Time for House Cleaning?

Elizabeth City, NC
No LL

Here's a recommendation, when in Elizabeth City, eat at the Prime Sirloin restaurant. They have a great dinner buffet. Last night they had pulled port, and BBQ ribs and chicken livers on the buffet. Libby hates liver and won't serve it to me. I love chicken liver sandwiches.

Years ago, my friends and I would walk to Maurices deli restaurant in Schenectady. Maurices was a downtown institution. On Tuesdays, I could buy a chicken liver sandwich on an onion roll with Russian dressing. They were delicious. 25 years later, Maurices was no longer in downtown Schenectady but they did open a branch on Wolf Road in Colonie, near my new office. I asked there if they still had chicken liver sandwiches. They said, "No." I asked why. They said, "All our customers who ate them died." That was rather sobering. Still I love them and if I don't eat them every week, they shouldn't kill me.

New subject. I posted a question on the Westsail bulletin board. I complained that Tarwathie's speed under power was getting slower. I wondered if it could be the hull absorbing water. One reply said that a really good job of cleaning the propeller would do it. Bud Taplin, the Westsail guru, asked "How much STUFF have you brought aboard since living on the boat?" Good question. We think that we do a good job in not accumulating stuff, but it's time to review.

Richard and Penny on Viking Rose said their rule is to discard anything that hasn't been used in two years. I think we'll adopt their rule and do a thorough house cleaning when up on Lake Champlain this summer. I'll report to you how many pounds of stuff we manage to shed.

Caught In The Act

Elizabeth City, NC

No LL

We are sitting out a cold and rainy day. How cold is it? I left the boat wearing my jacket. I came back a few minutes later for a hat. Then, I came back a second time looking for gloves.

Jim R. snapped this photo of me. He caught me in the act of preparing a blast on my conch shell to celebrate the sunset.




Jim also snapped the following two photos of Libby and me. We seldom have such photos because one of us is holding the camera.

The Smoking Gun

Abemarle Sound, NC
35 57.91 N 075 59.49 W

Remember a while back when I posted an article about a "Bermuda Triangle" strange incident? Then, I couldn't say conclusively if it was a GPS anomaly or something else. Today on the GPS' trip meter, I noticed that it says MAXIMUM SPEED 124.5 KT. Aha! That's the smoking gun. It was the GPS.

Don't be alarmed if you hear that the plane you're riding on is guided by a GPS similar to mine. More expensive GPS receivers have much more powerful CPUs. I expect that failure to converge and failure to report to the user that convergence failed, is not a problem on those more expensive units. Indeed some of the best ones have both GPS and inertial navigation. Each method can cross check the other method's results.

We are pressing on to Elizabeth City today, even if we have to sail beyond sunset. Tomorrow the winds will shift to powerful northerlies and we don't want to fight them to get in to the dock.

Today is a rather spectacular day to be out on the water. We sail through periods of bright sunshine punctuated by intense rain showers. Because we can see so far, we are able to see 3-6 rain storms all the time. We managed to dodge four of them that came near us, but we got hit by two. It's fun.

A Message From Nancy

If you remember, my sister Nancy spent 10 days with us in the Bahamas. She sent a nice and very interesting email. Nancy is a pretty fair writer and story teller herself. I'll share excerpts. Here goes:

The Trip Back

So, I made it back safely....well, had a bit of a hard time at the airport. First, on the flight back to FL they gave me back my suitcase to take it thru customs [yourself] and then no one was around to ask/direct any of us where we should go to get to our next flights. Finally we all carried out bags out to the road to catch the shuttle to our various terminals. I took the shuttle bus to the Continental terminal only to find out that that the ticket from Marsh Harbor had "Continental" on it but that I was actually on US Air for the next leg (the tix did say "US" in small type). Even though I originally had plenty of time in between flights, making that mistake put me under pressure to make my next flight. I ran between the terminals (since the shuttle was no where to be found) and then realized that I still had my suitcase...SHOOT! I then had to wait in line at the ticket counter where she was totally confused as to why I was checking a bag when the computer said I already checked it in MH. Once that was straighted out I ran to security only to find a huge line...I asked nicely if I could go to the front and they let me. : )

