Crossing the Gulf of Mexico from Clearwater to Pensacola, FL

Serendipity under sail to fill up on diesel in St. Petersburg, FL - Capt. Brian waving from bow while Raquel steers

Raquel & Brian just before leaving Tampa and a shave

As of the end of April 2016, we are safely in Pensacola, Florida area. Actually Josephine, Alabama to be precise.  Serendipity is side-tied next to her big sister Midnight Sun II in the canal behind the house of our good friends Neil & Janet Davies.

Neil & Janet had inspired us when they moved from the P Dock slip next to us on Lake Lanier 2+ years ago and cruised the Bahamas and then around Florida to the panhandle.  They had joined the Pensacola Yacht Club along with Larry and Tracy Cost and hosted us for a regatta weekend about a year ago.  We liked it so much we planned on moving here and now here we are a little bit early.

Optical illusion of mast under bridge

In April, the weather window to depart Tampa and cruise to the Bahamas was closing fast before June 1st in order to avoid Hurricane season and we were still dealing with fuel issues.  The bladder diesel pump hoses were installed incorrectly so we ended up with diesel in our bilge stinking up the entire boat.  I also had other leaks at the primary tank from replacing the fuel gauge sending unit so basically about 2 weeks were spent soaking the bilge and then having to wash all the sheets/cushion covers and wipe down the entire boat and clean the bilge.

Brian steering under the Bay Bridge

                   








It was definitely better to get these problems resolved in Tampa.  So for a test we sailed to St. Petersburg and topped off the fuel tanks plus the Jerry cans for a total of 42 gallons capacity.  Then we went under the Bay Bridge a few days later out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Terra Ceia Bay Anchorage

We anchored out in Terra Ceia bay and visited Emerson Point at the mouth of the Manatee river in the dinghy.  Shiloh enjoyed running free in the park by Palmettos and beautiful trees with hanging Spanish Moss.

Shiloh helping to anchor

Shiloh at Emerson Point

Half the fun was stopping at the Snead Island Crab Shack and Bait shop and drinking a Budweiser and eating a cuban sandwich we had to press/grill ourselves.  Raquel got eaten up by the No-See-Ums while we sat at a picnic table on the canal and watched neighbors catch fish using the live shrimp from the bait buckets.  Our anchorage was beautiful in a 3 mile by 1 mile bay protected all around from wind and waves with a pretty sunset and star scene on a quiet evening.


That day Neil called to inform us that one of his crew members for their Mexico regatta had broken her foot and unfortunately the couple had pulled out.  He needed additional crew by May 1st and asked if I could get to Pensacola in time?  Since Raquel and I knew we weren't going to make the Bahamas this season and we both needed to get jobs by July to cover the budget we had blown this spring on boat repairs, we had already been discussing a departure for Pensacola in May anyway.  So we pushed up our timeframe and motored to Clearwater on April 23rd.

Clearwater Condos as seen from ICWW

Coast Guard Cutter just off St. Pete

It was a fun 8 hour motor, traveling 40 miles and crossing under 8 Bascule bridges and 3 fixed bridges.  Our mast is 56 feet high and we had to call the bridge operator/tenders to either request passage or wait the 20-30 minutes for the scheduled openings up the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICWW).  This part of St. Petersburg and Clearwater seen by boat is very beautiful with tons of water front homes with docks, boats, canals and condos.  I wish we had spent more time here over the past 6 months, but maybe some future day we will come back for a visit or a longer stay.

Pirate Ship near Clearwater

We arrived at Clearwater Beach Municipal Marina in the mid-afternoon and topped off the diesel tanks again.  It was a mad house.  Dozens if not hundreds of tourists were milling around in lines in the parking lot embarking or disembarking from ferries, touristy pirate ships and commercial fishing vessels.  Plus the sandcastle festival was going on at the beach and pier area just a few hundred yards away causing traffic on this weekend to snarl to a standstill on all the causeways and bridges.  Luckily we just had to clean the boat up and have a few drinks before having a dockside dinner at the Bait House.  John Adair and his wife visited us on the boat and we talked about all the upgrades/repairs we had performed together and how the boat was holding up now that we had done a few sea trials.  We walked along the beach with a full moon.  That was fun.

Saturday morning we cleaned the interior again in preparation for our two guests that would help me make the Gulf of Mexico crossing.  Gale has been a dock neighbor at Westshore Yacht club for the previous 6 months and had gone sailing with me a few times.  Josh Barnes was a Lake Lanier friend that had sailed with me in St. Martin the previous year.  Josh drove a rental car from Savannah, GA with less than 48 hours notice, and Gale brought the 4Runner around from the marina so Raquel could drive to Pensacola with Shiloh that night.

