Crimson Kathryn and her crew

We arrived at Reynolds Park on Saturday, April 13 and 19 days later, Crimson Kathryn is on the hard! The time has flown by and we managed to get everything on our lists done. The remaining deck and cockpit were painted. The fuel pressure issue has been diagnosed and will be fixed in the fall. All storage jobs went off without a hitch! All in all, it was a great 19 days.

Along with all these jobs we did manage to have a few happy hours with Julia and Brad although near the end of our time, we all were too busy (and tired) to get together. The four of us did go out for a nice dinner on Wednesday night. We tried a new restaurant in town that is kind of a gourmet diner. It was very good and we had a great time with Julia and Brad.

Today’s haul out and storage was super smooth. We were the second boat out (coming out of the water around 10 am) and that little extra time gave us the opportunity to get a lot of jobs done while still in the water. We wrapped mattresses in plastic; removed the wind scoops (dorades); emptied and washed the fridge and freezer; took down the enclosure and stored it inside; and sprayed for mold with a product called concrobium. There were lots of smaller jobs done in the 2 hours before haul out but I can’t even remember them all! Once we were out of the water and on our stands, the work continued! I won’t bore you with the details but I will say that this was probably the smoothest storage prep we have done so far at Reynolds! Everything came together perfectly and we were all done by 4 pm!!

This season was definitely one of our bests! We had so many awesome experiences. Our crossing to the Bahamas was very rough but after that, we had the best sailing season!! We paid a lot of attention to the wind and weather conditions which lead to a season full of sailing. We flew back to Toronto for Evelyn’s PhD defence which made us feel super proud and also like jet setters! We made it all the way to Turks & Caicos!!! We shared our exploration of this lovely island country with Donalda and Bill Stevens and then with Evelyn, Caroline and their friend Samantha. We did an amazing sail north from Providenciales to Nassau and then to Ginn Sur Mer in 4 days, 4 hours!!!

So what does next year’s sailing season look like? Well right now we’re thinking of continuing our journey south. If all goes as planned, we’ll leave Reynolds Park in December and head to the Bahamas right away. After Christmas we’ll continue south and end the season in Puerto Rico. The boat will stay there for the summer and the next season, we’ll fly down and continue to move south!! This plan is still a work on progress! Very exciting!! Thanks for following us again this season!!

It’s been a fast week and we’ve been working away at all our normal storage jobs. Not much to report except that we are actually ahead of ourselves and have only a few more items to complete before we haul out on May 2nd.

So this is a very short post because we’re close to hauling out. All is good here on the pier and very soon we’ll be in the storage yard. Next post will probably be my last for this season. I’ll give you some more detail about what to expect for next year!!! Stay tuned 😁

It’s been a fun filled week of boat jobs – the never ending list!! It has taken 6 days to complete the paint job in the cockpit (plus surrounding deck). The cockpit was divided in half so we could still enter and exit the boat. Each half needed 3 coats – primer and 2 colour coats. We had a deadline for this job because we were expecting a big rain storm on Sunday, April 21 (which we got at about 9pm that night). Each morning Mark would dry the wet parts of the deck (from the morning dew) and by lunch we’d be done the coat of the day. Finally today (April 22) all the tape came off and all the removed cockpit hardware and other items were replaced. It looks amazing!!! The paint job is complete….for now. After a season of use, we’ve decided that the deck paint we used is too slippery. In November, we will be adding a non-skip paint to parts of the deck (not the entire thing).

Other jobs have also been worked on this week. The V-berth has been washed with soap/water and also with vinegar and water. The vinegar helps control the mold that always grows during storage. The V-berth mattresses were all wrapped up and all the bedding for that room has been laundered and vacuum sealed into various sized bags. After each laundry session, additional fabric items have been vacuum sealed and placed in the V-berth. Unfortunately the enclosure sides are currently hanging out up there but they will eventually be stored in our cabin so I’m working around them the best I can.

Mark has been working on the fuel pressure problem. He took apart the fuel transfer pump and found a completely clogged filter. That must be the culprit!! Off to Napa to get a new filter but he had to order it. The filter arrived on Saturday (April 20) and Mark installed it that afternoon. It took until today for us to test the engine and unfortunately the new filter didn’t fix the problem. Back to the drawing board as they say!

It’s not all work – we’ve had a couple of happy hours with Julia and Brad aboard Alizarin. We also went out for a wonderful dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Green Cove Springs. We were joined by Julia/Brad, Sharon/Rick and Barb/John. It was a fun evening – good food and great company. At the end of the evening, just as we were all heading to our cars, Mark made a little presentation to our American friends Barb and John. Mark gave them “honorary” Canadian passports (which he’d made at home over Christmas using photos of celebrities for the 2) so they could be part of the Canadian club!! It was very funny and Barb and John were delighted to be honorary Canadian citizens!

So the work continues this week! We have a haul out date scheduled for May 2nd so the job pace will pick up a bit now that the painting is finished. The list is long but as usual, it will all get done!!

Being back at the pier means lots of things. It signals that the sailing season is coming to an end and the summer storage jobs are about to start. Along with all the work, there’s a bit of fun to be had!

