Overdue Update

Well it’s been a long time since we updated our blog. We’ve been very remiss but since we’ve been out recently we ought to update this.

 

We had a great start to the year going back for a family wedding in the UK. My sisters daughter Sam and her husband Mes had a really fantastic send off and we were really delighted to be there and see the whole family once more as well.

 

Devin attended a engine maintenance course at Mack Boring in New Jersey for 5 days. It was fantastic to strip down 3 version of my engine, reassemble them and have them actually start! This course gives us the confidence to approach more than simple maintenance on our own engine and if absolutely necessary to actually repair it. Liz is enrolled in a Spanish course and learning  a great deal and is now exercising in Spanish as well (counting off reps).

 

This memorial weekend we had organized an SSCA anchor away weekend. We have organized several in the past and felt it was time for another. The venue was to be Anclote Key, north of were we are and a good 8-9 hours from our dock. The night before leaving we were going to get out and anchor by Pinellas point to get a head start. Unfortunately when I got back from a business trip the thunder and lightening were all over Tampa Bay. It rained really hard for several hours with cloud to ground/sea lightening, so we gave up on the idea. So it was we got up bright and early on Friday morning. As is customary the wind blew from the direction we were heading for a good part of the day or not at all, so we mostly motor sailed our way there. We arrived just after lunch and settled in.

 

The first evening was a very pleasant evening on Dulces Suenos and comfortable night’s sleep. The next few days were exploring Anclote Key state park and lighthouse as well as relaxing on the sand bar and cooling off in the nice clear waters. We enjoyed several days with LouAnne and Lyman as company. Nights were very calm and days hot and sunny, food and company were excellent.

 

The wind was forecast to back on Monday was were were due to leave. Of course this meant we would have wind on the nose all the way down the gulf of Mexico. Oh what fun! We got up at first light, and waited for visibility to improve a little. The wind was as forecast from the SW and blowing pretty well, unfortunately we had an incoming tide too. This makes the pass to the Gulf pretty rough with steep waves. We motored out and turned south. We were close hauled and not making great speed so we motor sailed under stay sail and reefed main so lessen the time on the large waves which were 4-6 feet by now with the wind building to 20-25 knots.

 

Once inside Pass A Grille, some 4 hours later, we were starting to calm down considerably. We came under Structure E and the Skyway and put out our Jib only and managed to sail all the way back to our slip at 5-6 knots with a following wind. At last a nice sail to finish our trip.

 

Moosetracks has some nice new anchor gear: Rocna 73lb anchor, 3/8” Chain and 200 ft of new rode and it was all fantastic for holding. I also replaced the down tube in the forepeak at it was badly worn. I must admit spending 2 weekends in the forepeak is not fun in 90+ degrees, but very necessary. We now have really strong ground tackle and can sleep soundly.

 

We don’t have many trips planned as we used our vacation this year in the UK, however we do have plans for a thanksgiving trip with Laissez Faire and Priority.

 

So it’s back to work for us. We also have some more jobs on Moosetracks with canvas repair and varnishing being high on our list. All we need now is exotic places !!

 

Fair Winds to everyone.

Spring Vacation

We planned our Spring vacation to be on Moosetracks and much like a snail we took our home with us on this trip. Unlike before this trip we had nothing really to take to the boat as living aboard it's all already on. We planned a week only this year as we have several commitments during 2011 and need to keep a little vacation in hand. So it was we left Friday night May6th for Fort Myers Beach (FMB) and the mooring field there. We had a good start sailing down Tampa bay, but all wind died as soon as we got out in the Gulf of Mexico. So we motored most of the night. In the morning we the wind picked up and we managed a good 8 hours of sailing to reach FMB by midday. We had 3 nights there on a mooring and did the usual things like bus rides to shops, a few bar visits and visiting other boats as they passed through.

Shrimp

The next stop was Pelican bay on Cayo Costa, unfortunately the wind was not having it and we motored the whole way. We planned 3 nights there and were happy to find the usual peace and quiet of the nature reserve ashore and in the anchorage. We enjoyed my birthday celebration here and would like to thank everyone for their cards, email, text and facebook well wishes, much appreciated. Devin managed to catch 3 trout whilst we were there but they all went back due to being under sized for a sandwich. We did find this large shrimp hiding in our dingy one morning and now know why they are such good bait, they are huge and look delicious!

We planned the last stop at Longboat key. We had a gorgeous sail from Cayo Costa to the entrance of Longboat key and had a blast with Moosetracks topping off at 7+knots for a good while as the wind picked up. We stayed 2 nights and again visited a few boats and chilled out.

Longboat Birds

Still a kid at heart

We also had a great 3 day weekend when Memorial day rolled around. We decided on going down to the Manatee river and chilling out on the hook near the state parks. We causally mentioned it to friends and when we got there 3 other friends boats were near us. We had a early visit from Oliver and CC who had brought their boat and Jet ski down. We have not seen Oliver for a while and it was great fun to catch up with them. Then we caught up with our dock neighbors; Scott, Jada and Victoria on their Morgan 51 then Rick and Katrina on Kokomo both out for the weekend to sail.

Emerson Point Park

Now we have settled back nicely into Moosetracks and are enjoying the extra social life that being on a dock provides. It's amazing how few people you interact with living in a house versus a boat. Also being in downtown St Petersburg is very exciting and gives us a lot to do. We have enjoyed movies in the park and seen a concert from the anchorage off the town parks as well as the open markets on Saturdays. The to-do list for Moosetracks is also picking up now we are aboard. We have noticed our fridge running a lot so an immediate project is to beef up the insulation and install the new speed controller and thermostat controls. Next we have to cover the boat and look at cooling the interior for the upcoming summer. The list of upgrades/jobs also includes adding a new wind generator, re-finishing the teak toe rails, installing new ground tackle and then new canvas on the bimini and dodger.


Fair Winds to all.
Devin & Liz.

Living Aboard

We have sold our house and moved aboard. It was extremely fast as we were only listed for a week and had 4 offers. We agreed 11th March as closing and the pressure was on.

Our first task was to get a new home for Moosetracks. We made a short list of our preferred marinas and rang round to see availability. To our surprise and delight the first 3 marinas all had vacant slips to suit Moosetracks. We visited all three to check out facilities and the actual slips. We chose the St Petersburg Municipal Marina as it was a great location, great slip on the West Dock and nice facilities.  Some good friends Al and Francis had just left this slip and recommended it to.

So all went well the weekend before and we filled a POD with our furniture we want to keep for later and moved out of the house and onto the boat. Now that's a lot of stuff to fit into 45 feet!

The week of closing was hectic with the usual stuff but all went well and we are now closed.

Moosetracks in her new slip

We have been going to work from the boat for a week now and apart from forgetting towels going to and from the shower it seems to be settling in just fine.

Our neighbors all introduced themselves and seem to be a great bunch. It is very quite around here though between 6-7am when we leave for work. The first weekend seems to have picked up a bit more with lots more owners visiting their boats.

Sun Rise at our slip

It's a very nice view as you can see, with open water out to the sea walls. We have not had much waves or surge and the weekend traffic seems pretty slow inside the harbor.


Parking here seems to be working out, but with the St Pete grand prix coming up I'm sure we'll have more challenging parking very soon.


There are also great walks around the marina and the surrounding downtown areas.






Fair Winds to all Devin & Liz.

We had an anchor away this weekend with the SSCA and lots of folks joined us. Roughly 11 boats, with some coming and going so it's always difficult to count. We had 18 people in our cockpit on Saturday night, definitely a record for Moosetracks. We had dinner on our boat and it was a real blast, SSCA folks are so diverse and have so much to talk about with lot of combined experience to listen too.

Sunday we had breakfast ashore at one of the shelters on the north side and again turn out was great and we had hours of talking and sharing stories. We walked off the carb's for a hour or so afterward and boy that was needed. Sunday night we all had happy hour on Wakea hosted by Ralph & Barbara, again turn out was great and the conversation lasted past sunset. We all retired early after lots of libations and still dry mouths from talking all night.


Monday some of us stayed on to enjoy a farewell breakfast and celebrate presidents day. Steven and Joy even came over by car to share their news, they are leaving for Puerto Rico on Friday! They intend to leave Ocean Angel in the Caribbean on the hard for a few summers but cruise in the winters. The weekend ended fantastically with 15-20 knot winds out of the South for a downwind run home for everyone, great to get some real nice sunny & windy days.

We have a slip in St Petersburg Municipal Marina from March 1st. We got a slip just vacated by our friends Al and Francis as they left for the Atlantic Rally last month. Everything seems to be falling into place, fingers crossed for us.

Fair Winds

Christmas & New Year '11

Well I am just adding this as a place holder to update the January Blog when I get a chance. We had a great Christmas aboard Moosetracks down in St Petersburg in the North Basin. We had some great walks around downtown and enjoyed meeting some nice folks. We had to leave on the Sunday after Christmas to get back to work, and boy did it throw us out! We had winds 25-35 knots and dragged anchor at 5:30am, thankfully I had set an anchor alarm so we knew it was happening. We got home motoring all the way, just too difficult in narrow channels and gusting so frequently. Tom and Tug ran out to help with lines as we tied up to the dock in 30+ knots.

New Year we went to the last party with Hendy and Ingrid and all our friends from our old neighborhood. Hendy and Ingrid are moving to their new home in Barbados in the next year so it was their last party in Stag Thicket lane. It has been a great run for them of 30 years of New Years parties and we had been to the last 12.

Well we are truly back at work and wishing we were sailing instead.

Fair Winds and Calm Seas.

Thanksgiving '10

We have had a very busy few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. It started with meeting lots of friends at the SSCA West coast GAM in Punta Gorda. A very informative session of several talks and presentations followed by a lovely evening meal. We thoroughly enjoyed the day. It was a real treat to also see so many friends returning this year. Then a few weeks later we were at the SSCA Annual GAM in Melbourne. Again lots of folks from St Petersburg drove across and we all had a great time. Liz and I especially enjoyed dinner with Chris & Anne of s/v Mr Mac and Steve & Lynn of s/v Celebration. We all had dinner together on Friday night whilst Liz and I enjoyed hearing all their stories of their first year cruising. Boy what a steep learning curve it sounded like but they are all looking fantastically relaxed and extremely happy.

May Vacation

Hello Everyone,

A much needed vacation was in order after such a difficult year so far. Liz and I had hoped to go to the Dry Tortugas again this year with a similar itinerary to last year. Unfortunately as most of the world heard the BP oil spill in the Gulf was threatening the Florida coastline and we didn't want that in Moosetracks engine intake or plastered all over the hull not to mention the smell of the stuff if it got all around us. Now the possibility was not great but why take risks, prudent mariners avoid such things.