Manatee drinking water in marina
before we left Clearwater

I prepped the crew that night regarding weather, safety and shift schedules at dinner.  We awoke at 4 AM after the wind had changed to blowing from the east after midnight.  We eased out of the slip in the moonlight at 4:30 am and were through the Clearwater Bridge Channel pass by 5:30 am turning Northwest to 300 degrees.  300 miles to go, expecting it to take 60 hours at 5 nautical miles per hour.

The wind was blowing 10-15 knots and we sailed wing on wing for the first few hours with a following sea running 2-4 feet with a short 8 second period.  Later we rolled up the jib and just sailed with the main with a preventer line to keep us from accidentally jibing.  I could have used a whisker pole and asymmetrical sail, but the budget just wouldn't allow it.  This lasted for about 10 hours until the wind calmed.  We began motoring in the early afternoon hoping to raise the sails again at midnight.  Alas we motored for nearly 20 hours, having to top off the primary tank with the jerry can at 8pm and again at 8 am on Tuesday morning.  Unfortunately the auto-pilot quit working just a few days before, so we had to steer by hand continuously.  With the waves behind us the stern would corkscrew nearly 10-20 degrees after each wave causing the helmsman to really watch the compass and the gps heading constantly.

Sunset from Gulf of Mexico Monday 4/25/16

The first sunset was very beautiful with the ball dipping directly into the sea...
We saw the green flash, if you count staring at the sun too long and red mixing with yellow leaving a mark on your retina once the sun has gone down.

Dolphin surfacing

Several pods of dolphin swam alongside us nearly every two hours or so...
The largest pod of 10 had 8 adults and 2 small juveniles.  I sat on the bow in front of the forestay on a little pulpit seat with my legs dangling just above the water and 8 of the dolphins swam in formation just in front of the bow wave only a foot under my toes for a good long while....this was the highlight of the trip for me as it seemed we were communicating and looking at each other as only two similar but different mammal species can do...

Dolphin off Starboard Bow

After taking a turn at the helm we switched to 2 hours shifts where we would steer for 2 hours, navigate/lookout for 2 hours and then go down to sleep for 2 hours.  All three of us hot bunked the V-berth as it was quieter/darker with less vibration from the engine.














I awoke at 10:30 pm for my navigation shift but when I walked up the stairs into the cockpit I had to rub my eyes for a few minutes.  Gale's face was glowing in the dark from the electronic lights of the Garmin GPS and IPAD Navionics display screens.  I looked around into the blackness.  It felt like we were floating in space with no water or horizon line in sight.  The dew had fallen all over the boat making every surface slippery and wet.  The plastic glass on the dodger had fogged up making it nearly impossible to see forward.  I asked Gale what he could see and he said

"Nothing but these screens and the compass.  I can't see anything two feet beyond the cockpit."

It was surreal.  But when I looked up, it took my breath away.  The stars were the most brilliant I had ever seen in my entire life.  The Big Dipper constellation easily pointed to the North Star, but there were dozens of smaller stars within Ursa Major that I had never seen before due to the ambient lights of cities from the mainland.  No light pollution here, nearly 80 miles offshore.  Every constellation jumped out at me with Orion falling Westward into the sea where the sun had been two and a half hours before.  Sirius the dog star and brightest star in the night sky after the planets was leaping after Orion as part of Canis Major.  It really looks like a dog, no doubt!

Jupiter was up in the high South just under Leo (a right triangle and a backwards question mark), my zodiac Constellation nearly overhead!  Wow!  Unbelievable!  It took me 10 minutes to get my eyes adjusted but thousands of stars kept appearing, mesmerizing me until it was time for me to take a plot.  We changed the helm at the bottom of the hour and took plots of latitude and longitude on the paper chart at the top of the hour.  It's a good sailing practice to write down your position in the log book every hour in case the electronics go out, plus it helped us pass the time so that someone was moving around every thirty minutes.

That morning when we were leaving Clearwater the moon had been up with Mars, Saturn and Antares completing a Triangle within the constellation Scorpio.  And here they came up again around 11pm in the East, helping us get our bearings visually in the night sky.  What a grouping it was to behold?  We were so glad the moon was in the phase that it was on this trip as it helped to dispel the fog and clear our horizon lines again so we could see the water.   But that dreamlike state without the moon was something I hope I never forget and get to see again someday.

The next 12 hours are a blur of changing shifts.  Josh didn't get much sleep and was groggy but Gale and I felt pretty good.  We were looking forward to sunrise and when it came we got back into a routine with nearly all three of us in the cockpit eating protein bars, oranges, bananas, summer sausage, sliced cheese, granola and whatever else didn't need to be cooked.

