Journal 5

A lot has happened since I last updated this website in 2009. In October 2009, we help Fran’s Uncle Ben move his 34’ Marine Trader, Molly Marie, from New Bern, NC to the FL Keys. Fran retires from SAS at the end of 2009.

2010 is an exciting year for us. Ron takes advantage of an IBM program called “Take Time” where he gets extra time off, with slightly reduced pay, so we have more time to go cruising. Our third grandchild, Ava Elizabeth is born in Greenville, NC on February 2. Then we sell our house in Raleigh and move aboard Questeria in May. In October, we take Questeria to Marathon, FL (see Back to the Keys). On October 25 we are in The Middle of Nowhere, GA when our fourth grandchild, Jackson Parker, is born five weeks early, in Charlotte, NC. When we had started talking about going to Marathon for the winter we had planned to moor in Boot Key Harbor, but then we find out about Bonefish Marina and end up renting a slip there.

The following May we take Questeria back up to New Bern NC. We lose our rudder in Charleston, SC, so we don’t get back to New Bern until July. We had thought that that we would be safer from hurricanes in NC, but that summer Hurricane Irene comes right through New Bern, and no major storms hit the Keys. Questeria does fine during Irene, thanks to Northwest Creek Marina, but it gets us thinking we should have stayed in Florida all year.

In October 2011, we return to Bonefish Marina in Marathon, FL and decide to become full-time Florida residents. Ron retires from IBM at the end of June 2012. We start contemplating long term cruising in the Bahamas, and prepare Questeria by adding a watermaker, SSB transceiver, AIS and getting charts and guides. We even get a pet permit and have a health certificate for our dog, Sandy. But the trip doesn’t work out, between, boat issues, weather, and babysitting commitments. It is now 2014 and we are still working on the boat and we are now committed to be in NC in April, for the birth of our fifth grandchild.

I’ve added a new feature to the site, track file that you can down-load and open with Google Earth. When you see a file like track20110514.kmz click on it to down-load and then open it with Google Earth.

Projects

We continue to make repairs and improvements since 2009. Here are some of the projects we tackle between 2010 and 2013.

New Steering Cables and Sheaths

The steering wheel on Questeria is hard to turn. When we check it we see that cable is starting to fray (not good). We remove the old cable and discover that the sheaths are messed up and the new cables will not go back in. So we buy new sheaths and connectors and put them in.

Autopilot

We had an autopilot that attached to the wheel, but it stopped working in 2006. Even then we called it the “drunk” pilot. We have wanted an under the deck autopilot for a while, but it is expensive. When Fran retires from SAS in December 2009, she gets money to use at Amazon.com. We buy a Raymarine autopilot corepack using this money. We buy the linear drive from another online company, the control panel from a third online company, and the tiller online from Edson Marine. Surprisingly, everything works together and we have a wonderful autopilot, which soon becomes an important member of our crew (Otto).

Head Walls

The walls in our head have wallpaper which has shrunk at the seams ever since we had Questeria. We buy FRP panels from Lowes, cut them to size, and glue them on. We are living on Questeria at this time, but Ron is still working full-time, so we work on this project when we have time. We even work on it while anchored out in South River and at Sailcraft boatyard (see Cruise to Sailcraft).

Before

After

Water Tank

We discover that our lower water tank leaks. We put a pair of Y-valves on that let us use water directly from the upper water tank and pay Glenn to cut the top off of the lower tank. We think about adding a bladder, but decide we will lose too much water storage that way.

Lower tank after top cut off

We contact Sailcraft boatyard in Oriental and they say they can make us a new aluminum water tank. We will have to leave the boat there for about a week while they work on the tank. We explain that we live aboard and the Ron needs internet access because he is working. They said that we can stay on the boat and they have internet access. We are very pleased with job they do on the water tank (see Cruise to Sailcraft).

New Solar Panels

While we are at Sailcraft boatyard we decide to get a price for installing three 135W solar panels. They try to sell us an older Xantrax controller, but we insist that we want a controller with MPPT. Xantrax makes one, but they will have to order it. While waiting for the controller they remove the old 100w panel and mount the three new panels on the dinghy davits. They also start working on a way to mount the 100w panel on the side of the boat.

Unfortunately Hurricane Earl is headed our way and we must vacate the boatyard before they can finish mounting and wiring the controller. They say they will come to our marina and finish the job.

When they finish the job we are not happy. They use too small a gauge of wire and do not put any circuit protection between the controller and the batteries. We tell Sailcraft, they give us the larger wires to make up for it and Ron completes the wiring himself. Then we are happy with the results.

We had planned on mounting the old 100w panel on the lifelines to use when cruising but we read about it and discover that lowest voltage or current will limit the other panels to that voltage (if wired in parallel) or that current (if wired in series). We decide that it is not worth the trouble and sell the panel.

Windlass

We replace the old anchor windless with new Lewmar windlass. The old windlass would help pull the anchor, but required you to manually store the rode in the chain locker. The new one can pull and drop the anchor by itself and the rode is automatically put in or taken out of the chain locker. We had to make a platform of starboard to raise the windlass up to the level of the bow roller. We bought new chain (100 feet) and line (150 feet plaited) for this windlass and later upgraded to a 45lb CQR and added a wash-down system. The control buttons for the windlass are in the cockpit. We bought and installed a wireless remote but it stopped working after a few times. So now Fran signals Ron to tell him what to do.

Cetol, Paint and Kiwi Grip

Ron is working from the boat during the week and Fran needs something to do. She starts working on the bright work, which was completely redone with Cetol in 2008 and had a maintenance coat in 2009. Next she tackles the deck and cabin top. The deck has multiple stress cracks and other damage. Ron helps in the evenings and on the weekends to fix the big cracks. After following all recommended preparation steps of wiping and sanding, she applies two coats of two-part primer to the smooth parts of the deck and cabin top. Next she applies two coats of bright side single part paint. Ben comes over and helps. We can’t find a color that we like and end up mixing two variations of off-white. Next she applies a coat of Kiwi Grip to all non-skid portions of the deck and cabin top. Ben helps with that too. We match the color Kiwi Grip to the paint. This is more difficult than we had thought. We take it to Sherwin Williams, but the cans are big to fit in their paint mixer and we have to come back with an electric drill and paint stirrer, but we finally get it right.

The boat looks great after she’s finished. We constantly hear how great the boat looks for 35 year old boat. But now after a few years the Cetol, paint and Kiwi Grip need another coat.

New Batteries

We replace our six Optima AGM batteries (12 volt) with six Lifeline GPL-4CT AGM batteries (6 volt) double our amp hours, 330AH to 660AH. The Optima batteries were starting to lose their charge after 5+ years (see To the Keys Again).

Shower Sump

We finally get around to installing the shower sump that purchased a while ago. The shower drain and A/C now drain into the sump where it is pumped overboard so we can finally have a dry bilge.

Teak and Holly Steps

We have a lot of ¾” teak and holly plywood left over from our main salon floor project so we replace our ugly steps with teak and holly. We also replace the aft locker where we keep filters and zincs.

Watermaker

We buy and install a Spectra Ventura 200T watermaker.

AIS

We buy and install a Garmin AIS 600 Transceiver.

Single Sideband Radio

We buy and install an Icom M802 single side band transceiver.

Allure Vinyl Flooring

The parquet floor pieces have been loose since we got the boat. We finally pull out all the old parquet and put dow Allure vinyl flooring everyplace except for the main salon.

Teak Veneer Walls

We bought teak veneer years ago and we finally get around to repairing all of our water-damaged interior walls. Once we are done we apply several coats of varnish.

Self Tailing Winch and Rope Clutch

We decided run our mail halyard and reefing line to the cockpit. We already had a winch for the center board but it was one speed and wasn’t self tailing. Another problem with this setup was that you could take up the center board or reef when the mainsail was up because we only had a single winch. So installed a rope clutch that will handle three lines and replaced the winch with a larger, self-tailing, two-speed winch.

Triple Blocks on Dinghy Davits

When we first got the boat there was single block for the bow of the dinghy and double block for the stern because we would often pull it with the motor attached. We replaced the single block with a double block but we had fiddle blocks bowline knots so you couldn’t pull the dinghy up very high. We decided to replace everything with triple block and eye spliced line. Now we can pull the dinghy almost all the way up with the motor attached.

Cruises

Here are cruises we did from 2010 to 2013.

2010 RSPS Kickoff Cruise

This is the first RSPS cruise of the year. Its main purpose is to make sure your boat is ready before heading out on one of the longer cruises. The cruise is supposed to be two days, but we take Friday off and extend the weekend. We plan to anchor in Oriental on Friday and in South River on Saturday.

23-Apr-2010 – We leave NWC marina at 0945 and do a sea trial of our new autopilot. Adjustments are complete at 1035 and we continue to Oriental.

We planned to anchor in Oriental, but decide to get a slip. We run into our friends Burt, Kevin, Wilbur and Morgan and go to Steamers for dinner.

