Month: April 2023

Things are progressing nicely as we enter the last week before haulout. We’ve been picking away at jobs. Sails were washed, packed and stored on board. The cockpit plus all the cushions had a good wash and now the cushions are all in the v-berth. Mark completed the electrical cabling job and has now moved on to storage jobs.

The inside of the boat is becoming rather congested with all the cleaned stored items. The v-berth is jammed full of stuff and it’s getting harder to find places to store items while we’re still onboard. It feels like we are ahead of schedule but there’s always lots of last minute items that can’t be done until we’re out of the water.

We have had a bit of fun time in between all the jobs. Last Saturday we had a spaghetti dinner with other cruisers. We had a lot of ground turkey remaining from our season so we decided to invite our friends on the dock to a dinner in the lounge. Mark and I made the spaghetti; Julia and Brad brought buns and butter; Sharon and Rick did appetizers; Barb and John (on Mojo) made brownies and Everett (a solo sailor on the floating dock) brought a carrot cake. It was a feast and we had a great time relaxing in the air-conditioned lounge!!

Mark and I also took off Sunday afternoon (April 23). We drove to a creative pop-up at Jacksonville Beach. We thought it would be lots of local artists’ booths but instead it was a fancy flea market – not the best. We left there and went to Jacksonville’s Museum of Contemporary Art. That was very good and we enjoyed the mostly American artwork.

The dock is starting to empty now. Sharon and Rick on Orkan were hauled out on Monday and they left for Ontario today (Wednesday). Barb and John on Mojo were hauled out yesterday (Tuesday) and they left that afternoon for New Jersey. We’ll be hauled out this coming Tuesday (May 2) and we’ll leave the same day. That will leave just Julia and Brad on Alizarin – they will be hauled out on May 10 and will head back to Ontario a few days later.

It’s hard to believe but we’ve already been on the pier at Reynolds for 11 days. We only have 11 more to go before we’re heading back to Canada. It’s super great to have all this time to get the boat ready for storage. We definitely are not rushed. Mark has been doing some jobs that he says are either for this upcoming November or things that didn’t get done last November. Either way, some very important projects are getting completed.

On our last morning at anchor, the deck wash connection broke. The deck wash is used to spray the chain and anchor as they’re hauled back aboard so it’s important to have it working. That was Mark’s first job which turned out to be more challenging then expected. The inside attachment point for the deck wash was in the anchor chain locker in the v-berth, which is incredibly difficult to get inside. After much struggle (and many bruises) Mark got the new connector secured and working. While he was in that compartment, he took out the electric motor for the windlass (the machine that hoists the anchor) because it was making some not so funny noises that need to be addressed. The motor will come home with us!

The next big job Mark has been tackling is replacing all the 120v electrical cables in the boat. These cables are 43 years old and their age is showing. There has been lots of pushing and pulling to remove the old cables plus parts of the main cabin had to be taken apart to get access to the old stuff and put in the new. It’s another job that really need to be done!

We are getting some storage jobs completed too. The v-berth has been washed and the mattresses have been wrapped so now I can start vacuum sealing stuff and storing it up there. We vacuum seal all fabrics, clothing items, electronics and any other items that stay on the boat. I’ve spent a few days washing all the interior surfaces with both Pinesol and vinegar. After our “Covid” storage mold disaster, I do extra cleaning to remove salt and dirt and then use vinegar and a mold spray to keep the mold from returning while the boat is on the hard. The last 2 days I’ve worked on the exterior wood (this is called brightwork), giving it a new coat of Semco (a teak sealant). The wood was in rough shape by the end of this season so it really needed a good coating of Semco. Looks great now!

We have had some time to relax and enjoy ourselves. On Saturday, April 15 we drove to St. Augustine to have dinner with Julia and Brad and Sharon and Rick. Both couples arrived at Reynolds on the following Tuesday and we’ve had a happy hour to celebrate the end of the sailing season. We’ll plan a few more get togethers before we all head home.

It’s great to be back along side the Reynolds Park pier, safely tied with multiple lines. Our stay at St. Augustine wasn’t exactly what we had planned for! Our thought was that we’d have a nice quiet visit and enjoy some of the sights and sounds of St. Augustine at Easter. Well we ended up spending Friday recovering from our sail across and we had a nice lunch out!

Saturday was spent trying to get a phone plan for my phone. It was very frustrating and we left the Verizon office without a plan. We did a bit of grocery shopping and then headed back to the boat. The Sunday and Monday weather predictions were looking pretty rough – rain and wind! The prediction was dead on – the winds started Sunday morning and so did the rain. We were tied to a mooring ball in the north field and unfortunately we faced directly into the inlet when the wind started blowing from the north and northeast. We had sustained winds in the high 20knots with gusts up to 35knots. We bounced and rocked with the waves coming in from the ocean and at times, the strong current turned us sideways to the wind (that’s not much fun).