Captain Brian at the helm

Tuesday went very easy as the wind calmed to nothing and seas were only 1-2 feet.  We were visited by a few birds and dolphin, but saw less than 2-3 boats for nearly 24 hours.  We were only 24 miles off Cape San Blas but the horizon was just near flat water with a small swell in all directions.

Capt Brian on the Satphone

I had grown up going to Panama City Beach and Destin every summer since I was a child and dreamed of a day when I would be sailing just offshore, so I was tempted to sail us more north to catch a view of the condos but that would take us directly off our layline so we didn't do it.

Cattle Egret landing on safety line

Josh and I climbed down the ladder into the cool salt water to cool off that afternoon, as it was about 85 degrees and very sunny.  We showered off the back with engine warmed fresh water once the sun was low enough in the sky we didn't think we would sweat anymore.  We topped off the fuel tank again using the secondary  bladder this time, having to clean up a little spill with rags again.  We tried to sail 2 or 3 times, jibing for a few hours which slowed us down so we wouldn't get into Pensacola when it was too dark.

We timed the arrival just right, hitting the Pensacola Bay Channel markers before dawn and then turning into the ICWW at Fort McCree at sunrise.  Plenty of light to see the channel markers.  Strangely three barn swallows flew circles around the sailboat as we neared the channel, finally landing on the safety lines precariously. They looked tired.  One flew at me at the helm and touched my elbow.  A few minutes later I went below and it was dead on the top of the hatchway.  We buried it at sea, wondering what the omen or sacrifice meant....

We had averaged nearly 6 mph so the crossing only took 53 hours, arriving near Pirate's Cove Marina at Arnica Bay just around 8:30 AM Central time on Wednesday morning April 27th.  We had only used the Sat Phone a few times to give our location and get weather information.

Fort McCree Sand dunes

We really enjoyed crossing Big Lagoon and looking at the Sand Dunes.  I'm looking forward to rafting up on the weekends there and letting Shiloh run around the beach.

The homes along the ICWW were more spread out and looked more affordable with nice long docks than what we had seen in Clearwater. I was personally on a spiritual high at the end of the trip, maybe from adrenaline due to lack of sleep but I forced the crew to pop beers regardless of how early it was....

Neil came out in his dinghy and led us through his canal to his slip while Raquel took photos from Harbor Circle point. You can just see the half moon in the picture to the left still in the sky.  It was our guide half the nights, rising later and later...

Our crew of Josh, Captain Brian, & Gale

We made it!  Great sailing with motoring about 2/3's of the way.  The engine ran well, although I had to add a quart of oil about 5:30am as we saw the first red channel mark.  Glad to know the low pressure alarm works. We averaged nearly half a gallon an hour or 12 miles per gallon, which leaves us with enough diesel on board to turn back and make another crossing in reserve.

Josh is wiped out once we hit dry land.
He proceeded to drive 7 hours back to Savannah
to work his construction job on Thursday.

But that's for the next trip.  We hope to leave for Isla Mujeres Mexico this Monday, May 2nd on Neil's 42' sailboat Midnight Sun II.  Cross your fingers that our Cuba Coast Guard application gets approved so we can visit there in June.  Hoping to sail through the Keys mid-June and return to Pensacola later that month.  Raquel and Shiloh are going to house sit here and visit Austin, Texas while I'm on Neil's 42' Hunter sailboat for 6-8 weeks.  Then we'll be looking to get jobs and/or a house/condo somewhere down here.  But that's info for another blog....

Larry, Raquel, Brian, Tracy, Janet & Neil at Pirate's Cove
We had 3 sailboats on P Dock on Lake Lanier but now all have our boats here.

Ides of March Update - Still in Tampa

Apologies for not updating the blog in a long time, but we’ve been spinning our wheels a bit.  We are still in Tampa at Westshore Yacht Club & Marina.  The good news is that the marina and neighborhood is beautiful with a friendly dog park, manicured landscaping with palm trees and our dock neighbors are very friendly.  


Luckily we are on the dock with several live aboard sailors as well as locals that visit their boats regularly, so we have drinks with Scott, Christy, Gale, Mike, Randy, Vince and chats with Perry, Evan, Michael, Looz, Lanny, Matz, Rod, Keith and many more pretty regularly.  

Patrick from Lake Lanier has visited us twice and Neil & Janet also visited.  AJ & George meet us for dinner, lunch and drinks nearly every week and we spent 4 weeks attending AJ & Christy’s bowling league.  So socially we are busy and mostly comfortable.

