December 22th 2012
Position N 27° 22.225’.
W 82° 37.075’.
Longboat Key Club Moorings, FL
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Black Friday – not normally a day which would gain much of my
attention, I am not a shopper and definitely have not in the past been a
‘bargain’ shopper. To document our travels I have felt for some time that we
should have a decent camera. A good friend of mine Bill owns a Nikon and has
travelled extensively capturing some wonderful memories and has produced some
fantastic coffee table books where he has added narrative to connect everything
together. I am thinking that I could do this not only to produce a record of our
photography but also to keep my blog organized. I, like most other people with
a mailing address, pawed through numerous flyers advertising Black Friday
deals. In one of them I saw a D5100 Nikon ‘bundle’ which included the camera,
two lenses, a carrying case and a few other accessories, wow, was this the deal
that, for the first time, would get me to go shopping on Black Friday. Well, it
did, not one minute after midnight I hasten to add but at 10:30. Soooo, I am
now the proud owner of a beautiful Nikon camera. Good digital cameras are now
mini computers and are capable of far more than the average user understands.
It came with two CD’s offering instruction and tips, neither of which I have
had time to view yet but will. During the exploratory and learning period there
is an automatic mode, thank goodness!
Jim from Marina Electronics in Port Charlotte is installing a
redundant autopilot along with an AIS unit both to interface with our Nobeltec
navigation software. The team arrived...well, they initially proceeded to
‘tear’ the boat apart; from our closet in the master stateroom to the lazerette
was affected. The reason, wire runs. The pilot head is obviously in the pilot
house and the rudder control is in the lazerette so everywhere in between is
affected as far as laying the cables for all components to ‘talk’ to each
other. By the end of the day the installation was complete but in the process
the steering system, a Capilano/Teleflex system had to be tied into; there lies
a problem! After connecting the new hydraulic hoses to the steering system
first Jim and the ‘team’ could not get the air out of the lines. No matter how
many times the upper and lower helms were turned lock to lock the presence of
air remained. A phone call to Teleflex enlightened Jim that some systems
require an electric purging unit to be connected to achieve success. After
enquiring about the availability in the area of a machine and finding out the
cost of the daily rental it didn't take long for Jim to determine that it would
be more economical for him to buy one. After waiting a week for the machine to
arrive an appointment was set to finish off the job, or so we all thought! Jim
did get the air out of the steering system but when he performed the autopilot
set-up tests the autopilot advised that the test failed due to the rudder
moving too slowly. After talking to Simrad they determined that, perhaps, a
larger pump on the new pilot would be the solution. We are still waiting for
the larger pump! A word of warning to those who may see an advantage to having
a redundant pilot...put plenty of absorbent blankets down under any parts of
the steering that could leak steering fluid while being worked on and connected
to. We unfortunately were not fully prepared and a large quantity of fluid
escaped the system both at the upper and lower helm, from the lower helm area
the fluid found its way down to the guest cabin and made quite a mess there! On
the boat deck the fluid drained from the flying bridge helm station all over
the deck and down to the companionways on the main deck. The admiral was beside
herself! (Mild description). Our plan to be in the Bahamas for Christmas has
obviously been scraped; the latest news from Jim is that because of the ‘Holidays’
it is unlikely that the new larger autopilot pump that we need will arrive before the New Year, so
we are 'Stalled!' and are making plans for Christmas and New Year here in Sarasota. Not all bad but
we are anxious to get going and we are ready!
We had arranged to sell our cars, both of them to the same person which is very convenient, yesterday was the day for my car to go. I have owned one of the last diesel 'big' bodied Mercedes, a 1993 300 SD, that were imported to the US, she has been the most wonderful car, to the point that I have not wanted a different car and have not thought to change since I bought her; my trusty friend has safely and reliably delivered 317,000 miles! Well, the day before yesterday, one day before the sale 'Murphy' paid a visit, I caught the front of the car on one of those big parking blocks and yes, you guessed it...ripped the @%&$%#;* front air dam off! The net result was a reduction of mucho dineros, $500 to be precise - not a good day. I explained the delay in us leaving and requested a delay in giving up Lavinia's car so we would at least be able to get around while the autopilot and steering debacle gets fixed. No problem...our buyer is Sam Hazeltine of S & S Mercedes Service & Repair, great people by the way, they have serviced both our cars for us over the years. So, we still have Lavinia's car, a Toyota Corolla station wagon which we bought new in November of 1991! Yes, from reading this you can see we have not been 'car people' over the last 20 years. Have always had better things to spend our money on...boats for example!
