STILL HERE August 1, 2016
Posted by sailingnightwatch in Caribbean, Durbeck, FL, Florida, ICW, Pensacola, Repairs, Restoration, Sailing, Sailing the ICW, Shopping for a Boat.1 comment so far
That could mean a couple things. First, I am alive and here on the boat, still waiting for my beloved mate to come home. That will be cool. One of the others, Sunday night there was an electrical storm that went on forever and was a major electrical storm. Early Sunday my son came and picked me up to go fishing. Therefore, I spent the night at his house. My boat lays about 10 miles east of his house. The storm was just east of Tampa about 6pm. Big dark cloud with a lot of lightening in it. This thing started growing. From our distance you could see it grow from 40 to 50 to 60k feet. As it grew the lightening expanded.
Where the kid lives he is maybe mile from the Gulf. They had a little rain about 3 weeks ago. Before that was maybe another 3-4 weeks. Well he got some rain. Not enough to write home about.
At 8 to 9 it was maybe at its peak. The lightening was constant. I am sitting on his couch and looking at the lightening and have the radar on the iPad. It was worry some. In fact I had a dream about the boat getting hit by lightening and sinking. When I got back to the boat I am walking down the dock crying and there is a group of people waiting by the slip. There is the Fed EPA, the state EPA, some other government people. Then there were home owners and their lawyers, all wanting to sue for my polluting the waterway. I remember the judge saying I had 0 money left then and forever. I woke up. When I got back to the boat it was there like I left it.
Oh, that meant no fresh water pumps. I have 2 spare fresh water pumps. In 2-1/2 years we were on the last working one that was not working very well. Well , one is total trash. The others 2 needed rebuilding. I did have a kit for one and put it on and it had an air leak on the intake side I could not find forever. To get to the pump is either going under the water heater or over the generator. Either way tears up your hands and arms. I have installed and removed it at least a dozen times. I have strange burses on my arms and blood blisters on my hands. I finely got the air leak defeated. I started on this project Friday afternoon and finished Monday noon. I have rebuild kits for the other pumps. One is to be here any day, the other is middle of August. Oh well, today I have water.
For those of you who have been on board, you know I built a clock for the mate that has Westminster chimes. Not something you run into on a boat. Yea, different. But the mate likes Westminster chimes. Well the Chinese works do not like salt air. The first works lasted a good 15 years. Not really at sea. The last one lasted about two years at sea. Well the new works got here today. The footprint is different. Got to do some modification to the inside of the clock. This meant taking off the face of the clock. Not an easy thing to do. But it is off and tomorrow I will take the saw to the body of the clock insides. Wish me luck.
December 3, 2007
Posted by sailingnightwatch in Florida, ICW, Pensacola, Sailing, Sailing the ICW, Shopping for a Boat.add a comment
December 3, 2007
Posted by sailingnightwatch in Florida, Pensacola, Sailing, Shopping for a Boat.add a comment
ANOTHER DURBECK 46 November 26, 2007
Posted by sailingnightwatch in Durbeck, Florida, ICW, Pensacola, Sailing, Sailing the ICW, Shopping for a Boat.5 comments
Monday dawned as beautiful as the first two days of the weekend. When we came into the anchorage we notice another Durbeck at anchorage. It had a total different look then our “Great Cabin” configuration. All of these boats were “one off built” and therefore are never exactly alike. This one was not even close to our layout. About 8:30, I heard a knock on the hull and it is the owner of the other Durbeck. We talked a little while and asked if he would like a tour and he said he would but need to get his wife because she would also be interested. We therefore swapped tours. They have been cruising on and off for 20 years and were returning to south Florida from a trip up the Ten-Tom and Ohio river to Pittsburg. It is always a joy to meet cruisers and it was to bad that we had to cut it short because of the 5-6 hour return trip to our slip. I have to turn my boat 270 degrees to get into my slip and with the loss of daylight savings time did not want to do that in the dark. It was good meeting and talking with Larry and Carolyn. He was a wealth of information about where to get parts that are no longer made and other information that was particular to the care and feeding of a Durbeck.
Brokers June 13, 2007
Posted by sailingnightwatch in Florida, Shopping for a Boat.add a comment
The search had been going on for a couple years. We had traveled and looked at boats in the southeast. This brings up the subject of Brokers. Like any other salesman, they want the high commission sales. You call and tell them your looking for a high sweet equity boat and they either hang up or tell you they have never seen a boat like that come across their brokerage’s dock. Every salesman has to on occasion get rid of someone’s trash (maybe my treasure) to make the big sale. You may have to search out the one who will work with you. You know you are not going to get a lot of service; after all you get what you pay for. I found a broker in Ft Lauderdale, St Pete, Annapolis and Boston. The agreement was that they would fax the specs and if it looked promising we would come and look. When we did they not only would show us their boat but all the other trash in the area. They might even show us a few boats above out pain threshold. I did buy the boat through a broker, which I found on the Internet, but not using one of the above brokers.
The Dream Boat Cont. June 11, 2007
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Another problem with that vintage boat was soft decks. Some manufactures cord their decks with plywood, balsa wood or foam. Hardware was fastened to the decks with out removing the core around the fasteners and adding resin to the hole, sealing the core. As time passed and they developed leaks, the core material began to rot and dissolve, leaving space between the inner and outer layers of fiberglass, hence soft spots. We looked at a Columbia 45 that had been cruise for about 2 years and had almost the value in new equipment as they were asking for the boat. It was scary to walk on the deck. I priced out replacing the deck and deckhouse. If I did all the work myself and did not figure in my cost, it was still expensive. Thank God we found what we bought.