We started our Reynolds Park spring stay with a happy hour on Alizarin on Saturday, April 13. It was great to see Julia and Brad again and chat about our seasons. Of course we’ve been in contact via messenger but it’s still so much more fun to hear the stories in person. Joining us on Alizarin was Jeannie and Jeff (Merryweather) and Sharon and Rick (Orkan). It was a great way to be welcomed back to Reynolds.

Sunday was the full day of jobs! With the help of Rick, Mark went up the mizzen mast and tied up the wind generator for storage. We don’t need the wind generated power while on the hard so it’s safer to secure it with a few ropes. Once that job was completed, we did a bit of grocery shopping. We returned after lunch, put the groceries away and started back to work. You might not remember this but in the fall we chose to leave the last bit of deck painting to our return so now we have to finish that job. All that’s left is around and inside the cockpit. I emptied the cockpit of all cushions and other items and then hosed down the entire boat (as well as inside the cockpit). While I was washing the boat, Mark was dealing with the spinnaker and other ropes that needed a bit of a rinse. After these jobs were done, we went to the lounge for some air conditioning and relaxation. We met Brad there – he was watching golf so we had a little visit.

Today (April 15) started with Mark prepping the cockpit for painting. Lots of items needed to be removed – speakers, compass, etc and some areas needed to be sanded. As Mark prepped, I washed all the cockpit cushions on the pier (they get very salty after a season). Mark washed the deck and cockpit and then we stopped for lunch. After lunch we taped the area and are now ready to start painting in the morning.

It’s April 13th and we’ve come a long way in 5 days. Our crossing from Ginn Sur Mer was exciting (in a good way). We left right on time – 4 am (April 9th) in the dark and crept our way out to the inlet. At the 1nm point, we turned north west and raised our sails. We were off!!

We had great wind speed and a good direction for a long downwind sail. We fairly quickly got into the edge of the Gulf Stream which gave us a bit more speed. As the day progressed, we got deeper into the Gulf Stream and boy did we start to zoom! The wind was still high (17 – 23 knots) but so were the waves (coming mostly behind us). As long as we had the higher wind speeds, we were able to beat the waves and have a fairly easy ride. Unfortunately the wind was not super consistent so it would dip below 15 knots and then the waves would push us around.

As day wore on, our Gulf Stream advantage really started to pay off. We were seeing consistent boat speeds in the high 8knots to low 9knots. I was watching our progress on my iPad (on an app called Aquamaps) and making note of places we were passing (more than 40nm out). We passed Fort Pierce and then Vero Beach. When we got to Cape Canaveral we hit our high for the trip – 12.3knots with 19knots of wind! Very exciting!!

As morning rolled around, we were already out of the Gulf Stream (had been for several hours) and the wind was directly behind and decreasing in speed (just like last year). The last 70nm into St. Augustine dragged on and we finally reached the inlet at about 1:30pm (April 10). Getting in through the inlet was a challenge. The wind picked up from behind (of course when you don’t want it) to about 16knots. Unfortunately we were facing an outgoing tide which meant we had wind against current going into the inlet. This opposition caused the inlet to be super wavy and it dropped our speed down to 2.8knots!! It seemed to take forever to get through the inlet into the smoother waters of the Matanzas River, but we finally got there! We just missed the 2pm Bridge of Lions opening but got the 2:30 and were secured to our mooring ball at St. Augustine Municipal marina before 3pm.

Our next jobs were to take the dinghy to shore, pay for our 2 nights and then head to the lounge for wifi. Using the ROAM app, we cleared into the USA and requested our cruising license for the year. Foreign flagged vessels must have a cruising license to be able to move around the USA. We had trouble getting one last season (expiry date issues) and had to travel on a permit to proceed (which is a royal pain) so we were very nervous about getting one this time around. But no need to worry – our license was approved the next day! After completing all our business and picking up the new lift pump (which arrived very quickly) we went out for dinner!

Thursday April 11 turned out to be a very bad weather day with high winds, rain and a tornado warning – good thing we were nicely attached to a mooring ball! Mark spent the day installing the new lift pump but unfortunately it didn’t fix our fuel pressure issue! By mid afternoon, the weather had improved and we were able to enjoy a bit of sunshine in the mooring field.

Early Friday morning (April 12), we were up and getting ready to catch the 7am opening for the Bridge of Lions. We were one of many boats heading north – it was quite the parade. We had a nice sunny day but the winds were much higher than expected and our progress up the ICW was slow. We were passed by several powerboats but we kept plugging away at the distance and eventually made it to our destination, Exchange Island, Jacksonville, by 4pm. It was a good night and we even got to see a fireworks display!!

April 13 – our last day of travel!! We were up early and ready to go by 8am. The first opening (after the rush hour closure) of the Main Street Bridge was 8:30am, so we took our time travelling the 3nm to the bridge. We had the current against us so that helped slow us down. We got to the bridge at 8:30, requested an opening and were on our way in no time. It was an easy morning – the wind was from behind so we had the jib out, helping our speed a bit. We arrived at Reynolds Park at 12:30pm and had so much help on the pier! Julia and Brad and Rick, plus Barb from Mojo, all took our dock lines and helped us onto the pier.

Now we’re back and the summer storage jobs begin! But not tonight – happy hour on Alizarin with great friends!! We’ll get all caught up.