Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch

Talk about a beautiful weekend. Saturday started with a light breeze from the SE that freshened as the day went on. Temps were in the mid 80’s plus. I went west with plans for spending the 3 day at Redfish Point of Ft Mcree. When I came through the Land Cut into Grand Lagoon, I could see that the spot at Redfish Point was more than full. The place I like to anchor is in quite close to the south shore and the deep entarence runs parrallel to the land running north to the point. It is large enough for 4 or 5 good size boats to anchor with sufficient scope to handle an afternoon thundershower. Anymore boats than that and somebody does not have room to escape. There were too many boats there for my comfort level.

Off to Ft Mcree. Talk about crowded. My wife is still in Colorado with our new granddaughter and therefore I am doing the single handed thing. The anchorage has opened up on the east side for small or at least shallow boats. I come in from the west and motored down towards the east end. There were so many boats I could only make it about 2/3’s of the way and then there was not enough room for me to turn the boat around. I moved back to the west end and found a place perfect to anchor.

Time for an anchoring beer and a quick dip in the beautifully clear water. WRONG. My mind may not be what it used to be, but I do not remember the Jelly Fish being here in May. I thought they came in midsummer. Surprise, Surprise. You could measure them by the gross per cubic yard. So much for a quick dip. The beer was good.

The night did not cool off as fast as I would have liked, but the breeze kept up all night. Sunday I launched the dingy and sailed it around the anchorage for several hours, trying not to get ran over by the powerboats. Never was it their fault, it was just very crowded.
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• Sunday late afternoon did see a sevear thunderstorm about 10 miles to the west. The people in Orange Beach must have got hammered. We did get some overcast from the storm which helped lower the tempreture a few degrees. One thing that has come along with the high def TV is that the local CBS and NBC affiliates are also carrying 24/7 weather including radar. This was very useful in tracking the storms and knowing they were going to miss us. A fair amount of the campers packed up and left in great hast.

Monday I left the anchorage about 8:30 with a 15-20 knot wind ENE. I went out in the Lagoon and played with sail setting trying to get this boat to lay in any other position than beam on the wind. I am yet to come up with good storm tatics for this boat. If any of you Durbeck owners are out there and have some advice, I am ready to listen and try. So far a parachute on a bridle off the port or starboard bow is the best I have heard.

I guess one might say I am on the cheep side.  When I hear the A/C running for prolong periods of time during the summer, not only do I think that it is running a compressor on 110 volts, not the most efficient power source. It is running it’s little $3000 heart out.  During the summer our forward unit ran solid from 10 A.M. till around 3 P.M.  Not only is it eating a lot of electricity, it is shortening the life of this 1600 BTU unit.  After the first summer living on board, I decided to design an awning to cover as close to all the boat that was feasible.  During the first summer a neighbor with a schooner gave me his used canvas awning that went between his main and foremast.  It was about 14 foot square and weighed a ton.

 One of the things that bother me about liveaboards is that some seem to bring their trash with them.  Be it a peace of wood that they may find a use for, the laundry that does not look washed, just airing out.  You have seen them.  When they had a home, the old washer and dryer was rusting away on the front porch and the old car was up on blocks in the front lawn.  They are one of the reasons that some of the towns in the south part of Florida try to outlaw liveaboards along with every other cruiser in the world.

 Well the old canvas awning was close to the $10 blue tarps you can get at Wall-Mart.  Fit right in with the wash machine and car on blocks.  My first design was right close to perfect.  Not only was the design right, but a new product was on the market that was going to run SunBrella off the face of the earth.  It was amazingly strong.  Could not tear it with your bear hands.  It was light.  It did not stretch.  It was a laminate.  It was Just what was needed.

My canvas lady was presented a perfect drawing to work from.  Never did figure out why she and her helper spent the better part of the afternoon measuring every possible place the awing would be.  I am sorry; this old half-a engineer was doing excellent drawing before the inventor of Cad Cam was a twinkle in his father eye.  Well she did make some suggestions that a seamstress would know, but not necessarily a sailor.  It was perfect.

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.