by miami | Mar 19, 2014
Shelly has painted the Japanese symbols for Yume on the throw cushion we keep on the lifeline. She is practicing for painting it on the transom!
It is hard to believe we have been tied to this mooring ball for almost three weeks. The days fly by and we make jokes about how busy we are. And now we are getting short. We have less than 10 days before we leave. We are not sure why we are leaving or where we are going but we know it is time.
Softball three days a week, walking Goose twice a day, scraping and sanding the hull, and sewing all the new canvas are just a few of the things that take so much time.
Life is perfect though.
Shelly stepped right back into her awesome sewing skills without a hitch, and turned out the mizzen sail cover in a day. The main sail stack pack will take a bit longer but is coming along.
The new mizzen sail cover!
The other big project is stripping all the old paint off the hull, taking it back to the gelcoat, sanding with 320, 600 and even higher wet/dry paper, buffing and waxing. What a difference it makes! But it is a LOT of work…
You can see the old white paint vs the gelcoat even before the buffing and waxing. It will look nice when done.
Shelly got the first coat on our name on the transom yesterday. The front that came through last night has us waiting for the wind to die down before we can continue that task.
I got the guitar out and hit a couple of local places for the jam nights and we have made some new cruising friends. We met Paul and Linda on the catamaran Blind Faith and had a couple of fun nights with them before they took off for the Bahamas a few days ago. We were a wee bit jealous watching them leave the harbor and wish them fair winds.
Ryan continues to impress the local population with his softball and internet skills and all the retires have all adopted him.
This image of our two Exide 4d batteries is for our friend Bill who has the same boat in Texas and helps with advice. These poor batts are history I am afraid, as they have been abused both before we got here and since. We ran the generator 8 hours yesterday with an equalization charge, and the specific gravity barely budged. New batteries are going to run us $450-600 for 4 big golf cart batteries with as much amp hours as we can get.
The next big expense is replacing the refrigeration system. The old 110v Crosby compressor and the two holding plates, although working, are old technology and can be run much more efficiently, quietly, with much less hassle using a 12 volt compressor and evaporator plates.
Whether we can accomplish that before heading back north is yet to be seen.
Here is a question for you. How would your life be different if you had to replace all the water you used in your house in two 6 gallon jerry jugs. We do.
The requisite setting sun pic!
And as always Goose is (im)patiently waiting for you to show up here in paradise!
by miami | Mar 7, 2014
If you enjoy our blog posts, please send it to a friend and let them see it too? Thanks!
It is harder to post now, as we are sort of settled in and it feels like nothing is happening. We have our routine now for Boot Key. Work on computers from 0630 to 0830 or so. We run the generator during this time, make some breakfast, and start the day.
In with Goose by 0900 or so, fill the water jugs to bring back to the boat, and off to work at a friends if there are thindpgs to do. Otherwise it is softball, or some other activity, then back to the boat for chores and tasks. By 1600 Goose is looking longingly at the shore so it is back in (with the water jugs), maybe the shower gear if we feel grungy enough, check for mail, and back out to the boat. Pull up the dinghy (to stop growth on the bottom and protect it from theft), start the genny for the night charge and run the refrigeration plus hot water heaters think about dinner and make a rum to watch the sun go down. Couple more hours on the computers and it is time to turn in and read.
Life is good.
We keep on working on Yume. Slowly but surely (after all why hurry?) tasks get completed. We have been experimenting with gel coat colors to match the hull as we scrape off the old nasty paint.
Shelly has 6-8 coats of varnish on almost all the outside teak, and has started on the inside.
The smell from the heads finally reached the overwhelming point and I removed the aft black water (waste) tank and found the original vent hose kinked which would surely cause the smell. Now with a nice clean tank, new lines and vent hose all is well.
We ordered all the canvas for the boat yesterday and can't wait to start sewing new sail covers, bike bags, awnings, and other misc stuff in blue – to match that pretty paint Shelly is working on.
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday is softball at the park with Ryan being the youngest (by about 40 years!) and me being second youngest. These guys know how to play ball and it is a ton of fun.
This weekend is the Seafood Festival here in Marathon. It is supposed to be the 2nd largest in the US. They are setting it up right where we walk Goose… So we will run over in the morning and let you know how the Florida lobsters are. Hehe
Although this pic shows how beautiful it is at sunset, yesterday was quite different.