As night rolled around, Mark thought we should check our 2 mooring lines (just to be safe). It was a good thing he checked – one line was broken and the other was chafed!! It was kind of scary to think about it. We were hanging onto the ball with a damaged dock line and there were at least 5 boats behind us. Mark used our snubber line (this line gets attached to the chain of the anchor to stop the chain from rubbing when you’re on the hook) and 2 other dock lines to secure us for the night and we checked the lines every 3 hours!! It was a long night but all lines were still attached on Monday morning.

The weather continued to be windy and rainy on Monday. We delayed our early Monday departure from St. Augustine until the wind died down a bit. We managed to drop the mooring ball around 11 am. It was a very interesting 40nm trip north – visibility at times was terrible but at least we didn’t have to content with lots of boat traffic. We were mostly by ourselves!!

Tuesday we made our way along the St. Johns River, through Jacksonville and down to Reynolds Park by 4pm. We had one bad squall roll through just as we were approaching the Main Street Lift bridge in Jacksonville so we had to coast for several minutes while it blew by. When we arrived at Reynolds, we were super lucky to have help from 2 fellow cruisers on the pier. They took our lines and helped us get secured! We now have 3 weeks to get the boat ready for haulout and storage. We booked our haulout for May 2 so that gives us lots of time to get all the work done.

It’s been a crazy few days for Crimson Kathryn and especially her crew! We were up very early (3am) on Wednesday, April 5th and were underway around 4am. The moon was bright and we could clearly see our way out of Ginn Sur Mer. We had a long 234nm trip ahead of us but the wind was predicted to be fairly strong (12 – 18knots) from east/southeast.

The first 8nm of our trip was very rolly – the wind was on the stern and we only had the main up. Once we turned onto the longest portion of our crossing (about 150nm), we put up all sails and had a great broad reach course. This sail was amazing!! We set our sails and didn’t change them for the whole 150nm! The wind was as predicted and once we entered the Gulf Stream, we were really moving! Our speed was mostly in the low 8knots but we saw 10.5knots and 11knots!! We were halfway to St. Augustine by 7:30pm Wednesday.

Unfortunately our great speed and excellent wind direction both disappeared when we made our turn to head into shore. We made a 30 degree turn and that took us out of the Gulf Stream and made us sail downwind. This course was a bit rolly but mostly it was just slow!! By 8am Thursday the wind started to die down. We decided to take the sails down and just motor the rest of the way.

As we approached the St. Augustine inlet, we were greeted by several dolphins who swam along with us on and off for about an hour. It was lots of fun watching these guys swim towards us and then under the boat and up to the bow.

We arrived at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina a little after 2pm and were secured to a mooring ball before 3pm. After some well deserved showers and some Wi-Fi time, we ordered some dinner and took it back to the boat. We celebrated with a bottle of bubbly and went to bed early!!

Now that we are so far north, it will only take 2 more days to reach Reynolds Park. Our current plan is to leave here on Monday and arrive at Reynolds by Tuesday. Then we start the job of getting the boat ready for storage!

The Bahamas portion of our 2023 season is quickly coming to an end. We left Crab Cay a day early – on Friday March 31 and had a wonderful downwind sail to Great Sale Cay. Our friends, Julia and Brad on Alizarin travelled with us and we had some great opportunities to photograph each other as we made our way west. We were also joined by a pair of curious dolphins who swam in our bow wake for several minutes!

We arrived at Great Sale Cay around 3pm and we ended up anchoring right beside Orkan (Sharon and Rick). It was a quiet night but a bit bouncy in the anchorage. We were up early Saturday morning and started sailing immediately after the anchor was up. All 3 boats (us, Alizarin and Orkan) were heading towards West End – a 54nm trip, so we wanted to get as far as possible while the wind was still southeast. The first half of this trip was another great sailing course. We had all 3 sails up and were making great time until we had to turn more into the wind. We took our sails down and ended up motoring all afternoon. As we left the Little Bahamas Bank and turned south towards West End, the wind and waves from the south took their toll on our speed! It was a very long, rough 4nm to reach our destination- Ginn Sur Mer.

We are currently anchored in Ginn Sur Mer with Alizarin (Orkan went into the marina at West End). This area is an abandoned development that was supposed to be a housing and resort spot with nice canals. The canals were built and a few houses went in but then the whole thing shut down. It’s a bit creepy but works well as an all weather hiding spot and a great place to wait for good crossing weather.

So here we wait!! Looks like Alizarin will be leaving for Fort Pierce Florida early Tuesday morning (maybe around midnight). It’s about an 84nm trip for them so they should arrive in the early afternoon on Wednesday. Our plan is to leave around 5am on Wednesday and sail 230nm all the way to St. Augustine, arriving around 3pm Thursday. Fingers crossed both our crossing windows hold!!