Our Rondy Experience

 Vero Beach, FL

It has been a while since the last blog post.  That is because we have been busy.

Friday-Sunday we spent at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club for the Westsail Rendezvous.   We had a great time.  The yacht club was wonderfully hospitible, and our hosts, Charley and Paivi were gracious.

What do people do at a rendezvous.  Most important, they sit around and tell each other stories.  Then, we visit each other's boats.   No two Westsails are alike, and it is impossible to see one without seeing some clever idea that would be fun to adopt.  Westsail owners lavish so much labor, attention, and ingenuity to make their vessels sail worthy, beautiful and comfortable.  That humbles us because by comparison we have done almost nothing to Tarwathie since buying her in 2005.

Then there is the eating, drinking and fun.  Lots of that.  It is amazing how a bunch of strangers can come together and becaome instant friends.   We had one owner who came from Massachusetts and another from Houston just for this rendezvous.

Below is a picture of the PCYC docks.  Tarwathie is second on the left.  Centered in the background is a Disney Cruise ship.   Part of the entertainment for me was to watch the cruise ships come and go.  They seem majestic as they move and spin using their modern propulsion pods.  There are 9 cruise ships that make Port Canaveral their home port. They are serviced by 4 passenger terminals.

But I must tell you about how overwhelmed Libby and I were at all the attention we got.   It seems that most of the W owners at the rondy were blog fans.  One of them, Peter, is what I call an archival fan; he went back to read every post from the start.  That's a lot of reading.   We were even surprised by people who came to meet us who were not part of the rondy.

Being shy, we were a bit embarrassed and humbled by the attention.  What did we do to deserve that.  Well, Peter put it into words better than I could.  Peter said, "You guys really nailed it.  You found what it takes to make you happy."   In other words, it wasn't because of high adventure, sailing around the world or anything like that.  It wasn't because of my theory about this blog that it is directed to people who want to live the cruising life.  It was because we have been successful at finding a retirement life that suits us so well, that we are happy almost all the time.   Our loyal readers don't necessarily share the same dreams we have in detail, but they are just nice people who are happy to see us being happy. That, is very touching.

Thank you Peter, and thank you all, we'll try to live up to that.

Swarms of Gremlims

Port Canaveral Yacht Club, FL
25 24.436 N 08 37.743 W

Ay ay ay.  I complained the other day about gremlins.  Little did I know that there were lots left over.  Yesterday:

• When I checked the engine, I found lots of salt water in the pan. I took the hoses off the other day for an emergency fan belt replacement.   Now there was a leak.  It took 30 minutes to clean up the water, and get salt off the engine, another 30 to find the leak, and 15 minutes to fix it.
• When done fixing the leak, I found that my left wrist was all cut up and scarred.  It seems that there was a sharp burr down where my hand was working that cut me again and again.
• My cell phone died.  It has been acting up for a while; problems with charging.   But now it quit entirely. That cuts me off from the Internet.  Those of you who know how Internet addicted I am, know what a big crisis that is. I'm using the yacht club's wifi now.
• The day became opressively hot.
• Our chartplotter died, with the message "GPS module not repsonding."  That happened once last week on the St. Johns River, but turning it off, then on again fixed it.  This time that didn't work.  Since we were about to go to unfamiliar places, I wanted it to work.  I theorized that it was the hot temperatures.  I tried putting the GPS into the freezer.  That worked!  At least it worked for 15 minutes until it warmed up again.   This morning, in the cooler temperatures, it works fine.
• When entering the yacht club, we had to drive down a narrow alley.  We did that at dead slow speed.  But yikes, I saw two men pushing a large sailboat out of their slip directly into my path, only 15 feet away.  If I stopped Tarwathie dead, we would loose steerage and be subject to the cross current. I scrambled for my horn. Oh no, our compressed horn died.  Libby and I shouted and the men saw us at the last second.  
• When we got all tied up in a slip, I rushed to the shower to cool my body off.  I was feeling weak from heat exhaustion.

I hope that's enough gremlins for this weekend.  Friday-Sunday we will be enjoying the Westsail Rendezbous.   More than 25 people and 7 boats are expected.

Forming Place Memories

Daytona Beach, FL
29 07.600 N 080 57.942 W

I hate repeating myself on this blog, but after 2500+ posts it is getting difficult.  But ...

The stretch of the Florida ICW between St. Johns River and Fort Pierce, is very familiar to us.  We have been past this stretch 19 times, probably 3 times on the outside, and 16 times on the ICW.  It is not our home waters.  Lake Champlain is our home waters.  But it is very very familiar.

