See ya!

10/20/05
Endless lists and flat wallets.

It's been a while since I sent an update. There is an intermediary update on www.sailtheblue.com , which was not sent out, with photos as well as our first impressions about the home schooling experience .

We have now been tied to a mooring in Annapolis for one month and are about to move to a marina to finish up some of the work that needs to be done.

Outfitting this boat has turned our to be even more expensive than I thought. Some of it is due to things we felt were necessary and some has been due to maintenance or break down. Our Mastervolt battery charger/inverter failed again so we a repurchasing a new one from a competitive brand. We have purchased a watermaker with some hesitation. I probably would not have gone through the expense had it not been for the fact that the boat is all set up for a water maker. We are now in the process of getting shades fitted over our windows and around our cockpit. We resealed our windows and a rigger fitted a backing plate to attach the autopilot which had previously been fitted over non marine plywood. On our return trip from the North East I could hear the plywood creak and groan with each movement of the autopilot.

Otherwise it's been a long list of things such as purchasing extra battens for the mainsail in case we break ours, acquiring filters, belts, shackles, lines, charts, pins, cotter pins and on and on.

In the midst of all this we home school, Rike looked for a medical assistance program and we try to stay warm. The temperature at night is now in the 30's. That said I am in no hurry to head south as hurricane Wilma and tropical storm Alpha continue on their tracks.

We have pushed back our potential departure date to the 7 th of November. The hurricane season does not officially end until the end of November so quite a bit more could happen in the next few weeks. The problem with leaving too late is that it increase the risk of North Easters which can be just a step below a Hurricane. So the plan will be to find a good "window" where the weather looks favorable for the next four days and head south east. If a hurricane were to develop before we cross the gulf-stream we would turn around and if one were to develop after the crossing we probably would aim for Bermuda. You can see the location of the gulf-stream at : http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PWAE10.gif

This trip will obviously have some added stress to it due to the hurricane factor. We will get our own weather faxes as well as weather updates and routing from a well known company in the business called Commander. They will provide us with an original forecast a day before our departure and updates every forty eight hours. They will also monitor our progress and contact us in the event of something dangerous developing between updates.

So we are a long way from the days when sailors went out to sea with the unknown before them and still, even with all the communication and satellites there are surprises. It's all relative to the world we are used to live in I guess. For us there is still an element of adventure to the whole thing.

The temps in Annapolis these days hover around 40 degrees, we are getting mostly rain and it blew a gale last night. Truant, Christian and Michelle's schooner is in the anchorage in Annapolis with Christian down in Florida taking care of two Hylas' in Cape Canaveral during the passage of Wilma. Winds were in the 50 knot rage and gusting much higher. So yes, even in this age of "stuff' there are plenty of reasons to make sure the basics of the boat are in order.

We hope to leave Annapolis at the latest on Tuesday November 1 and, as I said earlier, will be looking for a November 7'th departure out of Hampton and Gloucester Virginia after picking up the Olivier and Ninni, the rest of our crew.

There probably will not be any more updates until we reach the Virgin Islands