Taking a Bite Out of the Anchor

Current location is central Florida, at my parents hacienda

I don't know the exact definition or origin of the term "swallow the anchor" but, here is my working definition. Maybe an example would be better. In any marina you'll find a starry eye'd new boat owner prepping and dreaming of fair away exotic locations and the dream of oceanic horizons. Over a period of time, the full definition of BOAT (break out another thousand) starts to sink in and the strain of digging up deep roots starts to weigh. Suddenly storm clouds start to appear on that oceanic horizon. Many times, a wife will start out being supportive, but then realize the irrationality that grips men with boats. Suddenly all weekends are consumed by boat related activities, weekday evenings are spent perusing World Cruising Routes and cataloging years worth of Cruising World. At some point support turns to concern, concern turns to strife and pretty soon a For Sale sign is hung from the bow pulpit. Then someone like me will stride on by and say "Well looks like Jim swallowed the anchor." Get it?

Swallowing the anchor can take many forms. When someone comes home from sea, sells the boat or eases into the life of a land lubber, your getting close to digesting a Danforth. Now take my new (to me) car. This is a sure sign of dust and dirt versus sea salt starting to cling to me. I have not swallowed the anchor yet, but I took a bite out of it. This is fine and on the agenda. At some point all sailors swallow the anchor, but the encouraging thing for me is, I am young enough to yak that anchor back up and head to sea again.

So, I have a special shout out to my dad who did all the leg work for me. Just kind of unfolded this way. I am now the proud owner of a green 2001 Honda Accord with 64,500 miles. Beautiful. I've named it the "Green Manalishi (with the two-pronged-crown)" which is a cultural reference. I have a penchant for naming things, such as my Honda generator is "Big Red" and my old Nissan truck was named the "Silver Bullet." As an aside, I learned yesterday that the "Silver Bullet" has now been re-named the "Puddle Jumper." I have no beef.

I rented a car yesterday and made the four hour drive to my parents house to pick up my car and visit for a day or two. Back to work for me on Wednesday evening followed by a visit from the lovely Janina on Thursday. And according the weather folks the temperatures in Naples will be back in the high 70's by weeks end. Should be a great week indeed.

In the HD video department I am working on a 2009 Video compilation. But this time, I am learning how to create the video soundtrack in Apple Garageband software. The learning curve is a bit steep and it will take time to learn the program. This is another fine example of how starting a sail blog has lead me to develop interests and enthusiasm in unrelated topics. That's how I roll.

Capt Chris

PS: Please don't forget to check out my pictures in My Picasa photo album and to keep up with the latest word you can sign up using my RSS feed. I use Google Reader and love that I can aggregate in one spot all the websites I check out on a regular basis. A real time saver.

Unedited Video I shot while in Luperon Dominican Republic

Moored Naples Florida
Weather is really cold, below freezing this morning



Enjoy the video. I continue to compile pictures and video from this passed falls sail north. Don't forget to surf on over to My Youtube Channel where I now have 70 videos.

Occasionally I change the picture atop the blog. This latest picture was my last sunset observed sailing north. I landed in Naples the very next morning. It was a bit cold, but the colors were different than what you normally see further south. I like the picture, hope you do to.

Please don't forget to check out my picture in Picasa and to keep up with the latest word you can sign up with the RSS feed. I use Google Reader and love that I can aggregate in one spot all the websites I check out on a regular basis. A real time saver.

Capt Chris

Crisp but Beautiful

Moored Naples Florida

The chilly grip of Mother Nature abated slightly over the passed 24 hours, but another front will cause temps to dip this weekend. Just this morning I stuck my head out the hatch just after sunrise to greet the day. It was so beautiful I snapped this picture to prove it.

 Occasionally I change the picture atop the blog. This latest picture was my last sunset observed sailing north. I landed in Naples the very next morning. It was a bit cold, but the colors were different than what you normally see further south. I like the picture, hope you do to.

Please don't forget to check out my picture in Picasa and to keep up with the latest word you can sign up with the RSS feed. I use Google Reader.

Thanks for stopping by!

Capt Chris

Shot Video Clip from St Thomas USVI

Moored at the dock, Naples Florida
Partly cloudy, maybe 40 degree's

I shot a fair amount of video clips this passed fall while northbound from Grenada. I've started to put together the smaller clips and post them on My Youtube Channel. And here is a clip from Honeymoon Beach.