24-Apr-2010 – Bruce visits us and we have coffee and walk to a nautical flea market. We listen to NOAA weather radio and find out that there will be small craft advisories today and tomorrow. We decide to cancel the rest of the cruise. We return to NWC marina and meet the RSPS group for dinner at Morgan’s in New Bern. We call this a “land cruise”

2010 RSPS Slow Boat Cruise

The Raleigh Sail and Power Squadron Slow Boat cruise plan is to go to Ocracoke, Englehard, Manteo, Alligator River and Bellhaven in a week. We have enjoyed this cruise in past years and we are really looking forward to doing it again, especially since we have just finished moving out of our house in Raleigh.

Everything that we haven’t given away is in Questeria or in our shipping container, The Olson Manor (see tips for becoming a liveaboard).

21-May-2010 – Ron must work today and clean the prop. Plus Fran and Ron must go to West Marine and the Grocery store, eat lunch and drop Sandy off at Fran’s parents. We finally leave at 1500. We are on our way to South River when we get a call that house closing is complete. We are now ~~homeless~~ liveaboards. Then we get a call from our homeowner’s insurance company. They want to know if they should transfer our policy to another house and Fran tells her that we are homeless. After a pause, she says this is a good thing and explains that we have moved to our boat.

22-May-2010 – We pull the anchor in South River and head to Ocracoke. We arrive at 1200. We meet up with our Ed and Bunie, and go to Jolly Rogers for a lunch of crab cake sandwiches and beer. Then we go for Death-By-Chocolate. Then we meet up with Charles & Phyllis, Wilber & Morgan, Jane & Crowell, and Terry & Becky. We have Wine & Cheese at the national park service tables.

23-May-2010 – Rather than bore you with all the details, I will summarize the rest of the cruise…

Charles & Phyllis and Terry & Becky leave, but Tommy and Tom show up on Fresh Breezes and Leslie comes on the ferry. The weather looks like it will turn bad, so it’s like a replay of last year where we are “stuck” in Ocracoke for the week. Every day we go to Jolly Rogers for lunch and have crab cake sandwiches. The big decision is whether to order a second beer or not. Then we have Death-By-Chocolate. Later we have Wine & Cheese on someone’s boat and then we go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. One day we rent bikes and ride to the beach. Another day we go to the lighthouse. We meet other cruisers, Randy and Jim & Jodi. Some evenings they join us for Wine & Cheese.

We leave Ocracoke on 29-May and head for South River. We reef our sails, Fresh Breeze tears their jib and Trekker has to stop and change a fuel filter. We make it to South River and anchor for the night. The next day we get back to NWC marina.

2010 D27 Rendezvous

The USPS District Rendezvous is hosted by RSPS at Pecan Grove Marina in Oriental. On 10-Jun-2010 we leave NWC marina and head to Pecan Grove Marina in Oriental. We go out to dinner with Morgan, Wilbur, Jane, Crowell, Burt and Margret. The next day Ron plays dock master and Fran sells raffle tickets. We have a pig pick-in for dinner, cooked by George. On the 12^th we raise the flag on Questeria. Then we go out kayaking. When we get back there is no power in the marina. We watch the power company come out and replace the fuse and then we have shrimp for dinner. We see many old friends and meet a lot of new people. This was a great rendezvous.

Cape Lookout Cruise

On June 13, after the D27 rendezvous, we take some time to go to Cape Lookout. We go with Jane & Crowell on Dream Chaser. When we get to Beaufort inlet the current and wind are opposing and it is pretty rough. So we decide to spend the night in Beaufort Town Dock. We get our free drinks at the marina restaurant, have Wine and Cheese on Questeria, and go to dinner at Spouter’s with Jane & Crowell.

The next day we leave Beaufort Town docks and head to Cape Lookout. Once were out of the inlet we put up the sails and turn off the engine. We have a leisurely sail to the bight. We anchor in 22 feet of water and put out 205 feet of rode (over 7:1 scope). We discuss this with Crowell and he says that he didn’t put out that much scope.

Dream Chaser is anchored behind us. When they start to get in their dinghy, the floor rips out. We put our dinghy down and go pick them up and the four of us go for a nice walk on the beach. After that we go to Dream Chaser for Wine & Cheese and we notice that Questeria seems to be moving farther away. We dinghy back to Questeria and our anchor is holding. Then we return to Dream Chaser and Crowell determines that they are dragging. He puts out more scope and we finish our Wine & Cheese. We return to Questeria after sunset, run the generator for one hour and twenty minutes to charge the cold plate, and grill steak for dinner.

On June 15^th we wake up to a crash at 0430. We find the dinghy has come unclipped. We go back to bed until 0830. We start the generator to make coffee and charge the cold plate. After that we pick up Jane & Crowell in our dinghy and go to the lighthouse. Unfortunately it is closed for painting and will reopen soon. Then we return to Questeria for Wine & Cheese. We cook a pork tenderloin on the grill and Jane & Crowell bring canned corn and potatoes. It is a very good dinner.

Sleep is interrupted by the swim ladder banging around. Fran fixes it at we go back to sleep. We run the generator to make coffee and charge the cold plate. We also run the battery charger because the solar panel is not keeping up despite the long sunny days. After about an hour, the generator runs out of gas. Crowell give us about a gallon of gas.

Ron goes overboard with a scuba tank and replaces the zinc, un-sticks the centerboard and cleans the hull until he runs out of air. We lose a scrubber and crowbar in the process.

Dream Chaser leaves. They will go to Beaufort and then back home. We take the dinghy to the beach. When we get there we see that a storm is approaching and head back to Questeria. On the way back the dinghy outboard doesn’t want to keep running. We have to keep the choke on and continue to re-start it, but we finally make it back to Questeria. The rain never comes. The temperature drops to about 75°, but the humidity is high, so it is still uncomfortable.

It’s June 17^th and we wake up to an annoying fly. The batteries are low. We start the generator to make coffee and charge the batteries. We start to charge the cold plate, but then decide that we are low on gas and that the food in the freezer will be okay if we don’t run the compressor for a few days. We put up some shades and look at the dinghy motor. We get it running, but we run out of gas. Ron uses the other scuba tank to finish cleaning the hull and tries fishing. He catches a small shark on “fishbites”.

We sleep in the v-berth because it is cooler with the wind scoop but the mattress is uncomfortable.

The next day we run the generator to make coffee and charge the batteries. We run out of gas before the batteries are charged, so we run the main engine for a while. New Horizon comes and rafts up to us at 1910 and we have Wine & Cheese and then separate for the night.

The next morning we run the generator for an hour to charge the batteries and make coffee. Bruce & Linda raft up again for coffee and breakfast. We pull anchor at 1100 and sail up to Cedar Creek anchorage, in Adams Creek. We raft up with New Horizon for Wine & Cheese and dinner.

The next morning we have breakfast with Bruce & Linda and then go back to NWC marina. The winds are not good for sailing so we motor the whole way.

We learn a lot from this trip. It had been a while since we were away from the dock for this long and we learn that we need more solar panels (see New Solar Panels) and that you can never have too much gasoline for the dinghy and generator.

Cruise to Sailcraft

We need to be in Sailcraft boatyard, in Oriental first thing Monday morning (see Water Tank). We decide to leave on Friday the 20^th of August and anchor in South River, one of our favorite anchorages, for the weekend. We have plans to meet up with Jay & Emily and maybe Wayne & Tracy. On the way to South River we see our friends Ed & Bunie on Trekker and make plans for them to meet us as well. Trekker has engine problems and Jay & Emily and Wayne & Tracy decide not to come so we have South River to ourselves.

The next day we work on the head walls most of the day. It is very hot and we run our CruiseAir A/C on the generator part of the day. It starts to rain and we close the windows and run the A/C until the generator runs out of gas at 0100. We open the windows at 0300.

On Sunday we pull the anchor at 0955 and head to Sailcraft. We get there and James and helps us dock the boat. We hook up shore power and start the A/C. James drives us to Ernul to celebrate Fran’s dad’s birthday with Pizza Hut pizza and carrot cake. We drive back to the boat at 1700. The A/C strainer is plugged and it is 97° on the boat. We hook up the CruiseAir and clean out the strainer and by 1900 it is bearable. It is raining with thunder and lightning that night.

The next day the storm has knocked out a Verizon cell phone tower. Our phones are not working and we can’t get usable internet signal from Sailcraft, Sprint or Verizon. They start working on the water tank.

On August 31^st the water tank is installed. The solar panels are mounted, but we are waiting for the controller (see New Solar Panels). Hurricane Earl is headed directly towards us. The forecasters are saying it will turn north before it hits, but we are under a Hurricane Warning. We can’t stay at Sailcraft, so we must get back to NWC marina by September 1^st. We fill our new water tank and it is leaking.

The next day, Chris stops the leak and we leave Sailcraft at 1109. We make it to NWC marina by 1645. The fuel pumps and pump-out are removed and people are preparing their boats for the storm.

We finish preparing for the storm the next day. James comes and drives us to Sailcraft to get our car. We spend the night at James’s house and thankfully the forecasters are correct about the storm dying down and turning north.

Back to the Keys

We decide we do not want to spend the winter living on a boat in NC. We have wanted to go back to the Keys ever since we left in 2006. We plan on spending the winter on a mooring ball in Boot Key harbor but George calls us and tells us that they are moving Steel Lady to Bonefish Marina. We had wanted to experience living on a mooring ball for six months, but decide to try this marina first. We rent a slip from Dick. We plan on returning to NWC marina in the spring and they have a waiting list so we will continue to rent the slip in New Bern.