Last cold front came though about 4pm with huge, black, ominous looking clouds and a sharp drop in temperature. The winds and rain howled all last night and we were grateful to be on a mooring and not worrying about dragging an anchor. There are parts of awnings in the trash from vendors who set up for the festival yesterday, didn't listen to the weather and came back today to find their awnings blown all the way across the field.
Today it is still blowing fairly hard out of the NW but is forecast to clock to the NE for the festival tomorrow.
Today we cleaned out some lockers that holds the winter clothes. It feels funny to hold long sleeve shirts, turtlenecks, sweaters and long johns, but we know we will need them sometime somewhere.
Right now we only use shorts, tshirts and flip flops! And that is the news from Yume!
Gooser says come play on the skateboard park!
by miami | Feb 27, 2014
Yesterday we motored under the old abandoned bascule bridge that leads into the busiest harbor in the keys, dropped anchor and realized the fulfillment of the last of our “commitments”.
But first, we left you in Islamorada waiting for the nautical two day flea market. It was cool, and we spent some money on little stuff, including $5 for a knee board for Ryan. We pulled him behind the dinghy with our 15hp Yamaha and he was up on his fourth try looking like a pro!
Sunday we had a beautiful sail 15 miles to Fiesta Key, about 24 miles northeast of Marathon. This is a funny little place with a RV campground on a very small key with everything from families living in tents to three hundred thousand dollar motorhomes. As we pulled in, there was loquacious “dj” in a small bar with too much microphone power and a few too many beers. We were the only sailboat there and felt quite special.
Yesterday morning (after the Goose run), we heaved in the anchor (stepped on the electrical capstan switch and brought in the chain and barnacle anchor) and set a course through the crab pots for the Channel 5 bridge.
This 65 ft bridge is one of the few places we can move from the bay side of the keys to the ocean side. At 8am, with no wind at all we motored a few miles offshore to fishing grounds, dragging a couple of lures just for grins.
The water was so absolutely clear, from the bow we watched everything on the bottom all the way to 80+ feet deep! It was beautiful! After dragging the lures around a lighthouse on one of the reefs, we had to get a move on as we were scheduled to attempt a fairly shallow canal at high tide to tie up behind a friend’s house if possible.
Right after we had seen flying fish go flying (yes they really do fly!) across the water, Shelly pointed to one of the fishing rods and said something had hit it.
So we reeled it in and sure enough there was mackerel on the lure! (This is how all professional fisherman fish!)
Just as I finished cleaning that one, another one jumped on the lure. We were sort of hoping something big would grab the other lure, but I was kinda glad not to clean any more fish. No one else was offering to do the cleaning either. They were tasty!
We stopped for a nice swim in about 15 feet of water an hour or so later, then headed in for our rendezvous with high tide.
There was no way. We tried very hard to get in – to the point of getting so stuck we had to kedge ourselves off with one of the big anchors, and use Ryan in the dinghy and Randy in a power boat to get us out of there!
Lesson learned. A boat weighing 28,000 pounds needing 4.5 feet of water does not fit in 4 feet of water. Period.
So off to Boot Key harbor another three miles or so south where we met our good friend Dr Angel, with her friends for some great food and conversation.
Today was spent on getting organized to start some odd jobs and whatever else we can find to replenish the cruising kitty.
Although it is crowded, we will be here a minimum of two weeks, and knowing how time seems to slow way down here, possibly four. You would not believe the scene at night in the anchorage as there are over 300 boats here and it is the law to have your anchor light on. Looks like Christmas!
The Pig Festival (National Pig Day) is this weekend , and the annual Marathon Sea Food Festival is next weekend, so if you are coming this might ba good time. Of course it is the height of the season…
Don’t forget we are sending this weather to you, and you should be seeing it within a few months!
Goose says hi!
by miami | Feb 20, 2014
We are on the move again. I love to be moving! How many dogs do you know trained to climb trees and pick coconuts?
After spending a couple of days at the Miami Boat show, (and forgetting to take the camera), we headed south.
Unfortunately, a few days before the show, an infection of some kind showed up in the first mate's gum nessecitating a visit to the dentist and a regimen of antibiotics. This led to about a week of yucky days for her, and she did not get to enjoy the show (or much else for that matter.) No worries as she is well enough to enjoy the $1 happy hour beer at the beach bar here!
