The Adventure Continues

2014

The adventure continues – what to do after the Great Loop? 

Why not Continue Cruising!

After just over three months, Erben Renewal is underway once again.  The months on land have flown by with maintenance for the boat and our bodies.  Among other upgrades and fixes, Erben Renewal sports new pilot house doors to replace our warped originals and Steve is rehabbing his repaired (better than new) shoulder.  Steve had booked our master boat builder/carpenter, Kent, to craft the new solid teak doors and a few hatch repairs so Kent began work almost immediately; however, due to the exceptionally cold and long winter season the finishing work stretched into months rather than a few weeks.  Come to find out a good finish cannot be rushed! These beauties have been worth the wait and we are grateful to Kent for his high standard of craftsmanship.

Ice!

While Kent was working on the boat, Steve was working on getting his torn rotator cuff repaired and rehabbed.  Fortunately, this was only a lateral tear not a more serious detached tendon, so he has made quick progress allowing us to get back underway ahead of schedule. He still has to be careful about how much weight he lifts which was handy for him while we were moving……

Ah yes, moving.  We decided there was no benefit and a lot of bother connected with keeping our rental house – where we had to pay bills monthly and beg friends, like Patti and Tommy, to monitor the yard service, and other mechanical functions. (It is sadly not good for our stuff to be unairconditioned in a Florida summer.) So, we made the decision to store what we wanted, and give away or sell what we didn’t. While this sounds easy – Julia managed to make it her life’s work for most of the three months to sort, pack, sell, and organize our treasures.  We rented several storage units where Steve and our good friend Jim puzzle-packed every corner in three dimensions on the final push.  Needless to say the spaces are full to the rafters and a few extras moved onto the boat. With Steve in a sling most of the move, we could not have accomplished this without help of the magic mover men from Two Men and a Truck. Robert and Anthony were not only smart and strong, they were cheerful! In addition, we could never have finished without the help of a multitude of friends, especially Tommy and Ken. Our “home” is now on the water as we have become fulltime cruisers. (Did I mention that the final return move to the boat coincided with an afternoon downpour – damp does not adequately describe the condition of our supplies.)

Unfortunately we also had some unexpected fixes on the boat that complicated our departure. It was very nice that we still had the house while all the routine and unexpected repairs trashed the boat. That cold winter weather that delayed the new doors also included several hard freezes and snow – very atypical for Panama City – which revealed some rot and leaks in our pulpit. Now for those not so nautical types – the pulpit is the hunk of boat that sticks out in front and from which the anchors descend.  It might be easy to imagine how disastrous it would be for this piece to fall off from rotten wood under the fiberglass. (Julia, as the one who most often hangs off the pulpit to wash the anchor and chair, was eager to see it in tiptop shape.)   So, there was no option but to do the repairs immediately.  These repairs, as often happens, turned out to be more extensive than they appeared on first glance which further delayed our getting the boat back in the marina so we could move out of the house.  As a result we had a few extra days in the rental house – mostly looking at emptiness – while Kent again saved the day with his repairs – which again took a lot of management oversight by Steve. Since Kent is a master boat builder and furniture carpenter his skills are in high demand. Those who hang around and help out tend to get their projects finished more quickly. Kent is a treasure and sadly not a young man, so we feel very lucky to have enjoyed his help this season. Finding his skill set is getting harder and harder as men like Kent retire completely (instead of like Kent just cut back a little.) Furthermore, we are indebted to Tommy who helped Steve with the demolition and reinstall of the pulpit and its assorted mechanics i.e. the winch, etc.  (Happy to say it is all working perfectly!)

We ladies like to have a strong pulpit!

With all the moving and repairs buttoned up we were lucky to have a couple of days in St Andrews Marina to sort, stuff and clean the boat getting ready for the gulf crossing. As a hint of the chaos, a bottle of pricey balsamic vinegar managed to disappear for five days before surfacing among the computer ink cartridges? No idea how that happened, but the recovery does signal progress on the big clean out!

Leaving Panama City required help once again from Jim to return friend Tommy’s truck which he graciously loaned us while we were in town. Jim and Leah decided to ride along for a beautiful calm cruise up the GICW to the free dock at White City just east of the cut to Port St. Joe. (We would have offered a ride to all the folks to whom we are indebted, but some of them have jobs which require they show up for work.) This park dock is hopping with fishermen on weekends, but it was deserted on a Wednesday evening. The dock however, made an easy place for Andrew, Jim and Leah’s son, to pick them up. (This 6 hour cruise was a mere hour and half drive from Panama City) Hopefully Jim and Leah will be able to join us again to enjoy our cruising life.

Next we planned to stop behind Dog Island which is a few miles off Carrabelle, FL and a good jumping off point for the crossing to Tarpon Springs.  We had some excitement coming out of the Apalachicola River. The channel markers seemed to be leading us into shallow water – which was aggravated by the GPS going out about that time as well.  Just as Steve was searching for the channel with the Ipad GPS and charts, the Coast Guard notice to mariners broadcast informed us that “Surprise, Surprise” all those channel markers we were following are off station!  It would have been nice to have heard that announcement on previous day’s broadcast.  Fortunately master captain Steve got us through – bless that Ipad back up – and around the dredge operating in the area and probably the reason all the markers were off station and we putted on to Dog Island with less excitement. 

However, our day was not finished. As we were approaching the anchorage, we saw a sailboat anchored there and a couple on the beach.  Closer inspection by eagle-eyed Steve revealed their frantic waves and quick thinking Steve spied a dink adrift offshore.  So we retrieved their dink and Steve picked them up from the beach none to soon as Sam, the captain of the sailboat, had tried to swim for the dink before it drifted out too far. He was frozen and in need of dry clothes and hot beverages.  They graciously invited us over where we enjoyed hospitality and a tour of their beautiful Catalina 36. The fraternity of mariners is packed with interesting and generous people – one of the primary reasons this life is so addictive.

Glad to report our 22 hour gulf crossing was smooth and lacking in all excitement – we both got some sleep although not in the usual chunks and are safely anchored behind Anclote Key off Tarpon Springs.  Such non-exciting moments are to be treasured since the gulf can be a nasty place when the weather kicks up. Current plans for the rest of the year are only in rough notes, so stay tuned and we will report in now and then on our whereabouts in case you want to find or join us.

P.S. happily both cats seem to have seamlessly returned to the boating life with no complaints or concerns. Life is good – back in shorts, T-shirts and flip flops!