Nearly everyday we see dolphin or manatees and/or mullet, snook, bass, red tail fish, plus lots of bird life of pelicans, loons, heron, osprey, hawks, blackbirds, egret, etc.  For some reason lots of fish flock to the south sea wall drawing fishermen and birds, and since we walk Shiloh three times a day he gets lots of chances to chase all the above.  He’s learned to spot dolphin but isn’t sure what manatees are since they move so slowly just under the top of the water like their nickname sea cows.

Unfortunately we are still live aboards in a marina instead of cruisers gunk-holing down the “Suncoast.”  Everyone asks when we are leaving but when the departure date moves from December to March, even that question gets a little old.  I once read a book about a couple that cruised the Pacific and was mystified at why it took them 2 years to prepare their boat.  Why so long?  I wondered.  Now I know.  It was very naive to believe we could have the boat ready in 3 months.  Even after the survey inspection by a professional with a list of 116 recommendations, and indexing that list by priority and price into 2 spreadsheets and a workplan, a person can only tackle so many jobs at one time.  (Turns out the surveyor missed the fuel tank and holding tank, two of the biggest reasons I wanted to buy a bigger boat)

For example, Installing the Windlass took over 12 weeks from initially ordering one to the first measurements to replacing a faulty foot switch.  We returned the first one since it was vertical and the motor above deck with a horizontal one with the motor below deck, so two weeks to get the new one from Maxwell through our marine chandlery Island Nautical.  We’ve been working with a boat contractor handy man John from Weathermark Marine. He’s very knowledgeable with experience from bow to stern, so instead of hiring 5 different specialists, he comes over about once a week to help me do projects that are above my pay grade or skillset.

He probably came over 5 times to measure the anchor locker and create/fit the folding fiberglass base for the windlass and then another 3 times to install and run the wiring.  Just the windlass labor has been about >$1,500 which was similar to two quotes I got from a couple other guys.  Since John takes care of 3 other boats and makes other service calls as well as teaches sailing, it’s not like we can do the work 5 days in a row.  In the meantime we either bought or replaced the new holding tank, installed a windex, radar reflectors, new VHF/AIS, ePIRB & Nav Charts(thank Neil & Janet), whisker pole topping lift, sheet jammer, dinghy motor bracket, 3rd battery and battery box, run electrical conduit, new anchor chain/rode/shackles, bow roller, single sideband radio, a new Tablet with Navionics, dry bags/ditch kit, Garmin Bluechip, auto-inflatable life jackets with tethers, chain snubber, cockpit pedestal folding table, flares, inverter, LED light bulbs, cockpit cushions, zincs plus a hundred other items....

Nearly every big job has caused frustration as about 1/3 of the things we buy either have to be returned or don’t fit or are delayed in shipping.... (A $5 bow roller from Wal-Mart was too big so I ordered a $70 custom built one that arrived after two weeks from Hunter Owner's, turn out it was too big too so we had to shave off 1/8 of an inch on each side, now it fits)

The solar panels were identified in November, but a recall was announced so we waited until January to buy a newer version.  They were delivered two weeks late bc the vendor had to create a Paypal account for the first time bc his credit with the manufacturer was denied.  Then the canvas maker was a week late in creating the pockets (so total 2 weeks), then we didn’t wire them in until two weeks after we installed them in the dodger and bimini because we were missing two Y connectors but eventually just used a block connector bc the original vendor was in Mexico on vacation and we waited another week for John to come back once we realized we couldn’t get the part.

The good news is that the 4x50 watt solar panels look and work great, giving us a peak of 9 amps/hr at noon and nearly 30-40 amps a day of charging power to our 3 AGM batteries.  The battery monitor and solar charging controller/remote and displays are humming along at the nav station, and I’m learning how to monitor them.

The Sunday before last we tried to go sailing, but just a mile down the channel, the engine died again with air in the fuel lines.  Luckily AJ and Patrick were on board and we sailed back into the marina having to douse the double reefed mainsail in order to jibe and then coast up to the transient dock.  After bleeding the fuel lines of air and replacing the fuel/water separator filter, I accidentally left the engine raw water sea cock closed (the opposite of the mistake I made when this same problem occurred and hydrolocked the engine and ended up having to replace the fuel injectors) and so we turned around again mid-channel due to high temperature alarm.  We went back to the dock a 2nd time and I changed out the impeller in under 30 minutes.  Then we went sailing.  This is the 2nd time we’ve had trouble with air in the fuel lines and all symptoms point to the fuel tank.  This past week we drained the fuel tank, inspected the pickup lines and dropped the tank off the angle it was on with straps and blocks.  However, it’s impossible to remove the tank without cutting the fiberglass which is too much of a big job since we’ve blown past our budget by double.  I’m hoping to clean the tank and re-install it flat or with a minimal angle and add a 14 gallon fuel bladder that I also purchased as an auxiliary tank that will help keep the original 20 gallon hard plastic tank as topped off as possible.  