We have some cold nights before we leave and the heat on Questeria is not working. We call Bert to fix it. There had been a leak in the cooling pump and the compressor is very rusty. We can fix the heat problem or buy a new unit. We decide to buy a new unit, but this delays our departure by a week. We need to be in Marathon in time to fly back to Charlotte for the birth of our fourth grandchild, Jackson Parker. The due date is November 29^th and we don’t consider that he might be early.

We have a hectic time getting ready for the trip. Ron is working extra hours at IBM and Fran is busy helping her mom and dad, and babysitting for Ava (they are living in New Bern at this time).

16-Oct-2010 – We wake up at 0630 and tie down the dinghy and Jerry cans of diesel and gasoline. By 0900 the wind starts to pick up and there is a small craft advisory until 1700. We finally get out at 1245. We make really good time with the wind behind us. Along the way the tachometer starts acting funny (maybe a loose wire).

We anchor in Cedar Creek anchorage just before 1700. After dark we turn on our anchor light but it is not working. The Tri-color light is not working either.

17-Oct-2010 – We wake up at 0500 and are underway by 0720. We wait 20 minutes for the Onslow Beach Bridge and fight currents for part of the day but we average about 5.2 kts. The tachometer still acts up but works most of the day. We run the generator for 1.5 hours to charge the cold plate and run the water heater. We anchor in Mile Hammock Bay (St M 244.5) at 1700.

18-Oct-2010 – We have three bridge openings to make today. We get to Surf City Bridge for the 1000 opening. We have the current with us so we make the 1230 opening of Figure Eight Bridge. We slow down to 3 kts and go 5 miles in 90 minutes to get to Wrightsville Beach Bridge for the 1400 opening. We are traveling with the current and decide to try and make it to South Port Marina, where they can fix our anchor light. We call them on the phone and they say they are open until 1800. We get through Snow’s Cut and turn into the Cape Fear River and then we slow way down due to the strong current in the Cape Fear River. We get to South Port Marina at 1845, after sunset, and they are still open.

19-Oct-2010 – We bring Questeria to the lift so they can use the man bucket to get to the top of the mast. They don’t make that anchor light any more, but there is one available in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. In the mean time they clean the connections and get it working. We decide not to wait for a new fixture. (We want an LED anchor light anyway.) We go back to the fuel dock, get 27.9 gallons of diesel, a pump-out and tie up at the fuel dock for the night. Our A/C strainer is leaking river water into the bilge.

20-Oct-2010 – Out next destination is North Myrtle Beach. We make Sunset Bridge 1300 opening at tie up in Harbor Gate marina at 1445. This marina is ok, but they are not as helpful as South Port. Ryan gets there right after we tie up. He has to work at Captain Poo’s but lets us borrow his Jeep. We get groceries and go to West Marine. They don’t have a replacement for our A/C strainer but we do but parts to hook up a makeshift wash-down system. We go back to the boat and put it together. It consists of a hose with a 2lb dive weight on the end, which goes overboard and cable with a 12v plug, which plugs into the cockpit. Once the anchor and rode are clean, we can disconnect the hose and store everything in the lazarette.

We go to Poo’s for dinner. We have a great time and meet many of Ryan’s friends. The food is great, but we order way too much.

21-Oct-2010 – We wake up at 0600 and start getting ready to leave. We pull out of the marina at 0710 and follow Punches through the little River Bridge. We anchor in Santee River anchorage (St M 420) at 1735.

22-Oct-2010 – We leave by 0716. We get through the Ben Sawyer bridge at 1320 but we need to wait at the Wappoo Creek bridge for the 3:00PM opening. At 1736 we anchor in Church Creek (St M488.2).

23- Oct-2010 – We leave the anchorage at 0726. We think about going outside, but decide it is too rough. We make Lady of Isle bridge 3:00PM opening. We anchor in Skull Creek at 1730 (St M 553.8).

24-Oct-2010 – We change the primary fuel filter because it has ½ inch black stuff in the bowl. We are underway at 0715. We anchor in Cattle Pen Creek (St M 625.4 at 1800. We have some trouble getting the anchor to set and the windlass stops working (it’s not the breaker).

25-Oct-2010 – We wake up at 0530 which is too early since sunrise is at 0735. We run out of water. At 0608 Alicia sends a text that her water broke and she is on her way to the hospital. We get to Jekyll Harbor marina (St M 685.4) at 1630. It is low tide and the water is skinny on the way there. We fill up on diesel (47.9 gallons) and water and get a pump-out. Jackson Parker is born at 1730 (5 weeks early). He weighs 5lb 5oz and is 18 ¾ inches long. Fran is upset that she missed it.

26-Oct-2010 – Stopped at Pablo Creek anchorage, but didn’t see a good place to anchor. We go on to Beach Marine (St M 747.6) and dock for the night. They claim there is plenty of water in the slip but we seem to be aground. We walk to Publix (it is over a mile) and get bread, beer and lettuce.

27-Oct-2010 – We leave Beach Marine at 0715. We get to Bridge of Lyons at 11:30, but we have to wait until 12:30 for the next opening. Crescent Beach Bridge and L B Knox Bridge open on request. We make it to Halifax anchorage (St M 817.7) at 1826. There are no depths showing on the chart so we have to sneak in. The first try we end up in 4.5 feet so we try again and end up in 7.5 feet.

28-Oct-2010 – We get off to a slow start because it is foggy. There are a lot of bridges today, but most of them open on request. We make the 1200 opening of George Munson Bridge the 1800 opening of NASA Causeway Bridge. We anchor in Addison Pt. anchorage (St M 885.3).

29-Oct-2010 – This was a rock-n-roll night. The wind shifted 180° and we were facing the bridge. It is too rough to change the fuel filter and the bilge pump is stuck on. Also, we are leaking water from one or both tanks. We pull the anchor and are underway by 0715. We have the wind behind us so we put out the jib with a whisker pole. We make it to an anchorage past Ft. Pierce (St M 973.2). This is not well protected and we have another rock-n-roll night.

30-Oct-2010 – Bilge pump still not shutting off and still not sure where the water is coming from. We leave at 0713. The “weekend warriors” and bridges are driving us crazy. At Indian Town Rd Bridge in Jupiter, the bridge tender says he will open the bridge. The current starts pulling us toward the bridge and then he stops opening it. We have to do a 360° to not hit the bridge, while small boats are heading right at us. We decide to go outside at Lake Worth Inlet the next day. We anchor out in Lake Worth at 1530. There are lots of boats here but we find space at 20° 45061’N 080° 02.821’ W. We drop anchor at St M 1018.7.

31-Oct-2010 – Pull anchor at 0710 and go out Lake Worth Inlet. Seas are kind of choppy until we turn south. We put up our sails. We get to Port of Miami at 1700. We turn into the wind and drop our sails. We anchor behind Fisher Island at 1745 (St M 1089.8). At 2005 a storm hits us, the wind changes direction and we hit bottom. We rock so hard that a full wine glass falls off the table and breaks. There are lots of shoals here so we move to another spot with deeper water.

1-Nov-2010 – It was a stressful night but the anchor held. At 0700 the tide is high so we have no problem getting back to the channel. At 1045 we slow way down and the engine is straining. Ron goes overboard with mask and snorkel and there is an unmarked crab pot stuck on the prop and rudder. Ron gets to go diving in the Keys on our first day. It takes about an hour to get free. We get through Angelfish Creek to Hawks Channel at 1400 and put up the sails. We drop our anchor behind Rodriguez Key at 1705.

2-Nov-2010 – East winds at 15kts give us another rock-n-roll night at anchor. Today’s challenge is “dodge the crab pots”. We have the sails up with the wind almost directly behind us. This makes it difficult to dodge the crab pots so we drop the sails and motor. We get to Bonefish marina at 1400. Bill helps us get in our slip and give us a pump-out. We meet Gary (G2).

Manatees drinking water running off of fenders

This trip went very well. We had no major adventures. We developed a routine which we use whenever we are moving the boat on a schedule.

· While underway we figure out how far we can get before dark and look for places to anchor.

· At the anchorage, Ron drives the boat and Fran drops the anchor. Once we have enough scope out, we back down and check to make sure the anchor is set.

· Once set, we turn off the engine and have a beer.

· The engine room is very hot after a day of travelling so we leave the annoying fan on for a while. We have dinner, wash dishes, and take showers, etc. and go to bed.

· We wake up the next morning before sunrise (we call this the butt crack of dawn) and make coffee.

· We check the weather and look over the routes for the next day.

· The engine has cooled off now, so we check the oil and water. The engine leaks oil so we keep a diaper under it, which we change wearing rubber gloves.

· After this we turn on the chartplotter and update any routes, if needed.

· Just before it starts to get light we start the engine and turn on the VHF radio, autopilot, nav-lights and the annoying fan.

· Ron drives the boat and Fran pulls the anchor.

· After the anchor is up, Fran washes off any mud or sand and secures everything, while Ron slowly starts off.

