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.

Report on Sail from Exumas to Key Largo

On a Mooring, Boot Key Harbor, Florida Keys


I was analyzing my charts a few days before my intended departure from the Bahamas and discovered a channel, called the Decca Channel, that runs due west right from Sampson Cay. To explain: The standard trek to and from Florida, toward the Exumas is via Nassau. Kind of pain and out of way if your just in transit. So I was most excited to find that the Decca Channel was a viable option. The graphic below gives you a satellite view of my route.

As per usual weather analysis was key prior to departure and especially in this instance as I needed to slip in between two cold fronts. I was concerned about this trip as I was in the grips of "channel fever", having nothing to do with the Decca Channel. Channel fever is well known to Naval types. After a long cruise, the desire to get home makes the preceding 48 hours prior to arrival very difficult. Bad things can happen while in the grips of the fever. I wanted to get to Florida before the arrival of a series of cold fronts that would have meant extra time in the Bahamas. I know what some of you are thinking, poor baby has to spend time in the Bahamas. Somebody get me my buppbee. But you simply can't argue with my feelings.

A cold front had just passed the northern Bahamas and was due to lift the morning of my departure, with some easing of the northeast wind. So consult the chart above. Sampson Cay departure forecast was east north east at 15 knots and "gusty." Near the NW Channel and north, the wind was 20 to 30 knots out of the northeast. Yikes! But it would take me 24 hours to reach the NW Channel and by the then the forecast was for easing rapidly of the wind. These computer models are pretty accurate within 48 hours, but even an hour or two screw up could mean a terrible pounding for me.

I had made the decision to roll at 3am. But then.....my friends from SV Woofie came tooling into Sampson Cay on their beautiful and phat Lagoon 41. It was like a condo! Anyway, it was such a delight to spend an evening with Mark and Nina. We had spent Christmas together my first year out in 2007. I was terribly tempted to stay and hang out with Woofie. But I have "the fever."

I did not get much sleep, maybe 4 hours tops before I left the next morning for the 48 hour sail. I was like a pilot on instrument take off, I couldn't see a thing. No moon and pitch black. I just followed my electronic charts out the cut and onto the banks. By day break I was in the Decca Channel and under sail. By noon, I had entered the Tongue of the Ocean and make the turn to the northwest. The wind picked up. I was under a double reefed main and staysail in 20 knots plus with a due east direction. We sailed just fine under these conditions, however I was unable get any rest during the afternoon as hoped for.

By nightfall I was getting tired and the wind had continued to tick up and come more from the east north east. Yup, the cold front was lifting a little slower than the models had predicted. To hedge against this, I made sure I stayed as far east as possible, so in case I became headed I  had some room to fall off. Very thankful I did this because that is exactly what i did. Around the west end of New Providence, the conditions were miserable and so was I. The sea was still running high from the 20 to 30 knots of NE breeze and now I had lost the protection of the Exuma Bank and the island of New Providence itself. On top of the weather I had multiple ships, tankers and cruise ships to deal with. Thank god for my AIS system. Thing works like a champ.

The misery really only lasted for 2 to 3 hours. As I neared the NW channel, I could continue to put the wind and seas closer to the beam and quarter and slowly the wind was finally easing. It was now close to 2 am and some sleep would have been nice. But no, the NW Channel is the entrance to the Bahamian Banks, and as such has reefs I either side with little margin for error. I needed to be on my navigational game.  Once through the cut and on the banks, I'd have plenty of room and I also could simply anchor on the banks itself. By 3 am I had made it safely onto the banks and exhaustion was upon me. It had been 24 hours since I had departed, and only 4 hours of sleep within the past 48 hours. Livin the dream. I dropped the staysail, sheeted in the main and hove to and went to sleep.

I awoke with a start at 9am, bright sunshine, light wind on an emerald sea. With the banks only 8 to 10 feet as far as the eye can see, it literally lows;  I was back in the saddle. While coffee was brewing I got Christa underway again and pointed in the correct direction, south of west for South Riding Ride. By nightfall, the wind was going very light and I was now making under 4 knots. I fired up 51 horses of Yanmar and entered the Florida Strait and the eastern edge of the Gulf Stream. Another very long night, with traffic and wind coming and going. But thankfully and as predicted the Gulf Stream was very tame. The GS can be a very nasty and dangerous place.

At sunrise, I was still fighting the 3 knot current, but was so close to my destination. I still had the fever and was blessed again with a beautiful southern Florida day. I had my anchor down by 11 am, just south of Key Largo. I slept and slept some more.

That brings all hands up to date!

Capt Chris

The Dingy Ride in the Exumas

On a mooring Boot Harbor Key, Florida Keys



Capt Chris

Home of the Brave

On a mooring Boot Harbor Key, Marathon Florida Keys
Click on the link to check the Live webcam! http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/index.aspx?NID=600
Sailed 43 nautical miles yesterday

  I was chatting with my mom yesterday, trying to explain exactly how happy, relieved and excited I was to finally be stepping ashore back in the United States. She urged that I write up a blurb about it. Not easy to do, because I'm not sure, but figured I'd flush out my feelings as I write. I'll try and  remain objective.