The show was overwhelming, and if just had a couple extra hundred thousand I did see a nice cataraman we would look great in…
We enjoyed two awesome sailing days to make the 90 miles or so from Miami Beach to Islamorada in Matecumbe Key, all on the inside route. Sometimes we were sailing along at 6.5 knots with the sandy bottom just 6 inches under our keel.
We hung out the first night in No Name harbor so we could work a bit on the genoa sail roller furling. On Sunday and Monday, with the three day holiday this place on Biscayne Bay was a zoo with every available spot filled with every imaginable kind of boat playing the loudest, heaviest bass music possible. Yuk.
Tuesday morning we almost has it to ourselves as we went to the dock for Goose's walk. Much better
A few hours sail south brought us to Boca Chita, a cool little key that is now a park. The little lighthouse behind Shelly and the boat was built of local coral. We just got off for a walk, picked up a few coconuts for Shelly's coconut crab soufflé, visited the little beach, ate lunch and got right back under way.
We made it to Key Largo late in the day, and anchored just of Gilbert's bar and hotel. (If you have been there you know…) Going in for fuel and water the next day before we left made us realize that fuel prices are going up! It is nice to know we only turned our motor on a couple of times during the 8 hour sail – just to get in and out of the tight harbor and to the fuel dock. Other than that we sailed everywhere!
This is a home school session about history. (See the historic ship's cannon pulled from an old wreck?)
I think we need a better camera or better photographers!
A few places we had to sail in these little cuts through the mangroves. It was cool to come out of 18knots of wind into these flat calm places, ghost through, and then back out into the wind, heeled over and flying along again.
And of course we always enjoy the sunset/sunrises that we are so blessed to experience.
Just as we were coming into Islamorada, we hooked Ryan up on the boom and swung him out in the water.(he did not know it but we were trolling for some big fish…)
It was all fun until we forgot to watch where we were going and had an impromptu lesson on how to get a boat that needs 4.5 feet to float back into water deeper than 4 feet.
You can see how shallow the water is under Ryan and we are moving along about 5 knots when this pic was taken.
So now we are at anchor here for a few days until the marine flea market at Founder's Park this weekend. Time for more varnish and maintenance. Plus we have to actually do some work for the great people who actually give us money so we can keep doing this and still eat!
As always, thanks for reading and send us your questions and comments…
by miami | Feb 14, 2014
We missed you too! It was very nice to hear from many who wondered what happened to us. No updates, then no site. It happened like this…
Remember how I had talked about trying to manage our wireless data plans, and that one of our biggest expenses is phone and data? Between the three of us, when we first went off the grid in December we went over our 5 GB plan in three weeks. So we upped the plan to 8. We blew through that 8 in two weeks in Jan, then at the end of the month had been charged for an additional 5!
After taking the plan to 10 GB, we stopped any video, movies, music streaming – and since Miami Beach has free WiFi we were not even on our data hot spot a lot. Feb 7 I noticed we had almost gone through 8 GB! In the end, the apple store here in Miami Beach figured out there was something in the Ipad using data and gave me a new one. Our machines are taking over! What scares me is that they do not know what was doing it!
Then we have been offline this week with the site as I have moved servers to accommodate more clients who host with me. In addition to paws4people.org, we work with a few people, hosting, building sites and maintaining them. If you know anyone who needs help with this stuff please give them our name? We are trying to help pay for the extra data usage!
Now back to Yume and the sailing life.
We have all been working hard on the outside – sanding and varnishing, removing old paint from the hull, cleaning up the rigging etc. I would love to show you pictures but they were lost with the moving to new Ipad…
Today we will dinghy up a small canal close to the Miami Beach conference center for the Miami Beach Boat show, and tomorrow take a shuttle over to the marina where all the new sailboats are so we can drool over the new catamarans. If anyone has a couple hundred thousand extra lying around and would like to go partners with us, think how fun it would be to fly into Tahiti where we have the boat ready for you?
We have been following the ‘massive’ winter storms and hope all our friends are safe and warm. When we see someone in a picture with big coats, mufflers and gloves we think wow they must be hot. It is really hard to grasp cold when it is 75 to 80 every day. (except this morning when we are freezing with a low of 55)
Many people ask about Ryan and what he is doing in for school. Along with the other (boring) normal subjects, he puts a lot of time into his latest love he calls anermation. If you liked Lord of the Rings you will appreciate his newest video – Lord of the Blocks.