· After sunrise Fran turns off the nav-lights.

· Once underway, Fran makes breakfast and it starts all over again.

It would have been nice to stop and take some time along the way, but Ron needed to get back to work and Fran needed to get to Alicia’s. Fran flies to Charlotte and later drives the Honda back to Marathon (in one day)

Jackson Parker 11/5/2010

Ava Elizabeth 6/6/2010

We replace the A/C strainer, bilge pump and find multiple leaks in the top water tank. One is where the fill hose connects to the tank. That was the easy one to fix. The next leak was at the top, right under the v-berth cushions. This one was fixed after putting several layers of fiberglass and epoxy over the seams. The third leak is underneath. This one is still not fixed because we will have to cut away some fiberglass to get access.

We fix the windlass, but it is in bad shape, so we eventually buy a new one (see Windlass) and permanently install the wash-down system.

Some Short Cruises in the Keys

Once we get to Bonefish marina, we don’t leave the dock much. Part of this is because of travel and company. Fran spends time in NC with her father, who dies from cancer in December. We both spend time in NC with the kids and grandkids at Christmas. Greg comes down to visit for few days after Christmas. Then Fran’s mom and brother come down with Sandy. Ron works for IBM from the boat on weekdays, while Fran keeps herself busy with boat projects (see Cetol, Paint and Kiwi Grip).

4-Dec-2010 – Ben & Dolores come to BFM and we take Questeria to Burdines marina to get fuel. We go in through Sisters Creek, stop at Burdines and get 40.8 gallons of diesel. We leave through Boot Key Harbor and get back to BFM at 1634. Everything goes well, but it seems like the prop needs to be cleaned.

3-Jan-2011 – Greg has come down to the Keys. We go out sailing.

9-Apr-2011 – Fishing! We have bait and lures. We plan to troll for mahi-mahi and then anchor on the reef and catch some yellow tail snappers. Steel Lady is coming too. We leave BFM and head due south. George and Nancy catch a mahi-mahi but we get nothing. It is rough out in the Gulf Stream and our dinghy comes loose and we can’t tie it down (the motor is still on it). We go back to the reef and anchor. We put out chum and try to get some yellow tail snapper, but all we catch is ballyhoo, grunts and pinfish.

Sandy does great except she doesn’t go to the bathroom. This is her first time anchoring out overnight and she doesn’t know she’s supposed to go on the puppy pad. We anchor out beside Boot Key. Steel Lady comes later and we dinghy over there for blackened mahi-mahi.

10-Apr-2011 – We sleep until 0720. Steel Lady is long gone. Sandy finally pees on the boat! We take the motor off the dinghy, tie it down, and charge the cold plate. We pull the anchor at 1100. We go back out to the Gulf Stream and troll. We get one hit on a skirted ballyhoo but it gets away. At 1300 we turn into the wind and put up the sails. We have a beam reach but only 4 kts of wind. We are back at the marina at 1545. We have no fish, but we had a fun time.

Back to NC

We take Questeria back to North Carolina in May. We have been paying rent on our slip in NWC marina the whole time to keep it for when we get back. We originally wanted to leave around the 1^st of May but Ron delays his vacation time to cover for his co-worker, Louie, who is having a baby.

14-May-2011 – We wake up at 0600 and do last minute tasks. We have made lots of friends in the marina and they come to say good-bye. We are ready to leave, but we wait until 0915 for the cold plate to charge. We put up the sails and stop the engine, but the winds die and we are only doing 4 kts, so we start the engine. We drop the anchor south of Rodriguez Key at 1648.

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15-May-2011 – We are underway by 0645. It is windy with a chance of isolated storms. We hear a warning on the VHF radio that there is a line of severe storms coming our way. We go into Angelfish Creek and try to anchor but we can’t find a protected place with enough swing room. We follow the ICW and the storm hits us in the middle of Biscayne Bay. We motor into the wind, seeing 45 kt gusts. When the winds go down to about 23 kts we start to make headway again. We go into Boca Chica, but it is very crowded, dogs are not allowed and we decide we are not comfortable there. We anchor in Hurricane Harbor at 1800. We are concerned about Sandy since she has not gone potty since 0900 Saturday.

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16-May-2011 – We leave Hurricane Harbor at 0600. We go out government cut and Port of Miami. We start to slow down and adjust our course to move closer to shore and pick up some speed. At 1040 we start getting a west wind. We put up the jib and start doing 6.4 kts (that’s fast for us). Sandy finally poops on the deck! We enter Lake Worth Inlet at 1806, turn left after G “9” and anchor past R “6”. It has been a long day but we are glad to be past the 30 bridges between Biscayne Bay and Palm Beach.

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17-May-2011 – We wake up at 0500 and check the weather and decide to go outside to Ft. Pierce. We pull the anchor at 0620 and head out the inlet. There is almost no wind and one foot swells. It looks like rain but the clouds start breaking up at 1100. We anchor in Ft. Pierce at 1515.

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18-May-2011 – We leave the anchorage at 0622 and head up the ICW. We anchor on the north side of NASA Causeway Bridge at 1830

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19-May-2011 - We pull the anchor at 0630 and head up the ICW. We drop the anchor at 1520 in Daytona Beach north of Seabreeze Bridge (St M 829.0).

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20-May-2011 – We pull the anchor at 0630 and head up the ICW. Before long it gets foggy. The fog is so thick we don’t see either side or any markers. We come up behind another boat waiting for the fog to lift and stay behind it. Then another boat comes along and we both follow it until we lose sight of them. We inch along at 2-3 kts for the next couple of hours until the fog starts to clear. We get to St. Augustine City marina at 1430. We get diesel, water and a pump-out and reserve a mooring ball for a week.

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21-May-2011 to 26-May-2011

We had a “ball” moored out in St. Augustine.

Sandy gets used to taking the dinghy in once a day to poop and pee on grass. We do some sightseeing on Saturday and Sunday. During the week Ron works and then we take the dinghy to shore for dinner. We only choose restaurants with outdoor seating because we have Sandy. We like Florida Cracker Café, Pizza Alley and Green Dolphin. OC Whites is ok but Harry’s Seafood is a disappointment.

On the 26^th we go to the fuel dock at 0625 for water and a pump-out. We are glad we did it early because the wind picks up and it howling for the rest of the day.

27-May-2011 – After going through the Bridge of Lions the engine starts to overheat. We drop the anchor and shut it off. We check everything, start it again and it starts pumping water. We get underway.

We finally figure out our tachometer problem – It is caused by the solar panels. The solution is to disconnect the solar panels when tachometer starts acting up.

At 1400 we hit thunderstorms and decide to stay in Fernandina Beach, even though we can get farther. We shut the enclosure, but the storm is not too bad.

We get a mooring ball in Fernandina Beach. The ball that we are assigned is hard to find. We get moored at 1530 and the current here is really strong.

This mooring field is not like St. Augustine. The air smells like Vanceboro or worse and the marina staff is not very helpful. We dinghy in, pay and dinghy right back because it looks like rain.

We get back to Questeria, pull the dinghy motor, secure the dinghy and start the generator. It starts to sprinkle so we run the A/C until the boat gets to 76°.

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28-May-2011 – We leave Fernandina Beach mooring at 0605. The biggest challenge of the day is horseflies. Not only do they bite, but Sandy is deathly afraid of them. We end up putting her below and put makeshift screens up around the enclosure. At first there are about 100 horseflies trapped inside the screen so we have to swat them and steer the boat at the same time.

We drop the anchor at 1705 in Tea Kettle Creek behind Round Tuitt. Della & Steve dinghy over for appetizers and beer. Sandy is still afraid to be in the cockpit.

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29-May-2011 – We pull the anchor at 0605 and follow Round Tuitt out of New Tea Kettle Creek. Round Tuitt pulls ahead of us but when we get to Hell Gate Round Tuitt is anchored, waiting for high tide. After some discussion we decide that we will go through and call out the depths to Round Tuitt. We don’t see any depth less than 7.5 so Round Tuitt follows us through. We tie up at Isle of Hope Marina at 1530. We see many weekend warriors and water bugs throughout the day

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30-May-2011 – We leave Isle of Hope Marina at 0610. Today is Memorial Day and it is not a crowded on the water as I thought it might be. We even get through Causton Bluff Bridge at 0745 because it is a holiday. We drop anchor at Rock Creek at 1850. It was a long day made almost 75 St Miles.

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31-May-2011 – This would be a perfect anchorage if it weren’t for all of the bugs. We keep the screens up all night and go in and out of the hatch. Sandy has not gone to the bathroom since Isle of Hope Marina.

We have some current helping us as we approach the Wappoo Creek Bridge. We call the bridge tender and she says to come on. Before we get there the bridge starts to close. She says she thought we were another boat when she told us to come on. We wait for the next opening and get through the Ben Sawyer Bridge. Fran is below and Sandy is pacing back and forth in the cockpit. There is a small motor boat circling us in the channel. He runs aground right in front of us and we run aground trying to avoid hitting him. They get their boat free but we are stuck. We call Sea Tow. While waiting for Sea Tow the tide starts to come in and we start floating around. We try backing off the shoal, but hit another shoal and hear a crunch.