On one hand, we are learning and getting used to living on the boat, so the experience is rich.  But living in 250 square feet with a big dog is trying, and we especially miss our friends back in Atlanta.  Raquel went to visit her family in Austin back in mid-January, and ended up staying a month because her mom broke her leg.  It was fortunate that Raquel was able to help her mom and dad, since she was in the hospital and rehabilitation center for a couple weeks.  Looking back Raquel would have preferred to have stayed longer, but I just didn’t have a good estimate for how long these final repairs/upgrades were going to take....The good news is that her mom is home and walking again but still doing physical therapy.

Once the fuel tank issue is resolved, we plan to do a sea trial up to Clearwater.  If all works well then we hope to leave for Naples in a week or so....and then eventually the Keys and Bahamas....always in a week or so...

We may be able to extend the trip into June.  Some good news is that all these delays have given us time to get Serendipity USCG documented as well as get our Customs Decal and SVRS paperwork completed...

The wifi in the Marina is terrible so ironically Raquel almost prefers to go the laundry once a week to just get a reliable internet connection.  She had to return the iPad we bought bc the GPS didn't work, and that was after my tablet died bc it won't take a charge.  Oh well...

Wish us luck!  Please just don’t ask when we are leaving...

P.S. Here's a photo of our neighbor Gale sailing his 36' Beneteau, it's such a beautiful boat and a similar size to ours...one day we'll get a picture of us under full sail but in the meantime, this is close...

A book review of "Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and how it relates to sailboat repairing

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

January 2016 - I just finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM).  It was very appropriate that I started reading it in September.  I had just bought my second sailboat “Serendipity” and the very week I hydro locked the engine and had to replace the diesel fuel injectors, I began reading this book.

It’s sort of an auto-biography about a protagonist (or antagonist) that rides his motorcycle across northwest America from Minnesota to California with his son.  On one hand, he focuses on the scenery of rural towns, farmland and people along his ride as well as the classical techniques used to maintain their motorcycle.  He breaks down the analytical side of our brain used to change the oil, tighten the chain, repair leaks, etc.

     I really feel this is something I need as I’ve been turning a wrench more days than not for the past several months changing the oil on the new sailboat four times already, changing the coolant, bleeding air from the fuel lines, installing pump switches, etc.  

I really never was handy personally.  My twin brother Tom always took the clocks and watches apart to see how they ticked.  When my Dad bought me a wrecked 1985 Ford Mercury Cougar when I was 15, it was Tom in the garage day and night with Dad installing the new radiator, hoses, fender, hood and other parts we had found in the junkyards near Selmer, TN.  Apparently I was too busy at play practice, which is what my Dad told me when he caught me taking credit for rebuilding the car once.

I accidentally left this book on the boat when I returned to Atlanta for the month of November.  In the meantime I read “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman” which is about the Nobel Physics winning teacher Richard Feynman.  It’s also an autobiography which starts out telling how as a young child he took apart radios during the depression era 1930’s and eventually became a college professor.  He’s a practical joker that worked on the Manhattan project, lived briefly in Brazil and was one of the smartest minds of the 20th century.  While he dabbled with meditation especially while floating in isolation tanks and met Ram Dass, he was a scientist and believed in no higher power.  Some similarities with ZAMM.   This book is truly hilarious and I cannot recommend it higher, but I digress.

    

Unlike Tom or Mr. Feynman, I barely get by mechanically.  I have tools but don’t ask me to use them daily. (Raquel’s biggest doubt about this trip is my ability to repair the boat on a regular basis which really hits me at the core.)  But I’m more a Jack of all Trades.  I can fix a toilet or replace a sink cartridge on a leaky faucet, both jobs I’ve had to do on the boat already, but when the going gets serious I usually have to hire a contractor.  The guy I’m using now from Weathermark Marine not only teaches sailing but fixes everything on a boat from A to Z.  Of course he’s my new idol.  Yesterday we installed a new holding tank, toilet vent filter and then put in a double eye splice into the whisker pole topping lift.