Capt Chris

Today's Picture

Moored Naples Florida
It's Cold! 56 with a biting north wind

I know all the norther folks just can't come to grips when someone in Florida says, "man it's cold." But it is! Tonight in Naples the predicted low is 34 degree's. BURRRRR...SHIVER SHIVER. But aboard the Christa, we are well used to cold weather after grunting through two winters on Cape Cod.  I have this little electric space heater that keeps things nice and toasty aboard ship. The advantage of having such a small vessel is it's easy to heat. I can claim it is cold here in Florida, because when it gets as cold as it is up north, that really is no longer a cold, it is plain bitter. So up north bitter, down south cold. Fair enough?

I took this picture just the other day while peddling to work. I find the canals very charming. And love the fact I'm living on one. Life is stellar and look forwarding to sustaining the trend.

Aloha,

Capt Chris

Happy New Year and Welcome to a New Decade

Moored Naples Florida
Partly Cloudy, low 70's

 Well how things change in a year. A year ago this day I was in St. John USVI, just hangin with Janina and getting ready to push down island. I have covered a lot of blue water since then and am quite happy how things have gone over the passed year.

 It has been almost 3 years since I have lived aboard Christa plugged into a dock. It's everything I remember and more. At first blush you wouldn't think living on the hook or a mooring would be all that different than living at the dock. And for some boats it makes little difference. But for Christa and me it is a big deal. In terms of comfort, the boat is much drier and I am able to keep some order below. When your on the move, it becomes an exercise in constantly stowing gear and then re-deploying gear, sail covers have to come off and the result, at least for me, it seems a constant state of dishevel.

Here is a news flash. I had to buy a little ceramic heater! I've never lived in Florida before, but it has been colder than I had expected. I mean on my sail from Marathon to Naples, I was in full foul weather gear. I looked like the Gorton's Fisherman. With the chill in the air and me using the heater, the interior has dried out completely. I had become so accustomed being damp I hardly noticed, of course until things dried out. I'm already noticing these land lubber habits.

 On another sailing note. I am writing an article for Latitude38 that I hope they may publish. I spent years preparing and reading to go sailing around the planet. But after two and half years I learned a great deal and decided to stop sailing and alter my original intention. It is complicated as to why I have changed my plans. My point being is my strong opinion that most sailing mags don't seem to convey well long term cruising. Maybe it's just me. But many many people, like me set out with grandiose plans and don not fulfill them for many different reasons. Magazines are in the business of selling magazines and don't like to write about the rigors of long term cruising. And when they do, the starry eye'd sailor glosses right over the bad parts and focuses on sandy beaches and calm palm fringed anchorages. It is only natural. So I am working on putting that together.

I do my best to try and explain in word, video and photos what is going on with me. When I first starting blogging more than 3 years ago I had no one reading what I was blogging about. I remember months going by and noting the only one clicking on my blog was me! This set the notion in my mind that the blogs main purpose is to document what I am doing for my own personal consumption to be consumed when I'm old and grey or bald. It has been great fun thus far. So as I cast around and try and figure out what is "blog worthy" or not, please be patient. I have watched closely what the folks from Bumfuzzle have done and consider Ali and Pat to be modern day pioneers in terms of blogging and just sheer adventure. They leap from the ocean to terra firma, in a series of disconnected adventures but always seem to retain readership. Not that I expect to do anything close to what they are doing. But who know's? Being a full time college student in middle age may be interesting. Being an expeditor at a restaurant has surely been interesting. So with that here are two pictures I took on my way to work for New Year's Eve. Can you stand it? It is only two blocks on the bike and I am in the restaurant. The neighborhood is gorgeous with huge mansions, well tended lawns and spotlights illuminating coconut palms.

Looking east.....

Looking west...beach at the outskirts of the picture.

Hope everyone is well!

Capt Chris

PS: On an unrelated technical note. For Mac users buy the Apple Magic Mouse. This gizmo is amazing.

A Total Wirlwind of Activity, Pleasure and Progress

Moored Starboard Side too, Naples Florida

Where does all my good fortune come from? I certainly seem to be a lucky guy and this week has kept the trend moving forward. First off, my social calendar has gone from zero to sixty rapidly. With my friends Mike and Amy (owners of the dock I'm using) here, my good bud John visiting his mother, Emily, Amy and John's daughter on scene, Mike and Cheryl here after just buying a condo Naples and Mike Durrand (lots of Mike's no doubt) visiting M & C and then me parachuting into the mix. Well lots of visiting to do. It has been grand.