Anchoring Yume is interesting. Obviously, since the anchor is the only thing holding our home in place, we pay attention to it! Anchors can drag, shackles can break, line and chain can part – all which would normally happen only in the middle of the night in the middle of the most violent wind and in the most crowded anchorage or on a lee rocky shore!
Last week we were moving around trying to stay out of the clocking wind on yet another cold front that was moving through and we dropped an anchor is a smaller canal running between expensive homes here in Venetian Isles.
Shelly was was on deck putting on yet another coat of varnish. As I came on deck for something the first thing I see is we are about to hit someone’s dock piling (looks like a telephone pole driven into the water?) right about where Shelly is varnishing! We just barely missed a disaster as our brand new solar panel and the dinghy were right in the way! The anchor had dragged about 80 feet without us noticing! That scared us all for a while.
Our plans are to attend the show today and tomorrow – then on Sunday we will head south (depending on weather) towards Islamorada in the Keys for a marine flea market/rummage/swap thing – then on down to Marathon for a visit. Then it will be March and time to head north again. Where we going then is just north! Time, events and cash flow will decide where we go…
I braved the 55 degrees to go out and take a picture just to brighten up the post!
All in all, we are very happy to be here, enjoying ourselves immensely, (although we seem to work more than play) and we eagerly look forward to whatever comes!
Love your comments and feedback. Please keep them coming!
by miami | Feb 2, 2014
That old Jimmy Buffett line seems to fit this morning! It is 830 am and we sit it in the early morning sunshine and watch 25,000 runners go by in the Miami Marathon.
How many dogs have been trained to navigate with a chart? We continue to train Goose for his Captains test…
It really is amazing as we walk him around Miami Beach how many dogs are of out of control. We wonder what would happen if we just started passing out cards and holding training sessions in the park every week!
Here is a picture of the back of the manatee we saw (and almost ran over) last week. There are many rules for boaters due to these mermaids of these sea, including slow speed, and even do not enter waters.
We left Dinner Key as the cold front that made Atlanta kids happy started passing through and headed for an anchorage to wait out the rain. We didn't leave early enough though, and the capt had the pleasure of steering the boat for two hours in torrential downpours just to find out that the foul weather gear is a bit leaky.
No worries as the air temp was still in the 70's. Another small issue 'floated' up as there is a propane locker built into the deck to hold the two ten pound tanks we use for cooking where water tends to run in during a rain, wash down or at sea. This has caused leaks in the past into the aft head (bathroom for you landlubbers) which is why we had to rebuild it last fall.
I knew then the drain was too small in the locker, and was susceptible to plugging and put it off until later.
We have been scraping the old varnish from the toenails and a large piece of shavings got down in there and plugged the drain. By the time I noticed it, the locker was overflowing with about 20 gallons of water and the aft head was a bit wet! The joys of boat living. I guess it is matched by all our friends with water pipes frozen and cracked by the same front!
We spent the next two days in Marine Stadium harbor on Virginia Key which is just south of Miami Beach. If you have time google it as the history of this place is really cool. Suffice to say that there is a movement afoot to save and restore the old stadium as one of the top ten historical sites…
While we were there, we got to watch Olympic trials for some really cool small sailing boats.
It is almost time for breakfast here in the cockpit. We eat out here a lot. We like the view…
As said many times here, we have traded feeding horses at 7 and 4 for taking Goose in to shore at 9 and 4. Sometimes it is pain, but it does get us off the boat and makes us take nice long walks. Shelly is the main walker…
In this little canal where we are, we can't tie off the dink, so someone just runs the walkers in and comes back later. Here is Ryan heading back out to Yume.
We also use this time with a Furminator to do our best to keep the amount of dog hair in our food to a minimum. 😉
We haven't heard a word from Sir Charles and his family on Ft Lauderdale so we will hang out, enjoy the weather, and continue with projects to bring the boat back to her former glory.
Hope all is well with you. We have decided to send some of this weather to you but UPS tells us it will take until April or May to get to you.
Just keep reading the blog and sharing our weather with us and your friends!
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