Category: Sailing Return 2021 – 22

The days keep moving along and we’re getting a little bored of our marina life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super nice being here – the car, the pool and all the comforts of being tied to the dock – but we’re starting to miss being on the water and sailing.

The last few days have been quite windy and much cooler. We can always tell when home is getting some stormy, cold weather because we too see a change. Toronto and Kingston have been seeing some cold temps and our temperatures have been in the low 20 degrees. It’s still sunny most of the time and we are enjoying the cooler temps.

The jobs are starting to wind down now. Most of the necessary work has been completed or is close to being completed. Mark is doing some fluid changes on the engine (engine and transmission oils, fuel filters) and is waiting for the dinghy repair kit to arrive. The dinghy has a small hole causing it to deflate (not a great thing for a dinghy). Mark located the hole with the help of Steve and it’s an easy fix. The wind generator is arriving on Thursday so installing it will probably be the last big job we do before we leave the marina. We’ve decided to hold off buying the new water maker until next season because there seems to be an issue with supply. We can’t get one until maybe mid February (no guarantee), so we’ll just wait.

I am almost finished all the exterior wood work. The windlass base, 2 hand rails and the dinghy engine mount are all that’s left to be sealed with semco. It’s so nice to be at the end of that job and the wood looks great!!

What’s up next for Crimson Kathryn? That’s a very good question. Mark and I have talked about where we go once we leave here (we’re paid up until January 20) and we still have no definitive answer. The Bahamas keep changing their entry requirements and I’ve heard that they will be changing again at the beginning of February. So, we’ve still not ruled out going to the Bahamas and will probably start by moving further south for now.

Although it has only been 1 week since the girls went home, we have been busy working away at our job list. It was great to take a break from boat jobs but now we need to get the more critical jobs done. We are paid up at the marina until Jan. 20, so we do have a few more weeks to go.

The new year jobs started with mast cleaning and engine work for Mark. I tackled our exterior wood – cap rails and rub rails. The mast cleaning and polishing went well but the engine work was far more complicated. Mark was replacing some copper lines (pipes) that are part of the fuel and steering system because they were salt corroded (from the leaky generator- another good reason that it’s gone!). It was a difficult job which required a lot of moving things around to get at the corroded parts, removing those parts and then replacing them. There were some moments of, well let’s just say unhappiness, during this job. A bit of leaking made a mess in the engine room and then the copper tubes were a challenge to make them fit properly. As of today, the job is done – Mark just needs to replace all the moved parts in the engine room. The real test will come either tomorrow (Friday) or Saturday. We have to move into a new slip so we’ll get to test the steering (which is one of the copper pipes that has been replaced)!

My job started with cleaning our teak cap and rub rails with this 2 part cleaner that removes all the crud from 2 years in storage. I was amazed at the stuff that came off – it was like mud almost. It took a few hours to do the whole boat (it’s at these times that I wish our boat was about 20ft shorter 😁) and then the teak needed to dry thoroughly for about 24 hours. The next day I applied 2 coats of the semco teak sealer. This sealer is really nice – super easy to apply (just use a clean cloth) and the 2nd coat can go down within an hour. There is still a bit more exterior teak to look after but the hardest part is done.

Today we went on a shopping journey! We went to Fort Pierce to drop off our old alternator (to have it rebuilt – it will be our backup) and continued south to West Palm Beach to buy some metal for the installation of our new wind generator and then we went to Costco!! We had a very successful day – lots of good food and drink was purchased!! I can tell you our freezer is working overtime right now!

The days fly by quickly on the dock! It’s hard to believe we are already a week into January! We are still figuring out our plan for the season. The Bahamas seem to be changing their entrance requirements daily so we’re still hoping to cross over in late January or early February.

Happy New Year!! We hope you all had a fun New Year’s Eve and have had a relaxing start to this new, exciting year. I know we are all wishing for (and hoping for) a better year where we can be with our families and friends without masks or social distancing!

We rang in the new year with our friends Jane and Steve Holler! They arrived at Loggerhead around 2 pm on Dec. 31 and tied up on our dock but across from us. We helped them get on the dock by taking their lines – although they did a great job coming along side the face dock. After they settled in, we got together for appetizers, bubbly, and then dinner. It was great to celebrate the new year with them.