When the Sea Tow boat arrives he pulls us off the shoal and we find we cannot steer the boat. He tows us to Pierside Boat Works in N. Charleston. We are winging side to side, so we drag fenders behind us to help stabilize the boat. We have to stop before Ben Sawyer Bridge and get in a hip tow. After the bridge we go back to a normal tow until we get closer to the boatyard. The boatyard is closed and they raft us up to another boat for the night. It looks like our rudder is completely gone.

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1-Jun-2011 – They haul out Questeria in the morning. We make arrangements with the boat yard to get a new rudder, get a ride to the airport, rent a car and drive to New Bern NC to stay with Fran’s mom.

13-Jul-2011 – Questeria finally has a rudder (yay!). It has been six weeks on land and we had a good time visiting with family. We got to see all four grandchildren and go to Tiffany’s wedding.

The rudder came in last week and was installed on Monday. We had talked to Pierside about doing a bottom job while waiting for the rudder, but it didn’t get done so we are not waiting any longer. We rent a car and drive from New Bern to Charleston. We stay in a hotel in the bad section of Charleston but they have security in the parking lot and it is fine. In fact the shower is awesome.

We get up at 0600 and go to “Wally World” for provisions and “Mickey D’s” for breakfast. We get to the boatyard and wash the boat. Then we return the rental car. We leave the dock at 1100.

Our raw water pump isn’t pumping and we have to stop and check out why. We check the impellor and it is fine. It must be an air-lock.

We anchor in Awendaw Creek (St M 435.7) at 1815.

14-Jul-2011 – There was a bad storm last night. We had to close up the boat so we ran the A/C for a while. The raw water pump is leaking so we replace the impellor and make a new gasket. We also clean out the heat exchanger. We finally leave at 1150. We fight the current most of the day and anchor behind Butler Island (St M 396).

15-Jul-2011 – We pull the anchor at 0605. We stop at Barefoot Landing Marina and get water, fuel and a pump-out. That takes about an hour. We dock at St. James Marina (St M 315) at 1930. It was a very long day but we made good progress (81 Statute Miles).

16-Jul-2011 – We leave the dock at 0615. There are lots of “weekend warriors” and “water bugs” on the water today. We have three non-fixed bridges to go under. We anchor in Mile Hammocks Bay (St M 244) at 1730.

17-Jul-2011 – The bilge pump has stopped working so we look at that to no avail. We don’t get underway until 0650. We get to Cedar Creek at 1550.

18-Jul-2011 – We pull the anchor at 0620 and head up the last few miles of the ICW before we turn off towards New Bern. We get to NWC marina at 1000.

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Summer of 2011

We finally get Questeria back to New Bern in mid-July. We then take her to Duck Creek Boatyard for a bottom job. We pay Terry to do it and we fly to Chicago for a week to visit Ron’s family. When we get back we have an out-of-the-water survey done. When we moved to FL full time we got liability only insurance, but after losing our rudder we think we might want something more.

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We get back from Chicago and Terry has done a great job. We also had her clean and wax the hull. Questeria looks great. We pay up, splash the boat and return to NWC Marina.

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On August 12^th we go to New Bern Grand Marina for the All Boats Cruise. We get there at 1258 and then come Trekker, Sea Gazin, Kevin & Ginny and Liberty. Terry & Becky, Tommy and Paul come by car. We have Wine and Cheese on Trekker and then go to Chelsea for dinner.

The next day is Saturday so we go to the farmers market and Baker’s Square with Lloyd & Jane. Foolish Pleasure comes in around 1600. We have Wine and Cheese on the dock and go to Morgan’s for dinner.

On Sunday we leave with Trekker and Liberty to minimize bridge openings. We take our time getting back to NWC marina so we don’t all get there at the same time.

Hurricane Irene hits the Outer Banks of NC on Friday, August 27^th. Prior to this Alicia and Jackson are visiting and Fran’s mom is admitted to the hospital for congestive heart failure. Adam is living in New Bern but Amanda and Ava are in New Hampshire. We get Questeria ready for the storm. We take down the sails and everything that’s not attached. We double up on dock lines and tie a long line to the other side of the fairway. The marina staff has removed everything from the docks, including the electric meters, so we have no power on the boat. We take the dinghy and generator to Fran’s brother’s house. Alicia, Jackson and Adam go back to Alicia’s house in Catawba. They take Sandy and Buddy (Adam’s dog) but we stay at Adam’s house in New Bern so we can be near Fran’s mother.

While the boat is ready for the storm, we are not. We are at Adam’s house and we don’t know where things are or know anybody in the neighborhood. We are lucky that we have a flashlight in the car. We lose power early Saturday morning. There are trees down everywhere but we are okay. Cell phone coverage is very bad and the last time we talk with Fran’s brother he hears a crash and he says he has to go. The storm passes on Saturday night.

Sunday morning is bright and sunny but there are many roads closed from fallen trees, flooding or both. We have Fran’s mom’s van and we get out of Adam’s subdivision. The first stop is NWC Marina. Questeria is fine and there is only a little damage in the marina. The storm surge was higher than any storm since the marina was built but the staff and volunteers adjusted the lines as much as they could.

The next stop is Fran’s brother’s house. Phone lines are down and cell phones don’t work there so we drive to check on him. There are fallen trees and power lines in the roads but people have cleared them enough for us to get there. He is fine. A tree fell on his house but did no major damage. The yard is a mess.

We go visit Fran’s mom in the hospital. She is doing well and the hospital never lost power. On the way back we see a gas station that is open. There is a long line but we fill up the van and some jerry cans with gas. We go back to Fran’s mom’s house. We run our Honda 2000 generator to make coffee, run the refrigerator and some fans. We stay there a few days but then decide we are better off on the boat – we have refrigeration and a generator for coffee and A/C. We notice that batteries are not holing a charge like they should.

It takes a while to get back to normal. The next weekend we start helping clean up Fran’s mother’s and brother’s property. It takes longer to get power at the dock because the marina staff must clean each meter socket and replace the meters before we have power on the docks.

To the Keys Again

We had a great summer in the Carolinas. We spent time with kids and grandkids and even went to a Clemson football game. But now it’s October and we are returning to the Keys as planned. We talk about staying for Fran’s mom, but her brother has moved in with her and they assure us that we should go. We leave Sandy with Fran’s mom.

We think it was a mistake to keep our slip in NC all year so we terminate the rent. We think we will stay in the Keys all year but if we decide to come back we are pretty sure we can find a slip somewhere around New Bern.

2-Oct-2011 – Leave NWC Marina at 0715. The wind and currents make it an awesome day on the water and we get all the way to Mile Hammock Bay.

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3-Oct-2011 – Left Mile Hammock Bay went under three bridges and docked at South Harbor Village Marina.

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4-Oct-2011 – Leave SHV Marina at 0645. We thought we would anchor in Sandhole Creek but when we get there we don’t like the looks of it. We backtrack to Cow House Creek. The current changes directions while we are anchoring so we think our 45lb CQR is not holding and put out another anchor, a 35lb Danforth.

5-Oct-2011 – The two anchors held all night. In fact we have a rough time pulling them this morning. We anchor in Seven Reaches Creek. A big barge follows us in and we turn and let him pass us.

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6-Oct-2011 – The batteries are not keeping up. The voltage is down to 11v and we have to start the generator to make coffee. This has been happening since after Hurricane Irene hit. The batteries are over five years old. I guess it’s time for new ones.

We try to time our progress to the Ben Sawyer Bridge, which is restricted from 7-9AM. We are also looking at a low tide at 10:14AM (this is where we lost our rudder in the spring). We have to wait for Ben Sawyer and Wappoo Creek Bridges anyway. We anchor in Upper Rock Creek.

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7-Oct-2011 – We have to run the generator again to make coffee (defiantly time for new batteries). We are concerned about the weather forecast for the next few days. We put up sails and take them down throughout the day. We make Ladies Island Bridge at 0945 and Causton Bluff Bridge just before 1600. We make a reservation with Isle of Hope Marina. They are full at first, but then call us back and say they have room for us on the face dock for the night.

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8-Oct-2011 – It is Saturday and it looks like there will be high winds and thunder storms until Tuesday. We can stay in Isle of Hope Marina but we have to move so we go to the end of the first dock. There is only 20A service and no cable TV here but we are safely tied up for the bad weather.

The marina has a courtesy car and we go to a grocery store one day and a restaurant the next day. We would have taken a bus to downtown Savannah if we had thought about it soon enough. Ron works on Sunday and Monday to save precious vacation days.

11-Oct-2011 – The worst of the weather has passed. We get the marina to help us get out of the slip, we drop them off at the face dock and we are underway by 0900. There is a little rain today but otherwise pretty good weather. We make it to Darien River.

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12-Oct-2011 – We pulled the anchor and were underway by 0700. As we start to make way down the ICW thick fog rolls in. We think about turning around and going back to the anchorage but the fog has come up behind us as well. We slow down and a Sea Ray passes us, then another sailboat, then a trawler named Sanderling. Sanderling invites to follow them since they have radar. We follow until we can’t keep up and then the fog lifts enough to see where we are going. We get a mooring ball in Fernandina Beach at 1730.