  

Anyhow, the ZAMM book slowly describes the difference between classic and romantic types, or objective versus subjective, physical versus mental, etc.  The author talks about Gumption, or the mental fuel required to recharge before tackling a tough job.  We all need to constantly resupply ourselves with gumption no matter the task.  Some people get it flyfishing, or sailing or hunting or knitting (Raquel has started coloring as a creative outlet) but it usually involves some solitary time usually in nature.  Maybe it’s meditation.  (It’s probably not watching TV although I’ve been doing too much of that lately too ;)  

The narrator says you don’t usually find mechanics that are loud mouthed with big egos because of all the small intermittent failures and setbacks that must be experienced when working on something that requires trial by error.  He methodically laid out the Gumption traps such as the Ego trap, where you are over confident and don’t estimate enough time for the job and get fooled into making mistakes.  That happened to me when I bled the wrong nuts on the fuel lines and didn’t close the thru hole of the raw water intake and sucked water into the engine or when I estimated it would only take me 3 months to fix the list of 116 items on the survey inspection report.  Or the Anxiety trap which is when you underestimate your abilities and procrastinate, which is also something I’ve been doing a lot lately too.  At first I thought, this book is gonna be great, just what I need to read about.....

But Motorcycle (or Sailboat) Maintenance isn’t really what the book is about, it’s really about the search for Zen, or Quality as the author calls it.  There’s another character in the book called Phaedrus.  Phaedrus is a ghost.  This book was written around 1972, the same time I was born.  It was published in 1974.  It’s a million plus seller for a reason, but since it’s been out so long if you want to read it go ahead, but I’m about to write about some spoilers here going forward.

Phaedrus went insane searching for Quality.  Quality is the relationship between Physical and Mental, or the spirit or soul.  Phaedrus was a Philosophy and Rhetoric professor and he wanted to do his thesis on something he couldn’t rationally define called Quality. But he was stuck between a rock and hard place because if you can’t rationally define something within “The Church of Reason” then you’re stuck because it could be anything really.  It’s like proving scientifically that God exists.  Impossible because science deals with objects or substance.  Even the mental sciences are immature compared to the hard sciences.  Is there any science that studies the space in between the spaces?  Maybe oriental philosophy or religion, but this science so far is very subjective, just read Ram Dass’s “Be Here Now” or “The Universe in a Single Atom” by the Dalai Lama.  Mr. Feynman’s Quantum Mechanics has a long way to go but that won’t stop me from reading his next three books.

  

I, Brian Liddy, can also relate to this part of ZAMM.  I basically quit my job three years ago in search for Quality.  Not work life balance although surely that helps.  I want to find The ANSWER, you know, to life, the universe, everything.  (Yes I just re-watched the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe as well.)

Like Phaedrus, I’ve visited Gurus in Indian Monasteries, I’ve read the Upanishads, I’ve searched for meaning through yoga, meditation, prayer, contemplation, and given enough practice, these things do work.  But they are hard work, daily grinds with baby steps and minuscule physical results, but that’s not the purpose.  You realize that there’s not a single answer (42), just as there is no single question.  Here’s my favorite quote from Chapter 16 that relates to this search:

“Mountains like these and travelers in the mountains and events that happen to them are found not only in Zen literature but in the tales of every major religion. The allegory of a physical mountain for the spiritual one that stands between each soul and and its goal is an easy and natural one to make. Like those in the valley behind us, most people stand in the sight of the spiritual mountains all their lives and never enter them, being content to listen to others who have been there and thus avoid the hardships. Some travel into the mountains accompanied by experienced guides who know the best and least dangerous routes by which they arrive at their destination. Still others, inexperienced and untrusting, attempt to make their own routes. Few of these are successful, but occasionally some, by sheer will and luck and grace, do make it. Once there they become more aware than any of the others that there's no single or fixed number of routes. There are as many routes as there are souls."

  Phaedrus studies Greek Philosophy and ultimately identifies with Sophists, something I’ve also done diligently on my own for the past several years, purchasing more books than I could read in a lifetime and devouring as many as possible.  I especially like “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius.  But somewhat like St. John of the Cross’ “Dark Night of the Soul” the more you explore the great unknown the darker it gets, the edge of life is a bleeding edge with more and more traps.

  

A year ago I had just spent ~30 days in solitude, reading/writing/sailing/meditating under a vow of silence on my little sailboat on a lake in Georgia.  My gumption tank was overflowing, epiphanies about a new career as a sailing instructor, moving to the coast, getting engaged and changing my lifestyle ensued.   I’m basically living a lifelong dream of cruising to the Bahamas on my new sailboat. But boy oh boy are there so many traps around....(Yesterday I ordered a new galley sink trap after visiting 5 hardware, plumbing and marine part stores, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.)