So it’s a new year but we still have the same boat jobs hanging around. We did zero jobs while the girls were here – which was amazing and a well needed break!! Now we are back at it – well one of us is back at it, hehe! Mark spent part of the day up the main mast, cleaning and polishing it. He also spent time working on some corroded copper pipes that are part of the steering and fuel systems. I helped get Mark up and down the mast, but for most of the day, I enjoyed the hammock 😁.

We definitely have more jobs to complete in the next few weeks but we are slowly getting back up to speed. We are waiting on some deliveries – the wind generator and the water maker are taking a long time to arrive!! Both items have fairly complicated installations so it would be nice to get them soon.

Our plan for the rest of our sailing season is still evolving. The Bahamas are changing their entrance requirements as of Jan. 7. After that date, all travellers must have a negative pcr test within 72 hours of their arrival (the previous requirement for vaccinated individuals was to have an antibody test 5 days before arrival – much easier). That’s a fairly tight timeline when you are looking for the right weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. We are playing it by ear and not rushing. Better to be safe then sorry!

It’s hard to believe an entire week has flown by already! Evelyn and Caroline’s flight left at 4pm today (only 45 minutes late which is way better than the 3 hour delay they had leaving Toronto) and they should reach home around 6:45pm. We had the best time together- hanging out at the pool, going to the beach and just being together!! I miss them already!!!

One thing we did was visit the McKee Botanical Gardens with Evelyn’s partner Alexander and his parents. It was a very nice garden and it was great to see Alexander and his parents. This was really the only “touristy” thing we did and we enjoyed it.

The end of the week was a bit stressful as we tried to organize the pcr tests for the girls to return home. We started looking for an appointment in the morning of Dec. 27 (over 72 hours from their flight) and we couldn’t find anything around us. There was one place that had available times but they would only do tests if you had symptoms (not for travellers), so we had no choice but to say they had symptoms. They were able to get a spit pcr test at 11am Dec. 28 (we figured that would be plenty of time to get the results before their flight). Unfortunately, Mark received an email about 6pm that day saying both their samples had integrity issues and there were no results!!! Okay, just a little bit of stress now!!! So at 8am Dec. 29, Mark calls the lab that ran the test to see what happened and to see what can we do now! No real explanation for the test result (or lack there of) but they said they could do another test right away. So we drove down to Fort Pierce (that’s where the lab was – about 30 minutes south) and got a new spit pcr test. So it was now 9:30 am Dec. 29 – about 30 hours before their flight and the test results could take 24 to 48 hours 😮. We were super lucky and had the negative results by 5pm that day. The girls were able to complete the arriveCAN app and do their online checkin that night and were all good to go this morning.

So now that Mark and I are back to being empty boaters (sort of like empty nesters 😉), it’s back to boat jobs. Not sure what’s on the list but I know there are a few big items that need to be done. So it’s time to get back to work – but at least we have a really nice pool to relax in at the end of the day.

From our boat family – we wish you all a very merry Christmas Day and a healthy 2022! We’ve had an awesome Christmas and it’s so good to have Evelyn and Caroline with us. We had a video chat with the Popiel clan on Christmas Eve and we had a Christmas Day chat with the Pidgeon’s!!

Loggerhead Marina is very nice – pool, nice docks and very fancy washrooms! We’re enjoying our stay here and are very happy that we’ve paid for a whole month here.

Enjoy the photos!! Happy New Year!

It’s been a few days since my last post and we are now about 200knots south of Reynolds park – a 4.5 day trip by sailboat (doing roughly 6 kt/hour) or 3.5 hours driving. Needless to say, we don’t go fast!!! But we did have an amazing trip south! We’re now in the warm south (almost need to start the air conditioning) instead of the cooler north (Jane said they were running the heat today).

We started our journey leaving Reynolds Park early (before 9am) on Dec, 16. We caught a great flood current which pushed us off the pier and made our departure super easy. We were also fortunate to get a push from the outgoing current as we moved north to Jacksonville. At the end of our first day, we anchored about 3kt from the ICW.

We left early Friday morning (Dec, 17), intending to get fuel in St Augustine via the ICW but last minute we decided to go on the outside (on the Atlantic Ocean) and it was a good choice! The ocean was a bit rolly and the captain got a bit sick (only for a few hours) but it saved us time!! After we fueled up in St. Augustine, we travelled a bit further to our anchorage at Matanzas Inlet.