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13-Oct-2011 – We leave the mooring and continue down the ICW. We get to Bridge of Lions for the 1530 opening. We stop at St. Augustine Municipal Marine for fuel, water and a pump-out and get a mooring ball for the night. We put the dinghy down and are surprised when the motor starts on the second pull. We have some beer and crab dip at A1A and meet with Steve & Della at a restaurant near their marina.

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14-Oct-2011 – Got to George Munson Bridge for 1620 opening. We thought it was too early to anchor in New Smyrna anchorage so we go on to Mosquito Lagoon anchorage. We fight the current most of the way and don’t get there until 1930, about 30 minutes after sunset. We enjoy this anchorage watching an almost full moon rise and hearing dolphins playing in the water.

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15-Oct-2011 – It is rough and gusty and we wake up before the alarm clock goes off. We stop at Rock Point (aka Serenity Island). We don’t go very far today because there aren’t a lot of anchorages ahead for a while. We notice a lot of activity on the island next to us. After dark we boat with no running lights dropping people off. Then we hear loud music and the boat keeps coming and going.

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16-Oct-2011 – The load music is still playing at sunrise but we think it is just repeating the same thing over and over. We will never anchor here on a Saturday night again. The weather forecast for the next few days doesn’t look so good. We decide to get a mooring ball in Vero Beach and wait out the weather for a few days.

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We dinghy in to the marina but the bus isn’t running today because its Sunday. We walk to the beach but we don’t see any place to buy beer or Pepsi. The next day we take the free bus into town and buy groceries. We do some laundry at the marina as well. By Wednesday it looks most of the bad weather is behind us. We think about leaving but decide to stay one more night. We do go to the fuel dock for diesel, pump-out and water.

20-Oct-2011 – There were some bad storms and tornadoes in the area last night but this morning everything has calmed down. We leave the mooring and go out Ft. Pierce inlet. We have following seas and its a little rough at first but it soon calms down. We go in Lake Worth inlet and anchor in our normal spot.

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21-Oct-2011 – We pull the anchor at 0705 and go out Lake Worth inlet. It’s a pretty calm day. We wait for two cruise ships before we go into Port of Miami and the Government Cut. We anchor behind Virginia Key at 1810.

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22-Oct-2011 – We continue on ICW for a while and then go to Hawk Channel through Angelfish Creek. In the late afternoon the glare on the water makes it hard to dodge the numerous lobster trap/crab pots. We grab a mooring ball at Indian Key at 1800.

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23-Oct-2011 – We are almost home so we don’t worry about getting an early start. We get to BFM at 1105. George, Nancy and Ladybug help us with our lines and then we go to Burdines for lunch.

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We are happy to be back in the Keys. Fran goes back to NC in October for Jackson’s 1^st birthday she comes home and goes back to NC again to help her mom because her health is failing. Ron and Fran both go to NC for Christmas.

2012 Cruises

We decide keep the boat in FL all year. We get new boat insurance from Boat US. The policy raises the deductable for named storms unless we haul out. We pay $200 to Marathon Marina and Boatyard to guarantee a haul out. The $200 does not pay for anything, it just ensure the space.

We start 2012 by going back to NC for Fran’s mom’s final days. After the funeral we drive the van back to the Keys. Sandy comes back with us.

Bruce & Linda come down to the Keys in February. They come to the boat and we go out for a day sail.

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Alicia and Jackson come down to Marathon and stay with us in April.

We buy Just One More, a 24’ Grady White with George & Nancy and Joel & Brandy.

We make plans to go to Dry Tortugas with Gypsea and some other boats. We leave on May 5^th. Gypsea does not go but Sahara Dust, Alley G and Safari go as far as Newfound Harbor. Our engine runs hot on the way but we put up sails and make it to the anchorage. We are invited for cocktails and dinner on Alley G. We decide not to go to Dry Tortugas.

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The next day we look at the overheating problem. We don’t see anything obvious but the coolant level is a little low. We run the engine for a while and it does not get too hot. Then we take our dinghy to the sandbar by Picnic Island with Joel & Brandy and Robert & Angela. Later we celebrate Cinco De Mayo on Safari, except it is a day late so we call it “Cinco Tomorrow”.

On May 7^th Safari and Alley G go back to BFM and we go to Looe Key with Sarhara Dust. The engine is still running hot. When we get to the mooring ball it gets wrapped on our rudder and Joel helps us get it off. We go snorkeling and it is awesome. We go back to Newfound Harbor and anchor in the same place. We go to Sahara Dust for dinner.

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On May 8^th we plan to go to Boot Key Harbor with Sahara Dust. We replace the impellor and clean the heat exchanger but when we get out of Newfound Harbor we still have overheating issues. We try sailing but we are close to the coral heads so we call Tow Boat US and get towed back to BFM.

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We check the thermostat and the fresh water pump and they are both fine. We end up cleaning the heat exchanger with muriatic acid. We put everything back and fill the coolant tank. We check it out by going to Coffins Patch. Della & Steve come with us and Sahara Dust meets us at the reef. The engine does great and we have an awesome time snorkeling.

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We go out to Coffins Patch and go snorkeling for a Sunday afternoon.

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Greg and Emily come to visit. We go out to Sombrero Reef. The wind is perfect for sailing so we turn off the engine. When get to the reef it is very rough. We try snorkeling but the visibility is poor. After that we anchor in South Boot Key Channel for the night. The next day we notice that there is salt water in the freshwater tank and the engine is running hot again. That indicates that the muriatic acid that I used to clean the heat exchanger ate through the metal. We get back to BFM at 1230. We buy a new heat exchanger on-line and replace the old one.

Ron retires on June 30^th. At the beginning of the year he started a new project and the last few months he has been training people on the new and old projects.

In mid-July we drive to NC. IBM has a luncheon for Ron and Fran has lunch with her friends from SAS. Then we fly to Chicago and visit with Ron’s family for a week. In August we rent a house on Ocean Isle Beach, NC and all the children and grandchildren come. We have great time playing on the beach and decide to do this yearly. After that we drive to Alicia’s in Charlotte and plan to spend while with Jackson. But on August 22^nd we get a call from Marathon Marina and Boat Yard saying they are starting to haul out boats in preparation for Hurricane Isaac and wanting to know if we will be there. We start driving back to the Keys that afternoon.

When we get back to Marathon we decide not to have the boat hauled. We move to a more protected slip for the storm.

Isaac comes through the Keys as a tropical storm. We get rain and wind, but no damage. We even stay on the boat that night.

We don’t do anymore cruising in 2012 but we do travel to Albuquerque, Taos, Pagosa Springs and Santa Fe by air in September and then we go to NC by car in December. I didn’t write about it be we also do some boating in Just One More and our dinghy.

2013 Cruises

We want to go the Bahamas in 2013. We are thinking around April. So we prepare by adding a watermaker, AIS and single sideband radio. We flip-flop between going to Abacos and Exumas and buy chartbooks and guide books for each and we even get a pet permit for Sandy. But we get asked to babysit for Jackson in April when Alicia and Jeff go to Hawaii and after that it doesn’t work out.

Even though we didn’t get to the Bahamas we have some nice cruises in 2013. We also do some travel by car and air. We go to NC in April to babysit Jackson and Ava. We go again in July and fly from Charlotte to Chicago to visit Ron’s family. When we get back from Chicago we spend a week at the beach in Ocean Isle NC with all the children and grandchildren. In September we fly to Albuquerque NM and visit Santa Fe, Taos and Pagosa Springs CO. We drive to NC again in September when Erika loses her triplets. In December we drive to NC again, but stop in Ft. Lauderdale on the way to visit friends and watch the boat parade.

We make reservations at Key West Bight Marina for the week of March 16^thwith Safari and Sahara Dust. Sahara Dust cannot make it so it is just us and Safari. We leave a day earlier and anchor out in Newfound Harbor.

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Sandy doesn’t use her grass so we put the dinghy down and go to Picnic Island for her to potty. We pull the anchor and get to Key West at 1315. Safari passes us as we get to channel. Adam flies in and takes a taxi to the marina.

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We have a great time in Key West, but a week is too much. Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day and there are parties all over and a great Irish band playing in the Irish Pub. Spring break is also going on so there are people partying every where all the time. Safari leaves on Tuesday and Adam leaves on Thursday and we leave on Saturday, as originally planned.

We want to go to Newfound Harbor but the weather doesn’t look good for Sunday so we go all the way back to Bonefish Marina. On the way back we see George in the Hinkley (Khaki) and we take pictures of each other.

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On June 15^th we go out snorkeling at Coffins Patch. The snorkeling is great. The depth sounder stops working soon after leaving the marina. Later we diagnose it to the sounder unit. We replace it and it works again.

On the afternoon of June 22^nd we leave the marina. The wind is behind us and we sail at about 3 knots. We anchor outside of South Boot Key Channel.

track20130622.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

The wind picks up that night and we get up at 0110 and put out more rode. In the morning we see some storm cells on the weather radar app. We have a quick breakfast, pull the anchor and head to Burdines fuel dock. The guy at Burdines (his name is Ron) remembers Questeria from when George & Nancy were there.

