Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch

That’s me.  I am off having our first granddaughter.  She is beautiful, no really.  We are in the high country of the Colorado Rockies.  Today we are are looking at 8 inches of snow, getting ready to head to the hospital and visit the granddaughter.  

Am about to post my second beating up of the insurance industry.

We have met many wonderful people that are involved in the boating community, that we never would have met if we would have stayed hidden in our home in suburbia. My wife has less than 4 years to retirement. My dream is to sail in the islands for about 5 years. Good Lord willing, our health will last to that point and beyond. After 5 years, age will be part of the equation as we evaluate where we are at in life. Since the hurricane, we have lived in the canals of a subdivision. Our acquaintances have shifted from boaters and cruisers to landlubbers. They look at us as at least being strange. I can see some of their influence wearing off on the wife as we talk of cruising around them. She has never been to sea for any length of time and the storms we have gotten into have been in or near protected waters. There is average apprehension there. The few trips we have made she has enjoyed and is more than willing to share with you. We need to do more of those short trips and build up confidence.

We have lived on board for 12 years, the longest we have lived anywhere, and I am extremely happy with the lifestyle. I believe my wife is usually happy with the lifestyle. She is an accountant and having your largest investment being in a depreciating asset does bothers her. She does not have much experience at sea. She is riding alone in my dream. I do all the routine maintenance and she worries about my aging, and the day when I can not keep the boat up. At this point I am still like a teenager and feel invincible. Some days, most days, I got to keep exercising.

Within the month, good Lord willing, we will be grandparents. We are looking forward to that joyous occasion. The wife has gone off the deep end. Neither of our children had shone any interest in having kids. My daughter getting pregnant was a wonderful surprise for us. Now the challenge is not to go broke as my beloved insistent on seeing as often as possible and spoiling as much as possible, the grand daughter…. And she is not even here yet. When we go out to see the daughter and son-in-law, we will not be able to take any of our clothes because all our luggage will be full of baby clothes and stuff. Life is good. I will keep you informed on this new phase or our life.

The stem head has 2 bolts that hold it on. Even with them removed, the fitting had to be sawed off and the wood drilled and chiseled out. The shape looks like an engineer spent some time figuring out all the stresses it would have to endure. The 4 planks where epoxied together and then shaped. It does sound easy, but it was a bear. There are no straight surfaces. Every side tapers to the stem head. That means everything is measured from the centerlines. I enjoyed the layout challenge, but I do not believe my contractor shared my enthusiasm.

Reinstallation was basically the reverse of its removal. A few minor adjustments and it was good to go. We did add a washout groove under the bowsprit right as it goes through the hole in the bow. We also coated the entire bowsprit with epoxy and varnish. The laminate joints on the old bowsprit were broke apart when I bought the boat. After a year and a half, the new joints have split apart in a couple places. Probably why there are 3 large bolts and backing plates through the laminate. If it would fail again, I would look at having a heavy mast extrusion made in it’s place.

Short of getting hammered by a storm, every sail is a good sail. This weekend was no exception. The weatherman even got it right. A front passed through about 5 a.m. with about 3/4s inch of needed rain. It was mostly clear by 9 a.m. and allowed time to wash off the boat and the enclosure windows. They had not been washed on the inside for over a month. They get difficult to see out of after that much time. We were to have 10-15 knot wind starting out of the north and backing to the SW. Sunday the wind was to continue to back to the south. For those of us who sail mostly east and west, this was to be a good weekend.

We started sailing west towards Redfish Point, and the wind was mostly north but the gusts were northwest to west at a good 15 knots. If the wind continued to back, we would have the wind on out nose most of the day with a lot of tacking. My wife reminded me that her racing days are over and she does not mind tacking, but a lot of tacking is not what cruising is about. This is easy, make one tack and head east.

We had not been to Navarre in about a year. The bridge at Navarre is one of those 47 footers in this part of the ICW. We cannot fit under it but on the southwest end of the bridge is a restaurant/beach bar called Juana’s. A fun place with volleyball on the beach, Jet ski and beach cat rentals. There is also a 3 wide boat ramp. I remember the trailer days, but never tried to squeeze between two other vehicles. It was interesting to watch.

The sail to Navarre was great. The gusts moved back to the north and got to be in the 20 knot range. My wife used to allow me to heal 28 degrees before coming unglued. The last few years she start protesting at 20 degrees. When you can hear the bots shift in the galley, stand by for comments from the mate. This was ok because it allowed me to do some reefing that I rarely get to practice. With a ketch you have many combinations to use. That is why we have one. This time I ran full jenny, staysail and mizzen with the main reefed down to the size of a storm jib. This gave me the same speed and cut the heal down to a level I would be allowed in my own bed for the night.

About the time we got the anchor set, the wind did back to the southwest. A good directions for cocktails.

Sunday the wind was due out of the west. We motored west through the Navarre buoy line to get where we would have room to sail. By the time I set sail the wind was blowing 15-18 knots. I set full staysail, main and mizzen. This keeps the heal down, but also looses about a knot in speed. It was a glorious sail.