The rest of our trip south can basically be summed up as this – super early mornings (because we were going to bed early because we were tired), easy going along the ICW and then finding a place to anchor. Our worst anchoring experience was about 10 kts south of Ponce de Leon inlet. We decided to go past the anchorage near this inlet because we had time and we stopped just off the ICW, opposite a fish camp. Well, let me tell you, you don’t want to anchor near an active fish camp on a Saturday night!!! It was noisy and busy, even into the wee hours of the morning (and again at 5 am!!). We will never anchor here again!

After 4.5 days of travelling, including one great day of motor sailing (Sunday), we have arrived at Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach. It’s a very nice marina, with a pool and everything!! Our friends Jane and Steve dropped our car off on the weekend, so we were able to go out shopping today! Now we just wait for Evelyn and Caroline to arrive on Dec. 23 and we’ll have a lovely Christmas celebration!

The time has finally arrived, after weeks of work, for us to leave Green Cove Springs and head south to Vero Beach for Christmas. It’s been an eventfully 5 weeks filled with oh so many boat jobs but also some happy hours and dinners with our friends Jane and Steve Holler.

The past few days since my last post have been filled with all the last minute, must be completed jobs. The engine was probably the biggest must be done job. The heat exchangers and other items needed to be painted and then reinstalled. The engine also needed to be run to make sure there were no leaks or other troublesome issues. All tested well and the engine seems quite happy to be put to work.

We had a bunch of storage jobs – taking some of our items to Jane and Steve’s storage unit, cleaning up the temporary garage (the v-berth) and installing the 2 new plastic bins in the engine compartment. These bins now hold all kinds of tools and supplies, freeing up some locker space in the boat. That generator was taking up a lot of space!!

There were other jobs that required computer time and phone calling. We had to get what’s called a permit to proceed. We are a Canadian boat sailing in US waters so we need either a cruising license or a permit to proceed. Basically this permit allows us to be in their water and they are aware of us and our itinerary. We got the permit this afternoon!!! I also spent some time updating the CBS ROAM app. This is another way of clearing into the US (instead of going in person to a CBS office). Today I also made arrangements for our v-berth mattresses to be delivered to Vero Beach. They should be there by the time we arrive and it saves us having to drive back down to Fort Lauderdale.

So around 9am tomorrow (Dec. 16), we’ll be casting off our lines (with the help of Jane and Steve) and making our way down the intracoastal waterway. We’ve planned 5 days, anchoring each night along the route. Unfortunately we won’t have wifi on our journey so the next blog will be from Vero Beach! We’ll miss our friends but are really excited to be moving on the water!!

It’s been a very productive few days here on Crimson Kathryn (not that we haven’t been productive before now – we’re still waiting for the holidays to begin!!). On Thursday, we started installing our new portlights (portholes). We have 10 to install which means we will only have 2 old portlights remaining (and they are in the aft cabin).

We started slow – the first one is always the hardest and the one you make most of your mistakes on! It was a bit of a challenge to get the old portlight out – lots of silicone holding it in place. It was surprising to me to see just how little material there is in the upper walls of our boat. The side walls of the deck are teak veneer, plus what looks likes plywood and then fibreglass on the outside – the total width would be about 1”. We got the first portlight out and with a few challenges, installed the new portlight. But at first we thought the template supplied by the manufacturer was off because our holes didn’t seem to be lining up. It turned out we just needed to push harder on the screws to get them to connect. It all looks so simple in a video, but the reality is never the same. We managed to install 2 portlights our first day!!

Friday began with a shopping trip for a variety of items, including groceries. This trip also included a Covid booster shot for Mark!!! Yippy! (I get my booster on Dec. 15 – the USA is very picky about the 6 month date. They won’t give you a booster early.) Once we got back to the boat, our plan was to install as many portlights as we could as long as Mark was still feeling ok. We got 3 more installed!!! Crazy! We were half way done! It was a very messy job with lots of fibreglass dust flying around. I had some prickly hands by the end of the day but my shower got rid of all those little bits of fibreglass.

This morning we started early to try and finish this job. We still had 5 more portlights to install but Mark was feeling good (only a sore arm). The first one we tackled was a nasty one!! The old portlight just didn’t want to leave the boat. After much prying, pushing and pulling, it gave up and we were able to clean the hole and install the new portlight. It’s quite the process, with 2 templates to mark different cuts and holes, not to mention all the old silicone removal (that takes a lot of time).