Then, as if still in the carefree Bahama life mode I strolled thru security with my camera in my pocket and set off the alarm. They then had to search me, etc. (it was getting pretty late now to make my flight as you know) I grabbed my camera, shoes, jacket, etc., and ran to the gate (the last gate in the concourse, damn Murphy's Law) and luckily they were still boarding. Jumped on the plane and sat down to take a breath. Then the attendant came by to remind everyone to stow their items. OH Sh*t! I had left my backpack back @ security! I asked to get off the flight (they let me amazingly) and ran all the way back to security where he I spotted the security guy taking my bag to the back. I showed my ID, got the bag and ran back to the gate where the guy said wait...your boarding pass you gave us wasn't right. WHAT! I had already been on the plane! Anyway, after 5 more minutes (and holding up the flight) they printed a new boarding pass (that said US Air and not Continental - who cares?).

Culture Shock

I have to say that I had a very hard time coming back from the trip mentally. Obviously, from my story above you see I had trouble maneuvering thru the US airport craziness (like in 10 days I had forgotten what to do) but when I walked into the NC airport I couldn't help it and began to cry. I walked to my gate and everyone was giving the gate person grief since the flight was oversold. They were all so MAD and nasty. I really hadn't seen a crabby face in 10 days. (Plus, it wasn't the gate person who oversold the flight!!!)

Then I went to get something quick to eat and was just overwhelmed by the consumerism...Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, McDonald's, Chick-Fillet, etc. all with their bright lights and tons of items to buy, buy buy! Again, I became overwhelmed and struggled not to cry. I cut out of line, didn't end up buying anything to eat and went back to the gate. They asked if I wanted to give up my seat for a free ticket. Hmmm, I really wanted to get home but a free ticket would be help out. Then this thought slowly formed in my head...Well, if I don't get on this next flight to Boston now and have to wait in this airport for 3 hours ....would I turn around and go back to the Bahamas?? I seriously thought I might! In the end they didn't need us to give up seats and I did get back home fine. I don't remember having such strong culture shock coming back from 3 months in Europe...maybe it was also living on a boat?

A Million Thanks

The best for last....

One of the best times was getting the chance to experience your lifestyle. You both seem to really enjoy it, have a great community of friends (that you can contact when you want), and get along well despite the size of the space. I think that boat life suits you and Libby and you both have a healthy attitude towards it and towards future sailing. It was nice to see and to become a part of. I heard about how you manage living on the boat (financially, relationship-wise, and safety-wise) which makes me think about some of the ways I live my life now and what I may do in the future with retirement(!).

I also appreciate that you tried so hard to get to another Cay in the rough weather. I know it wasn't easy and sorry that Tarwathie took on some water and the jib thing-a-ma-jig broke in the wind (did you get it fixed?). I really enjoyed the sailing adventure that day even though we did turn back. The good part was because of the rough weather though, I got the chance to go on the day-trips to the Cays with each of you. Each Cay was so different. It was a luxury to spend a whole day with you.

The Bahamas will always be a fantastic memory for me and I hope to get back someday. My favorites were living and sailing on Tarwathie (i just started to get a bit of a feel for her sailing-wise), the color of the water (the pics couldn't capture it), the white sand beaches, the friendly Bahamian people, the lack of concern for time. My favorites with visiting was experiencing the whole day with you guys...from waking up to the sun and having our coffee, to eating yummy meals made by Libby (every meal tasted sooooo good!), to doing an errand or visiting your fiends, to playing games/learning to make baskets (even though I was not so fast at either!), to all our talks, Libby and my daily Bahama rum runner hour, to checking out the stars thru my skylight before I went to sleep. Those are what come to mind and I will continue to think about more.

Pictures from Our Recent Passage

Above left, sailing too fast with the jib the size of a beach towel.

Above right, sailing at just the right speed with the jib the size of a bath towel. I was surprised at how easily the boat handled like that.

Below, two views of our blown-out spinnaker. Libby and I spread it out on the lawn in Washington NC to inspect the damage. I suspect that it can't be repaired reasonably but I'm going to send these pictures to a sail maker to ask. Do any of you have a favorite sail maker to recommend?

By the way, our friends Walt and Pat emailed that they use their spinnaker only for winds of 15 knots or less. I measured 17 when ours blew out. Obviously, there could have been a stronger gust. Oh well. Live and learn.