In between visits, I have been aggressively seeking work. I put in applications at Bad Ass Coffee Company, Book a Million, three Starbucks and two West Marines. And another coffee shop in downtown Naples. It this last application I need to brief you all on.

I sweep on in and ask Alison for a job. She tells me a story I have heard several times before. That she can't find enough hours for her current employee's. But she says maybe I should go next door to Ridgeway Bar and Grill and put in an application. The two places are owned by the same man, Tony Ridgeway and Allison is his daughter. So I head on over and notice straightaway that this restaurant like all others on 3rd Street Naples would be considered high end. You see I'm in a little bubble here. A bubble surrounded by opulence. Shrimp Cocktails for $18.95 type of opulence. So I filled out an application for server, of which I have no experience. I roll.

 A couple of hours later while shopping with my bud John and his mother for Lazy Boys, I get a call. It's Tony Ridgeway, the man himself. He wants me to come on down to the restaurant for an interview. He has a position open for Expeditor that needs an immediate fill as someone had just quite. I arrive and we have a great, crisp, professional and 15 minute interview. He offers me the job and I except. Boom just like that.

72 hours prior I hadn't a clue what an Expeditor did, but now I am one and with two shifts under my belt and having been thrown squarely into the breach and I can now explain. Apparently, it is maybe the most important job in the whole place. An Expo works in the kitchen and coordinates the timing of all the food. The Expo orchestrates when the chef's "fire" the meals so everything comes out hot and on the heals of the soap and salad. Collects the food in the window, gets it on the tray, wipes the dishes free of finger prints and sends it out via a "runner." The expo does more, but don't want to bore everyone with all the details.

Here is what I want to say. I was a busboy as a teenager, but that is the extent of my restaurant experience. So why was I hired? Well, I was able to explain to the owner that surprisingly much of what I did and learned in the Coast Guard will translate well to the Expo position. All I really did was coordinate, sometimes under much stress and strain; that each new position I had in the Coast Guard I really was not trained for, but Coasties have an ability to figure things out and are comfortable with confusion. In short I can deal with a sink or swim situation. The processes in the kitchen are structured and once I figure out the structure and once I can identify one meal from the next, I'll do fine. Tony agreed.

I am working 7 days a week from about 5pm to 10pm, at least for now. Really 30 to 40 hours a week and the restaurant is maybe two blocks from Christa's dock. Beautiful, I just peddle a bike to work. With unemployment being so high, I feel lucky to have scored a job in 3 days since arriving. And so far, I have found the job fun and very busy. It takes a lot of concentration and being 3 steps ahead at all times.

Where does all this good luck come from? Not sure, but keep it coming!

Capt Chris

PS: Below is a shot looking toward the beach from outside the restaurant.

My Winter Home, Naples Florida

Moored Starboard Side too, Naples Florida
Partly cloudy, high 70's

My sail from Marathon to Naples surely was one of the most trying sails I've had in my life. Total distance was just over 100 nm and I was hard on the wind or close reaching for the entire distance, rail down in 20 knots plus. Westsail's are very tough boats indeed and I am thankful, once again that I spent the money and time to oversize the rigging and care for the boats systems. The strain on the rig is immense during trips like the one I just had. Florida Bay, of which I just covered is not open ocean, but it churns up a steep chop that is very difficult, especially for such a wide beam, as Christa has. In order to keep the boat moving through a steep chop, I must carry maximum sail area, if not each wave will just serve to stop Christa in her tracks. This means being over canvased, which means the boat is out of balance, which means the windvane struggles to keep Christa on track. This results in more wandering back and forth which adds to the amount of distance and time one must pound into the weather. Such was the case. Why go? Did I violate my rule of waiting for appropriate weather? I went because I very much wanted to get to my destination prior to Christmas and with the weather pattern, I would have spent another two weeks, maybe more in Marathon. And I did violate my weather rule, but not exceedingly.