After the first portlight (which gave us all the trouble), Mark was starting to feel the effects of the Covid booster. He was very tired and finding it tough to keep his energy up. We managed to get one more portlight done before lunch. Mark had a very brief nap after lunch and then we were back at it. We did one more portlight after lunch and then called it quits!! We now have 8 installed and only 2 more to go!!

We finished our day with a lovely happy hour with Jane and Steve. It was so nice to relax and catch up with them. It’s funny because before they were on the pier (literally 50 m away from us), we saw them all the time. Now that they are on the pier and we’re both very busy with boat jobs, we hardly see them!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will finish the portlights and move onto some other must do jobs. Our plan is to leave here on Dec. 16 and travel down to Vero Beach. We should arrive there by Dec. 20. Our v-berth mattresses are ready and waiting for us to pick them up!! We’re getting closer and closer to casting off and enjoying what this boat does oh so well – SAIL!

We’ve spent the past few days getting our list prioritized for a departure date of Dec. 16. There are some jobs that can wait but there are others (like reinstalling the heat exchangers) that must be completed before we can leave Reynolds Park. What is the hurry, you might ask?? Evelyn and Caroline are flying into Orlando on Dec. 23 to spend Christmas with us (so exciting!!!) and we have booked a spot at a really nice marina in Vero Beach. It will take us at least 4 days to get to Vero so we don’t want to leave too late.

Now we’re working on our must complete job list, which isn’t too bad (thankfully) and we’ve also managed to finish a few jobs not on the list. Over the past 2 – 3 days, we’ve cleaned and taped the mast boot; installed the main sail; reworked and removed wiring from the engine compartment and as of today, got the dinghy motor mounted on the dinghy and running properly!! (that’s a huge win).

Today was a big day for our friends Jane and Steve on Daydreams ll. They were splashed this afternoon! They have been living on their boat for 6 weeks (on the hard), climbing ladders and dealing with being out of the water all this time. It was great to see their lovely boat in the water. We had a nice evening celebrating – drinking bubbly and eating snacks – while it poured rain. In the morning they will get their mast stepped (put in place) and then come along side the pier with us.

We still have a good (but not crazy) list of jobs to do before we depart! We got a call today telling us that our v-berth mattresses are ready – wow that was fast!! I think we’ll delay a bit before we go get them. Our v-berth is currently a storage area so I’m not sure where we would put the new mattresses!! It will all sort itself out in a week or so!! Starting tomorrow (Thursday), it’s portlight installation – Yippy!!

This has been a very good weekend and we even managed to enjoy 2 happy hours! It’s not all boat jobs – even though it does feel like that at times.

Starting on Friday, Mark worked on cleaning our 3 fuel tanks. The worst tank is our centre tank which sits under the engine in the bilge. The problem with this tank is that it’s hatch is level with the top of the bilge so water can flow over this hatch, allowing water to get into the diesel fuel (not a good thing). It’s been a few years since Mark suctioned out the water (which drops to the bottom) from this tank. This turned out to be a much bigger job then expected. There was a lot of water in the tank and getting the little pump down low enough to suck up the water was a major challenge. It took several hours to do just the one tank.

The next job for Friday was bringing the new battery onboard and installing it. The battery weighs over 100lbs so we used the main halyard and the spinnaker halyard to hoist it off the pier and then lower it into the space just below the main cabin ladder. Our enclosure had to be moved to allow the battery to go down the companionway. This job also took a few hours and we were just reconnecting the enclosure when Jane and Steve arrived for happy hour! It was great to relax with them and chat about all our collective boat jobs. They are getting much closer to splashing their boat and hopefully it will only be a few more days before they are on the pier.

Saturday’s jobs involved more fuel tank cleaning, mast and boom polishing, laundry and probably a few more jobs I’ve forgotten about. It was a good day and the weather was perfect for outside work – sunny and warm! At 4pm we quit for the day and had our 2nd happy hour – this time at Jane and Steve’s place. We were joined by 2 other Canadians, Brenda and Rob, so it was a really nice visit.

Today was a fairly easy job day. Mark worked on some engine maintenance and he cleaned the heat exchanger on the main engine with barnacle buster (got to love that name!). I spent some time trying to fix our main cabin hatch (it’s seized up) with no luck and we did some shopping in the afternoon. It was another beautiful day down here and we managed to get a walk in late this afternoon.