I'm curious about the cognitive aspects of "place memory."  I believe that it involves more than just memorizing the appearance of a place.   I think that it comes from associating one or more events with the place where those events happened.

As I cruise down the ICW, I can associate a memory with almost every twist or turn.   There was a boat aground here.   The wind heeled me over here.   I had to douse the sail on that turn.  I chatted with the skipper of another vessel on the radio here.  Lots of traffic on weekends there.  I wonder what life is like in that trailer park over there?   I recall thinking that lagoon was very pretty.

I'm not a cognitive scientist, so I can't express my theory scientifically.  But I bet that it is correct.  Time-thought-place are the three legs of forming place memories.

By the way, it has been very hot and very humid.  Thanks to a tip from Dave, we have been using new high-tech neck cooling towels.  You soak it in water, wring it out, snap it once, then put it around your neck.  It keeps your neck about 10 degrees cooler than ambient for up to an hour.  Since the blood vessels to your head are close to the surface there, that is a strategic place to cool your whole body.  It works.

I don't have a neck towel for my cell phone.  For the past month, it acts up when humid and refuses to recharge.   When we had the car, I learned that opening the phone, taking out the battery, then putting it on the dashboard defrost vent is the cure.  I give it 15 minutes of high heat, then 15 minutes of AC cool.  Then it works for a whole week.  On the boat, we don't have a defroster (thank God), so I have to store the phone in the rice jar every night.  That's a good cruising tip.  Rice dehydrates the air.

Libby's Pride and Joy

Near Saint Augustine, FL
29 55.113 N 081 18.088

We are killing time again.  We set the alarm for 0530 to assure that we get to Saint Augustine early enough for the 0730 Bridge of Lions opening.  Our ETA is 0740, so we'll have to kill time until 0830.  Such is life for boaters.

The picture shows Libby's new pride and joy.  It is a beautiful hand made rug.   Libby asked her friend Joelle from the vessel Miss Jo to make it for us. It was a massive effort.  Joelle said that it took her 5 hours per day for three weeks to complete.  It makes Tarwathie more elegant with this commissioned work of art.

My contribution was that on the first day we had the rug, I insisted on driving 10 miles to the store just to buy a can of Scotch Guard.  Libby applied it right away.   That very evening, we had Chris over for dinner and we spilled a whole glass of red wine!!!  The rug came out fine with no stains.

Technically, Libby said that the rug is mine.  It was my birthday present.  Ah yeah, sure.  That reminds me of when I bought an iPad and declared it to be Libby's iPad.  Have you ever gifted with an impure motive?  Don't answer that.

On The Road Again

The Tolomato River
30 13.615 N 081 25.006 W

Well, after many delays we are on the road again. (I like the sound of that phrase On The Road Again, it would make a good song title :-)  

We spent three nights at the free dock on Sister's Creek.  The reason for that is our friend Terri came up with a great idea.  Jen is going to fly down for a visit in December.   We left the car in care of the marina in Green Cove Springs, and told Jen to fly to JAX and then  get to GCS to pick up the car.   Terri's idea was to park the car at her neighbor's house which is close to JAX.  Terri, very kindly, will meet Jen at the airport.   To make a long story short, we delayed leaving until today to drive down to GCS with Larry and Terri to move the car.  Whew, that took a lot of words to describe.

It felt good to be back on the road again with Tarwathie, but after only one hour, Libby called me to the cockpit.  She said the engine instruments weren't working.  True, but the high temperature red light was on.  A quick check with my IR temperature sensor showed 206F.  Uh oh.  I looked over the side, there was plenty of raw water squirting out.    A few seconds later, I opened the engine compartment and spotted the cause.  It was a broken fan belt.  That took me only 30 minutes to replace and we are on our way once again.  Thank God for on-board spare parts.

Kudos to Libby for being so alert on watch.  I might not have noticed that red light, and I never hear audio alarms even with hearing aids.

So, our plan is to make it to the Westsail Rendezvous at Port Canaveral Yacht Club November 6-8.   It should work out well.  Anchor near Saint Augustine tonight, Daytona Beach Tuesday, Titusville, Wednesday, Banana River Thursday, and to the rendezvous Friday.  The only trouble is the lock at Canaveral which is closed for construction 6AM-6PM Monday-Friday.  Boo.  That means we'll have to pass the lock in the dark before dawn or after dusk.

p.s. I've had maybe 4 fan belts break in 55 years.  I do periodic visual inspections of the belts, but I've never seen any sign of wear before they break.   What exactly am I supposed to look for?