Dream Boat June 6, 2007
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Since I do not know anything about your dream boat, I will have to tell you about ours. First of all, I was brought up knowing bigger was always better. That is generally true. I had heard and read that around 40 feet was about all a couple could handle in rough conditions. I realize that today with electric or hydraulic winches, the size has gone up. I also, some what, subscribe to the “kiss” principal of sailing. We therefore kept to the 40 foot, plus a little, range. Money was also a concern. We did not want to owe any money on the boat. I was fortunate at that time to won a yacht restoration company. I therefore had access to a complete shop and access to outside expertise we did not possess. We were therefore able to handle a large sweet equity investment in the boat. We had also decided on pre 1980 construction. After the oil crisis of the late 70’s, fiberglass construction went through a transition that did not work well for some manufactures in the ‘80-‘81 time periods. The newer boats were out of our price range. Our short list of boats included; Gulfstar 43, Columbia 45, Endeavor 42, Irwin 37 and 43 and a few other makes.
Probing the Dream May 31, 2007
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Before you get deep into moving from the dream stage to reality, there are many things you must look at realistically. This is by no means a complete list but just some thoughts that we went through and felt were things that we did right and saw as mistakes others did not look at that later caused problems.First is work. Do you? Must you? Can it be done at sea? Can you take time off…, years? We still work. My wife goes off to work in an office every day and I work from the boat. She needs closet space, and I do not mean the 18” on a normal sail boat. We are fortunate enough that the closet in the aft stateroom has about 6’ of hanging space. We have another like size closet in the forward stateroom. That is for my clothes, all jackets and coats and anything else that does not fit in her closet. We are also fortunate enough to have lots of shelves and drawers for clothes that do not get hung. We also have a wet locker that is about 2’ long. It has all our fowl weather gear, an ironing board, swim ladder and our flares.This working thing caused us to cull out sever fine cruising boats that we called weekenders. They were designed for the charter trade. Even though they were in the 40+ foot range, they would be a challenge to go to work from and remain in love with the life style.Are either of you collectors of things. Can you leave the collection ashore. Are you willing to be away from them, will you pay for a place to store your collection. Stamps do not take much room, but would you want them in a marine environment. We have a friend that collects Noa’s Ark stuff. The house is full of these little arks and animals, some are not so little. Would she part with them…. No!Pets. Cats seam to adopt well. I have seen the dog lover dutifully taking his dog ashore in the most miserable of weather. We have a lizard that has taken up residency in the oars and sailing gear for the dingy. I see him come and go from the boat, he goes sailing with us, sets himself on a rail with his nose in the air like a dog hanging out a car window. Must be some sensual high that comes with long noses. Besides caring for them, there are many restrictions that are placed on the animal and you when entering foreign countries.Kids. Schooling can be handled through a couple good programs. Does your dream include being teacher several days a week? The kids seem to adopt well after the initial shock of loss of friends. Your older kids who are on their own. They think you are wasting all their inheritance and should be committed. We know they are just jealous.Other obligations. Community involvement. Land bound friends. Some will not come on your boat, period. The most water they ever want to see is when they bathe. Others will be willing to be weekend crew at the drop of a hat. If you go cruising, are you ready to give up the closeness of those relationships.Physical environment. 2, 3, 4000+ square foot home to 2, 3, 400+ square foot boat. What amenities will you loose. Dishwasher, trash compactor, large frig/freezer, washer/drier, furniture. What to do with cherished furniture. What about the house?Back to size. I was asked several times how we could think about living in such a small space. A friend who had lived on his boat for several years told me to do this experiment. For a week, keep track of where you go in your house every day. This includes the paths you take. This will make you feel like a rat in a maze. There was one bedroom I never went into, half of our great room I never passed through, the paths I took were always the same. Look at your carpeting, any signs of wear? Took all my meals at the same spot, spent my evenings in the same chair, made weekend forays to the sofa to practice my “Dagwood” impressions. Not that size is not important. After one hurricane, we spent 6 months in a 30’ FEMA trailer. It was a God send at the time, but my personality was turning darker with each passing month.In conclusion, these have all been negatives that can kill the dream. I do not want to do that, but these and many other things must be thought about before making such a major life style change. OK did that, now lets find a boat.
Last weekend May 24, 2007
Posted by sailingnightwatch in Florida, Pensacola, Shopping for a Boat.add a comment
How did you get into this lifestyle? Do you have a partner in crime? How did they get into this? Are you a dreamer of this lifestyle? Why on earth would you want to do this?Went out last weekend to our second most frequented anchorage. It is about 15 miles away. It is well protected but too popular. Lots of small boat campers who party loud and late. We were to meet friends there with their boat (Krogan 38) and the wind was to pipe up during the night, so we chose that location. This weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) will be nuts with wall to wall boats. Not a place for large, single screw, full keel sail boats. Scares me to get blocked in an anchorage. Anyway, good friends, good drinks, good dinner and a good night’s sleep.
May 22, 2007
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How did this happen to us? I was born this way. With the dream of living on a boat and going cruising. My wife? Many have wondered in amazement. I do not ask and only listen from afar when she explains it to people. Sell her nest on the golf course, where the kids grew up. Sell her furniture and almost everything else that would not fit into a 46 foot sailboat. God does smile on some of us nuts. We do have a 5×5 storage that has mostly business files that big brother say I must keep and hand tools that are not used enough to have a spot on the boat…,yet. That is it about me/us. This is about dreaming and making it happen, for real.
Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch 