L-l-livin' th-th-the D-d-d-dream

We have SO got to get out of here!

...I betcha Milwaukee didn't have a snowstorm on Saturday.

We hired another boat yard to take care of our repair/upgrade list.  To that end, we had to do a bit of shopping, which is the only reason we were out and about in this (we don't even own clothing for this kind of weather anymore).

It wasn't all bad, though.  We did start of the day with donuts and coffee at Carlson's Donuts and Thai Kitchen--not kidding.

I never had a potato donut before...interesting concept, weird texture.  Jane reports that her apple fritter was the best one she's ever had.

The big news is that we made our first passage yesterday.  On our own, in our boat, we made the nearly 10 (statute) mile trip from our Marina on the South River to the Hartge's Yacht Yard on Tenthouse Creek.  And I'm happy to report that it was technically hitch free.  It was rather ironic having to navigate our way to the yacht yard where our gps will be installed.  One of us was sure we could manage it by going from buoy to buoy as listed on a paper chart.  The other one of us was sure that that was a recipe for disaster.  Not that we wouldn't get here eventually, but that it would be dark and even colder and we would be divorce court ready by the time we did.  We were just about to purchase a hand-held gps unit for over $500 when One of Us had an inspiration: There must be an app for that.  And sure enough, thanks to our $9.99 Navionics chart plotter and gps program for Android, it was smooth "sailing" (with only 1.9 knots at best, raising the sails would have been pointless) all the way.

On top of this victory, we managed to dock--at pilings, no less--on the first try, partly thanks to a guy who saw us coming in from his boat and ran to grab one of our lines.  Either we look amateurish even from afar, or else sailors are always just there to help. (The Slacks tell us it's the latter.)  So there we were, basking in the glory of our fledgling competence when no more than two minutes after I shut down the engines, a good quart of fuel spewed out of a through-hull in the starboard engine compartment (I'd wondered where that through-hull went to.)  I felt a little foolish opening the hatch and jumping down to see what was wrong as I was sure I wouldn't know what to look for once I got there.  But in fact I did figure it out...at least I think so.  A hose had come unclamped and the fuel was trickling out of it.  Given that it stopped gushing out of the through hull after an initial burst, I suspect it was a connection in the fuel return line (not its technical name).  I reclamped the hose, but now we have about a pint of diesel in our engine compartment bilge and the fuel system will need to be bled.  But, hey, we're in a boat yard.  No problem, well, not for me--this time.

And for our crowning achievement, we figured out how to use the propane grill.  That is to say, we figured out how to load a can of propane and get it to light.  Steak for dinner as our, may I say, well-deserved reward.

Yesterday's tiny taste of cruising has gotten us more excited about getting underway than ever.  I'm pretty sure we won't last much past Friday in these here parts.

Snow in the Forecast

STILL in Annapolis...

Thanks to a combination of our reliance on the professionalism of the technician recommended to us by our broker, and his complete lack of same, we have spent nearly two weeks here and have yet to get any work done on our boat.  This now includes a new nav system, as we have decided to upgrade the one installed on Joy when we bought her.  The other items on our list have been either imposed on us by our insurance company or (a far shorter list) are things that will either make life aboard more good (like an hdtv antenna) or less bad (like a deck pump out for the holding tank--use your imagination--on second thought, don't).  However, the longer we are here in the cold, the shorter that list becomes.

At the recommendation of another cruiser (Cap, we'll let you know how it went), we have made an appointment with a different firm and we are scheduled to arrive at their yard on Sunday, sans GPS.  Well, not exactly--there is an app for that, of course.  They predict it will take two weeks to make all the repairs/upgrades we've requested.  Jane is determined to be on our way by Friday (her birthday), however, so we'll see what we end up with.  Really, as long as we have a navigational system, we can get to a boatyard further south to complete our list.

Jane getting the transom ready for "Joy"

We, did make some progress on other fronts today.  We got the name and hailing port on on the transom and the name on the starboard side.  The port side will have to wait until tomorrow as it plans to rain and/or snow today.

Kudos to Jane who pointed out that had we still been on our original schedule, we'd still be in Milwaukee, where it is colder, mostly, dreading the oncoming winter.  So all in all, this is still an upgrade in our lives (a sentiment I could enthuse more sincerely if I weren't typing with cold fingers despite sitting near our beloved space heater, which, incidentally, we cannot crank all the way up because it cuts the circuit.)

Ah, but it wouldn't be an adventure if everything went right.


More news...and hopefully joy...to follow.

Sailing One-oh-whatever

[Update: This post was actually written by Ean, although Jane's picture would lead you to believe otherwise.]  So we've been on our boat, our new home, our seaworthy vessel for nearly a week now.  We've pretty much figured out where our migraine strength Excedrin should go and our warm weather clothes and our cold weather gear and even the cat scratching post.  All in all, we've gone a long way into settling into our new home.

Tommy, Sail Away Catamarans

Just one major thing left to do...operate our home which is, after all, a boat.

We confess, we hadn't once turned on the engines because, despite my four-day diesel mechanics course, we were, truth be told, afraid of them.  We hadn't done a vhf check, hadn't run the generator, hadn't even raised the sails.  In short, hadn't treated the boat like a boat...until today.

Enter our awesome broker and now also equally awesome instructor, Tommy Smith of Sail Away Catamarans.      Awesome because he spent four hours with us today teaching us about the particulars of our sails and the lazy  jacks/bag that they are set in, and about our rigging (our spreader lights are really tractor headlights--who new?!) and then we took "Joy" out for a spin.

Fast forward three hours...

Boat Show(s)

We are back in Annapolis for the boat show.  Attending shortly after buying our boat was a decision we bandied about quite a bit, actually.  Would we feel we'd been too hasty in buying the one we did?  Would we come down with a case of  the dreaded "two-foot syndrome?"  Would we lose all restraint and spend untold sums on pretty things  for our baby?  On the other hand, if we weren't interested in any of the above, why go at all?  We did go, of course, because it's the largest boat show in the country and it's simply the thing to do.

On the upside, we did manage to escape without spending a cent...except for the ball cap that I bought because I pessimistically expected fouler weather and my bald pate was suffering for my presumption. I am now the somewhat sunburnt owner of an official Annapolis Boat Show ball cap with integrated cap clip.  Had it not been for that simple bit of brilliance, I would've regretted the twenty bucks I shelled out for it, but as a devotee of good design, seeing it (along with the opportunity to kick myself for not coming up with the idea), was well worth the money.

Days Without Joy

I am watching the premiere of Pan Am while Ean snores beside me. We have had a long, hard day, doing what we have now acknowledged is "packing." How crazy. Our time here is so short. Our new home waits for us in Annapolis.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Timeline, REVISED

Our original "cast off" date was February 1, 2012. We set this date when we went to Strictly Sail Chicago. At the time, it seemed quite reasonable - and now that we have blown that plan out of the water, I am remembering, somewhat wistfully, just how reasonable it was. In the original plan, we were going to start "shopping to buy" during the Annapolis boat show, in early October. But then we got tripped up on Shiraz. Shiraz felt right. We thought about it, talked about it, envisioned ourselves on board. The reasons to wait couldn't hold up to the attractions of making the leap. Now, mid-leap, we are feeling the stress of our new, greatly compressed timeline.... Our revised cast off date is... let's say October Twenty-Something.... It is, of course our STUFF that will hold us back. Gotta get rid of our STUFF.

As I type, we are in the air, jetting towards Annapolis and Joy. We are boat owners today.

A Sign from the Universe

My mom called this morning, and I picked up on the first ring.  "Why are you answering your phone?!" she asked.  When I don't answer the phone (a more frequent occurrence) she leaves me a voice mail: "Why aren't you answering your phone?"

Anyway.  I'm close to the phone, I explained, because we're buying a boat TOMORROW, and we're still coordinating last minute details with documentation agent, insurance guy, banks, etc.  Her response is to worry about hurricanes and wonder about my horoscope.  I checked Maria (one more time) - Maria is a category 1 hurricane, heading up and away from the east coast.  No problem.  I resisted the temptation to check my horoscope.  Nonsense.  I don't need any signs from the universe.  But then, apparently, the universe wanted to have its say.  We had Chinese delivered for lunch, and here is my "fortune":

A fortuitous fortune cookie message

Wire transfers: check.  Boat insurance: check.  USCG documentation application and other paperwork: check.  Boarding passes for tomorrow morning: check.  Bags packed: ...not quite...

Put to the Test

We continually remark now upon how fast the time to our departure is whizzing by. Yet, there are standout days in this blur of time and yesterday was one such: our boat's survey and sea trial.

