Crimson Kathryn and her crew

We’ve finally given up the marina life. After a month at Reynolds and 6 weeks at Loggerhead, it was definitely time for this old boat to get a move on. We backed out of our slip on Jan. 31 and headed to the fuel dock. Once our tanks were full, we followed Jane and Steve (on Daydreams ll) out the inlet and onto the ICW.

The weather on Monday was perfect- warm and sunny and a little bit of north east wind to give us an added little push down the ICW. There was a bit of traffic on the water but for the most part we were alone going south. We followed Daydreams for most of the trip down to Fort Pierce until we got to the North Fort Pierce bascule bridge. We took the lead after the bridge because we knew the anchorage we were aiming for that night. Our anchor was down and secured by 2:30pm and we were able to relaxed and enjoy our first night on the hook in 6 weeks!!

The next morning we headed out the Fort Pierce inlet (at 8 am) hoping for a nice east wind sail down to Lake Worth (about a 45 nm journey). Well we got a journey alright but not the lovely sail we were hoping for. We left Fort Pierce on a flood tide so we battled the current out the inlet. Once released from the inlet’s grip, we turned south into wind that was way more south then east. Crimson Kathryn has an overheating issue when we sail with wind on our port side. We heel over which causes the water intake to come out of the water. Our engine is water cooled so we have to be very careful to watch our engine temperature. We tend not to put sails up on this tack to avoid any overheating but Tuesday’s ocean was so wavy and with the wind almost on our nose, we had no choice but to put the jib up. It was a long sail – we had to tack 3 times to keep moving away from the shore in order to use the south east wind as much as possible. After a day of bouncing around, we made it into the Lake Worth inlet at 6:30pm. Daydreams got in about 2 hours before us so they were able to help us get into the anchorage by talking us in. Steve was also out on his bow with a big flashlight showing us where to drop anchor. We were never so thankful for a buddy boat!!! One positive from our sail down – Crimson Kathryn didn’t overheat!! The engine stayed consistently cool. All the work Mark did on the cooling system worked wonderfully.

So here we are – anchored beside the mega yachts at Rybovich Marina and waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. It’s looking like we will have a good opportunity this Saturday starting around 1 am. Our Covid rapid antigen tests are done (negative!!) and we have our Bahamas Health Travel Visa. We’re working on our click2clear cruising permit now. It’s getting closer!

Well here we are – still at the marina. Our departure date of Jan. 27th is now gone and we are staying connected at the dock because we are looking at a very cold weekend. The temperature for Saturday night is predicted to be -1. Now that’s not very cold compared to what has been happening in Toronto and Kingston, but when you are on a boat that only has heat when plugged in, that is very cold!!! A few days ago I woke up to 12 degrees inside the boat! We don’t run our heater (which is also our air conditioning unit) overnight because it is noisy and blows right on Mark, so we can wake up to some cold cabin temps. Being on anchor would mean no heat at all!!! So here we stay!

Now that we have a few more days here, Mark is looking at all those jobs that just kept moving down the list. Starting off the day, Mark worked on our new (to us) anchor. We bought this very large Manson anchor (80 lbs – meant for a 60ft boat) back at Reynolds and discovered quite quickly that it was very difficult to bring back aboard. Mark has been working on different ways to make it easier to haul the anchor back up from the water. Today he drilled a new hole in the anchor shaft to help with the retrieval process. Several tests later (and lots of noise), the anchor was coming onboard more easily! Success.

Mark also made some headway on cleaning the hull. Crimson Kathryn had a moustache (and she wasn’t too happy about it 😉) – a lovely souvenir of the ICW! We have had this brown mark on the bow since April 2020 – when we put the boat on the hard! It takes a lot of scrubbing and polishing to get the hull looking clean!

While Mark was busy working on the hull, I made spaghetti sauce and worked on my crochet projects. I also moved all of our cockpit cushions onto the deck to dry them out after the rain we’ve had for the past few days. Our enclosure has some leaky zippers and our cushions get very wet when it rains. It doesn’t take long for them to dry out, especially when it’s a nice sunny and windy day (which is what we had today).