Now, I don’t think I’m going insane, I hope, but damn is this a good book to read right about now.  As readers we all put ourselves into the mind of the narrator and try to use our own personal life experiences as a reflection to deal with the author’s intended purpose.  Well, Bravo Mr. Robert M. Pirsig, it may have taken me 43 years to read your book, but I definitely wasn’t ready until now.  I had to read “The Alchemist” first, and Thoreau’s “Walden,” and Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha,” and the “Tao de Ching” by Lao Tzu, and Aldous Huxley’s “Perennial Philosophy” (which really blew my mind).  Oh by the way, most of these books as well as 10 others I’ve read are listed in the bibliography as books that Influenced the writing of ZAMM.  It’s complex, I could only read one chapter a night, and many times had to reread them over and over again just to get what he was talking about....It’s the same thing Ken Wilber talks about in “A Brief History of Everything.”  About how we all are evolving to higher levels of consciousness and interconnectivity above the flatlands of science and reason alone.  I’m glad somebody gets it.  In fact, many people get it.  In the Afterward it states that Pirsig wrote a sequel to ZAMM titled “Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals.”  Apparently the author lived on a sailboat and wrote about Phaedrus’s sailing journey down the Hudson River.  Now isn’t that a coincidence?  Or is it Serendipity?

Moving to Tampa - December 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to our first blog update of 2016.  Happy New Year!

It was a busy holiday season for Raquel, Brian & Shiloh.  Our goal was to move out of our house in Atlanta by Thanksgiving and we barely made it.  We hosted a going away party, then had a garage sale where we sold 75% of our furniture and donated a lot of the remaining household goods and clothes in late November.  We had a fun short visit with the Liddy family in Tennessee and then returned to the house to finish moving stuff into storage and getting the house ready to rent.   Thanks to Claire, Vince, Brad, Heidi, Chad, Matt, Miles, Roger, Mike, Alysa and all our Roseclair neighbors for helping us move.  After 9 years in the same house, de-cluttering, purging and cleaning was a little overwhelming especially since we tried to do it without hiring professional movers and made 10+ separate trips using a small trailer and the 4Runner to the Storage Unit in Marietta.  On our last visit we realized our unit was 12 inches too short to house the 1972 Mustang (we had rented a 30’ unit but had to move to a 25’ unit since the lip on the entrance would bottom out the car) so our friend Derek Brown is keeping it safe until hopefully it sells.

Oh, and we also got engaged in November! No firm wedding plans set yet but hoping for something in the fall of 2016 in Austin, Texas as well as possible receptions in Atlanta and Tennessee.

We drove our other two cars to Tampa the first week of December.  Our sailboat Serendipity had spent a month on the “hard” getting a keel crack fixed, the bottom painted, new standing rigging, new VHF antenna, new depth transducer, new batteries, steaming/deck and anchor lights.  

<------(Brian inspects the keel crack repair and new bottom job at the boat yard)

<------------------(Serendipity is splashed after being on the hard for the month of November - putting the mast back up)

We may write a separate blog about all the other boat fixes/upgrades but basically within 24hrs of arriving in Tampa we didn’t have a place to sleep and we had to write a $10K check to get the boat out of the yard, which was probably $4-5K more than originally estimated or expected. Luckily we had a great experience with AirBnB. (our first time with them too!) 

We had another 20 something To-dos to complete before we could go cruising, including buying a new dinghy/motor, installing an electrical windlass, new holding and fuel tanks, a new AIS/VHF receiver, windex, and much much more...

Our friends Neil and Janet Davies, who went cruising to the Bahamas in 2014, have been our inspiration and mentors and have given us lots of advice. While Neil moved his 43’ Hunter sailboat Midnight Sun II from his slip just next to us on P Dock at Lake Lanier in December and was able to start his cruise less than a month later, he later told me he had spent 2 years getting to know his boat systems and upgrading his electronics and fixing a lot of nagging issues in preparation for their 6 month cruise to the Bahamas.  Luckily they invited Brian to spend 3 weeks on their boat to assist in crossing the Gulf Stream and cruise the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas.  Raquel joined the crew for a week at Treasure Bay and we got a small glimpse of the cruising lifestyle realizing then it was the type of vacation we would want to do again soon.

<---------------(Shiloh waits for Brian on his first day at the marina)

Brian had spent only two - 10 day visits in Tampa in September and October prepping Serendipity before it was hauled for bottom job repairs.  While he replaced the fuel injectors on the 27 HP Yanmar 3 cylinder engine as well as the mixing elbow, and replacing fuel/oil filters, oil, coolant, etc.  all these dozen or so minor repairs to the engine and electronics with the help of fellow sailor and master electrician Steve Sohn, this was just not enough time to get the boat ready to start cruising in 2015.