Rene is showing Gale the radar display.

First off, a shout out to all the boat buyers who raved about Gale Browning from Hartoft Marine Survey Ltd. She was as much of a stickler for detail as you said she'd be which was especially important to we newbies. All in all, she spent over seven hours on (soon to be) our 42 ft. catamaran.

Since the current owners were on hand, they worked with Gail, revving engines, unfurling sails, and generally exposing their boat's innermost parts to inspection. At first, I tried to peer over her shoulder to learn whatever I could, but soon gave up as I really couldn't make anything from her actions. Jane, feeling, as usual, the magnetic pull of the water, gravitated toward the bow, and Tommy, our broker, seeing that there were plenty of hands to handle whatever Gail needed hung back, always at the ready in case he was needed.

Something undignified about a boat out of water...

The good (and expected on everyone's part, I think) news was that she checked out quite well, overall. The few items on the "essential" list are all ABYC recommendations and all things an insurer will want verification of.

The final negotiations with her current owners will happen in the next few days and by midmonth she'll be our "JOY".

...As one might imagine, seeing as she is currently docked in Annapolis, we are keeping a VERY close eye, as it were, on Katia.

Buying a Boat?

It seems we are buying a boat.... After a few days of suspenseful back-and-forth, the sellers have accepted our offer. The boat is a 1993 Fountaine-Pajot Venezia, a 42 footer that has just completed a circumnavigation. We met the owners, and visited their boat, during our last trip to Annapolis. Love, love, love it. Not because it's sexy. Instead, it seems homey, settled-in. She is an old gal who has been well-loved and cared for, and she's kept her people safe and comfortable for ten years. Soon, we hope, she will do the same for us. Much more to say about Joy, but for now we are wide-eyed, shell-shocked, and mostly speechless.

Now, We Are Here

Jane's sister, Linnea, and her husband, Peter, happened to be heading off for a "weekend" getaway on the same day as us.  They reached their destination while we were only a few hours into our drive and sent us a picture with the caption, "We are here" Meaning both, "we have arrived" and "we are in this location."  I took a snapshot of a nondescript piece of highway 80 east in all its cloudy antiglory and texted her back with the same caption, but only half the meaning.  "How sad."  Came the reply text a few moments later.  "Yes," Jane and I agreed.  It is sad--for now.  Linnea laid down the pictoral gauntlet, but I knew who'd get the last shot in.  And so we did.  Here it is.

It is impossible to say if one of us loves the idea of this more than the other, but we come to it from different frames of reference, of course.  For me, this is an adventure, an odyssey; for Jane, there is some of that, to be sure, but it is also a homecoming.  Love her sense of herself as an educator though she may, she is nowhere more in her element than aboard a vessel underway.

Jane in her natural habitat
among the sails
looking  out  "to sea'

I don't belong anywhere in particular which gives me the freedom to go anywhere I want.  Ironically, Jane is not so free; she belongs on the water, belongs to the sea and it has ever been calling her back home. Who would have imagined that we could have bumped into a lifestyle that could dovetail our dreams so perfectly.  How serendipitous (though I think Jane would attribute it to the workings of a sometimes benevolent universe).  Either way, oh, fortunate we that my wanderlust and her homing instinct should find such amicable company.

Jane and Ean on Windsong

Tuesday, Oh Six Hundred

Looking out from Pier 7 Marina, Edgewater, MD

We are aboard Wingsong.  Jane slept like...well...Jane; I barely slept at all. Which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned - I get more waking hours aboard and I've enjoyed every minute of them so far, even the ones during which I thought I'd lost my brand new, uber-cool bolle marine sunglasses. And we are still onshore!

 Here are a few things we have learned about the cruising lifestyle:

1. Heads, as they are known, are noisy, very noisy.
2. Space is even more limited in practice than in theory.
3. When drying your clothes ondeck, turn colored items inside out if you don't want them to be bleached by the sun (no, this one we did not learn from our own experience, but from that of our "next-door" neighbors, Renee and Steve aboard Shiraz who have spent the last 10 years circumnavigating.  As an aside, their extremely tricked-out FP Venezia also happens to be for sale).
4. This one is more a matter of re-learning: If you like bugs, turn on all your salon lights.  We have LOTS of bugs on the bridge now, many of them deceased since last night.

