushed us back into our slip. we stopped and tried again, this time with a little better angle as we didn’t tie up to the dock. On try two, Seabird was pushed back into a slip but we did make progress as we fell into the next slip toward the open ocean. Thankfully a stranger who must have witnessed the goings-on came over and offered to help, I asked him to push the bow as hard as he could which he did and we  barely avoided Hi Voltage, Central Maine Power’s service boat, then had to avoid a large fishing boat on the very end of Dillimo’s dock and a lobster boat on the Portland Pier side…. to say it was stressful would be an understatement; once we escaped the docks we both wanted to have a mooring. We took a second to breath then raised the main sail but it wasn’t until the engine was off before we could breathe.

I had the first reef in the main just to be safe until we rounded Bud Light, after seeing the conditions while facing the open ocean we set the sails for a downwind leg. Wing and Wing I was able to try out my preventer… a line that runs from the cockpit wench to a pulley bolted to the inboard side of your bowsprit then it runs to a bowline at about the mast, from there we have a caribbeaner to attach it to a line that is the length of the boom and attaches to the furthest aft bail on the boom. With this configuration I can use my wench to tension the boom on a downwind run, then if the wind gets fluky or (more likely) I steer the wrong direction and the wind gets around the main sail the boom will NOT accidentally jibe. Should I decide to Jibe under my own free will I can loosen the line enough to do so, then go up front and move the lines around the mast, presto changeo.

Seabird sailed well down wind at about 5.5Kn right past Portland Headlight where we turned North toward Jewell Island. We were about past Peaks Island about a mile or so off shore when the wind totally died, we drifted out to sea for a good 45 mins before we were able to gain enough headway to actually tack around and head back to land. Such is the sailing life. Sophi called a friend of ours and they decided  we would meet on Willard Beach, so we sailed back to Portland Headlight and into the Hussy sound against the wind. We really tried to stick to sailing and practice sailing up to a mooring but the wind was not allowing us to do so. The motor roared to life and we took a mooring of our choice as we were the only ones on the water.

We used our new inflatable to take the shore where Bella found a discarded Mango and would not give it up the rest of the day, we met MM then stole her for the sail home. Instantly after leaving the mooring we encounter a tanker; a tanker would normally want to leave out the Hussy sound which we were exactly in the middle of. After much deliberation we decided to motor across the channel to get out of its way, only to get further in its way, I called them on the radio to learn we had motored further in the way as she was destined for “anchorage Bravo” thank goodness for radios, I told the tanker we would fall off and get out of there way and he thanked us, then blocked all the wind.

Seabird tacked at least 3 times only to jibe a half dozen before the wind made up its mind and blew steady from the south and we beam reached past Dimillo’s before rounding up into the wind to drop sail. For a shakedown cruise, this one went very well.

See more of Travis and Sophi sailing Seabird at http://sailingseabird.wordpress.com

My next alarm was set for two hours later, a.k.a. 6am. I barely caught a wink of sleep the entire night in anticipation of what might happen and what I might see. I would think of all possibilities, one being the entire hull is one blister, and many other extremes including nothing being wrong. Every time I would turn over in bed, I would think of something else. what if someone tried to steal my boat? We were right in the middle of a sketchy part of town. “How are they going [...]]]> Last weekend we decided to inspect our under-the-water hull. We had prepared for weeks, and found a spot where the tide would leave us high and dry for a few hours. Even better, it was right around the corner from our “normal” slip. In the middle of the night, we snuck away and motored down the long, narrow piece of water between two wharves, finally meeting a seawall, which we tied up to. I put one piling near the mast and let the others fall where they might, hanging a fender on the two that touched our hull. We set our spring lines and secured our baby with care and waited for the tide to drop. I set my alarm for four hours later. When it rang, I hopped out of my pilot berth to see what the tide was doing. Once on deck, I tied a line from our mast to the piling and cinched it tight, helping us lean into the pier. Over the next ten minutes, I stood on our cap-rail, ultimately stepping onto the land to check for movement. When finally there wasn’t any, I knew our keel was on the ground and we were beginning to stop floating. Hopefully, now I could rest.

My next alarm was set for two hours later, a.k.a. 6am. I barely caught a wink of sleep the entire night in anticipation of what might happen and what I might see. I would think of all possibilities, one being the entire hull is one blister, and many other extremes including nothing being wrong. Every time I would turn over in bed, I would think of something else. what if someone tried to steal my boat? We were right in the middle of a sketchy part of town. “How are they going to steal it, Travis? It’s not even floating!” I kept telling myself this was nonsense, I needed to sleep, and was surprised when I was awoken by my alarm clock. My blanket and sheets didn’t stand a chance as I flung them off of me to go look at the boat. Oh man, the water was mere inches from the bottom of our keel! I couldn’t act fast enough and the water took too long to boil as I made my coffee. I was in a big rush but needlessly so, as it took another half an hour for the water to come down to a level where my boots wouldn’t sink. While I sipped my coffee I screwed on a brush to my boat hook and while dunking and scrubbing I worked my way down the starboard side of my hull. To my surprise, the entire process took about half an hour. No fuss, no muss. No issues were found, not one blister, not one scratch, not even one barnacle was attached! Relief.