<------------(Our home for the next month or so....The Yacht Club clubhouse in the distance)

(Houston, we need a bigger black water holding tank - this is 10 gal, original was 20 gallon - this fills up in 48 hours while in a marina and must be pumped out - look for future update on the SMELL War of which there have been dozens of battles won and lost)------------------------------------>

Brian’s brother John and his family were to meet us in Key West for NYE but fortunately he booked refundable flights.  Ironically they are now on a cruise to Mexico/Belize which might be ultimately cheaper.  We made our plans to meet the Ojedas in Naples on Christmas, but drove our car instead of the boat.

We have been sailing in Tampa bay on the weekends, testing/tuning the rigging with our friends AJ, Josh & Emily and Mark & Kat Ojeda and their kids Henry & Molly.  Serendipity sails well and is fast even in light breeze.  The bay is treacherous with underwater rocks, broken pilings, wrecks and lots of sandbars less at than 2 feet at low tide.  We draw 4.5 feet with our wing keel and our marina is well north in the bay several miles up a commercial shipping channel.  We’ve already had to dodge freighters under sail where the channel narrows with shallows on either side which is a little more stressful sailing than when we were on the lake. 

<-------(AJ & Brian after sailing at our favorite local restaurant Hula Bay, which is about 500 yards from our slip)

We’ve replaced about half the standing rigging and getting adjusted to how the lines run to the cockpit.  The jib winches are a little too far forward and the wheel is a little too wide for the helmsman to easily handle the jib sheets as our previous boat so it will take a little getting used to....

We definitely miss our mainsail stackpack and lazy jacks as the dutchman system isn’t working as well as it should....every time we sail we say “add it to the list” of something we want to change or upgrade.

Our marina Westshore Yacht Club is very beautiful and a little high class.  They decorated the Palm trees and Club house with beautiful Christmas lights.  Luckily we are on floating docks but we have to keep Shiloh on leash to walk him about 300 yards each trip for him to do his business. We’re all fortunate that there is a big green space very close in the posh neighborhood plus a dog park about a quarter mile away within the gated community.  

<----There’s also a dog beach at Picnic Park about 2 miles away.  It has been difficult for him since when he’s on the boat there’s hardly any room for him to walk around so we try to get him (and us) some exercise, even playing chuck it on the hurricane concrete seawall.  Keeping him washed and groomed is also a high priority to keep the boat smelling fresh too.

The idea that Raquel and our dog Shiloh could acclimate to the boat in a few weeks and everything be ready for immediate cruising in December was really naive.

Raquel makes trips to the laundry once a week to get some alone time and use their Wifi.  We are not sure what is worse, a marina with weak Wifi or no Wifi.  With about 30-40 items to purchase for the boat, it makes it hard to shop online for sure.

One serendipitous item was that after one day on the boat the St. Pete boatshow started and we conveniently---> received free tickets from our chandlery vendor Island Nautical.  There were dozens of seminars called “First Time Cruising” or “Cruising the Bahamas” or “Docking and Anchoring for Two” that were perfect for both of us to witness to learn from some professional sailors and prepare us for the trip.  We spent two days heads down attending these very educational instructional type classes taking dozens of pages of notes, realizing what a daunting amount of preparation is required for this trip we are about to undertake.  Funny thing is we only spent about 20 minutes touring the new sailboats as it just wasn’t even practical to look at a new boat when we already have a “new” sailboat to us even though it is 20 years old.

Our nightly routine is to watch the sunset from our stern perch seats behind the cockpit, but more to keep the flock of about 10,000 blackbirds or fish crows from landing on our mast every evening when they return to the little island just northwest of the marina.  The surreal swirling of so many birds makes the Hitchcock movie “The Birds” look like a kindergarten play.  We strum the backstay or fire of a pop gun because their bombs of purple berry shit really stains the deck.  One highlight is that when hundreds of birds flap their wings only a few dozen feet overhead you can hear it vibrate in the wind in a way never experienced before.....the murmur movement is like starlings and makes the sunsets even more memorable.

The high temperatures have been in the mid to upper 80s with high humidity, setting record highs for Tampa 8 days in a row in late December.  Thank goodness the air conditioning on the boat works, as well as the refrigerator, but it makes us wonder what we’ll do once we plan on being at anchor more nights than not....We hope to anchor out a few times over the next couple of weekends once the windlass is installed and give Raquel some more practice steering the boat.

So we will take a few more weeks to finish repairs and upgrades and see when we can leave to cruise the "Suncoast" down to Sarasota then Ft Meyers and eventually Naples, Marco Island and the Keys.