The importance of timing!

October 20^th 2012

Position  N 27° 22.225’.
              W 82° 37.075’.

Longboat Key Club Moorings, FL

 
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There is one thing that cannot be stopped and that is the passage of time. For any of you reading this and other cruising blogs you will come across a theme. What I am referring to is ‘get going’, the passage of time brings on a much higher probability of failing health. Most of us work and work until we think we have enough money to retire. A better plan is to set the date that you will retire and begin following your life time dream at a level you can afford then; don’t continue to accumulate wealth and strive for perfection. For example, in our case, to own an affordable boat and be cruising, is better than striving to own a larger more expensive one. The point I am making is, as follows, and I hate bringing it up and only do so in the interest of making the point that time is so valuable and that there is no time like the present to get going. I am in generally good health am active and can perform the daily chores required as a cruiser, although I have had a near miss with bladder cancer, I am now on a two year interval visit to my urologist for checkups and have been clear of cancer for 10 years. I have had prostate cancer too and that has required me to have several two year treatment regimens consisting of three month interval injections of a hormone drug which has kept the cancer at bay and still allows me to function normally although a little more fatigued than I would like. These treatments occur with approximately two year breaks in-between. Our cruising has to revolve around these inconveniences’ and longer treks are difficult to do so in the future some of our ‘dream’ trips may not become reality. Yesterday I was diagnosed with a melanoma on my right shoulder and will be having it removed next week. The prognosis is good as the dermatologist advises me that it has been caught early. The inconvenience, even if the worry of the cancer returning does not become a reality, is now I have another thing to watch over that requires a three month check-up and provides more interruption to our cruising plans. I can see how so many boats are advertised for sale with the note in the description “change of owner’s plans due to health”. Don’t let this be you, if you and your spouse/significant other, if you have one, are among the lucky ones enjoying good unrestrictive health get out there and live! To not have the health worry is a breath of fresh air, something which unfortunately is in my past. I will continue to cruise but have to live with the inconveniences and the knowledge that the incurable prostate cancer I have will eventually become resistant to the available treatments and I will have to face finishing our cruising days earlier than I would like. No sympathy required I am fine and am living my dream; I just want any of you planning to become adventure seeking cruisers to get out there sooner rather than later! Tempus fugit!

 

This blog entry’s techno is toilet related, I wrote in September about servicing the sewage system and that George from Delmar would, upon his return from vacation, come back and replace the holding tank vent pipe. Yesterday was the day...George arrived at 10:30 and went to work, together we first cleaned the hull vent fitting by removing a panel in the starboard aft corner of the master stateroom to give access to the vent pipe where it connects to the hull fitting which actually was brass and not ‘pot metal’ as I wrote in the Sept 15^th entry. George removed the hose from the fitting and began cleaning the crud out and then he went to the outboard side and, with me literally holding his legs, leant over the side of ‘Partners’ and cleaned the vent from the outside too. All not easy as the vent is a 90° fitting and required a variety of tools to reach all the way in and through. George then connected a pump to the inboard side of the fitting and made sure that air was passing through freely, it was. Now a decision had to be made to either try and remove and replace the vent hose or just blow it through with the pump to ensure the flow of air. George decided that even though he may be able to remove the hose clamp holding the hose to the tank fitting, that once disconnected, he may not be able to reconnect it. The contortions necessary to reach the vent pipe position on the holding tank were extreme, and there was no visibility. We both agreed to not attempt a replacement of the hose. George checked the airflow through the vent pipe using a manual dinghy inflator pump and all was good. We quickly reassembled the hose to the fitting and checked the system operation. Finally George checked the vacuum pressure in the Vacuflush toilet we have in the forward head and it was fine. It has now been 24 hours since George’s service visit and all is well. The Admiral is a happy camper! 
 

I did manage to finish off varnishing the four aft deck chairs last week so now we have ‘like new’ furniture on the back porch! The table and chairs really do look good although I say it myself. With the painting over, last Saturday was cleaning day so from top to bottom ‘Partners’ received a ‘birthday’. Lavinia and I hosed and washed all surfaces and scrubbed the teak decks, across the grain of course, and boy did she look good after. The job took us all day and we were both tired out at the end; it was nice though to stand back and admire our labours! Somehow, we both agreed, the cold beer ‘sundowners’ that evening tasted the best!