Captain Rich will be by in a few hours.  We set sail around 10:00.  On a sad note, the Blue Angels, for undisclosed reasons, canceled their flyover.  So, now our itinerary is to follow the wind and the currents.  Details to follow.

Sitting here, in the cockpit, in shorts and a T-shirt, admittedly only playing "yachties," it seems pretty unlikely that we'll be able to wait until the end of hurricane season to buy our boat.  But it is the prudent thing to do and perhaps when we are back in Milwaukee, a little distanced from all that we counting down for, it will be a bit more--just enough more--tolerable.  ...we'll see.

Road Trip!

We're on our way to Annapolis for a two-day charter on a 38' Lagoon that just happens to be for sale. What joy!

It is Commissioning Week at USNA - bizarre that this bit of my ancient history is popping up on our way to the imminent future. Twenty-four years - to the day - after I sat with my family in the grass on Hospital Point, watching the Blue Angels air show, we will sit on a catamaran, out in Severn Bay, Ean and I, and watch another air show.

Rich the broker will be our captain. We will sleep on the boat on Monday night, and then he'll join us and we'll be out and about for Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll stay on the boat (docked) on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, regrettably, we return to the Midwest. Instead of going straight home we'll drive directly to Madison, where we're signed up for a three-day Hoofers sailing course that will lead to ASA 101 certification.

We're thrilled to be taking such concrete, positive steps towards the Boat Trip - but all these sailing-related plans and activities remind us that we have A LOT to do before we can "cast off." (The nautical metaphors are really hard to avoid, we find.). Preparing our house for sale and getting my prelims and proposal done are tops on the list.

But let's not worry about that just now. Now, we will enjoy our road tripping and our sailing.

The Good, the Bad, and the Broker

Wow, we've been back from our trip to Annapolis for nearly a week already. And what a successful trip it was!  Although, it was touch and go at first.   Bobby, the broker we came to see, the broker who knew we were coming, took us onto exactly 3 boats: 2 FP Liparis and one FP Mahe-all docked in his agency's marina.  One of the Liparis we couldn't even get into.  When we asked him to make a phone call so that we could--on our own-- see a boat that was similar to the kind we were thinking of buying, he demurred, saying that it was all the way on the Eastern Shore.  Because, after all, we'd only flown 660 miles, why on earth would we want to drive 20 or so.

Drinking at a Provocative Hour

Very exciting.  On our way to Annapolis.  Now we're in the air between Boston and BWI.  At Boston-Logan, lucky us, there was a Legal Seafood.  A little early for lunch, but we had been up and on our way since 5 a.m., so we figured we were due.  We camped out in front until the nice lady pulled open the restaurant gate at exactly 11 a.m.  We chatted with Gate Lady while we waited to be seated, and then ordered a half-bottle of sauvig. blanc, along with some clam chowder and shrimp cocktail.  Yum yum and yum.  When Gate Lady walked by our table, she smiled and said, "Looks like you're having fun!" It took us a moment to realize that she was commenting on our Drinking at a Provocative Hour (DPH).  Just like at Green Turtle Club, we had NO IDEA that we were DPH.  As Ean noted though: without yesterday's Daylight Saving "spring ahead" and today's jump from Central to Eastern, we would be sipping our wine at 9 a.m.  My goodness.  Time is a social construction, and in OUR reality, it was definitely Wine Time.

A Trip to Annapolis

We have made reservations for a quick trip to Annapolis during UW's spring break.  We are using reward points for car and flight, and choice points for our stay at the Quality Inn.  A bit ironic to be shopping for a $200K boat while money-less.  But the estate settlement is on track, as far as we can tell.

Our favorite broker Bobby will have two days to show us around, get us on to as many cats as possible, and educate us about the boat buying process.  If we trust him, we'll sign an agreement with him to be our buyer's broker.  On the Cruisers Forum, I have read a lot of negative crap about brokers, but especially for inexperienced buyers like us, it seems quite foolish to turn down expert help.  Yes, of course there are slimy, dishonest brokers.  Yes, of course brokers are looking out for their own interests.  But if Bobby helps us buy a great boat, that's win-win, right?

Last time I talked with Bobby, since we were talking about the Annapolis trip, I finally owned up to having a bit of history in Annapolis.  Ha... unexpected.  I occasionally enjoy playing the "Naval Academy" card.  Just like Mrs. Pollifax, I find it satisfying to be "unexpected."