We manage to avoid the storm cells on the way back but we do see some 25 knot gusts. When we get back Joel sees us on his AIS receiver and makes a DSC call to us on the VHF. It works great! He helps us into the slip.

track20130623.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

We were expecting bad weather on July 11^th but now it looks like it will be good for the next few days so we decide to spend a few days in Newfound Harbor. We leave the marina and try to sail but the winds are not good enough to shut off the engine. We run the generator to charge the cold plate and it takes about two hours. After we anchor we run the generator to run the A/C until it runs out of gas. Later that evening we see a waterspout in the distance but it doesn’t come near us.

track20130711.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

The next day we stay where we are. We run the watermaker for two hours to make about 18 gallons of water. We move the generator to the swim platform and it is much quieter. Sandy finally uses her grass to potty.

The wind picks up and changes direction during the night. Sandy poops and pees on her grass again today. The forecast calls for 10-15 knots but it is blowing stronger than that. They are also saying 50% chance of thunderstorms. We wait around to see if the wind settles down but at 1115. When we get out of the channel there are 3-5 foot waves with the wind on the nose. We think about going into Boot Key Harbor but when we get there we are used to it and decide to go all the way back to the marina. We run the engine at 2300 RPMs and do about 6 knots. We get back to the marina at 1610. We don’t see any rain or hear any thunder until we are tied up in the slip.

track20130713.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

We decide to go to Dry Tortugas. We leave the marina on October 17^th and anchor in Newfound Harbor. The weather is beautiful. We put up the sails but there is not enough wind to shut off the engine.

The next day we go to Marquesas Keys. We make pretty good time motor sailing. We get close to Marquesas at 1530 but we go out of our way to take a safer route to Boo Boo Key anchorage.

track20131018.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

We rock a lot that night. It starts raining at 0530 and we have to get up and close everything. We pulled the anchor at 0715 and started towards Dry Tortugas but at 0830 engine temperature alarm goes off. We shut off the engine and drop the anchor. Everything looks okay and when we restart it it cools down again. We head back to Boo Boo Key anchorage and check everything out. We don’t find any problems but we spend the day at anchor. We run the watermaker for two hours and try to get satellite TV to work but Follow-Me-TV is not functioning. We also play with the SSB to receive HF weather Fax. ITunes needs to be updated but eventually I get some Faxes copied to the computer.

18-Oct-2013 20.54.59.png

track20131019.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

On October 20^th we leave for Dry Tortugas again at 0730. It is a perfect day on the water, except there is no wind so motor all the way. We get to Dry Tortugas at 1540.

A funny thing happened with the time display on the Garmin chartplotter. When enter international waters the time goes back an hour. At first I think there may be a problem with the chartplotter. But then I think about the fact that we are on daylight saving time and there is no daylight saving time in international waters. But then when we cross over longitude 80° 30’ we lose another hour. This is because we crossed into another international time zone. Once we get closer to Dry Tortugas we get back to US waters and the time goes back EDT. The chartplotter is set to display local time. I am impressed that it is that accurate. The same thing happens in reverse on the way back.

track20131020.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

The next day we dinghy to Ft. Jefferson. We walk around the fort and then check in with the ranger. After that we sit by the beach. We take lots of pictures (See http://questeria.info/tortugas.html).

After lunch we head to Loggerhead Key. The ranger told us there is a single mooring and that anchoring there is not allowed. We are headed right to the mooring and about ¾ of the way there and a small powerboat goes past us and takes the mooring. We sail by but go back and anchor in Ft. Jefferson.

We look at the weather forecast and decide that we should leave the next day.

track20131021.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

On October 22^nd we get up early and pull the anchor at 0715. When we dropped it the before the shackle and swivel were jammed together so we have to drop it and pick it up again before we can pull it into the bow roller. We are running the watermaker this morning since we ran out of water last night. We decide that we should run it about three hours a day when on the hook.

At about 0830 the engine temperature alarm comes on. We put up our sails and turn around and are going 2.5 knots in the wrong direction. The engine is in idle and it cools down. We decide that we can motor sail slightly off course and keep the engine at 185° or lower, and then tack and get back on course. We anchor in about the same spot off Marquesas as last time.

track20131022.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

We wake up early the next day and check the engine cooling system. There is a little grass in the strainer, but not too bad. We start out at 0800 and everything looks good for a while. When we are about halfway across Boca Grande channel the tachometer starts acting up and the temperature is rising. We slow down and try to keep it at 185°. We keep bumping it up to 1800 RPMs and it is doing fine.

Before we get to Key West we start to get some wind but there are too many crab pots to turn into the wind to raise the sail. Once past Key West we get the mainsail up and continue motor sailing. The wind starts to pick up and we eventually are doing 6.5 knots. We go along for a while and then the tachometer dies and the engine temperature goes up.

We were hoping to make it to at least Boot Key Harbor but we only get as far as Newfound Harbor. We anchor in our usual spot.

At 2200 the wind picks up and it starts to rain. We see lightning in the distance. With the shade up and the enclosure shut, we watch the light show from our cockpit. The forecast for the next few days looks bad. It looks like we’ll be here for a while. It’s a good thing we aren’t out of beer.

track20131023.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

We check the whole cooling system. The belt is loose and that could explain why the tachometer goes out and the temperature goes up at the same time. We look at the weather and it is windy and rough seas for the next few days. It looks like we will be here until at least Saturday.

Our holding tank is starting to get full and we are concerned but on Friday a pump-out boat comes by and pumps us out for free (we give them a $10 tip).

The wind picks up and we notice that the sailboat anchored next to us (Blue Moon) is getting closer. We watch as they start their engine and reset their anchor. We decide to put out more scope. We have a total of 200 feet out.

On Sunday the 27^th we decide to try and make it back to Bonefish Marina. The NWS says winds are still blowing 12-17 knots from the direction we are headed but seas have gone down a little. We have the current with us on the way out of Newfound Harbor and the engine does fine. But as soon as we turn to go towards Marathon we are into the wind and we slow way down and the engine gets to 190° doing only 1700 RPMs. The waves are 2-3 feet and they are making us hobby horse. We decide to turn around and go back and as soon as we do we smooth out and do 4.5 knots at 1200 RPMs.

This time we anchor near Little Torch Key. We take apart the entire raw water system. We find some grass and some build up in the heat exchanger but it doesn’t seem bad enough.

track20131027.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

We try again on Monday. The engine does well until we get out of the channel and turn towards Marathon. At about 0900 we start slowing down and the temperature starts to rise. We call Tow Boat US and run at idle. In the mean time the wind and current are moving us in the opposite direction. Tow Boat Big Pine shows up and tows us to Marathon and then Tow Boat Marathon takes us to Bonefish Marina.

track20131028.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

Once back at the marina George help us diagnose the problem. The raw water side is pumping fine but we check the impellor and heat exchanger. We clean the heat exchanger with a rod. We put everything back and run at 1800 RPMs in gear at the dock and it still overheats. We notice that the prop wash doesn’t look right. We dive under the boat and fine the prop is full of weeds.

After cleaning the prop the prop wash looks better but we still have an overheating problem. This time we remove the oil and transmission coolers and clean them out. We remove the heat exchanger, clean it and flush it with muriatic acid. We also replace a kinked hose and the radiator cap. We put everything back, run it under load at the dock at 1800 RPMs and the engine temperature never goes above 160°.

On November 19^th we take Questeria out to see how the engine does. We run at 1900 RPMs and it never get much above 160°F. We go into Sisters Creek and fuel up at Burdines. On the way back we run at 2100 RPMs/ 6.5 knots and it only heats up to 165°F. We get back to Bonefish Marina at 1630. I guess that it was a number of things that contributed to the overheating problem.

track20131119.kmz (down-load and open in Google Earth)

These four years went by fast. We have completely adjusted to the live-aboard lifestyle and it seems like a normal life to us even though it something we never thought about before we made that first trip to the Keys in 2005.

We still have dreams of going to the Bahamas for the first time, but we start 2014 planning to cruise back to NC for the spring and summer. We are committed to be in Charlotte NC by the end of April and we want to get to Southport NC in the boat by that time. You can continue to follow The Adventures of the Sailboat Questeria in 2014 by going to Journal 6.

About The Website

Note: While this website is about boating, cruising, and living aboard, I thought I should have a small section talking about how and why I started the website.

I started this website shortly after purchasing Questeria in 2005. I wanted to share our experiences as new boaters, but also wanted to learn how to build a website from scratch. I wrote most of the source in HTML using the VIM editor, but some of the pages, like this one, were written in Microsoft Word, and saved as HTML. The website, itself was hosted on an old PC, running Linux, and was sitting in a spare bedroom of my house in Raleigh, NC. When we started getting ready to sell our house and move aboard Questeria, I realized this would not work, so I started hosting the website on ipower.com.

When I first started doing this, in 2005, I had not heard of Blogs or Wikis, or knew any people with an on-line presence. There are a lot easier and cheaper ways to go on-line these days, but I still enjoy developing my own website in this format.

