Tow Boat USA

First tow

Next day we call Tow Boat USA at 8. They're really busy (another boat ran up on shore last night) but they'd get there soon. It took about an hour and a half, they hooked on started towing and then told us that the Flagler bridge (within site) was having problems and was closed till further notice! He parked us out of the channel, said that he would monitor the bridge channel (and we should too) and he'd be back when it was fixed. A short time later I heard someone ask the opening time for Flagler and the operator said it will be open in 10 minutes! So we called her and she said they were having problems but maintenance was on site and the bridge was mostly operational. We called TowBoat to give them this information - which they should have known! They said they'd come back soon.

Second tow

Soon turned out to be 1:45 p.m.  I should explain that they don't like you to sail through the bridges, you have to motor so we couldn't just go on our own. The bonus of being towed is that you don't have to wait for regular opening times, they just open them all up for all commercial vessels. Without that bonus we would not have made it to the marina in time to get hauled out - as it was we were late and they were not happy.

Getting the lines ready for docking

Getting hauled out

Mallory cleaned the bottom so well before we left that perhaps we don't need her repainted!

“Hours of mild boredom periodically interrupted by moments of sheer terror.”

8:15 a.m. left dock motor was running, main sail up – little choppy waves, little choppy waves

8:55 a.m. out in channel motor died, put jib up, we were sailing - more little choppy waves

9:30 a.m. passed tall ship, awesome – more little choppy waves

11:40 a.m. Gerry goes for nap – medium choppy waves

11:43 a.m. autopilot quits, boat jibes, Chris for some unknown reason jumps to my side of the boat, running into the main sail sheets which are traveling at a wicked pace across the traveler to starboard. She now sports a nasty huge bruise on her arm. I'm bent over trying to pull the autopilot lever up so I can turn the wheel manually, she plows into me – no bruises. Gerry comes up into the cockpit and saves the day.

12 noon Medium rolling waves

1 p.m. More medium rolling waves

2 p.m. Even more medium rolling waves

3 p.m. Bigger medium rolling waves

4 p.m. More bigger medium rolling waves

5 p.m. Bigger rolling waves

6 p.m. Bigger rolling waves

7 p.m. Bigger rolling waves – we think we see land far far away

8 p.m. Even bigger rolling waves and the jib won't hold the wind so we pull it in

9 p.m. Ever more big rolling waves, losing time so we put the jib back out but it got caught on the front hatch and managed to twist itself into a useless figure 8 that was not letting go any time soon. Gerry thought he could free it and stupidly went forward (on a wildly rolling boat) with me yelling "don't you dare fall off this boat" and Chris yelling "at least put on a life jacket." He couldn't free it.

10 p.m. Evidently there is no end to the waves and the rolling of the boat, Chris went below

11 p.m. - Cannot find the channel – we know it's there somewhere but the lights on shore are confusing and we're cutting across to the channel with the sea buoy way out on our right instead of coming straight in.  I see a red marker but cannot find a matching green except a really small one and a larger one off in the distance. We head for the red and I realize the little green light is on a boat that is coming at us. One would think he's coming out of the inlet - wrong, he was coming from the shore to the left of the inlet. Almost at the same time I realize the larger green light is too far into the channel to be the proper one and also see a huge pile of rocks dead ahead! The red marker is on the opposite side of the jetty where it should be and the rock jetty is between it and us. Fortunately Gerry responds well to someone yelling “TURN NOW, TURN NOW” so we just missed crashing into the rocks and the little boat got the hell out of our way.  Chris leaped into the cockpit deciding it was better than being below if the rocks came through the hull. Little boat driver then offered to tow us in but we declined (too rough). He repeatedly offered to help but when we asked if he was going in the channel and would he go ahead he refused (twice) – he thought he'd be more help if he stayed out in the bouncing 7 - 10 foot waves and getting in our way (almost T-boned him). We eventually got out far enough to turn around and come in, with the other boat yelling "you'll never make it" - how helpful. We just squeaked around into the channel, (other boat "wow, that was great work captain") turned into the anchorage, dropped anchor and fell into bed. This is why Gerry likes to arrive in daylight.

Another example of  “Hours of mild boredom periodically interrupted by moments of sheer terror.”

Murder revisited

10:30 p.m. A relative of Alice the rat has been caught in the sticky trap I put in the flybridge after seeing droppings earlier in the day.