Christa, in her normal fashion took very good care of me. I have become a better sailor since I left in 2007 and can make her sail to windward when needed. The problem is, it takes a lot of work to keep her moving. To explain: The wind is not perfectly consistant. Sometimes the wind would plus up and I'd be moving at 6.5 to 6.8 knots.....to fast....to much pounding. I head up on deck and reef the main..or or strike the jib and raise the staysail. With things dialed in....maybe a few minutes later, the wind would ease just enough where the steep chop would take over and we'd be moving at 3.5 knots or sometimes we'd hit just 1 knot. No good. I'd crack on more sail, keep things situated and lay down. This cycle lasted the entire trip. This results in zero sleep. I perservered despite the cold and constant spray and by 6am, I was getting some relief due to the proximity of land. I was truly bolstered with the imagery of beautiful Naples and the safe and secure dock floating around my tired knoggin. As the sun was rising in the east I was entering Gordon's Pass into Naples. Things kind of unraveled at this point.

I was very very tired, not just sleep wise, but physically, hands tore up, back hurting, just running low. Speaking of low, just as I was making my last turn under power into the canal, no more than two hundred yards from my final destination, I ran aground. This was not totally unexpected, but demoralizing in the extreme. I back off the bank and back into the intercoastal waterway.

You see all of Naples is hellishly shallow, an inch outside the channel and you may run aground in your bass tracker. None of the charts are accurate, shoaling is occuring all the time and the dredge is always sucking up mud some where locally. I was considering the fact I may not be able to get to the dock at all. I had taken a turn to negative town, in fact I checked into N town and lobbied the mayor and ran aground again. I backed out and headed to the town marina to get situated and ran aground off the town dock. Lovely. I eventually made it onto a mooring, after nearly grounding in the mooring field.

John Gamble to the rescue. My buddy John who is down here for the holidays, hopped into a boat and came over to Christa at the mooring to get a game plan together and generally talk me off the ledge.  We rallied. We simply started sounding out the channel and found one. Old school style, we lined the stern up on a big ole mansion, pointed the bow toward a boat on a lift, came within 5 feet of the boat, came starboard and stayed close in to the breakwater and finally turned into Mike and Amy's canal. Game on! We watched a movie waiting for the tide to rise to maximum, retrieved Christa and motored on in with tow feet under the keel to spare. Beautiful.

Thankful, happy, relieved, overjoyed. These are words that spring to mind after a long and deep sleep last night. I'm back in the saddle.

This concludes my active sailing for awhile and my life now takes a turn. I really hope that you all, the blog readers will continue to check in with me as I re-direct my life. I plan on getting a job, but also I have all kinds of projects on the boat planned and this will be relevant for boat people.

A special shout out to Mike and Amy for allowing me to tie up to their beautiful spot and plug into the world. And to my bud John, who once again came through when moral was low. And the readers of the blog. With all the information to digest, the shear number of blogs, I still marvel at the fact anyone stops by mine, let alone reads it regularly. Thank you!

Capt Chris

Rolling to Naples

On a mooring Boot Key Harbor, Marathon Florida Keys

I have the best weather window I can see for sometime and so I think I'll take it. The temperatures are down right cold for Florida. I don't want to belly ache about it to much. But when your sailing with temps in the low 60's with a biting 20 knot northeast wind and salt spray, it can get cold. I should be close reaching for the 90 miles to Naples and hope to arrive at the entrance to Naples harbor by sunrise tomorrow. If I chicken out, I'll let you know!

Capt Chris

Galliot Cut to Sampson Cay Video

On a mooring, Boot Key Harbor, Marathon Florida Keys


Man is it cold! Only in the 60's here in the keys. Burrr. So here is my latest video editing effort. I need to put in a disclaimer. The videos I post only show, generally optimal sailing conditions. I do not shoot video during the bad times, hard on the wind, cabin a disaster, spray flying all over the place, smell of fuel, mold in the bread ect ect. This is kind of a shame in that it gives a false impression of what sailing long term is really like. Who wants to see some sweaty dude humping 5 gallon water jugs all over the place? Or the distress when your buying yet another can of Vienna Sausages for dinner. There are aspects that can't be captured, but only experienced. For all the budding cruisers, I recommend racheting down the bliss factor a notch or two.

Enjoy!

Capt Chris

PS: You'll notice in the center of the video, a glare or some kind of a blob. Well I dropped the Flip Video camera and cracked the lens. The the crack is impacting some of the quality. Sorry bout that.