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| The WirieAP |
All cruisers would like to have an Internet connection all of the
time for weather information easy e-mail capability and just for general
information. The cost, however, is prohibitive for most as to receive this kind
of service it requires satellite connection at an exorbitant cost. The WirieAP
is a wifi booster which will find and amplify signals from great
distances. Whereas not providing a continuous service it certainly increases
the ability to have an Internet connection much more of the time than would
normally be the case. The unit is of good quality and is specifically made for
outdoor installation and the marine environment. As we cruise I will report
more specifically concerning the effective operating range and its durability. Installation
is simple and the unit’s performance so far is great, with a signal being
obtained from approximately two miles distant. I would recommend to anyone. http://www.thewirie.com/
I ordered a Warn 800 Hoist which we will install on the mast boom to
assist in the raising and lowering of the dinghy. I ordered a remote control
accessory too. Installation is planned for next week sometime so more to
follow. Oh, the decision to buy the Warn was as a result of reading other
cruisers reports on the Krogen Cruisers net, a great resource and most helpful.
Lavinia, (aka HT, the Admiral) made an executive decision to have
the pilot house bench seat and convertible pilot berth recovered, she also,
after a visit to the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show last fall, envied one particular
boat we boarded which had a beautiful decor and in particular a certain type of
wallpaper in its pilot house. I found out only recently that she has a good
memory and one day last week she arrived home after a shopping expedition with
the very same wallpaper? Sooo, by deduction I guess I had better get on board
with the notion that the pilot house is going to be redecorated to match the
new cushions! The ultra suede really looks great and does transform the
appearance of the space.
Dock Party (Dec 1st) Jeff, Ron & Pam our neighbours
suggested that all of us who have boats on N dock should have a dock party...so
we did! About twelve brave souls attended and we had a great time, everyone
brought their beverage of choice and we had fruit and veggie platters, homemade
sausage rolls, made by Lavinia, some with curry in them (ooh, yummy!) my
favourite, hamburgers on the grill (we christened our new grill), various
salads, potato and pasta and last but not least Pam’s baked beans! We started
at around 15:00 and, I have no idea how, but managed to keep it going until
23:00. Yes, you guessed it a thumping headache the next morning...was it worth
it, you bet, we had so much fun with great stories and cheek aching laughter.
As we near our leaving date it is
appropriate to remind readers of our purpose here. I started this blog as I wanted
to record our lives in retirement, our adventures and travels; secondly to encourage
other would be cruisers to take the plunge. We have firsthand experience of the
difficulties to actually ‘do this’, by taking the first step of buying the
boat, then actually selling everything to completely free one’s self from the
land and finally, actually leaving the dock. We personally feel that not having
any land ties is the way to go but to be fair there are many cruiser who do
maintain a land base and return to it, usually, for periods of each year and
continue to alternate between home and boat. With no disrespect to those
cruisers who do this successfully, we feel the total freedom route is the one.