10:45 p.m. - couldn't take the noise of rat jumping around trying to release itself from sticky trap and fearing it would escape I hit it over the head with the deck broom.

11:15 p.m. - checked rat was still dead, went to bed. Someone else can dispose of the body, the someone who was too busy to deal with it when it was jumping around.

Score: Rats 0; Chris 1; Sophia 6; Gerry 0

Before you moan, "how could you just bash the poor thing" bear in mind these trespassers have not been eating any of our food, they are no doubt munching on the boat's insulation, wiring, cabling, rubber, walls, hoses, etc. They can do thousands of dollars of damage to a boat that you might not even find until you're out at sea, wondering why some vital component is no longer functioning.

On the other side of the coin, it's a good thing rats aren't intelligent enough to organize themselves and hire a lawyer (there's a joke in there somewhere) and sue us for causing trillions of damage to Mother Earth. They'd have a good argument over who should be bashed over the head.

Snorkeling 101

Honestly Chris I was laughing with you, not at you.

The top of the water is here somewhere

Getting closer..........

Skimming the surface

Ahh touchdown

Success!

October 16, 2012 Boat repair/prep - it never ends

Winds have been strong since we arrived but now that we want to go across to Florida they have completely, utterly, undeniably died. Wednesday's departure has been postponed to the weekend giving us lots of time to get Ramblynn shipshape and maybe test the jury-rigged water pump we've had to install and the home made thing-a-ma-bob to stop the top of the roller furling from turning - I think. If the pump, thing-a-ma-boband winds fail us we do have unlimited towing insurance.

A new (to us) engine awaits us in Florida - and getting it there from Nova Scotia is a long long tale of bureaucracy and stupidity (those words are synonyms aren't they?) that took about 2 weeks to sort out. Just ask Gerry, I'm sure he'd be glad to fill you in. I've almost convinced him to import Ramblynn into the Bahamas so we don't have to go to Florida if we don't want to. You're supposed to leave and re-enter Bahamas every year to renew your cruising permit.

Gary up his mast using his spiffy new mast ladder

All hands on deck, installing main sail.

Murder and Mayhem in the Bahamas

We arrrived late Monday evening and discovered droppings all over the power boat Dirty Girl. I don't mean a few here and there, about a million inside and out. A hundred rats and/or lizards must have moved in, or so we thought. Lizards because nothing was chewed up, rats because that's what you usually think it is. We cleaned up enough so we weren't stomping through the mess and called it a night. Next morning more cleaning taking time out to watch the shark (about 5' long) lazily swimming circles around the boat. Poor thing has a fishing line wrapped around it's tail, barely visible in the photo.

Nurse shark

On Tuesday cleaning soon became boring and we said “screw it, we're going to the beach.” It was so hot we spent most of the time in the water, watching a sea turtle touring the bay.

Wednesday is fish fry night down the road but I elected to stay behind in the freshly cleaned boat. So I'm sitting in the main salon when I noticed movement on the floor – a rat had just strolled in from the front of the boat. It didn't even see me until I moved and it scurried behind a table in the corner. For the next 1.5 hours I kept watch, scaring it back until Chris and Gerry came home, more than a little inebriated. Chris thought she could catch it by putting a bucket over it if it ran out and Gerry put a trap down thinking it would wander out on its own across the trap. The rat fooled them both and dashed across the room, disappearing behind the couch. We jammed mats under our bedroom doors and went to bed, thinking we had it trapped in the salon and we'll deal with it in the morning.

Thursday morning we found it had chewed its way under Chris's door so Chris and I (Gerry was at coffee club) tore the room apart, and found that our rat is a she, mother of 6, or she was – the young 'uns ended up in the canal (murder) and we're patiently waiting for dear mommy to fall into a trap. 

It's now Thursday evening, no sign of her, nor have we seen any more droppings, perhaps she's left the boat, hope so.

Guess there was no mayhem -- yet.