When I started this website, the only way to surf the web was with a computer. Now, like most people, I use my smart phone and tablet to do most of my web browsing. I hadn’t done much with this site since about mid 2009, and it did not look good on my phone or tablet. I started looking on-line for tips or suggestions on creating a website that would look good on any browsing device, and saw a lot of commercial products that wanted to charge a monthly fee. But, www.questeria.info is a non-profit venture and I wouldn’t pay for it, even if I could afford it. I eventually found the information I needed to select a cascading style sheet depending on the device being used. So I now have three separate CSS files depending on if it’s a phone, tablet, or computer.

Of course, I didn’t figure this out all at once. It took a lot of experimentation to get everything to look right on each device. My first device is my laptop running Windows 7, with Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari browsers. The next device is my iPhone 5, and then my Kindle Fire (the original, which I understand is different from the newer Kindle Fires available today). Sometimes I use my wife’s iPad (when she’s asleep) to see what it looks like on there.

Previewing web pages on the computer is really simple. I double-click or right-click on the file and open with one of my browsers, and there is it. But it’s not that simple with phones and tablets. I thought I would be able to use something like Box, Dropbox, or Google Drive, but they aren’t really meant for hosting websites. I got some things working with Dropbox, but I had to reformat each page to contain the CSS style sheet, rather than just reference it, so it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Another method I used was to upload all my files to my hosting site, but that wasn’t ideal, because the pages would be cached and it would take time before I would see my changes.

I finally found something that worked for me. I discovered that Windows 7 has web hosting software that can be enabled. You can go into Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features On or Off. And select everything for Internet Information Services. Next, copy your website to C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ folder, or reset your inetmgr starting page. Then, if your phone, tablet and computer are on the same network, you can preview on them all. You need to know the IP Address of your PC, so bring up a Command Prompt window and type “ipconfig” and look for your IPv4 Address, for example “10.1.10.76”. Then on your phone or tablet, go to the web browser and type http://10.1.10.76/ or whatever your IPv4 Address is, and you can see your website.

My Goals for the last update were:

· Make the site look good, and readable on a computer, tablet, or phone

· Use HTML 5 with no errors from http://validator.w3.org/

· Portability between browsers and devices

· Pure HTML, no fancy Javascript or CGI.

I think I have achieved these goals. However, I cannot see this website from every device and browser. If you see something wrong, or have any suggestions, please email me at ron@questeria.info.

Notes

· Annoying Fan – The engine room gets very hot when we are motoring so we put in a fan with a vent hose that runs through the cabinet and vents outside of the cockpit. It works great but it is loud so we call it the annoying fan to distinguish it from the other fan we set to blow into the engine room..

· Centerboard – The centerboard on Questeria has a mind of its own. The cable was broken when we first got her, we repaired it, but ever since then it will stay up when we try to drop it and eventually go down on its own. When cleaning the hull we sometimes use a crowbar to un-stick it. One time it actually got stuck in the down position, but we finally got it back up by forcing it up from underneath.

· Coffee – Fran and Ron do not function without coffee. We have an electric coffee pot with a thermos carafe that works great at the dock. We used to have a Coleman camping coffee pot which worked on our propane stove, but we put that in The Olson Manor (see tips for becoming a liveaboard) and run our Honda 2000 generator to make coffee. We have a 1500w modified sine wave inverter, but it came wired to a 15A breaker, which triped when trying to make coffee. We later wire it directly to the house batteries, with a 150A fuse, and can then make coffee, using the inverter, and without starting the generator. (We call this “inverter coffee”.) This makes for a more peaceful morning on Questeria. When the batteries start to go we have to run the generator to make coffee.

· Cold Plate – We have a freezer on Questeria with a cold plate and a 120v AC compressor. When we are at the dock, on shore power, the freezer will come on 2-3 times a day and the cold plate will keep the food frozen. When we are cruising, or at anchor we have Honda 2000 generator that we run twice a day. Sometimes we turn on the water heater for ten minutes while charging the cold plate and we have hot water for dishes and showers. We have thought many times about replacing our compressor with a 12v compressor, but we can buy a lot of gasoline for the price of a 12v compressor.

· Crab Cake Sandwiches – Jolly Rogers, a restaurant in Ocracoke, serves excellent crab cake sandwiches. We know there is a lot of crab meat in them because they crumble easily. If they don’t crumble much they are mostly bread crumbs.

· Death-By-Chocolate – There is a slushy stand in Ocracoke that sells hand-dipped ice cream cones. Death by chocolate was our favorite flavor. As the name implies, it has chocolate in it.

· Dinghy Motor – Our Honda 15HP dinghy motor has always been a cause for frustration. We had the water pump replaced in 2006, but it likes to stop pumping water. We have a red straw from a can of WD-40 that we use to clear it. We also have problems with it running at idle speed. We replaced the gas tank and the hoses, which have started deteriorating. We also use only ethanol free gas and drain the carburetor if we don’t plan to use it for a while. We think it biggest problem is not being used enough.

· Fog on the ICW – When navigating the ICW you look for red and green markers to stay in the channel. There are often stretches with no visible markers. In that case you look at land. Your chartplotter should only be used as a back-up. When fog suddenly appears, as it seems to do once a trip, and I can’t see markers or land, my first reaction is to slow down and look at the charplotter. The chartplotter shows me what direction I am heading, but it is delayed. I then get off course until I can figure out what compass bearing to steer to. When I look at my tracks from the chartplotter I can usually tell when the fog hits because it goes in a circle.

· Sandy – Sandy is our dog. She is a 15 year-old Pomeranian. She likes being on the boat as long as we are at the dock, but she’s not too keen on cruising. When we are in NC she spends a lot of time with Fran’s parents. They say “a boat is no place for a dog” but the real reason is that they like having her. She stays with them when we go to Marathon in October 2010 and later comes down by car with Fran’s mom and brother. She also stays when we go to Marathon in October 2011 and we later bring her by car.

The biggest problem with cruising is for her to go potty on the boat. We try puppy pads, fake grass and real grass. She has used all of these, but not very willingly. She held it for three days the first time cruising. If we are able to take the dinghy to land once a day she is quite happy. The other problem is that she is deathly afraid of flies and flies are unavoidable traveling on the east coast. But she likes to be a part of everything so she puts up with us without a single complaint.

· Tachometer – The tachometer on Questeria was replaced in 2006 and worked fine until October 2010. After that it works most of the time, but occasionally will stop working, and then start working again. We looked for loose connections and rewired it using a larger wire size but it would still randomly stop and start. One day when it was not working, we went under a fixed bridge and it worked when we were shaded from the sun. We start to see a pattern; it usually stops working mid-day and then starts working later for the rest of the day and it started happening after we got the new solar panels. We surmise that the alternator stops charging if it thinks the voltage is high enough. When it stops charging it also stops driving the tachometer. So now when the tachometer stops we disconnect the solar panels and it works again.

· . Tips for Becoming a Liveaboard - Here are some tips for anyone considering selling their house and moving aboard a 37’ sailboat:

o Give whatever you can to your children. The more children the better (we have six). If they don’t want it, make them feel guilty for storing their stuff all those years.

o You will become very familiar with the local Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army establishments. You will also make friends with the garbage men, who will ask you to hold stuff until they can come back later and get it.

o We lucked out by finding a church that was furnishing an apartment for women coming out of prison. We donated a bunch of stuff and they came and picked it up.

o We bought a used 8x12 shipping container and had it delivered to Fran’s parent’s property. We didn’t think we would need it that big, but we actually could have used a bigger one. Fran and some of her co-workers had joked about retiring early and living in shipping containers, so we name ours The Olson Manor.

o We agreed that anything we moved aboard and didn’t use in a year would be gotten rid of. After three years, we are still downsizing.

o The hardest things to deal with are pictures. If you think you might move onto a boat in the future, go digital A.S.A.P. The same goes for books.

o Stop buying in bulk a while before you move. Our first night on the boat, we had to open a 12-pack of soap to wash our faces.

· V-Berth – We start out using the aft stateroom as our sleeping quarters. We have a nice thick mattress made and a memory foam cover to make it more comfortable, but it is a small bed and is usually the hottest place on the boat. We add a board and cushion to the top of the v-berth so we can sleep with our heads at widest point and our feet at the narrowest point and still kiss each other goodnight. Then we buy a 3 inch memory foam topper and a nice mattress cover and make the v-berth our main stateroom. Eventually we buy a nice king-size comforter and it looks like a real stateroom.

· Vanceboro – Vanceboro is a town in NC that we would pass through when driving to our marina from Raleigh. There is a paper mill in Vanceboro, which you can smell if the wind is blowing the right way. The tide in the Neuse River is wind based so we could tell if the water would be high or low when or if we smelled the paper mill. Vanceboro NC and Fernandina Beach FL smell about the same.

· Water Bug – Personal watercraft.

· Weekend Warrior – A boater who comes out on the water once in a while on Saturday, Sunday or a holiday who doesn’t understand navigation rules, or even simple courtesy. They also think that VHF channel 16 is their personal communication channel.

· Wine & Cheese - Wine & Cheese is not necessarily wine and cheese, it can be any beverage, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, (but usually alcoholic) and any appetizer.

Updated on 4-Mar-14

Contents

Introduction