‘Partners’ our 42’ Kadey Krogen boat is our home not just a boat on which we
spend part of a year, it is the only home we have and that makes the approach
different, all of a sudden we have become a citizen of the world and to have
the ability to move her to new horizons on a whim is thrilling and exciting. If
we owned a home too I don’t think our approach would be quite the same. To us
we would still feel tied to and tied up in the land lubbers’ rut and only a
citizen of that particular country who was temporarily taking a sabbatical to
cruise for a while. Going back a number of years our retirement plan was to
sell the family home in Sarasota, FL keep the small condo, also in Sarasota,
and buy my dreamboat a 50’ Flush Deck Grand Banks and eventually, once retired,
follow the sun south. My dream became Lavinia’s dream too so in 1998 we bought
a 50’ Grand Banks and names her ‘Partners’. We sold the family home and indeed
bought the small condo, we were on our way. Both of us were working full time
and contented ourselves with local weekend trips. We did decide to renovate the
boat and ‘Partners’ spent two years at Marlow Marine in Palmetto, FL being made
brand new again. What a wonderfully job they did, the boat was magnificent. Our
dream faced a setback and in 2002 I was diagnosed with prostate and bladder
cancer, on the same day! The two years of treatment and surgeries I received
took its toll and the upkeep of the boat became too much so she was sold. An
Englishman bought her and took her to the UK. Our dream became shelved for
several years. Gradually as time passed we started to plan ‘the dream’ again
and in 2011 we bought our Kadey Krogen 42’ and named her ‘Partners’, (we firmly
believe we are), and our dream was back on track again. We gave ourselves a
year to move aboard and dispose of all the land based trappings. We became full
time live aboards in December 2011. Our next goal was to become long distant
cruisers by the end of 2012. We are now fully retired and, for us, have made
the right decision. We now can't imagine not to have taken the plunge to
become free and totally in charge of our lives. If you are tempted to follow
this lifestyle do it as soon as you possibly can don’t stay working just to
accumulate a few more dollars. A fellow long range cruiser Scott Flanders who
has completed a circumnavigation in his 46’ Nordhavn once wrote “We all learn from each other particularly
from ourselves. The one person you can never fool is yourself.” He further
wrote…
“A prime example, we had good friends from the Keys who retired 4 years
ahead of us. He was a boat builder building beautiful wood/epoxy custom sport
fishermen. He sold his business and property then bought his Keys house paying
cash, had previously built three fishing boats for the Keys and had bought a
new Porsche for his wife. Within three years they were the unhappiest people
you could imagine. Yes, they lived in paradise but when you get up each day and
ask yourself 'what's next?' it really gets boring. When picking up palm fronds
and driving to town to pick up the paper become part of your routine, it's sad.
This is just one example of lessons learned among many that fostered our
decision.”
A friend of mine Bernie, during one
of our regular breakfast meetings, said to me “you are the only person I know
who is actually following and living their dream”. Wow, really, pretty sad too!
If you have a dream, a real passion to do something with your life and time,
please, as Nike would say, just do it! You’ll figure it out, what I am saying
here is don’t stall at the dreaming and planning stage; I think so many people
do and never get going and you too will end up “picking up palm fronds and driving to town to pick up the paper”
Remember familiarity breeds contempt, it is so easy to just continue working,
living the same routing accumulating more money, so many people just think they
need more and more of it, you don’t! Change is exciting, it is good for your
relationship and I don’t think that Lavinia and I have talked to another
cruiser who has not been ecstatic about their decision to ‘go cruising’. I am
sure that it will extend our lives as we are active every day. Living on
‘Partners’ is like being on a stair walker 24/7, up and down, up and down, it
absolutely amazes me how many time a day one actually uses all the steps we
have! I have lost 22 lbs in a year…
Going to close now and wish everyone
a Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year…
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Well,
here we are still in the Sarasota area, our delay to ‘get going’ and be in the
Bahamas for Christmas begot more commitments! When we found out we were to be
at our marina here in Longboat Key for Christmas we obviously made plans and
the plans have committed us to be here now until at least the 15th.
My planning goes on and the spending goes on. Eric our canvas man stopped by ‘Partners’
a week ago and a conversation concerning the window covers around our pilot
house turned into an order! We had and still have solid matching blue custom
covers that completely block all light from entering the pilothouse and make
the area unusable as it is so dark and any view is obliterated. Eric made a
suggestion of screens that give 95% protection of the harmful UV sun rays,
obscure being able to see in but allow us to see out, oh, and not to mention,
light comes in. Long and short, we ordered them! They arrived yesterday and
look beautiful; we had them made in white so they are far less
noticeable as the solid blue ones they are replacing. Now we have our pilot
house back! We can now enjoy the new cushions on our pilot house bench seat and
as a bonus have a view! 
The Sailor Circus was well
worth the visit; the children absolutely loved it and were totally engaged for
two hours. I was impressed with the level of accomplishment these young performers
have attained, they were really good! At the end they all stood around the edge
of the arena to receive the crowd as we all left. They were, without exception,
so gracious in receiving their praise, as I said before – very impressive. 
The Sailor Circus was well
worth the visit; the children absolutely loved it and were totally engaged for
two hours. I was impressed with the level of accomplishment these young performers
have attained, they were really good! At the end they all stood around the edge
of the arena to receive the crowd as we all left. They were, without exception,
so gracious in receiving their praise, as I said before – very impressive. 
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