Update:

Friday, 5:00 a.m. mayhem struck. We had set traps in the side berth and salon. Chris opted to sleep on the couch so she'd have more room to run if the rat showed up, and show up she did, stepping on the sticky pad and running around like mad, with Chris standing on the couch shouting for Gerry to save her - was really funny (from my point of view). Gerry shoved it into a garbage can and tossed her and the sticky pad overboard. We woke both Richard and Gary, hopefully not the new neighbours.  For the bleeding hearts out there, the rat escaped and was last seen swimming for shore (minus the sticky pad) where I'm sure she's getting a posse together. I'm hoping she's smart enough to not venture back on board - we have more traps.

Chris standing on the couch, waiting to be rescued - the typical scene of a woman and mouse/rat.

Update: Saturday morning, October 13, no sign of Alice the rat.

Disney

Disney World is mostly how I remember it, except for the new attractions and I don't remember ever being as sore and tired - guess I'm not getting any younger. We stayed right on the grounds at one of the "value" resorts and had a quick service dining plan - quite handy since park food prices are high. We arrived hours before check-in but they give you your Key to the World and send you a text when your room is ready so you can go to the parks (if you want). Your key card is your room key, food plan, admission to the parks and credit card (purchases delivered to your room). So all you need to carry is that and maybe a water bottle, what could be easier?

Highs and Lows

Hollywood Studios: loved Star Tours, went on it 3 times the first day, went back on day 5 and rode it another 6 times - the ride was different every time. At the insistence of Chris's so-called friends we went on the Tower of Terror - never, never again. Toy Story, the Stunt Show and Beauty & the Beast were great.  Fantasmic (fireworks and water show), was too long, difficult to see, boring, and only had a few seconds of fireworks - a colossal waste of money - cut the budget and lower the park ticket prices. According to Wikipedia it costs $45,000 per show and sometimes it's shown twice a night.

Star Tours, our favourite ride

Animal Kingdom:  safari ride was great, walking trails interesting. The Everest roller coaster gave me a headache, will never ride that one again. Our favourite, was Kali River Rapids. We were fortunate to be directed to the wheelchair entrance. Why? Because after the ride we all begged to go around again and because no one in a wheelchair was waiting, they let us. Good thing it was hot, we were all dripping wet by the time we got off.

On safari

Everest

Kali River Rapids, our favourite - notice how wet that guy is?

We too were eventually that wet (drying in front of the fan)

In front of the Living Seas

 Day 3 was supposed to be the Magic Kingdom but it seemed the entire hotel was lined up at the bus stop so we went to Epcot - good choice we got on every ride with hardly any wait time (except Soarin' which we rode twice). Mission Space was interesting - you're in a centrifuge that creates forces up to 2.4g (Chris chickened out). The Land and the Sea pavilions were interesting, as usual. We didn't get to see much of IllumiNations. We were tired and wanted to beat the crowd out of the park but the fireworks we could see as we walked out were amazing - extra long because it was Epcot's 30th anniversary and our 3rd. We only took 2 pictures here!



Magic Kingdom: thought we had saved the best for last but we didn't enjoy it as much as other times, not sure why. The Pirates and the Jungle Cruise seemed lame, Monsters Inc and Mickeys Philharmonic were great, Stitch's Great Escape was the worst, - dark, stupid and painful. The bars to keep you seated kept hitting our shoulders, and not gently. Story was idiotic, Disney what were you thinking? The fireworks (and Tinkerbell ziplining overhead) were totally awesome. We accidentally ran into the light parade on our way out, was impressive as well.

Halloween decorations were everywhere.

Marvellous light parade

Disney does a great job - everything was clean, ride wait times weren't too bad, never had to wait long for a bus, room was good, staff (oops, Cast) were helpful and friendly, bathrooms and water fountains plentiful, food was good (portions too large). The meal plan gets you 2 meals (incl dessert and beverage) and 1 snack per person per day. We soon discovered sharing 2 meals could feed the 3 of us and we were hard pressed to use up the snacks. You also get a mug that you can refill endlessly at your resort. The meal plan can be used anywhere. Twice we drove to the upscale hotel down the road to have their (better) breakfast and Gerry could get something printed.

We wore a lot of these - good look isn't it?

Lego Land at Downtown Disney

 We're all Disney'd out, no plans in going back in the near future - next time will probably be with the grandkids. Sally has agreed to push me around the parks in a wheelchair.

All Star Music Cafeteria

Mickey waffle, everyone needs to eat at least one.

Our building is the one with the blue guy on white background.

Our last afternoon, we stayed inside and used up our meal plan before hitting the road.