 The simplest reasons about my excitement are I will be able to see my peeps, friends and family, and not have to dash off and gather up the boat and move on to another port of call. Another reason is my excitement in opening another chapter in my life (college, back to San Fran) is overriding my diminishing enthusiasm for reaching another island. More on that in a moment.  Up until recently I really had not been doing any real open ocean sailing. But since leaving Grenada, I finally had a chance to do some longer legs and on balance love the longer trips. Strip everything else away, and I truly love the actual sailing, trade wind beam or broad reaching sailing. Many times I was whooping it up on deck, all by myself as Christa was trimmed, on her feet and moving at 6.5 knots. Like I said before, there really is nothing like it, a boat being powered only by the wind. With the backdrop of difficult times, the moments of trade wind sailing were that much more intense. However, in the overall picture, at least for me, these times were few and far between.

I have no idea what the statistics are, but word around the campfire is few Americans travel overseas. I understand why, but do think that is a shame. It is a fact that beauty is all over the world. But also, America is crammed with beauty itself. But, what I have learned is when you travel outside the United States, you gain a frame of reference, a context which gives you an entirely different level of appreciation. You learn or are reminded of exactly how good we have it in America. It is fitting to explore this now, given the level of economic uncertainty gripping the US. When I compare the conditions to say Marathon Florida to the islands I have just came from, all I can say is it is stark. I was thinking about this last night, walking back to the boat. The utility poles here in the Keys are as stout as supports for the Golden Gate Bridge, with wire bundled properly and the symmetry of the system is pleasing. Now, Luperon Dominican Republic loses power every single day of the year and further more, the times are unpredictable and no one knows why this occurs. St John USVI, a US possession, has similar issues with power, but to a lesser degree. In my two months on that island I'd look from my anchorage and see a darkened island periodically. These are small examples and comparsions. Now, today we have some paranoid Americans who say this could happen in the United States. At least in the near term that is BS. Americans would not stand for it. We get impatient standing in a fast food line.

There is a concept called American exceptionalism. The President in a speech recently made reference to said concept. The first to touch on the concept was the observant Alexis de Tocqueville. I give it my full throated endorsement. It generally means that America is a special place and we have a special spot among nations. This is not to assume we have a lock on every great idea, that we should kick other nations around, but a fair review of history proves America has been a power house of progress. I bring this up, because I found myself defending America and her ideals many times, sometimes against attack from Americans themselves. Recently while in a taxi in Mayaguana the Bahamian driver, who spent every available moment trying to extract every penny in my pocket, simply stated to me that times were tough but he was expecting money from America soon. What? I shouldn't have, but couldn't let it go. I said to him, that's funny because I was waiting for the Bahamians to deposit money in my account. He was speechless. He finally said that was impossible, America is rich and Bahamians are poor. Just as some Americans lack perspective because of the bubble we live in, he lacks context because he lives on an island with 260 other people, but has a big ole satellite dish. How could he not arrive at such a conclusion? I gently pointed out that car we were driving in was invented by an American, the phone on his hip and even the electricity that flows all can be traced back to America. And that America's wealth doesn't arrive out of thin air. We had a culture class.

And that is just my point. I love my American culture. I love that you can get what you want, pretty much when you want. While, many people complain about the lack of customer service these days, lack of personal attention, America simply delivers. Down island you'll get plenty of personal attention, plenty of run around but delivery is always in question. While I may not like the prices of some things here in America, at least the prices are always published. Down island, many times you have to haggle, the attitude of extracting maximum coinage and the undercurrent of the feeling that your always ripping off the locals. And of course you are, because your a rich person from America. In many places, especially in the poorer nations, they can't even make change. And some places use that as a tactic to maximize profit. Many cruiser will scoof at this and say, well that is there culture. Fine. I'll take my American culture everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. This is not to imply at all that I don't feel pangs of sympathy when confronted with such abject poverty and no prospects of upward mobility. But it is my opinion that it is a lack of their own exceptinalism rather than America's demonstrated exceptionalism that keeps them from rising.

So with my new found appreciation for the Home of the Brave, I will endeavor to prevent my appreciation from slipping and when it does, maybe another sailing trip may to in the offing. I'll see you in traffic, where I have lost my appreciation for how maddening that little aspect of modern day America is.


Capt Chris

PS: Still one more 90 mile stretch to Naples, but two cold fronts are moving toward me. Doesn't look like I have a chance to move at least of until the 22nd. Also I have tons of video footage that I need to compile so be on the lookout. And, I still need to report on my sail from the Exumas! So much to do!

Florida Keys

Anchored Tavenier Key, Just South of Key Largo
Distance covered since Exumas, 283 nautical Miles

Thrilled to be back in the United States! It has been over two years since Christa has swished through her home waters. The sail from the Exumas was not an easy one. I'll have a full report in a day or two. Tomorrow will be another sunrise anchor detail. I intend on a 45 nm sail down the Hawk Channel, inside the reef to Marathon, where I'll hunker down and see what is what and who is who.

Capt Chris

Goodbye Bahamas, Hello United States

Getting Ready to Haul the Anchor from Sampson Cay, Bahamas

Its 2:40 am...nuff said. Next time you see us, hopefully Christa and I will be in south Florida. Wish us luck on this big and important push west. Meanwhile, I leave you with a picture from yesterday's dingy exploring adventure around Sampson Cay. Pretty nice! Beats melting snow windshield wiper fluid any day.

Capt Chris