 

We will be heading to Chevy Chase Maryland on Thursday to visit HT’s younger sister P Kaye and family, well actually her husband Greg and son Jack 17; Tess their daughter has just started university in Gainesville, FL at the University of Florida...she’s a Gator now and won’t be there!  This is a very important trip as we will be taking the last of our belongings, the impossible to part with items, the priceless treasuresJ, to their basement for storage until our return. ‘Partners’ will then be at her cruising weight having shed all excess pounds. We will drive nonstop in one day and will be staying through Sunday driving back nonstop on Monday; I love to drive and it will be the last long road trip we will make before selling our cars.  

 

October 26^th. We are safely home at Longboat Key from our Washington DC trip, we had a great time, Greg & P Kaye, as usual, were very generous hosts. We attended their son Jacks Friday night football game, watched him play and win! Jack’s girlfriend is one of the cheerleaders so our curiosity of ‘who our 16 year old nephew was dating’ was satisfied, she seemed a great girl and pretty too! On Saturday it was football again, Greg works for the University of Maryland and is able to obtain good tickets for the games. The ‘Terrapins’ played the University of NC, the game was very even and exciting with end to end plays, sadly the home team lost in the last seconds as a result of a missed field goal attempt which would have won them the game. The score was 20 to 18. Lavinia’s cousin Henry, Pulitzer prize winner and now retired from the Washington Post, came over with his wife Deborah, one of his sons and two of his grandchildren for a visit and dinner on Sunday night; we had a great meal and, of course, a lot of fun. All in all we had a super visit and I know Lavinia and P Kaye enjoyed seeing each other; these rare get-togethers are precious...

 

This week we have been busy continuing our preparation for beginning our cruising life and at the weekend we will be off to the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show. We have a list of things to buy which include a new outboard motor for our Novurania dinghy; we have decided to not buy a whole new rig, we were considering an A/B with a consol and bigger motor but we just can’t justify the expense. We will be looking for LED bulb replacements for our incandescent ones, also a good deal on C-Map Extra Wide charts for the Caribbean and as far north as the Canadian Maritimes. Oh, and two new fishing rods and reels! We are also hoping to find a deal on a magma grill, we’ll see! We will take time out to look at the newer boats too as they always provide idea’s that we can or may incorporate into ‘Partners’, it is fun to watch the evolution and improvements that occur every year. In the boat industry most changes and improvements are as a result of owner input and I have been amazed over the years of how attentive the better manufacturers are to listening to their owner base and implementing changes. No one boat is the same as the next, at least in the larger boats, manufactures are always willing to modify interior designs and accommodation layout changes, it is fascinating to see each owners ‘ideal’ layout and decor tastes. 

The sights we see...

Last night we had a gathering on board ‘Partners’, quite spontaneously Ron and Pam, Rudy and Teresa from the two boats either side of us and Jeff a little farther down the dock all appeared to enjoy the wonderful weather and sundowners. Sooo, before too long all were on our foredeck and we just talked and talked, laughed and joked until 20:00hrs! Lavinia managed to find some snacks, chips and nut mix but the hit was the Cajun crab and lobster dip it had just the required ‘kick’ to go with the alcohol! By now the 151 rum was out!  Funny how a party can get going when a bunch of boaters get together. Hurricane Sandy in the Atlantic is bringing us NW to NE winds up to about 30 Knots at times it is also drying out the air. Yesterday and last night in particular was perfect, today I think will be the same, 81° is the forecast high.
 

The Boat Show was tiring as usual but productive; first we have decided to look into putting a St. Croix consol and seat into our 10’ Novuania dinghy and installing a 20 hp Tohatsu outboard with power tilt and trim. We bought several cruising guides and electronic charts; Bluewater Books had discounts that ensured we made a trip to their store off 17^th street and oh yes...a few hundred dollars later we escaped!