Time to travel

Hopefully we're going to leave Marathon, Fl. on Tuesday the 18th of May. Have to get up the coast for insurance reasons but need to move on anyway. We could easily get "stuck" here in Marathon like so many others. It is really nice and cozy here. Our next planned stop is St. Augustine, Fl. We really like it there and want to visit all the historic sites in the area. I would like to try to go a non-stop sail to there up the Gulf Stream but it's 384nm and I'm not sure we are up for that much time off shore. We'll see how that goes. We won't be so far out that we can't duck in if need be. We probably will never get quite far enough out to loose sight of land. That's always comforting. If that works out good then we will be more prepared to make another big jump up to Charleston, NC. We'll then try doing some ICW travel, doing day trips for a while anyways. We might end up staying in the Charleston area for a week or more, hard to tell. I'll post an update when we get to St. Augustine.

Working our way through the Keys.

Hi everyone. I'm back with a breif update. We sailed out of Key West and anchored near Little Torch Key and Little Palm Island. We visited with friends on Little Torch Key for several days. We had a wonderful time while there. While we were in Key West we bought Shane a surf board at Ron Jons. He decided to practice the other morning and while he was out paddleing around in the harbour a pod of about 5 dolphins came up and started swimming all around him. It was waaaaaaay cool. It was really hard to take a picture of the happening but I did get one, unfortunately it was like a Big Foot pic, fuzzy and just one fin.....looked more like swimming with a Shark!! Just one of those that Grandma doesn't want to see on the internet!!?? Anyway, we are now in the mooring field in Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Fl. We can see why folks get stuck here. They ar really cruiser friendly and have all the amenities here in town. Nice showers, (real important in the tropics) wi fi, a work shop to use, tv, ect. Paid for a week and hope that the weather cooperates at the end of that time. It's nice to get a few thing done along the way. There's always something to fix, repair or replace. The latest improvement has been the installation of a Wind Scoop on the forward hatch. What an improvement in ventilating the whole boat. It's GREAT!! So tonight it's off to the air conditioned movie. Life is Good!

On the Sea again!

Well we're back on the move. Life was good in St. Petersburg and we could see how easy it would be to settle  into the shoreside life. But it was time to go. Made a quick sail out to Egmont Key, not far past the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Had a nice pleasant night on the hook. Took off in the AM to head for Shark River......NOT! The alternater wasn't alternating!! Somehow blew a fuse that had no spare anyplace aboard. Ugh!! Decided we need that kind of electrical generation since it was the only reliable source of power we had. At least sort of reliable. We decided to go in at Longboat Pass Bridge and find a fuse. Sound easy?.....NOT! This pass has a reverse tide that doesn't seem to show on any charts. Tried coming in at the bottom of the ebb tide. That sucked us right up to the bridge as it was opening sloooooooowly! Made it through. We had been advised that there was an anchorage to the starboard of the bridge. That happened to mean IMMEDIATLY to the starboard after the bridge. Figured that out as we started sliding onto the bottom. Dang!! We did get to practice our ungrounding skills. Good Practice for about an hour. Anyway, we did get our electrical problems figured out. Only took a few days!! Now for the exit back to sea. It should suffice to say that it isn't easy to stop a 21,000 lb. sailboat when the bridge gets stuck half way up. Aaahhhhhh!!! NEGATIVE! NEGATIVE! NEGATIVE! Was my wifes response when the tender asked if we could make it that way!! They had to lower the bridge and start over. Exciting morning.

Our intended journey was to go to Shark River on the southern tip of mainland Florida, not to be. After getting out in the Gulf of Mexico we got on such a good tack and were sailing along wonderfully we just decided to go on to the Dry Tortugas instead. So the following evening we pulled into the bay in front of Fort Jefferson. Wow, what a beautiful location. Great snockeling, bird watching and tours of the fort. (snuck into the tours from the tourist boats) It was a great time. Stayed there for 5 days. Waited to pick another pleasant weather window to sail on to Key West.........NOT!! It started out pleasant even though the winds were contrary. By evening we were getting 20 to 25 kt winds right on the nose with no place to go, since we were in the South West Channel to Key west. Reefs blow us and reefs above us. The biggest problem we had, besides the 5 to 6' seas was we were sailing along way to fast and would end up coming into an unfamiliar anchorage in the middle of the night. What a night of bouncing around stalling for daylight.Made it in fine and tied up to the mooring ball behind Fleming Key and went to bed.  Wonderful.

Now we get to spend several days doing the tourist things in Key West. Truly a world of it's own in the Keys. Hard to explain. After leaving here we will continue up the Keys to Little Torch, Bahia Honda and Marathon. Hope to enjoy our stay down here till we start the larger leaps up the east coast to the Chesapeake. So for now it's Sloppy Joes and Key Lime Pie. Yum Yum!

Thanks to everyone for your nice comments. Hope I'm keeping you posted enough. Too bad we don't have access everywhere, but then again........

So long for now.

Stow aways to the Dry Tortugas

Hey there, I'm back. We've been really busy the last few weeks getting ready to head south to the Keys then north to the Chesapeake. It has been a great time here in St. Pete, Fl. We'll miss all the friends we made here but with the help of modern tech. we will be able to keep in touch better than ever. We finished all our work on the hard. Changed out our sensor through hulls and put on another coat of bottom paint. Buffed and polished the hull with Poliglo. It looks great.

In the mean time we had a great Renaming Party. We crowded 12 hardy souls aboard and preformed a traditional ceremony.....well sort of. It was interspersed with some singing and general merry making.

Some update photos for your enjoyment.

This is the "Before" picture. This is when we went  to Mobile, Al. to purchase the boat. Notice the line wraps on the mainsail. Those are in preparation for Hurricane Ida. We eventually striped off the bimini and dodger and stowed all the deck equipment below decks. At this time it's hard to believe that this is the boat I bought.

S/V Moonshine! This is obviously the "after" picture. You can see why I have a hard time believing it's the same boat. Many hours of work in the transformation. It sure is nice inside too.

Added touches. This is our new cruising Spinnaker

So far we are still on schedule for departure from the St. Petersburg, Fl area around the 5th of April.?? Ya just never know when sailing. We are going to haul the boat out and do some work on the bottom through hull fittings and check out anything below the waterline. If anything is needed at that time we will fix or replace anything needed. We'll also put on anothe coat of bottom paint.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.

This is a picture of our refit in progress. We had the arch and davits installed by Lippincott Marine and I have just finished installing the Radar, Wind Generator and Solar Panels. You can also see a part of the Doyle Cradle Cover for the sail. We're very excited about our new improvements. Christie has been busy sewing covers for the outboard motor and grill. She has also done some modifications to make the tender cover easier to put on and holes for the davit lines. That is on top of making covers for our spare blankets that we can then use for pillows around the saloon, and a cover for the folding bicycle on deck. It has really been a busy time around here. It often seems I work harder around the boat than I did when I had a real job..........Or sort of a real job............sometimes!! :-)
Shane in the mean time is busy with his Studies and Sociallizing around the marina.

Hi all,
It's time to get you all updated on our statis. We have been docked here in St. Pete, Fl since the middle of January doing a major refit. We have installed and new arch, wind generator, solar panels, bimini, sail cover/ cradle pack, cruising spinaker, dodger, ground tackle, swim platform, davits, dive tanks racks and many more smaller items. I will post some pictures of our boat as soon as I can. It's hard to tell it's the same boat as before. We have been quite busy everyday doing some project of another. We are now waiting for the delivery of a new helm and as soon as that is installed we will be leaving this area. It has been a good time and we have enjoyed the people and activities in the area, but it's time to move on.