The scrubbing process went so quickly that I had aspirations of painting, too. Unfortunately, Maine has been under a cloud for the past who-knows-how-long, and our paint wouldn’t have dried, anyways. But it was good practice, free and we got lots of attention. The sun is supposed to make an appearance towards the end of this coming week, and we hope to be able to careen again and paint the bottom. We decided to change locations as having the solid wall on one side of you has its disadvantages. Luckily, we know of an alternate location: Peaks Island.

I’m new to the art of careening. It seems like no one does it, but I don’t know why because it’s so easy and free. If you’re in an area with at least a 7′ tide it’s definitely an option if you find the right location. Look for a tall, solid structure with at least enough water to float you at high and that dries out at low. It also helps to have a full keeled boat, or at least one that you trust not to push up into your hull.

Check out more adventures of the DE32 Seabird and Travis and Sophi at http://sailingseabird.wordpress.com/

It is cold out on the water of the Chesapeake.  On Monday, Nov. 22, the first day of my 48th year, the sun was shining and the wind and waves were blasting me in the face.  Hiding behind the dodger did nothing, I was soon shivering involuntarily thinking there were better ways to spend my life.  The cold literally sunk into my bones. At the suggestion of both Michelle and my boss, I turned into Deltaville, Virginia, for a rendezvous with shore power at a dock.  My electric blanket was looking pretty good.

I let a strong norther pass — it would have been a sleigh ride south but being a singlehander, it would also have meant going out on deck (and out on the fairly long bowsprit) to raise sails.  With the waves growing, I decided against it.  Falling off the boat would be A Bad Thing.  No one would even know until Shadow Marie crashed into some rocks somewhere.  That’s not a thought I like to conjure up.  Being frozen fish food doesn’t sound so great, either.

The winds calmed and I took off for Norfolk.  Of course what wind blew was on the nose and the cold was back with a flourish.  I was happy to emerge from a gloomy day at sea to see a large American Flag flying at Hampton Roads.  The electric blanket again sounded great so I decided a marina would be best over the anchorage I had planned.  Michelle began calling around but, being Thanksgiving, none were open.  She left messages, though, and one called her back.  David Briggs, owner of Rebel Marina, invited me to tie up at a floating dock in his marina.  When Michelle asked for the rate, he told her that he couldn’t [...]]]>

Sunrise over the Chesapeake

It is cold out on the water of the Chesapeake.  On Monday, Nov. 22, the first day of my 48th year, the sun was shining and the wind and waves were blasting me in the face.  Hiding behind the dodger did nothing, I was soon shivering involuntarily thinking there were better ways to spend my life.  The cold literally sunk into my bones. At the suggestion of both Michelle and my boss, I turned into Deltaville, Virginia, for a rendezvous with shore power at a dock.  My electric blanket was looking pretty good.

I let a strong norther pass — it would have been a sleigh ride south but being a singlehander, it would also have meant going out on deck (and out on the fairly long bowsprit) to raise sails.  With the waves growing, I decided against it.  Falling off the boat would be A Bad Thing.  No one would even know until Shadow Marie crashed into some rocks somewhere.  That’s not a thought I like to conjure up.  Being frozen fish food doesn’t sound so great, either.

The winds calmed and I took off for Norfolk.  Of course what wind blew was on the nose and the cold was back with a flourish.  I was happy to emerge from a gloomy day at sea to see a large American Flag flying at Hampton Roads.  The electric blanket again sounded great so I decided a marina would be best over the anchorage I had planned.  Michelle began calling around but, being Thanksgiving, none were open.  She left messages, though, and one called her back.  David Briggs, owner of Rebel Marina, invited me to tie up at a floating dock in his marina.  When Michelle asked for the rate, he told her that he couldn’t charge me since it was Thanksgiving.

Wow.

A few minutes after I tied up, he walked down the dock to make sure I got in OK.  He then invited me to Thanksgiving dinner in the boater’s lounge.  I had originally planned on a can of Ravioli at anchor and ended up tucked into a really nice marina being filled up with turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans and pecan pie.  In the process, I met some really nice people.

David Briggs took in a cold and tired stranger, not only provided a free boat slip but also provided a holiday dinner.  It’s really good to know there are still people like him walking around.

visit Mitch and Shadow Marie at http://www.lifecaptions.com/blog/ for more adventures.