I spent a bit of time on Wednesday getting our inreach device up and running. The device has been off for almost 2 years, so there was a bit of updating needed. I was very happily surprised that it started working immediately after the update! It only took about an hour to get it going and it’s working perfectly. Right now the device is in tracking mode, which means it’s sending out tracking points every 4 hours. It will continue to send tracks every 4 hours when we are stationary and every 2 hours when we are moving. I’m going to leave it on now until we end our season in May. We will start moving in a few days! Here is the link to our map:

https://share.garmin.com/CrimsonKathryn

It’s been an eventful few days here on Crimson Kathryn. Mark has worked very hard figuring out the best way to install our new wind generator. It was quite the process because the wind generator needed to be about 3 ft above the top of the mizzen mast. There were lots of things to consider with this installation; how tall did the aluminum pole have to be to make it steady enough so the generator doesn’t vibrate and that it misses the triatic stay when it spins; How to get the wind generator to the top of the mizzen mast and be able to remove any ropes. Also he looked at things like what type of cable connectors are needed, where to put the readout panel, how to connect it to the batteries – and I know there were more things that went into the planning.

The installation went very smoothly and took place over about 4 or 5 days. Mark was hoisted up that mizzen many times – thanks Steve for your help with this – and each time he worked on drilling holes, installing cables etc. Today (Friday) was the final installation day. With a fancy wooden brake attached to the wind generator, Mark, Steve and I hoisted Mark up first and then the generator second. There were a few minor hiccups but for the most part all went as planned. This was a big job and one of the last major things that needed to be completed before we leave Vero Beach. Now we wait for a nice windy day to see how much energy the wind generator will produce!!

Other things we did this week were to finish our provisioning- always a fun job! We had already been to Costco a few weeks ago so this phase of shopping was at local grocery stores and of course the ABC (LCBO knockoff). We now have a very happy boat full of food and drink!!

I spent a bit of time crocheting 2 hanging baskets for a couple of air plants that will eventually end up in Toronto with Evelyn and Caroline. But first they will travel to the Bahamas! It was very relaxing to crochet again – it’s been a few months and these baskets are super easy and fast (my kind of project)!!

So we are now making plans for our departure from Loggerhead Marina. We looked at storing our car here in Vero Beach but it’s very expensive so we’ve decided to drive our car back to Reynolds and leave it there for the 3 months we are in the Bahamas. We’ve rented a car for Jan. 25th so that’s the last day we’ll have wheels. We are looking at a marina departure date of Jan. 27th and are planning to cross to the Bahamas when there is a good weather window. We’ve started the process of getting our health visas and cruising license. Jane ordered rapid antigen tests that you can do from the boat (just need wifi) so we can upload our negative (🤞) test results as part of our health visas. It’s all starting to come together now!!

January 16 (a special day for me 🥳) gave us our biggest rain storm yet and a great test for our new portlights. I’m very happy to say we had no leaks from the new ones but one of the 2 remaining old portlights did leak. I think the boat is telling us to replace the last 2 with the nice new ones!! Definitely something to think about – maybe we’ll replace them with portlights that don’t open.

Right now the boat is full of beautiful flowers. It’s so nice to have cut flowers onboard – really brightens the place up. We had a lovely dinner with Jane and Steve on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday. They bought me a bottle of Kentucky bourbon (which I have been wanting to try) and it’s very smooth!!

A few days ago Mark received the long overdue wind generator. It was ordered in the beginning of December so it took a very long time to get here. Unfortunately it arrived without the cables – that box arrived today! While waiting for the cables, Mark and I worked on the 6ft aluminum pole that will support the wind generator at the top of the mizzen mast. Mark was hoisted up the mizzen 2 days in a row to make the needed adjustments and to drill holes in the mast to mount the pole. Lots of planning has gone into the installation of our new wind generator. Now that we have the cables, the wind generator can almost be installed. Turns out the power cable is very big (almost 3/4 in thick) and we don’t have the correct sized connectors, so another Amazon order has been placed.

The other big job Mark worked on was installing our new inverter. The new inverter takes our battery power and changes it into 120 volts so we can run the microwave, toaster and all our wall sockets without being plugged into shore power! This is such a nice thing – no more using the manual toaster over the propane burner or plugging our devices into the little inverter under the navigation station when we’re at anchor. The new inverter had to be mounted near the batteries and horizontal which was a bit of a challenge but Mark made it work!!

We decided today to extend our stay here at Loggerhead until January 27th. We’ve made a tentative plan with Jane and Steve to sail south to Lake Worth and then cross over to the Bahamas. Hopefully by the beginning of February, these cold fronts will slow down and better crossing weather will start to show up.

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!